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I wonder what a Nahua or Middle Chinese name for the Rio Grande would be, cause I can defintely see the Mexica and Fusang potentially naming it as well.
Also out of the Indian refugees that went to Persia, I wonder how many of them would be hijra? I ask because once Julian's conflict with the Persian government concludes and the royals in the hospital are freed, you could give Lakshmi an interesting arc of building up an Indian community after the ravages of Jerusalem's genocide in India, and have Lakshmi interact with other trans people with similar experiences to her.
Fusang Chinese: Borrowing from the Diné name of "female river" we get 女江(Nǚ jiāng), which would be Niokong with my Middle Chinese romanization. The Diné name's used because of the Zhumasi court's ties with them.
Nahuatl: Relative to the Mexica heartland, the river is in the north, so I can get away with the Tezcatlipoca River, since Tezcatlipoca is the god who rules over the north.
A lot of the surviving hijra probably made their way to Persia. I do have plans for Lakshmi and her future role in the Indian, hijra, and trans communities, but right now it's mostly in gameplay chapters. I haven't figured out a story side narrative for her yet.
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Both of those sound cool. I guess they could both work in canon, as it's kinda hard to choose between the two of them.
I see. Speaking of trans and third gender communities, I wonder how Two-Spirit people would fair in TTL, would the Meskwaki Empire and the Equalist regimes try to impose western gender norms on them, or would they accept and tolerate them?
Nothing says they're mutually exclusive with each other. The OTL river has 5 indigenous names after all.
I don't see a reason for two very pan-Eimerican focused regimes to impose Christian European gender norms on the two-spirit community, so there'd be tolerance of varying degrees.
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A Sol of Ends and Beginnings, Part 2
Beck
The doors to the situation room swung open, and Dorothy walked in. “Reporting for duty, Doro—WAAAAH!” Used to Fraternity’s Earth-level gravity, Dorothy’s legs overshot and kicked into the air, pulling the rest of her body forward legs first. She fell on her butt, provoking murmurs from the dignitaries sitting at the table.
“So this is Fraternity’s star engineer?”
“How long has her head been up in the clouds?”
“Probably as long as she’s been up in space.”
Dorothy silently laughed.
“Clara,” Murad said, “Would you mind…reassuring everybody else here?”
“Yes, Murad,” Clara said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I assure you that my friend is UNAP’s brightest scientific mind. Even if she’s…not so bright in other areas.”
“Clara, you traitor!” Dorothy shook her fist. “I’m right here, you know! Er, I mean…” She got back on her feet, but her arms used too much force, so she ended up accidentally jumping. “DAMNIT! I did it again!” She finally settled back on her feet, and she dusted off her lab coat. “Sorry, everybody. I’m Dorothy. Just Dorothy. You can thank me for Fraternity’s gravity plating, Concordia’s existence, and a whole lot of other stuff that keeps that ship going.”
“Ms. Dorothy,” Murad said, “I understand you have gathered much field data lately?”
“Yes, Mr. Secretary-General,” Dorothy said.
“Good,” Murad said, “I would like you to be deployed ASAP.”
Another deployment…figures. “Are you sure? I’d like more time to incorporate my findings from the last deployment’s field data.”
“Ms. Dorothy, we don’t have the luxury of time.” A darker skinned woman stood up. She appeared to be Mexican. “I am President Livia Ochimeca, of the Democratic Federation of Mars.”
“Didn’t you walk out of diplomatic talks earlier today?” Dorothy’s mouth moved before she could get her thoughts in order.
“An overreaction by a news station eager for a headline,” Murad said, “The talks are still ongoing, but in light of recent Austrian military activity, they have been put on hold.”
“Just two hours ago, the Holy Roman Empire crossed the Demofed border and seized the settlement of Vinland-on-Mars and the spaceport at Atahensic Station,” Livia said.
