#background notes

For those who keep up with the fic; last we were somewhere around the country of Cesario (otherwise known as Chezario, which is closer to how it’s pronounced in the original). Let’s scour the artbooks and all for info about this Gaean country!

Previously in the WDWK series: Basram, Egzardia

Canon information

1. Cesario is the country that asks Van to lead their decimated vanguard to “boost the troop morale.”

The situation is, Van comes back after retrieving Hitomi (episode 24), and lands at a Cesarian military camp, in an unspecified area close(r) to the Zaibach border. The soldiers say they were humiliated as they were overwhelmed by Zaibach’s military might. The state of the camp is pitiful with many dead and many destroyed melefs. 

By the way, there are Cesario troops and leviships in Palas at the same time, so the defeated camp is definitely not all of the country’s army.

Next time we see Van, the main Alliance army is arrived but he is still with this Cesario force and separate from Allen and the others, so it seems there was a bit of camaraderie present at that point if they stayed together instead of Van joining the Asturians as usual.

The filmbook has a note saying they “value knighthood” and “take it upon themselves to spearhead the attack against Zaibach”. From this, I sort of always had a headcanon that people would know and like Van in Cesario. Like, if they like honor and chivalry, and they appreciate the young boy and his legendary guymelef enough to ask him to lead them, you just sort of know they have a fondness for a story like that and see magic in it.

2. The design of the soldiers/guymelefs

The design of the Cesarian characters looks like medieval European knights, I would even go as far as to say, actual Crusaders (not to be confused with the Crusade crew).

The settei gives us, as usual, an image of an ordinary soldier and of a general, plus the general’s name. This time, it’s Ferme (Ferume) or its variations. Easter egg, Escaflowne Compendium had a mention of “Vermeer” in the code on the subpage about characters (it was something that was not visible on the website itself), I believe it could be one of the many possible transcriptions of this guy’s name from Japanese (I don’t think there is a source for that or any other romanization though and that’s probably the reason why it was hidden from view).

By the way, the names of these generals are pretty solidly confirmed; I have found three artbook sources for them already although they are never used in the series and the whole role of the alliance generals is practically to order their troops to turn on each other. Here is the Ferme guy calling for Cesario to “use the chance to rise to lead Gaea,” please note the color scheme looks a bit different in episode 26 (pale blue instead of dark).

Anyway, back to the design. The chainmail, the cross-quartered overshirt... where does it lead? I think the answer is pretty clear this time...

First of all, it has to be said Crusades are WAY older stuff than what I found before, showing the inspiration for the designs of soldiers of Basram or Egzardia that seems to be the 17th-19th century Europe, which is coincidentally also the level of development of Gaea according to the official materials. Crusades are hundreds of years before that! Plus, there were several of them, spanning centuries.

So, finding a drawing of a Crusader that would be authentic, non-fictional, and from the same period, is way harder. Many of the illustrations from which we form the image of a crusader come from later period, especially around the romantism movement in 19th century. And these representations, especially the most common image of templars, fit our Cesarians quite well. 

With the way their head gear is constructed, I think the reference may have been some encyclopaedia depiction of knights templar. These are some of the closest examples I could find (obviously, the variation is too great and probably also was with the real people).

But just out of curiosity I took a look:at the contemporary art (14th/15th century and older), it seems way harder to detect that typical image of the crusader with that huge cross across his chest, but yeah, you can obviously often see the motif of a cross and the chain mail.

And these two are prominent even in the design of our Cesarians. The same shape is visible even on their guymelefs (title picture), and yep, on their flag.

4. The flag/coat of arms

The cross on Cesarians seems to match the design of their flag, and to me, it looks nothing more like than the sword handle/crossguard. 

This time again, we don’t have the official Sunrise image for ants but we have plenty sources of how it should look in color so I spent 3000 hours in MS Paint and there you go.

Anyway, the sword hilt would obviously match it being such a heroic and militaristic country, although it’s quite simple imagery, I like the decorative detail put in there. Any other ideas?

