The World Congress

World Congress Flag (1911-present)

## Foundation & Early Struggles

The World Congress is a supernational entity headquartered in the Samsonite Capital of Muddah, which acts as a means for nations to interact on the global stage and achieve peaceful solutions to major issues. Founded at the close of the First World War, the World Congress was initially intended to be a mediator for the formation of a treaty to end the three-way conflict engulfing the world. In June of 1911, after the Treaty of Balboa was signed, the World Congress remained in place as an "International Court of Nations," to act as a means for nations to "sue" one another in front of a jury of their fellow states. However, arguments ensued for nearly a decade as to the proper protocol for conducting such a lawsuit, as well as what exactly constituted international law.

In February of 1917, the Congress experienced its first major backlash in this regard, after the Slavic Union (formally, the Union of Translavian Republics), refused to ratify the Arus Convention on the International Laws of War. The Slavic Union had raised concerns that the treaty would ultimately prolong wars and cause the suffering of warfare to fall more on the civilians than on the combatants. The issue was further complicated by the fact that the Slavic Union was a member of the World Congress Security Council, which was intended to unilaterally abide by the rules of the Arus Convention. In April of that year, the Republic of Eslor filed for an international suit in the Congress, declaring that, because all other Security Council members had ratified the Arus Convention, that the Slavic Union needed to as well, or lose their position on the council.

Over the next two years, debates and deliberations occurred during the World Congress's quarterly sessions. In 1919, a final verdict was called. The delegations of all 100+ nations voted on the issue, and the Slavic Union's position won, with just 52% of the votes cast. The Esloran Republic, in protest, announced their plans to withdraw from the Council following their next Presidential election in 1920. At his first presidential address, Samuel Keaton declared the World Congress to be "a failed agency, and one that no doubt will struggle to survive the coming decades," eerily foreshadowing the Congress's temporary shutdown at the start of the next World War, just over a decade later.

## Hiatus & the Second World War

After the Samsonite Civil War broke out in 1929, the World Congress Security Council conducted its first Crisis Assessment. The Samsonite Empire, the largest Empire in the world and the World Congress's major military backer, very rapidly descended into chaos in its homeland. The Samsonite Nationalist Party, under the leadership of Erhardt Mahler, started a violent uprising in response to repeated suppression of their movement by Kaiser Laurentz V, who despised their "unfeeling" pragmatism and militarist ideology. The Nationalist movement at its core wanted the Volksversammlung (People's Assembly) to assume total governmental control in Samsonia and to remove the Kaiser of any authority over matters of State. The movement had gathered massive support in the South Outlands province of the empire, which had been the frontline of the conflict for its entirety.

Mahler's movement's progress was further spurred by the mass defection of soldiers & officers from the Samsonite Royal Army Corps, which had been humiliated by the cession of Balboa to the Slavic Union, after having fought valiantly for years resisting the Slavic advance into Lycurgia. The resulting spike in recruitment escalated what would have been a regional uprising to a full-blown civil war, which the Samsonite economy was not ready for. The Loyalist Armies in the South Outlands were forced to either side of the Empire's mainland, half of the forces being pushed back to the Samsonite capital, while the others were forced into the East Outlands, and eventually encircled at the city of Reidelhoff.

In January of 1932, the Samsonite Royal Family fled to the Southisles, far away from the conflict, and well within the protection of the mostly-loyal Royal Navy. Shortly after, the fled to Norusland, Samsonia's colonial territory bordering the Esloran Republic. Kaiser Laurentz V addressed the World Congress, on March 15th, 1932, issuing a harrowing speech calling the other nations of the world to action, and denouncing the ethnonationalist views now dominating the SNP. Following this speech, the Kaiser returned to the Southisles to remain in hiding as the Civil War played out. Meanwhile, Lycurgia, also a member of the Security Council, also established a nationalist government, which was thoroughly aligned with the views of Mahler's SNP.

In 1934, after the last Loyalist forces on Elgenea were defeated, Erhardt Mahler petitioned to be recognised as the new representative of the Samsonite government in the World Congress. In response to this, Dagor the Elder, Chairman of the Slavic Union, called an emergency session in the Congress. On August 21st, 1934, Dagor the Elder officially announced the dissolution of the World Congress, in front of the entire congregation, including Mahler and Lycurgan President Cesario. The Congress remained out-of-session until 1942, when the Emerald Sea Pact and its allies began reconvening to discuss plans for the end of the war and provisions to be included in the peace treaty.