“Simultaneously, the Empire attacked the border settlements of New Haiti and Ramirez, near the former Mangalan border,” Murad said, “We are looking at an all-out invasion.”
“For some reason, Demofed’s automated defensive lines around Vinland-on-Mars completely failed,” Livia said, “Allowing the Empire’s armies to cross with minimal casualties.”
“Some kind of software glitch?” Dorothy said.
“You could say that, but our engineers tested that code hundreds of times over the years, in anticipation of this exact scenario,” Livia said, “Not even the worst case scenarios we anticipated could have involved a complete and total system failure. We’re still investigating the cause, but we’re more focused on stopping the Austrian advance. They’re almost at Piddletown by now.”
“So what you’re saying is I could fix whatever’s wrong with the defenses and push the Austrians back?” Already got some idea of what the problem could be and a solution I could implement in an hour—
Livia shook her head. “While I normally would have asked for your help there, the situation is dire enough that I cannot. If Piddletown falls, UNAP will be exposed to attacks from the south as well as the west.”
“Our defenses there are considerably weaker than at Zhukov and Khrushchev,” Murad said, “It is imperative that we send troops to defend Piddletown. Everything is already set up at the Saxonia staging area.”
“Why’d you bring me here if I had to go to Saxonia instead?” Dorothy said.
“I believed it would have been more appropriate if I gave you this important news in person instead of via email,” Murad said, “I understand this is a tall order to ask of you. A very sudden one that takes you away from the other projects you no doubt are working on and places you in a situation I understand you do not like. I apologize for that. But the UN is now faced with an existential threat, from an enemy bent on consuming all in its path and destroying all of the values we hold dear. We and Demofed are the last of humanity who still strives to preserve as much of old Earth as we can. If we fall, I fear we will lose what little is left of our civilization as it is trampled under the Empire’s foot and twisted to serve their boy emperor’s whims. Dorothy, I hope you understand what we—no, you—are protecting today.”
“While we govern ourselves independently of the UN, I don’t deny that we share a common cause with UNAP,” Livia said, “We are the last factions on Mars who still remain committed to the protection of democratic values and human rights. The Empire has destroyed the other ones and now comes for us. We must take a stand, for the legacy of Earth.”
Dorothy held up her hands. “Look, I already get it. We’re out of time. I know what’s at stake here, and I’ve got people I want to protect.” She glanced at Clara. In the back of her head, she even recalled Papadopoulos. No matter our constant disagreements, I wouldn’t want to see that old geezer croak anytime soon. “You can count on me to protect them.” She saluted. “I’ll be heading to Saxonia now, if we’re done here.”
Murad nodded. “Very well. You are dismissed, Dorothy.”
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“Now arriving: Little Russia. Little Russia.”
The train hurtled through the tunnels at breakneck speed. Dorothy’s mind was a sea of thoughts, equations and formulas and schematics coming together in new ways before breaking apart as she went through calculations and configurations. Occasionally, something did come together in a promising way, and she wrote it down in her notebook.
“Still lost in your studies, I see.” Clara continued watching the news. They were now talking about the fall of Vinland-on-Mars and Atahensic Station and the sieges of Ramirez and New Haiti. Demofed was mobilizing civilian militias in Piddletown, Abraham’s Dream, Saint Brendan’s Rest, and Saint John.
It’s only a matter of time until they break out the big guns. Where is the Valkyrie of Alençon?
“Nice to see you again, Clara,” Dorothy said, “How’s work?”
“Quite hectic,” Clara said, “Murad’s got a lot of paperwork these days. But he tries not to throw too much at me at once.”
“Lucky you,” Dorothy said.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Clara said. “Another deployment?”
“I’ve got no choice. You heard Secgen back there. Enemy’s at the gates.”
“It may have seemed like you had no choice back there, but yesterday Murad was really on the fence about calling you down here. He was really excited about your gravity plating work.”
Dorothy gave her a funny look. “Who the hell gets excited about artificial gravity?!”
