An unbreakable alliance. Yep, unbreakable.
For some reason, Rorschach wasn't surprised at all when he heard this news. In fact, he even found it rather funny.
At this moment, he indeed recalled the unbreakable alliance back on Earth, as well as the classic song praising the alliance for never being broken.
Following that, there were all sorts of alliances that would sometimes form and sometimes break apart, such as an alliance that would cause trouble and split up.
Did he care? Of course he cared.
Was he surprised? But he really wasn't surprised at all.
Was he worried? That might not be the case.
Although the Mist Alliance had "Lan" in its name, Rorschach knew that the L in his name was completely different from the L in his name.
Sean wasn't the type to hide things, so he directly told Rorschach everything he knew and wanted. Sean's subordinates couldn't help but shake their heads. Their master really wasn't suited for political negotiations. How could he be so direct?
Rorschach didn't even try to hide anything and directly asked Listen about all sorts of sensitive topics. Sean didn't know how to respond.
The more Rorschach listened, the calmer he became. This sounded like a major event, but it couldn't compare at all to the effects of the Holy Alliance's collapse in his hometown. It was more like a natural evolution of time.
The Mist Alliance was a mega country, but it was also an alliance made up of several dozen countries. It had been formed during the War of Dawn, and had more than six hundred years of history.
As for why it had a "Lan" in it, that was because it had to be traced back to even more distant history.
There had once been an ancient Mist Kingdom there. Although the Mist Kingdom was called ancient, it was actually only slightly more than three hundred years ago (when the Mist Kingdom was destroyed). The current Mist Alliance had several countries. From a certain standpoint, they were all descendants of the Mist Kingdom from the Northlands who lived together.
Rorschach knew that his "L" was actually the "L" of the People of the Mist. In fact, it might even be the "L" of the ancient Mist Kingdom, not the "L" of the Mist Alliance.
The reason why Rorschach was added to the Mist Alliance's name was because the Mist Alliance's two core countries were the true descendants and royalty of the Mist. However, not long after Rorschach arrived in the Mist Alliance, he had heard that the Mist Alliance's royalty seemed to have been cut off. Rorschach didn't know the specifics. He had only heard that the Mist Alliance's royalty was low in population, and there were even hereditary diseases. It was already incredibly fortunate that the Mist Alliance had managed to survive until now.
In the past, the Mist Alliance's leader country had alternated between these two countries. But now, in the recent alliance elections, an unprecedented third country had been elected leader. Everyone could only sigh at how times had changed.
Originally, Rorschach was a little interested. After all, there were distant relatives there. But later, he heard that not only did the "relatives" not have blood ties, but they had also died many years ago. So, he lost interest.
The failure of two of the Mist Alliance's core countries would naturally cause a huge commotion in the Northlands. It was even possible that the Mist Alliance would disintegrate.
Sean's description wasn't nearly as calm as Rorschach's. He described it as a calamity, a calamity.
However, Rorschach himself still felt that this was just a normal change in time. That was because the foundation of the Mist Alliance's existence was no longer here.
There were two prerequisites for any solid alliance.
The first was that all the alliance members had a common goal and shared interests. Establishing an alliance was for everyone's better development and to reduce competition, so that everyone could work together to deal with the complex external environment.
The second was that in order for an alliance to become solid, everyone needed a common enemy … Even if that enemy only existed in their imagination, even if that "enemy" didn't actually exist, in order for everyone to work together, everyone needed to have a common enemy.
The Mist Alliance had been established during the War of Dawn. It was a gathering of Northlanders in order to deal with war and external threats. It was an ark that would help everyone overcome their difficulties.
At first, the Mist Alliance was an alliance of several small and medium-sized human countries. Later on, the Underground Beastmen, undead, Dragons, elves, ice elemental creatures, and other species all joined the Mist Alliance for various reasons.
They worked together to deal with the various threats and external threats of the War of Dawn, as well as the complex international politics. But after the War of Dawn ended (the Mist Alliance still denied that the dimensional war had ended), the Mist Alliance lost the external factor that made it "solid."
When the world returned to peace, it would naturally return to the topic of "development."
As for development, the economy, industry, commerce, and technology all required competition. Local competition, foreign competition, internal competition, foreign competition, and foreign competition, to become a whole and enter a peaceful era of development competition, was there really an advantage … No one could give an answer.
That's right. Countless experts said that if the Mist Alliance disappeared, the various species and countries' economies would develop greatly, and society would improve greatly. But at the same time, countless experts also said that if the Mist Alliance truly disappeared, then internal competition would cause all sorts of costs to skyrocket, and all business and political negotiations with other countries would be suspended.
