Excerpt from "History of the Modern World, Part 1" by Kerb Lo'Oms:
"After decades of conflicts, alliances where formed between countries to support each other when one of the members was attacked. Over the years, smaller alliances kept merging for mutual protection, until eventually during the late 50's and early 60's three global factions remained: People's Alliance, Terra Defence Force, and Luna Wolves. Not every country joined one of the alliances, and either stayed independent or formed smaller alliances with other neutral countries.
Each global alliance roughly controlled a continent, with separate countries spread over all continents who swear allegiance to one of the alliance, including countries from continents controlled by a rival alliance. Beside the military boons, alliances also provided economic and technological advantages to its members. While trade between countries of different alliances was not prohibited, alliances frowned upon members who traded with members of its arch-rival's alliance.
Due to the size of each alliance, only small border skirmishes have been fought over the years. While threats where being made when members of an alliance come in conflict with those of another, none of the alliances dared to begin a full-out attack against the others. This out of fear of being attacked by the combined forces of the other alliances, or even worse, starting a three-way free-for-all. This resulted in a cold war state; while no large conflicts were being actively prepared, armies were kept at the ready and investments in military were being kept high. If one of the alliances would weaken, this could result in a world-wide conflict unlike any the world had seen before. Unfortunately, as history has told us, this did happen...
Following are the three major alliances, their status, and their zones of influence at that time:
People's Alliance Logo:
Main continent: Jaezell
Formation: 2 February 1960
Alliance capital: Ferrus
The largest alliance by member count, the People's Alliance was a socialist alliance that worked together to support each other and let everyone share of the results. While seen as an oppressive alliance by the others of the world, the so-called ‘Dozen-year-plans' had resulted in a good basic health and education system, but also in a strong military force.
Military wise, they needed some time to build up momentum, but when this had been acquired, they could hit like a sledgehammer. While dangerous when threatened, in most conflicts they were not the aggressor.
Terra Defence Force Logo:
Main continent: Erebus
Formation: 24 September 1963
Alliance capital: Dordam
The Terra Defence Force was an alliance of capitalistic and expansionist countries which occupied almost the entire continent of Erebus. While not actively at war with the People's Alliance, they always did clash due to being complete opposites of each other ideology wise. They gained control of most of Erebus trough manipulating and military intimidating countries to join them. Only a single country, Astrix, continues to resist.
The Terra Defence Force had members spread over several of the other continents, including two which located on Jaezell, controlled by the People's Alliance. Due to this, these two members were the location of large military forces, and also the source of most of the unrest in the region. Unlike what their name said, most of the times the Terra Defence Force was the aggressor in this matter, trying to forcefully recruit countries for their own.
Luna Wolves
Logo:
Main continent: Gunger
Formation: 20 November 1958
Alliance capital: Lunas Mon
The oldest and smallest alliance, the Luna Wolves where mostly based upon Gunger. Their name comes from the shape of their main continent, which is not much unlike a wolves' head. While not strong in member size, they do had control of the two largest deserts of Terra, which contain respectively a large oil reserve and large ore and mineral depositories. These brought loads of wealth, and in result, power to the Luna Wolves.
Having access to all kind of ores, and being the smallest alliance military wise, the Luna Wolves had invested in many kind of volatile weapons, with their prime example being nuclear weapons. Combined with advanced ballistic missile technology designed to carry these nuclear weapons, the Luna Wolves military forces were not a force to be trifled with.
As described in the alliance descriptions, each faction roughly controls a continent. Red is for the People's Alliance, green is for the Luna Wolves, and cyan is for the Terra Defence Force. Grey is for the neutral countries, and the poles and the Gensokyo area in the middle of Jaezell are not owned by any country."
Click the map image for the full-sized version.