“If we’re going to go back to Earth, we need to acclimate back to 1g,” Clara said, “Most of us have been living on .38g for 21 years. There’s an entire generation that’s been born down here only knowing Mars gravity. We can’t exactly drop them on Earth and expect things to go fine.”
“Now arriving: Heimdall. Heimdall.”
“Why’d you come with me?” Dorothy said. “I can’t imagine how much red tape you had to go through to take time off from helping Secgen.”
“Do I need a reason?” Clara said. “I’m your friend. Also, it’s been like a hundred sols since the last time you came to Beck, so I thought you might get lost.”
“I don’t get lost, Clara!” Dorothy insisted.
“Remember on Sol 54 you were supposed to get on a train to Nyby, but you somehow ended up in goddamn Kirovagrad instead?”
“It was a fluke!”
Clara sighed. “Christ on the irminsul, I wonder how you lasted as long as you did. But I guess that’s part of your charm, Dorothy.”
My charm, huh? Well, I suppose that’s part of me in the end. “Blame the planners for designing Central Station the way it is.”
“I kind of like it, though,” Clara said, “But enough of that. You are aware of what you’re going to be doing out there, right?”
Dorothy nodded. “I’ve made my peace with it. It’s nothing I haven’t done before, but can’t say I’m not nervous.”
“I was trying to say, earlier, that you can still back off,” Clara said, “I can call Murad right—”
Dorothy shook her head and held up her hand. “No. I have to do this. I can do my research later. Right now, there are people who are counting on me. I’ve got to do my part.” Her eyes narrowed, and she made a fist. “What good is my work if nobody benefits from it?”
“Now arriving: Pendragon. Pendragon.”
“You…you certainly sound like a completely different person when you act like that,” Clara said.
Did I overdo it again? “Uh…haha.” Dorothy rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry. Tensions are running high. Reminds me too much of Earth.”
“Earth, huh?” Clara said. “You never told me too much of who you were before.”
“Never thought it was relevant.” Dorothy’s face was now somber, with none of that bubbly cheerfulness from earlier. “You were a bureaucrat in Oslo, right? My life isn’t as impressive.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“No, I really don’t think so,” Dorothy said, looking at the floor, “It’s nothing to brag about. Graduated college early but still couldn’t get a job, can you believe it? So I signed up on Fraternity. Was just my luck my apartment and the rest of New Jerusalem got blown up a week later.”
“Did you have any family back on—”
“No.” Dorothy cut her off with narrowed eyes and an almost snarl. “I don’t.”
“Are you sure—”
“End. Of. Discussion.” That is not me. Not anymore.
Clara raised her hands, as if in surrender. “Okay, okay, I get it! Let’s move on. I’m sorry.”
“Now arriving: Saxonia. Saxonia.”
The doors opened, and Clara and Dorothy exited into Saxonia Station. It had the same basic design as the other stations outside Central, like Nyby, but the walls were covered in a motif of crosses covered in leaves—a Saxon irminsul, brought when they migrated into Scandinavia and later adapted for Catholicism. It was at that moment that Dorothy noticed the large number of trees planted throughout Saxonia’s open spaces. There weren’t many, but there was at least one on every block. Slips of paper containing prayers or photos of lost loved ones hung from the branches. Crucifixes, flowers, incense, and more photos were placed around the base of the trees. On Fraternity, people pinned photos of their lost loved ones to the walls of common areas and gave their prayers in the interfaith chapel. Yet Saxonia had filled on the role of both the public memorial and the church with these trees. Instead of each prayer and photo being one among millions given before the altar and pinned on the wall, each tree had only a few for those living on the block. A more intimate and natural way of grieving.
“Maybe we should plant some trees in the common areas,” Dorothy said, “Then again, the leaves and the dirt are going to get in the CO2 scrubbers, so…”
“I still think it’s a great idea,” Clara said, “That much perfectly pure air isn’t going to do you guys any favors when you come down here and breath in all the dust. Earth air was never that clean.”
