Literary Flexibility of the Universal Century

[Pariah Noble]

Good day fellow Armadans!

I want to take the time today to discuss one of the greatest potential friends to any Gundam roleplayer with respect to what I consider the finest sandbox for story creation; the Universal Century.

While most western Gundam fans (unfortunately) rely on Wing and SEED for as their first taste of the wondrous Gundam mythos, I have always found it a bit curious that many people tend to stop short of discovering the largest chunk of lore in the entire franchise.

Perhaps it is the quality of the animation of the older shows, or perhaps it is the lack of resources that many fledgling Gundam fans have. Whatever the reason, I am posting with hope of showing just how flexible the lore of the Universal Century truly is.

One of the primary staples to the Universal Century is the depth that the political rabbit hole travels. At first glance, 0079 seems to be rather whimsical with a simplistic yet compelling war story between the collective nations of earth against a space-faring aristocracy. While Zeon's origins are not elaborated upon, the aftermath of the One Year War results in one of the most promising political power vacuums in anime history.

Several groups emerge from the ranks of the former combatants. From the Federation's oppressive Titans to the Delaz Fleet, Chimera Corps, the Invisible Knights, and of course Axis, there is a wealth of material to draw one's character from if you're searching for a military background. While some groups have more concrete histories than others, the obscure corners of their lore leaves for a wealth of possibilities from which you could draw your character origin story.

Let's say that you weren't looking to start as a military character; The appeal of being the grizzled soldier isn't for everyone, so naturally, there are other ways to enter the conflict. Another potential candidate would be a member of a research group or Mobile Suit development company!

Anaheim Electronics is the flagship research group of the Universal Century, though many subsidiary groups remain off the radar and buried in obscurity (such at the various newtype labs and Federation-aligned development corporations) and thereby have a lot of room to play around in with respect to developing a story arc.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be looking at several groups within the Universal Century mythos which I think have great potential for character origins and plot arcs. I'll be giving lore for each group, and with a little bit of help from the wiki and other sources, I'll help shed some light on the vast dimensions that make up some of the Universal Century's most curious factions and players.

Stay strong, Armadans.

Sieg Zeon!  

[Mavrick Hunter Zero]

Pariah Noble

There's nothing wrong with starting off with Wing or Seed, heck most people probably started off with those then expanded to the UC.

Also I think Seed is somewhat of a good litmus test to see if someone would like Gundam, since its like a very saturated version. But I agree that UC is great for RPing mostly because the story repeats itself in multiple ways that you can take part in almost any place in the timeline.