Fanfiction / The Unfortunate Son The German Hun And The Rising Sun

The year is 1936. As the world recovers from the War to end all Wars, peace has proven time and time again to have been anything but permanent. Regional conflicts have broken out time and time again across the globe, and rather than stop, it seems that matters are only going to become more and more chaotic.

In America, the United States has been declining since the Stock Market crash a little over a decade ago, and seems to be reaching its breaking point. With presidential elections fast approaching, the recession still ravaging the land and extremism at a level not seen in decades, the destiny of the nation is at stake, and whoever wins out the seemingly inevitable struggle will lead the country into the future... for better or worse, that's the fate of the Unfortunate Son.

In Europe, the German Empire stands as the continental, and some would even dare say, global hegemon after their victory on the Weltkrieg over the Entente Cordiale. But all is not as shining as it seems. The Empire is overextended abroad, the Syndicalist nations of Britain, France and Italy sharpen their knives waiting to strike and the resurging Russia seems to be going on a similar path. Even domestic challenges surface, as the archaic government system reigning the country demands reform, the armed forces have grown complacent in victory and whispers of an imminent market crash loom heavy on the young nation. Germany, not even a century old, will have to put forward its very best if it wants to survive the storm ahead... God knows the German Hun will need it.

In Asia, the triumphant Empire of Japan looms hungrily, planning its next moves on Asia. Having taken a predominant role in the region following the collapse of its main European rivals to syndicalist revolution, the island nation seems poised to take what it has deemed its rightful place as the Asian overlord. It will be a long road to assert dominance over the fractured Chinese and kick out the last remaining European influence... but if any nation can not only attempt, but succeed in such an endeavor, that's the Rising Sun.

The Unfortunate Son, The German Hun and The Rising Sun is a meme-based After-Action Report for the Hearts of Iron 4 mod Kaiserreich done by user -et37- on the Kaiserreich Subreddit. Initially centered on et's actions as the German Empire, it eventually branched out into the telling of the Cold War between 3 superpowers and their spheres of influence, alongside minor conflicts around the globe, guided by et's calculated moves, the AI's decision making and frequent polls for the community to voice its decision... for better or worse. Started in April 23, 2022, it has been going for 2 years with some hiatuses in between, and by the time of writing it is expected to end around late May or early June 2024

Indexes for the posts can be found, alongside previous AARs of similar tone, here. 

The Unfortunate Son, The German Hun and The Rising Sun contains examples of:

