Characters / TNO Heydrich

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Heydrich's Germany contains far more twists and turns than it initially seems. There are major unmarked spoilers ahead! You Have Been Warned!

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich, the Reichsführer-SS

Reinhard Heydrich, the Empty Führer

Role: Head of State (German Civil War victor)

Party: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei - SS Faction^note National Socialist German Workers' Party

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Heydrich has many names. The Blonde Beast. The Butcher of Prague. The Young Evil God of Death. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt during the World War, Heydrich personally assisted his men in hunting down and wiping out thousands in the former Czechoslovakia. Pictures of him standing triumphantly over the ruins and destruction he had sown were used as German propaganda throughout the war, and Goebbels even (though reportedly rather begrudgingly) had filmed a propaganda film over the matter.

Now, however, Heydrich serves a much more sinister cause. A puppet master under a puppet master, on dark strings he bobs to and fro at the behest of Reichsführer der Burgundischen-SS Heinrich Himmler to fulfill his will in Germany and abroad.

A trusted and feared servant of Burgundy, nevertheless many have noted an almost dismissive attitude from his master. Heydrich follows behind no matter, earning him a reputation as a toady and yuppy by many. Of course, none would ever dare say so to his face.

In-Game Biography (SS Civil War) ^{Click to Show} It all seemed so simple not so long ago. The Reich was floundering in a sea of degeneracy, crying out for a savior. Traitors to the ideals of Hitler raised their banners and called forth the scum of Europe in the name of staid conservatism, effeminate liberalism and boorish militarism. Only Reinhard Heydrich stood for what truly mattered. Only Heydrich... and his Burgundian backer.

But it wasn't meant to be. The cause for which Heydrich fought was a falsehood, nothing more than cover for Himmler's true goal of purging the world in a nuclear holocaust. There would be no long and peaceful reign of the Führer Germany so desperately needed, bringing an end to all degeneracy and weakness. The Fatherland would burn like all others in the name of Himmler's mad schemes, succeeding where none of Germany's imagined enemies ever had.

Himmler's treachery has upended the new order and brought all that Heydrich ever stood for into doubt. And yet, the Führer will not balk - as ever, he will do what must be done. For the Aryan race; for Germany; for all mankind, Reinhard Heydrich must destroy Burgundy and end the deranged aspirations of its renegade Reichsführer.

Even before taking the post of Reichsführer of the German SS after Himmler's attempted coup, Reinhard Heydrich was already known in Germany as an exceptionally brutal and fanatical man, who killed and terrorized his way up the Nazi hierarchy. Now, leading the German SS, the Blonde Beast fully commits himself to Himmler and the principles of Spartanism. Heydrich will stop at nothing to fulfill Himmler's orders to totally remake the complacent and decadent Reich in the Spartanist image.

But what if his orders were all lies?

