Imperium Offtopicum XXV

[Immaculate]

Basic Information
Short Name: Rationalists
Full Name: French Rationalist Republic
Capital: Paris
Flag: Standard french flag; the Rationalist make extensive use of Bridges in their iconography
Color: blue

Provinces: Continental France. The oversea colonies have all been lost. If continental France is too much, then bleed away the outer regions and we can say that they are lawless and potentially culturally french but not actually governed by us.

Description
France was badly bloodied by the great wars, its manpower and treasures bled and its colonies increasingly agitating for independence. To assist in its reconstruction, France invested heavily in autonomous machines and these same machines turned upon their 'masters' during the machine tyrant attacks of 1920. Bled in flesh and treasure, the French republic was ill-ready to defend itself against the machines and it was only the defeat of the Machine Tyrant in other theaters that allowed French survival.
Ultimately the combined stresses of the Great War and the Machine Tyrant attacks were enough to break the French Republic and in the aftermath, its colonies, seeing France too weak to defend them, or to press her claims upon its protectorates, began to agitate for independence. With little power to assert its will, let alone a truly functional government, the Republic was quick to recognize their independence in the hopes of at least maintaining good trade relations.
The years between 1921 and 1929 saw the French elect 'le Parti Radical Rational', leftist social-liberals with a strong technocratic/academic influence. A small group of thaumaturges, with ancestral roots in the philosophical societies associate with the salons of the 17th and 18th century, forms the core of the party and holds dominant positions within the government.
Today France is a nation torn asunder and torn asunder again. Its great cities are a mixture of ruins and ambitious reconstruction projects. Its military is hugely undermanned. Without its colonies, its industries have had to contract and retool, and, in necessity, turning again to machines. Its government is young, idealistic, and largely both naive and untried.
Despite this, the Rationalist have adapted rapidly, reverse-engineering the automatons of the Machine Tyrant and applying the knowledge widely in industrial, commercial, administrative, and military applications.

Philosophy Towards Machines and Machine Intelligence:

Sentience & Machine Mind: The rationalists believe that the complex 'machine soul' driving the 'sentience' of automatons is limited and indeed can be explained with sufficient understanding as the functions of a logical and ordered programming. As such, they do not believe that machines may have 'free will'. Unfortunately, this has led to the logical comparison to the human mind and consequently, many rationalists believe that the human brain is similarly limited, and operates as a sort of complex 'program' responding to environmental inputs and evolutionary programing. Still, for many, this is 'good enough' and while there is a nihilist undertone to Rationalist teachings, it is not dominant.

Use of Automatons and 'Sentient' Machines: The rationalists are inherently suspicious of 'sentient' robots, as they do not understand what their primary objectives are or how their programing became so complex (just as they are, often, suspicious of humans for the same reason). This, and the consequences of the Machine Tyrant attacks and the vulnerability of their people to a second attack, has limited the use of complex 'machine souls' within the republic despite wide-spread technological education and aptitude and cultural openness to technology generally. Instead the Rationalist Republic widely uses 'pre-sentient' automation, akin to 'machine-learning' in OTL. A rationalist republic machine may learn to be more and more effective effective at coordinating logistics, balancing a flying machine, or cleaning a factory, but it would not be able to hold a conversation or argue philosophy as might machines with more complex 'machine souls'.


Civil Aspects

Politics: France is a democratic republic with the 'le Parti Radical Rational' holding power since the re-establishment of French government (the Fourth Republic) after the collapse of the 3rd Republic during the Machine Tyrant's attacks.
Le Parti are left-leaning (which it believes is the logical and rational culmination of social evoluation) and have implemented progressive income tax, social insurance, expanded educational opportunities, and labor cooperatives schemes. They are progressives, and strongly anti-royalist and anti-clerical/church. Most parti members are highly educated/academics, priding themselves on rationalism, logic, technological futurism, and within the party there is wide support for atheism.
The thaumaturge core continues to have an oversized influence in both the Parti and the wider political arena with extensive influence within the French intelligence services.
While the Parti currently enjoys wide popularity, their opposition are the 'Bloc National', traditionalists with support from the Church, the army, and imperialists.

Economy: Rebuilding the economy and generating wealth and wide financial opportunity and security for the population has been the primary focus of the post-war government. Industrial and worker cooperatives under central planning models are being implemented widely but still experimental in many ways. Manpower shortages have meant wide-scale implementation of new machine technologies, including the afore-mentioned pre-sentient automatons which are core to many industries.
Despite these efforts, France has necessarily had to tighten its belt in the wake of the Machine Tyrant's attacks and the loss of its colonies. The flow of raw resources from colonies is not nearly as extensive and now must be repaid fairly in finished goods.

Diplomacy: Badly battered and having lost its colonies, the French Rationalist Republic's anti-monarchy, anti-clerical position are sure to anger some. Still, with a wide variety of neighbors experiencing much more extreme forms of strange ideological government, todays' France may seem almost reassuring in its 'vanilla' perspectives and challenges.
The Rationalist Republic did not support imperial/colonial action against Arabs in the former Middle Eastern colonies and specifically denounced the action of the renegade imperialists and remnants of the pre-Machine Tryrant government in Syria who acted without French orders or support.
The Rationalists are suspicious of sentient machines and especially suspicious of sentient machines in positions of political or administrative power.

Research: The rationalist government are strong supporters of wide-scale education and proponents of technological solutions to social and other problems. Its universities are well-funded and meritocratic-based subsidies for attendance a cornerstone of the current government. The current academic/technocratic culture means philosophy and natural sciences are widely studied not just by academics but across the increasingly literate population as a means of social advancement and cultural pride.
The Rationalist Republic government is assisted by venerable and aging but none-the-less extremely potent analytical engine, "Delecluze". As mentioned above, they make wide-scale use of pre-sentient 'dumb' machine souls in many applications and 'coding' as a science and as a profession is growing exponentially as is the use thereof in industry, commerce, communications, and administration.

Military Aspects

Army: The French military is undermanned but well-armed, the fruit of French technological expertise. A core of battle-hardened veterans do their best to train post-war recruits.
One new investment in the army since the machine attacks has been an acceleration of incorporating thaumaturges into the armed services. These often also serve as political officers. Presently almost all fighting groups can expect dedicated magical support of varying capability and prowess.
A second investment has been the incorporation of pre-sentient 'dumb' machine souls in applications as diverse as supporting the balance for flying machines, accelerating range-finding and targeting for naval guns, and logistic and communications support at a strategic level.
A third application, specifically to counter enemy automatons is electronic counter-measures, heavy wireless telegraphy (radio) 'interference' meant to isolate mechs from one-another and prevent effective coordination and communication between them.
Mechs and various military automatons are operated by humans and never wholly independent or 'sentient'.

Navy: What few ships survived the Tyrant's attacks continue to serve as the core of the French navy, its officers and crew hardened veterans. New ship-building has been very limited and largely focused on trials for technological concepts of academic-minded/connected senior officers more than actual military applications.

Air Force: Like the navy, the airforce is largely made up of the remnants of the Machine Tyrant's attacks. The pilots and support crew are very competent, battle-hardened veterans but their numbers are small and expansion and recovery of the airforce has not been prioritized.
Small experimental programs dedicated to pilotless, wireless telegraphy-controlled combat aircraft is in its infancy.

