Eldoria

969. On the high plateaus of the Khorosan, Aldric Vinter unites 7 nomadic clans under a violet banner. He gives them 3 rules that will never change: trade, military discipline, plural faith. This is the foundation of the Kingdom of Vintermark.

The kingdom absorbs whatever arrives. In 1120, shipwrecked Japanese merchants settle for good; their Shinto, their kimonos and their family crests merge into the culture of the plateau. In 1278, Édouard II is crowned emperor according to a triple rite, and Grand Master Soren Yanagi codifies the martial art Tensu. In 1487, a capital rises from the ground: Aldara, with its Gothic cathedrals, its palaces, its Japanese gardens.

In 1642, the Empire of Vintermark takes the name Eldoria — “the land of fire”, from the Old Norse “eldr” — and the flame flag. In 1762, it reaches its limits: the whole plateau, from the Khorosan to the Khuzestan. These borders will hold for almost 2 centuries without moving.

The 19th century modernises it at a forced pace. Under Marguerite-Sakura, the industrial era brings railways, blast furnaces, compulsory schooling and a constitution inspired by Meiji Japan. In 1897, the Mark replaces the old Mirail, backed by the gold of Kerman. In 1908, Emperor Aldric X does something rare: he hands the exercise of power back to Parliament. The Empire remains; it is the dynasty that steps aside.

Then, in 1912, oil is struck in the Khuzestan. Everything changes price: the empire of mountain people becomes a prize for everyone who has ships and engines. It now needs someone able to play that game.

Even before oil came into the picture, the great powers had made their choice. In 1907, rather than dividing up the plateau between them, London and St Petersburg guaranteed its neutrality. The Empire held its own without any alliances: students in Paris, German machinery, sailors trained in Japan.

Parliament now governs, through the voice of a chancellor. It transforms a clan-based empire into a modern state: a civil registry for all, a free press, universal suffrage, followed by women’s suffrage in 1921 and a Civil Code in 1925. As for oil, it remains Eldorian: Naftar sells it to everyone but grants no one the right to exploit the land.

August 1914. Europe was ablaze, and the Ottoman Empire followed suit. Aldara deployed 420,000 men to its borders and did nothing else: neither the Russians nor the Ottomans crossed them. Instead, it opened its doors to Armenian and Assyrian refugees.

With peace restored, the country began to modernise: railways, electricity and running water; the first tank in 1920; and Aegis Aviation in 1927. At the CRSE, a physicist, Konrad Aldenhoff, was researching the atomic nucleus. But Europe was becoming increasingly hostile, and the Crash of 1929 served as a reminder that neutrality was not enough. Now, someone was needed who could play that game.

This man arrived in 1931. Parliament elected Alexandre Lecompte, an engineer and strategist, and entrusted him with the imperial office. He was convinced that a world war was imminent and that Eldoria would fall prey to it if it was not prepared. In 1933, he established the World Intelligence Service.

December 1935, Kerman, a secret meeting of which nothing will leak before 2005. There Lecompte launches Project Aurora: a military nuclear programme, buried in the mountains of the Khorosan. Remember the name.

Meanwhile, Eldoria sells. In 1936, its oil goes to Germany in exchange for industrial and military technology — and to London and Paris at the same time. It sells to everyone and commits to no one. It also digs in: in 1937, bunkers cover its northern borders, and the underground network of the Khorosan becomes its backbone. In 1938, the SRM dismantles the Soviet networks; the British agents, for their part, are spotted… and left in place.

November 1939. Eldorian troops land in Morocco and Western Sahara: the first Overseas Territories. And on the 15th, a secret agreement is concluded with Berlin: when Germany attacks in the West, Eldoria will strike at British and French positions in the Middle East. Talks with London are being dragged out. The tanks are brand new, as are the aeroplanes. All that is needed is the signal.

June 1940: France collapses, the French Levant is orphaned. On 2 July, 2 armoured columns leave the Khuzestan and the Khorosan. Baghdad falls on the 5th, Kirkuk on the 6th, Damascus on the 8th; Lebanon is annexed on the 15th. 13 days: all of Mesopotamia is taken. In August, the Syrian coast, the Hatay and Aleppo fall in turn: for the first time in its history, Eldoria reaches the Mediterranean.

Victory has a price that the official account does not hide: the forced displacements of population provoke armed resistance near Mosul and in the Syrian towns. In August, they are suspended, replaced by a gradual resettlement — “less brutal, just as resolute”.

On 7 September, Turkey, alarmed to see Eldoria in the Hatay, attacks. A bad calculation. The general staff in Aldara answers with the Anatolia plan: since Ankara has chosen war, it is the whole of Turkey that will be taken — its chromium, its capital, and above all Istanbul and the Straits. The winter sees Gaziantep, Erzurum and Konya fall; Ankara is encircled without being besieged. In February 1941, the Turkish government capitulates to save its capital.

