Geography

Glossaries page

  Artemis

A fortress built on an asteroid, built by the Eurasian Federation, a member of the Earth Alliance. Located at Lagrange point 3, directly opposite the moon, Artemis is considered a backwater base of little strategic value. However, the asteroid is protected by an impenetrable shield, the "Umbrella of Artemis," a lightwave defense barrier which is impervious to every kind of physical and energy weapon.

  Carpentaria's base

It’s a ZAFT base located in the Gulf of Carpentaria on the North coast of Australia, controlled by the Oceania Union, a group under the control of the PLANTs. This base was created from elements ZAFT dropped from space over the and then within 48 hours (the 2nd and 3rd of April of Cosmic Era 70) they had their first terrestrial stronghold. The construction was completed on May the 20th, whereupon ZAFT began using it as a staging ground for attacking the rest of Earth.

  Lunar base Ptolemaeus

This is the principal lunar base of the Earth Alliance. It’s situated in the crater of Ptolemaeus, on the visible side of the Moon. This base, constructed in year 35 of the Cosmic Era, was originally created by the Atlantic Federation to make it easier to approach the spatial colonies and supervise them. Nowadays, the lunar base of Ptolemaeus is the general headquarters for the Earth Alliance’s space fleet and it is there that the attack on the PLANTs is planned.

  Copernicus

Copernicus was the first lunar city. Its construction began in year 10 of the Cosmic Era, with the aim of serving as a site for finding the new necessary materials in the programme to develop the spatial colonies. This city was opened to civilians and it was here that, in year 61 of the Cosmic Era, Kira and Athrun met for the first time at their primary school. However, in year 61 of the Cosmic Era, Athrun has to leave for the PLANTs and the Yamato family left for the resource satellite Heliopolis.

At the start of Cosmic Era year 70, when the war between the Earth and the PLANTs looked more and more inevitable, the United Nations chose the city of Copernicus for the last ditch attempt at peace negotiations. However, on February the 5th of the same year, a horror occurred when the negotiations were stopped by a powerful bombing. The tragedy of Copernicus cost the lives of the representatives of the PLANTs sponsor nations and the United Nations, having lost their credibility in the eyes of the world, stopped playing a role in world management. Also, Siegel Clyne, the PLANTs’ representative, escaped the catastrophe due to arriving late thanks to his shuttle malfunctioning. This detail succeeded in agitating the sponsor nations who accused the PLANTs of being the source of the bombings. This was final straw that drove the conflict into an all-out war.

  GARM R&D (Genetic Advanced Reproductive Medical Research & Development)

This research institute, based on the spatial colony Mendel, was a place where experiments on coordinators occurred. It’s here that the greatest specialists in the field of genetics gave birth to numerous coordinators.
The spatial colony Mendel, regarded as the true birthplace of the coordinators, was the target of the anti-coordinator extremist group “Blue Cosmos”. The GARM R&D centre has been closed since year 68 of the Cosmic Era, after a risk of bacteriological contamination.

  Gibraltar

The Gibraltar base is at the south of the Iberian peninsular where the Mediterranean sea meets the Atlantic. A military base for centuries, nowadays it acts as a major base for ZAFT. Gibraltar fell into the hands of the Coordinators on the 25th of May in Cosmic Era year 70, following the naval battle which took place off Casablanca. Nowadays this base is the main transit zone for ZAFT’s armed forces for their operations in Europe and in North Africa.

  Heliopolis

This resource satellite, located at Lagrange point 3, is controlled by the Orb Union, one of Earth's neutral nations. Heliopolis, which is in the shape of a cylinder, is reinforced with a central axial shaft attached to a mining asteroid which supplies the station with raw materials.
Heliopolis is an officially neutral territory, making it an attractive refuge for families like those of Kira Yamato and his friends who hope to find peace there, far away from the conflicts between the Naturals and the Coordinators.

  Joint Supreme Headquarters Alaska (JOSH-A)

This immense underground base is the headquarters of the Earth Alliance forces. JOSH-A (pronounced “Joshua”), like the name suggests, is in the northwest part of the Atlantic Federation, in Alaska.

  Kaguya

The Mass Driver « Kaguya » is Orb’s launch pad for spaceships and is attached to a small island to the Northeast of Onogoro, extending 50 kilometers over the open sea.
The name « Kaguya » is inspired by a Japanese legend. It comes from the name of a young girl who was found at the foot of Mount. Fuji and turned out to be a princess from the moon, which she eventually returned to. Ever since she went back to the moon, volcanic eruptions have been associated with Kaguya showing her discontent.

