Directorate Bandit Lords

*We'll meet again*

*Don't know where*

*Don't know when*

*But I know we'll meet again some sunny day*

*Keep smiling through*

*Just like you always do*

'*Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away*

- "We'll Meet Again", Vera Lynn
The **Directorate Bandit Lords** (or just **Bandits**) is a Major faction of the Norseverse. Before the Alien Wars, the **Directorate of Eight Great Nations** was the largest and strongest power on Earth, composed of the European monarchies and the Byzantine Empire, who actively fought the other powers for control over the whole planet, able to keep fighting for the whole duration of the Century War. When the aliens came to wage their own personal war, the Directorate replied with their own attack, which lured the attention of the extraterrestrial forces onto them, and effectively destroyed the united monarchies. Now the European monarchies, minus Italy, and their various surviving nobles, governors, prefects and military officers devolved into cutthroat bandits, ruling their own “kingdom” within the majority of former Directorate territories and are forever trapped warring with the other superpowers and their former allies in the form of the (relatively) disciplined but small Byzantium Remnants, who remained the only Directorate nation that survived the war (somewhat), and the technologically advanced but distant West Coast Enclave, formed from the Americans that survived the destruction of their nation. All of them however share in the delusion of rebuilding the Directorate and getting back what is theirs, ruled under them of course. The Bandit Lords themselves are trapped in a forever war against every known power, and each other, for a scrap of resources, survival, vengeance, or even just because they're sadistic psychopaths, yet they are (reluctantly) working together to form a superpower as they are surrounded by enemies. Fighting every known power, and each other, for a scrap of resources, survival, vengeance, or even just because their sadistic psychopaths. With every successful raid having the unfortunate town stripped to the bone before being burned to ashes.

## Background

### A Royal Mess

In the past the Europe was divided by the great dynasties who fought with one another over the nations, its people and resources through brutal force of the armies, subtle schemes of assassins and spies and loveless marriages of family relatives to acquire new territory. For the peasants, it was a Dark Age which was becoming more clearer when the Renaissance slowly replaced the Middle Ages. The fashion of the day was to replace the crude practicality with new and innovative ideas, new inventions and technology were introduced to help everyone, the quality of life for the common man in Europe was improving. New and untested ideas like such as reason and ideologies like republicanism burst on to thr world stage. The political situation, however, was still the same, just the methods were not as brutal despite the invention of the black powder and firearms.

At the start of the 19th century the relative stalemate was breached when young French general, strategy genius and governor Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned the Emperor of the French and began his massive reformational process of the France as well as the expansion of his territory into the Europe. The Prussia and Germany, England, Austria, no one could stop Napoleon I and his armies. Fylkirate was both too distant and not interested in the events in Europe as Napoleon has no interest in Scandinavia and Scotland. The French war machine was unstoppable anywhere it come, until the fateful invasion of Russia. Napoleon decided for this act after the event of "powerful quakes" coming out from the Xinjiang territory of Yuan Khanate. Fearing it may be some kind of "devil's weapon" Napoleon wanted to claim it. Since it was too remote from any colonies the best course by him was through weak Russia.

However, he made a couple of wrong calculations and estimations. First of all, Russia was not as weak as he anticipated. Backed by its spiritually close Fylkirate Tzar Alexander I assembled a strong military to engage Napoleon's. Than it was the weather conditions of the winter combat and the logistical difficulties of transporting supplies from across the Russian steppes. And lastily the will of the Russian people, fighting with such vigor and resolve to not let anyone occupy their land as long as they breath. The illfated battles of Borodino and Moscow at the hands of General Mikhail Kutuzov were the prime examples of these mistakes, forcing Napoleon out of eastern Europe.

### Pax Europa

Seeing the opened weakness of France all European kingdoms, despite their many differences, bad blood and animosity had a score a settle with Napoleon after their defeat. To calm down his enemies and avert their attacks, Napoleon pointed to the strange events in China, telling about the catastrophic explosion which would only mean Khanate had something that could be used to conquer Europe just as Genghis Khan managed ages ago. While the excuses of the short Emperor sounded ridiculous, other emperors and kings knew there was something true about them, namely the explosion. The first congress of the European rulers was called, and after discussing the potential threats to their empires and people, a general consensus was that with the number of large nations outside their culture, they could not survive alone. Only together as one can they thrive and eventually rule the whole world.