• The Alliance: Each superpower, befitting of a Cold War scenario, has its own alliance, and a few regional ones also exist for minor powers.
  • The Weltpakt: Originally called the Reichspakt, this is the German Empire-led coalition, encompassing almost all of Europe, a large chunk of Africa and some countries in Latin America. They are predominantly capitalist democratic republics and constitutional monarchies.
  • The Fourth Internationale: Led by the United Socialist States of America, it claims the mantle of the destroyed European-based Third Internationale as the leader of the worldwide worker's revolution. Restricted to its leader and their puppets in North America, it also supports ideologically aligned movements across the globe. It champions the Totalist ideology.
  • The Co-Prosperity Sphere: The faction of the Empire of Japan, it dominates the Asia-Pacific side of the planet. It is for all intent and purposes the alliance of Japan and its vassals, focused in pushing forward the Rising Sun's geopolitical and economic interests.
  • The Fordlandia Accord: An Amazon-centered alliance, rather representing all the factions that are loyal to President Huey Long and Fordlandia.
  • The Asunción-Porto Alegre Axis: The alliance of mutual defense made between the Novo Hamburgo Kingdom and the Republic of Paraguay in Post Collapse South America.
  • The South Atlantic Treaty Organization: What the Entente ended up as after its disastrous defeats in North America and the loss of its Asian and Oceanian members. A rump of what it once was, its situation worsened after the South African Collapse, and now its only members are Portugal and Denysia, a National France remnant in North Africa.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Several.
  • The above-mentioned South Atlantic Treaty Organization is a reference to the Real Life NATO.
  • Defeated by the Combined Syndicates, the United States federal government fled to Hawaii. This mirrors how Chiang-Kai Shek and the Republic of China were defeated by the Chinese Communist party, and were forced to flee to the island of Taiwan.
• Alternate History: ​Like its source material, Kaiserreich. The implementation of custom content created by et himself only accentuated this.
• Argentina Is Nazi-Land: Subverted, almost into inverted; following the collapse of the South American Free Territory, Joseph Stalin's long-exiled communists emerged as a serious contender in the war for Argentina, only to be stabbed in the back by Alfredo Fonte, who solidified Chicago-friendly Totalist rule over the country.
• Balance Buff: Following his swift defeat of the Third Internationale by the summer of 1936, et went out of his way to give Russia, the only other meaningful opposition in the world to the Kaiserriech and Reichspakt, INSANE economic and military buffs in anticipation of their inevitable clash, in order to keep the AAR interesting and reasonably competitive.
• Balkanize Me: A constant occurrence in the timeline, be it by peace deals that balkanize a defeated nation or an unstable country collapsing.
  • The Union of Britain was partitioned into its three constituent nations of England, Scotland and Wales.
  • Russia was similarly carved up into multiple German-aligned minor states and a rump Russian Empire on its western territories, while Siberia was incorporated into Admiral Kolchak's Russian Republic.
  • Downplayed with Mittlel-Afrika. In the stated lore the colony is, thanks to its reformist government, releasing relatively autonomous, native-led protectorates. But to help the game run better, it isn't showcased on the map.
  • This was Mexico's fate after the failure of the second international expedition into continental North America. As punishment for rising up against the Totalists, Foster balkanized the nation into many small countries with the intention of erasing Mexico as a concept.
  • The biggest example. however, is the aftermath of the collapse of the South American Free Territory, an anarchist-led entity encompassing all of South America. When it collapsed, it spawned around'' 60 factions, although the number quickly thinned out due to conflicts and conquest.
    • Brazil is a special case however, since the majority of factions emerged on Brazilian territory. Later on with the consolidation of several separatist successor states and the fall of Rondon's Army, the sole faction whose ultimate goal was explicitly restoring Brazil, it seems that the very concept of an united Brazilian nation has died.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Batavian Commune versus the rest of the Entente. The Netherlands' odd choice to abolish their monarchy and choose a syndicalist form of government, when the Third Internationale had been very swiftly defeated by the neighboring German Empire hardly months prior, was rewarded with a brief military intervention by the Reichspakt, restoring the monarchy.
• Determinator: Many prominent leaders push their factions through hell and back, always going for their desired goal despite often confronting overwhelming odds. Most of these have ended tragically, however, so it is often deconstructed.
  • After Russia lost the Russo-German War, General Vladimir Manstein started an underground resistance, the OPVR, which for years plagued Eastern Europe before rising up in revolt on what later was called the Eastern Collapse. All of these uprisings, even the one led by Manstein himself, eventually failed.
  • The Federalist faction of the Second American Civil War is this to a tee. Despite an overwhelming defeat that ended in all of North America falling to the Combined Syndicates, federalist guerillas, chief amongst them that of General Omar Bradley, were a main faction on the resistance against first syndicalist, and then totalist rule, enough so that eventually, with the backing of the Empire of Japan, the Federalists launched a reclamation war when the United Socialist American States faced several revolts. Even after this war too ended in failure, the rump United States based on Hawaii still aspires to eventually retake continental North America.
    • General Douglas Mac Arthur embodied this spirit, been the leader of the faction from the start of the civil war to the first exile to Hawaii and then the war of reclamation. However, as the Federalists evacuated the continent after the failure of that conflict, the ship he was in was torpedoed and the General sank with the vessel.
  • Due to the fall of the Third Internationale, Nestor Makhno stayed with the Patagonian Workers Front and fought in the name of anarchism for the South American Free Territory. After it collapsed, Makhno's soldiers were amongst the separate armies seeking to restore it, and eventually was the last remaining one as it joined the Argentine Civil War. It ultimately became the last faction standing against Alfredo Fonte's Totalist Argentina, and was defeated in a joint operation with Bolivia. Unlike others however, it is stated Makhno evaded capture and managed to escape, although no more has been heard from him.
