When the Frankish Empire fell it was a catastrophe for Christianity at large, when Spain fell it was percieved as the deathstroke, when a Portugese monk hammered his theses on a church door, all thought the end had come. Yet Catholicism and Christianity still stood. The spirit of endurance is what kept the Lombards in Italy going.
Not only that; Italy pushed back. Establishing the Templar Order which protected the gates against the Burgundian Flykirate and eventually burned their Heathen Head Priest on a pyre. Restoring Catholicism to Southern France, crushing the Greater Bohemian, Slavonian and Serbian Pagans and bringing the true Faith to the heretics in Constantinople.
Truly Italy has brought back Catholicism from deaths door. And yet, the Frankish Rebellions are failing, Portugal has been driven to the Azores, and almost all of the Balkans are in open rebellion, nowcalling themselves Yugoslavia. Byzantium did not survive the attentions of Italy and Greece held onto its heretical ways leaving the muslims to have their way with Constantinople. Dark days. Dark days indeed.
For In the North the true enemy has defeated them again and again. Swabia. The German Pagans have proven indomitable reducing the mighty Italian Armies to so much skeletal remains in the Alps, burning the fleets of Italy to the waterline. And finally the gravest insult of them all. The Treaty of Innsbruck, relinquishing the last swiss territories still under Italian Control, Forced Disarmarment, Forced Fleet Reduction. And worst of all reparations...endless reparations.
Politically Italy has been a Fascist Dictatorship for nigh on ten years now under the rule of Benito Mussolini. Despite its fascism, Italy hold strongly to its Catholic Faith, seeing it as their divine duty to reverse history and restore Catholicism to the world stage.
Short Info
4th Largest Industry
small military
tiny navy
Population: 122 Million
Government: Fascist Dictatorship
Ruling Party:
Other Major Parties:
Nationalities: 60% Lombard, 20% Other Italian, 9% Croatian, 6% Slovakian, 2% Greek, 1,5% Hungarian, 1,5% Czech.
Religion: 98.4% Catholic, 1.6% Others
Spain has been a hotbed of endless war, through the Muslim Invasions, the Christian Reconquista, the Malinese Occupations, the Norse Grand Holy Wars. It was throughout its history and endless mire of religious warfare. Ultimately Asturias as such has become a melting pot of nationalities, faiths and political opinions.
Originally ruled by a Welsh minority it had become a Proletarian Dictatorship undergoing rapid modernization and industrilaization. On the world stage it is largely irrelevant, on the Iberian peninsula however it is for the moment at least the major player. In a constant state of on and off warfare with what remains of Bourbon, the Socialist Peoples Republic of navarre and of course Catalonia, it is facing an ever increasing internal instability from pan-spanish and fascist movements.
Short Info
Large Industry
Large Military
Respectable Navy
Population: 51 Million
Government: Proletarian Dictatorship
Ruling Party:
Other Major Parties:
Nationalities: 44% Spanish, 34% Andalusian, 13% Welsh, 8% Portugese, 1% Others
Religion: 50% Norse, 20% Sunni, 30% Fetishist
While the Frankish Empire fell apart, Poland stayed true to its slavic origins and, seeing the rising threat of the Germans and the Norse in general, it began forging strategic alliances amongs the Slavic nations of Europe. Greater Bohemia, Slavonia, Serbia and eventually even Hungary joined a tight-knit alliance held together by strategic marriages, protecting the Slav Kingdoms against the Germans and Italians in the West, the Norwegians in the North and back then, the Alan and Mongol threat to the east.
It was with a great uproar when Lithuania joined the alliance, citing closeness of faiths. After a few more decades Lithuania become in fact the leading partner in this alliance of states and by the late 13th Century the Greater Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed. It was not to last. After a mere fifty years succession crises led to a series of civil war leading to the foundation of Modern Day Slavonia and Greater Bohemia.
Nonetheless The Commonwealth grew in power, pushing the Scandinavians out of the Russian Regions and driving the stake into the Heart of the Alanian Empire. With its Eastern territories secured it turned its attentions south and west. Parts of the various German States and even Greater Bohemia fell to them under the relentless charges of Winged Hussars and disciplined volleys of Lithuanian line infantry. However by the 18th Century cracks began to show. In the War of the Double Entente, Scandinavia and Italy nations usually at odds, unified against the Polish and brought them a series of extreme defeats. losing its Western Territories in Prussia, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, it suffered further blows when the Kievan Rus reclaimed long lost territories, pushing the Commonwealth out of most of Western Russia, When the Catholic Italians had claimed most of the Balkan they came for Western Poland.
