History Main / FightingForAHomeland

* The Tedral Mercenaries in MercedesLackey's ''HeraldsOfValdemar'' series are a example of a less honorable company. They were driven out of their home and have served as mercenaries ever since, but their ultimate goal is to invade some other country and make it their own.
** Sort of. When their own homeland was conquered, they turned merc to raise money to get the land back. Over the years, the goal went from "the" land to "any" land. They are also the largest group of mercenaries ''not'' represented in the Guild (why yes, mercenaries have a guild. They may fight for money, but they do have professional standards), because they aren't willing to just settle for cash anymore. (That was part of the reason Karse hired them in ''Exile's Honor'' - Karse didn't care what happened to Valdemar as long as the Heralds were out of the way, and Valdemar is routinely treated as the holy grail of farmland.)

[[folder:Myth, Legend, and Religion]]
* Virgil's ''Aeneid'' is about Trojans looking for a new home -- and doing a good bit of fighting along the way.
* TheBible has an example in The Book of Numbers, concerning the Promised Land. When the Hebrews doubted God for the tenth and final time by refusing to fight the Canaanites, they were sent back into the wasteland for forty years. The next generation conquered the Midians and Canannites and claimed the land around the Jordan and divided the land among the tribes.

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* ''{{Eberron}}'' sees this trope a lot. The people of Cyre in particular, as the Day of Mourning which ended the Last War created [[{{Mordor}} the Mournland]] out of their former home.
* ''{{GURPS}}: {{Traveller}}'' The sample campaign 100 parsecs in the volume "Sword Worlds" is about an attempt to preserve Sword Worlds culture by founding a colony far away in empty space.

* This is why some quarians seek a war with the geth in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', due to the geth occupying the quarian Homeworld. Others (perhaps rightly) believe this would just make the quarians go from endangered to extinct. An added complication is that the geth only took the homeworld in self-defence - they were created as a labour force, and the when they began to show self-awareness the quarians panicked and tried to wipe them out. Naturally, all that accomplished was the kind of uprising they had hoped to prevent.

-->'''Ulysses''', ''FalloutNewVegas''

-->"Yesterday, we were an army without a country. Today, the only question is: which country do we ''buy''?"
--->Simon, ''[[DieHard Die Hard With a Vengeance]]''

-->"The day I set my flag down, it'll be over my body or over a nation I believe in."
--->Ulysses, ''FalloutNewVegas''

They often have no one but each other. As a consequence, their commander is often AFatherToHisMen, and they are a {{Nakama}}. (But not in more cynical stories.)

* The Vandals fearing attacks from the Huns invaded the Roman Empire searching for a new homeland. They traveled through modern-day France and Spain, being attacked and driven out along the way before crossing into North Africa, taking the Roman lands (including Carthage without a fight) and setting up their own Empire. They then went on to "sack" Rome.

* The Sforsa dynasty was started by the leader of a band of PrivateMilitaryContractors that used his men to take over an Italian city-state. They decided on Milan; Sforsa ended up hiring LeonardoDaVinci when the latter ended up being too prissy for the {{Medici}}s' tastes.

* This is why some quarians seek a war with the geth in VideoGame/MassEffect, due to the geth occupying the quarian Homeworld. Others (perhaps rightly) believe this would just make the quarians go from endangered to extinct. An added complication is that the geth only took the homeworld in self-defence - they were created as a labour force, and the when they began to show self-awareness the quarians panicked and tried to wipe them out. Naturally, all that accomplished was the kind of uprising they had hoped to prevent.
* {{Homeworld}}. Your race's planet is burned while you are out testing your brand new colony fleet. You then set off towards your original and long forgotten homeworld, fighting all that oppose you and making use of whatever resources and allies you can find on the way.

* According to the translated lyrics of the [[SuperSmashBrothers Brawl]] [[OminousLatinChanting theme song]], this is what [[spoiler: Tabuu]] is doing.

* This is why some quarians seek a war with the geth in {{Mass Effect}}, due to the geth occuping the quarian Homeworld. Others (perhaps rightly) belive this would just make the quarians go from endangered to extinct.

