important queation: what are the ethnicities of all of your characters from Finding Washington, and maybe first names, Fed or Rebel, and armor color, too? Specifically, here's the characters I'd like to know this for please.
Vanessa Kimball
Katie Jensen
Antoine Bitters
John Andersmith
Charles Palomo
Kyle Matthews
Emily Grey
Lorenzo Paez
Taita Folami
Myra Danvers
Edra
Semyon Demir (been thinking of this one as the red Fed gunman from season 13 but I could be wrong)
Quetzalli
Chari
Raniya Habisch
Sadhana
Garza
Mo Orwell
Ramirez
Elsweiz
Silvers
Jones
Jessica Smosna
Paolo Marconi
Cissy Yacavone
Carter
Loomaua
I know you aren't continuing this series, at least not currently, but it is probably the best rvb fanfiction I've ever read, and part of that is your Fed and Rebel characters.
Hi there. The answer to your question might not be satisfying in the way you’re hoping, but I’ll give you the information I can on this, and a little bit of insight into the thought process on these.
As a general rule, the New Republic wore tan as their main color and the Feds wore white as their main. This is directly from the show and differentiates the two armies from each other. While there is the potential for mixing in the future, as things stand, their main color represents loyalty, which is why neither Felix nor Locus ever wore Chorus colors.
Secondary colors denote jobs, while this could have just been an aesthetic choice, I latched onto purple being medical since Grey and Doc both ended up in the medical field. This means that purple is HEAVILY represented in Finding Washington as a color, because when you've got people falling from space and bouncing across the planet, well, they need a lot of medical personnel. I recognize that this isn’t perfect, given North and South are both in purple, but Freelancer is very different from Chorus, and it doesn’t really count.
As far as ethnicity goes, this is where mental worldbuilding takes over and isn’t necessarily going to be satisfying in the way you’d like. It’s also…well, I started this project nearly a decade ago at this point, and I wasn’t as conscious of things as I probably should have been when I started my worldbuilding and writing.
The short story is, anyone who isn’t a high-ranking Fed is a person of color/a member of a minority community, but in true Red vs Blue fashion, I’ve tried to leave specifics up to the imagination with very few exceptions as to not interfere with the longstanding tradition of facecanons.
Characters like Paez and Doyle are going to look very white and if asked would be able to trace their lineage very clearly back to the families they came from on earth. This might also be true of Grey, but would be true for anyone who could potentially end up in a position of authority in the Federal Army.
This would have eventually been important as a part of the overall backstory for the war on Chorus.
Originally, Chorus was a science outpost, but it was a military science outpost on the edge of habitable space. This is also a ‘science outpost’ that has a full city with railways and skyscrapers. In order for a location like this to operate, with this many military bases and this large of a city so far away from standard shipping and transport, Chorus needs to be completely self-sufficient.
I live near a military base in the US, and they rely heavily on the civilian town they’re attached to in order to keep the base going, but also on transport from other areas.
What would it be like to have to rely entirely on the self? It would be incredibly important that Chorus be able to sustain itself for years if necessary without outside interference. Meaning, Chorus needed enough inhabitants to work in agriculture, textile production, building and maintenance, etc. They needed enough people to increase the population and account for deaths from illness, injury, and natural causes.
Meaning they'd need to bring in families to work.
They needed people who would be less likely to be missed if they weren’t ever able to go back home.
Meaning the poor, lower class, and laborers.
They needed a way to make sure that the people in charge stay in charge.
Meaning hierarchy.
On top of having military hierarchy there would be military contractors who work for the military, but would not have been actual government employees, and below them would be the hired laborers meant to keep the planet functioning.
An example of this is Kimball. Unlike Doyle, who’s position was granted to him because he was the secretary of the Brigadier (a position he was given due to his family), Kimball was born to a family of field workers and rose through the ranks due to her hard work, tenacity, and devotion to the New Republic.
As a general rule, the rebel army is smaller because the people in it were seen as more expendable to the Feds, especially early on, and there was not a small amount of total eradication in an attempt to keep the population under control. Martial law, curfews, imprisonment without trial, and medical modification were all commonplace for those who were not in the ‘proper’ military hierarchy.
When I first started writing, it made sense to me that the people being oppressed were people of color and minorities, because that has been a running, real world experience. I don’t know how present this is in the text as written, but it was in the back of my mind as I was writing, for better or for worse.
The big problem with this is that these characters were not written with sensitivity or research in mind. They are in a far distant future, most of them were raised on a very insulated planet where the population was about the size of New York, and had very little opportunity to change their careers or continue their education or anything like that. I will not say that looking back, I didn't use that as an excuse to not do my proper research into this area, and it's something that still bothers me about FW.
Individual cultures are present, such as Smosna being outwardly and proudly Jewish or Habisch openly wearing a hijab, but I will freely admit that I did not do the proper research into cultural worldbuilding that I should have done for something like this.
I can tell you that Kimball is a black woman with dark skin and long, thin braids that she styles when she is out of uniform, though that is a rarity that she gets the opportunity due to her position. Smosna is a Jewish woman, and I have always envisioned my version of her with darker skin, a prominent nose, and dark hair that she regularly dyes into pink. Danvers has darker skin and a single brown eye.
Armor Colors are assigned based on work positions in the Federal Army and some of that is present in the New Republic, but they do tend to float a bit more than the other army.
Names are also something that are a little ephemeral in regards to the characters as well. Several of the characters have multiple names, chosen names, and gifted names. One character in particular has a complicated backstory about her name, specifically because she stole it from a dead soldier.
But realistically, if the name isn’t listed, I don’t think they had another name yet. The only character I’m certain I did have a first name for was that didn't end up published yet was Ramirez, because he didn’t have anyone friendly enough with him to call him by his less formal name.
Vanessa Kimball - Tan and Ice Blue
Katie Jensen – Tan and Red
Antoine Bitters – Tan and Orange
John Andersmith – Tan and Dark Blue
Charles Palomo – Tan and Aqua
Kyle Matthews – Tan and Yellow
Emily Grey – White and Purple
Lorenzo Paez – White and Gold
Taita Folami – Tan and Purple
Myra Danvers – white and purple
Edra – white and pale blue
Semyon Demir (Your instincts aren’t wrong, I’m fairly certain that WAS who I was thinking of in this case.) – white and red
Quetzalli – white and aqua
Chari – Tan and Dark Blue
Raniya Habisch – white and dark blue
Sadhana -
Garza -
Mo Orwell – White and Purple
Isaiah (Shai) Ramirez – Moss Green
Elsweiz -
Silvers – tan and purple with some extra markings
Jones –
Jessica Smosna – tan and pink
Paolo Marconi – White and Moss Green
Cissy Yacavone – White and Moss Green
Carter – Tan and Purple
Luna Loomaua – white and purple
I hope that this answered your questions, feel free to ask again if I didn't answer in a satisfying way or if you have more questions.
