HOME | DD

Description

A Code Geass scenario based around information and a POD from MarshalBraginsky. Additions in italics and bold and edits to the map made by MarshalBraginsky.

In this version of Code Geass' history Henry VIII actually has a healthy son and sends his daughter Elizabeth to be married to the Tsar of Russia, forming a bond between the two nations and allowing a British Royal Company to establish itself in Muscovy. British colonisation and expansion in the region eventually led to a fusion of the British settled territories and the more traditionally Russian principalities and kingdoms, forming what would eventually be called Euro-Britannia. (Bold and italics indicate Marshal's edits)
Britannian expansion primarily took place in the Northern Hemisphere. Technically the empire was divided into two between the Homeland/Empire Proper and Euro-Britannia with each separate entity moving into their sphere of influence. The Muscovy Company was eventually annexed by Moscow but had already established the English language and many Britannian common laws that were picked up by the Tsars as well (English was and still remains a second language of some prestige outside of the Britannian settled lands in North Asia). English and Russian have become the most common spoken language in Euro-Britannia, although certain minority languages like Armenian and Korean are also heard (in Euro-Britannia's Armenian autonomous kingdom and Korea respectively)
It is now 2017 Ascensio Thronem Britannicae and a great change is about to take place in the Holy Britannian Empire.
The Holy Britannian Empire is a vast absolutist state. He government is an absolute monarchy, founded on extreme traditionalist principals of hierarchy and the class system. At the same time, forms of enlightened despotism, social darwinism and modernised capitalism have allowed the Britannians to also adapt to the modern world. The monarchy and aristocracy may still hold the majority of their traditional authorities but the bureaucracy now hold a lot of power as well and the social darwinism does promote bizarre forms of meritocratic principles. What's more several unofficial agreements and traditions have appeared since Britannia and Euro-Britannia became the refuges of the old, displaced nobility of Europe. If the crowned heads of the world want to survive with their power then they must learn to wield it intelligently.
Life in Britannia is very stratified and regimented. The hierarchy that defines Britannian society is very apparent and is most evident in the manners in which people live. Though there are plenty of public spaces most residential areas are practically segregated in the new technologically advanced planned cities and proto-arcologies. Though a certain standard of living is guaranteed in these settlements the quality of services increases based on an individual's social status.
The aristocracy are at the top of the social ladder. Their position is inviolable and if anyone wants to be taken seriously as a member of the elite they must buy a noble title. The aristocracy do hold most of social authority but they are also subjected to ritualistic conventions that do restrict what they can do if they do not want to be socially isolated. The middle class have grown substantially and are a social political force unto themselves. Though practical democracy is vestigial and powerless the middle class are able to use the representatives systems as a means of petitioning the upper classes. The lower classes are the lowest rungs of society and often subjected to the propaganda that helps justify the existing system.
The church, whether it is the Church of England or the Russian Orthodox Church, is the single largest charitable organisation in the Empire. They provide many social support networks that provide more than the government mandated services do. Of course, the clergy also reinforce the national status quo through their own support of the governmental system.
The civil service are the most viable means of social mobility in the empire. The bureaucracy is seen as a less prestigious profession than other forms of governance and therefore receives less direct attention from the aristocracy than other positions. This has made such institutions much more meritocratic and allows for the most capable and adaptable public servants to rise through the ranks and attain higher salaries and status, some can even join the nobility.
Euro-Britannia, whilst also employing many of these institutions and ideas is ultimately much more conservative. Their hierarchy is much more restrictive and prone to traditionalism, causing some social problems within the lower class population. As a result, the Euro-Britannian government launches various projects to keep its population employed and fed properly.
Britannia is a highly militant culture. Their long protracted struggle with the other two major powers and their predecessors, combined with their regimented social structure helped establish this culture. The militancy and stratification also helps keep their social system in order and maintain their control over their colonies and vassal states. Military technology receives the most government support, usually from royal sponsors. Also the military use the various forms of climate and terrain in their empire to train much of their army and test them against their unstable or rebellious territories.
At the moment the empire is a whole is going through an upheaval. The indigenous royal family of Euro-Britannia has died without a legitimate successor. The only true claimants for the throne are now members of the Britannia royal family who took power in the British Isles. Now a major reform is going through the empire as Britannia announces the direct annexation of Euro-Britannia into their domains. Needless to say, this has come to a relief for the middle-class populations of Euro-Britannia, who grew resentful at the extremely restrictive policies of the previous Euro-Britannian regime.
Britannia's longest and strongest rival is the Holy Roman Empire.
Though it was a long process the Hapsburg family managed to unite Europe, starting with the Holy Roman Empire. After the defeat of their French rivals the Hapsburgs had total hegemonic control of the European continent, with Britannia, Euro-Britannia and Spain confined to the periphery.
The Holy Roman Empire has changed a lot. During the 19th Century revolutionary thinking that could not be repressed by traditional means spread throughout Europe. Revolutions sprang up across the continent as the people rebelled against Hapsburg rule. The reaction was bloody and harsh and such reactionary thinking transformed the HRE and its vassals and satellites.
The Holy Roman Empire is now a clerical-fascist state. The power of the monarchy has largely been subverted by a party based government that is intrinsically linked to the Catholic Church. The government is most certainly not democratic with membership in the ruling party often decided by other members who are required to vouch for a potential applicant. The bureaucracy holds most of the power and is another, unofficial, means of entering the echelons of government. The party is divided into several departments that handle the matters of governance as well as propaganda and the monitoring of the citizenry. These departments are often in competition with one another for influence, all of them trying to make sure a prominent member of their department can take the position of high chancellor, the ruling authority in the party.
The Church is part of the government but is also technically separate from the party. Many members of the party are religious which also helps reinforce the Church's influence in government. By this point is difficult to say just how much the party has infiltrated the Church as well as their authoritarian, traditionalist politics have made their way into the Church's more secular dogma as well.
Life in the HRE is very restrictive. The government promotes a very traditionalist way of life. Though modernity has been adopted by the HRE the old hierarchies remain. Most of the old aristocracy are now irrelevant but those who accepted party rule and moved into more modern industries remain prominent members of society. New industrial and political elite have taken the aristocracy's place for the most part. The clergy are prominent parts of every community with every settlement larger than a hamlet having, at least a chapel. The Church is the primary means through which the people are indoctrinated to the HRE's political system. The state controls the media, airing program that have to be approved by both the government and the Church. This does make their culture rather stale but it helps reinforce the copious amounts of propaganda.
The HRE forces people to accept the Catholic faith (or their politically appropriate version anyway). Protestantism is largely extinct in Europe as are other Christian denominations, which usually have to flee to Britannia or other sympathetic nations. Jews however are accepted so long as they carry registration identification cards and papers at all times.
Life in the HRE's colonies is even more repressive. The empire isn't exactly racist. Colonial policies do allow for the indigenous population to participate in government so long as they convert to Catholicism. This has allowed the local people to involve themselves in how the colonies are run. There are still many issues though, especially in primarily Muslim territories and areas where the indigenous population are less willing to abandon their traditional culture.
The Spanish Empire passed out of the hands of the Hapsburg Dynasty shortly before the rise of their exceptionally successful iteration of their hegemony. It instead ended up, thanks to some complex dynastic organising, going to the House of Savoy, who later lost their actual homeland to the German Hapsburgs anyway. They managed to stay out of the HRE's orbit but they and their empire ended up transforming as well as the centuries went by.
La Hispanidad, the successor to the Spanish Empire is a bizarre state. Like their rivals they are a monarchical state but they have gone down a very different path compared to the Britannians and HRE.
La Hispanidad embraced a rather strange ideology in the Late 19th Century. Having developed from the principles of the 'Enlightenment', the new ideology embraced a sense of cultural pan-nationalism, alongside a sort of centralised governmental and social system that provided an 'equal' measure of social benefits for every citizen. This almost 'socialist' system spread throughout La Hispanidad, strengthening the ties between the viceroyalties even as Spain's colonies became more self-sufficient.
The government of La Hispanidad is a bizarre construct. It is supposedly meritocratic, expressing a strict belief that personal ability and charisma are the only means someone can rise through the echelons of government and that social status doesn't matter. Of course in reality the social elite still have massive advantages in terms of resources and education and make up the majority of government officials. The monarchy is strictly constitutional, possessing no practical authority and serving only as symbolic rulers. The government is also officially free of racial discrimination, allowing all the people from throughout their union into positions of power. The economy is heavily regulated by the government, enforcing worker's rights, environmental rights and various restrictions of business expansion (of the more criminal/aggressively expansionist type).
La Hispanidad's general society is heavily focused on pan-nationalism and integration. The acceptance of the creole population in the Spanish viceroyalties long ago was the beginning of this practice and has since expanded to include the entirety of the population. There is an attempt to assimilate the people of their territories rather than promote multiculturalism and it is not uncommon to also involve mild religious evangelism in these practices as well.