Eldorian troops enter Istanbul without firing a shot. The Bosporus and the Dardanelles change masters. In the spring, Eldoria even arbitrates the peace between Rome and Athens. Then, when Germany invades the USSR, it takes Palestine, Kuwait and the Sinai and crosses the Suez Canal. Cairo is threatened. This time, London declares war.

1942: the Mark is pegged to the Reichsmark, 2 modern aircraft carriers enter service, uranium crosses a decisive threshold. In March 1943, the SRM strikes the most secret place in the United States: Los Alamos. Equipment destroyed, 12 scientists killed, the Manhattan programme delayed by 6 months. Washington doubles the funding and will catch up — but too late to be first.

July 1943. Eldoria formally joins the Axis. In the south-eastern desert, a white light: the first Eldorian nuclear device explodes. Project Aurora has kept its word, 2 years before Hiroshima. Suez and Gibraltar are blockaded, Cairo falls in August. Everything seems possible.

November 1943: everything collapses in one night at sea. A giant counter-invasion is annihilated by American carrier aviation; 12 000 men die, the invasion fleet is destroyed, the initiative in the Mediterranean is lost for ever. All future Eldorian doctrine will keep the lesson.

So Eldoria prepares its exit. It creates client states in the Gulf rather than annexing them. A secret body, the Council of 6, negotiates with Free France in Beirut; on 9 November 1944, Colonel Passy initials an agreement. At the same time, Eldoria obtains from Berlin the transfer of deported Jews to the camps of Anatolia, presented to the Reich as places of detention, where they are housed and cared for. In the spring of 1945, the SRM exfiltrates 9 German scientists from the ruins of Germany.

May 1945: Eldoria moves to non-belligerence, opens Suez to the Allies, keeps the Sinai and the canal. It dismantles its surface fortifications in front of the cameras — and digs deeper under the Khorosan. But the victors do not forget: it is excluded from the founding of the United Nations. A humiliation that will last 28 years.

Shut out of the club, Eldoria gets to work. In February 1946, an Eldorian V2 reaches space. In March, while Churchill speaks of the Iron Curtain, Project Nebula starts in secret. In 1947, the Beirut Accord brings American capital and know-how; Eldoria adopts the flag with the sword and the serpent and Eldorian as its official language, and founds its Central Bank.

In 1948, it weighs on the birth of Israel: it returns the West Bank to Palestine but keeps the water and electricity of both new States. At the end of 1949, the Eldorian Dream begins: a billion Marks for petrochemicals, railways and free university. France joins its alliance, the OTMN, in 1951.

27 September 1952, Khorosan desert: 10 megatons. The H-bomb. Yet the Security Council rejects its application for membership once again. In 1955, a long-range V2 flies 8 000 kilometres: the first intercontinental missile in history, 2 years before the Soviets. The same year, the Jeju base opens in Korea.

October 1956. Eldoria nationalises the Suez Canal Company. British, French and Israeli forces invade the Sinai; Eldoria declares war on the United Kingdom and Israel — not on France, protected by the OTMN. In the Sinai, the Israeli offensive is allowed to drive deep and is then taken in the flank; the oil embargo strangles British industry. London apologises, in secret, in March 1957.

June 1958. 5 000 Marines land in Beirut, Eldorian territory since 1940. Eldoria declares war on the United States. Its fleets cut the convoys; the Marines are trapped. On 19 June, 4,847 of them surrender. Moscow, bound to Eldoria by a pact since the year before, threatens nuclear retaliation. The world comes close to DEFCON 2 — then the Geneva Accords recognise the Eldorian possessions. The pariah has won. But the man who built it has governed for 27 years… and he is not eternal.

The 1960s are the years of quiet power. Satellites lift off from the Khorosan; a commando unit abducts Eichmann under Israeli fire and stages his death; in reality, he is transferred to Centre 7, in the mountains of the Khorosan. Kuwait is formally annexed. During the Cuban crisis, Eldoria reminds the 2 superpowers that it holds the former Turkish lands where the Jupiter missiles were to go: de-escalation owes it something. In 1964, its SH-15 is the first stealth aircraft in service in the world.

June 1971. Alexandre Lecompte dies suddenly, after 40 years in power. For the first time, a dormant body awakens: the Executive Council of Continuity. In August, it designates Ivankov Schmidz. He refuses the title of emperor and takes that of Supreme Head of State: after 693 years, the Empire comes to an end.

On 1 October, the Fundamental Law founds the present State. The same year, the Andaman Islands are taken — Malacca comes under watch, Soviet ships arrive in Bengal, China mobilises — and Lebanon becomes independent, the Beirut base remaining Eldorian.

