#basram

[visarcana]

What do we know about... Basram

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...

1. Republic

ESCAB says most of the hundreds of Gaean countries are monarchies that evolved from tribal communities where one clan accumulated enough power to rule over the others. Basram is apparently one of the exceptions. Republic (res publica - the state is a “public matter” made by and for the people) often comes to be as the result of overthrowing a tyrannic ruler (or ruling class/group), or via revolution. I chose that path as well, even though there probably are examples of state bodies which were already created as republic, too. With massive social changes, several groups can be hit hard of course, so I tried to incorporate that a bit when creating Cyro’s backstory.

2. Crest

Dragons here, dragons there, dragons everywhere. That’s Gaea for you. The official flag of Basram is the familiar symbol of symmetric entwined serpentine creatures, which probably can be dubbed as dragons. It’s quite similar to the crest of Asturia, which you see on the flags and banners, but also in the huge ‘altar’ thing at Millerna’s wedding:

So, it may have a religious connotation. In Asturia, it probably represents their sea dragon god, Jeture. But I was not so sure what it represents in Basram. The position of the dragons is certainly reverse from Asturia above (they face away from each other) and they seem to be breathing fire out of their mouths.

Well, since I’ve been writing this fic for a while, I had decided that Basram would have some sort of sun worship long time ago. But it was only recently I have discovered about the double dragons of Basram, so I tried to incorporate it somehow. In the end I settled on the dragons representing the Sun and the Moon (and no, I was in no way original, see for example the Gandhara dragons).

In Gaea’s case, it would probably be the Sun and the Mystic Moon. And the Moon can be their offspring. Just fanwanking here.

When it comes to the Vis Arcana universe, Cyro used to be a monk of Tonatis, the male/Sun aspect. But maybe there is (or was) a complementary female religious order worshiping the Moon?

I made the geographical terms I used correspond to this theory, Cyro mentions Heliopoli and I have thought of Lunasta. Kind of obvious, right? (I have not been too creative)

Anyway, it’s quite possible that the dragons were simply meant to represent Jeture as well, because it looks like Basram borders with the same sea as Asturia. The sea, where, you know, Jeture is supposed to reside.

3. Uniform

There are a few pointers of what Earth countries served as inspiration for the Gaean ones. The clothes being one of the more obvious. And what we are looking at here is an obvious case of a pickelhaube, which together with the overknee boots points right in the direction of Prussia for me. I mean look at this 19th century Prussian cuirassier [IMG SRC] side by side with our guy for example:

Or another good example here.

Of course, there are more countries and armies which used the pickelhaube over the history and maybe some of them would look similar, too. And I don’t think we should simply put a ‘=‘ between Basram and Prussia anyway, because this is still a fantasy universe, but well, there seems a certain inspiration. And for those familiar with European history, the militarism of Basram may come as less of a surprise.

4. Geography

According to the map, Basram is located quite down south, souther than Asturia itself, nearing Freid. And that would make the climate quite Mediterranean/hot. But only if you think in Earth’s terms. These people do not really look like they live somewhere in a warm climate, but heck if I know. On the map it looks like they have a seacoast, some major rivers and mountains. Then there is that thing of Gaean map being just the rotated version of ice age Europe which would tell us more about the topography, but nah. Too lazy for that for now.

5. Energist Bomb

Well. The whole bomb business may also sound very familiar. A new, unexpected strange weapon with enough destructive force to wipe out whole armies and cities, leaving nothing in its wake.  Maybe even more so when you know what followed in the series, i.e. the allied countries turning on each other. The nuclear bomb was not just about Japan either, it was also about deterring any potential future enemies from among the Allies (well, especially one of them). And the US certainly certainly were a republic from the beginning. So yeah, more sources of inspiration here at work probably...

Okay, guess that’s it for today. Didn’t think this would get so long! I think a similar post about Egzardia may be next. You’re welcome to ask questions or discuss this if you want of course!