Strangereal

Strangereal is the name of the alternative universe in which the Ace Combat series takes place. Stemming from the words 'Strange' and 'Real', due to its familiar nature to our own universe; yet at the same time being completely alien. The nickname was adopted by Namco during the production of Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and has stuck with developers and fans alike ever since. Strangereal is almost identical to our own universe, with the same solar system and cosmic composition of our own including star systems and stellar constellations as mentioned in the canon.

Although fans have taken to calling the universe Strangereal, this is purely an out of canon name used and is never used by characters in-universe or even mentioned and is simply referred to as 'Earth'. The planet itself is similar to its real life counterpart, it is inhabited by Humans as the dominant species and contains all the necessary components to support all forms of life; what isn't similar however is the landmasses and shape of the continents that make up the planet which suggests a vastly different tectonic plate system. Countries are entirely fictional though some however bear striking similarities with our own, such as Sapin being a literal anagram of Spain, whilst other nations like Osea and Yuktobania share cultural and demographically similar properties to America and Russia respectively. Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean are the only geographical points of interest that share a direct namesake with their real life counterparts, though it is to be noted that Cayenne (Strangereal's New Zealand) is a carbon copy of its partner in terms of geography.

'New' Strangereal
New Strangereal is an adopted term used to seperate the normal Strangereal from the expanded timeline version that has been created through various fan works and is a collective term used for events and changes not seen in the 'Canon' Strangereal universe. The Extended Universe is mostly the same as the standard Strangereal albeit with the additions of new nations such as Beiarusia, Dorusia and Seian, as well as various alterations to historical events and the timeline in general. It also expands upon points left ambigious by Namco themselves and makes slight alterations to existing nations to better flesh out the world.