In addition, Spain/La Hispanidad and the Ottoman Empire were also once enemies, but the growth of the Hapsburg dominated Holy Roman Empire and the downfall of its Spanish branch and its replacement with the House of Savoy has triggered a hostile reaction within the inner circle that dominates Vienna's government. Protestantism may have been extinct in Europe, but it still lives on in a former Dutch colony that has now become an independent nation in its own right, the United Oceanic Republic.

Parts of India survived multiple attempts to colonise the subcontinent and managed to even force a few pieces of land from the major colonial powers. India modernized even earlier than China and despite the massive wealth disparities that still affect the nation they have become a leader in high technology. However, India only asked for help from the Hapsburgs after witnessing the growth of the Mughal Empire on its northwest frontier in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it was only thanks to Mughal infighting that the rest of India were saved from Muslim rule, although the Indians had to offer their western territory to the HRE in heavy payment. They are however, allowed to help themselves to the French Indian territory that France abandoned due to growing costs of maintaining it, and even expanded into the Burmese statelets to prevent the Chinese Empire from expanding southwards, contributing to their xenophobia.

The Ottoman Empire has miraculously managed to survive centuries of warfare, only because the Hapsburgs were more interested in crushing their French rivals and keeping the Britannians and Euro-Britannians at bay that they were seen as a useful buffer. However, even with the discovery of oil, the lack of sakuradite resources make it hard for them to survive this modern era. Against all odds, they only managed to keep their European holdings through terror, expulsions of troublesome minorities and even bringing in Muslim missionaries into the region. What was once the powerful Balkan nations of Serbia and Bulgaria, now reduced to the shadow of its former self while the rest of Rumelia are dominated by ethnic Turks, Kurds, Albanians and Muslim Slavs.
The Chinese Empire has managed to make it into the modern world. Despite falling behind the powers of Europe they were able to modernise and remain independent of the major colonial power. China today is an industrial power, able to compete with the other major powers whilst also being far more centralised. Due to their poor history with Europeans, they have severe discrimination against Christians. Unfortunately in recent years the internal corruption and governmental embezzlement have grown to the point where they hamper them from rising to the status of a great power. Right now China is suffering from a lot of unrest with several political factions trying to exploit the weakness of the current government. The most powerful, surprisingly, are a reformist group led by numerous loyalist military officers. In addition, the Hapsburg control of Hainan remains a sore point, as the predominantly Catholicized Chinese population refused to rejoin an anti-Christian Chinese state and Chinese nationalists had vowed to regain Hainan from the pesky Europeans.
Technologically this world is much more advanced than OTL. The high-energy conductor known globally as Sakuradite (named by the Japanese for its colour) has allowed the world to accelerate technologically. Computer technology is far ahead of OTL, allowing greater advances in fields like robotics and more esoteric quantum mechanics. Several laboratories are actually working on especially advanced computers that can predict the movements and thoughts of people and machines. The primary purpose of this system is to see whether it is possible to predict enemy weapon movements and prepare a viable response to them. An internet equivalent has also been developed though all three powers do have a tendency to censor the network quite frequently and keep it monitored for politically inappropriate or subversive discussions.
Thanks to sakuradite and it's application in power conversion and transmission systems renewable energy sources are now common around the world. Many modern settlements and arcologies have solar cells integrated into their infrastructure. Many modern architectural marvels are actually power generators such as the famous Chinese power islands, artificial landmasses built to generate energy from tidal waves.
By far the most significant advancement in recent decades was the development of the mobile autonomous knight, a piloted humanoid machine known colloquially as a knightmare frame. Knightmares have already revolutionised modern warfare despite seeing limited use in actual warfare. The last round of conflicts in Africa, where the Britannians were able to grab territory, were the most infamous practical demonstration of the knightmare frame. All models do have a generally human shape but do not walk (very well anyway), instead they move on wheeled struts called landspinners.
Britannian knightmares, as the first models, are some of the most advanced, having a humanoid form with the most variability. Their human-like hands allow them to wield a large variety of weaponry that make them far more versatile than their rivals. The HRE builds their models around a more armoured base. Whilst nowhere near as fast or versatile as those deployed by their enemies, the HRE knightmares are far more heavily armoured and can sustain far more damage than those of their enemies. La Hispanidad's knightmare frames are, in comparison to their rivals, appear somewhat more flimsy. Sacrificing armour in favour of speed the Hispanic knightmares are almost as versatile as those Britannia deploys and are also far cheaper to produce. However they are far less capable of withstanding damage and are far more fuel intensive, requiring more frequent recharges. The other free powers do build their own models but such machines are far more primitive and most don't even appear to similar to the humanoid knightmares of the great powers (the Chinese Gun Ru is the most human and it looks like a giant frog on wheels).