* the first Chech legion, after World War one. their country was then merly a province of Austria-Hungary, who started the war and teamed up with the Germans. the Chechs had very little reason to fight for them, and surrederd to the opposing russians whenever they could. through a lot of political scheming, the russians were convinced to raise a chech legion of 60.000 men to fight against the Austrians. then the Revolution broke out, and with the peace treaty between russia and Austria, and the viscious warfare and politicking in russia, they would not get their goal, an independent Chechia, so they turned to the western allies. they could not leave the countr through the western side, so the allies chose to rendevous with them in the port of vladivostok, ''on the other side of Russia''. they crossed the country in three years, using the railways that they hijacked, joined with the russian white army(anti-communists) and the allies, stole the tzar's gold, traded it for free passage to vladivostok with the advancing reds when they lost, [[EarnYourHappyEnding and safely sailed home, to the newly founded country of Checoslovakia.]]

* The sci-fi novel ''WhiteWing'' by Gordon Kendall has humanity joining a ColorCodedForYourConvenience [[Federation]] fighting an evil alien race responsible for the destruction of Earth. All the good colors were already taken, so the homeworld-less Terrans got stuck with the non-color of White, hence the title. Terrans in the novel are all warriors sworn to avenge the destruction of their homeworld and mercenaries earning money to terraform 'Wing Moon' into a New Earth.

* The sci-fi novel ''White Wing'' by Gordon Kendall has humanity joining a ColorCodedForYourConvenience alliance of aliens fighting an evil alien race that had conquered or destroyed (I forget which) Earth. All the good colors were already taken by the time humans joined, so the homeworld-less humans got stuck with the non-color of White, hence the title. Humans in the novel are all warriors sworn to keep fighting the evil aliens until they can liberate Earth, or at least liberate some world that can be humanity's new home.

* The fight of the Zionists for a Jewish homeland, though they weren't actually mercenaries so much as a nation-building movement. A very large number of them fought for TheBritishEmpire, and so many Jewish soldiers signed up for British service that there were five battalions (known collectively as the Jewish Legion) of the Royal Fusiliers composed entirely of Jewish soldiers from across Europe.

* The Flight of the Wild Geese. After the wars of the 17th century Irish soldiers emigrated in their thousands to work as mercenaries for their fellow Catholics in Spain and France, rather than live under the unbearable political and religious oppression at home. As late as 1792 the Kings of France maintained an Irish Brigade and their eventual descendants included Patrice de Mac-Mahon (first president of the French third republic) and Bernardo O'Higgins (one of the founders of independent Chile).

* The Sforsa dynasty was started by the leader of a band of PrivateMilitaryContractors that used his men to take over an Italian city-state. They decided on Milan.

* With one member of the ''TheMagnificentSeven'' looking to settle down as his quickness dissipates, perhaps they qualify.
* Sauron is doing this for the Orcs in Peter Jackson's LordOfTheRings, because seriously? Mordor ''sucks''.
[[/folder]]

* With one member of the ''MagnificentSeven'' looking to settle down as his quickness dissipates, perhaps they qualify.

* With one member of the Magnificent Seven looking to settle down as his quickness dissipates, perhaps they qualify.

* This trope is what BattlestarGalactica is all about when it comes down to it.

* {{Eberron}} sees this trope a lot. The people of Cyre in particular, as the Day of Mourning which ended the Last War created [[{{Mordor}} the Mournland]] out of their former home.
* {{GURPS}}: {{Traveller}} The sample campaign 100 parsecs in the volume "Sword Worlds" is about an attempt to preserve Sword Worlds culture by founding a colony far away in empty space.

* The arrival of the Edain in the west and their [[TheAlliance alliance]] with the elves in TheSilmarillion.

* The dwarves in TheHobbit.

Not to be confused with [[MyCountryRightOrWrong fighting for ''your'' homeland]].

*The Sforsa dynasty was started by the leader of a band of PrivateMilitaryContractors that used his men to take over an Italian city-state.