France

**France**

**Other Names:** Aquilonia,Gaul, Duloc, Orleans, Soissons, Rheims, Aquitane, Trestresloin, French Third Republic, French Fifth Republic, Kalos, French Sixth Republic

**Notable Leaders(Ancient Era):**Conan of Cimmeria, Vitalstatistix, Clovis I(509-511), Pepin the Short(751-768),Charlemagne(768-814), Louis the Pouis/Louis I(814-840), Lothair I(843-855),Louis the German(843-876), Pepin II of Aquitane. King Harold, Lord Farquaad, Shrek, King ArtiePendragon, Queen Briar Rose(1314-????), Joan of Arc, Judge Claude Frollo, Marguerite de Valois/Queen Margot(1589-1599), King Louis XIII, (1610-1643), King Louis XIV(1643-????), "Phillipe"(posing as Louis XIV, date of change unknown but between 1660 and 1673, would have been Phillipe VI)(????-1715),King Adam "The Beast"(1740-???), King Louis XVI(1774-1792), Marie Antionette(1774-1792), Maximillain Mousepierre(1793-1794),

**Notable Leaders(19th Century):**Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte/Napoleon I(1804-1814), Napoleon V, Charles XI, Napoleon VI, Louis XIX, President Victor de Bourcey, Président Grace Bellanger, Nathalie Perreau.

**Capital:**Paris

**Population:**71,000,000 (2050 census)

**Government Type:**Parliamentary republic

**Language(s):**French, Norman (minority), German (minority)

**Currency:**Euro (1 Euro=2 USD)

**Religion:**None (de jure), Catholicism, Islam (minority)

## **Economy**

France has been a mercantile nation ever since the colonial era. The country has tended to adhere to a mixed economy with generous public benefits for over a century. In terms of key goods and services, French wine and cuisine is highly popular—French chefs such as Gousteau earned popularity the world over and wines from the Chateau de La Jaubertie and other locations within the country often fetch the top dollar. In more recent times, France’s economy has struggled to keep up with rising automation and poverty runs rampant, especially in Paris’ District 13.

## **History**

### The Gauls

Although the territory of what is now France had been settled for centuries by the ancient Aquilonians(who were once ruled by the Barbarian Conan after the killed their previous tyrant king), France’s history technically begins with the Celtic(most notably the famous Amoricans) Gauls during the Roman era, who possessed a distinctive identity even after Rome conquered them (aside from a single village that held out centuries past the Roman conquest thanks to a magic potion). After the fall of Rome in 476 AD, parts of Gaul were claimed by the British knights of King Arthur. But both the Roman and the British rulers were driven away by the invading Germanic tribes who overran the frontier along the Rhine. In 486, Clovis I, leader of the Salian Franks, united united most of northern and central Gaul under his rule. After adopting Christianity and recording a succession of victories against other Germanic tribes, he defeated the Visigoths and established the Merovingian Dynasty. But his kingdom would not survive his death as the Franks divided their land among heirs, so four kingdoms emerged: Duloc, Orleans, Soissons, and Rheims. The Merovingian dynasty eventually lost effective power to their successive mayors of the palace (majordomes) who overthrew their sovereigns and became monarchs themselves, establishing the Carolingian dynasty. The assumption of the crown in 751 by Pippin the Short (son of Charles Martel) established the Carolingian dynasty as Kings of the Franks.

### The Carolingian Empire

The new rulers' power reached its fullest extent under Pippin's son Charlemagne who expanded the Carolingian territory to the Netherlands (where he met Elegast, king of the elves), northern Italy, Lower Saxony, the Danubian plain and advancing the frontier with Islamic Spain as far south as Barcelona. In this belligerent time, legendary heroes made themselves a name, most notably the paladin Roland and his horse Bayard. Roland would be killed in battle with the Saracens. Charlemagne nearly fell victim to a plot of his son Pippin the Hunchback who suffered from the delusion of his life being a play. Nevertheless, in recognition of his successes and his political support for the Papacy, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans, or Roman Emperor in the West, by Pope Leo III in 800. This led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire or Carolingian Empire.