Where are they now: (The POD is not relevant when concerning character birth, etc).
Cornelia Li Britannia, 2nd princess of the Britannia family, has recently been appointed as the viceroy and heir apparent to Euro-Britannia. Though not as politically savvy as some of her siblings she is considered competent enough to handle the nation through the upheavals that are about to erupt through the annexation of Euro-Britannia into Britannia proper. What's more her prodigious military ability and stubborn personality are viewed as an essential skills to deal with the far more traditionalist and aggressive Euro-Britannians.
Euphemia Li Britannia is being brought along to Euro-Britannia as the official sub-viceroy. Her older sister has sheltered her from the cut-throat politics of the empire, a development that has left her far more optimistic than her sister but also much more naive. Despite holding little real power in relation to her sister, Euphemia does have a few very simple plans that she wants to work on now that the importance of her position has sunk in.
Andreas Darlton, Gilbert Guilford and the Glaston Knights have all been brought along to Euro-Britannia with their princess. Officially regarded as her retinue the presence of such infamous Britannian soldiers have caused some trouble in the Euro-Britannian court.
Archduke Augusta Henry Highland was sent ahead of the princess. As his family already held ties to Euro-Britannia through the descendant of the old Royal Muscovy Company, he had some stake in the cooperative empire. His authority is currently being transitioned to Princess Cornelia as are many of his duties which has truncated his power quite a bit.
The Knights of St Michael, a prominent knightly order within Euro-Britannia is currently under the control of the new and controversial Grand Master, Shin Hyuga Shing. Though Japanese, he was adopted into a prominent Britannian family and has made great efforts to integrate himself into the empire's hierarchy and culture. Considering that Japan is not exactly a member of the empire his position as a leader of one of Britannia's greatest surviving knightly orders has been brought into question. The means through which he attained the position are also considered suspicious as well as his predecessor Michele Manfredi committed suicide despite having no discernible reason for doing so.
Andrea Farnese is another member of the Knights of St Michael and a prominent soldier. His family have a long history with the Euro-Britannian government. He is very suspicious of his new Grand Master and has in fact established a rudimentary investigation of sorts into his mentor's suicide.
Leila von Breisgau is a somewhat recent arrival to the Euro-Britannian social scene. She is rather famous amongst the upper class for joining the military at a young age. Her family were prominent in both the Empire Proper and Euro-Britannia and her arrival in the Muscovy territories, as part of Cornelia's entourage, has stirred up a lot of discussion and concern amongst the local aristocracy.
Charles Zi Britannia has been emperor for several decades now, has controversially kept several wives and many consorts and has fathered a number of children. He has been curiously absent from the machinations of government and has instead given many of his duties over to his children. He has been seen keeping very bizarre company with a mysterious and disturbing cult who have been witnessed on occasion by courtiers and lesser royals.
Schniezel El Britannia, the 2nd Prince and prime minister of Britannia, is an unbelievably powerful figure within the empire's government. He has in fact taken over many of the emperor's traditional duties and roles and is considered the prime candidate for succeeding his father. He is also a successful socialite, proficient in playing the political game of the upper class and inspiring his other subordinates. However his most famous activity is his entrepreneurship, especially in his sponsoring of various fields of weapons technology.
Lelouch Vi Britannia has recently been appointed a position in the military, largely at his mother's behest. He is rather apathetic, taking his duties seriously mostly to avoid criticism but not seeing any real value in what he is doing. He has, however, made it his objective to take command of Nunnally's unit. If his sister is going to be a soldier, he is going to in command of whatever operations she participates in.
Nunnally Vi Britannia has been encouraged by her mother to participate in specialised military training. She has shown a proficiency in knightmare piloting, almost at her mother's level. In fact she has so much natural talent that she has been appointed a position in the army which she has accepted somewhat begrudgingly.
When the Britannians forcibly opened Japan to trade with the rest of the world and deposed the Shogunate, they appointed the prominent but reformist Kururugi family as their puppets. Genbu Kururugi, the current patriarch is a contentious figure. Though rather capable of playing the more belligerent politics of his Euro-Britannian overlords, his aggressive politics and borderline secessionist rhetoric is becoming highly controversial.
Suzaku Kururugi, the only son of Genbu, has been trained to inherit his father's position. As befits his family and the Britiannian aristocracy, he has undergone military training and private tutelage in combat. He has proven to be an exceptional physical prodigy and he has seriously considered a more professional career in the military, at least until it is time to succeed his father.
With the advent of sakuradite based technology, the substance has become more valuable than ever. The Sumeragi family of Japan, who own the largest number of deposits, have benefited the most from this development. Kaguya Sumeragi has recently succeeded the position of her father, who passed away from disease a year before. Her new found position in the Empire's aristocracy has elicited no few snide remarks from the older nobility who disparage her for her age and superficially childish disposition.
Kyoshiro Todhou and his personal unit of elite knightmare pilots, the Four Holy Swords, have made a name for themselves in recent years. Deployed to the Euro-Britannian military as a gesture of good faith, the group have made themselves infamous throughout the restless Central Asian and Caucasian territories.
Sophie Randall has recently been recruited by the Chancellery of the Holy Roman Empire as a new scientific researcher. Despite some misgivings she has been permitted to privately contradict established dogma in order to achieve whatever new breakthroughs will give the HRE an advantage.
A recent development of significance within the HRE military structure was the creation of the W-O specialist unit. Composed of expendable defectors from Britannia and its satellites, the HRE offers these people clemency in return for unquestioning service to the HRE. These operatives are also afforded privileges and are cleared of potential charges of heresy and subversion should they perform their duties well.
Several years earlier China came under the rule of the incredibly young Jiang Lihua who succeeded the throne at the age of five shortly after her parent's deaths. She has spent her entire life confined to her palatial complex in the Forbidden City situated at Luoyang thanks to the machinations of the High Eunuchs. The advisory council have been able to seize power due to their ruler's youth and inexperience with anything outside of the Forbidden City and are currently in the process of driving the empire into the ground thanks to their bureaucratic and political corruption.
VV has, once again, moved the Geass Cult's headquarters. Central Asia is no longer a viable location due to the unrest and the possibility of attracting unwanted attention. His base is currently being established in North America, where another gateway into the World of C has been located.

