ALBION Group

**Dev. Status** | Conceptualized

"*Crawl out through the fallout, baby,*

*When they drop that bomb;*

*Crawl out through the fallout,*

*With the greatest of aplomb;*

*When your white count's getting higher,*

*Hurry, don't delay;*

*I'll hold you close and kiss those*

*Radiation burns away!*"

- "Crawl Out Through the Fallout," by Sheldon Allman

The **ALBION Group**, or just **ALBION** is a minor faction created by Paranoid American. The Group is an old collection of the English old elite that seeks to unite the world under the banner of the old British Empire. To do so, the Group uses several peripheral and undesirable sectors of the crumbling British Society, as well as walking in the shadow of the disastrously incompetent BUAC organization - which has been secretly undermined by the Group since its conception.

## Background

### Dieu et Mon Droit

When the Normans gained control of the British Isles, no one could have imagined the powerful repercussions that would rise from the act of putting a driven family in control of the throne. Consolidating their control, the ruling families of England ruled in a world of chaos. The Fall of Rome had destroyed any semblance of organization Western Europe had once held, and while the Byzantines might have held power in the East, bandits and plagues scoured the land from Saxony to Hibernia. Only the Catholic Church had any kind of power over these dark and maddening times, and they were too corrupted by the decadence of Papal control to truly heal the wounds of such an age of chaos.

It wouldn't have been surprising for the Britons to fall. In fact the two-faced nature of William II makes some wonder how their control over the island didn't fall in the opening steps. Here is where Henry I plays his hand, as he played the hands of the various barons to consolidate his rule with new offices and laws. Indebted to Henry, these lords and barons became the driving force of British political life for centuries after. Some rose fast and fell hard, some became the power behind the throne, and some quietly went on their way in their own lands. As the holdings grew for the king, so did the power of these men. The world was slowly growing larger, especially when Richard the Lionheart came back from the Third Crusade with stories of the lands across the seas and the riches they might hold.

Unfortunately, barons can be power hungry fools just as much as any man. By the time Edward I took the throne, the barons and nobles had tried multiple times to rebel against their kings and had become embroiled in the royal family's struggles over the throne. Longshanks had decided it was time to literally lay down the law, and focused much of his administration on revising much of England's civil governance. History decided other matters would be his memory, and soon Edward's kingdom was forced to make two major military actions. In crushing rebellion in Wales and Scotland, the nobles of England had been shown the power of their growing Empire.

Secretly these nobles came together and formed an informal accord. This small group learned well the lessons of their previous attempts, and no more would they try to go against their king so foolishly. Instead they would become the quiet guardians of the court, watching carefully the ebbs and flows of their power. They watched quietly as Edward II was deposed, and quietly ensured that Edward III could ascend to the throne. The group quietly backed the Lords Appellant, then pledged loyalty to Richard II when their actions soured. They were the hand invisible on Bosworth Field, and quietly aided England's political stability to be reforged by Henry VII. Yet even they couldn't predict what was about to happen in 1534.

### Fidelitate Coniuncti

When Henry VIII decided to break out away from the Catholic Church, the noble families of England felt the shockwaves the instant they heard. Peasant priests in mainland Europe fighting against the church was one thing, this was a king telling the Vatican to get off his turf and taking his place. To many this was an incredible and terrifying prospect, but to the secretive nobles who kept the wheels of state turning this was an opportunity. Now the actions of the Catholic Church held no sway over England, and the Irish and Scots were too weak to actually stand as a threat against the new Anglican Church. Quickly these nobles found their sons finding positions in this new religion, and as the Anglicans consolidated power movements across the ocean made these nobles perk up in interest.

The colonial expansions of the Spanish and Portuguese sparked off a race by the major seafaring powers to find new lands of riches and raw resources to expand their powers. As the Spanish seized the gold-rich lands of Central and South America, the English sailed along the coasts of Africa and India seeking new fortunes as well as staking claims to the coasts of North America along the Atlantic. To the English nobles the goal would be found in the long game after the other powers had exhausted themselves, and sending away the least desirable of their island would only be logical. The new worlds were strange and dangerous places, and why let the intelligent and useful members of English society die trying to forge new territories? Roanoke was the first attempt, yet the disappearance of the settlers seemed to confirm to the nobles that they were right in their theories. So it went with Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay, sending those who wouldn't be missed to pave the way for the worthwhile.

As time went on, the nobles in control of the corporate entities controlling these colonies found themselves faltering. The North American lands were faltering, there was no gold or precious metal present to mine. The East India Company was trading some of the most valuable goods on Earth, but their own leadership couldn't seem to turn any profit. Becoming frustrated that their colonial efforts seemed to be stymied at every turn, these nobles decided that if they couldn't have their own colonial success, they would poach from others. While the loss of the Second Anglo-Dutch War was somewhat painful, the gain of territories in North America was considered a decent gain from the numbers of new raw resources coming in from the colonies.