But the Carolingian Empire would not survive for long: After the death of Charlemagne's successor Louis I, the empire was divided among Louis' three sons (Treaty of Verdun, 843) and the imperial title ceased to be held in the western realm, Lothair I began to rule over the Middle Frankish Kingdom, Louis the German received the land east of the Rhine and Pepin II received Aquitane. The Fairies made their presence known in Future France as well as Future England. These would often serve as "Fairy Godmothers" to goodhearted people. A mysterious Prince, a serial womanizer known in France as Avenant le Roi Charmant, or Prince Charming, was present at this time and wedded many Princesses under different names. This made it easy for Men to impersonate the seemingly immortal Prince. A Fairy Godmother would aid Cinderella in marrying one possible incarnation of Prince Charming. “fairy godmothers” earned great prominence and the wizarding school of Beauxbatons was opened in southern France.

A fourth Kingdom would be formed by Queen Lillian, who was said to be so beautiful that an intelligent frog fall in love with her, and made a deal with Lillian's Fairy Godmother to make the two fall in love. Lillian's kiss transformed the Frog into a Prince(a common spell), and the two married and formed the Kingdom of Trestresloin. However a deal had been made with the Fairy Godmother and during the rule of King Harold, his kingdom became a haven for magical creatures and legendary people from all over Europe, rivaling England. France began to take on a unique national shape. Supernatural influences played a key role in this early period, as numerous nonhuman beings such as fairies, ogres and sentient animals all emerged in large quantities in this era, taking residents in areas such as Brocéliande, an enchanted forest visited by Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. The kingdom were ravaged by Viking raiders like Ragnar Lodbrok during the 9th Century but survived. King Harold and Queen Lillian had a daughter, Fiona. She was betrothed to the Head Fairy Godmother's son, which was believed to have been fathered by King Harold as part of his deal with the head Fairy Godmother.

The Fairy Godmother orchestrated Fiona's imprisonment in a castle guarded by a Dragon with the intent that when he came of age, her son would rescue her(though according to Shrek had this been allowed to happen, her would have failed like others who attempted). The Kingdom of Dulac had been usurped by the Tyrant Lord Farquaad who wished to cement his rule through the marriage fo a Princess. He chose Princess Fiona and recruited the ogre Shrek to rescue her. Surprisingly he succeeded but did not kill the Dragon. Which would crash the wedding of Farquaad and Fiona, killing Farquaad. Fiona would marry Shrek, though both the Fairy Godmother and King Harold would make an attempt to marry the Godmother's son(one of which included hiring an assassin, a feline in striking footwear who had previously killed an Ogre). This would failure resulting in the Godmother's death and Harold was transformed once more into a frog, dying several months later. Shrek would refuse to take the throne. Instead Shrek tracked down the current reincarnation of King Arthur, who was an heir from the time Arthur's knights occupied the kingdoms.

Despite the Death of the Fairy Godmother of the Trestresloin royal family, Magic and the Fairies both remained an aspect of everyday life. The birth of Princess Briar Rose was blessed with the arrival of three Fairies, invited to serve as Fairy Godmothers to the infant princess, and a fourth evil Fairy, Maleficent, who would curse Briar Rose to die, which the Fairies were able to alter to instead be a deep sleep, lasting a century.(1214-1314). Briar Rose was awoken by the kiss of a Prince. They would be married and have two children, Aurore(Dawn) and Jour(Day). The newly married couple would be forced to contend with the Prince's ogre mother, who they would be forced to kill. As a result, the Ogres declared war at the death of their Queen, sparking the second Ogre Wars(The first Ogre Wars are lost to history but they involved a then human Rumplestiltskin before his transformation into a magical imp. He would then use his dark powers to purge the Ogres, leaving a select few(Ironically, an alternate Universe in which Rumplestiltskin became King of Trestresloin, the Ogres and better success in organizing a revolution thanks to the leadership of Fiona, than originally in which Rumplestiltskin's purge left only one known surviving Ogre who would happen to thwart his plans, something which he could do nothing about as a battle with the Fairy Godmother had greatly reduced his powers).

