Characters / Red Flood France

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Avant-garde France

^{Flag of the Acéphale Territory of France}

^{Flag of Gaul Úr}

Official Name: Artistic State of France, État Irréel^note Unreal State (Escadron), Acéphale Territory of France (Acéphale), Gaul Ùr^Tr.New Gaul (Augier), Free People of Europa (Augier, Conquest of Europe)

Puppet State: French People's Republic (Déat), French Popular Republic (Abbé Pierre), Socialist Republic of Gaul (Pelletier)

Ruling Party: Front National de l'Avant-garde^note National Front of the Avant-Garde

Ideology: Futurism^note Accelerationism

After their failure in the Great War, France was thrown into chaos as its unstable Liberal Democracy collapsed onto itself. Street battles became commonplace and crushed any sense of peace. The masses demanded justice for the dead and the post war youth rejected reactionary traditions. While the Reactionaries - led by Action Française - took power, it was too late, as the economy collapsed following the shockwaves of the 1931 Crash. From this chaos, Antonin Artaud - Le Patron of the Front National de l'Avant-Garde - rallied the masses and seized power. Now France is led by a radical new ideology, driven on by two needs: Speed and Revenge.

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• The Coup: On the 63rd anniversary of the Paris Commune's foundation (18 March 1934), the FNAG stormed the Élysée Palace, throwing the constitution of the Fourth Republic into the Seine and establishing their rule over France.
• In Medias Res: At game start, some focuses in France's initial tree are already completed, representing the work done by Artaud's government from 1934-1936, breaking the ground and pushing through some of the early reforms.
• Meaningful Rename: Paris was renamed Le Soleil by the Accelerationists. The idea is that Le Soleil is the sun of the world, the centre of the Artistic State, the light of France.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: The only potential leaders of Accelerationist France who had actual political careers in real life were Marc Augier and Georges Valois.
• Rightful King Returns: Attempted and subverted. After the Great War, the nationalist, royalist Action française took power until they repealed a law that kept the Count of Paris, the claimant to the French throne, from entering Paris, in an attempt to restore the monarchy. The backlash against this was so great that AF ended up nearly causing a civil war, with an abortive socialist uprising in Paris being quelled by the actions of the FNAG.
• Revolving Door Revolution: In 1920, the Action Française overthrows the Third French Republic, creating the Fourth. In 1924, they lose control after an attempt to restore the monarchy gets violently rejected almost leading to a civil war and seeing the rise of Antonin Artaud to Mayor of Paris. In 1934, Artaud and the FNAG overthrow the Fourth Republic.
• Solar and Lunar: The main anti-accelerationist group in France named themselves Lunaires, in opposition to the solar motif used by the Artistic State.
• Vestigial Empire: Downplayed compared to the United Kingdom and Germany, but they lost several of their sub-Saharan colonies and have no influence at all in the Far East, as handing over several of their territories to the Germans was part of the early peace deal the French initiated.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The FNAG, France's ruling party, is composed of many different social, artistic and philosophical currents whose adherents may find themselves at odds with each other but are all nominally united under Artaud's leadership.
  • Guillaume Apollinaire and André Breton, leaders of the Escadron and the PSF respectively, notably hate each other.
• Western Terrorists: The Lunaires are an underground terrorist network, composed of liberals, conservatives, moderates and centrists based around British-occupied Calais, who carry out terrorist attacks and strike fear into the hearts of the French people for the purpose of deposing Artaud's regime, which they see as illegitimate.

Le Patron

Antonin Artaud

^{Surréaliste Artaud # 1}

^{Surréaliste Artaud # 2}

^{Surréaliste Artaud # 3}

^{Acéphale Artaud}

^{Cercle (Artaud) Artaud}

^{Carnaliste Artaud}

^{Ajiste Artaud}

^{Puriste Artaud}

^{Escadron-Carnaliste Artaud}

Role: Le Patron^note Country Leader

Ideology: Futurism^note Accelerationism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}There are few people with such levels of passionate adoration as Antonin Artaud. Every element of France is geared towards securing his vision, and it all functions much like a theatre with several elements at play. In the great movement that France lives in, the dynamicism that it spins on, Artaud is the center, and everything goes and comes to him. Born from Smyrniote parents in Marseille, he had a difficult upbringing as an artist and continued to focus on development of his artistic spirit, eventually getting into politics as various right-wing movements and futurist-surrealist movements rise into importance by effect of the Fiume Endeavor and subsequent communist insurgency years later after the French Civil War, where France fell into conflict from Socialists against the Reactionary government, which is overthrown by the futurist militias across France. Raising Artaud as their leader after his mayorship in France increased immensely the numbers of the Escadron D'Futur, he subsequently began to do several measures to secure his power without upsetting the multiple factions within the futurist and surrealist paramilitaries, so he quickly proclaimed the FNAG, the Front National de Avant-Garde, which quickly got to work banning several parties according to the Futurist Charter as per written by Artaud himself. Now, France is a realm of dynamicism and energy, violent gangs across the State supressing any kind of anti-Artaud activity.

