The Great War was the defining event of modern history in the world of the RIS campaign, and in the young adulthood or childhood of most RIS characters, depending on their age. It ended 15 years before the start of the campaign (in Winter 4793 AM), by implication in 4778 AM. The war was fought mainly between two sides, called the (National) Combine and the capitalist and liberal-democratic (Southern) Alliance, with the socialist Transmontane Pact joining the war late on the side of the Alliance.

Major Parties Involved

The origins of the National Combine lie in the 4710s as the two great rival Empires of the the old world, the Mesogorian Empire and the Green Empire, underwent significant social upheaval as a result of indigenous unrest in their overextended, directly-administrated colonies in the New World. Their economies had grown heavily dependent on mercantilism, and when violent independence movements in the new world degraded the prosperity of the population at home, it added fuel to nationalist movements. Many local aristocracies and devolved feudal leaders seized the opportunity to co-opt nationalist sentiment and break away from the Empires. On the other hand, some provinces of the empires attempted to become republics, casting off feudalism altogether. Much of the old world became a patchwork of tiny sovereign polities as the old empires collapsed, leading to a decade of economic contraction and the contraction of old world control over the new world in the former Mesogorian and Green colonies. Into this chaos emerged a powerful and charismatic general, duke Jaron Einhorn of Lorria, who began a war of conquest and unification to build a new Empire. He was very successful, though some former constituent polities of the old empires were never reincorporated. Tempering his conservative, monarchist world-view with an understanding of the needs and aspirations of the common people, Einhorn swept through his opponents and created a supranational union of mostly-small monarchies, styled the New Empire, with himself as a constitutional Emperor. Under the leadership of Emperor Jaron, the rebellions in the new world colonies were subdued in the 4730s-4740s and mercantile revenues and goods returned, distributed through the New Empire and under his direct control.

The New Empire, however, did not long outlast Emperor Jaron; his son, Jaron II, abdicated in 4756 after a few years on the throne after being unable to reverse a downturn in the colonial revenue, and the imperial monarchy was dissolved in favor of an elected chancellor of a new supranational union, the National Combine. Note that this chancellor was not democratically elected, but selected by the royal heads of state of the constituent polities. The National Combine tightened the screws on its colonies in the New World in an attempt to extract more wealth for itself, and enacted more oppressive mercantilist policies there through the 4760s, intensifying both its economic rivalry with outside trading powers and its subjugation of indigenous populations.

States known to have been part of the Combine include Calenz, Leutoria, Borovemia, and Ostrovemia, from which hailed General Hegenvol, the great protagonist of long-range dirigible bombing.

The Southern Alliance came into being in the 4750s-4760s, as major old-world countries outside the National Combine sought to protect their own trading interests in the New World; another factor pushing these mostly liberal-democratic and capitalist countries together was concern for Communist revolution. They generally supported policies of Free Trade, and often did little to prevent their merchants from attempting to defy the restrictive policies of the National Combine and directly trade with the Combine's New World colonies. Indeed, before the formation of the Alliance, many of these sea trade powers had done a tidy business supplying weapons and other materiel to the indigenous rebels in directly-governed imperial colonies in the new world, and resented the Combine's reassertion of control. Many of the population in the Alliance countries were also sympathetic to the democratic and nationalistic aspirations of the rebels, and regarded feudalism as backward; these noble sentiments were ripe for exploitation by politicians by the late sixties. The Southern Alliance countries, of course, had colonies of their own in the New World, but their directly-administered territories were tiny enclaves, island forts, port cities, and trading factories - for the most part, the Southern Alliance countries worked closely with native partners in their colonialist enterprises, propping up favorable indigenous elites with good terms on weapons and modern infrastructure, and occasionally sending in the marines to depose a particularly reluctant native ruler. Overall, though still clearly exploitative, the Alliance's colonial enterprise was less expensive to maintain and provoked much less violent resistance from the natives.

States known to be part of the Alliance include Simha City, Calidoria, Haldar, and the Coiné Union. The Vaghan Empire was neutral in the war until it nominally joined the alliance after the outcome was not in question.