Briar Rose's own daughter, now called Aurora, would come under attack by Maleficent, now younger after being believed dead. Aurora would be cursed as had her mother, fortunately the curse did not last nearly as long, as Prince Phillip of the neighboring kingdom would awaken her, with the two falling in love after Phillip killed Maleficent, though some say she faked her death, and retired to the Moors, another woods housing mystical creatures. Some belief she even began to grow close to Aurora, who attempted to reform her, others say she joined a group of other Witches, forming a friendship with the Evil Queen Grimhilde, who would cast a dark curse which would cause most of the Fairy Folk to vanish from the future Germany and France.

### The Rise of the Church

 Following the decline of of the fairy culture, it would be replaced by Catholicism following the rising power of the Catholic Church. The various popes of this era were hostile to supernatural forces and ultimately France would push the supernatural beings of this period into hiding at the Catholic Church’s request (aside from dragons which were tolerated for their continued use in warfare). They would often be hunted by the French Inquisition (which was almost as unexpected as their Spanish counterparts). France still reckoned with unusual phenomena even after this point.

  In 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the Black Death, England and France went to war in what would become known as the Hundred Years' War. In the 15th Century, the magical girl Joan of Arc would experience visions from the Christian God that would inspire her to wage war on the English invaders of France. She additionally may have been the Slayer, travelled through time, and conflicted with British-supporting demons before her (apparent) death by burning at the stake. Outside of these phenomena, France would become one of the preeminent states of Europe, playing a key role in exploring the New World and colonization.

Domestically, France would contend with a variety of issues, including the increasing presence of gypsies in the country, which led to persecution from the likes of Claude Frollo. One story relating to the Notre Dame Cathedral from this time would save it from destruction, as the corpse of the hunchback Quasimodo was found holding the body of the gypsy Esmeralda(They were at first believed to have died when they fled persecution from the city but later research by the Disney company has suggested that the two outlived the dmeinse of Claude Frollo by several years before their own deaths. While the Notre Dame cathedral would be spared destruction in a fire by another cataclysm.

  At the same time as a particularly devastating fire, the city of Paris received its name thanks to its not exactly glorious connection to the giant Gargantua: After the giant discharged the contents of his massive bladder, the luckless citizens are washed away or drowned by the great flood of urine that poured steaming from the much-relieved colossus, who, when he viewed the destruction his emission had provoked, could not contain his mirth. At this, those who'd survived the deluge angrily cried, 'Look! He's drowned us *par-ris*!' (for a laugh), with the unlucky city being known as Paris ever after. Gargantua, however, would become a monk and found the Abbey of Thélème to atone.

In the most notorious incident during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), thousands of Huguenots were murdered in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572. This tragic incident occurred during the rule of Marguerite de Valois better known as Queen Margot.

After the empire was damaged by the on going war between the royal Musketeers and the guard of Cardinal Richelieu during the rule of Louis XIII (1610-1643), his son Louis XIV (1643-1715) helped the monarchy to recover and reach its height during the 17th century with the introduction of Absolutism and Mercantilism. At this time France possessed the largest population in Europe and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became, and remained until the 20th century, the common language of diplomacy in international affairs. In addition, France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia.

Nevertheless, four of Louis XIII's most trusted Musketeers (including the famous Charles D'Artagnan) plotted a coup détat to replace Louis XIV with his identical twin brother Philippe, a prisoner known as the Man with the Iron Mask, who they believed to be the rightful king.

As said before the magical element did not truly leave France, and it was a foolish mistake of a royal Prince to assume so. The heir to the French throne had lost his parents. Perhaps out of pity he threw parties and lived lavishly, until he made the mistake of rejecting an enchantress who came to him in the form of an old beggar woman. The Enchantress cursed the Prince, transforming him into a Beast until his curse was lifted by the love of a peasant woman named Belle.