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• Costume Evolution: Artaud will change his portrait depending on the path France takes.
• Mad Artist: Artaud was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and is rather eccentric for a politician.
• Renaissance Man: Artaud both in Red Flood and OTL is a theatre director, actor, writer and poet well-known for his contributions to France's Avant-Garde and Surrealist movements and his concept of The Theatre of Cruelty. In Red Flood, he has added "politician" to his résumé.

Cercle Artaud

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FNAG factions

Parti Surréaliste Français

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André Breton

Role: Leader of the PSF

Party: Parti Surréaliste Français^note French Surrealist Party

Ideology: Surrealism^note Accelerationism

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• Allohistorical Allusion: The real Breton, spokesman of the Surrealists, twice expelled Antonin Artaud from his movement in 1922 and 1928. Here, Breton's surrealist movement is subsumed into Artaud's FNAG.
• Driven to Suicide: In one event titled "Un Cadavre" (A Corpse), Breton is informed by Artaud, his good friend, that he is being replaced by Georges Bataille, which drives him to despair and ends with him jumping out of the building.
• It's All About Me: Breton was a raging egomaniac in real life, and this is still present in Red Flood.
• Start My Own: After being expelled from the French Communist Party for his collaboration with the so-called reactionary Antonin Artaud, Breton formed his own party, the French Surrealist Party. The PSF continues to serve as a haven for socialists of all strains, as long as they walk the party line dictated by Breton.

Acéphale

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Georges Bataille

Role: Leader of the Acéphale

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• Allohistorical Allusion: In real life, Acéphale (headless) was the name of a short-lived magazine (five issues published from 1936 to 1939) directed by Bataille (as well as the name of a secret society he founded).
• The Coup: Bataille's faction, the Acephale, has no actual support base, meaning that, rather than being voted into office, he stages a coup to take over both the government and Andre Breton's Surrealist movement

Syndicat National

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Georges Valois

Role: Leader of the Syndicat National

Ideology: National Rejuvenatism^note Accelerationism

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• Former Regime Personnel: Valois has no ties to the other members of the FNAG, but is connected with the old AF regime, and is to handle economics on a larger scale.

Comité Invisible d'Action Révolutionnaire (SPOILERS)

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• Renegade Splinter Faction: The CIAR wants to overthrow Artaud's regime because it considers it not radical enough.

Henri de Montherlant

Role: Leader of the Comité Invisible d'Action Révolutionnaire, Country Leader (CIAR coup)

Ideology: Fiumanism^note Accelerationism

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• The Coup: Montherlant will coup the current French accelerationist government if they fail to support Fiume's war with Italy.

Other members of the CIAR

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Ideology: Fiumanism^note Accelerationism

Jean Cocteau

Ideology: Fiumanism^note Accelerationism

Pierre Pucheu

Ideology: Fiumanism^note Accelerationism

Robert Brassilach

Ideology: Fiumanism^note Accelerationism

Lucien Rebatet

Ideology: Fiumanism^note Accelerationism

Escadron

Escadron

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• State Sec: The Escadron forms the backbone of the Artistic State, acting as a paramilitary, national guard, army, secret police, and ideological vanguard of futurism, all rolled into one.

Guillaume Apollinaire

Role: Leader of the Escadron

Ideology: Futurism^note Accelerationism

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• Elites Are More Glamorous: The elite Escadron's members sport dashing looks, including custom leather jackets and maroon scarves.
• Plot-Triggering Death: France's storyline only picks up once Apollinaire is assassinated, throwing the government into panic.
• Red Baron: Apollinaire is called "Le Capitane" or "The Captain" and is the second most powerful man in France.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Apollinaire, a poet and writer who died at the end of World War One in real life, has survived to 1936 and become leader of the Escadron.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Apollinaire dies shortly into the game, leading him to be succeeded by either Charles Nungesser (his right-hand man) or Valentine de Saint-Point (his left-hand woman) as leader of the Escadron faction, and kicking off France's plot.