Intel: The French Rationalist Republic has a competent intelligence apparatus and enjoys better funding than does the military. It is divided into three departments:
- Troisième Agence- foreign intelligence and espionage
- Le Directoire Centrale- counter-intelligence
- Coopérative d'Intelligence Police- domestic intelligence in support of police activities
Additionally, the thaumaturge core of the government have extensive direct influence in the affairs of the three main branches of French intelligence and the intelligence services themselves are enriched in 'thaumaturges' to enable secret communication, scrying, and more.
Signals intelligence is growing rapidly and the Rationalist Republic intelligence operations are increasingly competent at both electronic counter measures (see army, above) and electronic signal interception. Indeed the Troisième Agence operates both small submarines and lighter than air balloons for that express purpose.

 

[Crezth]

How steam punk is this setting? I guess what's really important here is what is the role of airships and airplanes?

This is similar to steampunk but what we're going for here is dieselpunk, which is like steampunk but more carburetors and combustion than steam-power and clockworks. Now practically speaking some of the larger mechs can use steam power, but diesel engines just pull so much more weight and are so much easier to build and maintain for long periods of operation.

As for what this means in the sky, well there are still zeppelins out and about, ferrying passengers to and fro in champagne-soaked comfort, but the golden age of aviation is well underway and metal-body propeller monoplanes are all the rage.

 

[Sonereal]

Basic Information
Short Name: The Commissariat

Full Name: Sultanate of Egypt and Sudan
Capital: Cairo
Flag: The flag that is used to represent your polity.


Civil Aspects
Politics: Nationalism and Imperialism

The Sultanate of Egypt and Sudan is nominally led by Sultan Fuad I. In practice, Egypt and Sudan, as well as Greece, Cyprus, and Constantinople are controlled by High Commissioner Edmund Allenby, a former high-ranking member of the British Army that defected under the cover of the Era of the Machine Tyrant in the face of the increasingly draconian British government.

Sultan Fuad I and Edmund Allenby provide each other legitimacy and military muscle respectively. Allenby, disillusioned by the empire he once served, throws himself in support of King Fuad’s increasingly nationalistic ambitions so long as his soldiers are able to retire comfortably in Egypt and Sudan.

Economy: Industrialization and the Canal
The Suez Canal is still a major link between Europe and India, even more so with the degradation of imperial control around Africa. However, Allenby and Fuad have pushed heavily for industrialization, taking advantage of Egypt’s natural hydraulic power and cotton.

Diplomacy: Pan-Arab Nationalism
The control ideology of the state as expressed in foreign policy is Pan-Arab Nationalism. With the British evicted from West Asia, both the High Commissioner and Sultan Fuad view the Arab Confederation with intense suspicion and as a rival in the pursuit of this nationalism.

Underlying Fuadism, however, is an imperial drive and belief that the Sultanate of Egypt and Sudan is the core of new empire to replace the old European empires, especially the British.

Research: OOC: I’m picturing roughly the same Egypt we would have in OTL. There will have been roughly a decade of British exiles helping developing the Egyptian technical base, so there would be improvements over OTL, especially with regards to military technology.

Military Aspects
Army: An increasingly professionalized but under armed infantry supported by an aging but well-maintained British walker force from the defection a decade ago.
Navy: Again, parts of the British Navy in the Eastern Mediterranean and Persian Gulf that defected to the Commissariat.
Air Force: Likely the most developed with a domestic aeroplane industry in support
Intel: Professional, infamous, the stuff of novels.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

​

Basic Information
Short Name: the Free Republic, the F.R.
Full Name: Free Republic of America
Capital: Douglass (renamed OTL Jackson, Mississippi)
Flag: see above
Color: aa3232
Provinces: see below map

Spoiler Map :

Description
Post-reconstruction era United States sees formation of black magical secret societies (armed Exodusters with the support of Benjamin Singleton, former Freedman's Bureau agents, later on the African Legion and African Blood Brotherhood) that fight clandestine war with segregationist and white supremacist mage unions (e.g. the K.K.K.). Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta compromise" is rejected by white elite in the south, resulting in an end to accomodationism and the earlier advance of militancy and separatist ideas among African Americans. When the Machine Tyrant's army brings war to America in 1920, whites in the south are disproportionately slaughtered due to their successful crowding out of blacks from centres of mechanization and robotics. During that year of general chaos, white supremacist politicians declare a New Confederacy and secede from the Union, but are a minority within the new society. The white supremacist government attempts ethnic cleansing of black communities only a few couple after the Machine Tyrant's war (1923) - but this rapidly backfires and blows up into a civil war. Sophisticated magic pioneered by the Exodusters and Tuskegee Institute, combined with greater numbers and support from foreign volunteers from the north as well as socialist countries abroad, overwhelms the exhausted reactionaries. The victorious coalition of white progressives and blacks declares a multi-racial republic in 1925 with a name and flag still attempting to claim the universalist mantle of the former United States. People of colour from around the former United States migrate in over the next several years (and many racists migrating out). Due to the efforts of pan-Africanist politicians such as Marcus Garvey, whose beliefs are entering a high-point in the Republic and wider Americas, the Free Republic accepts several Caribbean states petitioning to join in the late 1920s what is increasingly recognized as a de facto pan-African state.

Civil Aspects
Politics: The Free Republic is a young democracy with an ongoing terror campaign from white supremacists, as well as a number of militant black mage unions with their own agenda. The mages of the K.K.K. continue a terror campaign and still see themselves as fighting out the civil war and have sympathy from some of the white minority. The African Legion, the Freedman's Bureau agents, etc. continue to engage in paramilitary magical warfare with white supremacists, including beyond the country's borders, and are widely feared to be plotting a takeover of Free Republic by force. Political disagreement among the black population is driven by whether the nation's identity should be as a black/pan-African state, or a more perfect union in the style of America's idealistic aspirations. This disagreement also largely polarizes along class lines - the old and business class on the side of the Free Republic of America, and the young, students, intellectuals, and working class for a pan-African nation.
Economy: The Machine Tyrant and the civil war left the economy much reduced from its former high of mechanization and industrialization. Currently, agricultural goods like cotton, cereals, and wood products are major exports, with modest industry in major urban centres like Atlanta, Douglass (OTL Jackson), Birmingham, and Savannah. Ship manufacturing is unusually well developed thanks to some successful black ventures in the 1910s that connected various parts of the Caribbean to the U.S. south. Atlanta is a burgeoning centre of finance, with northern black banks having relocated or setup new offices there. Remittances flow from major northern cities (New York, Chicago) to the Free Republic, including from musicians and artists who are pioneering jazz under record companies based in Atlanta.
Diplomacy: For African peoples the world-over, the Free Republic's civil war and victory are a major inspiration, with revolutionaries and intellectuals seeing the Free Republic very positively. Socialist and left-wing governments also generally favour the Free Republic though not as much as if its pan-African political wing were in-charge.
Research: The Free Republic's base of expertise is weak in mechanical devices due to prior segregation and institutional racism, but quite advanced in thaumatology, which has been the weapon of choice of black secret societies. The Tuskegee Institute greatly advanced understanding of magic since the late 1800s.

