here’s been a bunch of cool stuff on the iothera fan art tumblr lately! magnolia shows why kiyohara probably shouldn’t make any contracts to become a magical girl, and lily proves that jumping on a space trampoline would probably be more fun than that anyway
Redwater is often poetically referred to as the “Crossroads of the Occident”. Of course, for much of its history, it was less a crossroads and more a sort of spigot which poured the wealth of the Restored Empire into the coffers of Kyokanese and Beiguese merchant factors, trading company officers, and crooked colonial administrators.
Fortunately, in these enlightened times, the kingdoms of the Restored Empire are qual partners in the great enterprise of world commerce, and giant financial services corporations and trade banks from East and West alike come together in Redwater to keep money earned in their respective colonies in the Global South out of the hands of their home governments’ tax collectors.
Many streets, neighborhoods, and other landmarks in Redwater have “Occident” or “Occidental” in their name. Presumably, the Kyokanese administrators of Redwater took this step in case the two thirds of Redwater residents of Western descent forget which hemisphere they’re living in.
well, gosh, maureen
Many of the cultures of Iothera don’t consider women’s chests to be any more taboo than men’s.
Come to think of it, that’s probably the case for Chartannia, too, in that they don’t really want to see anybody’s nipples in public.
gifts????????
Emperor Karel I van Kortrijk, also known as Carolus the Strong, was elected Emperor of the Restored Empire in A.R. 645. The second son of the King of Landsmeer, he was the first emperor to come from eastern Sannadoc— it was that golden moment when the Eastern trade made the electors of Landsmeer and Weserland fat with profit, but before the Eastern trade led to boatloads of Kyokanese and Beiguese company soldiers with guns and big plans for the West showing up.
He was also the emperor who brought Chartannia into the Restored Empire, marshaling all the resources of the Restored Empire for a massive invasion of the island nation. King Alexander II bent the knee, and in return was allowed to keep his crown and gain elector status. Later Chartannian monarchs would gain several other electorates to hand out to favored dukes or duchesses as they saw fit, and Chartannia is now one of the most influential member states of the Restored Empire.
The van Kortrijks still hold the throne of Landsmeer, so there’s still a van Kortrijk emperor or empress from time to time.
Cassandra’s kind of oversimplifying the preparations necessary for any long-term assignment in space. Anybody going further into space than low Iothera orbit is required to pass the Astronaut Orientation Program. For, say, a civillian researcher, who’s going to just be flying out on a spaceplane and working in the shirtsleeves environment of a modern hab dome, it’s fairly basic, and can generally be completed in as little as a month. Still, it’s expected that any space worker have basic emergency survival skills, including putting on and sealing a space suit, moving around in freefall, cycling airlocks, the fact that your head doesn’t really explode in a vacuum, etc. Part of the reason Ariadne has become the epicenter of civilian spaceflight is because of the extensive (and highly regarded) AOP-certified training facilities Matsuda-Lowell Astronautics runs there. Matsuda-Lowell takes the AOP very seriously. Spaceflight Director Sasaki Hanako doesn’t want to wake up one morning, pull up the front page of the Times, and see a headline like, “BLOWN SPACEPLANE AIRLOCK SUCKS THIRTY ASTRONOMERS INTO SPACE”.
Also, the gentlemen explorers of Expedition Six would have never deigned to drink something so uncivilized as moonshine, although they might permit themselves a hint of a smile over the delightful wordplay inherent in drinking moonshine on the moon. Instead, they devoted precious payload to carrying a supply of the finest liquors the Restored Empire had to offer. Because, if you’re going to spend a year somewhere as ghastly as Luna Manjor, you might as well be drunk most of the time.
Luna Major c. 1007 was basically the McMurdo Station of Iothera.