“I suppose so,” Dorothy said, jotting down the idea in her notebook, “I’ll put in a suggestion with the maintenance people.”
Suddenly, the whole neighborhood jolted. Cracks appeared in the pavement, and dust fluttered down from the distant ceiling. Some of the lights flickered. Pedestrians either froze in place or rushed inside the nearest public building, although those buildings were cut from the same rock. Some of the older residents made the sign of a cross with a longer vertical section and a curly horizontal one—another irminsul, perhaps. Then sirens started echoing across the cavern.
“Damnit. We’ve got to move!” Dorothy pulled Clara down the tunnel.
On Fraternity
Papadopoulos regained consciousness, finding himself lying on the floor of a hallway. His vision remained blurry, and his hearing remained spotty. It sounded like an alarm was blaring in the distance, and there was this hissing noise. And then it all came rushing back to him, like the pain shooting up his back. “Ow, damn!”
“Warning,” an automated voice said, “Hull punctures detected. Atmosphere is leaking. Warning, hull punctures detected. Initiating emergency countermeasures.”
A few feet away, a wall began descending. Papadopoulos realized the ship’s system was going to seal off this area to prevent further leakage of atmosphere. He quickly ran under the wall, listening to it thud behind him and establish a seal with the floor. That was close. Could’ve been trapped there if I didn’t wake up when I did.
To learn more about what had happened, he made his way to the medical wing. There, he was confronted with a flurry of activity as doctors and nurses wheeled in dozens of patients in varying states of injury. Blood was splattering on the floor, and the air was filled with pained screams and hospital jargon.
“Hey, Gerald!” Papadopoulos flagged down a passing medic. “What the hell’s going on here?!”
“Oh, Doc, you’re here,” Gerald said, “We got hit by a micrometeorite swarm. It took out our sensors and damaged the outer hull. Everybody here was working on or near the outer hull when it happened.”
“Okay, make sure gravity remains steady here at all costs,” Papadopoulos said, “We won’t be able to drain blood from wounds without it.”
“Understood,” Gerald said.
At that moment, another siren sounded. Instantly, all of the conversation in the medical wing, from both patients and doctors, suddenly ceased. They all knew what this one was used for.
“Oh…no…” Papadopoulos said.
UN Central Authority, Beck
The UN Security Council and other UN ministers and military commanders crowded into the situation room. A technician turned on a large wall screen, bringing up a real time map of Mars, along with the orbits of important spacecraft like Fraternity and the Austrian ARC ship Giselbert.
“I thought they were nowhere near Beck,” Livia said, “Aren’t the front lines currently around Piddletown?”
“That’s what we thought at first,” Murad said, “And then I saw this map.”
They looked closer at the wall map. The data was several minutes out of date. Almost all Concordia satellites were marked as “offline,” so that probably wouldn’t change anytime soon. But the last bit of data they received was extremely worrying.
“General Konstantinov, please explain,” Murad said.
“Yes, sir.” Lev Konstantinov, a relatively young Russian man despite his rank, stood up. “As you can see, here is the Austrian spearhead.” He used a laser pointer to circle the general area east of Hellas Planitia, between Piddletown and Vinland-on-Mars. The satellites’ cameras had recorded the telltale glint of autoritter armor and the dust left behind in their wake. “Two autoritter divisions smashed through the secondary defenses while the Austrian ARC ship Giselbert—er, their IFF signature says the name’s Gradivus—provided support via orbital bombardment, creating an opening for conventional forces. About three infantry divisions, transported via APC, and one tank division.”
“That army seems a bit small for an invasion,” Livia said, “Much less an attack on Piddletown.”
“My exact thoughts, Madame President,” Lev said, “In fact, it is small, because Piddletown was never their primary objective to begin with. It was a diversion.”