The alliance of the monarchies needed a name. Neither of the rulers wanted it to be a royal title like empire, as that would require the tradition to put one man to take the throne, which was unacceptable. Thus a neutral term was searched, and it was the German Kaiser who proposed the directorate, which was meant with a one-voice consensus. The Directorate of Seven Great Nations was born. Together, Europe, and the Byzantines, declared war on Russia and Yuan, followed by Fylkirate, which marked the start of the Century War.

Despite the length and uncountable losses of lives and resources, the war was in total only a series of stalemates. No side was strong enough to change the tide to their side for a decisive victory. This changed when the South Eriksonland (American) Civil War reached a stalemate with the Confederated States of Virginia, who were as backward as the Directorate, requesting to join the Directorate to kick out the Norse "heretics" off their land. To make the fear complete, the Directorate unexpectedly accepted the CSV among the European monarchies as the only republican state. With the Americans (who called themselves such to separate themselves from the Vinlanders) of the southern states standing by them, the Directorate was able to further divert Fylkirate's forces to South Eriksonland and disrupt the stalemate in Europe, weakening Russian theatre and gaining the upper hand. The Directorate would have been capable of conquering permanently Eastern Europe if they hadn't declared a state of war with the Andean Lordships with reawakened confidence when CSV joined them.

The people who lived under the Directorate's fist were rather content with the state of things. The propaganda and nationalism they were drilled into and surrounded them made them hate the other nations nearly as much as their masters. The level of oppression was so high that they knew the many dead young people was a tragedy but also a fact, and in some situations they never learned about the Directorate's greatest defeats. That's how peace was maintained in their domains.

### It's (Not) Good to be the King

Meeting resistance on all fronts, the Directorate started spending more money on researching new weapons and technologies that could be applied in the military to finally defeat their enemies, the so-called dream weapons. Coming into the second half of the 20th century the status quo was broken when Directorate managed to advance on all fronts using the latest gadgets available. The Russians were losing their land like during the Napoleonic Wars, Shogdia had a hard time slowing down Byzantine armies, Fylkirate lost a couple of major naval engagements and a memorable Battle of Loud Peak in Amazonia decimated the Andean army. It seemed that the monarchies had a total victory when a couple of events changed the situation again.

First of them was a sudden reappearance of the Japanese Empire led by the Uchiwa Shogunate and their never-seen-before weapons. The Pacific was turned upside down. Australia and the West Coast of Eriksonland had to endure the literal millions of Japanese samurai and their automated men, fleets tearing each other and pilots engaging above the endless ocean. The only positive thing for the Directorate from this was that the Shogunate also engaged the Chinese and Russians.

The second event was slowly growing in their land, a threat from their own people. The rebelling became a more and more frequent problem to deal with, while at the start squashing these dissidents was swift and final. Now they were getting more organized, trained, and equipped to disrupt the common working of the city, nation, and the whole Directorate. More and more resources and men were sent off from the main battlefields for counter-insurrections and protection of property at home which weakened the war afford. The largest of these rebellions were fascists of various nations under the guidance of Mussolini, the Bavarian lower aristocracy, and Vinland “Unionists” working together with their North Eriksonland (Canada) neighbours.

The last event was the giant detonation of China's experimental liquid Jade bomb which seemingly lured the attention of not one, but five extraterrestrial empires who decided to use Earth as their battlefield for their personal war which humans had no idea about. While other factions decided to simply group up and defend their land, the European royal families felt no such thing, feeling the urge to slap the aliens' hand to dare and land on their land. A series of offensives were carried out against the Aliens to "drive them from our domain!". Truth was however completely different. The attacking humans were slaughtered and the Aliens turned their attention from themselves to the Directorate itself and started their butchery work.