## Post-War Restructuring

After the Second World War, several adaptations were made to the way that the World Congress functioned. Foremost among these changes was the creation of the World Congress Peacekeeping Corps. The Peacekeeping Corps fulfilled the position of the previous Security Council and was made open to all certified member states. The WCPC also acted as a Jurisdiction, rather than a particular entity, which meant that nations had total control over the deployment of their troops and could increase or decrease their manpower investment in the Corps at will. This decreased the reliance of the Congress on the previous Security Council nations, and ensured that the Congress would be able to combat Humanitarian issues and enforce its rules without the fear of one especially-powerful nation withdrawing from the Congress and crippling its strength.

Additionally, new provisions were made to allow for people-groups to petition the World Congress for recognition as a new state. This was chiefly intended to facilitate careful decolonisation amongst the various colonial powers, chiefly Samsonia and Lycurgia, and prevent enabling any future nationalist uprisings worldwide. This process was designed, however, to remain in place indefinitely, and was responsible for the formation of the nation of South Iabreon, which peacefully seceded from Iabreon in 1954 after the Esloran-speaking majority of the Southern provinces of Iabreon decided to cut ties with the Native Iabronese to the North.

## Joseon Revolution (1964-1972)

Following the Second World War, communism began to become increasingly popular in less affluent nations, particularly in the continent of Draecia, where it swiftly took hold in Liusheng. This revolution soon became popular in the northern provinces of Pyancheon, nearest to the border of Liusheng's Choi province. In 1964 the Joseon Ward attempted to secede from Pyancheon, sparking conflict between the nation's National Guard and the revolutionaries. This conflict continued for just over two years before Pyancheon pled for assistance from the World Congress.

This plea left the Peacekeeping Corps in an uncomfortable position, as the Joseon revolutionaries hadn't violated any of the Congress's guidelines on achieving statehood. There were provisions to prevent "violent uprisings," but those guidelines were concerned with the use of force against civilians and political opponents rather than other combatants. The Peacekeeping Corps rejected Pyancheon's request for intervention in March of 1965. However, the Esloran Republic (and to a lesser extent, the Kingdom of the Samsonites), were practicing a policy of containment with regards to the communist ideology. Pyancheon was a very valuable market, as they were among the most well-developed nations in Draecia, having existed as a Samsonite protectorate since the 1800s. In June of 1966, the Esloran Marine Corps, alongside a Carrier Strike Group of the Esloran Navy were dispatched to Joseon. Shortly after, the Samsonite Royal navy and a contingent of the Samsonite Royal Marine Corps were dispatched as well. By the time they'd arrived in late August of that year, Pyancheon's forces had been pushed back to their largest civilian centres, having lost the countryside to the skirmishing forces of the revolutionaries.

Once the news of the Samso-Esloran intervention came to light, several nations in the World Congress began to openly protest, accusing the superpowers of circumventing the rules of the Peacekeeping Corps. This led to a period dubbed "The Red Tide," as the World Congress fell into factionalism on the issue of the intervention. The Communist nations of the world, as well as those purely opposed to the Samsonite and Esloran nations, began making shows of solidarity amongst one another. Conversely, those opposed to the socialist and communist governments they supported banded together as well.

In September of 1967, the nation of Liusheng filed a lawsuit against the Samsonite and Esloran nations, on the grounds that they were undermining a legitimate change in government to support their own foreign ambitions. This lawsuit became an especially contentious issue, and deliberations on the issue ended prematurely on two occasions; once in June of 1968, and again in September that same year. Several nations across both parties began taking firm stances on the issue, some even cutting ties with others of the opposing stance. In September of 1969, when the final verdict was to be cast, a considerable portion of nations abstained from the vote, in order to maintain neutrality and avoid alienating other nations which had taken strong stances. This sizable abstinence crippled both nations, and as a result the case was closed pro status quo.

This verdict greatly upset the Red Tide, but they quickly turned it in their favour, and began showing support for the Joseon revolution themselves. In February of 1970, Liusheng began sending its own Armoured divisions into the nation to support the revolution, while Air assets arrived from the 1st Republic of Cyralia. At the March congressional meeting, Samsonite representatives began petitioning for a unilateral withdrawal from Pyancheon, in order to prevent the conflict from escalating further. The Congress voted overwhelmingly in favour, resulting in the enforced withdrawal of all foreign troops from Pyancheon as of June of 1970. Over the next two years, the Pyancheonese forces began slowly retaking territory from the revolutionaries, until 1972, when the Joseon ward was taken and the revolution ended.

