I typed up a huge essay before but then my idiot brother pressed some shit on the wireless keyboard and deleted it all. I don't know if I still have the energy to type all of it out, but here goes.
Lindsen has not been whole for fifteen years. Fifteens years ago the invaders from matriarchal Orenland destroyed the modernizing nation and established a puppet state, which soon collapsed, leaving dozens of warlord states in its wake.
Maria Olsten's LINDSEN COMMISSION is all that remains of the former puppet of the Orenlanders. Despite its reduced state and instability, it is still formidable due to its vast technological superiority. But Maria Olsten must be wary; her husband Frederick, once the emperor of Lindsen but now little more than a figurehead, wields influence even he is not aware of in the populace. The slightest spark may send the Commission up in flames.
Five years ago Johannes Heydrich was the leader of the North Lindsen Federation, of which only the state of Nordland remains after it was crushed by Commission forces a day before it would have unified peacefully with the south. Bitterness aside, Heydrich, known widely as the Lion of the North, is the only force standing between Burgune in the north, left relatively intact by the Orenlanders due to its compliance, and the Commission in the east which seeks to expand its influence over Lindsen's remains.
The South Lindsen Federation was also destroyed five years ago, and soon afterwards the country was essentially taken over by wealthy industrialists created by modernization programs. The former monarch, Brandon Holstein, entrusted his protege Albert Stahler with a mission: to disband the army, crush the industrialists, and establish the SOUTH LINDSEN WORKER'S STATE. He succeeded. His proletarian army will take some time to become a truly formidable fighting force, but this will not deter him from fulfilling his dream of a reunified Southern Federation, and possibly even Lindsen as a whole.
Fritz Zimmerman rules Aldenburg, another piece of the former South Lindsen Federation. He took a radically different approach than Stahler towards the industrialists: He saw the expansion of industrialist power as a result of the slipping of traditional values that he espouses in his state. But in a modernizing and gray world, will his vision for a pastoral and virtuous Lindsen fade further and further into the past?
Markus Spiedel may be a warlord, but he rules his GORSENYA like the weaselly businessman he is. Despite its high level of development, most government and military functions are sourced to private groups while corruption runs rampant. Even if Spiedel wished to become a true contender for unification, the industrialists would not allow trivial things like 'national unity' to get in the way of profit.
Time is running out. As the once united Lindsen fades from memory with the replacements of generations, it may not be long before unification as a prospect is no longer remembered or desired by the peoples across these little states. Perhaps one unifier will outshine the rest and finally expel the invaders and make Lindsen whole once more, from the Raimat to the Lohne......
