Lambda

The eponymous Lambda Configuration

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 World Building and flesh out the realm where this place would be set.

Set in the Alhazred Region of an as-of-yet unnamed world, 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.
• 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 or here.

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This Web Original contains the following tropes:

• 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.
• Deadly Decadent Court - Zafiel. Political intrigue is the order of the day as aristocrats from all around vie for power in the Council of Nobles.
• Eldritch Abomination - "Ichi".
• The Empire - Seisen.
• 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.
• Gotterdammerung - The Old Gods disappeared quite a while ago. 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.
  • Gratuitous French - Soleil
  • Gratuitous German - Krieggarten
  • Gratuitous Hebrew - Zafiel
  • Gratuitous Japanese - Seisen
  • Gratuitous Latin - Casus Belli
• Grey and Grey Morality
• Heroic Fantasy
• Instant Runes - Configurations.
• The Kingdom - Zafiel.
• Lady of War - Expect a few or more.
• Lightning Bruiser - Casus Belli, with its legions.
• Lost Technology - Relics
• Magical Girl - Obviously.
• Magic Knight - The Kriegan Knights of Grabacr.
• Magic Wand - Tools
• Mentor Mascot - The Recruiters. Yes, that's plural. Every single soldier gets one.
• Non-Entity General - One of the possible choices for Player Character being considered.
• One-Man Army - Kriegan soldiers are trained to be capable of singlehandedly taking down dozens of enemies. The Knights of Grabacr receive a special mention, as each one of them is capable of wiping out an entire army.
• Person of Mass Destruction - The high commanders of the various factions, but most especially Lady Weissteufel of Krieggarten and the Knights of Grabacr.
• Planet England - A minor case notable because of the frequency of how all of 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.
• Schizo-Tech
• Shout-Out - Quite a few.
  • Krieggarten follows the Weissteufel Doctrine, named after its biggest promoter, Captain Neunhilde Weissteufel.
  • Zafiel is arguably a big shout out to Dune.
  • The Recruiters bear a very strong facial resemblance to Kyubey.
  • The Lambda Configuration itself. Try reading the text on the outer ring.
  • The Alhazred Region.
• 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.
• Translation Convention
• Wooden Ships And Magical Girls - Soleil
• 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.
• World Building
• World Map - An area map, and a political map.