5. Cesario is a neighboring country to Asturia and possibly to Zaibach

I repeat myself once again, this is because we know Asturia formed an alliance with its neighboring countries (episode 23) and Cesario came to their help. But actually, this is also confirmed in the text of the Roman Artbook. 

It also strongly looks like they may share a border also with Zaibach, although the filmbooks just say they are in the vanguard in the attack against them. That was my idea without looking at the books anyway since they are attacked by them in that camp and once the main force arrives to the same place and then they practically fight to invade Zaibach already! 

There is a bit of a mystery of Zaibach general Adelphos, too, who is impatiently waiting for the orders to attack “the alliance filth” that he believes can be easily defeated. After this scene, we are shown Allen and the alliance main force still in Asturia, so it seems Adelphos could have meant these Cesarians? 

So, from all this, it would seem to me the main forces of Zaibach and the Alliance have gathered on the border between Cesario and Zaibach although it does not say explicitly that in the canon.

I was doing some thinking/researching about where Hitomi lives, thanks to a question by @mirimiramiri. Aaand another portion of my useless ramblings came out of it... well, first of all, I still believe the place where Hitomi lives (Kanzaki family house) and the place where Hitomi's mom hosts Amano and Yukari (and shows them photos of Hitomi's grandma) could be two separate places. I already explained the theory in one of the previous posts.

I'm not exactly convinced but it can be also be argued, and Japanese wikipedia actually said at one point, that Hitomi lives in Fujisawa, which is the neighboring town of Kamakura. The wiki no longer says so btw. and I can't even find it in history so it's possible that edit was eventually marked as vandalism. One possible explanation of the Fujisawa thing is that when Hitomi goes back from school in ep 24, she wanders around town after dark (we see stairs and pedestrian crossing) but these stairs are actually near the station in Fujisawa, not Kamakura.

So that can make it look like only her school is in Kamakura and she goes home every day to Fujisawa (it's not far at all, actually, the green train that is featured in the anime goes only between Kamakura and Fujisawa as a short, local line). She's also alone, and now that I think of it, Yukari is not seen in the scenes with Hitomi waiting at the station in the anime. So it could mean they normally separate somewhere before that and Yukari may not even need to take the train to school like Hitomi does.

Meanwhile, going by the same logic of existing places again, the place where Hitomi's mom meets Hitomi's friends is certainly in Kamakura, because in that scene, we see another existing station that is in the town, the Kita-Kamakura station.

So yeah, if Hitomi actually lived in Fujisawa, this would furthermore support my two houses theory. But there's another catch: after we see Hitomi walking around Fujisawa after dark, we see her on the train (again? or for the first time that evening?), and the direction she's riding seems to be... back to Kamakura. I realize now that she would even pass the station she seems to be waiting at in ep 26, so if we went by the existing stations, it would seem a deliberate detour into the neighboring town, then back to Kamakura, where she lives (after all).

Still, there's something irrational for me there, but I feel when they set the atmosphere with stills before they show the Kanzaki house and the place where Amano and Yukari meet Hitomi's mom, it feels different. I get the impression the Kanzaki house is closer to the shore but the other place is definitely in the area near the station above, in more traditional part of the town and farther away from the sea. Of course, I could be entirely off and Hitomi in fact takes the train from the imaginary mix of Koukou Mae and Hase stations in the south of the city and exits at the station above, Kita-Kamakura or North Kamakura, which is also where mom meets her friends. BUT WAIT, the Kita-Kamakura station is no longer on the same line and she would actually have to transfer from the green train (Enoden) to the regular, Tokyo-bound train (like you see on the cap on the station), even if it's not such a long trip.

