Grand Alliance
The Alliance was created with the stated goal of standing united against, holding back, and eventually destroying, the Dominion. Any half-sober student of history will see that in this they have failed utterly. They have not held back the Dominion, it seems tremendously unlikely that they will ever destroy it, and they most certainly are not united.
The Grand Alliance of Free Peoples grew from a mutual defence pact between the nations of Esé-Nal and Sindal, which later expanded to include most of the southern nations of Nalunara. The Alliance's goal is to establish lines of communication, and agreements of mutual aid, between the southern nations, that together they can resist the Kwal Dominion's advance and ultimately push them back entirely. The Alliance has no formal leaders, as few of the nations were willing to give up sovereignty, but it does ease the communications between its member nations and helps them to coordinate their efforts.
Political Structure
The Alliance is by nature an informal accord. The various member states have very different cultures and priorities, and there is plenty of bad blood between them for various historical and contemporary slights ranging from mild insults to past wars and atrocities. The Alliance nations can all agree on just about one thing: that they do not wish to be conquered by the Dominion. The Alliance as an agreement exists to foster trade, diplomacy and military cooperation between the member states, and is frequently successful in this. Owing to the difficulty of getting the nations to agree on anything, there is no formal political structure to the Alliance, and no overarching individual or ruling body with say over the member states.
The rulers of the member nations have access to a special meeting place known as the Unity Chamber, where they can meet to discuss events, resolve differences, and make military plans against the Dominion.
International Relations
The Kwal Dominion
The primary purpose of the Alliance is to stand in opposition to the Dominion's conquest of the entire continent. After so many years of near-constant warfare, the enmity between the Alliance and the Dominion is deep, and unlikely to ever be healed.
The Wescuan League
The League was founded as a means to protect its member states from being subsumed into the growing Alliance, and this historical wariness has led to strained relations between the League and the Alliance. The League as a whole has a peace treaty with the Alliance, but officially takes the stance that it has no involvement in the war between the Alliance and the Dominion. Some individual League members, however, provide aid or even soldiers to the Alliance, for a variety of reasons.
The Illuara
Although the Illuara are technically neutral in all conflicts, they seem to subtly favour the Alliance over the Dominion. Illuarn advisors are more readily available to Alliance rulers than Dominion rulers, and there are more Illuarn Sanctums in Alliance territory than in the Dominion. Additionally, the Illuara have been generous when providing services to the Alliance: for example, they provided the magical alert system in the Unbreakable Wall for a surprisingly cheap price; and gave the Alliance rulers access to the Unity Chamber for free, claiming it was a gift in return for unspecified "services rendered". For all that they give quiet help to the Alliance, the Illuara are always careful to maintain their reputation of neutrality, and always have good explanations for why it just so happens that their actions aid the Alliance more than the Dominion.
Eternal Ramani
One would expect that the Alliance and Eternal Ramani would get on well, given that they are both known for their fierce opposition to the Dominion's advance, but it is not so. Although the Alliance has made numerous overtures to the Ramani leaders, they are always rebuffed. It seems the Ramani are determined to stand - or fall - on their own.
History
This proud organisation once began as a mutual defence pact between the elves of Esé-Nal and the gnomes of Sindal, in which both nations agreed to help defend the other against the threat of the Dominion. As the Dominion threat grew the pact became more solid, the dwarf nation of Khazarak wished to be included, and the three nations officially formed the Grand Alliance of Free Peoples. The Alliance was dedicated primarily to presenting a unified opposition to the Dominion, but also to encouraging trade and diplomacy between the member nations. Over the next three decades most of the remaining nations of southern Nalunara joined the growing Alliance. When the Dhar split from Khazarak, it remained a member, but when Vekril later split it chose to leave the Alliance. In more recent times the humans arrived in Nalunara, and their fledgling nation of New Tarania opted to become an Alliance member state.
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