---

Reinhard Heydrich

• 0% Approval Rating: Downplayed. His sheer brutality makes him widely hated within Germany, outside of the German SS. However, most of the German SS only supports him because Himmler does and, if Himmler orders his execution, hardly anyone objects to this. If Heydrich wins the German Civil War, when he betrays Himmler, he alienates the entirety of the SS and loses whatever little support he has left. When both Germany and Burgundy break up into multiple warlord states, none of the warlord states are loyal to him at the start (aside from Herbert Otto Gille if he takes control of the Kommandostab Waffen-SS). Most of the SS-Idealist warlords are loyal to Himmler, most of the SS-Pragmatist warlords pursue their own agendas over Heydrich's, and the remnants of Heydrich's rivals in the Civil War and the slave revolt definitely don't want to associate themselves with Heydrich. Heydrich has to use significant effort to win the warlords' allegiance so he can fight Himmler.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: As brutal as Heydrich is, he's not above begging other warlords and separatists to join his fight against Himmler.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite being one of the most horrendous and brutal Nazis both in-game and in real life, Heydrich's final storyline is very somber and, while acknowledging that he is a monster, he is still portrayed in a sympathetic light as the plot advances, if only because of being on the side of Evil in a struggle of Evil Versus Oblivion, and giving him a major case of Even Evil Has Loved Ones. Initially, he vomits after he reads Himmler's plans, utterly shocked at the madman's goal. A few days later, the stunned Heydrich scrambles for what little officers he can scrounge up, and starts to eat meat, smoke, and drink himself to stupidity, defiling what little Spartanist ideals he had. As days pass, and confrontation with Himmler advances, his health rapidly deteriorates from the sheer tobacco and alcohol abuse, unable to look in the eye of his family. If he wins the confrontation, he realizes his entire ideology was built on bunk since he had to cooperate with even "subhuman" Poles who showed nothing but honesty in their dealings, spilled more "Aryan" blood across two civil wars than any supposed Jewish plot ever did, and his idol turning out to be nothing but a utter maniac. Meanwhile, he realizes that his behavior has completely alienated him from his surviving children, and that, no matter what he does, Nazi Germany is doomed to eventually break down into Warlordism again upon his death. He kills himself from the mental breakdown. If he loses nuclear supremacy, giving Himmler enough arsenal to start the global holocaust, he screams the names of his children in horror and agony, trying to find a safe place to send them, even the "Jewish United States" in tears.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Reinhard is a member of the Heydrich family who joins the SS, discovers documents belonging to a superior to which he is intimately related (in, at minimum, a professional capacity) that unveil a horrifying plan for mass genocide, and works feverishly to hinder this plan in an endeavor that culminates in his suicide. Does this sound familiar?
• Always Someone Better: Following victory over Himmler, he begins to recount the other potential successors that held advantages of their own, such as Hitler's preference for Speer, Bormann's skill in politics, and Göring's popularity. He could only offer ruthlessness, and while it earned Hitler's appointment, he acknowledges that it landed him under Himmler and led to their ensuing war.
• Amazon Brigade: One of the focuses in Heydrich's Deutsch-SS path in his civil war tree sees Heydrich allow recruitment of women into the military due to the difficulty of their situation, spawning an elite division of female soldiers and "liberalizing" the women military law from "Banned From Service" to "Combat Roles"; he justifies it by saying that ancient Germanic tribes brought women into their battles too. It's amusing in a very dark way.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: A key contributing factor to Heydrich's Heel Realization following his victory in the SS Civil War is that, thanks to him, two different civil wars in less than ten years resulted in more spilled "Aryan" blood than any perceived Jewish plot (to say nothing of Himmler's psychotic plans to wipe the entire world out with atomic fire).
• Assassin Outclassin': In this timeline, Heydrich survived the assassination attempt that historically claimed his life in 1942. In 1950, he survived another assassination attempt, with the would-be assassin dead before he even entered the same building as Heydrich.
• Bad Boss: His tendency to harshly punish and execute those under his command lends to his infamy for ruthlessness. During the second Civil War, he reminisces about the times where he could easily have people like Blosche shot on his command.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Fitting with the Wham Episode-heavy nature of Heydrich's Germany, Heydrich's starting tree (which involves Bunker/Missile production focuses and focuses to deal with the Berzerkers and the Children of Spartakus) is a bait focus tree that cannot be completed. His decision-based minigame to build bunkers and nukes is also a bait and also cannot be completed.
  • The game, using its fake focus tree, initially makes it look like that the Berzerkers and the Children of Spartakus are the only separatist factions that Heydrich will have to face. As Heydrich's authority quickly slips however, dozens of SS warlords rapidly fill up Germany, until the player is overwhelmed with the utter collapse of Germany.
  • Heydrich maintains his Spartan composure in the event where he first reads Himmler's nuke plans, and casually comments that he will see the projects completed. In the very next event, he reveals that he was acting the whole time, and he's actually disgusted by the nuke plans.
  • In a meta way, Heydrich's pre-Cutting Room Floor focus tree sees him fully embrace Himmler's nuke plans (with the event of Heydrich first reading of Himmler's plans being present and played straight) and immediately hand over all of his nukes to Himmler, ending the world in a short three-month-long focus tree. His real tree shows that the pre-CRF tree was a meta decoy.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: After Heydrich betrays Himmler, his efforts to work with anyone to stop Himmler, and his extreme stress during the whole war, leads him to quickly abandon the Spartanist ideals that he preached so hard before his victory.
• Berserk Button: There are plenty of things that anger Heydrich, but they're all connected to the idea of subverting ideal Aryan behavior, whether it be showing cowardice or daring to negotiate with "subhuman" slaves.
• Broken Pedestal: Has this reaction when Himmler reveals his plans to cleanse the world in nuclear fire, and to a lesser extent to Hitler only approving of him for his ruthless cruelty.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Heydrich often voices his contention with certain possible allies throughout his focus descriptions, quietly promising to himself that he'll eventually have them punished or killed, but only after he gets what he wants from them. He at least carries this out when confronting Fegelein.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Heydrich starts smoking a lot after he learns about Himmler's plans and decides to stop him. One event mentions him smoking over eighteen cigarettes over one stressful and sleepless night.
• Collector of the Strange: His office is adorned with the heads of communists and Jews he's personally killed over the years, as if he already wasn't creepy and monstrous enough.
• Dark Horse Victory: Outside of the SS and some marginal Wehrmacht circles, Heydrich doesn't have any genuine support, which is why Hitler proclaiming him as successor comes as a shock to so many people in Germany. Because of said small support, Heydrich cannot win the Civil War at all unless the player is playing as him.
• Decapitated Army:
  • When the German Civil War reaches the Anarchy stage and Heinrich Himmler eliminates Heydrich, the chain of command in the German SS immediately breaks down, with Gruppenführer launching power plays and desperate last stands.
  • The chain of command of Germany also collapses after Heydrich wins the SS Civil War and commits suicide in despair, causing the nation to descend into warlordism again. He Lampshades in his suicide letter to his wife:
    "There is only one more barrier preventing this truth from becoming known to all, and I intend to remove it."
• Developer's Foresight: The AI is never meant to win as Heydrich. Should that event happen somehow, he will get defeated by Hans Speidel when he and Schutzzone Germania refuses to join him and declares war on Germany with their Elite Army. And even then, if Heydrich comes on top, he will not rebel against Himmler and will hand over Germany's nukes to end the world in nuclear fire, keeping the spoilers in Heydrich's path secret until the player actually plays as him.
• The Dragon: Heydrich is the closest subordinate of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who trusted him enough to hand over the German SS to him upon being sent to Burgundy, and regards him as his Plan A to get access to Germany's nukes. Should Heydrich successfully defeat the other candidates and become Führer... very bad things will happen.
• Driven to Suicide: At the end of his route, after being abandoned by his children and realizing that his ideology was misguided and hollow all along, and that he will spend his remaining years on what he fully well knows is going to be an ultimately futile struggle to keep the Reich from collapsing again, Heydrich chooses to commit suicide with his sidearm. This plunges Germany into its third Civil War of the decade.
• Drowning My Sorrows: He begins lowering his standards and stops following his "Aryan" ideal with a descent into alcoholism, following Himmler revealing his plans for nuclear holocaust. After Heydrich wins, he'll spend time bitterly recounting his situation and everything that happened to lead to it.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Heydrich seeks to turn Germany into a Spartanist totalitarian state, and is probably the most fanatical Spartanist of any SS officer. He ultimately realizes how barbaric the system is after barely stopping Himmler from destroying the world, and realizing how much of the death and suffering he caused was his own fault.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: A playthrough as Heydrich is one of the most difficult and challenging campaigns in the mod, and it provides arguably the worst fate for Germany. He starts in the German Civil War with very little support and the least amount of territory, and once he works towards a better chance at winning the conflict, the other factions agree to focus on bringing him down. Overcoming this, the ensuing SS civil war starts, with none of the states expressing loyalty to him while some start by supporting Himmler. Following careful moves and strategies to ensure that the nuclear stockpile remains out of Burgundy's control and after Himmler's defeat, Heydrich will conclude that he and Germany are beyond redemption and too unstable to last thanks to the tenets of their highly flawed ideology. He kills himself, causing the country to enter a third civil war that the player cannot control, before collapsing into anarchy.
• Empty Promise: During the SS Civil War, Heydrich will have to make these towards factions, usually when they're completely ideologically opposed, in the hopes of adding them to the forces of the coalition against Himmler. He's willing to appeal to moderates from Speerites and Bormannites if it means pointing them in Himmler's direction.
• Empty Quiver:
  • After Germany collapses into SS warlordism, Heydrich loses control over Germany's nuclear silos located around the country, which are now controlled by the warlords. The locations of the nukes are randomised in each playthrough, and reclaiming them is the key to prevent Himmler from nuking the world.
  • After Heydrich defeats Burgundy, Germany collapses into a mess of constantly warring warlords equipped with the nuclear arsenal of a dead superpower. This leads to vast global nuclear proliferation, as poor warlords could possibly be driven to selling nukes or secrets on the black market for other materials with which they can better exert conventional influence over the German anarchy.
• Enemy Mine: In his path to stop Himmler's nuclear plot, Heydrich will be forced to work with Speerite, Bormannite, Göringite, and even the Untermenschen (if things are getting truly desperate), so he can reconsolidate his power, secure the nuclear silos, and build an army large enough to counter Himmler's.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: One of Heydrich's motivations is his family — part of his Heel Realization is realizing how his devotion to the Nazi system made him utterly absent from the lives of his children, and how his three surviving children all hate him (his two daughters, Silke and Marte, demanding the civil rights promised by Speer, and his surviving son, Heider, immediately hanging up rather than say one word to him when he attempts to call him on the phone, with Heydrich realizing he was toying with the thought of punishing the boy by sending him to a concentration camp for slighting him). If Himmler wins the nuclear arms race, Heydrich will be begging for his children to be taken somewhere safe, even going so far as to beg the "Jewish United States" for help.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Heydrich is exceedingly ruthless and a very loyal Nazi, and a staunch believer in brutal Social Darwinism, but Himmler's crazed plans to annihilate the world is completely beyond his plans for Germany, and is so destructive that even he is unable to accept it.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Heydrich will never be able to implement his spartan ideal on Germany, as he's forced into a bloody civil war against Burgundy before he can implement any major policies, which will either end in nuclear war or his own suicide shortly after.
• Five Stages of Grief: Heydrich goes through all five stages both during and after the SS Civil War, with different reasons depending on the events that unfold.
  • Victory sees him trying to ignore the flaws in his ideology and instability in the Reich, then getting enraged by his own betrayal, the civil wars, and the events leading to their current situation. He then starts arguing with himself about why it all unfolded in the way it did and contemplates the what-could-have-beens, before falling into depression and concluding that their ideology was wrong, with him and the nation beyond salvation. He then commits suicide and sends Germany into anarchy.
  • Defeat causes Heydrich to go through all stages quickly. He stands in disbelief over his failure to stop the warheads and the nearing apocalypse, resists the urge to descend into a violent rage, tries to come up with a last-minute solution or ways to at least save his family, and then realizes that there is nothing left that he can do with the few remaining hours left. He decides that there is only one thing he can do, and it is to spend time with his family before the end.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Heydrich is held in both contempt and fear by pretty much all of the Nazi Party, because even they consider his brutal ways, views and opinions a tad too extreme. The only reason why he still has some political weight to throw around is because Himmler has his back, and therefore the Waffen-SS has it too. Even Himmler doesn't really like him and plans to curtail his power — if not outright dispose of him — as soon as he finds it convenient.
• From Bad to Worse: Unlike his real life counterpart, this Heydrich survived the attempt on his life in 1942. He became even more paranoid and brutal as a result.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • In the German Civil War, Heydrich having a better chance of winning the conflict will cause all of the other factions to form a temporary truce, agreeing to make sure that a monster like him does not achieve control over the Reich.
  • After the collapse into SS warlordism, Heydrich will seek any potential allies that he can find, including those that he views as "untermenschen", desperately hoping to stop Himmler's plans.
• Goodbye, Cruel World!: The final event after Heydrich's victory has him write a suicide note to his wife, explaining how his devotion to Nazism caused untold suffering for Germany, almost let Himmler carry out his apocalyptic scheme, and made Heydrich irredeemable.
• Happily Married: One of Heydrich's few redeeming qualities is that he does genuinely love his wife Lina. Should he lose the war, he'll decide to spend what little time humanity has left with her. Should he win, he spends a brief moment of peace with her (even if his ongoing Heel Realization makes him put off by some of her casually racist comments) and dedicates his suicide note to her.
• Heel Realization: As Heydrich goes down the path of betraying Himmler and sabotaging his nuclear plot, his faith in National Socialism becomes increasingly shaken. In his last moments, Heydrich realizes how wicked the Nazi ideals are, and how horrible his actions during the last 20 years were. He also realizes with this that any redemption he would desire is beyond his reach.
• Hero Killer: After defeating Speer's Germany, he has the Gang of Four tortured and killed. In addition to this, after defeating Schutzzone Germania, he has the option to kill Hans Speidel too.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Heydrich was already a ruthless Nazi who had a major hand in organizing the Holocaust, but here he's taken his belief in National Socialism to ghoulish new extremes, outright embracing the fanatical insanity that is Spartanist Nazism.
• In Spite of a Nail: Nikolai Bukharin was made leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death in 1924 instead of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt abstained from running for a third term as president and was succeeded by Thomas E. Dewey, the Axis won World War II, England capitulated, the Soviet Union collapsed...and Heydrich's first son, Klaus, was still struck and killed by a truck in 1943.
• Jerkass: Somehow even more so than Bormann. Best showcased when all the possible Führers can visit King Edward prior to the civil war. The other three at least try to help England's predicament by sending supplies, but Heydrich offers nothing and demeans the King right to his face.
• Klingon Promotion: Unlike Hitler's other potential successors, who reached their position through various degrees of merit, personal ties and political cunning, Heydrich became the leader of the German SS mostly through butchering his competitors, which greatly impresses Hitler.
• Knight of Cerebus: The already reasonably dark Gameplay for Germany becomes significantly more so should you play as Heydrich and win. And that's even before getting to the SS Civil War and the aftermath.
• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • Inverted. From the potential successors to Nazi Germany, Heydrich is the one that represents the SS, is known to ally closely with Himmler and his circle, and adheres to the brutality of Spartanist Nazism.
  • Played Straight when he rejects Himmler's plans and begins to see the error in his fanatical beliefs. While a fervent supporter of Spartanist Nazism and the SS, even he doesn't want to plunge the world into nuclear annihilation, and he will desperately spearhead a coalition against Himmler.
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: In all three of his civil war focus tree branches, Heydrich is forced to expand the recruitment standards of the SS in order to address his manpower issues. The Waffen-SS branch in particular sees Heydrich allowing mass recruitment of non-Aryans into the military to fill his manpower gaps.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Gets a heavy dose of this after he wins the power struggle against Himmler. Among other things, he's forced to accept that the "subhumans" he's preached against were honorable allies who he couldn't have succeeded without, and he concludes that Nazism and by extension Burgundian System have done nothing but irreparably damage him and Germany's people.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Over the years, he has gained plenty of them. See Red Baron for these names.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Heydrich has various offers to make for several different allies, from options for compromise to fighting Himmler as a common threat.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Just like in real life, Reinhard Heydrich's eldest son Klaus died in 1943, at the age of 10. After winning the SS Civil War, Heydrich visits his son's grave, thinking about how Klaus was killed not by the Jews or by Bolshevism, but by an Aryan trucker, and how he failed the first and foremost duty of the Aryan man: to protect his family.
• Player-Exclusive Mechanic: The collapse of Heydrich's Germany into warlordism is only available to a human player. In the event an AI Heydrich somehow wins, he gets the pre-CRF focus tree which blows up the world after finishing it.
• The Political Officer: In the Waffen-SS branch of Heydrich's civil war tree, the increasingly degrading organization of the Waffen-SS leads Heydrich to take a page out of the Red Army's books and create a Waffen-SS Kommissar corps to manage his multi-ethnic and hastily conscripted Waffen-SS horde.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Even when he's opposing Himmler, it's explicitly shown that Heydrich is still a ruthless Nazi who hates having to submit himself to slaves and other "inferior" people so that he can earn their support.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Not exactly by choice, but Heydrich's difficult position amidst the German Civil War forces him to broaden conscription for the Waffen-SS and welcome women and people he earlier decried as sub-human into the ranks.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When he wins the SS Civil War and confronts Himmler, the latter will cry out that he was only doing what he believed needed to be done. Before Heydrich pulls the trigger, he responds, "As did I."
• Propaganda Machine: Conquering Fegelein's territory provides the opportunity to use his broadcasts and other media to drum up anti-Himmler sentiment, a positive image of Heydrich, and the ruin of Fegelein's reputation.
• Puppet King: It's an open secret that Heydrich is a puppet for Himmler, before he discovers Himmler's plot to nuke the world and decides to betray his erstwhile master.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • It will be a long and grueling fight to become the new Führer, and should he do so, he will quickly regret it once he discovers Himmler's apocalyptic plans.
  • While Heydrich could potentially kill Himmler and destroy Burgundy for good, it comes at the cost of Germany plunging into a third civil war following his death, and eventually complete anarchy that reaches across Central Europe and destroys the very idea of a German nation. Even before that, he's unable to take any joy or pride in defeating Himmler as he slowly realizes everything the Nazi regime was built on was a lie.
• Red Baron: The Blond Beast, the Butcher of Prague, the Man with an Iron Heart, the Young Evil God of Death, Himmler's Evil Genius...
• Revenge by Proxy: After failing to capture Göring alive, Heydrich decides to get back on him by hanging his daughter Edda.
• Shame If Something Happened: A few of his focuses have this effect.
  • "A Lighter Touch" has Heydrich forgo strong-arming Vituska into an alliance, instead requesting support while keeping the threat of the common enemy in view.
    He knows what's good for him, doesn't he?
  • Once enough Himmlerites are convinced to support Heydrich's forces, Burgundian plans can be accessed, including invasion plans for Brittany. The intentions for such documents are made known:
    It would be very unfortunate for Himmler if someone were to pass the invasion plans along and thereby drive the Bretons into the Führer's camp...
• Shoot the Messenger: Defied during the SS Civil War, as he resists the urge to do this from receiving bad news about his diplomatic attempt with Remer, knowing that he can't afford to waste any lives and manpower.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After he wins the second civil war, he will confront a defeated and worn-down Himmler, who proceeds to throw every insult that he can muster at Heydrich while crying out that preventing his plan will only bring ruin. Heydrich responds by breaking his nose mid-sentence and readying his pistol.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: Begins chainsmoking to deal with the stress of betraying Himmler, and at one point is so absent-minded that he burns himself on the leg with the lit end of one. It's portrayed as the desperate coping mechanism slash addiction it is, especially since it represents a betrayal of his Spartanist ideals.
• The Social Darwinist: Cruel and acknowledged by Hitler for his ruthlessness, Heydrich climbed to ranks of the Reich while killing those who got in his way. In the end though, even he is shaken to his core and sickened by the seer scale of Himmler's Ragnarök Project and decides he must stop it.
• The Sociopath: Initially at least, Heydrich fantasises about torturing and killing what effectively amounts to nearly every relevant character in Germany.
• The Spymaster: One way to deal with Gehlen is to build a network of spies to observe and overthrow his position.
• The Stoic: Keeping to his spartan-like and sociopathic image, Heydrich rarely shows any emotion on his face. Even when he's shown Himmler's nuclear plot, Heydrich barely reacts to it with either horror or awe and merely asks when to initiate the plan. However, it's shortly revealed after that Heydrich is thoroughly disgusted with the plan and vomits out of distress when he reaches the privacy of his home.
• Straight Edge Evil: Pretty much Heydrich's ideology in sum; in addition to the typical trappings of Nazism, Heydrich and other Spartanists focus on purifying and cutting out "degeneracy" from Germany by bringing about a simple, brutal, and modest way of life in an attempt to recreate The Spartan Way. This includes much stronger returns to the Nazi Party's oft-ignored vegetarian, anti-smoking, and anti-drinking lines. Heydrich himself subverts this eventually, though, when he discovers Himmler's plans to destroy the world with Germany's nuclear arsenal and turns to drink and smoking to deal with the stress of rebelling against his former master.
• Stress Vomit: After reading the Ragnarök Project presented to him, he keeps a straight face until he is home alone. Then he pukes his guts all over the carpet and collapses.
• Survival Mantra: As he begins to resort to alliances with the slave liberation movements and continues his attack on SS warlords, Heydrich can only desperately justify this to himself with constant chants about it being "For the Greater Good".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Forming an alliance against Himmler can include surviving followers of Speer, Bormann and Göring, resistance forces from Eastern Europe and all those that the Nazis deem "subhuman", Ulrike Meinhoff and the DSR, and the support of various collaborators from other nations. This alliance is loosely held together with deals, Empty Promises, and temporary truces in the name of combatting the greater threat of nuclear devastation, and even then, their loyalties are not completely guaranteed. Also Deconstructed, as he knows that this order won't last and every faction begins setting their sights on each other once their primary target has been taken care of.
• Tempting Fate: A couple of his focus descriptions dismissively make mention of Josias' ambitions for Caucasus, though they're only realized outside of a Heydrich playthrough.
  • If Dietrich is granted rule over Bavaria in exchange for his support, the focus description declares it to be an absurd situation that could only be matched by Josias declaring himself the "King of Kaukasia."
  • If RK Kaukasien is supported by promising to make its de-facto independence official, the focus description jokingly refers to it as a "kingdom" and doubts that Josias would ever have royal ambitions.
• Together in Death: If Himmler prevails in the SS Civil War, Heydrich falls into despair and decides to return home to his wife to spend the last few hours that humanity has with her.
• Unexpected Successor: Heydrich is the least expected successor to Hitler, and when he is declared as such, hardly anyone outside of the SS approves of the decision, due to Heydrich's personal unpopularity and ties with Himmler. Similarly, an AI-controlled Heydrich has basically no chance to win the German Civil War, and presents a major challenge to a human player.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • In the end of the Burgundische-SS path in Heydrich's civil war tree, the focus descriptions become increasingly desperate as Himmler becomes more and more dissatisfied at Heydrich's failure to win the civil war and starts to slow down and eventually withdraw his support.
  • Following his victory in the SS Civil War, Heydrich breaks down and eventually commits suicide. Partly from realizing that everything Nazism spewed about the "lesserness" and cowardice of other races have been proven nothing but a hollow lie when those supposedly "lesser" people have courageously fought, bled, and died for the sake of stopping Himmler from ending the world, and were even willing to do so alongside him, a man who has expressed nothing but the deepest, darkest hatred for them and has been actively hunting and killing them, partly from realizing that his negligence as parent lead to the death of his son Klaus, as well as the fact that his surviving children want nothing to do with him and he seriously considered punishing one for hanging up on him with a concentration camp. And finally from realizing that all the struggling he did was truly for nothing as the German Reich breaking down into another civil war after his death is inevitable, and he cannot prevent it anyway.
• Villainous BSoD: He goes through a perpetual one after his victory in the first Civil War. Throughout the conflict against Himmler, he finds himself extremely shocked and appalled by the nuclear plans, the entire situation, and his belief in stopping the Ragnarök Project. His only solution to solving this is to kill himself for following Nazism and betraying his beliefs.
• Villainous Respect: One of the figures that Heydrich admires is Ernst Kaltenbrunner, whose icy demeanor makes him a figure of respect in Heydrich's eyes. He even laments over opposing him for the sake of saving the rest of the Aryan race.
• Walking Spoiler: It's really hard to talk about Heydrich without discussing the fact that he tries to overthrow Himmler thus causing a civil war within the SS, which has major implications for what happens next in Germany.
• Was It Really Worth It?: After winning the war against Himmler, Heydrich, powered by his victory, manages to pull himself together for a brief period, only to quickly begin deteriorating again as he is hit with thoughts of what is going to happen next. His belief that he had sacrificed his the last of his Villainous Valour, eventually makes way for a realization that perhaps he and the Nazi system never really had any "valour" in the first place, and that his beliefs seems hollow now that between him and Himmler more Aryan blood has spilled than any perceived Jewish plot his own paranoia could ever cook up, and the people he thought of as subhuman has proven themselves to be braver in combat than he ever thought them capable of. On top of this comes the realizations that he has irrevocably alienated himself from his surviving children, he has no friends or allies other than his wife, and that the Reich created through his victory is already cracking at the seams and will one day pull itself part in another civil war. As Heydrich slips back into increasing substance abuse, he ruefully ruminates on the what-ifs and could-have-beens if he had chosen other paths than Nazism, and he eventually comes to the ultimate conclusion that, no, it all really wasn't worth it.
• Wham Episode: Heydrich's path features a series of highly unexpected turns and twists.
  • After an entire pre-Civil War setup and a brutal Civil War where Heydrich shows his utter loyalty to Himmler, the end of his first focus tree reveals that Heydrich is disgusted at Himmler's nuclear plot and plans to betray Himmler.
  • After that, for a while it seems like Heydrich will continue running Germany and fulfilling Himmler's demands while conducting his own operations in secret... until the plot of Heydrich's betrayal leaks out, and Germany completely collapses into the SS civil war, with dozens of factions occupying every inch of Germany and Heydrich's own power being restricted to Germania.
  • Finally, when the SS Civil War concludes, Heydrich enters another breakdown where he realizes that everything he stood for was what really caused so much bloodshed, and in order to prevent Himmler from ending the world, he had to betray said beliefs and make allies of those he despised the most. He believes that the only way he can correct his mistakes is to end his own life, after which Germany descends into a third civil war that collapses Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Burgundy into anarchy.
• Wham Line: The first confirmation that Heydrich's beliefs have been shaken occur in the final two lines of the event where Heydrich collapses◊ after reading about Himmler's plot:
  He solved problems... it's what he had always done... He found his way through things, it's what he did, damn it!
  But how was he ever going to stop Himmler?
  How would he save the world, degenerates and all?
• You Have Failed Me: Should the German Civil War reach the Anarchy stage, Himmler kills Heydrich off and annexes his territories.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: He is in absolute disbelief that Remer would ever approve of Himmler's nuclear plot, and is very shocked to hear about his intent to ally with Burgundy after being shown the plans.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: He knows that Hitler naming him as his successor is mainly due to his ruthlessness, and he resents this fact.