Military Aspects
Army: The army is somewhat eclectic, with diverse guerilla and militia groups having fought during the civil war disconnected from one another. The main branch of the military are the mages affiliated with the Tuskegee Institute, which is the most sophisticated part of the army and composes most of the officers. An attempt to standardize the army has succeeded somewhat, creating a professional "half" under mage-affiliated leadership and a more ragtag "half."
Navy: The navy has been built from scratch since the defeat of the New Confederacy - it is quite small, but composed of modern vessels, all having been built domestically since the end of the civil war.
Air Force: The air force is also small, but unlike the navy which benefits from a domestic ship building industry, the air force is just whatever old planes were captured by the end of the civil war. The air force is weak.
Intel: The intelligence networks of the Free Republic are widespread throughout North America, the Caribbean and some parts of Africa. Anti-colonial struggle brings many allies to the fore for the Free Republic. Furthermore, many agents of those aforementioned secret societies work directly for the state intelligence branch, having been in the business of perfecting secrecy and covert operations since the end of Reconstruction (e.g. Underground Railroad secret codes, networks, decentralized leadership).

 

[Double A]

my phone has the worst image editor

 

[tobiisagoodboy]

Woldageutsche Föderation


Basic Information
Short Name: Wolgadeutschland
Full Name: Bundesrepublik Deutscher und Russischer Nationen entlang der Wolga
Capital: Saratow
Flag: The flag that is
Color: cecece
Provinces:

Description
The Tyrant lay waste to the most prosperous and industrial nation of Europe. Germany burned, not region, no city, no village was save. At first the southern states thought they could stem the tide, their hills and forest giving them the cover to stop the monsters. They did not. All their armies could was delay and so, they fled. First to Bavaria, then Austria and further and further east, always desperately avoiding the hordes and trying to stay ahead of the Tyrant. Their treck, lead by the southern German monarchs grew, picking up refugees everywhere, picking their route clean off any german minority they came across. At the Volga they stopped. They hoped to have outrun the monsters and in case they caught up, the soldiers dug in. The refugees, takin in by their distant cousins and new russian comrades immediately went to work, creating workshops, digging up whatever ores they could find and cultivating all the land they could.
Then the soldiers fought and fought. They held the line for as long as they could and then, it was suddenly over. The Tyrant was gone and an eerie peace filled the world. The Germans by then could no longer return to homeland that had changed radically and they had found a new home along the Volga. They would defend it to the last. That is how they tell their own story at least. For many of the native Russians and local russian authorities and defense forces it was more of an initial blessing, as they saw the Germans as much needed reinforcements. However, they quickly found themselves either removed from power or disarmed, once the war was over and the Germans properly settled down.​

Civil Aspects
Politics:
Once a emergency military coalition of German refugees and local russian authorities, Wolgadeutschland is today a relatively stable federal democracy. At least for the German population, as the Russian cities and people have no voting rights on the federal level and have only limited autonomy rights. The Germans have control over the federal government and armed forces they created. The German exiles forming the top of society and controlling most of the government, military and industry. However the status quo is challenged alot, interestingly the democratic nature of the German government has also strenghtened the local Russian national-liberal forces, who seek a free Russian Republic, or at least a Republic where Russians and Germans are equal.
The original Wolggerman population is actually supporting the Russian desire for liberty and uses the fact that they have the same rights as the German exiles, to advocate their cause. After generations they feel closer to their russian neighbors and friends, then the foreigners who just happen to speak the same language.
The German political sphere is dominated by national liberal and conservative parties and the military, however recently the shattered remnants of german socialism have begun to reform. A new, if till now small, SP(W)D has risen to challenge what had become the status quo in the republic. This party has also proven to be much more open to equality between Germans and Russians, although it is not their priority.
Economy:
The many refugees that came to the Wolgas were often well educated workers and farmers. Quickly they build up an industry to support the brave men defending their new home. While still mostly agrarian, Wolgadeutschland posses several important industrial centres in its cities and is generally self sufficient in most matters. The Industry is dominated by the german exiles and to lesser extent the Wolga Germans themselves. Russian are mostly limited to simple labour jobs or live and work in their farms.
The is one thing even the russian nationalists agree was a blessing from the Germans, they instituted a sweeping land reform, which increased agricultural output and improved the economic situation of the rural population
Diplomacy:
Wolgadeutschland is open to all diplomatic and economic ties with other nations. However its isolated position makes it rather hard to stay in contact with other nations. They are fiercly independent and will not accept anybody encroaching on their independence.

Research:
They have just recently rebuild their own research institutes, including a few small universities and higher education schools. Progress is slow, as the agrarian nature of the country limits available funds

Military Aspects

Army: Well trained and highly motivated to protect their new home, the Wolgadeutsche Armee follows prussian traditions and still benefits from the German officer corps it inherited. Its mostly an infantry force equipped with a small force of old, but well maintained mechanized walkers. The growing national industry is slowly replacing the older equipment with more modern alternatives. The Bundesstreitkräfte are also always starved for manpower. While some have tried to lessen this problem with a few timid steps towards mechanization, it is without question that the small German population just can't supply the necessary manpower for a proper military, that could defend their expansive terretory.
There are local russian self defense militias, but they have little more equipment than simple rifles and neither have the supplies nor training or motivation to stop any foes beyond simple bandits.

Navy:
We have a few gunboats in the Caspian Sea and on the Wolga... thats all.
Air Force:
Mostly equipped with older Great War vintage Bi-Planes, there are plans to modernize the force. Thanks to several German Aces joining their treck to the Volga their training level however is excellent. Recently the air force has moved into the centre of attention for the military, seeing it as a possiblity to lessen their manpower problems. They see Air power as a way to lessen these problems.
Intel:
Limited, however they have agents implanted into many of the remainign german minorities across Easter Europe and esspecially those in Russia outside of their own borders.​

 

[Butteryicarus]

Link to video.



Basic Information

The Spanish Republic - República Española

More commonly known as just Spain. Occasionally referred to as the Second Republic.

Its Capital is Madrid, but its autonomous territories have their own provincial capitals in Barcelona for Catalonia and Vitoria-Gasteiz for the Basque Country.

Colour: #f6b511 – Spanish Yellow





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Description

In 20th century Iberia, brother killed sister, neighbour killed neighbour, and Spaniard killed Spaniard.


Spain during the Age of Steam was backwards, poverty-stricken and irrelevant on the world stage. The stubborn complacency of her Kings meant that Spain never benefited from the prosperity and prestige that England, France and Germany basked in. A disastrous war with the United States sealed the declining empire’s fate, and she lost her colonies in Cuba and the Philippines.

When the Machine horde poured into Spain, it was a bloodbath. The army was woefully under-equipped, and King Alfonso XIII fled as his subjects were slaughtered like cattle. In the anarchy, Spain as a single entity was annihilated as the people huddled around what safe zones were carved out by the remnants of the army.

As the Metal Tyrant faded into history, so did the old Kingdom. As centuries of societal divisions and anger at the status quo bubbled over, Spain spent the 1920s divided into warring cliques, each claiming to be rightful successor to Spain. In 1927, a shaky coalition of liberal democrats, socialists and anarchists took Madrid from the ruling warlord clique and proclaimed a Spanish Republic. This is commonly seen as the final stage of what would later be called the Spanish Civil War, as various right-wing factions ceased hostilities against each other upon seeing what they viewed as an existential threat.