He pointed to the settlement of Zhukov, on the western edge of UN-controlled territory. The no man’s land between UNAP and the former Mangala was obscured by a large cloud of dust. “As you may know, a dust storm warning was issued for Zhukov just a few hours ago. Just before Concordia went down, we got this.” He updated the screen. At the eastern edge of the storm, just visible for a few pixels, was the same glint of steel they saw at Piddletown. “Same thing was found just to the east of Khrushchev and Korolev Base.” Focusing on the easternmost part, he circled the dust storm gathering near Khrushchev and Korolev Base, as well as the autoritters that had emerged from it. “Last night, we believe the autoritters intentionally used their wheels and cooling fans to throw up large quantities of dust into the atmosphere to give the appearance of a dust storm, as a way of disguising their movements until they had entered UN-controlled territory.”
“But once they emerged from the dust clouds, shouldn’t Concordia have instantly detected them and alerted us?” Livia said.
“The reason we don’t have better footage of those autoritters is because right as they emerged, Concordia was hit by a massive micrometeorite swarm,” Lev said, “The same micrometeorites also bombarded Fraternity, taking out its sensor arrays.”
“Surely the other half of Concordia on the other side of the planet is intact, right?”
Lev shook his head. “This is footage from one of the Concordia satellites seconds before it was…taken offline.” A photo appeared on the wall screen. It had been taken by one of the satellite’s secondary cameras, tasked with monitoring the satellite itself. Most of the photo just showed the satellite’s body, with the curvature of Mars in the background. But in the corner, they saw a man in an Austrian vac suit. “We believe the Austrians conducted long range spacewalks from Giselbert—sorry, Gradivus—timed so that they would all reach and destroy the targeted Concordia satellites at the same time that the micrometeorite swarm hit the rest of the network and Fraternity.”
“As if he knew when the swarm would hit,” Murad said.
“Based on the trajectories we calculated, it seems the micrometeorites originated from an asteroid that had been marked for mining several months ago but subsequently disappeared,” Lev said, “It was then slingshotted across the entire inner solar system and the sun itself to gain the necessary momentum and angle to just barely skim Concordia’s orbit and Fraternity’s outer hull. At some point it was broken up into the smaller fragments that hit Concordia and Fraternity.”
“So what you’re saying is they could have easily used those micrometeorites to destroy Fraternity.”
“Yes.”
“Or dropped actual rocks on Beck.”
“We are lucky they showed mercy.”
“As much mercy as the Empire shows,” Murad said, “We all saw what they did to the resistance in Ramanujan Station.”
“Back to the situation at hand,” Livia said, “How have they managed to hit Beck already?”
“The Empire just…ignored Zhukov and Aesirlingby,” Lev said, “They hit Korolev and took it over, but they also ignored Khrushchev and Nobel. We’re already within their artillery range.”
“How many Austrian divisions are heading for Beck?”
Lev looked at his files. “Uh…oh, God.”
“How many, General Konstantinov?” Murad repeated.
“…Uh…” Lev stammered.
“Do I want to know?” Livia asked.
“Sir…” Lev handed a file to Murad. “It doesn’t really matter, does it? Not with her there.”
Murad looked at the file. There, on the front page, was a large photo taken from one of the cameras at Beck’s outer line of defense. Right in the center of the picture, and charging straight at the camera, was a certain red and gold autoritter, its sword drawn.
The Balmung, the custom-made autoritter of Angelica Neumann. Conqueror of Mangala. The Butcher of the Malians. The Empire’s best autoritter pilot. The boy emperor’s sword, made of steel folded over ten thousand times. The Valkyrie of Alençon.
“Merciful Allah, protect us…” Murad prayed.
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The irminsul was a Germanic pagan religious symbol. One was described as being destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. However, in the Annionaverse, Widukind actually defeated Charlemagne and pushed back his armies, allowing the Saxons to survive long enough to expand north into Scandinavia. Even though Saxony proper ultimately fell to the Frankish Empire, the Saxons persisted in Scandinavia and even ruled most of the region for a while. They would have brought their traditions with them and syncretized them with Catholicism when they finally converted with the rest of Scandinavia. Hence why there is Christian irminsul imagery.