Meanwhile France continued to build up a colonial empire, settling in what would later be Quebec and Louisiana. This development obviously would bring them into conflict with the British Empire, who seed to expand its holdings in the New World and Canada. Conflict began and would have ended with a French surrender under an army led by British General George Washington. However, one of Washington's hired Indian assassins killed the surrendering official, sparking the Seven Years’ War(1756-1763)

In the aftermath of the Seven Years War, and following the death of the much loved Madam De Pompadour( who since she was a child had received visits from the time traveller "The Doctor" culminating in him saving her life from clockwork Androids), France’s monarchy became increasingly unpopular. Louis XVI attempted to regain public support by joining the colonies in their war for independence against Britain, but this backfired as the people were inspired to rebel by the success of the American Revolution.

### The Revolutions

Louis XVI was particularly controversial. While there had been controversial monarchs before, the current King Louis had a habit of using the peasantry as clay pigeons and his wife Marie Antoinette dismissed the suffering of the poor by declaring “let them eat cake.” The monarchy ruled France until the decadency of the French aristocraty - most notably the life style of king Louis XVI and the atrocities committed at Silling Castle during the 120 Days of Sodom. The Affair of the Pearl Necklace, which was orchestrated by Joseph Balsamo, also known as. Count Cagliostro. The trial would result in the death of Balsamo, who would return as a Hellspawn, and then as a Vampire during a battle with Count Dracula. The Anger of the masses would culminate in the French Revolution of 1789, during which French national heroes like Giuseppe Balsamo led a violent uprising first against the Bastille and later at the royalty. King Louis XVI recruited a *garçon de pisse* ("piss-boy") named Jacque to pose as the King. Jacque would be captured but would be rescued from execution.

Other Nobles such as the degenerate Duc de Blangis and Charles Darnay were also targeted during the Revolution for execution via guillotine, often simply because they were wealthy or royalty regardless of how supportive and kind they towards the Revolution, though the the League of the Scarlet Pimpernal led by Sir Percival Blackeney would save a number of these nobles, enabling them to flee to Draka or elsewhere. In 1793 the decadent Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed, despite a cult like group in love with Antionette attempting to saver her, and a republic was established. But soon the spirit of the revolution was corrupted and the former revolution's leader, Maximilien Mousepierre, was instrumental in the period of the Revolution marked by the execution of thousands of citizens which is commonly known as the Reign of Terror. Mousepierre's regime ended with his arrest and execution in 1794. After a series of short-lived governmental schemes, Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself First Consul, and later Emperor of what is now known as the First Empire

### The Napoleonic Wars

Napoleon, an infamously short, ill-tempered man, had pledged loyalty to the Revolutionists and had obtained an Apple fo Eden which he now attempted to use to conquer the world. In the course of several wars, his armies conquered most of continental Europe, with members of the Bonaparte family being appointed as monarchs of newly established kingdoms. About a million Frenchmen died during the Napoleonic wars and at the height of power, Napoleon's armies managed to expand the French territory from the Atlantic coast to Moscow. He had at least two instances of encounters with time travellers, including a group of dwarves who stole from him in Italy, and a group of teenagers who took him into the future.

But Napoleon's empire would fall soon: It collapsed rapidly after France's defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) against the British Royal Navy led by Horation Hornblower and the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Only two years later the European powers invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated by armies led by Richard Sharpe and others at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, which saw the loss of the world’s dragon fleets. Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena, where it is believed that Napoleon switched places with a double and while he originally intended to rebuild his empire a third time, he would fall in love while assuming the identity of "Eugene" and go on to live an ordinary life while he double would die in his place of stomach cancer. The British guards watching him covered up this fact to avoid punishment. The British would have a laugh selling the "bones of Napoleon" to France, while the true remains became a much sought after item that fell into the possession of the criminal group Les Vampires. Napoleon and Joan of Arc would be among those cloned by both the US and Japanese governments, and monitored as teenagers in an artificial high school. The Napoleon clone would leave to wander the United States, appearing in commercials for Iowa tourism, regretting selling it, and meeting and engaging in a rap battle with a teenager who shared his first name.

