All twenty-four volumes · A single axis
Every lost state in the library, laid out on a single horizontal time axis. From the traditional foundation of Carthage in 814 BC to the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 2003. The scale is piecewise: ancient and early-medieval centuries are compressed, the early-modern and modern centuries are stretched, so a five-year state like Green Ukraine sits beside its much longer neighbours at a width you can still read.
The lost states in order
A note on the scale
The scale is piecewise linear, with five breakpoints at 550 BC, 500 AD, 1000, 1500, 1800 and 2050. Each successive era is given more horizontal space than the strictly linear distribution would assign, so the modern fifth of the timeline — where eight of the fifteen states sit — is stretched and legible. The bar widths therefore preserve relative duration within each era rather than across the whole axis. The name of each state floats outside its bar so even ten-year spans are fully labelled.
The overlaps
The single year with the largest number of simultaneously existing Lost Lands states is 1922. In December of that year, the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, and Transcaucasian SFSR signed the treaty founding the Soviet Union; the Kingdom of Italy under Mussolini was about to march on Rome; the Treaty of Lausanne was being negotiated to formalise the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire; the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (then still called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) was preparing for its first parliamentary elections under the Vidovdan Constitution; and Green Ukraine's residual political institutions were being absorbed into the Far Eastern Republic. Five of the twelve states in this library overlapped in that calendar year alone.
The earliest year of substantial overlap is 1099, when the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and founded the Kingdom that would last 192 years — simultaneous with the Caliphate of Córdoba (in its fitna years), the Roman/Byzantine Empire (about to enter the Komnenian restoration), and Persia under the Seljuk Turks. The Ottoman Empire would join the list 200 years later.
The latest two states to overlap are Yugoslavia (1918–2003) and the Soviet Union (1922–1991). They were the principal actors of the post-1945 socialist world, with Tito's 1948 split from Stalin being the foundational event of the Yugoslav state's separate identity, covered at length in Volume IV.
Continue
The Atlas
Browse the full library from the homepage, organised by volume number.
The Globe
A three-dimensional globe with one clickable marker per state. Hover for the territorial shape.
The Editor
The introductory note and the project's editorial framing.