Gene Smilas has emerged as the 'White Rajah' of the former Spanish Philippines (now named Ludomorye from two Slavic words: Ludo meaning "mad" in Bulgarian and Morye meaning "sea", hence Ludomorye means "mad seas", referring to its vulnerability to tropical storms), where he has managed to bring together a group of anti-Japanese Britannian exiles living in the EU and Ottoman Rumelia (among the exiles are Kaname Ohgi, a prominent Japanese refugee who settled in southern Anatolia and Akito Hyuga, a Japanese orphan adopted by a Bulgarian couple and the brother of the current head of the St. Michael Knights), a defecting faction of the Knights of St. Michael (led by Ashley Ashra after leading a mutiny against the group for refusing to obey the orders of Shin Hyuga Shing due to his role in the sudden suicide of Manfredi) and opportunistic freelance mercenaries from the UOR, the Ottoman Empire (mainly Balkan Christians still living under Turkish rule) and the Chinese Empire, as well as defecting Japanese officers who used to serve the Japanese Army like General Katase and Brigadier General Kusakabe (which has now been reduced to nothing more than a Britannian auxiliary group and has criticized the Four Holy Swords for their servitude to Euro-Britannia). Frustrated by the EU's anti-Orthodox Christian policy and the Ottoman suppression of Greek national identity, Smilas has taken it upon himself to crown himself "King of Ludomorye" and has expressed interest in allying with the Chinese.
In the last few years a number of minor reports from the OSI sections in Japan have spoken of a bizarre young woman. She is not a registered citizen and has been observed by several people in secure locations that even normal citizens would not be permitted to enter. Now new reports from Euro-Britannia have stated that this woman, known to a few important individuals as CC, has left Japan and instead appeared in the Amur territories. She is currently travelling through Siberia.
Nations that have active separatist movements:

1) Ludomorye (Nation Separating From: Euro-Britannia and Britannia): This nation has undergone a huge shift between various overlords. First colonized by the Spanish, then taken by the Dutch-Turkish coalition in the 1640s, regained by the Spanish briefly in the 1740s before finally seizing it by Euro-Britannia in the 1760s. Because of its troubled past, Ludomorye is one of the most diverse nations in the world in terms of demographics. When it was still under Euro-Britannian rule, they were named the Primorye Governorate, and Euro-Britannian officials were in charge of turning that nation into a huge pool of cannon fodder for their armies.

2) Romanian Principalities (Nation Separating From: Ottoman Empire): A long time Ottoman vassal, the Romanian Principalities have launched revolts quite often, but also resulted in Ottoman suppressions and expulsions. However, seeking protection will be dangerous, as both the HRE and Euro-Britannia have sights on the Romanian principalities because they behaved exactly like their Ottoman overlords. It didn't stop them from taking HRE and Euro-Britannian aid for their own purposes though.

3) Western India (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire): This is the territory the Indians were forced to give up to the Hapsburgs as payment for their help in stopping the Mughals from conquering them. Catholic missionaries are successful in displacing Hindus and Oriental Christians to the point where Catholics make up the majority of the population. However, this separatist movement is hopelessly divided between Catholicized Indians who want to create their independent state and minority Hindus who wanted reunification with the Confederation of Indian States, as well as some Catholic Indians who want autonomy within the HRE.

4) Florida (Nation Separating From: La Hispanidad): This territory here is at loggerheads with both La Hispanidad and Britannia since both want total control of this state, although there are some who are calling for reunification with Spain Proper (the European component of La Hispanidad). Like Western India, Florida's separatist movements are at each other's throats and also divided.

5) Judea (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire and Egypt): The long cherished dream of an independent Jewish homeland is something that Jews of the HRE desperately wanted, even though the Ottomans were pissed at the Hapsburgs for screwing them out of the Holy Land. It doesn't help that the HRE wanted to recreate the Kingdom of Jerusalem and stick its preferred candidate (surprisingly enough, it isn't another Hapsburg, but rather a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha candidate). The Jewish Revolutionary Federation also eyes the Sinai Peninsula for territorial expansion.

6) Brunei (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire): A longtime ally of the Ottoman Empire, just like how the Turks were screwed over with the Holy Land, the Bruneians were screwed over with their loss of sovereignty. In addition, they seek the Chinese Empire, not only as a potential ally, but as a trade partner. Something to do with excessive Hapsburg influence in the rest of Asia, to say nothing of their intention to conquer Ludomorye from the Euro-Britannians.

7) Hainan (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire [de jure], Chinese Empire [de facto]): A Chinese Catholic state that has been built by the Hapsburgs (though originally owned by the Portuguese along with Macau), it has become the center of Catholic control in Asia. The brutal ethnic cleansing launched against the remaining Christians in other parts of China resulted in a huge population growth on Hainan, but the Hainan independence movement only seeks to declare independence or ask for autonomy from the HRE in the face of anti-Christian sentiment in China proper.