### The Miserables

Once more the French monarchy was re-established, but this time with new constitutional limitations which would last until the civil uprising of 1830 which was inspired by the events of the factory riots of the miserable ones. The French Revolution was not the last revolution the country would experience. 1832 would see a revolt break out in the streets of Paris once again, although thanks to the actions of an inspector named Javert the uprising would ultimately fail. Similar uprisings in 1848 would likewise not be successful.

During this time the aristocracy once again wielded great power, most notably the commoner Edmond Dantès who became known as the Count of Monte Cristo after he was falsely imprisoned for being a Bonapartist. 1870 saw the formation of the brief Paris Commune, which famously allowed the so-called “Phantom” to build a lair in the Paris Opera House). But the with the final fall of monarchy the path to fame was open for famous people. The discontent present in France would give rise to criminals such as Maitre d’Ecole, the Chourineur, the scientist Robur le Conquérant (the inventor of the first steam powered flying machine), the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin (the founder of a line of thieves), and his murderous colleague Fantômas. These individuals would not go unmatched, as the likes of the adventurer  C. Auguste Dupin, the French answer to Sherlock Holmes, Rocambole, the Count of Monte Cristo, Paul Picard, and even Erik the Opera Ghost, who founded a femme fatale group called the Angels of Music, would emerge to challenge their activities. France would become a major center of science, discovering a lost world near the North Pole (inspiring the famed Lindenbrock expedition). Additionally, France would begin reconciliation with their longtime British rivals, forming the Entente shortly after the Mollusc invasion of 1898.

### 1900s

With the beginning of the 20th century France experienced an era of scientific success regarding space travel. Inspired by early attempts of lunar expeditions like the one of the Baltimore Gun Club in 1865 and the invention of Cavorite by Selwyn Cavor in 1901 inspired an unsuccessful attempt at space travel known as the Voyage to the Moon in 1902. Cinema was also invented in the country at this time. France would fight alongside Britain and Russia against Germany and East Asia in the War in the Air, during which it would be devastated.

France was inspired to form its own incarnation of Britain's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen called Les Hommes Mystérieux ("The Mysterious Men"). There was one problem. From 1909 to 1914, France's greatest specters were two of the most dreadful admirers and self-proclaimed successors of Fantômas: The albino Monsieur Zenith and the mad musician Erique Claudin, now better known as "The Phantom of the Opera".

It was these individuals who the French government attempted to recruit for a team.Taking perhaps too much inspiration from Britain's successful recruitment of criminals. Robur the Conqueror was elected as the Leader, having become a celebrated War hero as a result of leading France through the War in the Air thanks to his experience with airships. Robur was delighted by the idea when he was made the leader. Th only non Villain member was Le Nycatlope, the first French superhero. Most of the members stayed in line except for one: Fantomas. When Erik the Opera Ghost refused membership, Fantomas took it personally and launched a violent campaign to kill Erik, through the use of several of the foes of Erik's Opera Ghost Agency during a time France experienced a great flood. While both the British and the French Leagues would become involved in thwarting Fantomas and the villains, Fantomas would kill himself by destroying the Opera House with explosives, during which The Phantom of the Opera would be seemingly killed by the Opera's chandelier falling on him, with only his mask being found in the aftermath of the flood and the explosion.

### The World Wars

In 1914, the assassination of the Freedonian aristocrat Alexander Teasdale triggered World War I. France was badly damaged by the full outbreak of World War I. Even though they deployed fabrications into battle alongside Britain and saw the likes of Judex, Rouletabille and Captain Hyx emerge to support the conflict, the country was badly devastated due to being a battlefield. During the war, France suffered tremendous human and material losses, which left 1.4 million French soldiers dead. Les Hommes Mystérieux was not spared as with the exception of Le Nycatalope, most of their members were believed killed when Robur's airship was sent crashing down during the battle of the Somme.