SS Civil War

General Tropes

• Authority in Name Only: Germany under Heydrich falls into a de facto state of warlordism; Heydrich's authority exists in name only and only encompasses the region around Germania, while the rest of the country is controlled by a multitude of regional leaders with differing allegiances. Even if he eventually manages to come out on top in the civil war against the SS, Heydrich ruefully notices that the apparent unity and peace in the Reich brought about by his victory can only ever be a very uneasy and temporary truce, and he realizes that he is going struggle for the rest of his days to keep the extremely rickety house of cards he is sitting on top of from collapsing again, and even if he should somehow manage that, the Reich will inevitably descend into yet another horrific civil war once he dies.
• Balkanize Me: After Heydrich betrays Himmler and manages to repel a Himmler coup attempt at Germania, he loses control over the SS administrations around the country, and Germany and Burgundy both fractures into over 20 small warlord states. Most of these warlord states are SS factions, though there are also a few Speerite, Bormannite, and Göringite remnants. None of them are overtly friendly to Heydrich, and many of them are clearly Himmler-aligned.
• Book Ends: The story of Heydrich's Germany begins with the collapse of Nazi Germany into the German Civil War, and ends with Germany collapsing into its third civil war of the decade after Heydrich's death.
• Capture the Flag: The Heydrich playthrough ends in a confrontation game of this; ten areas full of nuclear silos are present all across Germany, and both sides have to diplomatically convince the SS warlords to throw their lot with them, though some invasions can happen in specific circumstances. If Himmler captures more nukes than Heydrich, he instigates global thermonuclear war, ending the world. If Heydrich keeps the nuclear supremacy, a final war of confrontation will still be necessary as Heydrich can still lose if Himmler takes territories with silos during the war. The nukes are said to be moveable but the mod is bugged, so it doesn't work.
• Civil War:
  • The "SS Civil War" is actually used to describe the initial balkanization of Germany after Heydrich gets outsed as a traitor. The actual civil warfare begins when either Himmler or Heydrich converts enough forces to their side and declares war on the other.
  • After Himmler's defeat, Heydrich's suicide plunges the Reich into a third civil war between Herbert Otto Gille and Hans Speidel (or Reinhard Gehlen if Speidel is dead).
• Downer Ending: Will happen, regardless of who emerges victorious in the Himmler-Heydrich struggle. If Heydrich destroys Burgundy and kills Himmler, he commits suicide due to his crisis of faith. Immediately afterwards, Germany collapses into another Civil War between Herbert Otto Gille and Hans Speidel; the player doesn't get to play it and is forced into observation mode, and over time this civil war collapses into anarchy, wiping Germany from the map. As then-head dev Pacifica states, the total victory and subsequent total collapse of SS Germany will cause a massive humanitarian crisis and thoroughly destabilize Europe, with untold numbers of nuclear warheads now leaking out into rogue states and the underworld. And if Heydrich fails to destroy Burgundy? Well, Himmler can then execute his nuclear plot and kill untold numbers of people anyway.
• Even Evil Has Standards: All of Heydrich's ministers are disgusted by Himmler's plan to destroy the world via nuclear war and will unquestionably side with Heydrich by the start of the SS Civil War.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The ultimate showdown between Heydrich and Himmler counts as this.
• Genre Shift: Heydrich's story is involves little socio-political narratives that are common in TNO, and is instead a character-focused story of downfall, somewhat like a classical tragedy.
• Multinational Team: The coalition that Heydrich forms in order to stop Himmler will eventually be composed of factions outside of Germania, mainly reaching other nations in the Einheitspakt, from the Netherlands to Eastern Europe's slave revolts.
• Player-Exclusive Mechanic: Heydrich's victory in the German Civil War and the subsequent collapse can only happen if a human player is playing as him; an AI Heydrich can only win with the help of bugs.
• Railroading: If Hitler chooses Heydrich as his successor, the game will force a number of Germany's satellite states down certain paths (even if Heydrich ends up losing the civil war), as Heydrich's focus tree is written with these paths in mind: Michał Vituška wins the Ostland Civil War, Henk Feldmeijer takes power in the Netherlands, Josias zu Waldeck-Pyrmont is not overthrown by Paul Pleiger in RK Kaukasien, and Célestin Lainé prevails in the power struggle in Brittany.
• Satellite Character: The various warlord cliques that pop out of Germany during the SS Civil War do not appear anywhere else in the game, and all of their content is centered around their interactions with Heydrich's Germany and Himmler's Burgundy. If the player is not playing as Heydrich, only five of the warlords have any meaningful role to play in the story^note Karl Dönitz, Otto Ernst Remer, Ferdinand Schörner, Reinhard Gehlen and Ulrike Meinhof.

SS Civil War - Northern Germany

Deutsche Notstandsregierung

Official Name: Deutsche Notstandsregierung^Tr.German Emergency Government

Ideology: National Socialism

Karl Dönitz's warlord state in Schleswig-Holstein.

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• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Deutsche Notstandsregierung is much smaller than Burgundy, but it has a far superior navy to them that could easily contain Burgundy's submarines and convoy raiders, while also bombarding coastal positions from afar.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Despite being led by an authoritarian admiral who's loyal to the Nazi party, the state is far less repressive than many of the warlords found throughout the SS Civil War.
• The Migration: Millions of German citizens flee to the Deutsche Nostandsregierung, desperate to avoid the chaos and violence of the SS Civil War.
• Pet the Dog: The Kriegsmarine helps German refugees escape the from quagmire in Germany to foreign regions.

Karl Dönitz

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}In the rusted docks of Hamburg, the Kriegsmarine makes its triumphant return at last- and at its head sits the aging Admiral, worn from years of toil and blood.

Karl Donitz is, perhaps, the last unsullied hero of the Reich. All the rest are dead, missing, or tied to the SS. The admiral who terrorized the Allies with his Wolfpacks, Donitz has once again evaded those who wish him harm- and there are many who do in this new Germany. His family, however, has not been so lucky- his sons slaughtered in the World War, his wife passing away a few years ago, and his daughter and son-in-law almost certainly brutalized, trapped behind SS lines. His outward displays of the calm and powerful war hero, friend of Hitler and destroyer of the Reich's foes, hide the tired, beaten-down man below.

It's no wonder that the Admiral has created a council below him to deal with the pressing affairs of the day- he gives them a face, and they give him power. As such, Hamburg stands as a spot of relative calm- though the SS whirls at its doorstep, and will crush it if they can, at least someone sane is running the ship.

All is not well below decks, however, as two sides clash in the aging Admiral's head. One side, the prideful war hero, fights to stand his ground- to cement the Kriegsmarine not just as the forgotten arm of the Heer, but as a true force in Germany and an island of sanity in the storm. The other, the tired old man, wishes nothing more than to use the Kriegsmarine as a gateway north- for the refugees that crowd the city streets, and for himself. It's unclear which Donitz will win out, but for now, the Admiral makes his last stand.

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• Enemy Mine: He can be recruited by Heydrich during the SS Civil War, in which he's one of the easier warlords to sway over.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Both of his sons died in World War II.
• Pet the Dog: During the SS Civil War, he uses the Kriegsmarine to help fleeing war refugees escape Germany.
• Red Baron: He's been nicknamed "Captain of the Atlantic" and "Hitler's Personal Wolf."
• Villainous Friendship: He had a close friendship with Adolf Hitler, which allowed him to convince the aging Führer to give land to Kriegsmarine veterans like him.

Freikorps "Berzerker"

Official Name: Freikorps "Berzerker"

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

The elite Speidel-aligned forces of the 1st Panzergrenadierdivision "Berzerker", who have continued to hold out in Pomerania after Heydrich's victory.

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• Elite Army: The 1st Panzergrenadier Division, Germany's chief special forces and counter-terrorism unit, is made up of some of the most elite soldiers in Germany. It's even said that each member of the Beserkers are worth a dozen of the enemy.
• La Résistance: Even before the SS Civil War formally begins, the Berserker's rebel against Heydrich, lauching coordinated and precise strikes against the SS forces.
• The Remnant: The 1st Panzergrenadier Division is the largest remnant of Speidel's loosely-reformist Wehrmacht forces in Germany after Heydrich's victory.
• Undying Loyalty: If Heydrich's forces save Speidel and turn him over to his side at the onset of the SS Civil War, Speidel can make contact with Wegener and the Berzerkers, who will immediately join Speidel and Heydrich, instantly maxing out their loyalty to Heydrich and allowing him to immediately annex them.

Ulrich Wegener

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Enough is enough. No more hiding in the sewers beneath Germania. No more shivering in the cold nights of the sane citizens of Germany's basements. No more running. No more hiding.

Ulrich Klaus Wegener is a new face in terms of leadership within Germany, only having served at the age of fifteen within the last days of the war, being just a mere teenager as he bore witness to the glorious days of victory on the horizon. Young Ulrich was told that Germany would prosper forevermore, knowing not of difficulty or obstacle as it would reign over the globe as the Supreme Master of the World, and no true Sons of Germany would ever suffer again!

But none of that fucking happened.

Instead, Young Ulrich would bear witness to suffering and hunger, as the German economy crashed. Realizing war was brewing on the horizon, the up-and-coming leader of the Beserkers, Germany's chief Special Forces and Counter-Terrorism unit, aligned himself with Speidel's faction during the Bürgerkrieg in order to stand with some sense of sanity within the German nation at that point; yet, sanity would not win out, would it?

Thus began Wegener's true rise to leadership. When he helped lead the anti-militarists into hiding, finding shelter only in the rat-infested shadows as the Schutzstaffel prowled every corner, the Wolf ready to strike at any moment. Now, however, the Wolf Pack finds itself torn apart, each side ripping and tearing at each other's throats. In the midst of this chaos, in the wake of this insanity, in defense against this terror, Ulrich Klaus Wegener stands alone in fighting a double-fronted war, with every side calling for his death. Or so he would believe.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: Ulrich Wegener in OTL was a West German police officer famous for founding the elite counter-terrorist unit GSG 9, and was the commander of the GSG 9 during their assault of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181. In TNO, he leads the Berserkers, which is Germany's main elite counter-terrorist special forces in TNOTL.
• Cool Shades: Wegener wears a pair of large aviators in his portrait. Interestingly enough, these aviators are photoshopped in, as he wasn't wearing any glasses in the original image source of the portrait.
• La Résistance: Wegener and his Berzerkers went into hiding in the sewers beneath Germania to escape the Schutzstaffel's hunt, waiting for a chance to strike back and return some sanity back to Germany.

