Lady Akane, commonly known by her nom de guerre the Red Lotus, is the leader and presumed founder of the Scarlet Lancers in Taniciusfox's definitive Imperium Offtopicum spin-off, The Multipolar World. A nine-tailed kitsune possessing nondescript supernatural abilities, she is without a doubt the most complex character I created for an IOT game, a philosopher and revolutionary who paradoxically commands a secret society for the advancement of social democracy. Originally a recycle of a far less beneficent character from an aborted game, christos200's immediate escalation to his typical genocidal extremism prompted me to pivot into a genuine freedom-fighter, our ensuing war creating some of the most thematically meaningful roleplay I've ever written. The Lotus' guiding ideology is the rawest I've channelled my own political philosophy into a faction, and the personal terms of christos' vendetta and psychopathy of the "China Six" became the core foundation to existentialist motifs that colour the novelized epilogue, Blood Red Dawn.

The Lotus herself toes a delicate balance between the "long gaze" of an immortal and genuine compassion for the people around her. The China Six's personalized antipathy provided fodder for a gendered frame to the vendetta, with her erudite and rational arguments for liberation a stark contrast against the violent and chauvinistic behaviour of the enemy régime, and the Lancers' multilateral coalition-building the antithesis to the totalitarian patriarchs. After initially securing a democratic China under the Co-operative Federation of Xinjiang in 2165, she acts as a shadow counsel to the government, and entwines the Lancers with state security to root out the Autocrats both at home and abroad. Following their bloody return under Otto I, she builds a network of both open and covert allies to retake the country and end the rule of the China Six once and for all, before confronting the "Greater Union of New Scotireland", a fascist usurper to CF Xinjiang's former ally and presumptive World Police at the end of the game.

In the 800 years between Multipolarity and its sequel, the Lotus has earned a semi-mythical status in the world at large, but remains an active and recognized state agent, serving as "Director-General" to Xinjiang's spiritual successor, the Federal Union of China. By the start of the game, the world order established following the "GUNS War" has all but collapsed, and China itself has splintered due to unexplained internal tensions. christos' Monarchist revanchists in the rival "Empire of China" have completely struck her and the Lancers from their revisionist history as part of a larger war on reality, glorifying a personality cult around George I as the so-called Xiang Dynasty, and the Lotus spends the game term helping Xining prepare for the inevitable reckoning.

The Lotus also cameos in the epilogue to NinjaCow64's IdIOT as a leading member and possible founder of the A.R.C.H.E.R. alliance, a splinter of the Pacific Alliance formed in opposition to the Mystery Nation and Abbotsford, Inc.'s fumbled coup against Nova Terra. Offering China as a refuge for Australian dissidents, she organizes an "army in exile" that spearheads the A.R.C.H.E.R. invasion to overthrow Tony Abbott and restore Australian democracy.

• The Red Lotus is adapted from a character originally intended for the aborted WIM-IOT, a devious megalomaniac ruling a totalitarian Japanese state. This was in fact the game plan for Multipolarity when I initially joined, with the Lancers' revolutionary rhetoric a front for self-serving opportunism (similar to the Global Liberation Army seen toward the game's end), but when christos responded to the roleplay by literally naming me the leader, I chose to skewer his lack of imagination by changing the character to a woman and a bona fide republican. The original design would resurface in KaiserIOT as the supercidal criminal Hwayeombangsagi; I have long had plans to sketch the two in profile under the title "Yin and Yang".
• Her given name Akane (茜; Japanese àkáné, Chinese qiàn) literally means "dark red", specifically the hue derived from the madder plant.
• While canonically Japanese, Akane's status as huli jing evokes specific cultural symbolism in China: foxes can represent both a blessing upon the emperor, and an omen of revolution against an unfit ruler. In-universe, the Lancers are saluted by common citizens in a coded pun riffing on the Eurocentric chauvinism introduced under President George that is eroding traditional language; spoken in English: "Hú is coming to China" / "Who is coming?"
• Disregarding the Downfall Gang who remained a meta-presence throughout IOT in general, the Lotus is my highest-recurring functional character at three games; Mr. Novak technically appears more, but largely as a cameo.
• The Lotus is one of two leader options for the Scarlet Lancers in the IOT Civ4 mod. Spiritual and Charismatic, her AI personality is generally cordial but tenacious during war, difficult to woo but loyal to her friends, with a strong emphasis on espionage. Her peace theme is the Chinese loading theme from Battlefield 2; her war theme is Track 11 of the Chinese soundtrack in Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour.
• Akane's leader profile was my first foray into colourizing sketches. The later full portrait revamp remains one of my proudest artistic accomplishments.
• @GenMarshall has characterized the Lotus' "trolling" of christos as similar to Mr. Toyoda.

