More Character Details for First Sun

The World of C is an alternate world, a sort of parallel dimension to the Earth that is at the outset of the First Sun Saga. If you’re more familiar with the relationship between the “world” and the Shadow Realm in First Moon, then you can somewhat think of it as being the same sort of thing here.

The idea for the World of C, and for First Sun in general, was a novel turned anime from 2002 called “The 12 Kingdoms”. The story is about this other world where magic exists, and society mimics classical China (I can’t recall, without being able to re-watch it, if it’s just “old” China, or feudal China). The story shifts focus between multiple characters living in this fantasy world that knows of “our” world, despite residents of our world knowing nothing about theirs. There are 12 island kingdoms, arranged in a circular pattern, with a mountain at the center of the map. On this mountain resides the gods of this world, overseeing the 12 kingdoms.

While the anime came out in 2002, I saw it (or at least the first dozen or so episodes), around 2010. This was before I began Cromwell Universe in the direction it’s now been going in. so, at the time, I thought about using the model for the basic structure of the world from the 12 Kingdoms, and playing with a little bit. I wanted each kingdom in my World of C to essentially correspond to the world of a different anime, manga, or game, with the overall intent being that each kingdom represents a different sci-fi or fantasy aspect, save perhaps one kingdom that would reflect the real world, to a larger extent. With my attention being spent on other things, and the emergence of the Cromwell Universe set of stories, that imperative waned quite a bit.

Nevertheless, my World of C still retains almost all of its original framework. There are 13 kingdoms spread across this world that sits parallel to the base dimension of the First Sun Saga. The 12 kingdoms are ruled by individual leaders who have been granted immortality by the system that governs rule and order of C from the 13^th Kingdom, Centralia. This system was created by a figure known only as the “Angel”, the founder of the World of C. The Angel disappeared a long time ago, leaving only the system it created for governance in C – Takamagahara. Each kingdom was granted its own means of determining the governance that would apply to it, and the manner of succession should the ruler of that kingdom perish. There were also several rules set down, including a frightful system of divine punishment said to strike down any ruler of C who willingly invaded the lands of another Ruler of C.

One of the most prominent characters in the First Sun Saga is Beatrice. She carries the titles of Golden Witch, Grey Witch, and Ruler of C. From a story perspective, she is the same Beatrice as the Golden Witch of the Umineko no Naku Koro Ni anime and manga. However, I change a little of the background. This is due to the fact that her story is merged with that of C.C of Code Geass. From this, Beatrice/C.C’s background shifts to the World of C. I don’t get into a particularly deep amount of detail on that part of her history. Where I pick up is where she begins to interact with the based world, and how she ends up meeting both the Ushiromiya and Britannia families.

This centers around and event I have right now taking place circa WWI, wherein a Britannia and Ushiromiya ancestor are acquainted with one another, become acquainted with Beatrice, discover her powers when she helps one of them, and from there foster a relationship. This part will mostly track with Beatrice’s Umineko background. However, the moment where Umineko’s background gets into Beatrice’s capture, and the complex string of alternate past selves and the like will not be part of my story. Instead, I will have a brief period of her “capture” by the Ushiromiyas, leading in part to the Rokkenjima event, much like depicted with the background between Shannon and Beatrice. I have a different character filling Shannon’s role, however, but I won’t get into that here.

For all this, C.C’s history in Code Geass comes into play only in so far as the fact that she was acquainted with Marianne. I leave it up in the air how much Charles Britannia in my story was acquainted with C.C/Beatrice, but since Charles is dead only a short way into the story, you can easily surmise he did not receive any power from her – at least not on the scale of Code Geass. In fact, because the nature of their relationship is changed so much in my story, C.C/Beatrice isn’t acquainted with Lelouch in any significant manner. Again, much like Charles, it will be clear that she knows him to some degree, but in First Sun they do not have the relationship they do in Geass.

Anzu Ushiromiya of the First Sun Saga

I also mentioned yesterday that the Rosencraft do play a fairly important role. It isn’t particularly prominent role compared to my usual train of events in stories featuring them, but know that Ange Ushiromiya’s mother is Anzu Rosencraft. The only wrinkle here is that Beatrice of Umineko plays the part of Anzu (as seen above), rather than Dark Magician Girl. In effect, the Anzu of First Sun is a mix of the Beato persona of Beatrice, and Kyrie, but in the appearance of Beatrice, featuring the pink hair and green eyes of Anzu as a child in First Moon. As Ange and Battler’s mother, she is in fact Rudolf’s husband. If you had to explain it in the context of Umineko, Anzu’s background in terms of the Ushiromiyas is essentially that she was woman number 3 for Rudolf – one being his first wife, two being Kyrie. Basically, at the time his first wife passed, Rudolf was in relationships with both Kyrie and Anzu, and Anzu won out.

The only real impact Beatrice of Umineko has on Anzu of First Sun is in a somewhat similar fashion to that of Umineko’s story of Virgilia and Beatrice. In other words, Anzu was a student of Beatrice in First Sun, as Beatrice was a student of Virgilia. The only thing is here the there was no passing on of names or titles, again, because the background situations are different. I don’t get too deep into this part of the tale until late, because it gets fairly complex due to the inclusion of events related to Fate/Stay Night. For that same reason, I won’t get into it here, except to say that Sakura Matou makes an appearance. Soul Eater also gets involved here, adding a couple complications too. 

That just leaves the publication for tomorrow. I'm thinking of doing the Foreword and Chapter 1, probably Chapter 2 next week.