The Slavic People of Eastern Europe suffered, for nigh on a Century the Italians held onto these lands with an Iron Fist, depopulating entire provinces in their relentless Inquisition. However wars with the Swabians cost the Italians dearly, offering a chance for the countries of Eastern Europe to slowly push them back. Eventually after decades of grueling war the Italians had been driven out of most of the Northern and Eastern Slavic Territories, allowing the Commonwealth to reclaim much of what had been lost.
Afterwards the Lithuanian King saw fit to wage war for the Territories of Greater Saxony, reclaiming its Territories beyond the Elbe and pushing as far as Hamburg.
The Wars with Greater Saxony were complex and the shifting Alliances of Scandinavia made it even more so. The Result was constant territorial exchanges mostly to the favor of the Poles and the Scandinavians. Eventually however Swabia intervened, pushing the Polish back beyond the Elbe and claiming Territories to be Saxon as far as Königsberg.
The Swabian Internvention broke the Commonwealth. Its majority polish population long since disillusioned with its Lithuanian Kings, began to agitate for change. By 1920 the Stronictwo Narodowe (The National Peasants Party) a deeply fascist movement, officially demanded the abdication of the Penikis Dynasty. The King refused, instead declaring the Independence of the Kingdom of Lithuania. This had been unexpected especially since no one had had any idea how large the private holdings of the Lithuanian Royal Dynasty had been until that point. Almost all of Central Lithuania went with the Independence Declaration. leaving the Narodowe Party with a conondrum. To wage war with people they actually didn't want in their country, or to leave a large swathe in the center of their territory in the hands of a potential enemy.
The Kaliningrad Agreement of 1924 ratified the Recognition of the Lithuanian Kingdom as an Autonomous Province of the Commonwealth. A compromise which kept the peace although no one was happy with it.
Politically the Commonwealth is swinging between utter stability and the brink of civil war, depending on the mood of the king and the sejm at any given day. The situation is made worse by the large minority of Saxons in the Pommeranian Provinces.
Worse is the religious situation especially in the former italian areas. barely 60% of the Population still follow the Old Slavic Faith. A sizeable Catholic minority as well as large groups of finnish pagans, orthodox christians and jews cause further tension among the people within the commonwealth.
Large territorial losses and devastating wars have led to a population drop, economical and industrial backwardness and an ancient military holding to doctrines from the early 20th century and still believing cavalry charges to be a viable strategy.
On the other side stand the industrialization efforts by the National Party and the fairly modern Japanese-Model Navy.
Short Info
Medium Industry
Medium Military
Respectable Navy
Population: 46.90 Million
Government: Democracy
Ruling Party: Stronictwo Narodowe (fascist, 76%)
Other Major Parties: National Patriotic Party (liberal, 14%)
Nationalities: 59,30% Polish, 14% North German (Saxon/Pommeranian), 10% Lithuanian, 6% Rus, 4% Estonian, 3,2% Other, 1,3% Ashkenazi, 1,5% Italian
Religion: 60% Slavic, 25% Catholic, 8% Norse, 4% Orthodox, 2,3% Finnish, 1,3% Jewish
Slavonia has been one of the major Balkan Nations and maintained its position despite constant infighting with Greater Bohemia, and depredations both from italy and the Byzantine Empire. The height of its power was reached in the mid 19th Century when Slavonia became fully industrialized, making it one of the most prosperous Countries in Europe. That changed with the Italian Occupation. 100 years of endless revolts, infighting and terrorism, saw Yugoslavia rise from the ashes of the Italian Balkans.
What once was a unified prosperous nation was a series of squabbling nationalities of differing faiths, political opinions and cultures held together by only one thing: a burning hate of Italy.
A Constitutional Monarchy by mere dint of the services done by the Penikis family, its political landscape is wildly divided. the Liberal Peoples Party is at odds with the Monarchist Faction, and yet both are in an alliance out of necessity, to keep the country form falling to the hands of the various nationalist parties or the Socialist Party.
Economically the country lies in ruins. Its great industry broken on the anvil of war, its populace depleted and tired and yet there is sitll more slavs to free from the grip of the catholic opressors.