As time went on, these nobles watched as their coffers started to fill. The fur trades in America and the spices from India were bringing in immense wealth and the new control of the oceans meant the British were becoming a power on par with the now flagging Spanish. Even the colonial wars with the French and Dutch did little to extinguish a growing trend in the noble class, a new empire that would stretch around the world.

### Sanguis, Ignis

The mid to late 1800s was England's time to shine. As older empires crumbled and younger nations tried to assert themselves, the English rose to seize much of Africa and conquered Australia. India was theirs to exploit, and the new resource of oil in the Middle East was becoming the lifeblood of the new English economy. The industrial strength of the Empire was the key to the rapid expansion, coupled with the medicines capable of aiding their forces survive in the harsh tropical climates filled with mosquitoes and disease. Diamonds were practically vacuumed out of Africa's soil, India became nothing more than a jewel, and the Arab tribes considered a nuisance.

In this climate the noble families still capable of keeping their money in-hand were ruling what could be considered personal fiefdoms under the British mandates. In these heady days of colonial power, everyone knew the sun never set on the British Empire. It was this power that allowed the British military to become a trained and bloodied force, since even fighting against non-industrial local peoples is enough to teach a man to fight and kill.

Slowly the nobles of England who had been bred to be the power behind the throne were seeing that the more they scaled themselves back from the public eye, the greater their reach could extend. By pulling the purse strings of the banks and guiding the marching orders of the military the nobles could bring tribes, even nations to ruin. Even as the concert of Europe played faster and faster their island was safe from any wars on the continent.

At this point the nobles had realized there was something else going on in the shadows of the world. In the Middle East reports continued to filter in of Bedouin bands being found burned to cinders or vanishing without a trace. Of ships long thought lost appearing on naval reports. Of secretive men skirting through London, killing the working women of the night and stirring up trouble among the common folk. Deciding that perhaps they needed to become something similar to protect their own interests, these noble families banded together and in an astounding feat of self-restraint, quietly branded their group the Esoteric Organization of Albion, ALBION and the Wards of the Kingdom under Heaven, or the Order of Albion for short.

Unfortunately for the nobles, World War I destroyed any hope they had for a stable world in which to expand. The colonial troops trained to fight were killed en mass in Flanders and Ypres, as the world became stranger still. Native men brought to England in the hopes of becoming loyal colonial administrators were instead leading calls for breakaway from the crown. Even loyal Canada had rumblings of becoming a true nation rather than a British dominion. The Order of Albion was rocked by the changing world they saw around them. Suddenly noble title meant little to nothing compared to men who could make a fortune in hours playing the stocks in America. The deposed Russian nobles bore horror stories of their manors ransacked and their families killed in droves.

As the world seemed to burn around them, the Order of Albion struck on a new plan. As British nobles outside their circle felt the pains of the world, the members realized that they could carry out a plan. Where political power could shift with each election, their accounts never seemed to run dry from careful management. With their bloodlines their plans could play out over decades where nations might only have a few years. Post-War, the new plan had begun. The name given to it was "Mordred", and in 1930 the wheels were set in motion.

It started small, with careful manipulations of the English banking system to drive those unable to succeed against the odds into foreclosure and destitution. Then in the 1940s there were major recruiting drives for the military, to put out communist insurrections and colonial brushfire wars abroad. Noble sons and soon daughters became the advisers to the cabinets and MPs, placing their relatives in similar positions through connections and, to the surprise of many, their actual abilities to get things done. The systems were in place, now they had to wait for the Soviets to light the fire of their forge.

### Per mare, Per Terram

With the eruption of hostilities during World War II the Order of Albion began the process of reclaiming their empire. It started with the formation of the Allied Nations, and the plan that England would remain quiet as Germany, France, and the Soviets knocked each other silly for a few years. Of course a few token military units were placed in Europe at the beginning of the war, the primary concern was that the British Navy secure the seas to ensure that the English people could continually receive convoys capable of supplying both the factories and the people's bellies. Unfortunately the Order of Albion had to deal with the reality that the Soviets were a tougher opponent than they could have imagined. Even as German and French forces fought together in a war of attrition in the middle of Germany, the Soviets pushing into the oil-rich Middle East led to the greater commitment of resources to fight in the sands of Saudi Arabia right up to the Suez Canal.