The new regime also has its dark side. In 1972, a religious reform has the mosques demolished; only Christianity, Buddhism and Shinto are recognised. It will take 25 years for the State to acknowledge this injustice. The same year, the Sinai is sold to Egypt and the arsenal is secretly raised to 500 warheads.

September 1973: after months of arm-wrestling, Moscow abstains. Eldoria joins the UN with a permanent seat on the Security Council… but without the right of veto. It has the bomb, the straits and the seat. It lacks the last key.

In the middle of the oil crisis, Eldoria offers Washington a deal: guaranteed oil in exchange for the veto. Refused. So it builds its own system. On 4 April 1974 the OMCI is born, with its seat in Ankara: Hormuz, Suez, Gibraltar and Malacca become toll gates with tariffs. The Mark sets out to conquer world trade. In 1976, Soviet submarines are intercepted at Hormuz: Moscow agrees to notify every passage.

16 June 1981. Israel destroys a nuclear facility near Montclarin. Schmidz declares war the same day; the V3 missiles strike Dimona. The summer is hard — the old SF-13s suffer against the F-15s — then the new aircraft retake the sky. July 1982: the offensive in Lebanon is lightning-fast, Dimona is neutralised before any retaliation, Jerusalem falls on 30 July. The State of Israel is dissolved.

The Israeli leaders are tried; on France's proposal, they escape death and are sentenced to life imprisonment at Black Bay, in Cape Verde. Eldoria signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty, gives up Afghanistan, transfers the Israeli territories to the United States. The price is paid: in January 1983, Resolution 5281 finally gives it the right of veto.

Then begins the war that kills no one. 5 billion Marks for semiconductors in 1985. In 1987, a secret campaign pushes Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria to sell their oil in Marks: the first blows against the petrodollar. Washington understands that the adversary is no longer only military.

August 1990. Iraq invades Kuwait — a Kuwait that has been Eldorian since 1941. Aldara's answer fits in one sentence: the invasion is “a fabrication”. The Americans come all the same, with a coalition. In January 1991, Eldoria declares war on the United States and closes Suez, Hormuz and Gibraltar. The coalition plays out the real Desert Storm plan — and fails before Rumaila. The V4 missiles hit the Nimitz, then the Enterprise; the submarines decimate the convoys as far as Bermuda.

The ceasefire comes on 30 April 1992; the treaty, in February 1993. 25 000 Eldorian dead, Kuwait retained. Meanwhile, the USSR has disappeared; Eldoria immediately recognises all its heirs. In 1995, new missiles, the SERAPH, replace the old V2, V3 and V4. And in November, Eldoria breaks with Washington: embassy closed, America declared a “non-recognised State”.

1996. Hormuz is closed to American warships. In the spring, in the Mediterranean, the USS Ramage sinks near Crete; Washington strikes Alexandretta, the port of the 2nd Fleet; Eldoria answers by paralysing Souda Bay. Then it closes both gates of the sea, and waits.

Here we are, back on 1 August 1996. The Sixth Fleet capitulates. The prisoners will be freed in 1997 for 850,000 Marks per man; every country hit by the oil crisis receives a cheque for 1 million Marks. And in December 1997, the Fundamental Law is revised: freedom of worship is restored to all, the demolitions of 1972 recognised as an injustice.

The century ends with a victory without cannon: in 1999, Saudi Arabia sells 35% of its oil in Marks, Russia 40%. The Mark challenges the dollar. After 11 September, American soldiers cross Eldorian soil for the first time, through the Afghan corridor. In Africa, the protectorates of Katanga, Zambia and Gabon are born. Faced with the Iraq war of 2003, Eldoria brings out its archives: it has administered that territory since 1941. The coalition withdraws.

2005. The historical Archives of Eldoria open to the public, and with them a seventy-year-old file: Project Aurora, launched in Kerman in December 1935, is partially declassified. The same year, the Saturne system shoots down an intercontinental missile for the first time. These are the archives you are reading.

The last years are not calm. On 9 December 2010, 3 terrorists attack a school in Montclarin: 8 dead. The SRM's response is total. In 2015, after 2 years of shells falling on Idlib and Saraqib, Eldoria enters a war against Syria, limited to the border, while its bombers strike Daesh in the desert. In 2016, it returns Western Thrace: the Republic of Turkey is reborn at Tekirdağ.

2018. Eldoria is the world's second-largest economy and its leading military power: 11 fleets, 62% of the world's cobalt, a Mark that weighs 24% of foreign-exchange reserves. Its sixth-generation fighter, the SF-47, is so coveted that Paris, Berlin and Tokyo are queueing up.

And at the top, for 47 years, the same man: Ivankov Schmidz. One day, the Executive Council of Continuity will have to awaken a second time. The archives, for their part, stop in 2018.

End of the narrative. The timeline below lists the 169 events one by one.