Postwar France struggled with its returning “lost generation.” The interbellum phase was marked by a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government. Even during the Roaring Twenties, when the economy was booming and science advanced (the first cloning of a human, the discovery of three-eyed aliens on Venus, space explorations by Doctor Omega who was in reality th epitome traveling "Doctor" during an amnesiac phase, and grafting human hands onto the pianist Orlac all occurred in this time), France struggled to reckon with the war’s aftermath. France faced strained relations with the US when President John P. Wintergreen refused to marry a beauty pageant winner descended from an illegitimate nephew of Napoleon. A large number of master criminals reemerged in this era, including the infamous Santanas and Dr. Lorde, which led to the rise of vigilantes such as the Nyctalope and Fascinax to combat them. France would early on join with Britain to support appeasement of Hitler's Germany before the invasion of Osterlich by Hynkel and Hitler's invasion of Poland sparked the Second World War.

France would infamously surrender to the Axis and be occupied until the D-Day invasions. Following the German blitzkrieg campaign in World War II metropolitan France was divided in an occupation zone in the north and Vichy France, a puppet regime loyal to Germany, in the south. Not even resistance by national heroes like Louis Renault, the American Rick Blaine, Belgian Reporter "Tintin", and Charles Clouseau, who would later become the most famous French inspector of the 20th century known for his hunt of the Pink Panther, helped to reconquer France until Germany's defeat in 1945.

Postwar, France allied with the US (albeit fairly reluctantly) and joined NATO. France contributed to anti-communist defenses during this standoff, commissioning the SNIF intelligence service to combat communist espionage. While the likes of Serge Kovacs, Le Special, Glenne and the Vicomte never earned the notability of their British or American counterparts, they played a key role in combatting the spread of communism. The Fourth Republic was established after World War II and, despite spectacular economic growth, it struggled to maintain its political status as a dominant nation state. France attempted to hold on to its colonial empire, but soon ran into trouble.

### The 1990s

France served as a front in the Third World War, serving as a staging ground to defend West Germany during the USSR’s invasion attempt. After the Third World War, France helped take on the Augment powers in the Eugenics Wars and contributed troops to fight the Brotherhood of Nod. The Harvester invasion destroyed Paris, but otherwise France remained untouched by the 1990’s alien invasions.

### 21st Century

At the beginning of the 21st century, France was haunted by a meltdown at the Cattenom nuclear power plant which irradiated Lorraine, Sarre and Luxembourg, creating a contaminated area known as the SOX. New rifts opened up with their old American ally (namely over the Middle Eastern wars launched by Blutarsky and the rise of totalitarianism in the forms of the David Jefferson Adams’ presidency and the Gilead period). In 2010, social problems overran the poorer suburbs of Paris; especially Banlieue 13, commonly referred to as B13: a ghetto with a population of two million people. Unable to control B13, the authorities surrounded the entire area with a high wall topped by barbed tape, forcing the inhabitants within to survive without education, proper utilities or police protection.

Following the Awakening of Magic in 2011, genocide and witch-hunts became common all over France because of the sudden transformation of parts of the population to so called "metahumans". France would eventually evacuate and destroy District 13 to rebuild it. Despite the treatment of Metahumans, France(now under the name of Kalos) welcomed the return of the "Pocket Monsters" to the country, who returned as a result of the event. In 2012, scientist and philantropist Lysandre, whom used to be revered by the media or by his mentor Augustine Sycamore, was revealed to be the leader of a criminal group called Flare Gang, attempted to use a weapon to eliminate anyone that wasnt part of Team Flare, his reasons being that humans were inherently evil, greedy and competitive. His solution was to reduce human population (a similar goal than the one the Mad Titan Thanos had), luckily his plan was stopped by two teenagers named Calem, a boy on board of becoming the Pokemon champion of Paris, and Serena, a girl whom had become a contestant for the next Kalos Queen (almost defeating the current one, Aria). While Flare HQ fell to debris, no sign of Lysandre´s body was seen, its rumored that he had joined Giovanni´s conquest for the Aether Foundation HQ in Alola along other former gang members, but so far nothing has been confirmed. Calem managed to eventually become the pokemon champion, as for Serena, she would go on to travel to the Hoenn region to compete in the Pokemon Contests as a pokemon coordinator.