  • Marechal Candido Rondon, despite being 77 at the time, answered the call of duty to help defend Brazil against the anarchist invasion in 1942. Even as the nation fell, the Marechal, a staunch Brazilian republican, led a resistance group deep in the Amazon until the South American Free Territory collapsed in 1948, after which he headed Rondon's Army with the goal to, despite almost nonexistent odds and his failing health at being 83 years old, restore Brazil to its former glory. After a promising start, he ended up carrying a failed offensive against the Commune of Goyaz, which resulted in his death, leading to the remnants of his army to form the rump state of Rondonia and the end of any chance of Brazilian reunification
  • King Edward VIII never stopped fighting for and believing in the eventual return to his homeland of Great Britain and the reclamation of his birthright, even as the Entente failed again and again. Played for Horror since this was one of the main reasons that caused him to go insane, start a massive purge of perceived traitors and eventually get assassinated, which collapsed South Africa into a brutal civil war.
• Dirty Communists: The United Socialist American States, being a Totalist dictatorship which engages in purges, suppression of religious groups and the forced separation of children from their parents. But what cemented this reputation was the nuking of Mexico City and the subsequent dissolution of Mexico.
  • Totalism in general is seen this way, being a highly authoritarian (and the last solidly remaining) version of syndicalism.
• Disprotortioned Retribution: Early on, Germany decided to ban the FAUD, an organization of worker unions, due to proven links to foreign syndicalist movements. The Commune of France responded by declaring war over the affair.
• Driven to Madness: King Edward VIII. Years of constant failures by the Entente forces, up to the lost of Canada itself against the USAS, started to erode away his sanity as his mission of reclaiming Great Britain grew further and further away. When the English Regency decides to pass him up and offer the crown to his brother Albert, and the latter accepting and fleeing South Africa, this is the straw that fully broke the camel's back and definitively plunged Edward off the deep end.
• Forever War: The Hami-Tibetan War. True to his intent to have a lend-lease-fueled proxy war in each of his AA Rs, et has been feeding equipment to the nations of Tibet and the Hami Clique under Ma Zhongying, which have been fighting for almost the entirety of the playthrough. Barring some miracle, it likely will never end.
• General Failure: Admiral Hellmuth von Mücke. His failure to secure the German Empire's colony of German East Asia, losing it entirely to the Japanese Empire was, in et's own words, "the first time I’ve had to deal with losing a war in any Playthrough of mine, and I now have a foe that I will bitterly undermine at every opportunity in the future as a result."
• Internal Reformist: Downplayed with Chancellor Lettow Vorbeck. While not horribly corrupt, by game start the German Government is still a semi-constitutional monarchy with few checks and balances for the Kaiser and high potential for authoritarianism, and the Chancellor helms the move to fully democratize the Kaiserreich which eventually conflicts with the interests of Wilhelm III. 
• Invaded Statesof America: The Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Entente invade the USAS following Evans Carlson's anti-Totalist coup attempt. The former do so to support their ally (General Mac Arthur) in reclaiming the mainland, the latter do so to reclaim Canada.
  • It should be noted that the community vote for the Entente to get involved was FAR closer than the community vote for the Co-Prosperity Sphere to get involved.
• Paper Tiger: The Third Internationale is traditionally a major faction in the world of Kaiserreich. In this world, they challenged Germany to war in 1936, only to be destroyed in mere months.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: Argentina becomes this, being renamed as the Democratic People's Republic of Argentina after a brutal civil war. Not much is directly known of its domestic affairs, but being a United Socialist American States-supported Totalist Dictatorship led by a brutal former bandit and the timeline's equivalent to North Korea leaves little room for imagination.
• Private Military Contractors: The Austrian Legion, originally a division of volunteers stranded in the American Union State after the Austrian Empire collapsed, followed the Longists in their exile into the Amazon where they reorganized themselves as professional soldiers of fortune. Although loyal to President Long and regularly acting as a special paramilitary force for Fordlandia, they also sell their services to other nations in Post Collapse South America.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: As an alternate history world, this is a given and fairly common occurrence, but even more so than in base Kaiserreich. The biggest example of this however, is the man himself, Richard Nixon. After the United States's exile to Hawaii, he decided to embark west and ended up in the Legation City of Shangai, becoming a successful, albeit morally dubious, lawyer.
  • Parallels have been drawn of Nixon's Shanghai-based, mafia-friendly lawyering to Saul Goodman, much to the amusement of some members of et's audience
• Screw This, I'm outta here: Admiral Evaristo Bareiro's reaction to the collapse of the South American Free Territory was to gather every ship under his command and flee to the Falkland Islands to escape the chaos. He did it again after South Africa collapsed into civil war.
  • After the deployment of nuclear weapons by the United Socialist American States against them, the Sphere-Entente coalition quickly fell into a rout at both a renewed offensive and the fear of more nuclear weapons been used, abandoning continental North America to its fate.
• War Memorial: The Verdun Memorial, created following the German Empire's permitting of the French government-in-exile lead by Huntziger to peacefully unify with their French puppet state after the latter left the Entente. It was meant to signify the 30-year anniversary of the end of the Battle of Verdun and a new era of Franco-German relations. Sadly, the opening of the memorial would be marred by Weygand's coup attempt on Christmas Eve that lead to a civil war.
• Warrior Prince: Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, later Emperor Wilhelm III. There are instances in the AAR where he leads the armies during war, particularly during the Russo-German War.