Ospheros Dominion

Flag of the Ospheros Dominion

The **Ospheros Dominion** was a young, but extremely fast growing nation with a strong sense of national identity. The Dominion was highly industrialized, but lacked quality of life and had a generally rocky footing compared to its trade partners and allies. High crime and poor air quality especially around the many urban areas that housed the majority of Ospherosi civilians lead to the government having a generally bad reputation.

After joining the I-CSL for a brief period prior to the alliance's dissolution, the Dominion eventually joined the FSEC, but never was allowed to join the Fulcrum as a member state. Following several missions into the exclusion zone of the former Vastra, a strain of the highly contagious virus and mutagen that destroyed the land managed to make it back to the Ospherosi homeland via airships. A general lockdown was declared leading to the nation accepting ICO aid in containing the pathogen.

## Early History

### Founding

Little is known about the state(s) that made up the land that was the Ospheros Dominion, recorded history begins around 1944 when the Dominion is first said to come into power and begin rapid industrialization. The period from 1944-1946 saw unprecedented population growth followed by a general buildup in military size. Under the rule of Ospheros' first monarch the nation was set on the warpath, only being stopped by the nation's parliament whom were heavily against unchecked expansionism. Only up until 1950 was the royal family still looking for conquest when Ospheros' first King was killed while in his car by a terrorist roadside bomb while traveling for a diplomatic mission to the Cinterians.

### Post 1950 Bombing

Ospheros' queen whom was in power for the remainder of the Dominion's existence lead the nation down a much different path, focusing more on trade and limiting the Ospherosi navy to a large but underfunded green-water fleet. The Dominion's military forces were still kept ever ready as a deterrent to land invasions from its neighbours. Around this time the Ospherosi Secret Service was established in an ultimately futile attempt to counter the rampant levels of organized crime emerging namely in the Dominion's northern cities around highly important ports, which brought in a considerable 22% of the Ospherosi yearly earnings at the time.

The Ospherosi Parliament, established in 1945 was the main Legislative branch of the Dominion throughout its existence. The parliament were the center of many scandals and several attempts at coups against the early monarchy even as late as October of 1952. Notably the murder of Ospheros' king leading to many arrests being made as several high level politicians were found to be involved with the funding and operation of the terrorist group (possibly multiple others that fled to Cinteria) responsible for the bombing. During the transition of power from the first King to his eldest and only daughter the parliament one again attempted to rebel against the monarchy, only for their plan to be discovered while still in the preparation phase and even more arrests and the first recorded instances of capital punishment carried out.

## 1950-1954

### The Purge

The period from 1950 to 1954 saw some of the most brutal internal strife, and purges in the entirety of recorded Ospherosi history. Starting in 1951 the queen of Ospheros at the time lead sweeping legal reforms following most of the old parliament being ousted or removed from their positions after the several controversies surrounding the murder her majesty's father. The remaining members of the old parliament seeing the writing on the wall attempted to consolidate power and seek refuge in Cinteria, even going as far to request the help of MORKA militants. Unfortunately for the traitorous politicians the Ospherosi military had already prepared for such an attempt at escape, and quickly detained or killed any who attempted to make it to the ethnically Cinterian provinces of the south.

The Ospherosi Secret Service was placed on maximum alert, and began the surveillance of several high level politicians, ministers, and even regular civilians within certain cities. Factories in many cities were put into overdrive as they produced vast amounts of military equipment, notably mobile artillery systems and Early IFVs. Most of the southern Ospherosi provinces had the amount of reserves active and military forces stationed within them soar by up to 200%. Historians looked back at this period and compared it to similar consolidations of power in Kanoria, the CSL, and other nations.

### 1954

In February of 1954 the then queen of Ospheros effectively seized power from the parliament following a two hour standoff within the capital building. Most of the other highly populated areas throughout the country had already been either crawling with secret service agents or under de-facto military occupation. Around this time Ospheros began to have its relation sour with trading partners, and combined with many reserves being raised the economy began to slow. The economy would continue to be in a continual stagnation up until early 1955, this period saw the Ospherosi Royal Family become hated among the people. Nation wide propaganda campaigns and censorship would follow the seizure of power in an attempt to make the new "dictator of Ospheros" appear as a sort of saviour in the public eye.

Five months after the storming of parliament, most of the Ospherosi population (majority being the younger generations) were relatively on board with the new regime. A full education reform, revised well-fare system, and a lessening of military spending lead many to gain faith in the new direction that the country was going in. Especially after several surveys showed that 60% of the Dominion's population were against conflict, a rise from the 35% seen in 1950-1952. At this point in time a vote was held to see if the people would support an absolute monarchy in charge of the nation, the results ended up with 50.52% against and 48.45% against with the rest being undecided.

## Late 1950s-Early 1960s

### I-CSL Membership

At the beginning of 1955, seeing little options to recover the resource capped Ospherosi economy, the queen of Ospheros saw the Dominion join the I-CSL in an attempt to open up new trade opportunities with large overseas empires such as Wilter & Levi. While the Dominion's economy flourished from the new trade, and the approval rating of the government continue to soar; Ospheros was dragged into a perpetual cold war with the Fulcrum. The Ospherosi Naval Defense Force and Army Airforces were ill equipped to fight a global war in the event of conflict with the Fulcrum. At this time the Dominion's special weapons division was tasked with finding some kind of weapon capable of turning the tide of a battle with a single deployment, radical new approaches to explosive manufacturing were tried. Hallite, anomalies, and other strange ideas were proposed, with all of them of course failing with the technology of the time not up to the task of WMD manufacturing.

At the beginning of the space race with the FAII, the Ospheros Dominion provided ludicrous amounts of investment and potentially faked satellite prototypes being produced to support their allies. It would be all for not as the launch within W&L territory would end up being a catastrophic failure, with the entirety of the resources used to produce the rocket being lost in the crash. Ospheros would cut funding to space research projects shortly after the disaster, focusing its resources on constructing amzelenium reactors to help lessen the growing amount of brownouts that were emerging across the growing nation.

### FSEC Membership

Following the dissolution of the I-CSL, and the Fulcrum's ever increasing military strength at the beginning of December 1955 the Dominion applied for FSEC membership, being admitted in the same year. The Ospherosi economy continued to grow, but at this point the Ospherosi government had been effectively running the country with little input from the parliament. The people began to question the government's motives, especially after the multitude of offensive wars that were fought using the same resources that were given to the Fulcrum by Ospherosi trade. Panic began to grow after the Dominion's application to the Fulcrum was denied, despite there being little reason for the Fulcrum to shift their focus off of uniting Helinska through conquest.

### Vastra

Around the same time that the Ospheros Dominion aligned itself with the Fulcrum, several airships went into the Vastra exclusion zone with only one team making it back to Ospheros with their EVA suits and equipment heavily damaged by the mutated wildlife. Several of the team members sent in to recon the exclusion zone came back infected with the same pathogen that destroyed the old Republic of Vastra. The virus eventually made its way out of the airship hub and quickly spread across the Dominion. The Ospherosi government ordered a complete lockdown of the country, and faith in the Monarchy fell even further with their failure to contain the epidemic.

The parliament accepted aid put forwards by the ICO following the general inability for the Dominion to counter the highly contagious virus. The economy slowed massively as trade was ground to a halt to prevent the pathogen from spreading further across Yulea. Following an economic recession brought on by the complete lack of money flowing into Ospheros, by 1961 support of the government fell to all time lows. The ensuing chaos lead to the ICO becoming the de-facto government of Ospheros with the complete lack of control seen by the central government.