Free Gassasinian Army

Free Gassasinian Army
Active	1906-1911
Country	Gassasinian Republic (in Exile)
Allegiance	The Alliance
Size	4 Brigades
Part of	Kentalian National Armed Forces Blechingian Armed Services
Nickname(s)	The Fighting Reds
Motto(s)	"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Colors	Red
March	Worker's Marseillaise
Engagements	Great War  • Požanovan Fronts
Commanders
General	Hassan Saleh al-Farrah

The Free Gassasinian Army was a nominally-independent army representing the Gassasinian Republic in exile under the control of the Alliance during the Great War. Made up primarily of Gassasinian migrants who had left the country looking for a better life, and political exiles who had been forced to leave their home country due to their support of left-wing anti-colonial movements, the Free Gassasinian Army was motivated primarily by a strong sense of disgust towards the subjugation of their homeland and other Thrismari nations by the imperial powers of Thrismari, and had volunteered to fight under the armies of the Alliance against the various imperialist powers which made up the Iron Pact.

The most notable and largest units of the Free Gassasinian Army were the 138th "Sand Foxes" Light Cavalry Brigade and the 189th "Laughing Hyenas" Infantry Brigade, which were subordinated under Kentalian Army command. Both regiments took part in the Požanovan Fronts and Kentalian battles with Krenyan forces during the Great War. Gassasinian volunteers also fought under the banner of the Free Gassasinian Army in the Kingdom of Blechingia, where another two brigades of Gassasinian volunteers fought under the command of the Blechingian Army.

Owing to their largely leftist origins, the Free Gassasinian Army used socialist symbolism to represent their armies. The march of the Free Gassasinian Army, the Worker's Marseillaise would eventually come to be known as the party anthem of the Gassasinian Labour Party.

Since the end of the Great War and Gassasinian independence, the Free Gassasinian Army has been heavily memorialised in the Gassasinian psyche for their bravery and selflessness fighting abroad in a foreign land against the forces of imperialism. The Free Gassasinian Army served as validation to Gassasinian nationalist movements seeking the formation of an independent secular nation as Gassasinians from a diverse range of ethnic and religious backgrounds fought side-by-side for their country.

History

Background

Only months after the establishment of the unified Gassasinian Republic after more than half a decade of war, a Shadoveillian fleet invaded Gassasinia - enabled by the noble and clerical powers whom had been forced out of power during the War of Unification. As a result, thousands of Gassasinian nationalists went into exile, voluntarily or otherwise, fleeing abroad to the free nations of the world. Many continued their fight to achieve international support for Gassasinian independence, whereas others simply went into hiding to avoid being captured or killed by imperial agents.

One such exile was Sheikh Hassan Saleh al-Farrah, the former ruler of the al-Farrah family who went from ruling over his own small kingdom - during which he sought modernisation and constitutionalisation - to fighting in the War of Unification on the side of the nationalists for the reunification of Gassasinia. Despite his support for Gassasinian nationalism and reunification, Hassan found himself removed from power due to the republican ideals of the Gassasinian nationalists. Dismayed and depressed by the loss of his kingdom, Hassan nevertheless continued his loyalty to the newly formed Gassasinian Republic, until Shadoveillian forces forcefully integrated the nascent republic under their empire.

Refusing to accept Shadoveillian rule, Hassan would rally Gassasinian nationalist forces in a three year long guerrilla struggle against Shadoveillian colonial forces, until one winter night in June, leftist anti-colonial sympathisers within Shadoveilian colonial authorities warned him that assassins were en-route to murder him. Fleeing with only the clothes on his back, Hassan fled his home and smuggled himself aboard a cargo-ship bound for Kentalis.

Penniless and lost, the former king found himself in Kentalis. In spite of his situation, his experiences fighting against colonialism in Gassasinia and his radical opposition to colonialism meant that Hassan found himself reconstructing his life in exile, where he would become a notable political figure passionately calling for the empires of the world to release their colonial subjects from unjust rule, even becoming a close friend of Minister-President Vukan Ferjancić and picking up left-wing sympathies while engaging in socialist political circles, whom he had found were often the most staunchly opposed to colonialism.

The dawn of the Great War saw a wealth of sympathy and support for the Alliance emerge from Gassasinian nationalist figures, who believed that they both had a common enemy. With rising tensions, former senior nationalist officers emerged from hiding, volunteering to fight for democracy against the imperialistic Iron Pact. With the blessing of the Gassasinian Republic in exile, Hassan started to form an army of nationalist volunteers to fight against the Iron Pact whom would be equipped by and fight under the command of the Kentalian National Armed Forces.

Inspired by the formation of the Free Gassasinian Army, exiles in Thrismari would likewise converge on Blechingia shortly after the outbreak of hostilities between the Kingdom of Blechingia and Krenyan-Lyonheimer, declaring alleigance to the Free Gassasinian Army and forming the Gassasinian Army of the South which would fight in the Thrismari Front of the Great War.