World War III (Rabydosverse)

**World War III** was a great war that occurred after the fall of the Gauvajut Empire. It broke out from 3635 to 3667 in the Ardeschen calendar, or 3980 to 4001 in the Gauvajut-Vozonid calendar.

This war was sometimes known as the **Fall of Man** or the **Fall of Jerde**, because this was when the first Terrans were summoned to the universe, unleashing a wave of irrevocable ruin and destruction across Jerde and the whole Galaxy. The Jerdiskar saw the Terrans as the evils of their own history and people in full view, as incarnations of their own sins and every evil act. Specifically and more commonly, this is known in modern times as the **Terran Invasion** or the **Coming of the Terrans**.

After the Tuksharan Conquests and the Ardeschi War, this was the third world war of the Sixteenth Age or the Age of Herimann. Although the Ardeschen civilisation waged three great wars, in historical records, they were considered either as two or one great campaign of destruction. In the "two world wars" definition, Directorist Ardesch was considered as the direct successor of the Ardeschen Empire.

The next great wars to follow this war were the Decaying Peace (between the Denlotia and its enemies), the Kleshan War, and the Reorganisation Wars, which would be considered as World War IV, World War V, and World War VI. Later historians corrected the Terran Invasion as "World War IV", because the Ardeschen Empires and Red Ardesch's wars were regarded as two separate world wars, and with Directorist Ardesch as the direct continuation of the Ardeschen Empire. So the Decaying Peace, the Kleshan War, and the Reorganisation Wars were known as World War V, World War VI, and World War VII.

## Course of the war

The War was ultimately fuelled by the Ice Age of 1815 (2160 AT), which made much of the world less habitable for a few centuries. People turned to corporations for food, security, and survival, who became the Unifiers.

This great war was fought between Thermir (a Norse kingdom), the Red Front (an alliance of communist empires), and the Unifiers (various authoritarian empires). The Red Front and the Unifiers sought to unify the planet out of envy against the other galactic civilisations, after noticing that their homeworlds and capitals were ruled by a single state.

It was later worsened as the greatest corporations of Jerde formed six alliances to establish new governments and impose their own world orders. Some of the leaders desperately summoned fifty-six armies from other dimensions, who crossed portals to create cruel regimes. One of those realms, Rannar, was responsible for summoning the most destructive of those armies for the sake of destroying the whole world to dominate it - for that catastrophic decision, Rannar was henceforth condemned as "traitors against humanity". Even the other Norse hate and reject Rannar as the worst of all traitors for its attempted global extermination.

Two other nations, located somewhere in present-day Kalambour, were Minastan and Tulon. Minastan was formerly a great country that descended into rabid fascism after an economic crisis and military rule; while Tulon was a vassal state that converted to a extremist cult. Both nations, along with Kavaria, were destroyed at the end of the war.

In the final years of the war, some of the Terran armies formed a league, the "Great Renewal". Driven by the prospect of defeat, and the fear of being subjugated or their new conquests falling to "sin", they built many superweapons to destroy the planet's nations to quickly end the war and rule over its survivors. Many of them were ruined by their rivals' missiles and bombs, or each other's weapons.

The war ended with the deaths of half of the planet's people. The Earthlings were blamed for the deaths of most people on Jerde, and their stubborn and defiant attitude made them more threatening to the surviving Jerdiskar, as if the Earthlings would enslave or kill the rest of them.

The surviving otherworldly armies later became the Lords of Power and the Strongmen, the enemies of the World Alliance. Some also joined the Second Red Front: but all "Earthlings" or "Terrans" (as they were known) were never welcome in the World Alliance, as their cruelty shocked and horrified many countries across the world.

## Rannar

The Empire of Rannar was the one who started the war and worsened it. It being the summoner of so many bloodthirsty Terrans made it hated by almost all other Norse people all over the world, as the greatest of all traitors.

## Thermir and Free Nations

All those countries that refused to bow to Rannar and the other empires.

## Second Red Front

Communist movements that considered the instability caused by Rannar as their chance to dominate and reshape the world.

## Unifiers

The Unifiers were the dictators who rejected the "aid" of the Corporations, seeking to compete to become the Emperor of Jerde.

## Corporations

The Corporations were formed to help their people survive the Ice Age, yet they demanded absolute power. So they waged war against the rest of Jerde to forcibly impose their world order.

## Terrans

The Terrans were the many human armies summoned by desperate warlords to destroy their enemies.

They, in turn, formed the Great Renewal to destroy the world and rule over it, faced with the prospect of defeat.

## Miscelleaneous

* The Terran armies used various names for the Jerdiskar: heathen, unbeliever, pagan, barbarian, untermensch, savage, idolater, demon, "kavor", slave, worm, creature, or giaour. These mocked the Jerdiskar's practice of polytheist religions and over-reliance on advanced technology.

### Sacred symbols vs hate symbols

* Initially, the Free Nations also used swastikas in some of their flags, as they considered them as holy symbols. As the war raged on, the Jerdiskar were angered by the widespread use of swastikas among their enemies, for the sake of death, hate, murder, and supremacy, especially to curse the Jerdiskar for refusing to be slaves. This is why some Terrans call this war the "Swastika War", between two factions that used the same symbol for different purposes (e.g. devotion to the gods vs. hate and murder).
	+ So the Jerdiskar and their Denlotian alliance henceforth forbade the display and use of swastikas outside any temple or holy site, to punish the Terrans for their irresponsible misuse of the sacred symbol. It is also to teach people from Jerde to be more careful and responsible.
	+ It may have also led to some Slavs restricting kolovrats to holy places and prayers, to avoid any desecration similar to how the Terrans abused the symbols of their gods.
* Terran swastikas are known as "spiders", mocking the empires that used them to threaten their enemies. The warlike ideologies practiced by Terrans were also known as "spider cults" for their use of the symbol. The blasphemous use of swastikas that angered the Jerdiskar were also why Jerdiskar even referred the Terrans as "demons", throwing back one slur to the Terrans to mock their unholy obsession with supremacy.
	+ One Terran prisoner of war remarked that "To understand why the heathens hate us: the Earthlings' use of swastikas in their war against the heathens, is like an army of demons using hellish symbols that mock our beliefs, if that same army invaded us."

## See also

* World War III
* Denlotian timeline
* Day of Resolution
* 3900 Pandemic
* Terran Empire