Forum:Her Undying Majesty

OK, it's always seemed clear to me that Her Undying Majesty, Albia, Queen of England (and Scotland and Ireland?) is a clank. Strictly speculative, but I envision her as being having not an anthropoid body but an enormous sedentary machine housing. In essence, I see her as being halfway between Anevka Sturmvoraus and Castle Heterodyne.

My evidence for this?

(1) We know that "Her Undying Majesty" has perpetuated her life extraordinarily. This is evinced by the fact that Countess Marie is. Cousins are "removed" by the difference between their generations, so if she is (say) a third cousin, four times removed, that means that Marie's great-great-grandmother was third cousins with Albia (i.e. their great-grandparents were siblings). The "of course" emphasises that is is absurd to think Marie is of the same generation as Albia. NOTE: This quote is the only evidence that I can see for thinking that Albia has any human components and isn't just an enormous clank like Mr. Tock, as this is the only evidence I can find that Albia is actually alive.

(2) Albia is obviously powerful but, more than that, she seems to be PERSONALLY powerful. Reference is always made to her survival being crucial to keeping Wulfenbach out of England. This strikes me as more consistent with her being an enormous clank, capable of co-ordinating information and other subordinate clanks than her just being a powerful spark. Moreover, England is almost unquestioningly under her authority. The idea that there would be a host of people trying to usurp her (as there are in the case of Klaus) seems nothing short of unthinkable.

(3) My favourite piece of evidence: Gilgamesh,, does not say that he will kill Albia if Wooster betrays him, but that he will destroy her (and refers to her in "scare quotes" no less). Now you might think that this just means that he's going to destroy her empire, but he THEN goes on to explain what will happen to England.

That's what I think, anyway. --Cantabrian 11:20, 22 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Brilliant. It occurs to me to wonder if the Enigma is actually Albia; probably not, and not particularly related to your suggestion.  Anyway, simply brilliant. ⚙Zarchne 21:37, 22 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I further speculate that Albia's body was constructed by van Rijn. This would make the great spark's work especially relevant to Tarvek's.  ⚙Zarchne 21:17, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Now here´s a *really* mad idea: what if Her Undying Majesty is something like Castle Heterodyne, perhaps even on a bigger scale... dare I suggest, on the scale that Britain as whole is now a sentient structure? Gil said "melt what is left of your miserable island to slag", suggesting that the act of destroying Her Undying Majesty (scare quotes or not) would do substantial damage to the island of Britain. In that case, the Queen Albia to which Countess Marie is related would be the person who imprinted her personality on Her Undying Majesty - the counterpart to Faustus Heterodyne for Castle Heterodyne. -Sir Chaos 19:09, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * No. "What is left of your miserable island" does not refer to any damage the island might sustain as a result of Gil destroying Albia. A map of Europa Wulfenbach, which appeared in issue 9 of the original Girl Genius comic, and which is currently available in a larger form from Cafe Press, shows that at some time in the past, the British Isles were heavily damaged, leaving only a few small scattered remnants still above water.
 * There are other references to this as well, such as the presence of many submarines, in addition to many airships, in the card game "The Works" which is based on Girl Genius. Many of the people of the British Isles now live underwater, in some sort of airtight structures. --Quadibloc 00:57, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Sir Chaos' above suggestion is an extension of Cantabrian's original point (2), and I like it, although I don't imagine something quite as self-modifiable as Castle Heterodyne. Quadibloc is quite correct with the facts, of course, although I don't see that they necessarily rule out that destroying Albia would cause further geographic damage to the already miserable remains.

The most interesting consequence of this theory so far, in my awareness, is that, if true, Albia would be a model of stability and legitimacy that Tarvek (who in fact had control of Anevka-clank) had planned to appeal to, to defend Anevka's claim to the throne at least of Sturmhalten. That is, until he's ready to claim the empire as the Storm King, she is in a stronger position to rule.

⚙Zarchne 00:04, 21 February 2009 (UTC)


 * And what about Gil's "To go against Albia of England's merest whim is literally unthinkable." Mind control? Perhaps Albia is even more pervasive than a mechanical island. Ordinary 05:05, 27 March 2009 (UTC)