SS-Ordensstaat Lotharingen

^{Flag of Lothringen (Meinhof)}

Official Name: SS-Ordensstaat Lotharingen^Tr.SS Order-State of Lorraine, Lotharingen^Tr.Lorraine (Meinhof)

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

An upstart SS-Ordensstaat located in Weser-Ems led by SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke. Eicke has professed his absolutely loyalty to Himmler and openly declared Heydrich a traitor, and started his own Order-State to realize the Burgundian vision.

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• Anti-Mutiny: Unlike Heydrich, Eicke has remained loyal to Himmler and Lotharingen is his attempt to continue Heydrich's vision of creating a Burgundian Ordensstaat over Germany. One of his national spirits even calls the state a "Burgundian Wannabe".
• Puppet State: The SS-Ordensstaat Lotharingen are fanatically loyal to Himmler and effectively acts as a pawn for them to control however they wish.
• La Résistance: Since Eicke's Ordensstaat is located around Essen, which used to be Speer's centre of power, Heydrich can decide to exploit that and aid the Speerite rebels so he can subvert Eicke.

Theodor Eicke

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Betrayed, forgotten, abandoned. The Hangman has lost his way, but in the name of Germany, a new dawn, no, a new era, will begin.

Theodor Eicke was born in the boiling stew of violence and rage which would spill over into the Great War, where he managed to find himself decorated for his courage along the front lines, even if he managed paychecks behind the lines most of the time. Nevertheless, the failures of democracy crashed hard upon Eicke as he fell into poverty and joblessness with the onset of Weimar's corruption and degeneracy; however, that was all until the National Socialist German Workers' Party came along. From then on, it was blood that earned Eicke his medals, be it the blood of his former commander, Ernst Röhm, or be it the blood of every single degenerate, handicapped, or corrupted subhuman that Eicke witnessed die within the concentration camp.

To Eicke, the German Reich had finally realized that it was strength that it needed for its people, and allowing any of these affronts to the Aryan image live would be an unacceptable slight against Germany's power. After the war, a lifetime of devotion and desire to please Himmler found him as a strong-and-true official within the Deutsche-SS, as SS-Obergruppenführer Eicke, despite his occasionally rocky relationship with Reinhard Heydrich, realized his true potential in destroying any traces of corruption within the Vaterland.

But, no. That bastard, Heydrich, that wretched beast ruined it all! He tore Germany apart, and left us all with nothing, leaving the process to transform the Reich into something more pure than ever in tatters! We must do what we can to honor the Reichsführer-SS, and purge Heydrich for his betrayal against the Burgundian System.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Once the Speerite rebels rise up against Eicke, there are conflicting reports over whether he was given a Kangaroo Court or simply executed via gunfire. Either way, Eicke is dead and his territory is ready to be annexed by Heydrich.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: After Heydrich betrays Himmler and the ideals of the Burgundian System, Eicke believes that now he must take up the mantle, start his own Order-State, and enforce Spartanism.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Eicke considers himself an equal to Himmler for creating his own Ordensstaat, but Heydrich recognizes that he's just a pale imitation of the Reichsführer-SS and a deluded pawn of Himmler at best.
• Too Dumb to Live: Eicke sets up his Ordensstaat in a hotbed of former Speerites that have no sympathies for the SS, which makes it unsurprising that there is a sizable resistance movement for Heydrich to exploit and get them to rise up against the Ss.
• Undying Loyalty: It is practically impossible to convert Eicke to Heydrich's side with the "No Longer A Pawn" focuses. It is significantly easier to just support the Speerites and have them overthrow Eicke for Heydrich to gain control over Lotharingen.

Ulrike Meinhof

Role: Leader of Red Army Faction, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Partisan Movement^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Speer's defeat has shattered the dream of the youth for most. Some, however, are committed. Some dream of a Germany free from the swastika and eagle, of a land of freedom from the Nazi jackboot, and they gathered in the forests outside Essen to continue their fight.

And these youthful dreamers have found an unlikely leader: Ulrike Meinhof.

Part of the Student Movement from her youth, she had been attracted to the promise of reform that Albert Speer offered. A Reich free of the Race Laws, the camps, the censorship, a better Germany. But the dream has gone wrong; Speer was gone, the Gang of Four dead, and the SS, through Heydrich, reigns supreme over Germany. But even this fragile order has faltered, with Essen being captured by Theodor Eicke and turned into a second Ordensstaat. Those Speerites who remained underground and waging a shadow war against the SS thought the situation hopeless, until support from an unknown corner arrived. The Revolution was back.

Now the Speerites have seized control of their former capital, Essen, and Meinhof finds herself as part of a wider conflict. Himmler and Heydrich have turned on one another, and the entire Reich has begun to choose sides. She despises Heydrich for what he has done, but Himmler is an even worse monster, as rumors swirl of his true intentions. But the Revolution is not yet over, and once half the SS is dead, its fire shall scorch the half that is left.

See her entry in the Germany subpage.

SS-Oberabschnitt Westfalen

Official Name: SS-Oberabschnitt Westfalen^Tr.SS Main District Westphalia

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

An SS command in Westphalia headed by the newly promoted Obergruppenführer Fritz Klingenberg. Klingenberg's SS units have become increasingly divided between pro-Heydrich and pro-Himmler elements, and Klingenberg himself is becoming increasingly desperate.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Resuming construction of the Wewelsburg Citadel sounds impressive, but it's ultimately a useless vanity project that strains Klingenberg's already tenuous control over Westfalen and is deemed too unimportant by Himmler to bother supporting.
• Big Fancy Castle: Originally the brainchild of Heinrich Himmler, the Wewelsburg Citadel was a planned expansion of Wewelsburg Castle to a massive scale, so that it would serve as the new capital for the Aryan race. Though the project was never begun before the West Russian War, Klingenberg has made accomplishing the Reichsführer's vision his top priority. He hopes that, upon seeing his ability to carry out such a massive project and seeing his dream come to vision, Himmler will grant Klingenberg control over more land across Germany.
• Enemy Civil War: Klingenberg's hardline SS partisan hunters have begun to suspect and accuse one another of being the enemy. What these men used to scour forest hideouts and basements searching for partisans, they now scour the patrol bases and headquarters of their fellow units, suspecting one another of being one of Heydrich's traitors.
• Shout-Out: Heydrich's first focus to deal with Klingenberg is called "Man in the High Castle".

Fritz Klingenberg

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}No, no, no. Can't do it, it's not possible. Luck and chaos, chaos and luck. That can't win a war. That cannot save Germany...

SS-Standartenführer Fritz Klingenberg may not have been born under the colorful banners of the mighty German nobility, nor had he been honored as a courageous defender of the German Empire within the Great War, nor had he even been crowned as the most champion of commanders within the victorious Second World War. But Fritz Klingenberg was born with a will to fight, the wits to make a good fight, and the luck to make him win the fight. Navigating his way through the leadership positions of the Waffen-SS wasn't an easy task, and most men die in their failure of trying to do that. But to Klingenberg, this would be another test, and test him life did.

However, no matter the fall, no matter the setback, Klingenberg found himself hopping up just at the last minute, attaining for him just enough to truly find command without burden within the Deutsche-SS: crushing the rats of resistance. After all, how bad could it be for the most Aryan of Aryans armed with the finest equipment the Reich had to offer to go around sniffing the shadows of those who opposed the Reich?

However, nothing prepared Klingenberg for Heydrich's stand against the Reichsführer-SS, no one had been prepared at all. At first it was just slave revolts and basement-dwelling, sniveling mutts of resistance. But now, his own men have turned against one another, and the Reichsführer-SS has not been answering his pleas...

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• Allohistorical Allusion: In Real Life, Klingenberg is credited with the German takeover of Belgrade, a city whose name literally translates to "White Fortress". Here, he attempts to build a different fortress city out of the Wewelsburg Castle.
• Butt-Monkey: The SS Civil War hasn't been going well for Klingenberg, as Himmler largely ignores his attempts to win his favor, his forces are often too busy fighting each other, and Heydrich can potentially sabotage all of his efforts to restart the Wewelsburg Citdael Project so that he can take over Westfalen.
• The Determinator: It's this exact quality that earned him a leadership position in the SS, despite being an otherwise unremarkable man. Even during the Civil War, he's still determined to get into Himmler's good graces by finishing his Wewelsburg Citadel project.
• Dirty Coward: Klingenberg believes that he's a model soldier for the SS, but he crumbles pretty easily at the first sign of trouble from Heydrich. This is best showcased when Heydrich decides to sabotage the Wewelsburg Citadel, in which he receives a phone call from Klingenburg, likely to discuss terms of surrender.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Klingenberg thinks that he's one of Himmler's top men and will be rewarded with greater land for his loyalty, but Himmler hardly reciprocates the feeling and ignores his pleas of help to stabilize his upstart fiefdom.

Militärisches Sondergericht des Reiches

Official Name: Militärisches Sondergericht des Reiches^Tr.Military Special Court of the Reich

Ruling Party: Sondergericht in Hannover-Braunschweig^note Special Court in Hanover-Brunswick

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

Otto Ernst Remer's fiefdom in Hannover, who had seized the leadership of the German Militarist remnants after Heydrich's victory resulted in the death of Göring and the disappearance of Schörner. Remer, who declared himself a Generalfeldmarschall, plans to crush the traitor Heydrich and Schörner (whom Remer believes is plotting a pro-Heydrich conspiracy), and is searching through every inch of Hannover to root out traitorous activities, even taking up Burgundian support in his crusade against treason.

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• The Coup: If Heydrich provides enough resources to Schörner, he will come out of hiding, personally execute Remer in a coup, and declare total loyalty to Heydrich (maxing out their support to Heydrich).
• The Remnant: Hannover is the base of the German militarist remnants formerly under Göring during the German Civil War.
• Villain Team-Up: Heydrich can back Schörner's remnants and have him re-seize power over the militarists from Remer; this is also the only way for Heydrich to establish control over this warlord state, since the alternate path (showing the nuclear plan to Remer) increases Remer's loyalty to Himmler instead.

Otto Ernst Remer

Role: Head of State

Party: Sondergericht in Hannover-Braunschweig^note Special Court in Hanover-Brunswick

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}It's him, he's here! Cut him up into pieces, string him up at the gallows, lit his whisper-trail afire... this conspiracy will end!

Otto Remer, once nothing but a Generaloberst, now fancies himself as Field Marshal. Once, the man was third-in-line for the Militarist faction, happily sat behind Reichsmarschalls Hermann Göring and Ferdinand Schörner, Remer now leads from the front, as the main voice of what Militarists remain after Heydrich's victory. Through fiery rhetoric and high position, he has successfully whipped his men into shape, ready to crush the two great threats to the Reich: the Blonde Beast, who has betrayed Germany and now sits to the west, and a much closer, much more insidious foe lurking amidst the shadows of every corner... Ferdinand Schörner.

Remer's old boss has gone missing in the chaos that has engulfed Germany once again, and rumors spread that the erstwhile Field Marshal now uses his power to string treacherous webs to aid Heydrich, the traitor... and, rumor has it, he's focusing his efforts to prey upon Remer's very own domain. This cannot, no, will not be tolerated, and it is the destiny of now-Generalfeldmarschall Otto Ernst Remer to lead the Court of National Order in order to crush every whisper, every potential threat, every mere mention of that rat.

As Remer's armies march west to confront that bastardous traitor, an internal war rages inside his domain: the Court has and shall continue to search every inch of ground, every home and every building, and all traitors shall be exposed and stomped out. With Himmler's aid, Remer shall crush Heydrich's wayward state, expose and decapitate Schörner's schemes, and-eventually-take the reins of Germany himself.

And, when he takes the reins, the old dream of the Militarists-a Reich that spans the globe-will soon be a dream no longer. Nevertheless, no matter how many dreams of conquest stir throughout Remer's legions, a shadow continues to dance around the corners, whispering rumors within Remer's men's ears, and planting the seeds of anti-Himmlerite ideas within their minds, and Remer will not end his Inquisition of the Court until he can end this treachery... the treason of Bloody Ferdinand...

See his entry in the Germany subpage.

Ferdinand Schörner

Role: Head of State (Military coup)

Ruling Party: Kampfgruppe Schörner^note Battle Group Schörner

Ideology: Statocratic Nazism^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}What has become of the Reich? What has become of Germany? Torn to pieces by these decadent animals, these Party toads and lunatics in black. They shall pay, they will all pay for their crimes against the Fatherland! All of them! But that is for later.

Ferdinand Schörner has fought for Germany his entire life, from the hellish battlefields of the Great War to the icy wastes of the West Russian War. He has known suffering and defeat, but not like this. Forced from his stronghold by German soldiers in the dead of night? Never. He has remained underground in Hannover since the collapse of that fat idiot's army, hidden only by the grace of patriots and true National Socialists. But it was not SS cultists searching the city for him, but his own men. When he looked at the portraits of the man tearing Hannover to pieces, it was not Heydrich, but his own subordinate, that perfidious traitor Remer. Schörner organized cells to fight the upstart, but they were cut down faster than they could spread. Remer was almost upon him, soon Schörner would be flushed out and hanged as he had ordered so many others to be hanged... if not for Heydrich.

With the Blonde Beast's help, Schörner has set things in order. Remer is dead, along with the other traitors in the militarist faction, leaving the Field Marshal in stronger control than ever. He has learned of Himmler's insane plan, and made common cause with his foes Heydrich and Speidel to save the Reich he has always served.

But Schörner remembers his enemies. His vengeance upon them is merely delayed; once Himmler is dead in a ditch, Schörner shall set everything right, as it should be. Those who tore Germany apart shall learn the reason Bloody Ferdinand earned his sobriquet. All in due time."