To be honest, the Mist Alliance was completely different from the unbreakable Mist Alliance back on Earth. Perhaps everyone would really be able to live better lives if the Mist Alliance was truly disbanded. But that hadn't happened yet, so who could say for sure?
What was even more different from Earth was that the Mist Alliance's racial composition was far too complex. Every species and country had their own way of thinking.
When there was a snowstorm or the outside environment was terrible, everyone would huddle together for warmth. In order to survive, everyone would do everything together.
When the entire Mist Alliance was in a period of rapid development, when the political system was clear and everyone was rich, and everyone was able to live a good life, although there was still some noise, the habit of huddling together wouldn't change.
"I'm already living a good life. Why should I change?"
If you were in between, when things weren't so bad or so good, you would change your mind, and the situation would change.
"I keep feeling like something's wrong. Our lives are getting worse and worse. Although I can't explain it clearly, we definitely need to change something."
And now was probably the time.
People wanted to live a better life, but didn't know how to improve. They wanted to find someone to take the blame, but didn't know who to look for. In the end, they would only blame the current system … Even if the system itself was fine, most people wouldn't rationally analyze the pros and cons. They only needed a chance to change, a chance to vent their frustrations.
"Things will become worse after I change? What does that have to do with me? At the very least, it's better than how things are now. "
Without external enemies, people would change their minds. This was the main reason, as well as the source.
As for the two Mist Kingdoms, they were the leaders of the Mist Alliance. This was the reason why everything was gradually spiraling out of control. There was nobody to guide them, nobody to guide them, and nobody to even tell them what to do in the future. This naturally caused the originally stable Mist Alliance to become unstable.
When the entire Northlands' political situation became unstable, ambitious individuals and species all started having their own ideas.
There was no need to even mention the elves. It was likely that many of the Superior Elves had longed for independence ever since they joined the Mist Alliance.
As for the undead … they had already surpassed the Mist Alliance from the very start.
Just the undead alone, due to the return of the Undead Emperors and the alliance of the Undead Planes, no matter if it was in terms of actual territory or actual "population," they probably surpassed the limits of any mega country. All the Undead Planes and other dimensions that the Undead Emperors ruled over added together were probably even larger than the entire Aishi Empire.
The living and the undead would always be estranged. The undead were probably the species that didn't care about the Mist Alliance's existence the least, because they weren't under the Mist Alliance's jurisdiction to begin with. The only reason they existed in the Mist Alliance was because of a historical promise and some form of inertia.
No matter if they admitted it or not, the undead themselves were a mega faction, a top-level faction whose absolute power far surpassed that of any country in the world.
In fact, as the core human species in the Northlands, many of their factions and individuals also had their own ideas. They hoped to become friends with the richer human mega countries in the Central Plains, rather than interact with those strange foreign species that had nothing to offer.
"It sounds like there's no saving the Mist Alliance."
Rorschach's casual comment caused the undead's expression to distort.
"No, no, not everyone wants the Mist Alliance to disintegrate."
Did everyone and species want the Mist Alliance to disappear? The answer was obviously no.
What outsiders couldn't understand was that the species that didn't want the Mist Alliance to disappear the least weren't the core Northlands humans. Instead, it was the foreign species that extended out from the Mist Alliance. This was especially true for the undead youth sitting in front of Rorschach.
The Northlands beastmen and barbarians were the most economically and technologically backward species in the Northlands, with the most barren lands. Yet, they were actually the core species that didn't want the Mist Alliance to disintegrate? This was like a joke that no one could laugh at.
The reason? Rorschach didn't know. The undead youth stuttered and couldn't explain it clearly.
He was always so talkative when talking about other species and species, but he shut up when talking about his own species? However, Rorschach knew that the undead youth truly wanted the Mist Alliance to remain stable.
Seiji could faintly guess the reason. It was probably because the undead and barbarians were always receiving help from other countries, constantly receiving "blood transfusions". They were worried that their species would fall behind if they lost the Mist Alliance.
Rorschach was rather astonished to hear that the other species was the core of the Mist Alliance.
"You said that the elves don't want the Mist Alliance to disintegrate? Even the elves I know aren't like this! "
But even without the undead youth's explanation, Rorschach had already figured it out. He lightly patted his head as he realized that he had been too short-sighted. He had allowed a few elves to represent all elves.
"Seriously, Superior Elves are Superior Elves, while ordinary elves are ordinary elves. Their lifestyles are completely different. Some people miss the glory days of the past, while others naturally feel that their new lives are quite nice. At the very least, their bosses can't do whatever they want."
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