In 2015, as anti-magic movements started to cease, there was a new plague, human beings that were currently harboring negative emotions started getting possesed by spirits, which witnesses claimed had the form of butterflies. The affected people claimed that a being called Hawk Moth offered them powers in exchange of finding mysterious objects named Miraculous. Two teenagers who wielded these objects were usually the ones who stopped these controlled powered people, somewhat in a similar vein as Japan's magical girls.

This changes spurred increasing cooperation with fellow European countries and France today stands became one of the dominant members of the continent-wide European Federation, which was lead by the Democratically elected frenchborn Nathalie Perreau.

### Beyond

Sadly the European Federation in 2020 would fall under the control of EF President Julian Felsenburgh, who proceeded to purge religious influences from Europe, resulting in a war with Scudder in America. In the same year as the conquest in 2020, Europe suffered considerable losses while defending against the spreading influence of the Combine alien empire but the European nations managed to stay independent until the defeat of the Combine occupiers in 2029, the invasion resulted in the death of Felsenburgh. In the same year, a military coup détat ended the Fifth Republic and established a dictatorship known as the Defense Government. Unable to avert the crises of the previous decades, the European Union was dissolved in the same year making room for the increasing power of mega-corporations. Only one year later Russia saw its chance to start an invasion of Poland and Finland, defeating the local military within three months. When Russian forces crossed the Polish/German border in 2031 the nations of Western Europe formed the European Defense Force to replace the defunct NATO and attacked the advancing Russians leading to a period known as EuroWar I. In January 2033 an armistice was signed to end the war because an unknown faction (suspected to be the United Kingdom) entered the conflict attacking both sides. But the EuroWars weren't over yet: Taking advantage of Europe's war-torn situation the Alliance for Allah, a fundamentalist Islamic movement led by Mullah Sayid Jazrir, invaded Southern Europe leading to EuroWar II also known as the Great Jihad. The war ended with Jazrir's assassination in 2037 followed by infighting over his successor. During the next World War, France (now again a Republic at the transition to a monarchy) allied with most of the other European states in fighting Russia and the Middle East because of the global shortage of raw materials. After the devastating war that led to the contamination of large parts of France, the nation handed over its sovereignty as well as most of its rights to the newly formed European Union of Nations, becoming a part of the huge federation covering most of continental Europe. The survivors of the Great War left the contaminated countryside and founded Euro-City, a huge mega-city covering most of eastern France and parts of Germany. With the invention of life-support technology and synthetic memory drugs, the average life expectancy was raised far over hundred years. Power fell in the hands of conservative senior citizens like Félix Jongleur who watched their health and capital investments with equal care.

While the elders became the new rulers of Europe, all those younger than 100 years live in a parallel society at the edge of Euro-City, using grain as currency and even having to resort to cannibalism as a cheap source of food. France was one of the nations that would not survive the final war, except only as a the merged Eurocity who would join the Federation, seeing it as a new European Union.

## Culture

France is infamous for its residents being rather snooty and rude towards foreigners. While a slight exaggeration, the distaste for non-French and non-Parisians among Paris’ residents remains rather strong. In addition, French society is unfortunately rather cowardly and there is a tendency for French leaders, when faced with a threat, to favor surrender over combatting it. France nevertheless also has a reputation for perfectionism when it comes to food and wine and visitors to the country can expect to leave with their hunger satiated if nothing else. Most French people are romantics. Film is also a greatly respected art form in the country, mores than other countries with film directors like John Hannaford and actors like Jerry Lewis as revered as great painters.