Thanks for your questions! I recognize your name from your comments on the other platforms hehe.
First, the year ascribed for Adamana is a typo. It should be a much older year, probably pegged to when the Raj ended in ATL.
And yes, the SoN Administers these territories to keep out state-derived processes from happening (industrialization, globalization, large scale transformation of the environment and cultural ways of lives that exist there). In short, all of this was a pragmatic way to territorialize territories that seemed impossible to lay over with nation-states. In these "reserves" there are hundreds of distinct languages and dozens of language families that would not make it in any nation-states to take possession of the territories.
For a deeper dive, here's more context: If you read
my site's about page, you'll come across a reference to a League of Nations analogue, the
Society of Nations. Essentially, a Wilson-analogue gets his domestic support to spearhead the formation of this international body, which is strengthened in WW2, where the Allies are akin to the UN force in our OTL Korean War. Part of the SoN's initial wave of optimism when it became an intranational actor was to address international atrocities that were relatively actionable (i.e. it was easy to gang-up on perpetrators, as ulterior motives of resentful competing powers, international norms or higher morals, and geopolitical power dynamics all aligned in favour of intervention).
Essentially, the SoN was concerned with the rubber boom and the atrocities that occurred in the Xingu (OTL Amazon) as a result, as well as the fiasco of the Belgian Congo. This, plus the fact that the global decolonization movement was already in full swing by the end of WW1, helped lead the SoN to idea of creating "reserves" so that these territories could revert back to formally unclaimed territories, kind of like how the Congo was in limbo for centuries before the Belgians stepped in, or how Antarctica was unclaimed until it was formed under a condominium in OTL. In these territories, the Society operates FUNAI-equivalent rangers to confront illegal logging, mining, poaching, squatting, and protect uncontacted peoples or regulate contact with non-state peoples. In the analogue to the OTL Congo or
Jagana (from an obscure early Portuguese reference to "barbarians" on the borders of Angola in early colonial times) and
Dja Reserve, there are also the historically vulnerable "pygmy" hunter-gathrer peoples.
I don't have a definitive or finalized list yet but people have helped out with my initial scoping on
this page of this thread. The non-settled reserves like the Ascensions, Galapagos, and the territories in the poles are meant to operate more like what we known as national parks, sure, but they are also often inaccessible for regular tourism and more for scientific research.
I don't know... I want to say yes, but it is possible there may be more pariah states in ATL. I haven't fully thought out how the SoN would be able to pressure states to join, since the threshold for joining is much higher now due to more potential for enforcement of global norms (i.e. state sovereignty is no longer the excuse for infallibility of a regime or its license to do nearly anything it wants). Perhaps no regime is able to last long as a holdout because it would give its citizens a clear and easy rallying point to actively seek regime change...
Yes, there are lots of IOs, a lot more ranging closer to the EU in having more than just free trade, but also common travel zones and monetary unions. In Serica (OTL East and Southeast Asia) there is something like the EU, with a monetary union, free trade zone, and freedom of travel within member states. There is something similar but to a much smaller scale in Europea, as Britain does not partake, nor do the northern Italian states and Spain and Aragon due to different political alignments after WW2. And...there is quite the range for other kinds of IOs. For instance, the Emporic Rim (Big Indosphere) also sees a transition from the Raj (Company rule persists instead of a British Raj btw) to an OPEC-like trade cartel, known as SPICE. We plan to do a map about these IOs soon...
Nemo Island is an altgeo reference to Point Nemo ...It was just for shits and gigs. Liberum and Katesh are two major SoN settlement areas, both born out of territorial disputes/conflict, becoming later key assets for helping settle stateless peoples and refugees and processing asylum seekers in a far more coordinated and less cynical way, as well as becoming home to the SoN's institutions (so no more OTL New York City being home to the world's HQ).
No interest in space travel on my end! Sorry haha. I am more into trying to get younger folks to redirect their awe for space travel and exploration for all that humanity currently possesses and stands to lose. I do see it as a zero-sum issue, unfortunately, where many people see the need to "shed the ornamental" (i.e. cultural differences) for progress/modernity's sake. To me, there is no hope for pluralism in space travel and colonization... Don't get me wrong though. Sci-fi is awesome as a genre...
Lastly, don't feel bad about not being able to support the project on Patreon at this time. As long as you're interested in what we're putting out, I'm happy! There is lot's more to come, so I hope you follow, and maybe one day you'll be in a better position hehe. Also, feel free to join our community on Discord if you like chatting about lore.