Faction Nungesser

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Charles Nungesser

Role: Leader of the Right-wing faction in the Escadron

Ideology: Futurism^note Accelerationism

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• Ace Pilot: Nungesser is a famous WWI ace pilot.
• Number Two: Nungesser is the second in command of the Escadron.

Faction Coli

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Left Escadron

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Valentine de Saint-Point

Role: Leader of the Left Escadron

Ideology: Futurism^note Accelerationism

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• Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Valentine de Saint-Point is potentially the first woman to become leader of France.

Right Escadron

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Mouvement Carnaliste

Mouvement Carnaliste

Le Mouvement Carnaliste, or The Carnalist Movement, is a group co-founded in 1928 by Marc Augier and Jacques Schweizer. Preaching Augier's doctrine of the "Carnal Fatherlands", they see the idea of nation-states as a vile concept, one designed to tear apart and draw arbitrary lines among the European peoples. While the exact method of remediation for the nation differs between the Puriste, Ajiste, and Escadron-Carnaliste, all of them agree that Europe must be united and made whole again, and that a greater collaboration between European nations must ensue for the survival of them all, both in physical form and in spiritual form.

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Marc Augier

Role: Leader of the Carnalist Movement

Ideology: Neo-Folkism^note Accelerationism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Marc Augier is thought of by many in the avant-garde as a "reactionary in disguise", as his seemingly traditionalist views fly in the face of what many among the new elite see as proper, as ironic as that is. However, there is nothing further from the truth. While Augier reviles the First Republic as he does the Second and Third, this does not make him a supporter of the monarchist cause either. Instead, Marc Augier has his own fiery doctrine, one firmly nestled in a "third position" of contemporary French politics, the Mouvement Carnaliste.

Harking back from 1928 in the wake of the failures of the Fourth Republic and Action Française, Marc Augier theorized a post-nationalist idea of Carnal Fatherlands, a united European supranational state divided among cultural and ethnic lines into small divisions, but all working together as one. His ideas caught on like wildfire among the former reactionaries, drawing support both from former Maurras supporters, as well as more moderate conservatives.

However, Marc Augier is not a conservative, as he wishes to see the old order of Europe cleansed in a hail of steel and shot. For Europe to truly be united as one, the slate must first be cleaned. From Lisbonne to Moscou, the Christian decadent Europe of old would be purged from existence, giving birth to a new, young Europe, united both in spirit and destiny.

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• United Europe: Augier's Carnalists propose a united Europe, linked by heritage and geography.

Léon Degrelle

Role: Minister (Carnalist France)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle is a man that not many would expect to associate with the Artistic Regime, as his Catholic faith would appear to be in stark contrast with the Avant-Garde agenda at first. However, this is not the case, as Degrelle has played an instrumental part in Marc Augier's rise to power, cementing himself as a vital member of the new leadership.

After the failures of Maurras and Action Française as a whole, a disillusioned Degrelle decided to join up with the Mouvement Caraliste, finding kindred spirit in Augier and his plan for united Europe. Inspired by Augier, Degrelle soon started agitating in his homeland of Wallonia, attempting to tip the dominoes over and undo the disgrace of 1814. Degrelle has made a name for himself in France for a staunch proponent of the Carnaliste Agenda, with the pinnacle of his career thus far being [REDACTED] earning him the title of [REDACTED].

Any doubts that may have been had about his devotion to the Carnaliste cause and to France as a whole have been burnt away by his fiery speeches, preaching the message of the "Carnal Fatherlands" like a pastor drunk on fervorous fanaticism. While some still eye him with suspicions about his true colors, none can deny his instrumental service to France thus far, and time will only tell how much brighter the Walloon Star will shine.

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Puriste

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Alphonse de Châteaubriant

Role: Minister (Carnalist France), Leader of the Puriste faction

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Alphonse van Bredenbeck de Châteaubriant is a man unlike any other. Descending from the old Angevin bourgeoisie, born in Rennes, educated at Saint-Cyr, and living in a multitude of different places, Châteaubriant a man of many coats. A Catholic, a Carnalist, and a friend of Marc Augier, Châteaubriant has been a vehement pioneer of regionalism for most of his life. An early adopter of Carnalism, his family's connections and wealth helped contribute to the explosive rise among the French populous, as well as explaining where Augier is getting all those motorcycles.

Initially serving as an ambulance driver during the Great War, Châteaubriant was eventually conscripted into the trenches as France lost more and more land. His formerly Germanophile attitude was chipepd away bullet by bullet, reaching a crescendo after the war, when Germany fell to the Red Menace. Cast astray in astray in a shaken world, ,he turned to espousing redoubled views of regional freedom, and said views would lead him to take part in the early days of the Mouvement Carnaliste. Soon, his rhetoric (and cash) shot him through the ranks, and his reverence for Augier proved him a valuable part of developing the Carnaliste theory.