Short Info
Medium Industry
Medium Military
Ancient Small Navy
Population: 41.25 Million
Government: Constitutional Monarchy
Ruling Party: Peoples Party/Monarchist Faction Coalition (liberal/reactionary, 52%)
Other Major Parties:
Nationalities: 29,6% Serbian, 28% Slovene, 24,2% Bulgarian, 5,1% Croatian, 4,3% Hungarian, 3,5% Lombard, 1,7% Albanian, 1,5% Greek, 1,9% Others
Religion: 45% Slavic,30% Catholic, 25% Orthodox
EurasiaThe Kievan Rus can trace their origins back to the 9th Century when a Viking named Dyre the Stranger established the Jarldom of Kiev. Since time immemorial it was a country beset by enemies: Byzantium, Poland, the Alans and Mongols and finally the Italians.
Despite being the only Remaining official Jarldom in the World, The Kievan Rus have long since embraced their Slavic Roots and have prayed to Perun and Chernobog rather than Tyr and Odin for more than 900 years now.
Despite its prodigious size the country is relatively thinly settled and by all accounts an economic and industrial backwater. Political freedoms are practically non-existant despite one of the best school systems in the world. Even Thralldom has never been abolished.
For all intents and purposes Kiev never left the 19th century militarily and never left the middle ages culturally.
Only Persia and perhaps the Mongols are more backwards than this country.
Culturally the country is composed of a myriad of different nationalities, from the majority Rus over the large minority of Alans and even some anachronists still considering themselves Ugric.
Short Info
Medium Industry
Small Military
Ancient Large Navy
Population: 46.85 Million
Government: Absolute Monarchy
Ruling Party:
Other Major Parties:
Nationalities: 58% Rus, 23,8% Alan, 7% Ugro-Poles, 2,2% North Caucasian, 2% Lithuanian, 3,2% Ugric, 1,9% Greek, 1,2% Ashkenazi
Religion: 72,9% Slavic, 15,2% Orthodox, 7,2% Sunni, 2,5% Finnish, 1,8% Jewish
By any rational thought, Persia should have died in its infancy. Yet it endured and prospered somehow into the 20th Century.
Up until the 19th Century Persia hadn't even discovered Gunpowder. By the 1850s it had begun its first steps to industrialization. By 1930 it is on the way to become one of the most Industrialized nations on the planet, while not yet having discovered electricity or steam.
A country of utter opposites, Perisa lives simultaneously in the 12th and the 20th Century. to the outsider these differences seem jarring and irreconcilable. The Fact that it is called a Peoples Republic, yet Slavery is commonly accepted.
The fact that factories dot the land yet all of them are powered by animals or people. The fact that the country has embraced the Communist Creed yet is deeply religious. A country with barely 27% literacy in which heralds travel from town to town to spread the newest propaganda from the General Secretary, while Noble Landowners build private railroads.
Truly, Persia is a country of opposites. It is a country who despite its inadequacy in military matters managed to incorporate most of the middle-east into itself and drive deep into the heart of eastern russia.
The Question is how long will it last?
Short Info
Major Industrial Powerhouse
Major Military Power
Ancient Large Navy
Population: 161.40 Million
Government: Proletarian Dictatorship
Ruling Party:
Other Major Parties:
Nationalities: 34.90% Persian, 17,6% Turkish, 10,8% Mashriqi, 7,9% Pashtun, 7,3% Alans, 4,4% Kurds, 3,8% Azerbaijani, 3,3% Others, 2,9% Kazakh, 2,8% Greek, 2,0% Uzbek, 1,3% Armenian, 1,0% Baluchi
Religion: 74,5% Shiite, 10,8% Yazidi, 7% Tengri, 1,3% Coptic, 2,8% Orthodox, 0,5% Zunist, 3,1% Others
When the Mongol Empire shattered upon the Alan Empires spears the Pankhaganate broke apart. A people disillusioned the Mongols found themselves at their own and at the throats of their vassal people. This state endured well into the 18th Century at which point the Mongol people had either been largely integrated into the Persian Empire or had become of the Garwhal and Korchin Warlords squabbling for Ming Favor. It was then that the Oirat emerged from Western Siberia and like their ancestors came conquering. What emerged into the 20th century was a state as anachronistic as Kiev and Persia: The Oirat Horde. However contrary to these two states the Oirat went with the time and now the plains of Mongolia and Siberia are not traversed by horses (although these are still common) but by train, tank and car. Oirat is one of the most modernized of the Continental Asian Nations.
All thanks to Japan. And the japanese have come to collect. For the Oirat were propped up with one goal, to unify the various Central Asian people and serve as a foil to Ming Expansionism and to support the Qing against the Korchin Warlords.
troubled times lie ahead for the Oirati.