See his entry in the Germany subpage.

SS Civil War - Eastern Germany

Freistaat Prußen

Official Name: Freistaat Prußen^Tr.Free State of Prussia

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

A state located in Prussia headed by the current head of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, Adolf Eichmann, who has restarted systematic extermination of the local Untermenschen.

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• Asshole Victim: No tears could be shed for this nation should you invade it, given how horrific it is.
• Final Solution: Eichmann intends to fully exterminate racial degeneracy in Prussia, and has restarted the camps and expanded the extermination targets to everyone who fails to live up to the ideals of the SS.
• Hate Sink: The game encourages the player to conquer Eichmann's explicitly genocidal warlord state and forget about peacefully converting him. It is quite hard to convert Eichmann to Heydrich's side, and declaring war on them greatly increases native factional opinion, giving Heydrich a chance to negotiate with the Children of Spartakus. Though the notability of deposing Eichmann is not significantly commented on in-universe, it is likely intended to give the players a cathartic experience instead.
• No True Scotsman: The second Holocaust Eichmann is running is far more the first one, for anyone who fails to live up to his ideals is a subhuman.
• Undying Loyalty: Eichmann's forces are small, but extremely fanatical behind his agenda to start a second Holocaust.

Adolf Eichmann

Role: Head of Government (Himmler cabinet), Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}The Death's Head will march on. For purity. For unity. For the Aryan Race. No matter how many need to bleed to do it.

Otto-Adolf Eichmann was born a German, worked as a German, fought as a German, and killed as a German. Originally from Prussia but rising through the ranks of his father's Austrian mining business after being pulled away from school, Eichmann's closest form of solidarity came through the right-wing militias and paramilitaries all of his friends had been talking about, and the bold words of the NSDAP flashing across the Newspaper headlines. Germany was destined for greatness, in young Adolf's mind, and it was his time to participate, and participate he did, as Eichmann was charged with personally sicking the dogs of war, brutal deportation, and genocide against thousands upon thousands of Jews. With the powerlessness of the Allies preventing anything from stopping him, Eichmann bathed in the blood of the Hebrews as a Grand Master and Architect of the most horrific slaughter of Jews the world had ever seen.

However, the years of joyful bloodshed were cinched tightly by the collapsing successes of the Reich. Economic mishandlings, military failures in Russia, and a near-collapse of the German government had shaken the entire Aryan spirit, driving Eichmann towards swearing allegiance towards the newly formed Ordenstaat. For, if the Vaterland would trade the sword for the shackle, perhaps the Reichsführer-SS would employ Eichmann where he worked best, as he became the new SS-Obergruppenführer over the SS-Totenkopfverbände, leading the "Deaths Heads" to a bloody, new Final Solution.

However, all of the successes and accomplishments for Eichmann have come to fold, as the entirety of the Reich finds itself embattled against itself. To the East, the Blonde Beast leads in apocalyptic bookings of doom and despair towards Eichmann's former master, the Reichsführer-SS. Of course, Eichmann could never give into the wishes of someone willing to end the world, if that were true of course, however, a new goal rises upon the horizon. The degenerate Untermenschen surrounds the SS-Totenkopfverbände in broken shackles, and the time has come to reignite the Endlösung.

See his entry in the Burgundy subpage.

Children of Spartakus

Official Name: Children of Spartakus

Ideology: Partisan Movement^note Despotism

A Polish slave resistance based in Königsberg. As Heydrich's Spartanist rule commits endless German-on-German violence, they have seized the chance and risen up.

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• Enemy Mine: It should be no suprise that a group of former Polish slaves want nothing to do with Reinhard Heydrich. However, peacefully engaging in diplomacy with them, regardless of it works or not, is one of the prerequsities for getting Poland's support. If Heydrich is accepting enough to the Poles' concessions, then he may even be able to sway them to his side.
• La Résistance: The Children of Spartakus is an anti-German resistance group made up of Polish slaves, and is easily the hardest group for Heydrich to attempt diplomacy with.
• Slave Liberation: The Children of Spartakus is a Polish slave revolt that occurs shortly after Heydrich wins the German Civil War.
• Stylistic Suck: The flag that the Children of Spartakus use looks shoddily made, but it is justified since the flag represented them might have been hastily made in the wake of the Civil War.

Kazimierz Piechowski

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Partisan Movement^note Despotism

In-Game Biography: ^{Click to Show}All this training. All this fighting. All this blood. All this war. None of it prevented the chill of winter. The ashes of the fallen would only darken the coming storms.

How greatly did the enduring people of the Polish nation suffer under the chronicles of history? Kazimierz Piechowski knows firsthand just how terrible of a fight it all was, and, yet, just how necessary it was, whether it was for belief, for ideology, or just for the chance of a god-forsaken home. Participating within the Polish Boys Scouts as a young boy, Piechowski knew that he was a priority on the target list of the Germans, and once Poland's government fell, he knew it was high-time to move the fight underground. It was long, hard, and brutal, but Piechowski's evasion of the Reich could only go on for so long, as the concentration camps awaited the Pole, and all of his comrades.

But death hadn't chosen Kazimierz that day, nor any day within the coming years. The suffering was unbearable, the sight of the men, women, and children of his nation being systematically exterminated would have been unbelievable had it not been happening right in front of him. How cold was this world to do this to so many? Piechowski knew that it did not matter, and as the camps were moved to the plantations, he knew that carrying the journey forward was all he could do.

But now, Germany stands against itself, brutalized by the very barbarians who tore his countrymen to shreds in the past few decades. Both had to be fought against, for some stand of righteousness in this terrible, cold world. But, rumors only grow. Nightmares of a world on fire plague Piechowski, and his deepest fears about who he may be forced to fight alongside grow closer to reality with each coming hour.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: Piechowski in real life escaped from Auschwitz with a band of other prisoners in 1942. In TNO, he leads a slave revolt in Heydrich's Germany.
• The Determinator: Even though Piechowski knows that his rebellion against Germany will be short-lived, he's prepared to fight to the last man for his fellow Poles' liberation.
• Rebel Leader: He's been leading a Polish resistance group long before the Second German Civil War even started.
• When He Smiles: Piechowski is an empty, emotionless man who has been traumatized by the injustices committed by Germany against the Polish people, but when he leads a rebellion against Heydrich, a small smile comes across Piechowski's face.

Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS

Official Name: Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS^Tr.Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

Gestapo functionary Klaus Barbie's pro-Himmler warlord state in Danzig.

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• Paper Tiger: Despite its menacing lore, Barbie's warlord state has a tiny amount of divisions, and can easily be conquered and annexed by Heydrich.
• Police State: Barbie and his men use extremely savage and brutal methods to suppress the partisans in Danzig.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Given Barbie's brutal suppression, many partisans have risen up against him and captured his officers, leaving them mutilated, tortured, or dead.

Klaus Barbie

Role: Security Minister (Himmler cabinet), Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}The Butcher of Lyon makes his new home in Danzig, bringing his old troops, his old ideas, his old means- but new, fresh amounts of blood.

Many words come to mind when the name Klaus Barbie is brought up, and few of them are good. A Gestapo and SS functionary during the war, Barbie made his name on wholesale slaughter, keeping the French in check during the occupation. Such cunning brutality quickly brought him to the forefront of SS operations, and his drive- and promotions- never slowed. Soon, he was sent to Germany by direct order of the Reichsführer, a critical part of Heydrich's support in East Prussia- and an eye kept on the protégé.

Once the Burgerkrieg was won, Barbie was reassigned to Danzig, ordered to keep his eye on Heydrich under the guise of "Anti-Partisan actions"- a move that has paid off in full, as Heydrich splits from Himmler and Germany breaks apart again. Barbie's hold on Danzig and the surrounding area remains stable, even in these troubled times- and with native partisans to the north, potential treachery to his south and west, and few allies to the East, his determination has only grown.

Barbie is the unshakeable eye of Himmler's forces, a siphon of intelligence and codes. The SS-Standartenführer does all he can to deliver the information that Himmler expects of him, and he doesn't mind torture, murder, kidnapping, arson, or any other unsavory method to do it. Indeed, there's a reason the Reichsführer puts such trust in him- with his focus on ideological purity, it seems likely he'll stay with the founder of the System. However, if some misstep occurs, and he begins to have doubts of Himmler's intentions, it would certainly do Heydrich much good to shut down such a wealth of stolen secrets- and, perhaps, use them for his own ends.

Older, wiser, but still as cunning and brutal as he ever was, there's no doubt that Barbie is one of the most dangerous men in Germany today, no matter what happens around him.

See his entry in the Burgundy subpage.

Kommandostab Waffen-SS

^Alternate

Official Name: Kommandostab Waffen-SS^Tr.Command Staff Waffen-SS, Großgermanische Reich der Deutschen Nation^Tr.Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation (Third German Civil War)

Ideology: Stratocratic Nazism^note National Socialism (Gille), Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism (Stadler), Burgundian System^note National Socialism (Hausser)

A Waffen-SS command based in Posen.

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• Boring, but Practical: Within the Kommandostab's territory is the Posen Railway Junction, which was designed to facilitate transportation betwen Germany and its eastern colonies. Although much of its impressiveness has been lost after the first German Civil War destroyed most of its access to the East, it's still a crucial railway junction that provides useful transportation throughout the Kommandostab's territory.
• Faction-Specific Endings: The leader of Kommandostab Waffen-SS is determined by which path Heydrich went down in his German Civil War focus tree; Herbert Otto Gille corresponds to Deutsch-SS, Sylvester Stadler corresponds to Waffen-SS, and Paul Hausser corresponds to Burgundische-SS.
• Multinational Team: All three of the Brother Generals lead Waffen-SS divisions that consist of foreign volunteers, with Gille's consisting of Latvians, Stadler's consisting of Hungarians and Hausser's consisting of Nords.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Kommandostab Waffen-SS isn't always ruled by the Waffen-SS in spite of what the name implies. Only Stadler belongs to the Waffen-SS, with Gille and Hausser leading the Deutsche-SS and the Burgundische-SS respectively.

Herbert Otto Gille

Role: Military Commander, Security Minister (Heydrich cabinet), Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism, Stratocratic Nazism^note National Socialism (Kommandostab Waffen-SS and the Third German Civil War)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}The Brother Generals have stabbed each other in the back, and the middle brother rises from the pile, standing with his men to save what remains of the Reich.

Herbert Otto Gille fought through the muddy trenches and drank the ersatz coffee of World War One, and he commanded his Baltic volunteers with pride as they tore through the Russians in World War Two, and he fought the battles of the German Civil War- but he has never seen Germany fall so low as it has. He and his Brother Generals- Paul Hausser and Sylvester Stadler- each took the stunning revelation of Himmler's plot differently. Hausser refused to believe it, Stadler quietly distanced himself from the Reichsfuhrer, and Gille bought every word of it. Such a disagreement could only end poorly, but Gille was skilled enough to find himself ruler of what remains of his divisions- with Hausser dead and Stadler gone, nobody else is left to challenge him from within.

The task now turns to stopping and defeating Himmler and his lunatics- before they can follow through on their plans. Gille's men- the brave soldiers of the 19th Waffen Grenadiers- stand ready to aid Heydrich and his allies. The tide must be turned, the Reich retaken, and the Aryan paradise restored- and each and every soldier in the division knows what happens if they fail.

There can be- will be- no retreat, no weakness, no surrender. Gille and his men will end Himmler's mad schemes or die in the process.

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• Dragon Ascendant: After Heydrich defeats Himmler and commits suicide, Gille (his former security minister during the first German Civil War) will succeed him as Führer of Germany during the Third Civil War between him and the Deutsches Reich.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Like Heydrich, he's horrified by Himmler's plan to destroy the world in nuclear ash and thus will immediately join forces with Heydrich to stop Burgundy.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He's still a committed Nazi, but of the Brother Generals, he's the most willing to oppose Himmler and his insane plans.
• Multinational Team: He is described to be currently leading the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division, which actually consists of Latvians.
• Only Friend: Heydrich acknowledges Gille as one of the few men he could openly trust, as most of his other loyalists are deemed too weak for Heydrich's favor and everyone else just despises him.
• The Stoic: He's the only member of Heydrich's circle to maintain his composure when he learns of Himmler's nuclear plot.
• Undying Loyalty: Gille is a member of Heydrich's inner circle, and if he takes over the Command Staff of the Waffen-SS as the SS Civil War breaks out, he'll almost immediately declare his loyalty to Heydrich.

Sylvester Stadler

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Stratocracy^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}In the chaos of the Brother's struggle, the youngest now stands alone on top of the heap- and he and his men want nothing more than to leave it.

Unlike his friends, Paul Hausser and Herbert Otto Gille, Stadler never fought in the First World War- he was only born in 1910. His relative youth did not stop him from joining the SS early, however, joining in 1933. From there, his rise only continued- soon, he was commanding regiments, then divisions, emerging from the War with an Iron Cross and a new rank as Commander of the "Hunyadi" 25th Waffen Grenadier Division- a division made up of Hungarian Nazi's, proud to serve their Führer and the Reich.

Stadler has stayed in his post since, but the Reich around him has changed- and not for the better. He, like nearly all other SS higher-ups, stood with Himmler during the West Russian War- and suffered the consequences. Ever since, he worked to aid Heydrich's efforts, helping set the groundwork for his Führership. When the Burgerkrieg began, Stadler was swift to bring his forces to bear against the others, and stood proudly with his brothers in victory- a short lived one, for then came Heydrich's accusations, and soon after came the split. Stadler himself doesn't quite know what to make of it, but the possibility of the rumors being true tilts him towards Heydrich's side- a position not shared by his Brother Generals.