AND it wouldn't even make a lot of sense to do all that either, because Hitomi's school is canonically called Kamakura Kita, or Kamakura North. If she actually lived somewhere near the North Kamakura station, she would not walk all the way south to take a train from there, because the school already IS in the north of the town and should be walking distance from her home. Unless she goes south only to see Yukari off, it would be an illogical detour. But we see do her waiting on the station south on the shore, without Yukari. I think that confirms it's part of her regular commute. So yeah, TL; DR I'm sticking to the two houses theory and I actually will make further use of that later in the story.

Anyway, here's the whole recollection of Hitomi's way back from school, at least on the day she first faints on the track (which is one day before "the fateful" one), using what I know from visiting the place and listing the (real locations):

Hitomi and Yukari walk out of their school (Sasuke Inari Shrine)

The two pass the "hair salon" and the church (Kamakuraoncho Church)

The two go down the stairs (Gokurakujizaka Pass)

The two have their talk in the tunnel (Shiyakusho Doori/Ave.)

Hitomi, already alone, wanders around town (Fujisawa station)

Hitomi is on the train (somewhere between Fujisawa and Kamakura)

Hitomi reaches the Kanzaki residence.

In real Kamakura, this actually stops making sense already by the stairs, at least if we consider the scene order as chronologically linear. Because the tunnel is right after the church on the same street and the referenced stairs are in another place totally and don't even lead to anything relevant.

Not to mention, the station Hitomi is seen waiting at in other scenes is also elsewhere and it makes no sense to go to it by the road they're taking. So you cannot retrace a linear route, they are practically teleporting around the town map.

So, the conclusion is, you probably cannot reference Escaflowne's Kamakura to the real place, they just used the "sceneries" and connected them as they liked without much heed to the directional accuracy or logic. They just made their own, imaginary Kamakura, keeping the atmosphere and sights of the actual place, and using the whole Shonan region, not exclusively Kamakura, as a reference. I shouldn't even be surprised, as this is how they deal with real life inspirations all over the anime, why should this be an exception just because it's on Earth? It's intriguing but also great pain to come to any conclusions about this stuff, obscure and tangled as it is. Yet I greatly enjoy the process for some reason.

Anyway, we can at least sort of piece together the idea of Hitomi's route home from school from episodes 1, 24, and 26 (although it seems she may have even taken a little walk/detour in ep 24):

her school is in the suburbs, next to a Shinto shrine

she walks by foot to the town centre/station, together with Yukari, traversing the long, steep stairs and the tunnel

somewhere on the way or maybe in the town centre she separates from Yukari, who either lives walking distance from school or takes another train (possibly from another station?)

she waits alone at the train station in the wider town center

she takes the train home

Related posts:

The reply about Hitomi's house

Kamakura pt. 1

Kamakura pt. 2: Hitomi's home

Kamakura pt. 3: Hitomi's commute (this one)

The Surprising Discoveries

The First Visit

Case 1: Hitomi’s family lives in Fujisawa (not the neighboring Kamakura) Courtesy of: Japanese Wikipedia I don’t know where the Wikipedia got that info from, as I had not come across it while studying the artbooks. Maybe simply from the way she commutes and such? Nevertheless, it makes a lot of sense, even as I visited the places (I still need to finish the full report on that!) Anyway, I don’t mind and thankfully, it wouldn’t take much to update in the fic, either, if I decided to reflect on this discovery. It actually supports the idea I was working with (I was even wondering why she took the train in the wrong direction... it still looks wrong, btw, but I won’t dwell on it any longer). The idea that the place Hitomi comes home to and the place her mother invites Amano and Yukari to to show them the photoalbum are two different places. This adds the possibility that they may even be in different towns! I already loved the idea of making her live in her grandma’s house, now I love it more because it doesn’t make the whole chapter 1 fall apart. Phew!

The towns are close to each other and quite similar in size and stuff, btw. I had this idea that perhaps Hitomi’s father is from Fujisawa, it would be easy for him and her mom, a girl from a neighboring town, to meet. It is also fine that she would commute like half an hour to a school in the neighboring town, I mean, why not. Yukari and Amano also could be from Kamakura or somewhere else then, I guess? She seems to part ways with Yukari somewhere around the station, and continues the commute alone, including some sights from Fujisawa (this is what they could have based it on on the wiki). So Yukari seems to be from Kamakura.

