The Glorious 10th

In the beginning...

When the world was smaller, mercenary profiteering was the name of the game, but as nations grew, so did the need for reliable, proffessional armies.

This change accompanied a dramatic paradigm shift in the national character; whereas previously nations depended on mercenaries from the world over to defend their borders, and the treasury was merely an agent for financing mercenaries, suddenly it became plausible -using sheer numbers- to aggrandize nations relying on the homefront and army. The result: highly populated countries dominated neighbours, creating a desperate need to compensenate for this imbalance in smaller countries by resorting to large alliances.

The Age of Alliances
With mercenary forces no longer the mainstay of military power, but rather utilized as a tool to tip the tide, the expansion of investment into armies proliferated. As an unexpected consequence of this practice, a true sense of national identity emerged in the ranks of soldiery. The organization of armies, and the large communities they forstered, increased confidence in nations to depend upon themselves; still, larger communities had the advantage over smaller ones, thus causing small nations to depend on the more populated for security.

The necessity of Alliances had humbled national pride. conscious of the need of allies to counter other alliances, the international community began to develop. Soon nationalism converted into internationalism, forcing every nation to pick a side or be consumed. The consequence: alliances undermined the dignity of individual nations. The power of alliances allowed them to make and unmake governments, regardless of the electorate's will. Nations that strove for sovereignty or independence were TO'd with the justification that, had not one side done it, the other "more evil" side would have. The power vaccuum of alliances quickly sucked away and destroyed democracy. The unity fostered by national armies was splintered by alliance debates. Alliances developed hollow ideologies necessary to justify their immoral and undemocratic tendencies. An Orwellian nightmare effectively emerged out of the alliance system. Having neutred the unity of a national spirit, alliances themselves -and not their member states- became the real power.

The Rise of the Freedom Fighter
The hollow alliance ideology was soon lost on citizens. Alliances, overly confident in their seeming necessity, bothered less to actually live up to any kind moral or ideological code. This produced a disillusioned generation, especially in larger countries. The unquenchable human desire for liberty, democracy, and the natural urge for national sovereignty and independence, boiled under the seemingly still surface of the alliance organized world. Still, most could not see how the desire for independence could transform into reality.

Though badly experimented with in the past, a new generation of freedom fighters emerged who refused to submit themselves -and their nations- to the now patently evil and hollow alliances. Freedom fighters, trained in proffesional armies, have a common goal: restore justice and democracy to the nations. The emergence of new, Non-Governmental Organizations like the Special African Expeditionary Forces (The SAEF), with experienced leaders and commanders, has the potential to undo the monopoly of alliances. Calling no nation home base, completely mobile, trained and being entirely independent, these multi-national NGO Forces can conscript their Soldiers from around the world, then suddenly strike to disrupt or foil the plots and plans of alliances. What makes them more dangerous, however, is that they have that common goal - and unlike alliances - it is a good one.