“Peace through Power”.
For centuries this had been the guiding mantra of the Brotherhood of Nod - a global organization
that possessed the characteristics of a secret society, religious cult, terrorist organization,
and quasi-nation state.
Immensely complex in its operation and equally cryptic in its goals, the only two facets
of the Brotherhood that had remained relatively consistent over time was its reverence towards
the elusive and charismatic figure of “Kane” and its obsession with the extra-terrestrial
substance known as Tiberium.
The Brotherhood of Nod outwardly professed a philosophy of peace, unity and eternal brotherhood
yet its own internal workings were marked by a series of power struggles and rivalries.
While Kane served as Nod’s highest authority, an Inner Circle of his most trusted commanders
was often relied upon to conduct specific operations.
These commanders were given extensive freedom of execution, which in turn allowed for a
high degree of flexibility.
This decentralized nature allowed for the formation of smaller elite units within Nod,
such as the Black Hand and the Marked of Kane each, specializing in various forms of war
fare or covert operations.
These groups were often at odds with one another and Nod was occasionally splintered as competing
commanders fought for control of the Brotherhood, or simply the favor of Kane.
Compared to their main rival; the UN backed Global Defense Initiative, the Brotherhood
of Nod was in many ways technologically superior.
How Nod achieved such breakthroughs in fields such as directed energy, artificial intelligence,
cybernetics, and advanced stealth mechanisms has never been fully explained but is believed
to have been a result of their access to and study of allegedly alien technology and their
near monopoly on Tiberium.
Nod’s advanced research institutes were also not bound to the traditional limits of
morality, and Nod scientists routinely engaged in dangerous acts of human experimentation.
Despite Nod’s technological edge, the Brotherhood’s military doctrine favored the use of fast,
lightly armoured vehicles better suited to guerrilla tactics than a prolonged war of
attrition.
There was also a large degree of disparity in the training and equipment given to Nod
soldiers, with Brotherhood militias little more than armed thugs spurred into action
by fanatically devout “Confessors”.
When forced into direct conflict however, Nod was more than capable of deploying its
more advanced elements, including stealth tanks, mechanized walkers and aircraft.
Brotherhood propaganda was just as effective as their military, often engineering scandals
and controversies as a means of countering GDI influence through information warfare.
By appealing to the millions of people living in areas contaminated by Tiberium and providing
relief supplies and other forms of support, Nod was able to rally millions of people to
their cause.
Combined with an extensive misinformation campaign, the true nature of Nod was carefully
managed and hidden.
Sources within Nod claim the organization had existed since antiquity, while this is
almost certainly exaggerated, ancient burial sites with Nod symbolism had been uncovered,
leading some credence to these claims.
However old the organization is, some of its first suspected activities date back to the
Second World War, although it would not be until the arrival of Tiberium that Nod began
acting on a global scale.
An extra-terrestrial crystalline substance, Tiberium first arrived on Earth during a meteor
impact near the Tiber river in Italy.
Tiberium quickly spread across the Earth, especially in the warmer climates of the world,
leeching metals and other minerals from the native soil and concentrating them into exceptionally
valuable Tiberium crystals.
With many of the poorer, third world nations of the equatorial region suddenly abundant
with Tiberium, the Brotherhood of Nod began working to control these markets by appealing
to and manipulating local unrest, anti-western sentiments and various religious philosophies.
During this initial expansion, Nod simultaneously exploited all three of the major Abrahamic
faiths, gaining millions of followers across the world.
By 1995, the Brotherhood controlled nearly half of the world’s Tiberium supply either
directly or through numerous shadow corporations.
Whereas many of the world’s governments considered Tiberium to be valuable, yet potentially
dangerous, Nod and in particular its leader Kane, saw Tiberium as almost sacred, and necessary
for the next stage of human evolution.
Nod’s rise to power across the world quickly brought it into conflict with the Global Defense
Initiative, the formal military branch of the United Nations.
A series of devastating conflicts were fought across the globe with the GDI successfully
preventing the Brotherhood on more than one occasion from deploying Tiberium based superweapons
that might have significantly altered the Earth’s already deteriorating ecosystem.
Several times throughout the enduring conflict between GDI and Nod, it was believed that
the organization had been successfully fractured beyond repair and Kane himself believed killed.
In every instance, Kane would mysteriously reappear, most notably during the execution
of General Hassan, a puppet leader the GDI had installed within the upper levels of the
Brotherhood in the hopes of keeping Nod relatively harmless.
This attempt failed, sparking the Second Tiberium War in which the ancient and extraterrestrial
Tacitus was acquired by Nod, allowing the Brotherhood to greatly improve their understanding
of Tiberium.
Using knowledge gained through the Tacitus, Kane successfully tricked the GDI into destroying
Temple Prime, Nod’s primary command center in Sarajevo.
Unknown to the GDI, Temple Prime sat atop a massive reserve of liquid Tiberium and the
resulting explosion killed millions of people across Europe and acted as an interstellar
signal to the alien “Scrin” - a powerful and technologically advanced race suspected
to have been behind the original seeding of Earth with Tiberium decades earlier.
Kane had hoped to lure the Scrin to Earth to gain access to one of their immense monolithic
towers known as Thresholds.
While the GDI successfully repelled the Scrin invasion of Earth, the Brotherhood was able
to capture the last remaining Threshold, securing the Scrin’s vast knowledge of Tiberium for
the Brotherhood.
By 2062 the rampant spread of Tiberium across the world had reached critical levels with
deteriorating environmental conditions making the extinction of humanity seemingly imminent.
In an 11th hour alliance, Kane agreed to share what he had learned from the Tacitus in exchange
for the resources to build a Tiberium Control Network, the last hope of saving the planet.
Even as civilization faced Armageddon, internal power struggles in both Nod and the GDI threatened
to spiral the two factions back into a global war.
Unknown to all but Kane however, the true purpose of the Tiberium Control Network was
twofold.
Not only would it stop the spread of Tiberium, but it could also be linked into the Scrin’s
last remaining Threshold tower to form a portal, which Kane and his most devout followers would
use to “Ascend”.
As Nod and the GDI fought for control of the Network, the portal was activated, and Kane,
his followers and the Brotherhood disappeared from the Earth.
Whoever, or whatever Kane was and more importantly, where he is now, might forever remain
a mystery.