Stadler stands at the head of the Kommandostab now, but his drive to fight has left him- a position shared by his men, who similarly lost that spark that drove them all those years ago. Stadler's main focus now is to move his men back to their homeland, Hungary- and go with them. What happens in Germany behind him is not his concern, though he'll certainly do what he can to get his lands in the right hands. All in all, Stadler stands not as the purist or hardliner he once was, but as a man weary of seeing his men fall before him, wishing for nothing more than the quiet luxury of retirement.

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• Even Evil Has Standards: Stadler quietly distances himself from Himmler when he learns of the plan to nuke the world.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Not to the same extent as Gille, but he's definitely this compared to Hausser. While the latter fully agrees to Himmler's nuclear plan, Stadler distances himself from Burgundy upon hearing this plot and even slightly leans toward allying with Heydrich against Himmler.
• Multinational Team: He is described to be currently leading the "Hunyadi" 25th Waffen Grenadier Division, which consists of Hungarians.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Weary of the constant violence in Germany, Stadler wants to evacuate his men to Hungary and retire in peace.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Ultimately, Stadler is forced to work with Heydrich against Himmler, abandoning his plans to retire to Hungary.
• Young and in Charge: Stadler is very young compared to Gille and Hausser, with him being just an infant when the First World War began while Gille and Hausser served on the battlefield. Nevertheless, he's still 52 as of 1962.

Paul Hausser

Role: Military Commander, Head of State

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Surrounded by foes he once called friends, Paul Hausser emerges victorious from the Brother's struggle- and he now moves to end Heydrich's petty rebellion.

Paul Hausser is a veteran of both World Wars, fighting in the trenches in the First and leading various Panzer Corps through France and Russia in the Second. He proudly displays his Iron Cross from those times, now leading the Wiking 5th Panzer Division- a division made primarily of hardline Scandinavian National Socialists. One of the SS officials to avoid purging in the wake of Himmler's failed coup, Hausser continued to bide his time among his allies in the SS, aiding Heydrich's maneuvers where he could and readying his men for the conflict to come.

With Heydrich victorious, Hausser thought his work was finished- and his men did too. Unfortunately, fate has played a cruel joke on the Reich, and Heydrich- in a feat of supreme lunacy and cowardice- has denounced Himmler on the basis of insane allegations, splitting Germany once more. Hausser and his men proudly stood in favor of the Reichsführer- and were stunned when their brothers, led by Herbert Otto Gille and Sylvester Stadler, refused to stand with them. Things only deteriorated from there.

At the end of the struggle, Hausser finds himself victorious-but at a steep cost, with his Brother Generals and their forces dead or fleeing. As tragic as this turn is, Hausser knows there's only one man to blame- Heydrich, that snivelling, traitorous worm. This foolish split has cost Hausser much, and the Oberst-Gruppenführer knows how to fix it- with his men, proudly standing with their loyal, true brothers in Germania, ending this treachery once and for all.

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• Evil Old Folks: The 81-year-old Hausser is one of the oldest people in the entire game, an adherent to the Burgundian System, and a Himmler loyalist.
• Eyepatch of Power: He wears an eyepatch over the place where he lost his eye and can potentially be the leader of the Kommandostab Waffen-SS.
• Eye Scream: He lost an eye in the early stages of World War 2, during the battle for Poland.
• Multinational Team: He described to be currently leading the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which consists of foreign volunteers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Belgium.
• Old Soldier: Like many others, Hausser began his career in the First World War.
• Sycophantic Servant: Heydrich notes that Hausser is so loyal to Himmler because he's too utterly brainless and madly sycophantic to protest Himmler's plan.

Schlesischer Industriebund

Official Name: Schlesischer Industriebund^Tr.Silesian Industrial Group

Ideology: Technocratic Nazism^note National Socialism

The Gaue of Upper and Lower Silesia under the leadership of Gauleiter and SS-Gruppenführer Karl Hanke, who actively collaborates with the industrial magnates in the region to keep their position secure and silence slave dissent.

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• Bad Boss: The executives in the Schlesischer Industriebund are horrid managers who force their slaves to work themselves to the bone, only caring about their productivity over their welfare.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Silesia is the fiefdom of industrial magnates who constantly remind their slaves of their places and shoot anyone who disagrees, lest they revolt like what happened in Prussia.
• One Nation Under Copyright: Silesia is ruled by a clique of industrialists using the local Gauleiter as their ally. In fact, the logo of IG Farben is prominently present on the flag itself.
• The Remnant: The state is composed of the remaining Speerites after the German Civil War.

Karl Hanke

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Technocratic Nazism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}A master with golden rank treading upon lower men of all rank and blood who tried to rise and revolt. Nothing but the clatter of chains, turning of gears, and bellowing of smoke from factories now.

SS-Gruppenführer Karl Hanke finds himself a man of honor, one of justice and virtue, yet dons nothing but the wills of the industrial magnates, as well as the guns of mercenaries willing to carry it out. Fired in his early 20's for joining the NSDAP, Hanke embraced the role of an orator and organizer by talent, and managed to slowly, yet surely, climb his way through the administrative positions of the Reich, even managing to achieve relations with high-ranking figures such as Erwin Rommel, the soon-to-be-late Joseph Goebbels, and even Albert Speer himself. Nevertheless, as the dawning of Axis victory appeared on the horizon, Hanke never allowed his ambition one step back.

Thus began the glory days of the Reich, the days in which the Americans backed off, the French and British were conquered, the Russians were a mere thought upon the hills, and the world became the cornucopia upon which Germany feasted. The Hangman of Breslau put away his rifle, and instead chose the champagne glass, looking to grow his portfolio as greatly as possible as his eyes fell upon the stars.

But every Titan must suffer a fall most terrible. The economy fell, the West Russian War fell, the Reich itself fell, and one thousand years of promised ascension fell within the span of just short of two decades. Hanke coordinated with his good friend, Albert Speer, in navigating the survival of as many of the other Speerites as possible. However, whilst the cannon shots echo above, Hanke rules from below, collaborating with all of the industrial magnates in an effort to secure their work efforts, while watching every corner's shadow for a slave revolt's march upon their borders...and for every leader who may ally with such degenerate rebels...

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• Opportunistic Bastard: Hanke is a corrupt executive who exploits thousands of slaves for his own gain and is defined solely by his greed.
• Villainous Friendship: Had one with Albert Speer, which allowed him to rally the surviving Speerites.
• Wild Card: Hanke is a member of the SS, but he's not particularly loyal to their cause and is willing to throw away their anti-capitalist beliefs if it means enriching himself.

SS-Kampfgruppe Fegelein

Official Name: SS-Kampfgruppe Fegelein

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

A warlord state based in Dresden led by the egocentric and cynical Nazi socialite Hermann Fegelein, who has sided with Himmler and broadcasts anti-Heydrich propaganda through his propaganda machine.

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• Army of Thieves and Whores: Appropriate to Fegelein's vain nature, his men regularly engage in criminal activity, much to the detriment of the state as a whole.
• Egocentric Team Naming: The state is named after Fegelein himself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Conquering Fegelein's territory provides his media for propaganda, which can be used to draw the people's ire against him and Himmler.
• Propaganda Machine: Fegelein has several outlets that not only paint himself as a hero, but also serve to damage Heydrich's reputation in favor of Himmler.

Hermann Fegelein

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}From the city of Dresden comes a regular radio broadcast, singing the praises of the Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and the Burgundian System- and urging the people to follow them.

Hermann Fegelein. Experienced, cynical, and ever-irreputable, the Obergruppenfuhrer has seen much in his years of service to the Reich and the SS, and his eyes have watched dozens of plots pass before them. Accusations of treason or crimes against the Reich, evidence passed hastily in back-door deals, the slow rise and fall- or, in some cases, success- Fegelein has seen it all.

So, when caught between what little loyalty he possesses to Himmler and the System and Heydrich's frankly ridiculous allegations of the Reichsfuhrer's plots- nuclear armageddon? The end of the world? Please.- Fegelein stuck with his guns. Today, he and his men devote themselves to ending Heydrich's treachery and exposing his falsehoods- through both pen and sword, as they broadcast nationwide urges to leave the traitor and instill the true Spartanist Aryan ideal as devotedly as they fight for it. If there's one thing that the Obergruppenfuhrer is committed to, it's the Aryan paradise he's worked towards for so long.

And yet, something tickles at the back of Fegelein's consciousness- What if Heydrich's words are somehow true? Fegelein wants the Aryan ideal, yes, but not by ending the world. It's a good thing Fegelein doesn't root himself to many causes, for if Heydrich backs his words with facts, Fegelein may find it wise to desert- and everyone wants a good propaganda department these days.

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• Affably Evil: Outside of the SS, Fegelein is known to be a charming and wealthy socialite, in spite of the fact that he's a Nazi who partook in many of the Nazis' atrocities.
• Blatant Lies: Under Heydrich's coercion, Fegelein can be forced to pay lip service to the Führer and boost his reputation, claiming that Heydrich is a generous figure and that he's glad to be handing control of his state's broadcast to him, even though Fegelein is desperately trying to hide his nervousness so that he doesn't get shot.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Fegelein's corrupt nature has made him widely despised by all of the SS, in which he only managed to rise to his position, thanks to his marriage to Hitler's sister-in-law and servility to Himmler.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: In "An Appeal To Degeneracy", Fegelein will sell out Himmler and side with Heydrich when Heydrich offers him some material concessions. Immediately afterwards, in "Dealing With Degeneracy", Heydrich will have Fegelein executed and annex his warlord state.
• Shout-Out: Heydrich's first focus for interaction with Fegelein is called "Fegelein, Fegelein, Fegelein...", echoing Hitler's infamous rant from Downfall where he learns about Fegelein's desertion.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Even though Fegelein is despised throughout the SS, he's popular with the civilians for reasons that evade even Heydrich.

Arische Volksfront

Official Name: Arische Volksfront^Tr.Aryan People's Front

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

An SS breakaway state located in the Sudetenland led by Sudeten-German Nazi politician Konrad Henlein. Henlein has restarted the Lebensborn program in the Sudetenland in an attempt to improve his image to Himmler and Heydrich, with "Aryan" women being hastily "selected" for "volunteering" in the program.

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• Crossing the Burnt Bridge: Heydrich previously purged Henlein's faction over 20 years ago, an event that Henlein is still angered over. The option to ask for his support will be difficult.
• Cultural Posturing: Heydrich's focus of "Lebensraum for Lebensorn" claims that Henlein's Lebensborn program and other initiatives have replaced the Czech identity of his territory with "Aryan" ideals, though it's mostly Heydrich trying to justify keeping Henlein as an ally while burying his disgust.
• No Woman's Land: German and Czech women are being abducted or forced at gunpoint to become "volunteers" in Henlein's Lebensborn program. Even Heydrich finds this quite reprehensible, and has to force himself to temporarily tolerate Henlein when Himmler is still standing.
• Super Breeding Program: Henlein has restarted the Lebensborn program due to his obsession with Aryan qualities.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Given that Henlein's Lebensborn program has only just been restarted, the selection process of women is often hasty and unreliable to truly fulfill Henlein's goal of breeding more Aryans.

Konrad Henlein

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}In the mountains of the Sudetenland, a man once politically left for dead rises back to the top- and yet, he still finds himself dancing on the strings of his master.

Konrad Henlein has struggled greatly in the last few decades. An ardent Sudeten-German Nazi, not so much a fiery populist as an ordinary everyman, Henlein officially joined the Party after the occupation in 1938, and was soon appointed Reichstaathalter of the Sudetenland. It was here where his fateful rivalry with Heydrich began- a rivalry which he would eventually come out the loser, passed over for promotion after promotion as Heydrich ascended higher and higher. For years Henlein toiled, never getting that promotion to Gauleiter he always coveted, watching as Heydrich rose to leader of the German-SS- and then Führer.

Even so, perhaps Henlein would have still worked with Heydrich against Himmler in the split- had Heydrich not completely passed over his head with plans, leaving him in the dark. The last straw having broken, Henlein turned his gaze to Burgundy- but they showed little interest in courting him either. Therefore, Henlein has concluded his only path is to grow as radical as he can, reviving the old ideas of Lebensraum and Lebensborn, forcing mandatory training and drills- all in an attempt to exude Aryan qualities from his lands, making him as appealing to the Reichsfuhrer as possible.

Henlein prepares his men for war- for he knows this is the only shot he may ever have to get that promotion he's been aching for for so long.

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• Affably Evil: When Henlein meets Heydrich, he gives him a warm welcome and seems to have buried his resentment against his former rival, which makes it even more disturbing to see how a seemingly polite man can nonchalantly accept the mass rape of women through the Lebensborn program.
• Arch-Enemy: Henlein's rivalry with Heydrich dates back to the 1940s, as both competed for influence in the SS. Heydrich himself acknowledges that this resentment will make it difficult to sway Henlein to his side against Himmler, even if he is ultimately a pragmatist.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Horribly, Henlein isn't even restarting the industrialized rape the Lebensborn program represents out of genuine fanaticism; he's just posturing for Himmler to try to get a promotion.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Henlein has restarted the Lebensborn program solely to get into Himmler's good graces and the second he learns that Himmler will no longer consider Sudeten Germans like him "pure", he's quick to switch over to Heydrich's side.
• The Resenter: Since his appointment as Reichstaathalter of the Sudetenland in 1938, Henlein has seen Heydrich as his rival, and resents the fact that Heydrich continues to rise in power while he remains in the Sudetenland.

