The state of the world in the year 1997 is unstable, at best. Early in the century, a Great War lasting over a decade bled the world white, and culminated in revolutionary bloodshed in Russia, China and Eastern Europe.  The great powers realized that a second direct confrontation of that kind would mean the end of civilization, and that the only answer was to establish a balance of power to forestall such a conflict for as long as possible.

Thus, three gigantic superblocs developed, divided by ideology and geography.  The UNA, an alliance of Western nations, calls itself the defender of the world’s Democratic ideals.  The FSR, a conglomerate of Socialist states, claims to be struggling for the liberation of the world’s underprivileged classes.  The Nonaligned Movement, dominated by the South American Coalition and the Arab League, is a loose confederation of states that claim to want no part of the Cold War.

Between these states lie areas of constant political and social upheaval called Disrecognized Zones.  In these areas, the three power blocs fight out their disputes by proxy, with little regard for the misery inflicted upon the hapless inhabitants of these perpetual warzones.  For eighty years, this has allowed the three alliances to defuse many political and ideological tensions, but recent developments threaten to upset this delicate balance of power.

Katanga, India, UNITA, and other newly-formed nation-states in Africa and Asia have grown weary of the constant devastation of their lands, and are starting to rise up and take their place as independent countries.  As their buffer zones shrink, the superstates are beginning to confront each other directly for the first time since the Great War, and the threat of all-out conflict on a truly global scale has suddenly become very real.