Under the pressures of urbanization and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the post-industrial-revolution elite, socialist and communist thought took hold in many countries, both democratic and otherwise, in the early-to-mid 48th century. During the collapse of the Mesogorian Empire, some of its far-flung Northern territories became the world's first states to be governed by parties holding to these ideologies. Attempting to spread their revolutions internationally, they came into sometimes-violent conflict with other powers in the region, but ultimately most countries in the far north joined their Transmontane Pact, which was divided from the Coiné Union by the Northern Barrier Mountains in the west, and from the New Empire by the Pohja Mountains in the east. Although most of the leaders of the Transmontane pact accepted the idea that the socialist world revolution need not be forced by their intervention and attempted to establish peaceful coexistence with their neighbors, ideological tensions were still strong. The countries making up the Pact had no substantial colonial enterprises of their own, and an ideology hostile to colonial exploitation in general. The Pact fought a border war with the National Combine and the independent Republic of Pojoimaa before the outbreak of the Great War, but had peace treaties with both by 4765. It was, however, economically isolated from most of the Southern Alliance, where capitalist parties attempted to bring down the Pact through an embargo.

States known to be part of the Pact include the titular Transmontanian People's Republic, but no others have been named so far. They are known to have various varieties of left-wing governments, ranging from democratic socialism to more "hard" leftism espousing dictatorship of the proletariat through a very strong central state.

Outbreak of War

The Great War developed gradually from the merger of regional conflicts, mostly indigenous wars of independence in the New World, followed by escalation that came to involve the metropoles. The first of these indigenous independence movements to gain significant traction (since the suppression of the first wave of revolts in the reign of Jaron I) was the Vambadalang Insurrection, which broke out in 4765. The new-world natives, supported by poor descendants of settlers disinherited by strict primogeniture laws, revolted against the Ostrovemian colonial administration. Gun-runners, mainly from the Coiné Union and Calidoria, supplied the rebels with military supplies. By the end of the year, the revolt had expanded throughout the interior of the Northern part of the New World, coming to involve the colonies of other old world powers as well. The small new world territories of the Southern Alliance countries were crowded with refugees and were often refuges for the political agitators and spies of the rebels.

To combat the rebels, in the Spring of 4766, the National Combine imposed a naval blockade on its own rebellious colonies. The blockade did not include the new world colonies of the Southern Alliance, but smugglers from Alliance countries attempted to evade or defy the blockade. Escalating enforcement resulted in Alliance-flagged vessels being impounded or sunk, sometimes with significant loss of life. The press in the Alliance inflamed popular feeling in favor of the rebels and against the combine, particularly once members of the Allied merchant marine started dying as a result of attempts to run the blockade.

In the fall of 4767, the governor of the Coiné Union colony of New Granitesides allowed 520 sick and wounded fighters of the Vambadalang Provisional Government into the city on compassionate grounds. The military administration of the National Combine in the area demanded their rendition to Combine-controlled territory, and when New Granitesides authorities refused, the city was bombarded by a Combine battleship until the governor relented under the condition that the wounded fighters would be treated as prisoners of war. However, after the prisoners were received by the Combine, they were executed. The bombardment - and the killing of the natives in the "New Granitesides Massacre" became the causus belli for the Coiné Union and its allies to become involved in the war.

Development and Stalemate

Though 4767-4768, the Southern Alliance gradually mobilized for war. The Allied navies began breaking the Combine blockade and allowing their merchant marine to trade with the rebels, and providing them with modern weapons. Some of the new world colonies (including New Granitesides itself) were overrun by Combine forces, depriving the Alliance of some of its bases of operation in the New World. However, the superior numbers of the indigenous rebels, now better equipped, began to wear on the Combine forces. The Alliance also began to deploy land forces in support of its native allies and to retake its own holdings from the Combine.

By 4769, the Southern Alliance had transitioned more fully to a war footing, and forged a formal treaty with the New World Liberation Front, promising military aid against the combine and support for decolonization in return for free trade after the war. The Combine was on the back foot in the New World, and many expected an armstice within the year, with the expected settlement to include some form of independence for the Combine's colonies. However, Combine leadership made the bold decision to attack the Southern Alliance in the Old World, launching surprise long-range terror-bombing attacks by dirigibles on distant Allied capitals. The Alliance was forced to redirect resources into defending their homelands, and although the bombing raids were, at least early on, of limited direct economic impact, civilian morale suffered considerably as the Alliance had no effective defense against high-altitude aircraft.

