Setting
In the early-to-mid-2010s, an escalating conflict in the Middle East -- triggered by a UN-mandated intervention in the Syrian Crisis, led to a large-scale tactical nuclear exchange. While cooler heads may have prevailed and prevented the escalation of the war into an all-out global nuclear conflict, the effect on the Middle East was devastating, with as much as 90% of the region's oil infrastructure destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable. The resulting global energy crisis, as well as the shifting geopolitical situation that led to and resulted from the conflict, has reshaped the current global situation. Two supra-national organizations have arisen, taking on the role of the new global superpowers.
One is the United Nations, though it is very different from the organization we know today. With the withdrawal of China and Russia (and later India) and the energy crisis, the UN, guided by the principles of the European Union, has become a far more hands-on organization, taking a large responsiblity for defense, social services, and many other functions normally reserved for soverign entities. While still characterized as a supra-national organization (and thus theoretically keeping self-determination at the level of its constituent nations), the UN Executive Council is empowered by the new UN Constitution (ratified by all members in 2023) to decide matters of policy that affect all members, including the development and exploitation of space. The power players in the UN remain the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.
The other is the Федерация европейских и азиатских Наций (Chinese Simplified: 欧洲和亚洲国家联合会, English: Federation of European and Asian Nations, often shortened in the West as the Eurasian Federation). Having its roots in the unofficial Russian-Chinese alliance during the Syrian War, the Federation began as an economic and energy based trade alliance (the Eurasian Energy Commission) in 2021, with China, Russia, and India as founding members. India had won most of the Middle East reconstruction contracts and was one of the wealthiest nations in the world at the time. Over the next few years, the organization emerged as a de fact UN alternative, with most nations in China and Russia's sphere of influence withdrawing from the UN and enrolling in the Federation.
Relations between the two factions are frosty, to say the least. Memories of the Syrian War are still fresh in many people's minds, and the ensuing dog-eat-dog oil shortage only served to exacerbate things. The only thing that kept the two from all-out war is the lack of energy supplies with which to wage it. Instead, a new cold war has flared up, with espionage and political jockeying taking the forefront.
The energy crisis was finally resolved in late 2024 when a UN research team discovered a new set of elements that behaved outside the realm of known physics. Dubbed Trans-Newtonian elements, these substances have the potential to revolutionize the world and solve its energy needs indefinitely. Naturally, the Federation quickly gained access to this information and is planning its own research.