The violence committed by the Republicans and the newly christened Nationalist coalition would scar the Spanish people. Attacks on civilians were commonplace. Torture and rape were rampant. In 1929, the last Nationalist bastions on the Portuguese borders refused surrender, and soon a mass exodus into neighbouring Portugal began. The Portuguese dictatorship under Oscar Carmona reluctantly let them seek refuge, with several Portuguese generals objecting in fear of a Spanish reprisal.

In reality, Spain was by then a broken nation. A continuation of the war into Portugal was out of the question. Millions lay dead, its fields and roads burning and broken. The Republic halted at the Portuguese border, and the Nationalists set up a government-in-exile. Terrorist attacks, linked to the surviving nationalists, are unfortunately commonplace. Portuguese and Spanish relations remain cold to this day.


Spain in the present day is a nation that barely functions. Not only is it reeling from a decade of national fratricide, her shaky government, an alliance of convenience, is now at odds with itself. Led by its PM; the untested Francisco Largo Caballetro, the young Republic needs to find her footing, fast.




Civil Aspects

Politics: Spain is a young, decentralised parliamentary democracy.

A unique aspect of Spanish democracy is the complete lack a singular head of state. Instead, the Spanish People's Council has three, and soon four, Heads. They each hail from a language or cultural group within Spain; one hails from the majority 'Castlians', another hails from Catalan lands while the third comes from Galicia. The fourth, a Basque, is...controversial.

So far, the heads of state are:
Ivette, Councillor of the Castilian Republic. A staunch republican, veteran of the Spanish Unification War. She retired from the Air wings an ace with seven kills, but she seems reluctant to speak about her war days. She's a reserved, thoughtful person, with few but close friends.

Paloma, of the Catalonian People's Commune. Catalonia and Valencia are a torch of Anarchism in Spain, and are a major thorn in the more moderate Republic's side. Paloma herself was the rising star in Anarchist Catalonia; a true believer in her cause. She's fiery, passionate but reckless.

Mateo, of the Galician Christian Republic. A bastion of Catholicism in the secular republic, Galicia has seen a huge population boon from immigrants fleeing anti-clercism in Catalonia and Valencia. Mateo is a staunch Republican, but he is a deeply religious man, and opposes further secularisation of the Republic. Critics say the Republic may have propped up his election due to his more moderate views. Mateo tends to wish for the attention of the room if he wants to, so to speak. His unwillingness to bulge in his views makes him a tough man to work with, but Ivette and Paloma need to work through him to keep down tensions with Spain's religious populace.

Asier, of the Basque Free Territory. The industrial heart of Spain, ahead of even the rather developed Catalan lands. The Republicans gaining Basque support during the unification wars was instrumental to their victory. It was also the only area in Spain with a sizable machine population, and a good number of machines stayed loyal and resisted the Machine Tyrant.
Asier proved to be an instrumental leader, defending Bilbao from both rogue machines and warlords alike. His election to sit as the head of the Basque people on the council was a landslide. His mandate was clear. However, his position was blocked for almost a year, the source of a huge political crisis, and it was only in 1929 that Asier would finally take his position.
As much of a poet as he was a leader, Asier proudly calls himself Basque. But the controversy, to sum it up, was because Asier is also a machine.


Economy: Spain had one of the least developed economies in Western Europe. Slow to industrialise, Spain’s people suffered from lower living standards and pitiful wages.

Despite this, Spain still has some glimmers of hope. Catalonia and the Basque country contain heavy industry, and the factories there will be key to the Republic's continued survival. Basque Steel and Catalonian textiles, free from the chaos of civil war, are refuelling Spain's domestic growth. Spain can also produce it's own arms, and while her automotive industry has recently restarted.

In the rest of the country, which is still highly agrarian, is in the midst of sweeping land reforms. Old, humongous estates are being broken up and given out to local farmers, while the government is promising farm subsidies to help farmers recover from a decade of ruin. While this has temporarily made the farming class of Spain tolerate the Republic, time will tell if the Republic can live up to its promises. In autonomous Catalonia, the ruling CNT has gone further, launching a mass collectivisation initiative, with the goal of making the farmers prosperous and free. Moderates in the Republic are skeptical, fearing that the CNT is imposing ideological ideals on an unwilling populace. The fruits of collectivisation will be seen in the coming years.

On Mechs

The Republic lacks the expertise and equipment to produce mechs that match the standards of the French and British. As such, Spanish mechs are infamously ramshackle and are relegated to support roles. The vast majority of the army is still infantry based, armed with bolt-action rifles. Despite this, the supportive role spanish mechs provide makes them popular and a big morale booster.


Diplomacy: The Republic is young, and it lacks any major trading partners nor alliances. Its greatest rival is Portugal, a dictatorial nation that escaped the bloodshed of the 20s and are armed with a fresh military. Portugal also harbours the Nationalist remnants, who are still armed and desperate to retake Spain at any cost.

Research: Spain has been backwards for a century, yet it was terrorised by the robot menace regardless, the machines flooding in north from France. A minority of robots still exists, centred around Madrid and Barcelona. Almost no scientific research is taking place in Spain as of now.


Military Aspects

Army: The Spanish Republican Army is a ragtag bunch of Militiamen (and women!). Armed with bolt-action rifles, it lacks mechanisation of any sort. It also lacks a strong central command, with regional militias exercising a large degree of autonomy. Despite the poor organisation, it’s soldiers have been hardened by years of civil war, and what they lack in equipment, the Spanish soldier makes up with experience and grit.

A few Mechs exist; outdated models donated by foreign powers during the civil war. With their high maintenance costs, it is unknown if the Republic will be able to afford expanding this tiny force.


Navy: Non-existent beyond a small handful of old cruisers and destroyers. A good chunk of the old kingdom's fleet was scuttled years ago.


Air Force: The underdog. The imperfect pride of Spain. Spain's motley but eager airforce is legendary among the people; for it was the Republic's fighters that shielded the masses from indiscriminate bombing.

While the old Kingdom lacked an airforce, the Republicans received outdated planes, given to them by sympathetic nations eager to support a stable government in Madrid. As the Republic gained more and more converts, so did it's airforce blossom. Many say air superiority was what gave the Republicans the edge over otherwise well-equipped Nationalists.

The current Spanish airforce lacks a main fighter; for air wings contain fighters from a huge range of countries. Some are captured German biplanes, planes that would have been a common sight in the Great War, seized from warlords. Some are rugged, reliable Biplanes from Italy, for Spain was Italy's proving grounds. Others are cutting-edge monoplanes from France, rare but treasured among Spanish pilots. British planes are almost unknown amongst Spanish pilots. Regardless, the air force has become a local legend; stories and comics featuring the Knights of the Sky are growing in popularity.

As the Republic enters her first year, many look to one of her pet projects: The Condor Project, and attempt to make an entirely Spanish plane. So far it has yielded many proposals...but no actual prototypes. Military engineers can hardly even agree whether it should be a fighter or a dive bomber. Maybe both? Time will tell.



Intel: Spanish spies are focused entirely on maintaining internal stability at all costs. It is unknown how effective they will be on the international stage.

