European Major Powers

The major powers of Europe are the industrial powerhouse of Great Britain, The less industrial but technologically advanced France, and the aggressively expansionist Nazi Germany. The three powers are relatively balanced at this time, but the balance is constantly shifting in Germany’s favor.

England’s world wide empire is logistically challenged, while France’s overseas holdings are more remote and less valuable. Germany now controls a network of smaller nations and the recent alliance with Korea threatens the balance of world wide power, starting in the far east.

Though lagging behind the boundless energy (And direct, immediate military need) of the American Aircraft manufacturers, France, England and Germany are all monolithic world-spanning powers that are easily the equal of any group of American Nations. The three main powers look to each other warily, while divvying up the world between themselves.

The British Empire is at its zenith, though constantly bickering with its arch rival, the Grand Republic of France! The two major empires have been unchallenged in the last ten years, with the American Empire dissolving in to its component nations, Russia imploded both great powers now watch the rising might and aggression of Nazi Germany with concern.

France

Liberté Toute Entière (Liberty unfettered)

• Ruler: Jules Verne III, The Scholar-President
• Capitol: Paris, France

The Grand Republic Of France is the center of learning in Europe, the paragon of democracy and enlightenment. Paris, the city of lights, casts a glow that illuminates an empire. Lead by L’Académie de Jules Verne pour la promotion de la France, French Science tends to be bold and trend setting. While France is not always the one to capitalize on the technologies developed here (The automobile, for example, was perfected in America and Britain has eclipsed France in the production and design of the Aircraft Carrier), France is able to be the first to demonstrate many new technologies.

Napoleon is considered to be a national hero, returning victorious from a conquest of mainland Europe. Rather than force his war with Russia, he turned back at the conquest of Germany, Prussia and Austria, preserving his force and retaining such strength that Britain sought treaty rather than direct conflict in 1916. Having looted Europe of its valuables and art, Napoleon was content with releasing Germany and Spain back to their own peoples, his aims fulfilled and his empire preserved.

The Grand Republic today is not known as a major industrial power, but it is self-sufficient for military production and can produce fearsome weapons of war. The Academies of France churn out prototype after prototype of fanciful and arcane inventions, some useful, some not so much. The volume of innovation taking place however, keeps France on the cutting edge.

The Military of France is a vast thing, flung around the world. It’s main centers of logistics are Indochina, Madagascar, Dijabouti, Haiti and France itself. The French Airforce is one of the most feared Air Forces in the world, with dedicated pilots who receive the absolute best that the French can provide. The French navy is second only to Great Britain’s in scope and size.

The French Foreign Air Legion (FFAL) accepts pilots (and their planes) from any background, any nation, so long as they are willing to serve France for a term of no less than four years. As such, the FFAL tends to be rag tag, with a wide variety of equipment, but surprisingly effective none the less. It is not unusual to find Russians flying with Arabs, with both flying German planes. The FFAL does not maintain a flight school. You are either a pilot, and can prove it, or you are not, and you get a rifle.

Colonial Holdings

• African Holdings
  • West Africa
  • Madagascar
  • North Africa
  • Morocco
• American Holdings
  • Haiti
  • French Louisiana
  • French West Indies
  • French Guiana
• Asian Holdings
  • French Indochina
  • Formosa

Germany

Heil Hitler!

• Ruler: Karl Harrer, The Occult Overlord
• Capitol: Berlin, Germany

The Third Reich cannot fall. Not even the untimely death of Adolf Hitler in 1938, cut down in the prime of his power by a cowardly assassin’s bullet, could halt the rise of the Reich. The British and French policies of appeasement have allowed Germany to consume Czechoslovakia, Denmark, The Netherlands and Poland without challenge. So focused have the main powers been on each other and their rivalry, they did not foresee the might of the Reich and its rise to challenge their prowess.

Through alliances with Austria-Hungary and Italy, through the consumption of Denmark and the Netherlands, Germany has inherited an impressive colonial empire that they are rapidly capitalizing on. Secure on the Russian front by the long running Russian Civil War, Germany is free to turn its incredible industrial might to producing a war machine the likes of which has never been seen in the world. A fleet of undersea boats prowl the Atlantic, shadowing French and British warships while German aeronautics stands ahead of even the French, with powerful warplanes and long range zeppelins capable of carrying more aircraft than even their British counterparts.

The current leader of the Reich is Chancellor and President is Karl Harrer, long time confidant and occult adviser to Hitler. Hitler himself is now a national hero, referred to as ‘Uns Aller Vater’, or ‘Father to us all’. German forces have assisted in the rise of Mussolini and Franco, putting vast pressures on France, while the power of the rising Korean Empire places concern on Britain for its dominance of the far east.

The German Empire rises quickly; and in doing so, upsets the delicate balance of power. Nazi agents currently scour the globe for mystic artifacts and legends, bringing them back to Berlin for Chancellor Herrer to study. Of interest is the Chinese Great Wall of Elemental Air, and its near perfect anti-aircraft defense. If Germany could learn its secrets, it would be unstoppable in Europe.