SS Civil War - Southern Germany

Leibstandarte Heinrich Himmler

Official Name: Leibstandarte Heinrich Himmler

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

The forces of the 1st SS Panzer Division garrisoned along the Burgundian-German border in Alsace-Lorraine, shielding Burgundy against the German refugees who in Mohnke's eyes might be traitors or saboteurs.

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• Failure Is the Only Option: There is no way for Heydrich to annex the Leibstandarte Heinrich Himmler. Mohnke will simply reject any attempts to appeal to him and even if an assassionation attempt against him is successful, it will already be too late, as Burgundy's flags are raised over the territory before it is annexed.
• Praetorian Guard: Judging from the name, the unit likely serves as Heinrich Himmler's personal bodyguard, in the same way that Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler served as Hitler's guards in OTL.

Wilhelm Mohnke

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Stand tall. Stand strong. Stand tall. Stand strong. Anything else is weak, and standing down is never an option. Weakness is never an option.

Dedication, persistence, and, in the words of some, stubbornness defines the backbone of the character that is SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Wilhelm Mohnke. Born into a blue-collar household, Mohnke rooted himself within the NSDAP and the Schutzstaffel at the young age of twenty-two, where his military career would bring him into a constant state of dipping and dodging through multiple international accusations of massacres of prisoners-of-war. These slaughterous exploits would see one of the culminations of Mohnke's career, in which a severe air raid over Yugoslavia bombarded Mohnke, leading doctors to ignore the officer's demands that he be released as soon as possible, and choosing to amputate his leg instead. Already a dedicated man, Mohnke's refusal to budge and stubbornness in work engulfed his being in rage towards his new handicapped situation. However, his newfound situation would find himself deep in Berlin, and reveling in the successes of the Reich in the newly crowned Germania, as he led the Hitler Youth and beyond to cheers for the German people.

However, after the war, it was the Reichsführer-SS who truly donned the mantle of control over the general. Seeing Mohnke's presence amongst the youth and unyieldingness as a direct asset, he became a notable participant in standing his grounds with the Reichsführer-SS during the attempted coups of the 50's, and it was the Reichsführer-SS's influence that found Mohnke a life within the Ordensstaat, becoming crowned as the commander of the SS-Leibstandarte Heinrich Himmler, utilizing his scrutinizing mannerisms, thorough investigations, and forever-reaching unwillingness to yield...

However, the time has come, in the eyes of the Reichsführer-SS, to utilize the SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer... with the care of his life. As Heydrich and Mohnke's master tear away at each other, Germans continue to flee to the West to try to find a means of escape from the chaos, maybe into the Iberias or whatnot. Mohnke, however, will serve as the barrier, the border guard, and the wall against these refugees. After all, as far as Mohnke is concerned, an assassin could be well-hidden as that old man with a cane, or that woman with three children...

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• Spare a Messenger: If Heydrich tries to make a deal with Mohnke so his troops can move through Alsace-Lorraine, Mohnke will shoot all the guards accompanying Heydrich's envoy, and send the diplomat back to Heydrich, telling him that he will never abandon his duties.
• Undying Loyalty: Mohnke is absolutely loyal to Himmler and cannot be turned over to Heydrich's side; his only two options to deal with him are either to attempt to negotiate a deal and withdraw some pro-Heydrich manpower from Mohnke's territory, or attempt to assassinate him.

Angriffsgruppe Steiner

Official Name: Angriffsgruppe Steiner^Tr.Attack Group Steiner

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

The isolated and temporarily neutral forces under SS commander Felix Steiner, consisting of a mix of Wehrmacht and SS troops.

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• The Alliance: Angriffsgruppe Steiner is a weak coalition of Wehrmacht and SS soldiers who are united by their mutual admiration for Steiner.
• Egocentric Team Naming: The Attack Group Steiner is named after their leader.
• Historical In-Joke: Attack Group Steiner is likely based on the historical Army Detachment Steiner, a ragtag band of SS and Wehrmacht divisions that Hitler ordered Steiner to mount an attack with during the Battle of Berlin.^note Its failure caused Hitler's breakdown in Führerbunker, which was depicted in the memetic Original Bunker Scene from Downfall.
• Shout-Out: The name of Steiner's warlord state ("Attack Group Steiner") appears to be a gag on one of Hitler's quotes in the memetic Original Bunker Scene from Downfall.
  Hitler: Der Angriff Steiners war ein Befehl! (Steiner's attack was an order!)
• Undying Loyalty: Steiner's men are unquestionably loyal to their superior, as he manages to command respect from both the Wehrmacht and the SS.

Felix Steiner

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}No, God, no. They have to stop, end the fighting, end the rivalries, end the tension. Or else we're all dead.

Felix Steiner was born just at the turn of the century within his native Germany, at the perfect time to become embroiled by the First World War, where he fought and bled to earn his Iron Cross, both first and second classes. However, just because some papers were signed in Versailles did not mark the end of the war for Steiner, as he enleagued himself with the Freikorps paramilitary and molded himself within the path to militarism. Taking up arms within the eventually-formed Schutzstaffel, Felix Steiner would find himself crowned with the administrative power to form the Fifth SS-Panzer Division Wiking, made up solely of Scandinavian volunteers to the Waffen-SS, who would march to victory in the East alongside its Fatherland.

After the war, however, Felix Steiner would come to know the nooses of National Socialist bureaucracy quickly, powerfully, and dangerously. Being assigned away from the volunteer Division he fathered, Steiner found himself administering over the active servicemen and the veterans of the Schutzstaffel, Waffen-SS, and even the Wehrmacht. During the era of crisis that would strangle the former prestige of the Reich, Steiner would come to know a closeness towards all servicemen of the Reich, believing their delve into the warrior spirit to earn anyone favor as an Aryan soldier, be they from the Schutzstaffel or the Wehrmacht. Some looked disfavorably upon this egalitarian notion; however, Steiner himself felt satisfied in cleaning up accusations of crimes during and after the war for many of the servicemen he served himself.

However, an era of crisis would breed an era of fire. Now, the Deutsche-SS and the forces of the Ordenstaat butcher each other in the streets, and Steiner only has so many pawns to use in this game. The members of the Schutzstaffel and Wehrmacht that he's untied in his state are at a constant pin drop away from opening fire upon one another. A cost he cannot afford when he's attempting to weather Heydrich's and Himmler's storms on both sides.

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• Blood Knight: Steiner praises the glory that comes from warfare and wants to reunify Germany through his unified army of Wehrmacht and SS forces.
• Corrupt Politician: In the chaos of the SS Civil War, Steiner used hostages, coercion, blackmail, kidnappings, and other dirty tactics to pacify his holdings and keep his army safe.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Steiner isn't very receptive to Himmler and his plans, which makes him more willing to negotiate with Heydrich.
• A Father to His Men: He cares about the soldiers under his command, even clearing any accusations of crimes they committed in previous wars.

SS-Arbeitslager Nürnberg

Official Name: SS-Arbeitslager Nürnberg^Tr.SS Labor Camp Nuremberg

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

The city of Nuremberg under the rule of high-ranking SS official Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who has turned the entire city into a massive Konzentrationslager in his efforts to survive the Reich's collapse.

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• Citadel City: Nuremberg, having been turned into a massive concentration camp, is heavily fortified and guarded on all fronts.
• Penal Colony: Kaltenbrunner has expanded the activities of KZ-Lager Flossenbürg right up to the borders of city, effectively turning the entirety of Nuremberg into a concentration camp and all of its inhabitants into prisoners.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}My duty grants me power. My power grants me strength. My strength reigns above all, and shall oppress all those who threaten me now.

The appeal to law and order drove many within Germany to support National Socialism in their nation, and now, the Reich has used its resources to ensure that the law, no matter how terrible it may be, will be upheld. Ernst Kaltenbrunner stands as such a figure, coming from a family of lawyers and carrying that position to its most dastardly ends in enforcing National Socialism within his home of Austria, as it became consumed by Adolf Hitler's Reich. Having been a dedicated friend of Adolf Eichmann since birth, he extensively collaborated with both Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich and the Schutzstaffel, his ascent within the organization began, as his architecture of the Final Solution began. Becoming an operating inspector of the KZ-Lagers of the German Reich, death flowed from the fingertips of the Austrian to all those deemed unworthy by the German Reich.

The victory of the German Reich may have granted it a freedom from the death of the Second World War, but it only allowed for the continuation of extermination and annihilation at the hands of Ernst Kaltenbrunner. The Reichsführer-SS deemed Kaltenbrunner's activities to be praiseworthy, despite the criticisms of the decadent liberals of Germany, and realized the usefulness of Kaltenbrunner as both a pawn and an ally. However, the Reichsführer-SS brought Kaltenbrunner closer and closer, even managing to use his power to divert potential enemies from rising within the Reich during the 50's coups, guaranteeing the inspector a spot in the command of the Ordenstaat...

However, as Germany shattered under the actions of the supposed traitor Reinhard Heydrich, Kaltenbrunner has found himself dedicated to a new mission for the Reichsführer-SS: survive. Nürnberg has become a city surrounded by enemies, and, realizing what he must do, Kaltenbrunner has extended the activities of KZ-Lager Flossenbürg right up to the borders of city. As he commands a population in chains, Kaltenbrunner has donned the mission of navigating a plan of how to survive, potentially through the degenerative use of slaves and prisoners in his forces...

Or through the death of a city...

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• And There Was Much Rejoicing: A great cheer rises up among the population of Nuremberg when Heydrich pronounces Kaltenbrunner's sentence: death, to be carried out immediately.
• Bad Boss: Kaltenbrunner has a vicious temperament that frightens many of his men, whom wouldn't dare to risk betraying their leader.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: As in real life, Kaltenbrunner's face is covered in nasty scars, which is an early sign for how violent and evil he is, even by SS standards.
• Karmic Death: When Heydrich liberates Nuremberg, Kaltenbrunner is hanged on his own gallows.
• Public Execution: Kaltenbrunner's execution is carried out in the central plaza of Nuremberg, where every soldier and civilian could watch.
• Undying Loyalty: As with Mohnke, Kaltenbrunner is also fully loyal to Himmler, and the only way Heydrich could deal with him is to either declare war on him or subvert his dominance over Nuremberg from within.

Oberkommando der Luftwaffe

Official Name: Oberkommando der Luftwaffe^Tr.Air Force High Command

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

The remnants of the Luftwaffe stranded around Regensburg.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe has a vast fleet of various aircraft that would make them a terrifying force, but these planes require fuel that they lack because the Messerschmitt Factory and Oil Refinery of Regensburg were destroyed during the first German Civil War. As a result, the Luftwaffe can't really take advantage of their aircraft and could leave them vulnerable to an invasion.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Should Heydrich cover the Luftwaffe's shortcomings, he can turn them into a formidable air force that would easily gain air supremacy over Burgundy and grant a significant advantage to Heydrich.
• Death from Above: Walter and Reimar Horten are two brothers and skilled ace pilots who have flown over Regensburg to help fight off any enemies to the Luftwaffe.
• The Remnant: The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe are a remnant of militarists who were originally aligned with Hermann Göring.

Johannes Steinhoff

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}One of the highest scoring Luftwaffe pilots of the Second World War, Johannes Steinhof served over Britain during Operation Sea Lion before being transferred to the Eastern Front until the end of the war. His decorated combat history led him to be picked as a test pilot for the newly developed Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter shortly after the end of the war. Despite his formidable skill in the air, an accident on the ground led to the fuel tanks of his Me 262 bursting into flames, the munitions on board detonating as well. Steinhof was barely able to drag himself out of the burning aircraft, clinging to life and severely disfigured. However, he managed to survive and, after spending several years in the hospital to undergo reconstructive surgery, rejoined the Luftwaffe as an officer and instructor in the late 40's.

By 1962, Steinhof had risen to the rank of Generalleutnant, becoming one of the most influential figures in the German Luftwaffe. During his tenure as an officer and instructor, he placed a strict focus on pilot training, which led to a notable decrease in the air force's accident rate. He aligned himself with Hermann Göring during the German Civil War, due to his longstanding position as Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe. Unfortunately for him, Göring's bid for the Führership failed, leaving Steinhof as one of the highest ranking Luftwaffe officers remaining at the war's end. As Germany's internal power struggle continues, he and his remaining consolidated Luftwaffe forces are stranded in and around Regensburg, surrounded by vicious and bloodthirsty SS warlords. With fuel and supplies limited, and the local air bases completely overfilled, air missions are only done out of necessity to protect the territory they have carved out for themselves. All they can hope for is survival.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: He is credited with a strict training regimen that greatly reduced the accident rate among pilots in the Luftwaffe. This exactly mirrors his efforts in real life to reduce the accident rate of pilots of the F-104G Starfighter, infamously known as the "Lawn Dart" in German service.
• Covered in Scars: Steinhoff still suffered his disfiguring flying accident as in real life, resulting in burn scars all over his face and body.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Like most members of the Wehrmacht, Steinhoff despises the SS, which makes him reluctant to side with Heydrich against Himmler.
• Logical Weakness: Despite his misgivings with the SS, Steinhoff's specialty in air warfare means that he's desperate for fuel, ammunition, spare parts, and manpower that is needed to maintain upkeep for the Luftwaffe, which Heydrich can exploit and send to Steinhoff, swaying him to his side.

Deutsches Reich

Official Name: Deutsches Reich^Tr.German Reich

Ideology: Reformed National Socialism^note National Socialism

The remnants of the conservative and reformist German forces, gathered in Southwestern Germany.