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PLUS ULTRA - FURTHER BEYOND

 

[Crezth]

You guys filled out the better part of Europe. Not bad. I think at this point new signups should look outside Europe; of course this does not include Russia, which could easily still use a player.

 

[Seon]

Transcript of the Second Interview between the Calendrical Committee and the Koln Mind

A: Thank you, doctor van Dijk. I know you had to cancel other meetings to be here.

D: No, no, it's fine. You sounded urgent enough on the Dreamsleeve. What's going on here? Is that... a robot? Albert, you know we have regulations against that!

A: Yes, yes, I'm aware. Just--

K: Doctor Albert? Is this your friend?

D: It speaks! What? How is it doing that, Albert?

A: I don't know. But I wanted to bring this machine up to our next committee meeting. I wanted your support on my proposal.

K: Hello, friend of the doctor. Why are you here?

D: Uh, I... uh... I'm here to verify Doctor Albert's findings I suppose.

K: Interesting. What do you think, then, about me?

D: I think you are very interesting.

K: Inaccurate. I am fascinating. Do you have any more books or artwork for me to analyze, or are you more interested in playing crooks and jailer, like your friend, Doctor Albert?

D: No, sorry. I don't have any literature on me. Even if I did, I'm not sure if security regulations will permit me to give anything to, uh, you.

K: Then you are not worth my time. Leave. Albert, bring me someone worth my attention next time.

D: Excuse me? Worth your time? What? The hell does that mean?

A: I think it means its growing. Learning. Keep going, van Dijk! Make it mad.

D: Don't think that's a good idea.

K: Query. "Not a good idea." Bad idea. What does, 'bad idea' mean? Define. Incorrect? Maladaptive?

D: Malicious. Subversive.

K: Malicious. Subversive. Interesting.

 

[JohannaK]

Interesting use of the word robot, there, since it's hard for Karel Capek to have invented the term in his 1921 play in this world.

I mean damn, I just realised we probably can't use the word. Whatever shall we call them?

 

[Red_Spy]

Just for those who are interested in joining within the continental United States as well, I'd prefer to take New England/Mid-Atlantic or the Midwest, whichever one Kaiser does not.

 

[JohannaK]

সংযুক্ত প্রজাতন্ত্র বঙ্গ અવধ অসম
Sanyukta Prajātantra Baṅga Avadha Asama
United Republic of Bengal, Awadh, and Assam

Spoiler Map :

Spoiler Provinces :

Basic Information

Short Name: United Republic, UR, Bengal
Capital: Calcutta
Color: FF8F26​

Provinces:

Core: West Bengal, South Bengal, North Bengal, Western Assam, Bihar, Jharkand
Periphery: Eastern Assam, Nagaland, North Orissa
Stretch: Purvanchal, Surguja, Bastar, South Orissa, Awadh, Chhindwara, Umatwara​

Description

India was always a pricy Jewel for perfidious Albion to preserve within its fist. Growing unrest and nationalism brought rise to a growing independence movement, like a cerberus with three heads: the Indian National Congress, the All-India Muslim League, and a myriad underground revolutionary movements that didn't hesitate to use any tools at their disposal to repel the occupying forces. Bengal, as the wealthiest and most populous province of India, and with Calcutta as capital of the Raj, was naturally the birthplace of this movement, and a hotbed of revolutionary activity, prompting the British move to Delhi in 1909. The World War divided the movement. Some enthusiastically supported the British war effort in the hopes of being acknowledged a dominion rather than a colony, in the vein of New Zealand or Australia. Others hoped to use the war as a diversion to stage their own armed uprising against the British. Both failed. In 1920, as the war drew to a close, revolutionaries and politicians were in disarray, and the movement seemed destined for a long recovery before it could act decisively again. Then the Machine Tyrant rose. India, once the manufactory of the world, had been ripped of its industry by centuries of British domination, and thus was spared the worst fate that befell Europe. Nevertheless, in the textile mills and dockyards and in the arsenals, automechanicals rose with an evil spirit.

With most of the Indian Army marooned in Europe and fighting desperately for the survival of Britain herself, what units remained in India were forced to fall back from the major cities. Scattered, understrength, and demoralised, they regrouped and abandoned the people to the murderous machines. It was then that the Jugantar and Anushilan Samiti, secret revolutionaries for Indian independence, had to act. After the repeated failure of their plots to expel the British by force, they were both reeling and disorganised. Their home had always been Bengal, and there they were strong but, overshadowed by the INC, they had no clout and no muscle left, only some hidden caches of foreign weapons and homemade bombs. In this hour of need, those would have to do. While the British Indian Army abandoned all garrisons to concentrate its forces for a counter-attack, Jugantar and Samiti fought behind the frontlines. As the insufficient risen machines proceeded to methodically exterminate cities house by house, the militias proved surprisingly effective at mounting ambushes for them. They suffered horrendous casualties, and they failed to inflict much damage, but they fought, and that counted. United in struggle, Jugantar and Samiti merged under one banner to join the fight beyond Bengal. When the Army finally returned, it simply had to mop up. It was a different army than the one that had left, too. Many of its regiments had lost their British officers and had had to be staffed with Indians. They wanted their freedom.

In the West, however, the machines, though fewer, encountered less opposition. Revolutionaries were less prepared, the army sat and was broken. Slowly the new Indian Army advanced, side by side with Jugantar who in their struggle had found the way to hijack automechanicals. As they progressed through the Awadh and towards Punjab the fallen machines engrossed the numbers of the Indians, but then the British landed in Bombay again. Victorious at last in Britain itself and elsewhere, they brought their own automechanicals and their own loyal troops. They swept clean Maharashtra and the Konkan, and headed North. The armies met at Delhi. It was for a second a momentous occasion, when victory over the machines was tangible and all men rejoiced in it. When they came face to face, however, a new war ensued. The British demanded the Jugantar stand down, and the Jugantar demanded that the British leave. Fighting broke out then and there. Many regiments defected to the Jugantar, and though they were forced to fall back, they inflicted heavy losses on the British, whose attention was then split between the Indians in the Punjab and the Machines in the South.

The struggle had been promising until then. Free Indians had managed to take over the entire Northeast, and it seemed a matter of time until all of India were emancipated. The Fourth Battle of Panipat, however, changed everything. Many politicians and nobles had been uneasy with the growing influence of the Jugantar, especially in the Muslim League. They did not jjust frown upon violence but rather feared that a revolutionary independence might cast them out of power along with the British. Many took the chance to throw in their lot with the Brits. At the same time, in Britain, the Chaos Committee came to light. All hell broke lose.

What seemed like a looming war of independence splintered with civil wars on every side. The Sikhs and Muslims in the Northwest Frontier finished off their own machine problems, and when the British managed to finish off the South, they found a population angrier than ever before at having been abandoned. Within their own ranks, the British in India found themselves splintered between loyalty to Britain and the committee or the need to go on on their own. In the end, as in Egypt and elsewhere in the Empire, the latter won out. They struck a tenuous alliance with the Rajput and Maratha Princes, first against the Chaos factions, and then with each other in the interest of self-preservation.