Murad is Muslim here because Zoroastrianism died out.
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If Angelica is anything like Kallen, then they are right to fear her. I wonder if UNAP has any skilled pilots that could take on Angelica and Julius on, because they are screwed otherwise.
Now I’m wondering how Mozaffar became the UN Secretary-General if Iran is part of India and Mangala left the UN. Also, unless we keep the Annionaverse demographic maps as general abstractions that aren’t 100% accurate like the Hohenzollernverse ones, wouldn’t he be Arab instead of Iranian according to Annionaverse demographic maps?
Also Livia Ochimeca huh, I wonder if that's Izinchi or just someone related to her?
That puts the age and length of the Annionaverse into perspective. Kinda wild how we still have Saxons in Scandinavia and Visigothic Catholic Umayyads as kings of Portugal.
Now I’m wondering how Mozaffar became the UN Secretary-General if Iran is part of India and Mangala left the UN. Also, unless we keep the Annionaverse demographic maps as general abstractions that aren’t 100% accurate like the Hohenzollernverse ones, wouldn’t he be Arab instead of Iranian according to Annionaverse demographic maps?
Also Livia Ochimeca huh, I wonder if that's Izinchi or just someone related to her?
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UNAP has no autoritters at all because the HRE jealously guards the technology and does everything possible to prevent reverse engineering.
The strange early medieval cultural stasis does make everything feel so different from the Hohenzollernverse.
They’re most certainly abstractions as well, and there’s probably still be Iranians around. As for the situation with Mangala, there’s probably be a few Mangalans who stayed with the UN, or Murad was from another country with a substantial Iranian population.
That’s indeed Izinchi, but since the Aztecs were fully colonized and assimilated by the Europeans, she is culturally Portuguese. Her surname is all that remains of her Aztec heritage.
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I know this is an old update, but I feel like pointing out that Schmidt's reference is anachronistic for the 40s. I recently found that the phrase isn't historically attested to Sparatcus' rebellion, and the line seems to originate from a 1951 book that was popularized by the 1960 Spartacus movie.
Good point. There’s probably a hundred other anachronisms scattered across my chapters, unintentional or not (the private mailbox joke from the Maximist chapters comes to mind). I’ll address them in DE.
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It's a good silly moment, but I appreciate highlighting how dealing with a change in your normal gravity would take an insane amount of adjustment.
I didn't want to ignore the glaring fact that Mars has only a third of the gravity of Earth, which could lead to all sorts of health issues.
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With the Annionaverse cultural stasis leading to such things like the Saxon irminsul being a prevalent symbol in Scandinavia, I wonder what cultural legacy the Teutons and Messalians would leave behind in India. Both of those groups did resurface later on in Stellaris after all (and I’m pretty the Messalians survived to see 2490 too) so there must be significant Catholic and Messalian communities in India.
Also now that you started watching Gundam, I wonder what are some influences from Zeon you would consider giving to the HTE?
Also now that you started watching Gundam, I wonder what are some influences from Zeon you would consider giving to the HTE?
Because of how I interpreted Dragoon’s map, the directly administered UN territories have majority Scandinavian and Russian populations, along with Americans who didn’t leave to Demofed after it broke away. So I don’t think I’ve gone over the Indians’ situation that much in this arc, since they’ve already been defeated. There’d probably be a lot of Catholics and Messalians in India, but due to their ties to the HRE and the imperial Indian regime as well as being religions, they would have been persecuted by the communists. Most of them probably left to the HRE or Malaysia after WW2.
Not much yet, since I’m waiting to finish The Origin and the rest of UC before I decide on anything.