Description

A Code Geass scenario based around information and a POD from MarshalBraginsky. Additions in italics and bold and edits to the map made by MarshalBraginsky.

In this version of Code Geass' history Henry VIII actually has a healthy son and sends his daughter Elizabeth to be married to the Tsar of Russia, forming a bond between the two nations and allowing a British Royal Company to establish itself in Muscovy. British colonisation and expansion in the region eventually led to a fusion of the British settled territories and the more traditionally Russian principalities and kingdoms, forming what would eventually be called Euro-Britannia. (Bold and italics indicate Marshal's edits)
Britannian expansion primarily took place in the Northern Hemisphere. Technically the empire was divided into two between the Homeland/Empire Proper and Euro-Britannia with each separate entity moving into their sphere of influence. The Muscovy Company was eventually annexed by Moscow but had already established the English language and many Britannian common laws that were picked up by the Tsars as well (English was and still remains a second language of some prestige outside of the Britannian settled lands in North Asia). English and Russian have become the most common spoken language in Euro-Britannia, although certain minority languages like Armenian and Korean are also heard (in Euro-Britannia's Armenian autonomous kingdom and Korea respectively)
It is now 2017 Ascensio Thronem Britannicae and a great change is about to take place in the Holy Britannian Empire.
The Holy Britannian Empire is a vast absolutist state. He government is an absolute monarchy, founded on extreme traditionalist principals of hierarchy and the class system. At the same time, forms of enlightened despotism, social darwinism and modernised capitalism have allowed the Britannians to also adapt to the modern world. The monarchy and aristocracy may still hold the majority of their traditional authorities but the bureaucracy now hold a lot of power as well and the social darwinism does promote bizarre forms of meritocratic principles. What's more several unofficial agreements and traditions have appeared since Britannia and Euro-Britannia became the refuges of the old, displaced nobility of Europe. If the crowned heads of the world want to survive with their power then they must learn to wield it intelligently.
Life in Britannia is very stratified and regimented. The hierarchy that defines Britannian society is very apparent and is most evident in the manners in which people live. Though there are plenty of public spaces most residential areas are practically segregated in the new technologically advanced planned cities and proto-arcologies. Though a certain standard of living is guaranteed in these settlements the quality of services increases based on an individual's social status.
The aristocracy are at the top of the social ladder. Their position is inviolable and if anyone wants to be taken seriously as a member of the elite they must buy a noble title. The aristocracy do hold most of social authority but they are also subjected to ritualistic conventions that do restrict what they can do if they do not want to be socially isolated. The middle class have grown substantially and are a social political force unto themselves. Though practical democracy is vestigial and powerless the middle class are able to use the representatives systems as a means of petitioning the upper classes. The lower classes are the lowest rungs of society and often subjected to the propaganda that helps justify the existing system.
The church, whether it is the Church of England or the Russian Orthodox Church, is the single largest charitable organisation in the Empire. They provide many social support networks that provide more than the government mandated services do. Of course, the clergy also reinforce the national status quo through their own support of the governmental system.
The civil service are the most viable means of social mobility in the empire. The bureaucracy is seen as a less prestigious profession than other forms of governance and therefore receives less direct attention from the aristocracy than other positions. This has made such institutions much more meritocratic and allows for the most capable and adaptable public servants to rise through the ranks and attain higher salaries and status, some can even join the nobility.
Euro-Britannia, whilst also employing many of these institutions and ideas is ultimately much more conservative. Their hierarchy is much more restrictive and prone to traditionalism, causing some social problems within the lower class population. As a result, the Euro-Britannian government launches various projects to keep its population employed and fed properly.
Britannia is a highly militant culture. Their long protracted struggle with the other two major powers and their predecessors, combined with their regimented social structure helped establish this culture. The militancy and stratification also helps keep their social system in order and maintain their control over their colonies and vassal states. Military technology receives the most government support, usually from royal sponsors. Also the military use the various forms of climate and terrain in their empire to train much of their army and test them against their unstable or rebellious territories.
At the moment the empire is a whole is going through an upheaval. The indigenous royal family of Euro-Britannia has died without a legitimate successor. The only true claimants for the throne are now members of the Britannia royal family who took power in the British Isles. Now a major reform is going through the empire as Britannia announces the direct annexation of Euro-Britannia into their domains. Needless to say, this has come to a relief for the middle-class populations of Euro-Britannia, who grew resentful at the extremely restrictive policies of the previous Euro-Britannian regime.
Britannia's longest and strongest rival is the Holy Roman Empire.
Though it was a long process the Hapsburg family managed to unite Europe, starting with the Holy Roman Empire. After the defeat of their French rivals the Hapsburgs had total hegemonic control of the European continent, with Britannia, Euro-Britannia and Spain confined to the periphery.
The Holy Roman Empire has changed a lot. During the 19th Century revolutionary thinking that could not be repressed by traditional means spread throughout Europe. Revolutions sprang up across the continent as the people rebelled against Hapsburg rule. The reaction was bloody and harsh and such reactionary thinking transformed the HRE and its vassals and satellites.
The Holy Roman Empire is now a clerical-fascist state. The power of the monarchy has largely been subverted by a party based government that is intrinsically linked to the Catholic Church. The government is most certainly not democratic with membership in the ruling party often decided by other members who are required to vouch for a potential applicant. The bureaucracy holds most of the power and is another, unofficial, means of entering the echelons of government. The party is divided into several departments that handle the matters of governance as well as propaganda and the monitoring of the citizenry. These departments are often in competition with one another for influence, all of them trying to make sure a prominent member of their department can take the position of high chancellor, the ruling authority in the party.
The Church is part of the government but is also technically separate from the party. Many members of the party are religious which also helps reinforce the Church's influence in government. By this point is difficult to say just how much the party has infiltrated the Church as well as their authoritarian, traditionalist politics have made their way into the Church's more secular dogma as well.
Life in the HRE is very restrictive. The government promotes a very traditionalist way of life. Though modernity has been adopted by the HRE the old hierarchies remain. Most of the old aristocracy are now irrelevant but those who accepted party rule and moved into more modern industries remain prominent members of society. New industrial and political elite have taken the aristocracy's place for the most part. The clergy are prominent parts of every community with every settlement larger than a hamlet having, at least a chapel. The Church is the primary means through which the people are indoctrinated to the HRE's political system. The state controls the media, airing program that have to be approved by both the government and the Church. This does make their culture rather stale but it helps reinforce the copious amounts of propaganda.
The HRE forces people to accept the Catholic faith (or their politically appropriate version anyway). Protestantism is largely extinct in Europe as are other Christian denominations, which usually have to flee to Britannia or other sympathetic nations. Jews however are accepted so long as they carry registration identification cards and papers at all times.
Life in the HRE's colonies is even more repressive. The empire isn't exactly racist. Colonial policies do allow for the indigenous population to participate in government so long as they convert to Catholicism. This has allowed the local people to involve themselves in how the colonies are run. There are still many issues though, especially in primarily Muslim territories and areas where the indigenous population are less willing to abandon their traditional culture.
The Spanish Empire passed out of the hands of the Hapsburg Dynasty shortly before the rise of their exceptionally successful iteration of their hegemony. It instead ended up, thanks to some complex dynastic organising, going to the House of Savoy, who later lost their actual homeland to the German Hapsburgs anyway. They managed to stay out of the HRE's orbit but they and their empire ended up transforming as well as the centuries went by.
La Hispanidad, the successor to the Spanish Empire is a bizarre state. Like their rivals they are a monarchical state but they have gone down a very different path compared to the Britannians and HRE.
La Hispanidad embraced a rather strange ideology in the Late 19th Century. Having developed from the principles of the 'Enlightenment', the new ideology embraced a sense of cultural pan-nationalism, alongside a sort of centralised governmental and social system that provided an 'equal' measure of social benefits for every citizen. This almost 'socialist' system spread throughout La Hispanidad, strengthening the ties between the viceroyalties even as Spain's colonies became more self-sufficient.
The government of La Hispanidad is a bizarre construct. It is supposedly meritocratic, expressing a strict belief that personal ability and charisma are the only means someone can rise through the echelons of government and that social status doesn't matter. Of course in reality the social elite still have massive advantages in terms of resources and education and make up the majority of government officials. The monarchy is strictly constitutional, possessing no practical authority and serving only as symbolic rulers. The government is also officially free of racial discrimination, allowing all the people from throughout their union into positions of power. The economy is heavily regulated by the government, enforcing worker's rights, environmental rights and various restrictions of business expansion (of the more criminal/aggressively expansionist type).
La Hispanidad's general society is heavily focused on pan-nationalism and integration. The acceptance of the creole population in the Spanish viceroyalties long ago was the beginning of this practice and has since expanded to include the entirety of the population. There is an attempt to assimilate the people of their territories rather than promote multiculturalism and it is not uncommon to also involve mild religious evangelism in these practices as well.