However, Châteaubriant is his own man, and commands significant power within the Mouvement on his own right. De facto he is the leader of a faction known internally as the "Puriste", a group who dogmatically follow the word of Augier, or at least Châteaubriant's interpretation of it. Often butting heads with the more young Ajiste, the Puriste see Europe as a family of equals, and Augier (with Châteaubriant by his side) will usher in this new age of Europe, one of Carnal Fatherlands.

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Ajiste

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Jacques Schweizer

Role: Minister (Carnalist France), Leader of the Ajiste faction

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Jacques Schweizer has always been Marc Augier's right-hand man and his closest associate. A co-founder of the Mouvement Carnaliste, Schweizer went on to assume the responsibilities of its day-to-day running, personally leading its youth wing.

Schweizer and his Ajiste have become increasingly popular across France, due to their promotion of "green" values, such as frequent backpacking trips across the forest, physical exercise, and a back-to-the-soil camaraderie many young Frenchmen seem to enjoy. With what appeared to be silent approval from both Antonin Artaud and Augier himself, Schweizer expanded the Ajiste throughout France, growing the youth hostel system across the countryside. The Ajiste have even begun to grow into a wing of their own inside the Mouvement Camaliste, no doubt due to a certain level of favor curried by Augier himself.

Influenced by Pan-European positions, Schweizer envisions a continent-wide society of nomads and travelers who live off the land in a deep spiritual connection to both nature and their ancestral roots, leaving behind the "petty nationalism" he accuses the Puristes of harboring. Schweizer, much like Augier as well, is also a supporter of paganism, wishing to cast off the yoke of Christianity along with the chains of nationalism, in order to liberate Europe once and for all.

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Escadron Carnaliste

Official Name: Escadron Carnaliste

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Pierre Drieu La Rochelle

Role: Minister (Carnalist France), Leader of the Escadron Carnaliste

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Pierre Drieu La Rochelle may have started his career as a simple novelist, but the Great War changed and deformed his perception of the world forever. Destined to fight in the Verdun camage, La Rochelle quickly realized the failure that was the modern nation-state and sought new mai was forms of political expression, exploring simultaneously Charles Maurras's Action Française and the newly born French avant-garde. Paris soon fell to its knees in praise of its young writer, drowned in songs of crazed decadence and spiritual rejuvenation.

In the convulsive years of the Fourth Republic, an increasingly radicalized La Rochelle found an opportunity for regeneration in the then Mayor of Paris, Antonin Artaud, becoming one of his most energetic defenders in the media. After the latter's triumph in in 1934 he enthusiastically joined the Mouvement Carnaliste of Augier. La Rochelle successfully appealed to the faction of the Mouvement that clamoured for a post-national ra Europe that combined the modernity of Futurism and the spirit of the old Roman Empire of Charlemagne.

A Futurist and a Traditionalist, a Nationalist and a Europeanist, a Catholic and an Anarchist; Pierre Drieu La Rochelle is a man of many seemingly contradictory ideas who yet dominates the minds of dozen upon dozens of "warrior-saints", ready to kickstart the beginning of a New Europe.

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Post-German Victory France

Puppet France

After defeating France as Germany, the player is given a choice to appoint one of three proposed leaders as the head of the new socialist France.

Marcel Déat

Role: Country Leader

Party: Parti de Construction Révolutionnaire Français^note French Revolutionary Construction Party

Ideology: Leninism^note Vanguard Socialism

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• Allohistorical Allusion: Déat was a collaborator for Germany in OTL and can become one in Red Flood as well.

Abbé Pierre

Role: Country Leader

Party: Parti Social-Chrétien^note Social-Christian Party

Ideology: Religious Socialism^note Revisionist Socialism

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Louis-Robert Pelletier

Role: Country Leader

Party: Parti Communiste Gaulois^note Gaulish Communist Party

Ideology: Social Republicanism^note Vanguard Socialism

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Other party leaders

Other party leaders

Léon Blum

Role: Country Leader (Released by a Progressive country)

Ideology: Progressivism

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Camille Chautemps

Role: Country Leader (Released by a Liberal country)

Ideology: Liberalism

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Charles Maurras

Ideology: Reactionism

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François de La Rocque

Role: Country Leader (Released by a Conservative country)

Ideology: Conservatism

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