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I say this when I have people chanting “SIEG ANNIONA” in future chapters. Not necessarily a Zeon reference, though I was vaguely aware of that phrase before I watched. All in all, this arc is still heavily influenced by Code Geass despite a lot of things somehow giving off Gundam vibes in retrospect. Which is weird because now that I think about it, that show does have a lot of Gundam influences because of the same studio.
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Huh, I thought that phrase would've been inspired by LOGH, but makes sense that it came from Gundam.
While we are talking about potential anime references in Stellaris through, is it just me, or does the End of the Cycle give me EOE Third Impact vibes?
“Sieg Zeon” is pretty iconic, from what I’ve seen.
I see more Warhammer 40k Eldar collapse and the birth of Slaanesh vibes, though I get what you mean.
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So in other words it is like the Migration Period of 300–800 CE but to the north and is that why there is a "Autonomous Germanic Republic of North Saxony" around were south Finland is?
I would say that Hohenzollernverse Julian has the personality of Lelouch when he is both Lelouch Lamperouge and Zero with Angelica being more like Kallen were as in the Annionaverse Julius is Lelouch when he is in his "Demon Emperor" and Julius Kingsley personas were as Angelica Neumann is more like Suzaku when he is the Knight of Zero.
Since you said that the Hohenzollernverse mechs will be like the ones from Korra and Xenoblade Chronicles are the Autoritters of the Annionaverse based on Knightmare's since you said this Annionaverse arc is based more on Code Geass then Gundam?
One thing that I like about what universes like The Expanse, Dune and Foundation have done is show that overtime Humans evolve to survive were they live like the Belters, Guild Navigators and Spacers respectively and how we change to adapt to a new environment. This makes me wonder if you will touch on this in Stellaris and not do what Star Wars does and have everyone look the same no mater the gravity changes or lack there of or other factors?
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Probably. I don't know for sure since Dragoon didn't spend too much time on it and only said the Saxons conquered into Scandinavia and some of the provinces had converted to their culture. By HOI4 I think he had mostly forgotten about them and only released "Germany" in Finland because he could.
Julian is a bit like if Lelouch Lamperouge remained dominant while retaining some of that Zero mindset, while Angelica Haus is a lot like Kallen, Shirley, and even a bit of Euphemia in the sense that they ground him and want to help him. Julius is like Lelouch vi Britannia at the end of the show, and I can see Angelica Neumann as being Suzaku as the Knight of Zero.
Code Geass remains my primary inspiration for the autoritters because Knightmare Frames are relatively low tech compared to a lot of other mechas, especially Gundam. It wouldn't make much sense for the HRE to build such powerful machines after the death of Earth and the loss of most of its population and industry. The Knightmare Frames inspiration is pretty heavy since I made a big deal of the autoritters being equipped with wheels much like Knightmares (which as an aside I've only ever seen done in one other JRPG series that isn't mecha focused but still has them; it's a spoiler for the first game they're in so I'm not going to say the name). A lot of the main Gundam models have gimmicks like transforming, flight capability, or beam weapons that would be out of place with what the autoritters were built for and this era. As of writing this, I have finished everything prior to SEED and am working my way through that, so I don't want to know about the post-SEED designs. Though since I'm also working through Iron-Blooded Orphans at the same time as SEED (also early in that one), I do really like the lower tech and more grounded approach to mecha design and combat there, and I admit the Mars setting would have provided a lot of inspiration had I watched it earlier. Funny that I also watched Cowboy Bebop last week and that also has a Mars setting I'd like to take inspiration from in the future.
I do plan on addressing the gravity issue, but for convenience I'll assume most planets that are in the Gabriel ship's database and that I colonize later on will have gravity of roughly 0.8-1.2g, as we have almost no real-life data on how the human body handles microgravity. I also would like to give more spotlight to orbital habitats like O'Neill cylinders (which I'm surprised Gundam UC depicted quite well with the Sides), as those can hold large populations and maintain spin gravity at 1g without any sci-fi technobabble.
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