45 replies to this topic

[LordDeathStrike]

Arctic Fox, on 13 May 2012 - 01:55 PM, said:

Some are obvious, some less so, but here's my take:

Terran Alliance: Modern North America. The Terran Hegemony is culturally similar but had a feudal government.

House Kurita: Feudal Japan.

House Davion: Medieval Britain and France.

House Liao: Imperial China with some shades of Communist China.

House Marik: The Holy Roman Empire during the Renaissance.

House Steiner: The German Empire prior to World War I.

Free Rasalhague Republic: Renaissance Sweden.

ComStar: The Catholic Church, at least initially. I'm not sure exactly what ComStar and Word of Blake would be equivilant to after the schism, though.

The Clans: 13th-century Mongolia.

Marian Hegemony: Roman Empire.

Republic of the Sphere: Roman Republic.

Anything I missed?

These are just the styles of government, there are obviously many different cultures within each state. Also, planetary and regional government often diverge wildly from the state they belong to.

word of blake is clearly modeled after extremist muslims, hence the whole "jihad". nothing against muslims, but you guys extreme fanatics are a little too much. at least the catholics just molest alter boys instead of blowing stuff up.

[Sychodemus]

LordDeathStrike, on 16 May 2012 - 03:49 AM, said:

word of blake is clearly modeled after extremist muslims, hence the whole "jihad". nothing against muslims, but you guys extreme fanatics are a little too much. at least the catholics just molest alter boys instead of blowing stuff up.

Pop culture has made the Catholic priesthood a punchline. Two-thousand years of history on the other hand was anything but funny.
The Church was very ingrained in European culture and politics just like ComStar was in the Inner Sphere. The WoB fanaticism - to me - took all the worst aspects of things like the Jacobi uprisings and the Crusades to create the BT universe's bogeyman.

Edited by Sychodemus, 16 May 2012 - 07:03 AM.

[Alan Grant]

LordDeathStrike, on 16 May 2012 - 03:49 AM, said:

word of blake is clearly modeled after extremist muslims, hence the whole "jihad". nothing against muslims, but you guys extreme fanatics are a little too much. at least the catholics just molest alter boys instead of blowing stuff up.

I think the only reason the writers used the word Jihad was because the word Crusade had already been used for the Clans. They needed a word that meant the ferosity of what was to come and not sound like a broken record. To me the WoB are like the Nazis. They were insignificant, and didn't seem to have any power. But because of the timing and what was going on around them at the time they rose to prominence. And even then nobody really cared much about, until all of sudden events start happening like clock work which lead to WW2 for the Nazis, and the "Jihad" for the WoBs. But they do show similarities of extremists of all forms, AlQaeda, IRA and such like.

I like the original meaning of Jihad, "struggle" and liken it to Aleksandr Kerensky's struggle against the usurper Amaris.

As for the Davions, I think they're like the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table, the FedSuns nation being Camelot. Too good to be true. Even their Capital world is called New "Avalon".

[Jericho917]

Steinar Bergstol, on 16 May 2012 - 03:28 AM, said:

So, you remember Swedes, Danes and Finns, but ignore Norway? We were vikings as well, you know. Bah! This is why I cannot fully support the FRR. It's always Sweden this and Sweden that. Bloody Swedes. There are planets named after Norwegian cities in the Rasalhague territory (Trondheim? New Bergen?), and still it's all about the snooty swedes who think they're so much better than the rest of Scandinavia.

Hrmph. They shoulda stuck with The Combine rather than let the Swedes lord it over them.

Oh, and by the way, in case it wasn't obvious.

WOW! sounds like there might be some "Game of Thrones" like faction splitting in the FRR... how interesting.

[RangerRob]

I've usually dumbed it down when introducing new players to the universe.

Davion: Britian / France
Steiner: German / Russian
Liao: China
Kurita: Japan
Marik: USA. (easy sell as "Free" worlds league, elected clueless officials, Eagle for the mascot, large production capability, A-Marik-A.)

Once hooked they can read the fluff and tell me how wrong I am.

[Sychodemus]

RangerRob, on 17 May 2012 - 10:58 AM, said:

A-Marik-A

I've used the USA reference for decades, but I honestly never made that pun before. +1 for the laugh.