Following the resolution of the Joseon Revolution, several nations signed the Alfheim Non-Intervention Treaty, proposed by the nation of Estion, which declared that every signing nation would never intervene in a foreign civil war which did not defy the Arus Convention or the World Congress's regulations on violent uprisings.

## Ultranationalist Crisis (2014-Present)

Following the Joseon revolution, the World Congress Peacekeeping Corps became stretched thin as various nations fell into chaos. The surge in demand for more equipment and personnel prompted many nations to begin losing confidence in the WCPC, leading to many nations slowly withdrawing their troops from the Corps. This trend continued from 2004 until 2014, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of personnel, especially from the Esloran Republic, which began another period of non-interventionism starting with the election of President Edward Burke in 2000. This withdrawal forced the WCPC to begin ignoring certain crisis zones, which ultimately led to the rise of radicalism in several regions as anti-congress sentiments began to compound with existing societal issues in regions like Cyralia, Muthafcka, and the Oralian islands.

Starting with the foundation of the People's Republic of the Kayulan Islands, various violent uprisings occurred across the globe, all of which shared common themes of ethnonationalism and all of which sparked full-blown military conflicts in their regions. The largest and most successful of these uprisings is that of Fyodor Paklov in the nation of Cyralia. Cyralia had been in chaos for nearly two decades following the discovery of immense political corruption in the country. Following a complete reconstruction of their government in 2000, the nation temporarily regained its stability, but totally collapsed in 2011 when President Stanislaw Cabala, who had marketed himself as a "Champion of the People," was found to have ties to several of the corrupt members of Cyralia's previous government. This led to full-scale rioting across the nation for several years, culminating in numerous insurgencies all vying for control of the nation. Cabala was assassinated in 2014, leaving the Cyralian Defense Force in disarray, as they no longer had a Commander-In-Chief. A Provisionary government was established by the Slavic Union, Cyralia's only ally and former Colonial overlord. This provisionary government would soon fail, however, and be replaced by "Ferka Rusu," a former soldier who promised to retake control of the country and stop the ongoing fighting between the CDF and Insurgents. Rusu fulfilled this promise, starting a long and brutal campaign against the insurgencies in the nation using a new militia force comprised of the partisans who had installed him as leairder. He ordered the dissolution of the CDF, declaring them a risk of corruption given their relation to the previous government. Rusu was later determined to be an alias of Fyodor Paklov, a former Slavic Army Officer, who in fact was the head of the largest of the Insurgencies in the region, the Armavski Liberation Front.

This discovery soon led to several others, as Paklov was found to be the source of an international arms trade, which had been selling all manner of materiel of Slavic origin, typically outdated equipment, but on at least one occasion, a nuclear device which he sold to Ismail al-Bashur, the head of the Brotherhood of the Almohads, which had been fighting a long civil war against the state of Muthafcka. Paklov had also been the recipient of a number of chemical weapons, originating from a small militant group in Samsonia called the Buitenlander Bevrijdingsfront led by Oskar Bertholder.

Kaiser Leopold III of Samsonia began pushing for the World Congress's members to increase their support for the WCPC in 2013. Oskar Bertholder, fearing that a strong Peacekeeping Corps would be able to put down Paklov and al-Bashur's revolutions, began making plans for a major attack on the Samsonite Capital. In 2014, 6 members of his organisation infiltrated the Muddah Stock Exchange and detonated a number of explosive devices, causing the entire complex to collapse, resulting in the deaths of several thousand individuals including an undetermined number of foreign individuals. This ultimately backfired, causing Kaiser Leopold III to declare the Organisations a direct threat to international peace and commerce. Leopold III coined the phrase "Ultranationalist" to refer to these groups at the September meeting of 2014. The Next year, Samsonia began drawing plans for several invasions and interventions and began a SIRI investigation into the various organisations. Not much longer, Ismail al-Bashur, having lost his momentum in the Muthafckan civil war due to the Esloran Intervention in 2015, used the nuclear weapon acquired by Paklov to destroy the Muthafckan capital, resulting in the deaths of an unknown number of people, including at least 40k Esloran military personnel.

At the June meeting of 2015, the World Congress released the "Deck of 52," which consisted of 52 bounties placed on various high-value-targets within the People's Republic of the Kayulan Islands, the Buitenlander Bevrijdingsfront, Brotherhood of the Almohads, and the Armavski Liberation Front. Each of the organisations corresponded to one of the four suits of a card deck, and individuals were numbered according to their rank, with the faction's leaders taking the role of "Ace."