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 born from the collective mind of politicians of yore amidst the aftermath of Orbis’ cruelest war — a dream that sought to reshape and rebuild the world, establishing bonds of everlasting peace and prosperity for humanity.

What started as a simple cooperation agreement between six countries has now become an entity so large it encompasses almost the entirety of Orbis.

One by one, the world’s nations pledged to join the Union, and now, nearly a century after its foundation, more than 150 nations are part of it. The Union has become the largest force on the planet, blurring political, territorial, cultural, and economical lines, 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 that the Union has caused all across the globe — especially in recent times, when its borderline excessive practices and decrees have caused erstwhile noble traditions and customs to fade away all across the globe.

Corruption, the obliteration of national sovereignty at a global scale, and the undermining of some of its member nations to further the agendas of higher spheres of power is another hard point of contention espoused by 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 possesses a strong military force comparable to that of the mighty Svarzfal Republic, the largest non-Union nation in Orbis.

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 — going as far as to intervene and aid Vaifen in their conflict against Pyrexia, 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 never had a shortage of material to work with when it comes to the Union. From the way certain unfavorable circumstances aligned themselves in such a way that some nations had no choice but to ‘pledge’ themselves to the Union in order to avert total collapse, an extensive record of political undermining with plausible deniability in the name of democracy, and many other dubious actions, the list is rather extensive.

Another such conspiracy theory centers around the hypothesis that perhaps, the Union was secretly behind Pyrexia’s creation and rise as a way to subjugate Vaifen and bring down into its grasp.

Speculation over who really rules and exerts power in the Union is commonplace. Rumors of certain groups and organizations allegedly pulling strings from the shadows have greatly proliferated over the course of the Union’s history — some would even claim that these groups may have been 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 dreams and intentions that the Union was founded upon may have been noble, but after almost a century, those ideals have been lost in the way, and the now gargantuan Union is an anamorphic entity far from what it was intended to be a century ago.

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.