In addition, Spain/La Hispanidad and the Ottoman Empire were also once enemies, but the growth of the Hapsburg dominated Holy Roman Empire and the downfall of its Spanish branch and its replacement with the House of Savoy has triggered a hostile reaction within the inner circle that dominates Vienna's government. Protestantism may have been extinct in Europe, but it still lives on in a former Dutch colony that has now become an independent nation in its own right, the United Oceanic Republic.

Parts of India survived multiple attempts to colonise the subcontinent and managed to even force a few pieces of land from the major colonial powers. India modernized even earlier than China and despite the massive wealth disparities that still affect the nation they have become a leader in high technology. However, India only asked for help from the Hapsburgs after witnessing the growth of the Mughal Empire on its northwest frontier in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it was only thanks to Mughal infighting that the rest of India were saved from Muslim rule, although the Indians had to offer their western territory to the HRE in heavy payment. They are however, allowed to help themselves to the French Indian territory that France abandoned due to growing costs of maintaining it, and even expanded into the Burmese statelets to prevent the Chinese Empire from expanding southwards, contributing to their xenophobia.

The Ottoman Empire has miraculously managed to survive centuries of warfare, only because the Hapsburgs were more interested in crushing their French rivals and keeping the Britannians and Euro-Britannians at bay that they were seen as a useful buffer. However, even with the discovery of oil, the lack of sakuradite resources make it hard for them to survive this modern era. Against all odds, they only managed to keep their European holdings through terror, expulsions of troublesome minorities and even bringing in Muslim missionaries into the region. What was once the powerful Balkan nations of Serbia and Bulgaria, now reduced to the shadow of its former self while the rest of Rumelia are dominated by ethnic Turks, Kurds, Albanians and Muslim Slavs.
The Chinese Empire has managed to make it into the modern world. Despite falling behind the powers of Europe they were able to modernise and remain independent of the major colonial power. China today is an industrial power, able to compete with the other major powers whilst also being far more centralised. Due to their poor history with Europeans, they have severe discrimination against Christians. Unfortunately in recent years the internal corruption and governmental embezzlement have grown to the point where they hamper them from rising to the status of a great power. Right now China is suffering from a lot of unrest with several political factions trying to exploit the weakness of the current government. The most powerful, surprisingly, are a reformist group led by numerous loyalist military officers. In addition, the Hapsburg control of Hainan remains a sore point, as the predominantly Catholicized Chinese population refused to rejoin an anti-Christian Chinese state and Chinese nationalists had vowed to regain Hainan from the pesky Europeans.
Technologically this world is much more advanced than OTL. The high-energy conductor known globally as Sakuradite (named by the Japanese for its colour) has allowed the world to accelerate technologically. Computer technology is far ahead of OTL, allowing greater advances in fields like robotics and more esoteric quantum mechanics. Several laboratories are actually working on especially advanced computers that can predict the movements and thoughts of people and machines. The primary purpose of this system is to see whether it is possible to predict enemy weapon movements and prepare a viable response to them. An internet equivalent has also been developed though all three powers do have a tendency to censor the network quite frequently and keep it monitored for politically inappropriate or subversive discussions.
Thanks to sakuradite and it's application in power conversion and transmission systems renewable energy sources are now common around the world. Many modern settlements and arcologies have solar cells integrated into their infrastructure. Many modern architectural marvels are actually power generators such as the famous Chinese power islands, artificial landmasses built to generate energy from tidal waves.
By far the most significant advancement in recent decades was the development of the mobile autonomous knight, a piloted humanoid machine known colloquially as a knightmare frame. Knightmares have already revolutionised modern warfare despite seeing limited use in actual warfare. The last round of conflicts in Africa, where the Britannians were able to grab territory, were the most infamous practical demonstration of the knightmare frame. All models do have a generally human shape but do not walk (very well anyway), instead they move on wheeled struts called landspinners.
Britannian knightmares, as the first models, are some of the most advanced, having a humanoid form with the most variability. Their human-like hands allow them to wield a large variety of weaponry that make them far more versatile than their rivals. The HRE builds their models around a more armoured base. Whilst nowhere near as fast or versatile as those deployed by their enemies, the HRE knightmares are far more heavily armoured and can sustain far more damage than those of their enemies. La Hispanidad's knightmare frames are, in comparison to their rivals, appear somewhat more flimsy. Sacrificing armour in favour of speed the Hispanic knightmares are almost as versatile as those Britannia deploys and are also far cheaper to produce. However they are far less capable of withstanding damage and are far more fuel intensive, requiring more frequent recharges. The other free powers do build their own models but such machines are far more primitive and most don't even appear to similar to the humanoid knightmares of the great powers (the Chinese Gun Ru is the most human and it looks like a giant frog on wheels).