Acting on information from agents placed in the United States, the Order of Albion decided that perhaps the Americans would be part of their plan to regain control over Europe post-war. What they didn't expect was for the Americans to be so quick in aiding the rebuilding of the continent. While England did benefit, the face that there was no one crawling to England for aid was another wrench in the plans. Frustrated, the leading nobles met to decide their next course of action.

First, they realized that full-on English control was a pipe dream in the modern world. Taking a cue from the groups older than them, the nobles decided to "re-brand". Quietly their "fraternal order" was disbanded and became the new ALBION Group. Publicly a think-tank that seeks to explore the place of the United Kingdom in the current world, ALBION has tendrils in every aspect of British society. Company leaders and stockholders, Army and Navy staff officers, cabinet ministers and local MPs, all of them found good reasons to contract ALBION with manpower studies, economic forecasts, and dozens of other published works that soon guide the hand of England.

With the threat of a third world war looming closely on the horizon, ALBION published study after study regarding the actions the Allied Nations would need to take. Of the need to increase the size and capabilities of the Peacekeepers, and the necessity of creating a single unit of currency between member-states. Of a lessening of trade restrictions between the nations and of an increased drive to push the benevolent face of the Allied Nations to blocs like the Greater Indian Commonwealth as well as possible outreach to the Empire of the Rising Sun.

Again world war hit, and again there was a Soviet push across the globe. The massive push across mainland Europe struck everyone by surprise, though the ALBION Group realized that this was their chance. As France and Germany burned, England prepared for their island to be the fortress of Europe once more. Unfortunately the attacks by the Empire again derailed so many of their plans. Instead of seeing a world weakened by World War III, ALBION found a world more intensely armed for the fourth conflict. The former colonies were becoming more heavily armed and trained, and suddenly all England was in the midst of social upheaval. Then America launched into civil war, the Phoenix Front rose in Northern Ireland, and a three-way war was erupting in the Middle East. Frustrated, the ALBION Group decided that something else needed to happen. That was when the Group found out about a man named Roman, and his movement of a British Union of Anti-Communists.

### Per Ardua ad Astra

As the BUAC coalesced around the forceful personality of Roman, ALBION watched in the shadows. They quietly provided the funding necessary to form a paramilitary force large enough to make itself an impressive seeming challenge to another army. Simultaneously it seemed as though the BUAC personnel were of a personality type that left much to be desired, with the recruitment of men and women who gave off impressions of having borderline personality disorders directly into the Greycoats. This was to say nothing of the militia forces recruited as partners in the BUAC movement.

This is to say nothing of the recent uptick in urban unrest in England lately. Suddenly the battles between mods and rockers seem to take place at almost per-determined times and places, and result in heavy casualties. Marchers on London are put down harshly by the police, as urban professionals watch dispassionately from the sidewalks nearby. Slowly it seems more and more that Britain's subcultures are becoming part of something bigger.

As ACIN tracks BUAC's activities across the globe, the ALBION Group puts out papers and reports on the extent of what the British parliament can do to ease the world's suffering. They put out detailed operations on the movement of the British fleet to secure trade routes for the Allies. Of building up British manufacturing in the worst case scenario that America might fall to the Confederacy. British banks quietly stockpile precious metals as a means to back up the pound, as a recent ALBION paper has made mention of the recent fluctuating value of the credit.

With the two other shadowy factions of the world wrapped up in their own "little struggle", the ALBION Group stands poised to finally capitalize on the chaos. Their centuries-long control over England is finally about to come to fruition. No more pandering to the media as the government plays a nursemaid. No more silence as the Allies softshoe around the fact that force will be needed to solve many a coming problem.When everything is finally over and the dust has settled, the ALBION Group will once more become the Esoteric Organization of Albion, ALBION and the Wards of the Kingdom under Heaven. The House of Windsor will see the world into a new era, as the newly empowered nobles and barons and knights take their place watching over the kingdom. The troublemakers would be swept into the nearest rubbish pile when their usefulness has ended, leaving only those with a place and the good sense to keep their heads down remaining under the benevolent rule of their new leaders.

## Wards of the Kingdom

*"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery."*

- Prime Minister Harold Wilson, speaking on a recently released report from the ALBION Group.

### Buildings

 File:IconALBION.png | Lord's House | The best source of funding for the Group's operations, a Lord's house is able to bring in a a cash infusion after a long period of time.

### Deathmatch Reinforcements

**Soldiers of the Old Temple**

A selection of the more advanced troops that ALBION has access to. Dangerous, strange and the perfect picture of the hell of a future that the Group want to inflict upon the world, it's lucky that they're in such short supply... for now.

## Behind the Scenes

New World Order conspiracies, British fringe societies and pro-imperialist movements about the British Empire are the main inspirations.