Third World War

The Third World War, also labelled World War III, abbreviated WW3 or WWIII, was a that took place from 1954 to 1958. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations, including all the great and most of the secondary powers of the era. It was composed of two military alliances which were established in the leadup to the Second World War, generally referred to as the Concert and the Alliance nations, the former of which was composed primarily of the remaining members of the Concert of Nations established with the First Grana Accords, and the latter of which arose in defiance of the international order and defeated the Concert nations in the Second World War. It was a that was comprised of [NUMBER] national militaries with a combined manpower of well over [VERY HIGH NUMBER], the major participants, even moreso than in the prior global conflicts, threw the entire industrial, economic, and scientific resources and capacities into the, blurring the lines between what constituted military and civilian activity to near irrelevance. It was a watershed moment in the evolution of warfare, seeing aerial combat between jet aircraft on a massive scale, the first uses of computing networks in military activity through the Teleri Project, and, alongside the last major cavalry engagements and final generation of post-dreadnaught battleships, which had generally been overshadowed by aircraft carriers and smaller, more mobile navies by the end of the war. While interwar advances in medicine and agricultural technology had reduced the number of deaths caused by disease and starvation, and even losses from, the prevalence of and  combat during and peripheral to the main theaters of the war resulted in several thousand more casualties, some of which are not fully recognized as being losses as a result of the Third World War, and remains a controversial topic to this day.

Start and end dates
Historians dispute the actual start date of the conflict, but the main two generally accepted dates revolve around the Tretland Nuclear Crisis beginning on 19 June 1954 and its aftermath, leading to the launch of Operation Maeve on 3 July by Ordrey and the activation of the Teleri Network among the Concert nations in the fastest mass-mobilization of military resources in history. Ordrish President Tecla d'Caddour's address to Alutra via an elaborate broadcast hijacking displayed the blur between military and civilian lines at the outset of Operation Maeve, announcing the deployment of Ordrish bombers and artillery to directly attack Salia and Tretland only minutes in advance of their arrival across the continent. This initial offensive concluded with the retaking and occupation of Akerland by Gladomyr and the dismantling of the Tretuish State by Ordrey and Ecoraland. In addition, it saw considerable devastation of Salian coastal infrastructure and a substantial weakening of the WW2-era Continental Wall alike. Like the Second World War, the East Alutran Theater was primarily engaged through aerial combat and espionage, with a handful of naval engagements, notably including the [BATTLE NAME] which saw a contingent of the [NATION] Fleet be decimated by the use of nuclear weapons.

East Alutra
Operation Maeve involved the strategic bombing of three major airstrips in Salia which effectively crippled Salia's military by decreasing their air force by 70% of its pre-attack strength. Salia retaliated by attacking the Ordrish fleet which had mobilized in the Salian Sea. Salia and the Concert powers formed an agreement early on not to use nuclear weaponry in the conflict in order to avoid large-scale civilian casualties and lasting radiation, considering the fact that the war was bound to end at some point.

- Salia retreats from South Gladomyr

- Ordrey firebombs Scrá

- Riyata enters the war and nukes Dirái in Salia

- Salia plans 5 nuclear bombings, of which only two were successful:

1. Calleebane (machine failure causes plane to fail)

2. Riyata’s fleet on the east coast of Salia (succeed)

3. Missile shipped through the Straights of Kidal with the intention to bomb Vatupaya (caught by Riyata)

4. Aquizireiki, by way of Izlegal.

5. Merser (plan leaked to Myrish intelligence, weapon sabotaged)

The Salian regime sent nuclear missile parts and plans to Izlegal in order to start a war in the Serpentines, which was a failure as the bomb detonated before launch. After Salia is caught and ultimately failed its planned nuclear attacks, Riyata conducted a nuclear attack on Porth Grai, Salia’s second largest city.

- Gillean mac Sá is assassinated

- Salia surrenders

Osamia
Shortly after the beginning of WWIII in Alutra, a civil war began in Osamia as the military opposed the Osamian Federation and it began destroying itself. The military regime sided with Riyata and other Concert powers while the Federation pleaded with Salia to give support. The civil war became a proxy conflict for the Alutran war, with the Federation being supported by the Salian alliance and the military regime (later royalists) being supported by the Concert powers.

Kidal region
After Operation Maeve began WWIII in Alutra, Lakau answered Salia's call for help and Lakau's military shifted resources from the [!south sea] to defending Salia. This resulted in direct conflict between the Lakau military and Concert forces - war was declared by the Concert powers on Lakau. Lakau’s navy was unable to maintain support in Alutra, and ultimately shrunk back to defense of the homeland, where it provided a brief bulwark against Concert powers in the region, and Salian units retreated to ‘Āina Lā after their retreat from Lower Tar-dinuu.

In 1956, the Riyata-supported Higher Tar-dinuuen Democratic Coalition overthrew the Salian-aligned Tar-dinuuen Heritage Party and joined the Concert powers. After the revolution, Higher Tar-dinuu and Riyata collaborated to expel Salia from the region. This effort eventually forced the Salian military into the region that would become Lower Tar-dinuu, leading to Salia working with the preexisting separatist forces in the area to better defend against the Concert powers. This would extend into a civil war that would continue even after Salia's official withdrawal to Lakau.

Aftermath and impact
World War III utterly upended the nature of international politics, ending not just the post-WW2 order but the final vestiges of the conflicts that arose out of the New Peace of 1929. The Concert of Nations was completely disbanded, accompanied by the chartering of the much less interventionist World Forum and the drafting or revision of much more comprehensive, but limited in the name of preventing future military conflicts and fostering greater international cooperation, most importantly by the enactment of the first  treaties and the development of international mutual aid programs to convert wartime military industry and technology to civilian uses. In a historically unprecedented move, the successor-governments of the postwar [MAJOR ALLIANCE POWERS] were given permanent seats on the Executive Committee of the World Forum alongside their former belligerents. The widespread devastation caused by the war additionally resulted in the last major wave of, beginning a period of history known as the Springtime of Nations. As national economies recovered and expanded, it also led to a phase of heightened political activism and radicalization throughout many nations, laying the groundwork for future upheavals in the world order later in the 20th century.