Case 2: The map of Gaea as we know it is fanon Courtesy of: Escaflowne Slack Group, Escaflowne Fanbook

Yeah, the map that we use so well. Not gonna repost it again. The map itself was created from a rotated and flipped map of ice age Europe, as this Italian fansite discovered. But not by the anime creators, but the original Japanese fandom, who made this fanbook. Namely, a person called Keita Kamikita is credited for the map drawings in this book. A guy of the same name apparently coined the term light novel as the manager of a Japanese fantasy forum in the 90s. I don’t think this is a coincidence. Fascinating!

The map was apparently created from the pointers of the series itself and makes a lot of sense when it comes to Gaean geography (Gaean alps?) and biology, even (ancient forms of animals?). Yes, this is fanon of high level. I should have known, it’s Japanese fandom. I should have known from it being placed in the Fanbook (and nowhere else) itself, but guess I subconsciously didn’t want to admit it to myself and lose this bit of canon. 

Anyway, this gives us creators more freedom I guess, and coming up with your own map is a go! Still haven’t decided what to do in regards to my creation, but it’s of no immediate concern.

To put some picture to this post, I’ll just post this photo that windows 10 uses as one of its welcome screens. It always puts a smile on my face, because yes, in Switzerland Alps, it does kind of look like Fanelia to me (good job, fanon map):

A.k.a. the first post in the ‘WDWK’ series. Well, it’s kind of hard to keep in mind all this information found in various artbooks and other sources, so I'll try to put it all into a single post regarding the selective topic. I will make them as many and about such topics as I’ll feel necessary in the progress of the story, so the posts probably won’t be regular or follow some kind of structure. Yeah, they will be a mess as you can see from just looking at this one. But I expect to make at least a few of them. 

And the first will be about the Gaean country of Basram. I tried to find what I could about it as I was thinking of Cyro, an original character coming from that country, who was introduced in chapter 4. And well, as I said in the author’s note, the official information about Basram is very scarce. But I will list all I could find here and also attempt to do a little analysis (or rather, I’ll be grasping at the straws tbh).

Note: I’ll be using abbreviations for the artbooks, ‘ESCAB’ is for the Escaflowne Settei Collection Artbook, ‘EFB’ are the Escaflowne Filmbooks

Canon information:

1. Basram is the only republic from among the Allied countries (EFB 6)

2. The coat of arms represents entwined double dragons

As seen in the artbooks (the text says ‘Basram crest’):

Regarding the colors, it’s hard to the flag in a screenshot, but it’s indeed red so these ancient images for ants with the copyright of Sunrise studios (??) that still float around the web look quite legit:

3. The design of the uniform for Basram soldiers

EFB 6 depicts the uniform of the common soldier (left) and the general.

According to the ESCAB, this is in fact a specific Basram general by the name of Quarto (Kuaruto):

However, in the series itself we see a different-looking commander instead - none other than Mr. Bombastic himself:

Since his ordinary pal from the artbook is present at the scene as well, I would say they just changed the design of the general in the end.

4. The position in the southeast of the ‘known Gaea’

At least as depicted by the part of the map of Gaea from one of the artbooks. According to it, the known neighboring countries are Egzardia to the Northeast, Asturia to the Northwest and Freid to the Southwest.

5. The development and use of the energist bomb

Basram decides to use the chaos on the battlefield and use their new weapon called the energist bomb, not only to wipe out the Zaibach army, but also to weaken their allies and assume the dominant position from among them and “rule Gaea themselves”.

This is the bomb and the ship which drops it:

Then there are several depictions of Basram guymelefs and that’s it for canon-only.

And now it gets more specific, but also way more speculative...

Since I have made quite a lot of research about Hitomi’s hometown, I thought it may not be a bad idea to write it all down. In this part, Kamakura itself, the trains and Hitomi’s school. I plan to make a shorter second part, too.

