Gundam RPG History

[charon]

(Will work on summary when there's time)

Seaon 1

Season 2

[Nick Izumi]

With that said, I'll be providing a bit of the history in modules. Be prepared for updates to this post.

In the late 21st Century, the Earth was in a state of turmoil. Over-population spread across the globe. It was decided that it would be in the interest of all of the worlds powers that they form one Government. This Government, he Earth Federation, decided upon moving a precentage of the population off the Earth and into experimental Space Settlements. Little did they know that although the population would be distributed, they were sewing their own seeds of revolution.

As the first of these new man-made settlements was built, it was decided that it, and all the settlements that followed, would be called Colonies. The colonies had many imigrants, some seeking some sense of a "pioneering spirit" others forced there. (It should also be noted most of these new colonists were middle to lower class.) As people finally established themselves in the colonies, a call came up, for them to become nations, not just colonies.

At the same time back on Earth, the controversial topic of genetic manipulation came to a head when violence and protest aggainst an increasingly large group of people, Coordinators, are discriminated and attacked, seeing no other choice, they create and move to their own colonies, the PLANTs. This mass migration was celebrated by many biased Earth groups and would not soon be forgotten by the Coordinators.

The colonists became settled after about a decade, and the first generation completely born and raised in space was born. It was thought that the future would be hopeful. Sadly this was not the case. Many colonies started rallying to be recognized as independant nations. but these crys were either ignored or repressed by the Earth Federation. Ultimately the Federation created OZ, a group that would keep the peace in the suddenly rebelious colonies... by force.

The first group of colonies to rebel, called Side 3 by the Federation, took on the title Duchy of Zeon, in honor of a prominent politicion, and began to rally more fiercely for it's independence. They had built up an impressive space fleet, but the Federation still out-gunned them, or so it was thought before they finally enter Federation space. Zeon had flown it's ships near the OZ blockades before, but that was just to show off, this time it was much more. The Zeon Fleet opened fire and launched it's Zaku I mobile suits. The OZ fleet was unprepared for this new weapon and retreated in defeat to a world in shock. The Federation was terrified, and the Rebelious colonies were filled with hope.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ November 13, 2005 04:23 AM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 14, 2005 06:22 PM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font>

[Nick Izumi]

The First Space War: Year 1
The colonies felt powerful, Zeon had struck a mojor blow, not only to the OZ forces, but to the pride of the Federation. In response, OZ's budget was increased in order to begin development of their own mobile suits. Until these prototypes could be completed Space Fighter craft were the only defense the Federation had.

OZ managed to develop the Leo, a basic, but adaptable, suit. At the same time, on Earth, the Federation debvloped the GM and began construction of artillery based suits on the side. but these suits were built based on remains of the Zaku I and by the time these new prototypes were complete the Zaku II was already in production.

Meanwhile the Zeon had inspired other colonies to take up arms. Zeon assisted the Space Revolutionary Army, another group of colonial rebels, to begin mobile suit production. The PLANT colonies, at the same time, also started their own military, ZAFT, which had no trouble building its own mobile suits with little help. The Colonial Revolution and the First Space War was about to begin.

OZ fought hard and made some incredible leaps in mobile suit technology, but it couldn't hold the three armies back any longer. Labeled as a failure by the Federation and an oppressor by the Colonies, OZ loyalists were cut off and left as pariahs. The Federation decided to take matters into their own hands and the first year of the war ended.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ November 17, 2005 01:57 AM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 17, 2005 02:00 AM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font>

[Nick Izumi]

Breaking the Federation
The Federation called council in order to decide what should be done about the Revolutions. "Surely our Federation Government must be preserved!" ,commented one diplomat who's name remains lost to history. He didn't know at the time how ironic his view would be.

The the meeting itself seemed more tense than the frontlines in space. The nations of North America and Eurasia wanted to eliminate the coordinators of ZAFT while other nations wanted to take destroy the Space Revolutionary Army while it was still small, and even this was against the majority view which blamed Zeon for the actions of all the other nations. The arguments about which of the Revolutionaries to deal with first brought up old Earth rivalries and it became clear that any settlement reached would not be well accepted.

When the vote was taken it was decided that Zeon would be the primary target of the Anti-Revolution campiegn. Angered by this decision, the nations that renounced the Space Revolutionary Army declared themselves the New Federation a week later, it wasn't even half that long when the Anti-Coordinator nations declared themselves the Earth Alliance. The nation of ORB, which had been against the entire war to begin with, declared itself neutral shortly afterward in order to avoid what they believed would be an unimaginable destruction.

The Federation was in shambles, and it was unclear what the war was even about anymore. Now that the foundation was gone the chaos could only become worse.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ November 17, 2005 02:28 AM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 24, 2005 01:30 AM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font>

[Nick Izumi]

The Invasion of Earth
Space was in total chaos, while Earth's government fell apart. Seeing the weakened Earth Government Zeon and ZAFT invaded Earth with the intention of taking new territory for themselves. Zeon's forces managed to take control of North East Africa and South Central Asia, while ZAFT took North East Africa and all of Austrailia. This through Eath into a deeper panic. This was no longer a Revolution, this was insanity. But the worst was yet to come for Earth.

The Rise of the Gundam
The war had started it's second year when a new name became famous. This researcher, Professor Tousen, seemed to appear as if from nowhere and offered his research to all sides during the war.This made him both hated and respected by all sides.