Where are they now: (The POD is not relevant when concerning character birth, etc).
Cornelia Li Britannia, 2nd princess of the Britannia family, has recently been appointed as the viceroy and heir apparent to Euro-Britannia. Though not as politically savvy as some of her siblings she is considered competent enough to handle the nation through the upheavals that are about to erupt through the annexation of Euro-Britannia into Britannia proper. What's more her prodigious military ability and stubborn personality are viewed as an essential skills to deal with the far more traditionalist and aggressive Euro-Britannians.
Euphemia Li Britannia is being brought along to Euro-Britannia as the official sub-viceroy. Her older sister has sheltered her from the cut-throat politics of the empire, a development that has left her far more optimistic than her sister but also much more naive. Despite holding little real power in relation to her sister, Euphemia does have a few very simple plans that she wants to work on now that the importance of her position has sunk in.
Andreas Darlton, Gilbert Guilford and the Glaston Knights have all been brought along to Euro-Britannia with their princess. Officially regarded as her retinue the presence of such infamous Britannian soldiers have caused some trouble in the Euro-Britannian court.
Archduke Augusta Henry Highland was sent ahead of the princess. As his family already held ties to Euro-Britannia through the descendant of the old Royal Muscovy Company, he had some stake in the cooperative empire. His authority is currently being transitioned to Princess Cornelia as are many of his duties which has truncated his power quite a bit.
The Knights of St Michael, a prominent knightly order within Euro-Britannia is currently under the control of the new and controversial Grand Master, Shin Hyuga Shing. Though Japanese, he was adopted into a prominent Britannian family and has made great efforts to integrate himself into the empire's hierarchy and culture. Considering that Japan is not exactly a member of the empire his position as a leader of one of Britannia's greatest surviving knightly orders has been brought into question. The means through which he attained the position are also considered suspicious as well as his predecessor Michele Manfredi committed suicide despite having no discernible reason for doing so.
Andrea Farnese is another member of the Knights of St Michael and a prominent soldier. His family have a long history with the Euro-Britannian government. He is very suspicious of his new Grand Master and has in fact established a rudimentary investigation of sorts into his mentor's suicide.
Leila von Breisgau is a somewhat recent arrival to the Euro-Britannian social scene. She is rather famous amongst the upper class for joining the military at a young age. Her family were prominent in both the Empire Proper and Euro-Britannia and her arrival in the Muscovy territories, as part of Cornelia's entourage, has stirred up a lot of discussion and concern amongst the local aristocracy.
Charles Zi Britannia has been emperor for several decades now, has controversially kept several wives and many consorts and has fathered a number of children. He has been curiously absent from the machinations of government and has instead given many of his duties over to his children. He has been seen keeping very bizarre company with a mysterious and disturbing cult who have been witnessed on occasion by courtiers and lesser royals.
Schniezel El Britannia, the 2nd Prince and prime minister of Britannia, is an unbelievably powerful figure within the empire's government. He has in fact taken over many of the emperor's traditional duties and roles and is considered the prime candidate for succeeding his father. He is also a successful socialite, proficient in playing the political game of the upper class and inspiring his other subordinates. However his most famous activity is his entrepreneurship, especially in his sponsoring of various fields of weapons technology.
Lelouch Vi Britannia has recently been appointed a position in the military, largely at his mother's behest. He is rather apathetic, taking his duties seriously mostly to avoid criticism but not seeing any real value in what he is doing. He has, however, made it his objective to take command of Nunnally's unit. If his sister is going to be a soldier, he is going to in command of whatever operations she participates in.
Nunnally Vi Britannia has been encouraged by her mother to participate in specialised military training. She has shown a proficiency in knightmare piloting, almost at her mother's level. In fact she has so much natural talent that she has been appointed a position in the army which she has accepted somewhat begrudgingly.
When the Britannians forcibly opened Japan to trade with the rest of the world and deposed the Shogunate, they appointed the prominent but reformist Kururugi family as their puppets. Genbu Kururugi, the current patriarch is a contentious figure. Though rather capable of playing the more belligerent politics of his Euro-Britannian overlords, his aggressive politics and borderline secessionist rhetoric is becoming highly controversial.
Suzaku Kururugi, the only son of Genbu, has been trained to inherit his father's position. As befits his family and the Britiannian aristocracy, he has undergone military training and private tutelage in combat. He has proven to be an exceptional physical prodigy and he has seriously considered a more professional career in the military, at least until it is time to succeed his father.
With the advent of sakuradite based technology, the substance has become more valuable than ever. The Sumeragi family of Japan, who own the largest number of deposits, have benefited the most from this development. Kaguya Sumeragi has recently succeeded the position of her father, who passed away from disease a year before. Her new found position in the Empire's aristocracy has elicited no few snide remarks from the older nobility who disparage her for her age and superficially childish disposition.
Kyoshiro Todhou and his personal unit of elite knightmare pilots, the Four Holy Swords, have made a name for themselves in recent years. Deployed to the Euro-Britannian military as a gesture of good faith, the group have made themselves infamous throughout the restless Central Asian and Caucasian territories.
Sophie Randall has recently been recruited by the Chancellery of the Holy Roman Empire as a new scientific researcher. Despite some misgivings she has been permitted to privately contradict established dogma in order to achieve whatever new breakthroughs will give the HRE an advantage.
A recent development of significance within the HRE military structure was the creation of the W-O specialist unit. Composed of expendable defectors from Britannia and its satellites, the HRE offers these people clemency in return for unquestioning service to the HRE. These operatives are also afforded privileges and are cleared of potential charges of heresy and subversion should they perform their duties well.
Several years earlier China came under the rule of the incredibly young Jiang Lihua who succeeded the throne at the age of five shortly after her parent's deaths. She has spent her entire life confined to her palatial complex in the Forbidden City situated at Luoyang thanks to the machinations of the High Eunuchs. The advisory council have been able to seize power due to their ruler's youth and inexperience with anything outside of the Forbidden City and are currently in the process of driving the empire into the ground thanks to their bureaucratic and political corruption.
VV has, once again, moved the Geass Cult's headquarters. Central Asia is no longer a viable location due to the unrest and the possibility of attracting unwanted attention. His base is currently being established in North America, where another gateway into the World of C has been located.