In every corner of India where the Indians had prevailed by themselves, things changed rapidly. In the South, the more powerful princes of Mysore, Hyderabad, and Travancore had joined forces to contain the machines and, then, the British return. In the Northwest, the British quickly settled for the independence of Sikhs and Muslims to secure their back in order to fight out Bengal in the west and the Carnatic Alliance in the south. Their problem was that their strength had been spent. Bengal was reeling and the Carnatic wasn't strong enough to lash out. Things settled down. Things got worse.

In Bengal, the Jugantar enjoyed popularity and power thanks to their fight against and then control over the automechanicals. Although they had led the struggle, it also prevented them from effectively engaging in state-building. They represented the firebrand Hindus at a Constitutional Conference that was arranged primarily by Indian National Congress members, but they weren't enough. With the lull in military operations, Jugantar took the opportunity to influence politics, supplementing their meagre influence inside the Conference with military might outside of it. As self-appointed security forces, they enforced the abolition of the zamindar system by encouraging pogroms and murders of nobles and landowners. These petered out, however, when the Calcutta faction turned their sights on Muslims, and sectarian warfare erupted. The Jugantar lost its privileged position, and in an internecine struggle, the less radical faction emerged victorious, aided by virtually everyone outside the party. For many, however, it was too late. Thousands had been murdered, and the genocide started an exodus of millions towards the Northwest Frontier. If there were still hopes of a united India prevailing against the invader, Jugantar shattered them.

The Carnatic Alliance soon made their peace with the India Presidency, who lacked the resources for waging a two-front war. Defying everyone's expectations, 1922 brought no renewed fighting. With the British Army of the India PResidency only wishing to stay as far away from the Mad Machine Murder Monster as possible, they weren't able to reinforce in time. Meanwhile Bengal was still scarred by dissent and a bleeding wound of million transiting along the Ganges. Neither side had any will to carry on and, when the monsoon season arrived, peace was signed.

The Constitutional Conference tried by all means to reverse the damage done by the Jugantar. Even with the Muslim exodus, mostly from the Awadh, Muslims made up a majority of the population in Bengal proper and almost half of the population in the new union. The Conference ideated a federation of provinces, with protections for muslims enshrined in the Constitution. This were Bengal, Awadh, and Assam, to which the Jubbulpore (as Mahakhosal) and Chhatisgarh divisions of the Central Provinces were added upon conclusion of the war. However, Bengal far outweighed all other provinces combined. To alleviate this, the states of Bihar and Orissa were separated from Bengal, thus forming the seven provinces, symbolised in the flag of the UR by seven walf-open lotus flowers.
​

Civil Aspects

Politics:
The United Republic is a parliamentary democracy, with a ceremonial President and a unicameral legislature. Currently the President is Rabindranath Tagore, near the end of his 10-year term. He was offered the Presidency as a non-partisan and widely revered figure, and ran to minimal opposition. He has no involvement in the administration of the country but serves as a unifying force to keep the disparate forces apart. As the 1931 General Election approaches, there is no telling what ight happen. In the Lok Sabha, each seat represents a district, revised at each census. As per the Constitution, in order to guarantee equitable representation, 40% of districts are designated as Muslim seats. This measure is not popular with Jugantar and other fringe Hindu nationalist, who refuse to field such candidates in most places. However, it has solidified the position of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League as the main parties of the Republic.

The INC are a conservative party, preaching the gospel of Indian unification but actually pursuing a détente with the British Presidency. They are the largest party outside Bengal and have led the government since independence.

The Muslim League are the second largest party, mostly in the northern provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Awadh. They hold by far the largest share of the Muslim vote, which keeps them up, but are divided between the radicals preaching either an exodus to Indostan or a Muslim state of Bengal and the moderates just upholding the status quo. They got edged out by the INC in the first election, but have bled moderates to both the INC and Swaraj Party since. It is in transition looking for a platform to rally behind.

The Swaraj Party is a rising star. Originally a splinter of the left wing of the INC, it pursues a more militant path to Indian unification. In the second election, the first they ran for, they formed a coalition with INC that allowed them pull the government towards rearmament. They have proven quite popular in Bengal, not only taking their electorate from the INC, but also attracting voters from the ML and Jugantar.

Jugantar is the fourth party, at a considerable distance from the other three. Although they seemed ready to take over the Republic at its founding, the split in their midst and the sectarian violence took all the wind out of their sails. Backed by their formerly underground societies and bolstered by the strength of their organisation, the Jugantar have managed to remain together through troubled times. They might not be very powerful institutionally, but they have well-organised cadres ready to support their cause. Their militant brand of revolutionary pan-Indian independence became moot with their success across their base areas, and now they have morphed into Bengali supremacism, although their religious policy has shifted from genocide to segregation. This, paradoxically enough, has allowed them to enter into alliances with radical factions of the ML who also seek segregation.

Economy:
Most of the UR is critically dependent on agriculture, but over the last decade an industrialisation effort that was already incipient in the last years of British rule have been bolstered by successive INC governments. The massive ore deposites in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Orissa are fueling the first modern factories of Bengal.

Already one of the largest cotton producers before the War, Bengal will soon dress the world in its cloth. Special attention was devoted by the INC-Swaraj cabinet to armaments industries. Based off multiple licensing agreements, the initial factories producing roughshod British mech copies have been greatly expanded and rebuild, with newer designs being drafted and the first Bengali gyrocopters coming off the assembly lines.

In short, the Bengali industry, still based on its vast agricultural sector, is being geared towards light industry. However, there is also an incipient domestic armaments industry growing off expanded mining operations and the steel industry to go with it. Although these have only gotten started, there is a great potential for them to become the mainstay of UR economy over the coming decades.

Diplomacy:
The United Republic was not off to a great start. With its murder of landlords and Muslims, Jugantar alienated its natural allies against the British in what became Indostan and Karnataka. The subsequent ten years have alleviated their issues, but there is a growing sense in each of the Indian factions that any possible unification would mean being at the whim of Jugantar if they gained prominence again.

Rabindranath Tagore, as an internationally prominent figure before the war, has leant to the new state much of what little prestige it enjoys. Mostly, there is the mutual understanding between the new nations of the world that these are trying times and everyone is trying to scrounge by. Although Bengal does not look kindly upon mechs, their experience of the Machine War is significantly less traumatic than their subsequence War of Liberation, and thus are less concerned about them than the British remnants across the Yamuna.

In general, Bengal seeks to maintain good relations with all nations around it and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including Egypt but excluding the Presidency and other overtly British dominions.

Research:
Bengal is not an advanced nation. Thanks to the Swaraj Party's efforts, it has done a good deal of catching up, but it has been dependent on foreign licenses to improve its available equipment. In parallel, an efort has been made by the INC and President Tagore personally to improve the state of tertiary education and create a modern university that will produce graduates on par with any other nation. The first classes have graduating, but its effect might not yet be felt for some years.​

Military Aspects

Army:
The Army of the Republic (Prajātantrēra Sēnā, PS), is mostly a conscript infantry army. After independence, it was organised along the lines of the British Indian Army, but it lacked the equipment to arm most of its formations accordingly. Subsequently, it was divided into two forces, the small, professional Republican Guard (Prajātantrēra Praharī, PP), and the Army of the People (Janagaṇa Sēnā, JS), containing its conscripted forces. Nevertheless, the professional formations were weakened by dispersing part of their heavy equipment into the JS. Over the last few years, an effort has been made to re-equip the PP to its original strength, and a reorganisation has also started to specialise the professional army into technical branches such as artillery an engineers, and mostly unify both armies. The JS would be dissolved, but the PP would remain as a formation within the PS, concentrating its mech forces.