  Kaohsiung

A city on the island of Taiwan, a territory belonging to the Republic of Eastern Asia, hiding one of the Earth Alliance spaceports. ZAFT attacked Kaohsiung on the 15th of January in the Cosmic Era year 71 as part of it’s ongoing Operation Uroboros. The city fell to ZAFT 8 days after Operation Uroboros began and is still in their hands to this day.

  The debris belt

After many years of space exploration, countless abandoned satellites, wrecked spacecraft, and other junk have accumulated in Earth's orbit to form a huge ring of space debris. This Debris Belt is unstable, and its contents is slowly spiralling towards the Earth's surface under the influence of Earth's gravity.

  The spaces colonies

These are artificial structures which reproduce Earth's environment in space. The colony is put into constant rotation, which generates sufficient centrifugal force to create a kind of gravity all over the station.
There are various types of space colonies, including various models which are still in use. The resource satellite Heliopolis, made up of a massive cylinder whose structural integrity is based on a central axial shaft, is one of the oldest models. Several space stations like this were set up at Lagrange points 3 and 4. They have now been rendered obsolete by the construction of PLANTs, and several of these old installations were destroyed at the start of the war.

  Lagrange Points

They are areas of gravitational stability created by the interaction of a planet and its satellites. These points are named after Joseph Louis Lagrange, an 18th-century mathematician who first predicted their existence. There are five Lagrange points in the Earth-Moon system, referred to as L1 through L5, and which offer ideal sites for space colonies. In the Cosmic Era, the largest clusters of space colonies are located at L4 and L5, which lie along the moon's orbital path, 60 degrees to either side of the moon itself. These regions are more stable than L1, L2, and L3, which respectively lie in front of, behind, and 180 degrees opposite the moon.

  Morgenroete Inc.

Morgenroet Incorperate is a semi-nationalized weapons company based in Orb and also has facilities on the Heliopolis colony. This company’s main objective is to design weapons for the Orb military forces. However, Morgenrote semi-officially assisted the Atlantic Federation in the G project, short for Gundam, as well as designing the Archangel. On the 20th of January of the CE year 71, the 5 prototypes were sent to Heliopolis and 5 days later, they were stolen by ZAFT – a theft which ended in the destruction of Heliopolis.

  Onogoro

Onogoro was built on one of the islands of the archipelago that forms the Orb Union and is controlled by the Orb Army jointly with the weapons developers Morgenroete. Their facilities have tight security and are under constant satellite surveillance.

The name Onogoro is inspired by a mythological Japanese island that was the first piece of land on the Earth.

  Panama

Isthmus connecting Central American to South America, this is also where the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans can be found, also one of the main spaceports for the Earth Alliance. The spaceport in Panama has a “mass driver”, an electromagnetic catapult capable of sending crafts into space, which was developed jointly by the Atlantic Federation and the United States of South America. The latter of the two has control of the spaceport sine the beginning of the war. Being one of the largest terrestrial launching zones for the Alliance – Panama is a very significant strategic target for ZAFT.

  PLANT (Productive Location Ally on Nexus Technology)

These colonies originally served as research and manufacturing sites, but their structure also enables them to recreate a natural environment, with abundant vegetation and water.

The PLANTs consist of two disc-shaped living areas, each 10 kilometers in diameter, which rotate around a central hub to produce a gravitational force. A 30-kilometer central shaft, along with a network of high-tension cables, links the two living areas. A high-speed elevator runs up the central shaft to provide access to the hub. A set of external mirrors, attached to the central hub, are used to reflect the Sun's light into the living areas.

The PLANTs are grouped into twelve cities, each with its own scientific specialty. These cities are named after the months of the Roman calendar, and each is made up of around ten PLANTs, which are numbered (e.g. Januarius 1, Aprilius 8, Junius 3).

The construction of the PLANTs began in C.E. 38, funded by the Atlantic Federation, the Eurasian Federation, and the Republic of East Asia. The PLANTs were initially managed by a directorate controlled by these three sponsor nations, but in C.E. 53, their inhabitants formed a PLANT Supreme Council to represent them in their dealings with the directorate. With the start of open hostilities between the PLANTs and the Earth Alliance in C.E. 70, the PLANTs proclaimed their independence and were governed solely by the PLANT Supreme Council.

  Victoria

Situated at the edge of Lake Victoria, in the eastern part of Africa, the Earth Alliance decided to build one of it’s spaceports. This is base holds the of the Habilis mass driver, jointly developed by the Eurasian Federation and the South African Union. It was the first target to be attacked on Earth by ZAFT on March the 8th in Cosmic Era year 70, but the “Battle of Victoria” was a loss for ZAFT mainly because they lacked weapons designed for terrestrial combat. However the second battle for Victoria which took place on the 13th of February in Cosmic Era year 71, was a great success for ZAFT – who took control of the spaceport.