History

The Last Great War; The Unholy Affair
Setting- The world (we'll call it Earth for convenience) consists of one large supercontinent, surrounded by a large continuous ocean. Within the ocean are several strings of islands ranging in size from a rough approximation of Greenland at the largest, to Cuba at smallest. The mainland is an extremely mountainous terrain, dominate features include large extensive chains of mountains, vast deserts, and tundra. There are 16 Prominant City states on the mainland, and 3 on the various islands. Other collective groups of humanity exist on the islands in various forms of government but not as city states. Doramraz exists on the Southern Coast line of the Mainland.

The important players in the war were the city states of Nienbrock, Colia, and Doramraz, with the other city states aligning themselves with either Nienbrock, or Colia. Nienbrock, a city state in the far North of the mainland, orchestrated several alliances with various other city states throughout the north, as well as several of the island nations. Colia, one of the city states on the most prominent island group in the east, declared that Nienbrock was becoming expansionist and subjugating the other city states. This was, in fact, true. The Tsar of Nienbrock had launched a campaign of conquest against the rest of the world along with his new found allies. The reason was simple, Nienbrock was being overlooked and over taxed by Colia- the main exporter of food on the planet. Nienbrock has never been able to produce enough food for its citizens due to its high latitude and mountainous terrain. In order to acquire new lands for farming and agriculture as well as obtaining strategic military positions, Nienbrock had pitted itself and its small coalition of allies against the world. At first it was thought that Colia, being the main superpower on the planet and having the strongest navy, would of course emerge victorious, and rapidly. This however was not the case. Nienbrock used its island allies to secure ports and easy access to the island fortress of Colia. The battle ships of Nienbrock rolled out their latest weapon of war- the tank. Nienbrock’s island hopping blitz crushed most of the weaker island nations rapidly, capturing port defenses so that the powerful Colian navy would have no where to dock, resupply, and repair.

While the rest of the world took sides, Doramraz remained neutral during the conflict. Doramraz was supplying both sides with raw materials and prefabricated weapons and making a tidy profit. Doramrazian engineers supplied the world with the first war time Airship, selling it to Colia first in return for food stuffs and other necessary goods that Doramraz lacked. Doramraz enjoyed some degree of separation from the war, due to two things: 1) No one was willing to risk an attack on Doramraz, its natural barriers well defended by the augmentation of mountain top howitzers capable of covering the sky and the sea, a strong navy and military, as well as an air ship fleet. 2) No one was willing to risk losing their number one supplier of war time goods. Toward the end of the war however, the City State of Nienbrock grown bold from its many victories, did launch a campaign against Doramraz. After this brutal assault the city state of Doramraz could no longer sit by, and entered the war on the side of Colia and the Allied Forces. Eventually, with the aid of Doramraz, the forces of Nienbrock were driven back and beaten into submission. A very harsh treaty was reached preventing Nienbrock from producing weapons of war, or having a substantial standing military force. Likewise, a general ban on standing armies was put into place for the all of the city states. Since the end of the war in 1896 (64 Years Prior to the start of the RP) there hasn’t been a significant conflict. The only military forces in existence are small Airship, and Naval fleets, used to protect transport ships from pirates and the like. General use of military hardware is banned by international contract. Doramraz and Colia have enjoyed a good economic relationship since the end of the war, Doramraz shipping raw materials to Colia, and Colia shipping Doramraz food stuffs and other products. Doramraz’ defenses have mostly been dismantled.

The war was significant because it was the first time that Airships were used in military combat. And because since the end of the war there has been a great stagnation in the development of new technologies. In all areas of life, there is a general feeling that everyone would like to go back to the way the world was before the war, this is evident in the dress of the upper class, who can afford to pretend it never happened by dressing in the elaborate garbs of the Pre-War World. The poor still wear the garments of the age of conflict, one of the only remaining reminders of the Last Great War. The war lasted from 1881, to 1896 it is the longest single conflict in the history of the world, and cost the most in terms of lives, money, and raw resources. It is likely the world will never recover completely from the “Unholy Affair” as it is sometimes called. Due to the educational system, and the general feeling of most of the world to pretend that it never happened, there are actually very few people who even know that it happened. Most of the veterans have either died already, or refuse to talk about it. The lingering psychological aftermath still exists, an uneasy relationship between a severely weakened Nienbrock and the rest of the world- even if no one can remember exactly why. There are no monuments to those that died during the war. It has been 64 years, and the world would rather pretend it never suffered a decade and a half of slaughter.