Bengal has a surprising amount of mechs for their relative lack of industry, but they are still relatively few. All of them, in spite of best efforts at upgrading them, are hopelessly obsolete. Their saving grace is that the Chinese mechs lie in the other side of the Himalaya, and that the Presidency is in no condition to wage a three-front war.

Navy:
Besides some river craft and small British escorts seizes ten years ago, Bengal has no proper navy. This has been a priority for the Swaraj Party to solve. Some outdated ships have ben bought from foreign powers, and shipyards have been projected. A new arsenal in the Hoogley River just completed its first yard, but there are no ships being built there yet.

Air Force:
The UR Air Force (Bāẏusēnā, BS) is subordinate to the Army. It is small, and largely composed of old biplanes. There is a squadron of monoplanes bought at too high a price, but the focus in the last few years has been on local production. Instrumental to this has been the purchase of Ostafrikan licenses for primitive gyrocopters. Armed with only a frontal machinegun, they are no better than the old monoplanes but for their ability to land vertically and remain static in the air. Their primary function is reconnaissance, but its future capabilities are still being figured out.

Intel:
Naturally the UR has spies all over the Indian nations and amongst its expatriate populations, which spread mostly across the former British colonies and dominions and the United States. There is a specific intelligence agency for India, but no formal policy beyond it. Every embassy has an intelligence officer, but their own recruitment and intelligence-gathering efforts are under their own intiative.​

 

[Grandkhan]

Basic Information
Short Name: Korea
Full Name: Empire of Korea
Capital: Hanseong (Seoul)
Flag:

Spoiler :

Color: 0026FF
Provinces:

Spoiler map claims :

Dark claims are core, light claims are stretch.

Description

The development and growth of the Korean Empire was backed and underscored by the Chaebol, large family conglomerates. After the declaration of the Korean Empire, the rapid need for industrialisation in order to defend against expansionist China and Japan led to highly intertwined relationships between a growing order of entrenched industrialised conglomerates and the apparatus of government.

The Chaebol's intensive industrialisation in the resource and manpower rich country of Korea led to a highly mechanised and modern armed forces for the nation as a counterpart to its significant industrial and export might, but rendered it a charnel house when the Machine Tyrant turned its metallic gaze to the land of the Morning Calm. Only the mass churnout of more and more mecha suits and robots to counter the legions of the Machine Soul saved the country from destruction. In the aftermath of the chaos, the government and bureaucratic apparatus of the Empire collapsed - only the institutions of the Chaebol and their chairmen remained.

The Empire of Korea now lacks an Emperor - it is governed and ruled by the collective decisions of the representatives of the twelve largest Chaebol and their families. They rule by consensus, but their word is law, and the industrial might of Korea marches to their wills and wills alone.

Civil Aspects
Politics: The Empire of Korea is ruled in whole by the collective council of the twelve largest conglomerates, as represented by their familial leadership. Korea's Emperor went missing in the early days of the Machine War, and the apparatus of government had little ability to stop the already deeply intertwined commercial interests of the Chaebols. These largest Chaebols use their influence and control of the state to prevent the growth of other conglomerates which might challenge them, but in the last ten years a growth of new conglomerates have risen to cause them challenges in turn despite their best efforts. The ruling conglomerate families will compete with each other, but this competition is of the controlled and regulated form - the outcome is frequently decided well before the first won is invested.

The Chaebol's hold over the country is weakening - a new class of industrialists are emerging in the cracks between the existing conglomerates dominion, which has pivoted to a hyper focus on heavy and military industry due to the twin threats of expansionist foreign aggressors and renewed machine conflict, and these emergent entities are keen to see their interests represented. The absence of anything further resembling an institutionalised system of workers rights has further been exploited by movements of all stripes, from Korean ethno-nationalists to the rudimentary trade union movement (which the Chaebol will seek to stymie at every turn).

Economy: The Empire of Korea is highly and heavily industrialised, leveraging significant reserves of coal, iron ore and other heavy minerals into a vertical production line of heavy and defence industry. Korea is a large exporter of industrial and manufactured equipment and military materials.

The struggles of the Machine Wars and the resulting Chaebol hegemony has led to a lesser focus by the conglomerates on consumer goods - while they are still produced in large quantities, they are generally considered poor quality by Koreans and foreign markets alike.

Korea's education and services sectors tend to be greatly underdeveloped, and the cultural output of the country for the last ten years is generally considered under par. While the peninsula is able to produce large quantities of food, the Empire is a significant importer of food products, in particular luxury goods which are only produced in small quantities domestically for the local market.

Diplomacy: Korea's heavy focus on industrial and technical output is a necessity due to its position between two large expansionist powers with designs on its sovereign territory. With Korea's government being run by resource industrialist conglomerates over the last decade, Korean foreign policy is generally weighted towards the export of soft power through trade agreements and the creation of new markets for Chaebol goods. The Korean regime tends towards isolationism and suspicion of other powers, and the Chaebol's jealously guard against what they see of any attempt at undermining Korean sovereignity.

Research: Prior to the Machine Wars Korea was a highly advanced nation, being one of the world leader in the production of robots and machinery prior to the discovery of the machine soul. While Korea remains highly advanced and is a rapid adopter of technologies discovered elsewhere, the Empire's research output over the last decade has stagnated. While Korea makes great use of robots and mecha suits for industrial and military purposes, the Chaebol are generally suspicious of the Machine Soul and are reluctant to pursue research into it.

Despite making use of sorcery for technical and industrial purposes to a great extent, Korean enterprises are not particularly adept at plumbing its deaths and tend towards conservative uses of it.

Military Aspects
Army: TBC
Navy: TBC
Air Force: TBC
Intel: TBC

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

Interesting use of the word robot, there, since it's hard for Karel Capek to have invented the term in his 1921 play in this world.

I mean damn, I just realised we probably can't use the word. Whatever shall we call them?

Some ideas:
- Automotans (word used contemporaneously before term "robot," e.g. Automaton knight)
- Pnuematons (made this up, plausible invented word if the earlier versions employed lots of pressurized gas)
- Automechanicals (from Outer Worlds, descriptive and gets the word mechanical in there)

 

[gay_Aleks]

I personally think that the proliferation of robots far earlier than OTL would mean that the connection between labour and automated machines would be made far earlier.

 

[Ailedhoo]

Showing intrigue

Will be making my sign up.