With the largest core of trained, battle-tested troops, Germany is a fearsome enemy that the British have finally recognized and are starting to move against. The Condor Legion of the Luftwaffe represents the most technologically advanced air force, with the best trained air corps, in all of Europe. While other air forces may be larger, they are spread out around the world. Under Harrer, the German war machine has slowed, resting between invasions and annexations, allowing the military to come back to full strength after the absorption of much of Central Europe.

Internally, the Reich is quietly divided. While none can object to the success of Harrer, he is not by any means beloved by all the people, or the higher ranked military. Much of the higher-ranked Nazi party fears Harrer and works secretly, quietly, against the Thule Society, seeing it as a bastardization of Nazi purity. One of the major anti-Thulians is Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander of the German navy, the Kriegsmarine.

Colonial Holdings

• European holdings
  • Poland
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Denmark
• Asian Holdings
  • Dutch East Indies
• South American Holdings
  • German Suriname
  • The Falkland Islands
  • Kaltenstine Station (Antarctica)
• African Holdings
  • German West Africa

Great Britain

Pax Britannica!

• Ruler: Elizabeth II, The Child Queen
• Capitol: London, England

Great Britain is an empire where the sun never sets, a world wide empire at the apex of its power. With nearly a quarter of the worlds territory and a third of its population under its control, there has never been a greater empire. But as the premiere power on the planet, it is also the primary target for a wide variety of competing interests and powers. The recent alliance between the Korean Empire and the Third Reich threatens over a century and a half of Pax Britannica. A major war in the far east may bring the Empire down, like the overstretched, complacent power that it is.

London is the center of industrial production in the world, where everything and anything can be built upon the pillars of industry and science. Furthermore, its former alliance with the Korean Empire has allowed British geomancers, or Druids, to tap into the Amesbury Convergence, the only known place in the known world where three leylines intersect, at the Stonehenge Megalith. Despite this, the Crown is wary of any reliance upon the Occult, focusing instead on the strength of Britain industry.

Industry, science, and a healthy dose of magic has led to the unprecedented charge of British dominance in international affairs, although many have noted that its once innovative and adventurous aristocracy are becoming complacent and decadent, and the British, in their zeal to expand and discover, have grossly overextended themselves.

With the recent collapse of its alliance with Korea and growing tensions with former allies in Italy, Britain is courting new friends to compensate, investing greatly in the infrastructure of Nanjing to court the favor of Emperor Pao and offering fresh marriage proposals between the Princesses of the Court of London and the Dukes of the Courts of Austria-Hungary. Prime Minister Lloyd Douglas has been seeking a friend in the fractious Confederacy of Dixie through trade relations and the lending of older military ships and equipment to help the Confederacy gain an upper hand against its rivals for North American supremacy. If it can secure a firm ally in a major north American power, it can retain primacy in the Americas and centralize it’s empire again.

Britain remains the center of proper aristocratic training and higher education. While France may content itself with educating the common man, The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge serve as important schools where British, Scottish, American, Italian, German, Austrian, and even Chinese and Korean aristocrats all mingle together, creating a network of allies from the ground up. The Amesbury Convergence is also an important area where various mystics and magicians flock to witness one of the most powerful mystical centers in the Western hemisphere.

Britain has the most powerful Air Force on the seas or skies, and she wields a larger fleet of carriers, both Aero and Naval, than France. Her reach is limitless, her web of allies is vast and her resources are immense. The only nation so far to be able to field the AeroDreadnought, her anger when roused is not a thing to take lightly. The primary problem facing the British Empire is one of focus; while the Empire, if brought to bear, would be unstoppable… it’s logistically impossible to organize, move and effectively wield a full one third of the worlds population.

Colonial Holdings

• European Holdings
  • Gibraltar
  • Malta
  • Cyprus
  • The Low Countries
• Asian Holdings
  • India
  • Hong Kong
  • Okinawa
  • Malaysia
• American Holdings
  • Protectorate of Ontario
  • Bermuda
  • The Bahamas
  • Jamaica
  • British Guyana
  • Eastern Australia
• Middle Eastern and African Holdings
  • Egypt
  • Palestine
  • African Colonies

Italy

• Head of State (Consul): Benito Mussolini
• Triumvir (Italia): Benito Mussolini
• Triumvir (Sicily): King Ferdinand Pius
• Triumvir (Piedmont-Sardinia): King Victor Emmanuel III
• Princeps Senatus: Viconte Lorenzo Barbaro (Aquileia)
• Prime Minister: Prince Victor Emmanuel IV (Piedmont-Sardinia)
• Master of the Horse: Prince Ferdinand Pius II (Sicily)
• Capital: Rome, Italy

After the Great War and the injustices heaped upon Italy, the dream of Italian unification fell apart. While nominally confederated under the Mussolini government in Rome, Fascist Italy exists at the mercy of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Luckily for Mussolini, the Italian aristocracy, in sharp contrast to the British aristocracy, exploited the rise of fascism in Italy to entrench their authority and maintain primitive lines of authority that keep Italy from reaching super-power status.

