Founder of the Industrial Age, the Kingdom of Britannia governs one of the world’s greatest empires and is still its mightiest sea power. It was Oliver Cromwell who, inadvertently, began the first wave of industrialisation when he set up manufactories to make weapons and artillery for his army and iron-plated ships for his fleet. Although Cromwell’s grim British Republic died with him, the restored English monarchy, under the scientifically-minded King Charles II, retained and built on the old Lord Protector’s industrial legacy.

The modern Kingdom of Britannia was proclaimed in 1801, when Great Britain and Ireland were formally united. At the dawn of the 19th century, the Kingdom and its empire took on both France, its long time adversary which had been instrumental in the loss of its North American colonies, as well as Heinrich Otto’s Prussian Empire in the grueling Napoleonic and Prussian Wars. The Britannian expertise in engineering and invention came to the fore, as the Kingdom’s brightest minds developed awesome technologies to counter their enemies’ greater numerical strength.

At sea, Nelson’s flotillas of turreted ironclads crushed the French fleet at Trafalgar in 1805; while Wellington’s armies fought Joseph Bonaparte’s imperial french, then Heinrich Otto’s Prussian legions and their republican french allies through the Iberian Pennisula. It would be on land that the Britannians would score their greatest victory in 1815 when the Duke of Wellington, leading an army that counted the world’s first true land ships among its strength, smashed Blucher’s last great Prussian army at Waterloo, finally ending the Prussian Wars.

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Bestriding the world

With their European rivals humbled, the Britannians spent decades expanding their empire ever further around the world. From Canada in the north to western Africa, from the tip of South America to the heart of South Asia, and even distant Australia, the Kingdom’s unmistakable flag could be seen waving proudly over countless possessions.

Despite some setbacks, notably the harsh Burmese Wars and the Australian Mutiny of the 1840s, Britannia appeared unstoppable. For a while, it seemed as if Queen Victoria’s rule would extend even to Antarctica, with her husband’s sponsorship of Lord Sturgeon’s first expedition to the continent, until scientific squabbling put paid to that notion.

The Kingdom’s intervention also proved vital in deciding the American Civil War, from which the Federated States was born. However, even the strongest power has its limits, and the Britannians reached theirs in the late 1860s, when they found themselves embroiled in a war with the equally vigorous Empire of the Blazing Sun. The Blazing Sun’s razing of Singapore came as a great shock, followed by an even greater one when the Prussians struck at the heart of London with an audacious surprise attack in 1870.

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Its global ambitions rudely checked, and suddenly facing attack from many quarters, the Kingdom of Britannia was forced to brace itself for another long and fierce war, this time on a truly global scale. They would need all their strnegth and as many allies as they could muster. But the Britannians are nothing if not tough and tenacious fighters, their skill and experience at waging war on a worldwide scale unmatched.

The Britannian Empire

The Kingdom and its empire are truly vast. The Britannians govern Canada, many Caribbean islands, large portions of the African coasts, India, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, parts of the East Indies, western and southern Australia, and New Zealand. Since this massive dominion is so widely spread, the Britannians have long sought to maintain an iron grip on the world’s major oceans.

However, this dominance has come at a price. The Kingdom’s relations with several of its European neighbours, especially the Prussian Empire and the Republique of France, were never anything but strained, even before the outbreak of general war; now they are also contending with the Empire of the Blazing Sun.

The coming of war has seen some Britannian territories attacked, and even lost. The remote Falkland Islands have fallen to the Blazing Sun, the North African holdings are assailed by Franco-Prussian forces, and even the British Isles themselves have been scorched by conflict. However, compared to the Britannian Empire’s sheer size, these setbacks have been minor. All over the world, from the Caribbean to the Low Countries, and the East Indies, the Kingdom’s armies and fleets are fighting hard, challenging, and often pushing back to myriad of forces arrayed against them.

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Governance of the realm

The Kingdom’s head of state is the formidable Queen Victoria, who has reigned as monarch since 1837. A dour and solemn presence since the death of her beloved consort Prince Albert in 1849, she is regarded as the Mother of the Empire, and generally held in respect, if not actual affection, by her subjects.

However, the business of government is handled by the Britannian parliament. The Queen’s powers are wielded on her behalf by her Prime Minister. Although now formed into a coalition government to prosecute the war, parliament is split between two powerful factions: the aggressive expansionist Knights and the resolute but far more cautious Rooks.

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For many years, the redoubtable Lord Palmerston, as Prime Minister, managed to balance the interests of both these factions, steering the Kingdom on a delicate course between their extremes. But now Palmerston has retired, and leadership has passed to the flamboyant and charismatic Benjamin Disraeli, leader of the Knights faction.

However, the Minister for War, Lord Strathgordon, is distinctly Rookish in his tendencies, which Disraeli’s rivals hope will act as a balancing effect on the new PM’s grandiose plans and strategies. Though they hardly see eye-to-eye on many things, Disraeli cannot risk unseating Strathgordon, for fear of alienating the Rooks and fracturing the whole government. Thus, the delicate balance between the two factions remain. The united government looks set to endure, albeit with much politicking and intrigue behind the scenes.

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