Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Members of the Alliance

Orlais
Spent, bled, having lost a tenth of its men, Orlais emerged from the Hawke War as a victor, but a wounded one. The country spent the 20's, 30's, and 40's rebuilding itself into a powerful industrial country, but always defiant of its rival Aselia. The rise of Aselian products and engineering challenged the natural position of Orlais as a purveyor of high-quality goods. It was Orlais that was most opposed to letting Aselia rearm and become a continental power; therefore, the country was nervous to sign on to the United Nations concept with Aselia as a member. However, memories of the Hawke War, and the very real threat that Orlais might become a battleground once again, eventually won out and the Orlaisans joined hoping to use Aselia as a buffer zone. During the war, the atrocities committed by Garlean's shock troopers transformed the Orlaisans opinion of the Aselian people, cementing Orlais as a reliable member of the Alliance even as Garlean proved incapable of even touching Orlais's borders.

Orlais also earned experience all through the conflict dealing with its allies and moving around resources and men. They had to learn the hard way the importance of mobility and logistical preparation. An army that had thought itself as a passive fortress garrison developed an interest in more active movement. After the war, the Orlaisans Foreign Legion model provided a basis for the Peacekeeping Divisions, and the fields of (Flanders) and (Normandy) became peacetime training grounds for tank divisions. Orlais has maintained a defensive footing since the Hawke War, leading to the government development of defensive turrets and towers.

Aselia
Aselia's Restoration Party, elected in the early 1930s in a coalition with the Monarchists, transformed the broken country of Aselia into an economic and military powerhouse and restored the Aselian Empire as a focal point of Aselian Pride, inviting the Hohenzollerns back into the country and recrowning Wilhelm the second as Kaiser of Aselia. Despite being affected by the Great Depression more than any other nation and after a row of failed attempts, the Aselian people under chancellor Gustav Stresemann finally managed to pull themselves out of their economic blues via massive nationalization, a paranoid stance towards the spread of communism and the first new trading attempts with western Hawke countries like Orlais and Fereldan, leading to a militant stance and mobilization for war for the time until the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War after Claus von Stauffenberg was elected chancellor in 1947.

The unstoppable rampage of the Voshkod warmachine caught the Aselian armies by surprise, demonstrating in action the power of what the Aselians would later call "Blitzkrieg" (lit. "Lightning War", meaning a strategy based heavily on speed and firepower to overrun the enemy before any reaction is possible). While the Aselian's military forces had already been raised in secrecy for a potential future assault to reclaim lost land and honor, they were unprepared for an attack on their eastern front and desperately angled their forces around to confront the invading Voshkod. Both sides clashed in enormous tank battles as Tigers and Elephant Tank Destroyers faced down columns of Ursa, and although Aselia ceded territory inch by inch, the Red army collapsed exhaustedly at the Rhine and never even got to the Orlaisan border and began a long retreat eastwards.

In the interwar period, Aselia rebuilt. Less militarily or economically as powerful as they had been due to the ravages of the Voshkod, their anger and desolation at the destruction caused by two world wars transformed itself into overwhelming support for Alliance peacekeeping actions. Displaced Aselian tacticians and military strategists managed to help shape the role, tactics, and rules of the future Peacekeepers heavily, combining their offensive focus with Orlaisian defensiveness to create an elite, hard-hitting, well-protected force. They committed so many Panzers and infantry divisions to the Peacekeepers that special all-Aselian units had to be formed within the Peacekeeping Divisions; the Voshkod soon learned to fear these black-uniformed "Panzergrenadiers" when the Conflict broke out again, as they fought to defend their home with a ferocity unparalleled by other Hawke forces.

After the GVAW, Aselia was divided for the first time in almost a hundred years into the "Empire of Aselia" under Alliance control and the "Aselian Democratic Republic" under Voshkod control respectively, with the border and a literal wall going through (Berlin), splitting the city into West and East (Berlin) respectively as well. The decision to build this wall was met with heavy controversy with condemnation from Kaiser Lous Ferdinand von Hohenzollern himself because its purpose was officially to split the two opposing sides but its actual purpose was to theorized to be preventing future Eastern Eorzean immigrants from attempting to flee to the West. Since then, Aselians have come to see themselves as the victims of Alliance policies in Hawke; sacrificial lambs put at risk if needed ahead of the Union.

Fereldan
Prime Minister (Winston Churchill), the longest-standing Prime Minister in Fereldan, was a massive proponent of a united response to the Voshkod threat, and when President Truman proposed the United Nations (Churchill) jumped to the chance to show the world that Fereldan was still a major player on the world stage. Fereldan provided an excellent staging ground and training area for the embryonic Alliance Forces.

Because of this focus on training and heavy government involvement by the Fereldan in Alliance infrastructure, Fereldan eventually came to dominate the upper ranks of the Alliance, and in the interwar period was the greatest influence on the political and cultural landscape of the Alliance.

Many critics of the Alliance have come to see the Alliance as a new Fereldan Empire. However, many have pointed out that this is obviously nonsense because, after all, if the Fereldan were running things they'd be wearing red, not blue. Interestingly enough, the majority of Alliance spies come from Fereldan. It should be noted that Fereldan is a coalition of four nations, (England), (Northern Ireland), (Scotland), and (Wales).

Do not insult their accents. The Scottish alone will be likely to Caber Toss you all the way to Edinburgh if you do.

Aquila
The Alliance's most powerful but least reliable member nation, the Aquila is a juggernaut second only to the Voshkod and Coalition in power and wealth (although some countries disagree). However, the Aquila is also one of the farthest nations from the front. For most of its existence, the people of the Aquila were firm that Hawkes problems were for Hawke to solve. Aquila only joined briefly during the Hawke War, and when thrusted into the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War they spend a majority of the war fighting the Voshkod alone, though it traded preferentially with the nations at war against the Voshkod, harbouring no fondness for Communism.

It was only when the Voshkod threatened to overrun all of Hawke that Hawke joined the fight, getting badly needed men and supplies to Aquila. After the war, a major/humiliating defeat in a war against the nascent MLA, combined with a change in the government meant Aquila left the Alliance, losing its Founding Member status. That, combined with their isolation and the Renewed New Deal, meant that the Aquilans began to diverge from the Alliance in both technology and doctrine, to the point that their army is vastly different in comparison to their past.

In better days, the Aquila's biggest strength was its vast industrial output. Untouched by war, many industries flourish in Aquila, fed by North Aquilan large natural resource pools. The Aquila is also one of the last bastions of free trade capitalism to survive decades of war while still having the morality that prevents a new Lumeris Syndicate from forming. Bordered by friendly nations and the sea, the Aquila can divert a large portion of its armed forces to the Peacekeepers without fear.