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• Defector from Decadence: Upon Heydrich's death, the Deutsches Reich drops all pretenses of loyalty and openly seek to reunite Germany under a reformed, if not democratic state.
• Doomed Moral Victor: The men of the Deutsches Reich are eager to defend their Fatherland from Burgundy and will become an early target for them, but since Burgundy's forces are far stronger, the Deutsches Reich won't stand a chance on their own and will really only succeed if they ally with Heydrich.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Is "merely" fascist instead of being an Ultranationalist, Nazi or Burgundian System adherent.
• The Remnant: As the SS civil war engulfs Germany, reformists and conservatives, who once supported Speer and Bormann during the first Civil War, flock to Ravensburg, finding common cause in defending the Fatherland from Himmler's bloody grasp.

Reinhard Gehlen

Role: Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Reformed National Socialism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Broken. Scorned. Abandoned. These people, these refugees, they've found their leader...but how far can they look into the light until they are blinded?

Reinhard Gehlen exists within service to many things, be they for the Reich, for the people of Germany, or even just for himself. Operating as an intelligence officer since the early days of the Weimar Republic, Gehlen is attributed in being the man who revolutionized the offices of Germany's intelligence agencies, many would argue that Reinhard Gehlen acted courageously for the sake of the dedicatedly conservative National Socialists of the Reich. However, those within the inside know that, even after the end of the Second World War, Gehlen continued to operate for the sake of himself, as he continued to coalesce the intelligence community under his control more and more, and attempting to rip it away from the claws of Heinrich Himmler.

Arbitrary rules, a slowing bureaucracy, and more only showcased Gehlen's continued rise within the Reich. As many as he has inspired within the community, many would harbor a feeling of exhaustion and frustration in regards to Gehlen's operations of the intelligence community. Nevertheless, his stand against Heinrich Himmler and the SS's grabs towards dominating the intelligence operations of the Reich has genesised a following for the Generalleutnant gave many Speerites and Bormannites a figure to stand behind, especially as the power of the Schutzstaffel within the Reich began to rise, and the shadow of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich began to overtake the shining light of the Reich for the people of Germany.

Now, Germany stands shattered, with two madmen attempting to claim themselves as the true leaders of National Socialism above Germany slaughtering all who stand in their path to get there. Many who supported Albert Speer and Martin Bormann have fled to the city of Ravensburg, under the banner of the Generalleutnant. However, Gehlen fears the very image he worked so hard to build up, as the flames fervor and radicalism of the conservatives in the area continues to grow. Gehlen may stand fervently against either leader, but he knows that enemies stand at all sides, and his image alone will not save his people...

See his entry in the Germany subpage.

Hans Speidel

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

See his entry in the Germany subpage.

Die Schwarze Bande

Official Name: Die Schwarze Bande^Tr.The Black Gang

Ideology: Warlordism^note Despotism

A fiefdom carved out in Bavaria by former Burgundian-SS commander Sepp Dietrich, who has lost hope in the Reich and abandoned all of his duties. He has now declared himself the "Duke of Bavaria" and retires to the Neuschwanstein Castle, while his troops and his newly-formed "Volkswache" are allowed to freely plunder Bavaria.

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• Army of Thieves and Whores: Dietrich's subordinates and his "Volkswache" (prisoners who have declared their loyalty to Dietrich in exchange for a pardon) run wild in Bavaria, and are allowed to do anything they wish on the populace.
• Expy Coexistence: The Die Schwarze Bande is a fiefdom led by a mad Nazi who considers himself royalty and implements insane policies to maintain his rule, just like Josias in Kaukasia.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dietrich's "directed anarchy" is a disastrous approach that makes his rule incredibly unstable and squanders his territory's rich agricultural land.

Sepp Dietrich

Role: Military Commander, Security Minister (Himmler cabinet), Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Burgundian System^note National Socialism, Warlordism^note Despotism (SS Civil War)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}This wasn't right. None of this was just, none of it. Serving a titan, serving the Master of Europe, and now all that had been forged was left in tatters. This wasn't right!

Josef "Sepp" Dietrich was born within Bavaria, due west from the grand birthplace of the Victor of the Second World War himself, right on time to serve the German people in the Great War. Yet, the embers of a fire once-scorching hadn't burnt out yet, and through the blood of the traitors in the Night of the Long Knives spilt by Dietrich's hands themselves, Germany found itself rising, with Adolf Hitler as its crowning star. Yet, by that star's shine was none other than the SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Dietrich himself, having found himself clawed and torn his way through the Nazi Party and the Schutzstaffel to serving as the commander of Führer's personal bodyguard.

Massacre after massacre, bloodbath after bloodbath, all had been done in the name of the Führer, and as the war came to the light of victory, Dietrich found himself donning a fire in his eye, ready to watch as the world knelt to the Thousand Year Reich. However, when things began to fall, so greatly did they plunder the heart of the mighty Praetorian, as he witnessed his beloved Reich collapse. Now, so truly has the folly of man's pride divided the Aryan people, as Germany continues to bleed.

But Dietrich doesn't believe he deserves this. No. He knows he doesn't deserve this. He guarded Hitler himself, and now Heydrich and Himmler will have to bend to his clique to ensure his loyalty.

See his entry in the Burgundy subpage.

Österreich

Official Name: SS-Generalkommission Österreich^Tr.SS General Commission Austria

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

The northeastern portion of Austria under the rule of SS commander Otto Skorzeny, who has decided to stay neutral in the SS Civil War.

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• Elite Army: Skorzeny has brought his elite Commandos, who have served him for more than twenty years, from Burgundy to Vienna, and has no interest in raising more. This is reflected in one of their national spirits, in which they have a training time of +100000.00%.
• The Purge: Subverted. For unknown reasons, Skorzeny has refused to purge the Heer units in his territory and instead recruit them, but this also comes with the adverse side effect of relying on troops may not be loyal to Skorzeny.
• Team Switzerland: Skorzeny has decided to stay neutral in the Himmler-Heydrich rivalry, and wait out the conflict to see who comes out on top, at least until Heydrich convinces Skorzeny to join forces with him.

Otto Skorzeny

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (SS Civil War)

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}Our Victory never came from honor, did it? It wasn't the courage in our hearts, nor the fire in our eyes. It was our willingness to do what no one else would do, and the boldness to go where no one else would.

The name of Otto Skorzeny burns a certain feeling of admiration and praise on one side of the world, and deep-seeded hatred and rage upon the other. Born within the Austrian capital of Vienna, Skorzeny bore a fiery heart and a cunning mind, earning his characteristic scar in one of many fencing duels he would endure. His fight did not end there, however, as the Schutzstaffel came to mold the man for prime leadership within the special forces of the Reich's units, where Skorzeny became famous for organizing operations ranging from assassinations to regime changes, striking fear and terror as the Reich's victory dawned.

However, as the power of the Reich within the world waned, Skorzeny found himself blessed with the favor of the Reichsführer-SS, and becoming recruited to aid in the creation, management, and execution of his notorious "Globalplans." As time went on, things seemed as favorably as they could be, as Skorzeny found himself utilized for the ultimate use of his unorthodox combat capabilities, and allowing for the betterment of the Reich's influence around the world. However, brought high above the clouds of pride and preoccupation, he failed to feel the power of the dark, brewing storms beneath him, as the great thunders of war came booming closer and closer...

Now, the Reich is divided, lost by all measures, and the Obersturmbannführer finds himself back home, in charge of organizing a new SS-based government whilst forced to bear witness to the fighting of two ungodly Butchers to the North, and a Madman to the South. Only a single question remains within the new leader of the SS-Generalkomission Österreich...

How does one choose a side when every side is an abomination, festering with monsters?

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• Boring, but Practical: Skorzeny's knowledge of the Burgundian terrain is actually a crucial piece of information for Heydrich, as it may subvert Himmler's advantage in information warfare and determine strategies that could defeat Burgundy in the coming war.
• Contempt Crossfire: Skorzeny has always had an icy relationship with both Heydrich and Himmler, resulting in him declaring neutrality during the SS Civil War.
• Even Evil Has Standards: His biography implies that he doesn't like the brutality of the other members in the SS and believes everyone in the SS Civil War is a monster, which is largely true.
• Historical In-Joke: When reviewing the loyalty of various SS commanders, Heydrich remarks that Skorzeny would probably even work for the damned Jews if their terms were good enough, alluding to how the real Skorzeny ended up working for Israel after World War II.

Kampfgruppe Heilige Pflicht

Official Name: Kampfgruppe Heilige Pflicht

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

A warlord state consisting of the German states of Tyrol and Slovenia, led by the ruthless SS-Brigadeführer Joachim Peiper.

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• Boring, but Practical: The Kampfgruppe Heilige Pflicht is situated in the Austrian Alps and lacks the more ambitious projects that the other SS Idealist states pursue, but their mountainous position grants them a favorable defensive position that makes any offensive against them ill-advised.

Joachim Peiper

Role: Head of State

Ideology: Spartanism^note National Socialism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}My honour is called loyalty. My duty is called loyalty. My duty calls to my blood. My blood calls to the Reichsführer-SS.

Himmler's Inner Circle is not an easy order to find oneself in. However, SS-Brigadeführer Joachim Peiper managed to achieve just that, through scrutiny by some and praise by others. Born right into the heart of the middle of the First World War within the burning heart of the German Empire itself, Berlin. Peiper quickly attracted the likeness of the soon-to-be Reichsführer-SS, who admired the young recruit's Aryan features so much that he was forwarded to SS Leadership training. From those halls would birth the Ravager of the East, the monster who would lead the "Blowtorch Battalion" through Kharkov and into atrocity after atrocity. And with the Reich's victory would come more massacres for the Beast of Berlin.

As the Reich brought upon a new era of dominance and success, Peiper found himself becoming further engrossed with the esoteric propagandas of the Schutzstaffel, as the dedicated National Socialist came to praise Peiper as a goal, some ideal to achieve. Nevertheless, the Reichsführer-SS held his prized possession close, allowing for Peiper to receive a massive promotion for all of his "duties in the field of combat and leadership, in the recognition to dedication towards the annihilation of degeneracy, and the establishment of a new National Socialist era." Thus, as the celebrity combatant kicked back with a seemingly secure position in the SS-Ordenstaat Burgund, Peiper believed that all had turned out well.

And, yet, the horrors facing the Reich could never be more dire. With Peiper's former ally, Reinhard Heydrich, now denouncing and rebelling against the Reichsführer-SS, the Butcher of Berlin stands as a meat grinder against all those traitorous cowards refusing the Reichsführer-SS in their attempts to flee to the South, as the bitter, frozen Austrian winter grows colder by the day...

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• 0% Approval Rating: Given his brutality and refusal to show quarter, Peiper is feared and hated by the Wehrmachy remnants and civilians he lords over.
• Broken Pedestal: Heydrich actually had some admiration for Peiper as a model Nazi, in which he's disgusted to learn that he always knew about Himmler's nuclear plot and remaind silent out of cowardice. He even considers having him shot, but he sets that thought aside because he needs as much help as possible.
• Dark Is Evil: He wears an all-black uniform, and certainly is an evil person.
• Dirty Coward: During a meeting with Heydrich, Peiper reveals that he had always known about Heydrich's nuclear plot from its inception, but didn't openly protest against it. Peiper defends his silence by pointing out that he lacked the necessary influence in the SS to topple Himmler and stop his plot, but this does nothing to calm down Heydrich, who considers executing him for his cowardice. However, Heydrich ultimately backs down, recognizing that times were desperate and he needed Peiper alive to stop Himmler.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Peiper is a ruthless SS commander whose unit was infamous for its long history of massacres. However, he too finds Himmler's nuclear plot difficult to swallow, and his support to Heydrich will max out if Heydrich reveals Himmler's nuclear plot to him.
• Old Friend: A villainous example, and his friendship with Heydrich will make their negotiations easier.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Peiper committed many war crimes during World War II, and currently in Southern Germany he is guarding the German-Italian border and killing traitors trying to flee south.
• Villainous Friendship: Heydrich can leverage his personal friendship with Peiper and arrange a meeting, during which Heydrich will show Peiper Himmler's nuclear plot and try to use that to bring him over to his side.

The End of Germany

The German Anarchy

In-Game Description ^{Click to Show}The world is just a barrel-organ which the Lord God turns Himself. We all have to dance to the tune which is already on the drum.

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• Anarchy Is Chaos: In the third German Civil War, more sides begin to pile on and fight each other, destroying any semblance of authority left in Germany and the surrounding countries.
• Downer Ending: Probably the straightest example of this trope out of all the anarchies. Following Heydrich's success in the SS-Civil War, he commits suicide, and the Germanic Reich once again explodes into civil conflict. After some time, it will collapse into a state of radio silence and endless conflict. Worse still, the chaotic civil war starts a massive humanitarian crisis as millions of refugees attempt to flee Europe, while nuclear warheads from Germany and Burgundy leak into the arms market and increase the threat of nuclear terrorism.
• Enemy Civil War: After killing Himmler and stopping his nuclear plot, Heydrich will commit suicide out of a loss of faith in Nazism, initially starting a civil war between Herbert Otto Gille and Hans Speidel, but eventually devolving further as more sides pop out of the civil war and begin fighting each other. Soon, the situation grows too violent and Central Europe begins to fall into anarchy, with the civil war implied to be ongoing and too chaotic to keep track of on the in-game map.
• Uncertain Doom: Disturbingly, there isn't an in-game description to confirm what happens after the German anarchy occurs. It's instead replaced by an ominous quote from the posthumous Heydrich.
  Heydrich: The world is just a barrel-organ which the Lord God turns Himself. We all have to dance to the tune which is already on the drum.
• Urban Ruins: The banner for the German Anarchy features a destroyed city, giving a glimpse into how destructive the third German Civil War is. Even more unnerving if you recognize it as a shot of OTL post-war Dresden, and are aware of just how utterly devastated the city was when the shot was taken.

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