Short Info
Industrial Powerhouse
Military Power
Landlocked
Population: 30,88 Million
Government: Constitutional Monarchy
Ruling Party: Khan Faction (Conservative, 22,2%)
Other Major Parties: Lama Faction (reactionary, 25%), Freedom Party ( liberal 30%), Unity Party (fascist, 15%)
Nationalities: Yakuti 29,9%, Mongol, 29,3%, Tibetan 15%, Uighur 12%, Siberian 3%, Khazakh 3%, Ugri 3%, Panjabi 2%, Kyrgyz 1,6%, Others, 1,4%
Religion: 56,8% Tengri, 20% Sunni, 12,2% Hindu, 8,8% Gelugpa, 1,1% Thervada
The Celestial Throne still holds the Ming Dynasty, as it has done so since the deplorable Mongols have been sent packing. It is an empty victory. For China is nigh on bled to death. What once was a prosperous and mighty Nation is now but a burnt out shell of itself. Modern China consists of barely 178 Million souls. Massive indeed, but a paupers wealth compared to its 300 million original inhabitants.
The Black Death, The Mongol Incursions and the endless, endless civil war with Qing for well over 600 years has bled the nation to the bone. Yet still it stands. still the Celestial Son stands surviving rebellion after rebellion and Civil War after Civil War.
Despite this China belongs to the great nations of the world. It can boast an Industrial Machinery geared for its endless war, a people hardened by it and a military as experienced as none other, with the exemption of Japan perhaps. It can also boast the second largest standing military in the world, if not the most advanced one.
Time will tell if the Celestial Throne will finally put down the upstart Qing and restore the ancient borders or if Ming will finally bleed to death on its grievous wounds.
Short Info
Industrial Powerhouse
Major Military Power
Major Naval Power
Population: 178,69 Million
Government: Absolute Monarchy
Ruling Party: Kuomintang Sun (liberal, 7,6%)
Other Major Parties: Kuomintang Chiang (conservative, 27,3%)
Nationalities: 45% Nanfaren, 31,1% Beifaren, 6,9% Min, 4,7% Yue, 4,1% Hakka, 1,7% Manchu, 1,7% Mongol, 1,4% Bai, 1,4% Yi, 1,2% Miao
Religion: 97% Mahayana, 1,5% Thervada, 1,2% Gelugpa
Phew, that was a lot of writing.
Anyway these are the major nations and minor nations who have really anything to say on the political stage.
If you are feeling particularly masochistic here is a list of minnows and OPMs that will in all probability be awfully boring but deserve mention:
The Byzantine Empire
Exile Portugal
Exile Vlaanderen
Exile Mansurids
The Blackfoot
The Comancheria
The Socialist Peoples Republic of Navarra
Navarran West Indies (also known as the Fascist Republic of Navarra)
Astrakhan (aka the remnants of the Alanian Empire)
The Livonian Order
The Yarkand Republic (that Empire that knocked down the Mongols and then got itself eaten by everyone)
The Republic of Tidore (the little Country that could defeat Japan and Frisia in a War and once claimed all of Australia)
If you ever are confused with the map and want to know about a specific nation feel free to post...anyway to the rules.
RulesThis game will be relatively simple and work similiarly to Against the Gods.
You get 3 Major Actions per turn (and up to 5 Minor actions which are mostly for flavor and country customization).
Beyond that you will in due time be given a General Staff with random traits and unknown capabilities which will control parts of your army. In Military Situations you will play the theoretical leader of the army and can micromanage up to one front/battle, while the rest is handed off to your generals who you can give some vague orders. Depending on their skills and traits they will use theri very own unique ways to bring you victory.
Beyond that the game has also research. Generally you have one Research and one Engineering Team, which will help you out in all manners scientific and engineery(?), with the occasional roll for a Genius Scientist or Engineer showing up and bringing your research to a whole new level.
There is no Victory Condition. Success is measured by what you would consider success. The Game runs until it doesn't run anymore.
beyond that:
Etiquette1. Secret Scheming is allowed and encouraged but please, please, please put me CC into those conversations so i know whats going on.
2. Secret Military and Espionage Actions are allowed, but mundane things go into the IC-Thread.
3. Roleplay is encouraged and prefered but if you feel out of your depth you do not have to.
4.
BOLD all actions
5. REMOVE all actions that are not relevant anymore.
6. Losing is part of the Game. Do not immediately give up after a military screw up or because you lost a war. We are in the twentieth century, occupying an entire country is rarely the best solution for the victor and quite often you might come out with a bloodied nose and reeling but still alive to reclaim what is yours.
Sign-UpSimple, give me a list with 5 countries ordered by priority.
You can play nations not mentioned above but might run into massive extra difficulties due to the nation simply not being relevant in any which way. You have been warned.