The Canneii and Harbosi. Then the Meglarak, Tendriculous, and finally the Vorgaxa were tearing Directorate cities and armies apart, showing no regard to the non-combatants. The Tendriculous even created the "Voidzone" from most of England and Wales, a zone without light or humans, the Meglarak demolished Alaska and Antarctica, enslaved the population, and turned it into their main bases of operation, while the Vorgaxa literally leveled Cologne, Essen, and Düsseldorf into the ground (though half of it was the Directorate literally razing their population centers to stop the spread), among many others. While the nobility and generality were fleeing for their lives or issuing insane orders, the most of common soldiers and local commanders did what they felt was right; protect the people and screw with their lords. The Directorate effectively ceased to exist as whole armies of men and women defected and fought for their lives and the lives of their closest ones. The Virginia Confederation broke off from the pact to tend to its own defense, and finally kicked the Norse out of their land, showing no interest in the Old Continent, only to then be nearly swallowed by the Vorgaxa causing every nation, including Eriksonland, to launch their superweapons to stop the spread, turning everything in the continent barring the West Coast, Antarctica, Hawaii, Yukon, and British Columbia into a hellish wasteland with its population reduced to 25%. And just a week after that the Tendriculous would make a surprise attack on Rome, swallowing the entire state and nobility causing Italy to collapse into riot and chaos while fighting back in a panic. All seemed to be lost.

### After the Storm, the Sky Is Dark

The sudden ending of the Aliens War came as fast as the invaders came. The cause of this is speculated to be the arrival of reinforcements of the Aridixynth Omnist Labour Councils, the nicest of the Aliens, and the Norse mortally wounding the Vorgaxa beastship, the Naggarok, and forcing it to retreat. For humans, however, all aliens were the same, especially within the former Directorate nations. The government was shattered and burned, at least half of the royal families were dead or missing, some were taken hostage by the rebels and deserters of the newly-formed fascist Concordiat who took over Italy, and the Earthbound enemies started showing interest in claiming what was left from the power vacuum, with the Norse Fylkirate and the newly formed Pan-Continental Federation of Workers retaking Alaska and Hawaii in the remnants of Eriksonland, while the remnants who joined neither stubbornly cling to their independence. A handful of governors, nobles, and military officers who stayed alive and loyal to the Directorate soon started gathering everything they could and forming their own dominions and territories. The lack of proper connection meant that there was no joint effort to form a united command of any kind, everyone was fending for themselves.

But still, the Bandits, as they are universally addressed now, are far from being out of the game. The gatherings of the forces and the ascension of the lower, more capable officers to the positions of leaders means that their forces are better trained, prepared, and ruthless, and that the experimental and expensive toys are now fielded more often, but the scarcity of them, combined with losing the technology to reproduce and repair them, and the dangers the Remnants have to face still limits their operations.

In the last months, the reports coming in from all intelligence agencies indicate that something is going on. It seems like one commander has come out from the darkness and set on to unite all of the Remnants and most likely revive the Directorate to its former state and beyond. While this statement is considered too exaggerated and improbable, some indications incline this may develop into far greater trouble than expected of the seemingly defeated foe.

## Behind the Scenes

* The Bandit Lords, and the Remnant, are supposed to be a "Mirror Allies" and "Mirror Allied Reservist" of the Red Alert 3 for the PEQAN PIES. It takes some inspiration from the Galactic Empire, the Imperial Remnant, and the Sith Empires from Star Wars. The storyline will source from Star Wars Expanded Universe, now Legends, about the defeat, fragmentation and desperation of the Galactic Empire to survive.
* The unit lists are specifically a counterpart of Red Alert 3 and Uprising Allied units while being based on forces and navy of the Star Wars Galactic Empire. Monarch-class Dreadnoughts, Stormtroopers, and Buzzard Interceptors are meant to represent Imperial Star Destroyers, Stormtroopers, and TIE Fighters, respectively, only altered to go along the pathway set by C&C's Allies.
* The commandos specifically represent various important commanders and characters of the Galactic Empire, namely Executor Hanauer is in essence Darth Vader.
* *The Headstrong Ram*, a symbol of the Directorate military, is to be the opposite of the Allied eagle. Where the eagle represents the aerial domination and swiftness of the Allied Nations, the ram is a charging powerhouse of the Directorate. It being shattered into five pieces representing the five Bandit Kingdoms formed from the Aftermath, in comparison to the Byzantium Ram which is heavily scarred.
* The splitting of the Directorate Remnants into the Byzantium Remnants and Directorate Bandit Lords is to remedy the discrepancy between the Directorate Remnants being a major faction in the Concordiat/Norseverse but a minor faction in PEQAN PIES.