The Union

Peace, freedom, justice, prosperity, equality, democracy, dignity. All together, as one.

These words, emblazoned on the foundational charter and boastfully proclaimed nearly a century ago, heralded the start of the Union of Nations. A dream borne from the collective mind of politicians of yore amidst the aftermath of Orbis’ cruelest wars — a dream that sought to reshape and rebuild while establishing bonds of everlasting peace and prosperity.

What started as a simple cooperation agreement between six countries went onto growing into an entity so large that it now encompasses almost the entirety of Orbis. One by one, nations joined the pledge of the Union, and now, nearly a century after its foundation, more than 150 nations are part of it, becoming the largest force on the planet, blurring political, territorial, and economical lines, and unifying all of its member nations under the banners of a single global parliament.

In their own words, the Union has created a fair, benevolent, and just society for all of its member nations. Benevolent as they may present themselves, and despite how noble the original intentions could’ve been at the time of its foundation, the Union is not without its history of problems and criticism.

Many of its detractors denounce the sterile stagnation and cultural dilution it has caused all across the globe, specially in recent times, when it’s borderline excessive practices have caused erstwhile noble traditions and customs to fade away.

Corruption, the obliteration of national sovereignty, and the undermining of some of its member nations to further the agendas of higher spheres of power is another hard point of contention for those that do not support the Union.

While the sheer majority of Orbis’ nations are now part of the Union, some nations still remain independent and completely unaffiliated with this major global power, such as the Nation of Vaifen, the Republic of Svarzfal, and Haufast. Despite being founded under pillars of peace, the Union is not without a strong military arm comparable to that of the Svarzfal Republic.

Being the largest force on the planet, the Union was naturally present when the Nasivern first made contact with the humans of Orbis, inviting cooperation with the self-proclaimed “Heirs of Sin” with open arms.

While the Nasivern were highly welcoming and reciprocate of the Union’s gestures, the fact that they preferred to mainly ally themselves with the small Nation of Vaifen over the larger Union, to the point that the Nasivern intervened and aided Vaifen in their war against Svarzfal, was an act that bewildered the Union’s leadership — and the world as a whole. To this day, there’s no official consensus as to how and why this came to be, yet, in spite of that, the Nasivern and the Union did engage in the exchange of medical and technological cooperation, with some reservations.

Conspiracy theorists have had plenty of material to work with when it comes to the Union, nearly a century’s worth of material, to be precise. From the way certain unfavorable circumstances aligned themselves in such a way for some nations that they had no choice but to ‘pledge’ themselves to the Union in order to avert total collapse,  political undermining with plausible deniability in the name of democracy, and many more — such as one based around the theory that perhaps, the Union orchestrated the events and manufactured the context that sparked the conflict between the Svarzfal Republic and the Nation of Vaifen three decades ago so as to bring down Vaifen into its grasp.

Some speculate over who really rules and exerts power in the Union. Rumors of alleged groups and organizations pulling strings from the shadows have greatly proliferated over the course of the Union’s history and whether these hypothesized groups were in fact, behind the cruel wars that led to the foundation of the Union in the first place.

So far, none of these theories have been proven.

The original intentions for the Union may have been noble, but after almost a century, those ideals may have been lost in the way, and the Union ended up growing into an anamorphic and grotesque form that deviates from its original intention.

Still, whatever the citizens of Orbis may think of the Union as a whole, one thing is certain: The Union is ever so close to achieving its vision of a single, global government.