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Girl Genius
Europaportrait

It ain't over....

Europa is another word for Europe. Both are used within the Girl Genius universe, more or less interchangeably, although "Europa" is perhaps a bit more formal.

Wulfenbach Empire[]

Much of Europa falls within the Empire ruled by Baron Klaus Wulfenbach. He maintains the lands bounded roughly by the Rhine/Rhone/Saone river-courses on the west; the Alps and Adriatic Sea to the south, dipping down to include Lombardy and other lands north of the Po, and the port of Marseilles; the North and Baltic Seas to the north (does not include the Danish peninsula but stops at Holfung-Borzoi), and does not quite reach the Sea of Azov but does reach the Black Sea along the Bogdanian/Moldavian coast to the east, controlling most of the Danube delta.[1][2]

Other Principalities[]

Amsterdam is on the other side of the border; Paris is one of the most significant cities in the western, non-Wulfenbach part of Europa.

Whether the British Isles should be included as part of Europa is something that nobody's been able to settle in any multiverse. They are, however, most definitely not within the sphere of Wulfenbach influence.

Europa is ruled locally by an assortment of minor and major nobles and royalty; under the Pax Transylvania, as long as they keep the peace, they may designate every Tuesday as Wear Underpants on Your Head Day[3] if they wish. Outside of the empire, the British, Italians, French and others likely go about their businesses not dissimilarly to those countries in our world.

The religious nature of Europa is largely unknown, although a comment by Gilgamesh Wulfenbach[4] suggests that schisms like the one which caused the Avignon Papacy in our world were significantly more common in Europa. Which only makes sense, really; when Sparks are around, sparks (and, for that matter, Sparks) tend to fly. See Religion for further details.

In Our Next Episode[]

The full situation of Europa in the aftermath of our story is currently unknown. However, various short stories set in the aftermath of the main story, as well as some material in the novelizations, give us some glimpses as to what Europa may look like in the future.

"Ivo Sharktooth PJ" mentions the existance of an "empire" which Mechanicsburg appears to be subordinate to.[5][6] The story itself features Wulfenbach soldiers[7] in the "present"-day, implying that Wulfenbach authority is still present in some form or another.

The 2022-2023 story on Franz mentions "the old Baron" (presumably Baron Klaus Wulfenbach) in the past tense.[8] In the same story, Blintzie von Wyrmhaut expresses fear of Agatha Heterodyne's policy of welcoming monsters in her city, a sentiment apparently shared by other monster hunters.[9]

According to a footnote in the third novelization, Europa in the future will have "an unprecidented sophisticated and well-rounded ruling class," in large part due to Klaus Wulfenbach's political hostage education system for young sparks.[10]

References

  1. See the map for sale on Studio Foglio's Cafepress Store.
  2. The blog post here references a nearly readable copy of the map.
  3. A completely gratuitous example.
  4. "All seven Popes..." In context, the remark seems to suggest that the seven Popes all reign at the same time, over different sects. (The Corbettite Monks have a Pope who becomes significant to the plot .) On the other hand, in our world, there were a total of seven recognized Popes at Avignon, one after the other, prior to the schism that led to competing Popes at Avignon and at Rome. A footnote in Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle confirms that the Europan Popes are contemporaneous.
  5. "I'll bet the empire wouldn't like it, though..."
  6. "It's the empire! I know it!"
  7. See 2017-08-25 (Friday) and onwards.
  8. "Not even the old Baron disturbed his desolation."
  9. "Every hunter in Europa is watching in horror!"
  10. Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle, page 307 (footnote #52):
    For assorted political reasons, The Baron had acumulated many of the children of various Sparks, rulers and troublemakers throughout the Empire — officially as hostages against their parents’ good behavior. While they stayed on Castle Wulfenbach, he had them educated in political theory, business management, the sciences, the humanities, and charm and deportment. While history has shown that this resulted in an unprecidented sophisticated and well-rounded ruling class, Klaus frankly admitted that he had started the program "to keep them busy and out from underfoot."
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