Gene Smilas has emerged as the 'White Rajah' of the former Spanish Philippines (now named Ludomorye from two Slavic words: Ludo meaning "mad" in Bulgarian and Morye meaning "sea", hence Ludomorye means "mad seas", referring to its vulnerability to tropical storms), where he has managed to bring together a group of anti-Japanese Britannian exiles living in the EU and Ottoman Rumelia (among the exiles are Kaname Ohgi, a prominent Japanese refugee who settled in southern Anatolia and Akito Hyuga, a Japanese orphan adopted by a Bulgarian couple and the brother of the current head of the St. Michael Knights), a defecting faction of the Knights of St. Michael (led by Ashley Ashra after leading a mutiny against the group for refusing to obey the orders of Shin Hyuga Shing due to his role in the sudden suicide of Manfredi) and opportunistic freelance mercenaries from the UOR, the Ottoman Empire (mainly Balkan Christians still living under Turkish rule) and the Chinese Empire, as well as defecting Japanese officers who used to serve the Japanese Army like General Katase and Brigadier General Kusakabe (which has now been reduced to nothing more than a Britannian auxiliary group and has criticized the Four Holy Swords for their servitude to Euro-Britannia). Frustrated by the EU's anti-Orthodox Christian policy and the Ottoman suppression of Greek national identity, Smilas has taken it upon himself to crown himself "King of Ludomorye" and has expressed interest in allying with the Chinese.
In the last few years a number of minor reports from the OSI sections in Japan have spoken of a bizarre young woman. She is not a registered citizen and has been observed by several people in secure locations that even normal citizens would not be permitted to enter. Now new reports from Euro-Britannia have stated that this woman, known to a few important individuals as CC, has left Japan and instead appeared in the Amur territories. She is currently travelling through Siberia.
Nations that have active separatist movements:

1) Ludomorye (Nation Separating From: Euro-Britannia and Britannia): This nation has undergone a huge shift between various overlords. First colonized by the Spanish, then taken by the Dutch-Turkish coalition in the 1640s, regained by the Spanish briefly in the 1740s before finally seizing it by Euro-Britannia in the 1760s. Because of its troubled past, Ludomorye is one of the most diverse nations in the world in terms of demographics. When it was still under Euro-Britannian rule, they were named the Primorye Governorate, and Euro-Britannian officials were in charge of turning that nation into a huge pool of cannon fodder for their armies.

2) Romanian Principalities (Nation Separating From: Ottoman Empire): A long time Ottoman vassal, the Romanian Principalities have launched revolts quite often, but also resulted in Ottoman suppressions and expulsions. However, seeking protection will be dangerous, as both the HRE and Euro-Britannia have sights on the Romanian principalities because they behaved exactly like their Ottoman overlords. It didn't stop them from taking HRE and Euro-Britannian aid for their own purposes though.

3) Western India (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire): This is the territory the Indians were forced to give up to the Hapsburgs as payment for their help in stopping the Mughals from conquering them. Catholic missionaries are successful in displacing Hindus and Oriental Christians to the point where Catholics make up the majority of the population. However, this separatist movement is hopelessly divided between Catholicized Indians who want to create their independent state and minority Hindus who wanted reunification with the Confederation of Indian States, as well as some Catholic Indians who want autonomy within the HRE.

4) Florida (Nation Separating From: La Hispanidad): This territory here is at loggerheads with both La Hispanidad and Britannia since both want total control of this state, although there are some who are calling for reunification with Spain Proper (the European component of La Hispanidad). Like Western India, Florida's separatist movements are at each other's throats and also divided.

5) Judea (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire and Egypt): The long cherished dream of an independent Jewish homeland is something that Jews of the HRE desperately wanted, even though the Ottomans were pissed at the Hapsburgs for screwing them out of the Holy Land. It doesn't help that the HRE wanted to recreate the Kingdom of Jerusalem and stick its preferred candidate (surprisingly enough, it isn't another Hapsburg, but rather a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha candidate). The Jewish Revolutionary Federation also eyes the Sinai Peninsula for territorial expansion.

6) Brunei (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire): A longtime ally of the Ottoman Empire, just like how the Turks were screwed over with the Holy Land, the Bruneians were screwed over with their loss of sovereignty. In addition, they seek the Chinese Empire, not only as a potential ally, but as a trade partner. Something to do with excessive Hapsburg influence in the rest of Asia, to say nothing of their intention to conquer Ludomorye from the Euro-Britannians.

7) Hainan (Nation Separating From: Holy Roman Empire [de jure], Chinese Empire [de facto]): A Chinese Catholic state that has been built by the Hapsburgs (though originally owned by the Portuguese along with Macau), it has become the center of Catholic control in Asia. The brutal ethnic cleansing launched against the remaining Christians in other parts of China resulted in a huge population growth on Hainan, but the Hainan independence movement only seeks to declare independence or ask for autonomy from the HRE in the face of anti-Christian sentiment in China proper.