War Of The Isles- Background

In 2011 an underground political movement began to form. This movement, the Separation of Yesterday movement (known as the Separatists) was formed by people who were tired of the government of the time. Tired of being not listened to and ignored by their own government and tired of the constant and seemingly pointless bickering that the government did, these people decided to start a political party that would actually listen to its people, that would hear the problems of the people and try to solve them.

They began by spreading their message amongst those people who were affected most by the infighting of the government, the common man. The people who worked all day and didn’t care about politics, but did care about pay increases, taxes, law and order. The people who supported the country but were mostly ignored by the government. The Separatists told these people that everything could be changed, if a single, unified party was created, one that help its followers, instead of exploiting them.

This met with little support in the early stages. People had heard this message from other politicians before and they knew it meant nothing, as they had been lied to before. This caused frustration amongst the Separatist leaders, as they actually did mean what they said.

In 2014 the British Economy collapsed. Unbeknownst to the populace, the economy had be in crises for years, massive overspending and inflation had forced the country to accept loans from other countries, however when the stock market crashed on July 20th 2014, these neighbouring countries cashed in their loans, leaving Britain Bankrupt, throughout this time the separatist had been continuing to spread their message of unity, to minimal success. When the economy collapsed, however, people were more willing to listen. Separatist popularity soared. By October 12th 2015 the percentage of the population voting Separatist soared to 45%. This success was achieved through the combination of increased voters and their 3rd party rival giving up, to eventually become a part of the movement itself. Seeing this, the governmental powers decided to act. They had to stop the Separatists from gaining power. All the parties in charge decided there was no other course of action, and so unified into one party, the Foundation of Values party (to be known as the Foundationists).

The Foundationist party passed new laws, which declared the Separatist movement an illegal party. Anyone who was in the party, or found to be supporting the party, was arrested. The Separatists, in response to this, decided the best course of action would be to not hide, but stand and face their accusers. They started to protest openly, calling on the support of the people, trying to tell them that they had campaigned through proper channels, and that the Foundationists were the ones passing illegal laws. Support for both sides grew and this inevitably led to clashes on the streets between both parties supporters. On February 12th 2016 the Foundationist government declared a state of martial law, in an effort to do away with the Separatists, and try to bring order back to the country, which was spiralling out of all control. They ordered the military into the streets and all rioters to be shot on sight.

This however, proved to be a mistake. Unbeknown to them, the approximately 40% of the Armed Forces were Separatist supporters, who were willing to wait until their government was in charge, and simply wait the conflict out. When the order came through to shoot civilians, however, they turned on the Foundationists, deserting to join their party. The Separatists seized this opportunity, and very soon the country was split into 2, with each faction gaining control of certain cities and then fighting for others. The Foundationist movement was based in London and that city soon became their main fortress, but they also controlled York, Leeds, Cambridge and others. The Separatist movement had begun in Derby, but moved its HQ to Nottingham. They also controlled Manchester, Hull, Oxford and others. This control of completely arbitrary cities was due to the fact that the cities came under the control of whoever had the most supporters already living there, with the opposing factions supporters being driven out, thus making a somewhat odd looking map of Britain, at the start of the conflict.
Both factions would quickly begin to solidify control of these cities however, recruiting soldiers from amongst them. They would need them all, as things were going to take a turn for the worst, before the end of the year...
(From: A Complete History of the War of the Isles, by D. Simons)