Xylvania

Xylvania is a nation-state in the Battalion Wars series, roughly based on the World War I era German Empire and the modern day Romania, which was once believed to be the home of Vampires, explaining why the Iron Legion and some Xylvanians resemble vampires and demons. It lies in the north east of the second continent (which also includes the Dune Sea).

History

Pre-Battalion Wars

Long ago, the Iron Legion of Old Xylvania, led by Lord Ferrok, attempted to conquer the world. Despite doing well initially, Lord Ferrok became overconfident, and gathered what remained of the legion at the Iron Tower to prepare for the destruction of their enemies, but instead this caused the entire Legion to be trapped in the explosion of the Iron Tower along with Lord Ferrok when it was destroyed by the Solar Empire Satellite Weapon, finishing the Iron Legion for good and ending the Lightning Wars. This ensured the rise of the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories as the two modern super powers because they were the only two powers without a heavily damaged military.

During the following centuries, Xylvania became rather unimportant on the global level. It appeared that it had been partly controlled by the two new superpowers, the Tundran Territories and the Western Frontier, but mainly by the Western Frontier. Kaiser Vlad wanted Xylvania to burst back into global politics. For this he made the Xylvanians build a powerful military. In doing this, he also boosted Xylvania's economy by offering jobs in weapons factories.

The necessary industrialization for putting Xylvania back on the map transformed some of Xylvania into a toxic wasteland. Vlad later spread the rumor that the Western Frontier was making a super weapon, thus starting the First Frontier War.

Battalion Wars

During the Second Frontier War, Tsar Gorgi traveled to Xylvania to ask Kaiser Vlad for an alliance to fight a losing war against the Western Frontier, Vlad agreed to help the Tundrans but in reality he fooled the Tsar so his Bombers could enter the Tundran Territories. During the battle of the Radar Arrays, Xylvanian Bombers attacked both the Tundrans and the Westerns and started a global campaign to takeover the world, their first step was to protect the newly acquired nerocite supplies in the Dune Sea that he bargained off Gorgi. however, they were defeated by the Alliance formed by the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories.

Later, the Xylvanians attempted to defeat their ancient enemies: The Solar Empire. Their campaign went smoothly until the Solar Empire joined the Alliance of Nations. After several defeats, Xylvania withdrew it's troops from the Solar Empire's isles.

After several defeats, the war was taken into the Xylvanian Motherland where Countess Ingrid revived the long-fallen Iron Legion to defeat the Alliance of Nations after their first defense was decimated. however, she was killed by the Empress Lei-Qo. Eventually, the Alliance of Nations took the war to the Xylvanian Headquarters were Kaiser Vlad escaped shortly after their defeat but the Kommandant Ubel was taken POW by the Tundrans.

Battalion Wars 2

Two years after Xylvania fell and was annexed by the Alliance of Nations, Kaiser Vlad with his remnant army planned to recover the lost staff of Qa-Len on Tundra to defeat his enemies. To cause a distraction, he fooled the Anglo Isles into invading the Solar Empire by leaking the supposed existence of a secret weapon of Mass Destruction in the isles. Their war eventually ended in the Solar Empire (Admiral A-Qira) requesting the help of the Tundran Territories to defeat the Anglo Isles. As the Tundran Army was busy in the Anglo Isles, Vlad invaded the Tundran Territories and conquered half of the country and eventually found the Staff, but his plans were thwarted by the Alliance of Nations, this time led by Marshall Nova.

Country Representation

Their Emblem

"Kaiser" was the WWI German Emperor's title, "Kaiser" Literally "Emperor". In Battalion Wars, Kaiser Vlad is the leader of Xylvania. Ubel had referred to Vlad as "Herr Kaiser" ("Herr" being german for "Mr" or "Sir", and also being the proper way to address a superior in Germany). Countess Ingrid was often referred to as "Fräulein" (or "Young Woman", "Misses") Ingrid.

As well, military "habitudes" of Xylvania are a satirical interpretation of imperial and nazi Germany warfare. Very often Xylvanian leaders use the tactics of unexpected invasions and preemptive strikes and break treaties and alliances at will.

Before the events of Battalion Wars 2, the Xylvanian military was one of the major powers of the Battalions Wars's world, having all the units of the roster at their disposal.

The Xylvanian war machinery as well as the uniforms are more or less styled after Imperial and Nazi-Germany. For instance, the Rifle Grunts carry stylized MP40s and wear gas masks. Other infantry units, such as the Minigun or Acid gas Veterans, wear pickelhauben, and the Rocket veteran wears a Stahlhelm, and carry a Panzerfaust.

Their vehicles are inspired by cars and aircraft developed on Nazi Germany during the World War II.

The nation has a grim and dark atmosphere mostly because of effects left by the use of the Staff of Qa-Len. Most of Xylvania's population resembles vampires with their bleached-skin, pointy ears and fangs also including the fact that they are capable to last more time than a normal human being.

Trivia

In the Western Frontier Xylvanian citizens are referred to as "X-ers", this re-enforced the Frontier's American-stereotype as in World War 2 Americans called Japanese citizens "Japs".
Unlike the Western Frontier, The Anglo Isles and the Tundran Territories, there are no known cities or towns on Xylvania.

The "Sword of Honor", symbol of the Xylvanian forces, is an obvious imitation of the German Iron Cross.

In the original project, Combat Zeppelines were supposed to be an integral part of the Xylvanian Air forces, since it is another rather comical stereotype to associate these vulnerable and ineffective yet impressive airships with the German Empire. However, before incendiary weapons were developed, zeppelins were all-but invulnerable to air-craft and the anti-aircraft artillery of the day was incredibly inaccurate.
It's clear that Kommandant Ubel was originally supposed to be called "Kommandant Übel" ('übel' being german for 'filthy'), but for simplification the Umlaut was removed.
They were originally intended to have a unit called the APC. This was dropped from the final game.
Xylvania haves some references to the World War 2 Nazi Germany, such as the Assault Rifles of the Rifle Grunts,that resembles the MP-40 sub-machine gun, the artillery piece that resembles the mighty Flak 88 and the assault regiments with bazooka veterans "ZZ", a clear reference to the nazi elite brigade "SS". The Minigun is also nicknamed "Vlad's Buzz Saw", which is like the MG-42 that was nicknamed "Hitler's Buzz Saw".
Just as Xylvania is an obvious reference to Nazi Germany, it also shares strong similarities to the Death Korps of Krieg from Gamework's Warhammer 40,000. Both are modeled after Nazi Germany and other European countries and both need breathing equipment to live in their own homeland. The strong resemblance maybe intentional, as Kuju also developed Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. Their light and heavy tanks also resemble the Leman Russ and Baneblade tanks respectively from the same universe.
The Xylvanian infantry have unique names in Battalion Wars such as: Ack-Ack (Anti-Air Veteran), Rocket Trooper (Bazooka Veteran), Minigun Trooper (Assault Veteran), Grenade Trooper (Mortar Veteran) and Acid Gas Trooper (Flame Veteran). In the sequel, all are changed to the normal names except for Acid Gas, which stays the same. Incidentally, Xylvania is the only nation that has a unit that is different from the main unit type, but does the same damage, as the Acid Gas is meant to replace the Flame Vet in the Battalion Wars roster.
Xylvania's objectives and goals strongly resemble that of Nazi Germany; to conquer the world and establish supremacy through aggressive methods.
The Xylvanians also seem to have a thing for industrial espionage, as most of their units, including the Frigate, Artillery, Dreadnought and Mining Spider, all incorporate technology stolen from other nations.