Rumors existed of Tousen before but his name truely came to the frey when he began supplying factions his new mobile suit concept, the Gundam. (Tousen's name was leaked, in actuallity he was trying to keep low profile.) The first groups to use the designs were the Federation, which started by applying the Gundam concept to their existing GMs, and ORB, which was desperate for defense as the war made its way to Earth. Soon, all the Earth nations and ZAFT were using this revolutionary type of Mobile suit, but another discovery would further complicate the war at the dawn of it's third year.

[Nick Izumi]

The Discovery of Newtypes
Young people were starting to emerge on all sides with very strange abilities. They seemed psychic, almost more "in touch" with the rest of the world, and they were also a discovery of Professor Tousen.

The initial discovery filled people with hope of a bright future where people would understand eachother, but this was not the case. These Newtypes, as they were called, seemed destined to be tools of the military. Soon the factions were producing mobile suits specially made for newtypes. These new weapons included remote lazers and high performance fighting systems. There was still one problem with newtypes, because of their seemingly psychic connection with other life and their relatively young age, (The average newtype was about 17) killing others often deeply hurt them. But ethics would not stand in the way of the war machine.

[Nick Izumi]

Super Weapons and an End to the War
All of the factions became desperate, no one side seemed to hold the advantage for more than a few weeks. It has been said that desperate times lead to desperate measures, this was one of those times.

The first act of desperation came in the fourth year of the war when the Space Revolutinary Army, which was starting to "loose its footing", sent an emptied colony cylinder to plunge into Earth, the affects were catastopic. In retaliation both the Earth Federation and the Alliance built their own super weapons. (The Federation constructed a "solar ray" while the Alliance set up a lazer that could be redirected by satelites on the moon.) Zeon and ZAFT also built their own giant lazers, while the New Federation constructed newtype-use Gundams equped with satelite cannons. As the war dragged into it's fifth year the doomsday button became too tempting and one-by-one, each side played their trump card. All of the factions suffered huge losses, many places on Earth had become wastelands and many colonies were completely destroyed. And then the war ended, as if each side had become sick of the entire thing. As the Earth factions returned to their home planet, they left the colonies to fend for themseleves. Rumors spread that the remaining Side 4 colonies were taken over by a Fascist military called the Crossbone Vanguard, but the Earth forces were unconcerned. When January finally came, the old calender was tossed aside, and that January 1 was also the first day of the AM (AfterMath) calender.

After AM 1
The debris around Earth made it harder to contact the colonies until those on Earth either gave up or lost interest. Earth began efforts to reconstruct, but the Governments were in shambles. Even the support of the relatively untouched ORB wasn't enough to totally set things right. Still, humans seem to always manage to adapt and in some respects civilization returned. The Factions left on Earth still occaisionally bicker, but all out war has not been declared since the First Space War.

The first generation of this new calender had their own challenge, surviving in this dangerous world. It was probably out of the need to survive that the Freelancers first appeared. Doing anything for some cash, Freelancers pilot old ships and mobile suits from the war. The factions have a generally negative perception of them, but that wasn't and isn't enough to stop them. By AM 19, the Freelancers are still common, some work for survival and others for a thrill.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 24, 2005 01:31 AM: Message edited by: Nick Izumi ]</font>

[Nick Izumi]

News Flash:
The Factions of Zeon, ZAFT and the Space Revolutionary Army have Declared Themselves Colonial Axis and have promised invasion of Earth. While the Planet has been thrown into chaos, the Federation has declared the first summit of the Terrestrial Nations since the war. Their next step will likely be decided there.

[The Living Fro]

While not really a RPG history fact, I managed to find some interesting Zeon information regarding their mobile suits.

When Zeon was originally looking to mass produce mobile suits for military use, the Zaku was not their only choice. Aside from the suit we've all come to love from the Zeonic corporation, the Zimmand corporation also provided a suit to try to win Zeon's bid.

Zimmand's suit, the EMS-4 Zudah(zu-DAH), was a high-performance suit that was quite superior to the Zaku; however, the Zudah lost the bid due to its tendency to break apart during high speed test flights.

A few years later, the Federation develops the GM. To counter the negative moral this would cause, Zeon looks for a new suit of its own to introduce. Once again, Zimmand steps up with its new model of the Zudah, the EMS-10. Piloted by Major Jean luc Devall, one of Zimmand's largest military supporters, the Zudah still proves to be superior to the Zaku.

A propaganda campaign is started to draw attention away from the battle at Odessa, but the EFSF of London launch a counter campaign. This campaign reveals the unstable history of the Zudah, as well as the fact that Zimmand only changed the model name, leaving the Zudah unchanged since losing out to the Zaku.

After the news got out, you can bet the Zudah never became used by Zeon past the test models, but those test models proved that the Zudah was even superior to the new GM in performance during the retrieval of retreating Zeon forces after the Battle of Odessa.

If the Zudah was so advanced for its time, I can only wonder what it could have been capable of if Zimmand had eliminated the problem before reintroducing it as the EMS-10. If Char had piloted a Zudah, then I have no doubt in my mind that Amuro would have been killed in their first encounter, ensuring a Zeon victory. Oh well.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 15, 2006 11:47 PM: Message edited by: The Living Fro ]</font>