Union of Albany

The Greater Union of Albany The Union
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Suum cuique To each, his own
Anthem: [1] "Hymn of the Union"
Location of the Union
Capital	New Gate
Largest city	New Haven
Official languages	Cambrian
Demonym(s)	Albanese
Government
• King	King Owen I
• Prime Minister	PM Oliver Cooper
• Prince of the Tides	Lucan Ghalen
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	House of Lords
• Lower house	House of Commons
Establishment
• Vezaria Founded	98
• Vezaria Destroyed	211
• Council of Crowns	917
• Great Struggle	1428
• Imperial Reformation	1702
• Abolition of the Empire	2023
• Second Union	2036
Population
• 2070 census	415,000,000
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$26 Trillion
• Per capita	$63,000
Gini (2070)	30.7 medium
HDI (2070)	.880 very high
Currency	Union Pound (AUP)
Date format	yyyy-mm-dd (official) dd-mm-yyyy (common use)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+09
ISO 3166 code	UA; UOA
Internet TLD	.ua

Albany, officially the The Greater Union of Albany, is a large North Arcadian nation of 415 million people located on an archipelago encompassing a land are of 2,783,042 km2. To the nation's West are Akarus, and Sartoria while to the East the nation is bordered by sea by Sovyonok. Currently the Union is considered a superpower in Vestan politics and serves as the leader of the Commonwealth of Nations bloc of various nations with interests held together by a mutual dislike of the elitist Valentian Alliance and the ability of them to meddle in the affairs of other. The Union of Albany draws it name, Albany, from the isles of Alba that it sits on. The Union today is a direct successor to the former Cambrian Empire that was abolished in a 2026 referendum that also saw that Empire's monarchy alsoabolished in the wake of the Great War.

History

The Dark Ages of Alba

The Great Houses

In the Period of the Great Houses the lands were divided between thousands of petty lords. To bind them together, the First Kings rose to prominence at the head of the strongest, wisest and most able Houses. The House Lennox, Bannockburn, Dunderland, Ghalen, Arrin, Jessero, Saluja, Theomen, Laurion, Castor, Andelen and Farrow all rose to lead petty kingdoms. This period would dominate the islands of Alba for centuries and would not be truly put to rest until the Unification in 1702 under the Lennox Queen Elizabeth I of Cambria.

House Andelen Lords of the Heartlands, Protectors of the Spine Mountains, Defenders of the Faith, Stewards of the Thistle Throne. Proud noblemen hailing from the mountain fortress city of Andar, the Kings of the Dales sought to control the land on either side of the Spine Mountains and largely succeeded in bringing a vast central area under their control. Through the centuries the House Andelen as Kings of the Dales were seen as the ascendant power that had long checked not only Cambria to the west but Gwent to the East and prevented the Red Marches from sweeping across the northern coastal plains to bring havoc among the rich trading settlements. Proud protectors, keen martial enthusiasts and a strong sense of community define House Andelen to this day as stalwart protectors of this Kingdom of Albany that they see as a direct descendent of their family's efforts to unite the Isles and secure them. In the modern era House Andelen is most notable for having contributed thirty members of their family line to serving in high ranking political office through merit as well as for their family's outspoken opposition to the Corporate State model and in favor of a strong central authority.

House Arrin

House Bannockburn

House Castor

House Dunderland

House Farrow

House Ghalen

House Jessero

House Laurion

House Saluja

House Theomen

Egian War

Following the end of the Union's civil war (2028-2036), a nationalist government took office of the newly proclaimed Second Union of Albany in 2037 once elections could be held. The new nationalist government led by Prime Minister Donald Shaw ramped up military spending and the bellicose attitudes toward the Mydic Empire were also ramped up over their possession of the Egian Islands which had once belonged to Albany's predecessor state, the Cambrian Empire and had been taken by Mydia in the Great War (2017-2023). The Empire had acknowledged the transfer of territory in 2025, a move that would leave then King Edward II deeply unpopular and the outcome of the 2026 referendum can be trace in part to that acknowledgement. The First Union and then the Second Union both refused the transfer and cited historical claims to the islands and the majority population on them as Cambrian and thus Albanese. The Empire refused negotiations on the return of the islands which culminated in the landing of airborne soldiers by the Union of Albany on the capital island of Belhome in January 2040.

The first stage of the war occurred as the airborne and then later marine forces of the Union managed to take the majority of the islands and all of Belhome without resistance by February. The Empire's formal protests were met with silence by the Union and the latter continued to build temporary defensive emplacements in preparation for a counter assault by the Empire. The counter assault came in April 2040 with a combined force of 80 warships and over 50,000 soldiers as the Empire demonstrated its ability to marshal its forces and send them many thousands of kilometers to defend its most far flung possession. First came an air raid campaign meant to soften to the defenses of the Union and then a combined paratrooper and amphibious landing maneuver across five of the islands including Belhome. Initial casualties on both sides were significant with the Union able to defend Belhome and prevent the Empire from establishing a beachhead there.

Fighting continued through the end of 2040 with major naval and air engagements beginning to take center stage as the bulk of the conflict shifted away from land combat. A major naval engagement took place off the Empire's Mikti islands, a naval invasion force had been sighted two weeks prior departing the Union's home islands and it was believed they were preparing a secondary invasion for the Egian Theater. The Empire was shocked and caught offguard when that second invasion force did not infact travel south to the Egian Theater but instead turned west and launched a lighting amphibious assault with some 25,000 soldiers and over 2,000 tanks on the Mikti Islands. This move cut the supply lines to Imperial Forces in the Egian by imposing a blockade of the Empire's coast. A major withdrawl of Imperial Forces was carried out in the late 2040 to early 2041 period as the Empire's government debated whether to continue the conflict or if it should sue for peace, exchanging the Egian Archipelago for a withdrawal of Union forces from Mikti. Basileus Leto II openly denounced such a plan as it would see the Empire part with territory that had been acquired in one war and had been acknowledged by the now defunct Cambrian Empire.

A major counter assault against Union positions in the Mikti Islands came in the summer of 2041 following a massive bombing campaign to decimate the armored forces of the Union there as well as a series major naval engagements in the Cosmic Sea to break the blockade and allow Imperial forces to make landfall on the Mikti Islands and reclaim them. Success was limited until late 2041 and into the middle of 2042 as Imperial Forecs suffered several major setbacks both in the Egian Archipelago and the Mikti Islands. In May 2042, the Union's government made some questionable moves by reposition much of its naval forces back to the Egian Archipelago in a bid to secure the islands further and to quell growing unrest among the general population there. Though they were predominantly cambrian speaking and ethnically, the people of the Archipelago had embraced the Empire and seen a major uptick in their quality of life under them, so when Union forces arrived they were seen not as liberators but instead as occupiers.