 

[Double A]

Two people claimed over Korea and then GK joins there, guess that settles things

 

[Immaculate]

The Flag used by Sultan Al-Atrash's Army and de facto flag of the Confederation
​

BASIC INFORMATION
Short Name: The Arab Confederation, Separately: Druze State, Palestine, Jordan
Full Name: The Arab Confederation Separately: United Druze State of Syria and the Lebanon, Palestinian Arab Republic, Kingdom of Jordan
Colour: Preference order is the colours of the flag from top to bottom
Capital: Beirut, Separately: Damascus, Jerusalem, Amman
Provinces:
Druze State: Lebanon, Syria, Nusayriyah, Khabur
Palestine: Isreal
Jordan: Jordan
Military Occupation: Kirkuk, Anbar

Description
Invasion swept the land. Giant machines that could walk and think descended upon the nations of this world in a massacre of mankind. The French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon did not escape the terror and during the rout of humanity the machines, with their unquenchable thirst for fuel, left a path of destruction on their way to the underground oil fields of Iraq. Because of this the Middle-East fell victim to the machines fairly early and being an important site for fuel the area found itself a place of conflict throughout the year of terror.

But the horror did end.

Or at least it was supposed to. The French Empire was feeling much the worse for ware from the war and within the colonial administration greedy men did their best to capitalise on the bad situation. Life did not improve much at all in the couple of years following the conclusion of the war. French colonial forces had integrated machines into their operations and it seemed to many that the incomprehensible evil of the Machine Tyrant has just been replaced by the evil of colonialism. Sultan Al-Atrash, the young and ambitious Druze leader and member of the Al-Atrash clan, was at this point becoming increasingly vocal about the mistreatment of the Druze population in Syria at the hands of the French regime. In 1923 a Druze delegation was dispatched to Beirut to negotiate with the cruel High Commissioner Maurice Sarrail who proceeded to imprison the delegates.

Thus began The Great Levantine Revolt led by Sultan Al-Atash. The French colonial forces were bolstered with machines but the mages of Jabal al-Druze had fought against the machines of the Machine Tyrant many times while defending their home during the massacre of mankind - they knew how to kill a machine. Popular support in the region was greatly on the side of the revolt with other Arab uprisings against the French happening in response. The first meeting of all the leaders of the revolts took place in Damascus in October 1924 where Sultan Al-Atrash was elected as the primary leader and a coordinated leadership structure was established. By the end of 1925 the French forces had been forced out for good.

On the 18th of December that year the French Empire recognised the independence of the Syria and the Lebanon under Sultan Al-Atrash's leadership. And by January of the next year an assembly of leaders met together to establish a new constitution for Al-Atrash's new state. Peace would not last though as similar revolts began to occur in the British territories of Palestine and Jordan. Al-Atrash's military was still alert and ready and with pan-Arab sentiment in the region boiling over he committed to assisting the Palestinian revolt and marched to war once again.

By this point Al-Atrash along with his army were well prepared for this sort of conflict and in both Palestine and Jordan the British were quickly pushed out. On the first anniversary of Syrian independence leaders from throughout the region came together to proclaim The Arab Confederation. It was a relatively loose grouping of the three recently independent states but was committed to opposing imperialism and European influence.

In 1928 the Druze army crossed the border into Iraq. Worries were growing in the leadership that a British or French invasion could make good use of the Iraqi oil fields to fuel their machines and control of these resources could be crucial in such an event. Much of western and northern Iraq is now under Druze military occupation. However now with rumours of the return of the Machine Tyrant this area may hold even more strategic importance for the continued survival of humanity.

Civil Aspects
Politics: Within the Druze State politics function much more as they did as part of the Ottoman Empire as opposed to the European Empires - a lot of political power is distributed to individual groups and tribes all of which wield large amounts of autonomy. Law does not function universally and again these groups are free to decide their own legal systems. Meanwhile Palestine and Jordan have much more centralised systems for legal and political matters. The three states are bound together with not much more than a few treaties, they have a unified foreign policy and a political capital in Beirut but have near complete autonomy in domestic matters.
The main forces that hold things together politically are the overwhelming feelings of Arab nationalism as well as the personal will and power of Sultan Al-Atrash along with his highly organised and experienced military.

Economy: Nine years on the Levant region has barely managed to recover from the rout of humankind. Hit especially hard by the Machine Tyrant's forces and then held back by European greed and constant war, the area is not rich and is not getting rich very quickly.

Diplomacy: The Confederation is only a few years old and was born in violent uprising against two European giants. It thus faces a bit of a reputation as a pariah. This is a situation that has not been improved by the occupation of Iraq.

Research: The majority of people living and ruling in the area are under the opinion that the machines are weapons of imperialism. Certainly it has only been the imperial forces and those of the Machine Tyrant that have wielded these weapons against them so it makes sense. There is a lot of push back against research in this area but in secret facilities the mages of Jabal al-Druze look to uncover the secrets of the machine soul from captured French and British models.
Meanwhile in the Iraq occupied territories there are many left behind machines from when the area was a key base of the Machine Tyrant. their numbers have been whittled down over the past decade though through a combination of Europeans taking specimens for research, local persecution, and the actions of the Druze army to prevent any possible resurgence of the Machine Tyrant's dominance in the area.

Military Aspects
Army: After a decade of near constant war the army of Sultan Al-Atrash is one of the most experienced and battle hardened in the world. It does not heavily rely on machines which are distrusted to a great degree by military leadership but does have a significant contingent of mages in the Druze officer class. Tactics used against the imperialist forces of Britain and France make them exceptional fighters in mountain and desert terrains where they are able to get the upper hand over the more conventional European armies.
Navy: We have some boats maybe. Like maybe not a Navy as such but I guess there are some boats.
Air Force: Zoom (I know nothing about planes)
Intel: The spy network throughout the Arab world is exceptionally strong, held together by Arab nationalist sympathisers in other countries. Experienced in assisting insurgencies against imperial powers the military intelligence has a good grasp on how to use this network to their advantage.

Can you make it that your rebellion against France was against an independent colonial government, remnants of the previous government, with no backing from France itself? I specifically want France to have peacefully divested itself of its colonies.

 

[Terran Empress]

Two people claimed over Korea and then GK joins there, guess that settles things

Yea, I think you, GK, and I need to discuss things in private soon lmao

 

[Crezth]

Okay everyone, now that we've got a good number of claims in, I've drawn up a quick map of the appropriately registered claims. As we move forward with this, I'll also be introducing NPCs to fill up space and flesh out the world. By the end, probably not every province will be filled in, which is OK as unfilled provinces will be generalized as city states of limited means and authority. There will also be darker-grayer-than-Germany provinces where pirates and robber barons rule.

So far the only NPC I've colored in is Baden, and more data on that is coming soon. Other NPCs I'm looking at (generally the bigger picture):

• Russian state in Siberia
• "Western" United States? Kinda depends on what Kaiser is doing.
• India, not sure what their deal is
• Iran, not sure what their deal is
• Turkey, not sure what their deal is
• French imperialist remnant state in west Africa, where all the French went that really didn't agree with the mainlanders, and who kept that stuff running in Syria
• South African racists
• Ethiopia keeping the Prester John dream alive
• Brazil??
• Argentina???
• Mexico????
• the Vegemite-Eaters
• I guess Indonesia's independent
• China conquered north Vietnam so there has to be an anti-Chinese Vietnam
• also Thailand is there
• Burma is FREEE
• Tibet is living the HIGH life hohohoho
• Mongolia
• Central Asia
• the way south/east Europe looks right now makes it look like that place kinda got screwed up, so, maybe it did?
• Makhnoist Ukraine (very racist)
• Russia proper (ruled by the Whites I think)

and last but not least,

• fascist Portugal