It seems unlikely that Falconia/Windam is Rome, considering the Vatican also exists and is somewhere else. Vatican nobles like the Vandimion family are clearly modeled after Italians, too, while Midlanders seem more likely to have Germanic influence. It could be possible that, if anything specific, they are loosely based on the Holy Roman Empire, whose Emperor was also crowned by the Pope.I'm not entirely sure how to digest the end of this arc. The biggest thing for me is that it isn't a fantasy world, but an alternate earth. Falconia is Rome, we can see the edge of Europe in the globe shot a few chapters back, and Skelling is presumable the Isle of Skellig Michael in Ireland. It's like this changes everything, now it's all linked to real entities. You could say this is a similar revelation (but opposite) to what those in the fictional world are experiencing, but it's a bit brash