I have a few:
- Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It's eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how "most people are just NPCs" (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
- Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
- All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
- Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
Idk, the Bismarck analogue guy (Osbourne?) was supposed to be a representation of the emergent bourgeoisie taking control from and over the aristocracy. The emperor was basically a puppet of his - not even given voiced lines - and the state had begun to be fully centralized. The peasantry and proletariat at that time weren't as class conscious, politically coherent, or as organized as the bourgeoisie were.
The game's politics seem to be consistent with how history played out.
The krauts had an aristocratic revolt around the time period between the formation of the north german confederation and of the formation of the German empire?
The way that the bourgeoisie arrested and seized control from aristocracy and monarchy, (e.g, England) making the latter into the symbol of the state and central authority and undermining the former's dominance in shaping the future of the country, yes.
I think the Erebonian empire's situation can be compared to Meiji era Japan, where an oligarchy emerged to bring Japan away from isolationist feudalism to imperialist bourgeois democracy, modernization, and industrialization.
Oh shit, yeah you definitely could say the erebonian civil war is comparable to the Boshin war. Hell I think that's a more accurate theory of what real historical event theyre basing the game story on but with a layer of sourkraut on top