Indeed, Italy finds itself a land of sharp contrasts. The aristocrats-turned-industrialists are patrons to boutique industries that specialize in highly fashionable, technologically advanced, and ultra modern goods in minute quantities. At the same time, Italy, for a moderate economy, is a major industrial power, able to churn out cheap but reliable, technologically inferior ‘budget goods’ at nearly double the productivity of its nearest industrial rival.

While Italy is mocked by the other European powers as a producer of cheap, third-rate goods, Milan and Rome are the centers of high culture in Europe, from opera singers to the latest fashion. While South of France may attract the nouveaux riche of Europe, Sicily is where true British and German aristocrats can meet together and play a round of polo, have heated debates over global affairs, or trade the latest fashion tips and fashionable colors. Italian super-premium boutique goods are coveted from the Havana to Nanjing. The Kingdom of Sicily and its Mediterranean navy holds the keys to stable oil output from North Africa.

It is currently allied to Germany and at a state of cold war with France. It entered into a grudging alliance at the request of Berlin in 1932 with Austro-Hungary, but as German relations with the Austro-Hungarians falter, so do Italian relations with their former enemies. It also maintains reasonably good relations with Great Britain, in part due to the support of the House of Savoy (and the fact the Prince is married to the daughter of the British King) and also the lucrative oil leases along the Libyan coast since their alliance in the Great War. But Prince Victor Emmanuel IV of Piedmont-Sardinia has warned several times that even their friends in North Italy cannot support a British-French alliance and will move for Rome to take back ‘What is rightfully ours.’

Mussolini is rumored to be moving towards the purge of the pesky Senators from the Venezia-Florence Faction, staunch allies of the House of Savoy, to solidify his power in the Republic of Italy. As it stands, Mussolini may be the de jure head of the nation with the faithful acquiescence of the King of Sicily, Ferdinand Pius, he bristles under the powerful veto that Victor Emmanuel IV wields in directing the course of Italian destiny.

Colonial Holdings

• African Holdings
  • Libya
  • Ethiopia
  • Somalia

Grecian Fracture Zone

Caught between the shifting tides of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Turkey, both long enemies of the Grecian states with vested interests in its continued instability, this area has disintegrated in to a patchwork of warlords and pirate kingdoms. Borders shift to fast to be recorded, but what is known is that any shipping in this area requires bribing the pirates, or being strong enough to not be targeted.

One of the strongest of the Pirate Lords is Aristotle Onassis, Ruler of the isle of Crete. This powerful businessman, owner of a fleet of ships and a large stable of zeppelins, runs the most stable of the fractured patchwork of the Grecian City States. Mr. Onassis represents the best hope for a reunified greece, a thing that makes him a target to both the Turks and the Austro-Hungarians.

French Haiti

Controlling Power: France Governor:

Napoleons Peace with the British resulted in the Spanish ‘gifting’ France with the eastern portions of Hispaniola, granting France greater access and domination of the Caribbean.

Tortuga

Free city and pirate haven, this is the city to go when you want to buy something; anything. It doesn’t matter what.

Cuba

Controlling Power: Self-Governed Governor: Presidente Juan Batista

After the victory of Franco’s Nacionales in Europe, the remaining Republicanos flee to Cuba with Infante Don Juan, Count of Barcelona, the heir to the Spanish throne. The Cuban aristocracy welcomes the would-be King with kisses in public and curses in private. The young Count is a charismatic and accomplished military man in his own right, and uses his oratory skills (and considerable stored wealth) to ‘convince’ Batista to allow him to purchase the former U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay as a base of operation for his government in exile. It currently exists as a nation within a nation, a sovereign state within the bounds of Cuba. For the last few years, the Nacionales have let this situation be… but new support from a resurgent Deutsches Reich under Reichskanzler Karl Harrer and his Italian allies mean that this might change.

Hungary

The Austro Hungarian Empire survived the Great War intact due in part to it’s switch in sides near the end to help destroy the Ottoman Empire and it’s close relations with Tsarist Russia. Under king Karl I, it has prospered by playing both sides of the Russian conflict, while keeping the Grecian/Macedonian civil war burning brightly. By selling weapons and mercenaries to all sides, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has grown wealthy and powerful.

The Austrian Empire has long been in a historical rivalry with Italy, but with the rise of Fascism there, is somewhat at an impasse. Italy was an allied nation in the Great War while Austria-Hungary was a belligerent. The recent alliance of Italy to Germany and the rise of the Fascists, has Emperor Karl I very concerned, given their anti-noble focus, a view that exceeds even Nazi Germany’s push to move the aristocracy from power. This shift could push Austria-Hungary into a forced alliance with Great Britain, or a more direct alliance with the Tsarist Russian forces, for its own survival as a power.

Austria Hungary finds itself in a very precarious position from which it may be hard to extract itself and retain its sovereignty.

Libya

Libya is arguably Italy’s crown jewel in its limited colonial possessions, with Tripoli as the central nexus for oil production in North Africa under the old British-French-Italian alliance during the Great War. A third of the total output and half of the oil refining capacity of North Africa is focused on Tripoli, so far preventing a total breakdown in civility between former allies and present rivals.

Posted on September 18 2010