The eponymous Lambda Configuration note
More fully known as Lambda: The Magical Girl RTS.
Yes, somebody decided to make a Magical Girl RTS. Why? Because apparently, Google doesn't know about any such game yet. Except the troper responsible doesn't have much background in programming, so a full-on RTS might take quite a while to realise. So instead, that troper has decided to get into Worldbuilding and flesh out the realm where this place would be set.
Set in the Alhazred Region of a world known as Eutopia, Lambda focuses on five main factions that are caricatures of some real (and fictional) world cultures. In order to avoid becoming Avatar with Magical Girls, the author, upon consultation with a good friend, has decided to give each faction a doctrine to focus on rather than an element. They are as follows:
- The Soleil Alliance - Based on the East India Company, Soleil possesses the most powerful navy in the Alhazred Region, and uses it to protect its assets, import exotic goods from overseas, and protect the assets of whoever can afford to hire them. Its magic focuses all four elements on creating a superior navy, and its goal is to, well, make a lot of profit and use it.
- The Casus Belli Republic - Based on The Roman Republic, Casus Belli as a people has a lower magical potential than the rest of the Region. As such, what little magical potential they have, they focus on enhancing their tech. This leads to Powered Armour and Steampunk Golems capable of withstanding the typical nuke spells. Their goal is to expand to acquire new resources for the good of their people.
- The Krieggarten Federation - Based more on Medieval European Fantasy than any specific culture (though it has strong German influences), Krieggarten has been holding off a never-ending barbarian invasion for centuries, leading to the smallest population in the region. To counter that, its troops have become individually capable of killing large groups of barbarians. They have the highest magical potential in The 'Verse.
- The Zafiel Kingdom - A bizarre mixture of the Padishah Empire with a Hebrew naming scheme.
Don't think too much about it. In order to preserve its limited resources, Zafiel specialises in guerilla warfare, espionage, and using sandworms as tanks. Their goal is to achieve the 'Great Promise' given to them by their god, which requires taking full control of the mana in the desert. - The Seisen Empire - Simply put, Wutai. A country of Martial Pacifists that aims to become The Paragon to other countries, owing to a Divine Mandate given to them by their gods. Their magic focuses on supporting their military doctrine of high mobility and air superiority. Of particular note are their dragon-riding spear maidens.
A Web Serial Novel has started publication order to flesh out the world more properly. Entitled Opening Move, it will follow the protagonist through boot camp and beyond. The first chapter covers Hilde, the protagonist, being smooth-talked into "becoming an adventurer" by a recruiter calling himself "Luzi". One can only guess what happens afterwards.
The project can be found here,
as the original site is down. note
This Web Original contains the following tropes:
- Advanced Ancient Humans: Aptly called "The Forgotten". Responsible for the many Relics scattered about the region, which are identified as such by having the Lambda Configuration on them.
- The Alliance: Soleil. Nine states on the same peninsula pooling their resources together in order to survive and profit.
- Amazon Brigade: Only females are capable of magic. Thus, armies will consist entirely of Magical Girls.
- Badass Army: All of them, in their own ways.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each country has their own national colours which appear on both their flags, and the world map.
- Decadent Court: Zafiel. Political intrigue is the order of the day as aristocrats from all around vie for power in the Council of Nobles.
- Elite Army: The Kriegan Föderalwehrnote . Its soldiers are trained to be capable of single-handedly taking down dozens of enemies. The Legionaries of the Bellan Army, to a lesser degree.
- The Federation: Krieggarten, made of three states that used to war with each other.
- Four-Star Badass: Various high-ranking military commanders are capable of some really crazy stuff.
- Götterdämmerung: The Old Gods disappeared quite a while ago along with the Forgotten civilisations who were around at the time, in an event known only as the Vanishing. The Young Gods that people worship today are far weaker, and need prayer badly.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The factions' names are something that no native speaker in his or her right mind would ever consider using to name a country.
- Soleil (Sun)
- Krieggarten (War Garden)
- Gratuitous Hebrew - Zafiel (name of an archangel)]]
- Seisen (Holy War)
- Casus Belli (Cause for War)
- Legend Fades to Myth: Most of the modern civilisations have their own myths with their own takes on what happened during the Vanishing, but all of them mention a horrifying, infathomable beast being somehow involved.
- Mana: Specifically mentioned to be measured in "Dinahs" (Dn)note , rather than an arbitrary, unit-less number.
- Meaningful Name: Hilde Becker, who comes from a family with a history in baking. Justified in that Krieggarten is analogous to Medieval European Fantasy, and occupational surnames were common in that era.
- Non-Entity General: One of the possible choices for Player Character being considered.
- One-Man Army: The Knights of Grabacr. Each one of them is explicitly mentioned to be capable of wiping out an entire army.
- Person of Mass Destruction: The high commanders of the various factions, but most especially Dame Weissteufel of Krieggarten and the Knights of Grabacr.
- Planet England: A minor case, notable because of the frequency of how all the Five Powers are named after their capital cities.
- The Republic: Casus Belli, complete with a Senate and Consuls. Assumedly, it has parallels to other Roman offices.
- Rule of Fun: Don't spend too much time thinking about how the Alhazredian cultures compare to any actual counterparts, or how they manage to avoid any linguistic or cultural mixture of some sort. Just enjoy Magical Girls blasting away at each other.
- Shout-Out: Quite a few.
- Krieggarten follows the Weissteufel Doctrine, named after its biggest promoter, Captain Neunhildenote Weissteufelnote .
- The Recruiters bear a very strong facial resemblance to Kyubey.
- Theme Naming: Each of the countries (except Soleil) are some sort of reference to war or violence in their native language.
- There Can Be Only One: The Contest of Decision, where the winner becomes heiress to the throne of Seisen.
- Word Salad Title: The Lambda Configuration is (at least currently) just some background fluff. The title was chosen only because the site theme had it as the background image.