The series’ production team modeled the scenes after the real Kamakura, which is a Japanese coastal town with a quite long and important past. At one time, it was considered the (unofficial) capital, which is why one chapter of Japan’s history is named “Kamakura period”. Today, the population is under 200 000, which cannot be compared to the biggest cities of Japan, but it can be reached from Tokyo in just about an hour, which by some definitions makes it a part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It is probable Hitomi&co. can make trips to Tokyo quite easily. For example, Hitomi’s dream date with Allen takes place near (a version of) Tower 109 in Shibuya.

The very first scene of the series takes us to an imaginary school called Kamakura Kita Private High School (Shiritsu Kamakura Kita Koukou), where Hitomi experiences her early high-school dramas together with her classmate, Yukari Uchida, and the upperclassman, Susumu Amano. The inscription on the track suit suggests the name of the school can be casually shortened to ‘Kamakita’.

Since the school is private and ‘all ages’ type, I somehow believe that the students are middle class and higher. I made especially Amano’s family loaded in my fic, it was just offering itself with his overseas study and the connection to Allen (whose family is by no means poor either).

Kamakura Kita itself means “Kamakura North”, which would suggest the position of the school in the city. As Hitomi and Yukari are on their way back from school, they pass by some existing buildings (I have an artbook with map regarding just that). However, the most specific location given is by the Sasuke Inari shinto shrine, which (but only when this anime is concerned), is right across the street from Hitomi’s school track field. Of course, in real Kamakura, there is no high school in the vicinity (in fact, there are no buildings where the school is supposed to be - just hills with a forest). The shrine itself is one of the main tourist attractions of the town, along with the steps with the set of red gates which lead to it.

As Hitomi&co. run “up the hill” to escape from the dragon, you see them pass something that looks like a bus stop sign to me, called Kita Kou-mae - “(in front of the) North High (school)”.

But on her way to school, Hitomi waits at the Kamakura Koukou-mae tram station, which means “(in front of the) Kamakura High School” itself, probably dating back to when there was just one high school in town (meaning, it’s a coincidence and the station is not close to Hitomi’s school, but rather, her home).

It is one of the most famous stations in Japan because of it’s captivating views of the sea, Mt. Fuji and Enoshima island. And because it serves the historical electric railway (or tram) called Enoden. The tram connects the railway stations of Kamakura and the neighboring town. The station has besides Esca been featured in the anime/manga Slam Dunk and some movies!

Anyway, it can be assumed that Hitomi (and possibly Yukari, who accompanies her on her way home) live somewhere in the southern (southwestern) part of town, closer to the sea, and take the tram on their commute to their school which is located more north (northeast).

it's one of the very first fics I wrote for Young Royals, back when season two was but a twinkle in people's eyes, and I really had no idea what I was in for re: actively participating in fandom, and

it's also the first one-shot I've written/published in literal years, so all the writing growing pains evident in that piece of work? I look back on it with complete and utter fondness

So like, cheers to the anon who recently recc'd the fic! Much love to you, etc etc. Here's a little piece of trivia about that particular fic that might interest some people~

Hey, fancy seeing you here in my neck of the woods 🤭 and there's absolutely no competition, I'm all for alternative endings to things!!

That wedding scenario of yours is great, especially if you consider the whole "something borrowed" element to these things and imagine Simon sheepishly returning that orange jumper¹ to Wille on their wedding day. Simon's a lil shit but he's a lil shit with impeccable timing.

As for the alternative future scenario that I cooked up in the comments: lmaooo could you imagine if everyone in the palace knew about Simon's weird clothing-based kleptomania except for Wille?! Would love for rumours to get around about a Simon-in-his-fifties being (playfully, bemusedly?) accused of theft² because why the heck are the crown prince's orange jumpers going missing all the time?

More under the cut because my mind is on fire and I want to answer your questions properly 👉👈