In 4770, the Combine invaded Haldar, attempting to deny its petroleum resources to the Alliance, and beginning the "heartland campaign." After rapid initial gains, the situation degenerated into trench warfare. The Alliance developed countermeasures to the Combine's dirigibles. In the New World, a stalemate also developed, with the Combine controlling many of the more developed coastal areas of the New World, with the rebels and Allies confined to the interior and some of the Alliance colonies. An attempt by the Combine to invade the Coiné Union became mired in poor weather, and was eventually repelled in the Spring of 4771. However, the Union was too debilitated by the attack to mount a counterattack, and, with looming national elections, was rumored to be considering a separate peace. A separate peace never materialized - the Union's demands were still too much for the Combine - but this scare caused anxiety among Allied leadership.

Through 4771-4774, there was little progress in the war in the Old World. An amphibious Allied counteroffensive in Haldar was partially successful, but over half of the Haldari oil fields remained under Combine Control, and most of the recaptured territory was subjected to scorched-earth tactics. Attrition of the Combine's dirigible fleet had largely ended high-altitude bombing raids. In the New World, lines of control had solidified, and factionalization among the indigenous forces prevented a successful unified campaign against the Combine; meanwhile, some of the Alliance's own colonies had begun seeking independence and unification with indigenous nations along ethnic lines.

Turning point and entrance of the Transmontane Pact

In 4775, Allied leaders brokered a deal with their own colonial independence movements to grant full decolonization in exchange for their full support of the war effort. While the immediate direct effect of this agreement was minimal in most places, not long after, the Transmontane Pact declared war on the Combine, "in support of the rights of colonized peoples," and lent its military support to the Southern Alliance. The Combine demanded that neutral Republic of Pojoimaa allow its troops in Borovemia to pass through to attack the Pact. Pojoimaa refused and was invaded, opening the Mountain Campaign. Combine forces succeeded in passing through Pojoimaa to invade the Transmontanian People's Republic, though they sustained heavy losses in doing so and were so diminished by the time they reached the TPR that they stood no chance. The TPR pursued the Combine back through Pojoimaa and occupied it "for its own protection," installing a puppet regime.

The Pact's invasion of the Combine swept through Borovemia and south toward the core of Combine lands, hitherto almost untouched by the war. By the beginning of 4776, the tide of the war had shifted, and the Heartland Campaign collapsed completely, with four hundred thousand Combine troops surrendering with the encirclement of the Madinalfanak salient. Combine troops were recalled from the New World to repel the Transmontane Pact invasion of Ostrovemia and the Allied landings in Calenz. Although these attacks were partially repelled, the Combine's enemies were left with several footholds in its territory, and were in an increasingly superior economic position.

In late 4776, the Combine withdrew its forces from the New World completely in anticipation of a second Allied campaign in Calenz, leaving colonial troops to fend for themselves. The colonial regimes quickly collapsed and were overrun by the indigenous New World states. In the late spring of 4777, a massive combined invasion of Allied, Pact, and Allied Ex-Colonial troops invaded Ostrovemia in a lightning campaign, having completely mislead the Combine about their war plans through still-unrevealed signals intelligence machinations. The capital fell four weeks later, and the supranational government was inadvertently decapitated when their bomb shelter was flooded.

End of the War

With the loss of the capital, the Combine fragmented. Some of its constituent states vowed to fight on; others attempted to sue for peace. Multiple claimants to overall leadership in the Combine emerged, complicating attempts at negotiation. Partisans in Pojoimaa rose up against the Pact puppet government and began a civil war there. Generous terms of peace proved to be a successful inducement to an armistice, which was signed in 4777. After a brief internal conflict with hardliners, provoked by the signing of the armistice, the internationally-recognized Executive Council of the National Combine reasserted control over the apparatus of state and ratified the Instruments of Conditional Surrender negotiated by its diplomats, ending the fighting.

In 4778, a peace treaty encompassing the former Combine nations and the victors was concluded. It also provided for the independence of the Republic of Pojoimaa and certain other nations, and established a transnational body, the "Comity of Nations," to attempt to forestall future wars.

Overall Outcome

The Southern Alliance and Transmontane Pact were victorious, achieving their stated war aims, and many of the countries of the National Combine were occupied. The Combine itself was dissolved after its executive council ratified the Instruments of Conditional Surrender. An international organization, the Comity of Nations, was established to organize international diplomacy and to manage the chief international work to be done - the decolonization of the new world and the reconstruction of governments in the former Combine nations. Of course, both of these have been marked by intense squabbling between the Alliance and Pact as to the form of government which should be encouraged to develop there. So far, however, the Comity has successfully prevented any major-power wars.