Jianguo Deming, Huiqing Da et al.
Statespeople within the Co-operative Federation of Xinjiang whom she fights to defend/reinstate.

Secret Asian Man
Government operative inducted into the Lancer command following the Monarchist invasion in 2173. They fight side-by-side during the assault on Ürümqi in Operation Shah Mat.

Lan Xiurong
Lancer agent since the original insurrection, implied to act as a personal aide circa Operation Shah Mat.

Dan Li
Veteran Lancer general in service since before the game term. Accompanies her as part of the command unit ("Red Queen") leading the salient into Ürümqi in Operation Shah Mat; their conversation expounds on the Lotus' metaphysical symbolism as Hegel's "world-spirit" made a conscious entity. He is named after a real-life friend, who was given the contest draft of Blood Red Dawn for early appraisal.

Kizzie Hayakawa
An implied fellow Japanese expat of similar supernatural background, acting as the shadowy power broker to Nukeknockout's Korea. While they do not interact directly in MP1, she may have influenced the Dictators' approach to the Lancers (including a plot to entrap the Monarchists' planned invasion before George's abdication) and subsequent relations with CF Xinjiang. They have become personal friends by MP2, and the Lotus seeks her out in the rally of old allies for the game's epilogue.

Christos Xinjiang, President George, Dictator Chiang, Mr. John, George I, Otto von Constantine; the "China Six"
Mortal enemies. Christos' declaration of a personal vendetta sets the stage for a permanent antagonism between the Lancers and what are effectively three masks to a sustained tyranny. Excepting King George, who dies on the eve of their insurgency against CF Xinjiang, they are each personally confronted during Operation Shah Mat in escalating psychological teardowns of their characters.

Fanatico McFascist
Late-stage sworn enemy following the coup of the Parliamentary Union of Britain and subsequent rise of the Greater Union of New Scotireland as the world's would-be hyperpower; the "GUNS War" was intended to form the second half of the game's epilogue, but even before he dropped off CivFanatics completely, Dem Taqat stopped returning my calls, and I am unsure if I will pursue it after Blood Red Dawn.

Otto IV
Constitutional head of state of christos200's Empire of China in Multiplarity II. Unlike the usual crop of his characters, Otto takes his duties seriously and actually opposes the belligerent push by the Republican Party, but refrains from direct intervention in parliamentary affairs. A roleplay interlude implies if his descent from Otto I is not fabricated, it is at best illegitimate; a planned episode in the abandoned epilogue involved the Lotus confronting him with his family tree to expose the wider sham of the "Xiang Dynasty" cult, in a meditation on choice, destiny, and responsibility that sways him to exert royal prerogative and veto the government's motion for war.

Wang Jing
Leader of the Republican Party in the Empire of China; a populist demagogue whose naked ambition to reunify China by force marks him as an antagonist. Prior to the game's cancellation he was on track to becoming Prime Minister and beginning open war against the Federal Union; in the planned epilogue, Jing would attempt to murder Otto after the Emperor declared intent to veto a war, then frame the Lotus as pretext for retaliation.

Aleksei Korzhakov/"Joseph Stalin II"
Leader of Patriotic_Fool's Soviet Union in MP2. Initially considered an ally against the Chinese Empire, relations begin to strain following Russia's invasion of Finland and the country's rapid descent into belligerent imperialism. By the time of the Epilogue, the Lotus is eyeing a global coalition similar to GUNS in the first game to bring the rogue state to heel.

Unnamed Son
Introduced in Multipolarity II, identified as the "Deputy Director-General" in several roleplay tracts.