Brotherhood of Nod

Brotherhood of Nod is a fictional cult and terrorist organization in the Command and Conquer series. Their leader is a man known only as Kane and their emblem is a black scorpion tail against a red background. Their headquarters is believed to be the in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Naming
Nod probably gets its name from the biblical 'Land of Nod', where Cain was banished after killing Abel. Kane probably got his name from Cain as well.

The Brotherhood of Nod has been known to go by the names of "The Brotherhood," "The Ways of Nod" or "ShaÆSeer" among the tribes of Godan. While the word "Godan" does exist in reality, it has several denotations. Because one cannot be certain which denotation the society has in mind, the word may be entirely fictional.

Fact Sheet for the Brotherhood
Commonly, "The Brotherhood", "The Ways of Nod", "Sha'Seer" among the tribes of Godan; see attached, Aliases of the Brotherhood, for more.

FOUNDED: Date unknown: exaggerated reports place the Brotherhood's founding before 1,800 BCE.

IDEOLOGY: Control of the world's energy resources.

CURRENT HEAD OF STATE: Kane; also known as Caine, Jacob (INTERPOL, File TRX11-12Q); al-Quayym, Amir (MI6 DR-416.52)

BASE OF OPERATIONS: Global. Command posts previously identified at Kuantan, Malaysia; somewhere in Ar-Rub' al-Khali, Saudi Arabia; Tokyo; Caen, France; Philippines

MILITARY STRENGTH: Previously believed only to be a small terrorist operation, a recent scandal involving United States defense contractors affirms that the Brotherhood is well-equipped and supports significant land, sea, and air military operations.

ECONOMIC STRENGTH: Considerable - operating assets believed to be in excess of US$255.2 billion, based on audits of seized financial records (see CIA Docket 3231.54-776 FIA).

POLITICAL STRENGTH: Believed to be the sole backers of the Fist of Allah party in Jordan (52%); United We Stand America party in the United States (12%); Albion First! party in the United Kingdom (25+%), among others. (See Brookings Institution publication A42962-94 for full disclosure.)

AFFILIATIONS: Irish Republican Party; Islamic Jihad; Khmer Rouge; MNLF others. (See document: Brotherhood of Nod Splinter Groups.)



History
Before the outbreak of the First Tiberium War, analysts generally believed that Nod was simply another minor terrorist faction. However, when a scandal broke involving major American defense contractors, analysts discovered that Nod had substantial military air, sea and land power. Kane (known as Jacob Caine by Interpol in the Western world and as Amir al-Quayym by MI6 in the Middle East) is the head of Nod.

Nod forces are composed of guerrillas from other allied organizations, mercenaries and conscripts from the territories Nod controls, as well as Nod-indoctrinated religious fanatics. Before the Sarajevo central headquarters was identified, Nod was believed to have no central command base, instead operating from multiple individual locations, with posts previously identified in Kuantan, Malaysia; the Ar-Rub' al-Khali desert, Saudi Arabia; Tokyo, Japan and Caen, France.

Also during Tiberian Dawn, Nod is believed to back a number of officially-recognized political parties. Among the ones mentioned are the Fist of Allah party in Jordan, the United We Stand America party in the United States, and the Albion First! party in the United Kingdom, among others. Additionally, they are also affiliated with the following: Irish Republican Party, Islamic Jihad, Khmer Rouge and others.

Nod's chief asset is its near monopoly on the Tiberium harvesting industry. Due partially to chance, the alien organism arrived via meteor impact near the Tiber river in Italy and thus the genesis of the name Tiberium. Kane, the self-appointed leader of the Brotherhood of Nod, claims that it was the Brotherhood who first discovered the organism and that he named it after Tiberius Caesar Augustus. Tiberium spreads quickly and thrives in temperate to warm conditions. Many of the poorer countries straddling the equatorial regions were hit hardest by the rapidly-spreading substance. The Brotherhood, being anti-Western, tapped into these suddenly-rich nations for substantial control of the Tiberium market. At the time of Tiberian Dawn, Nod controlled almost half the world's Tiberium supply at 49%. Compare with the lacklustre 27% controlled by the G8 nations (sponsors of GDI), and the remaining 24% in the hands of unaffiliated nations.

Nod looks at Tiberium very differently than its main enemy, GDI. Whereas GDI treats Tiberium as a dangerous but economically valuable product as well as a scientific anomaly, the Brotherhood sees it as the dawn of a new age entirely. As such, they are much more willing to directly use Tiberium in potentially unsafe ways, such as use in weaponry.

Before the First Tiberium War, Nod's fiscal assets were in the range of US$255.2 billion based on audits of seized financial records. Because Nod controls a large portion of the world's supply and they are at the forefront of Tiberium research, they possess incredible leverage in financial operations such as on the London Gold Exchange.

According to the canonical storyline, Nod took over Africa but latter was defeated by the Global Defense Initiative. GDI exploited the weak points of Nod's strategy. Kane devised a plan to blame GDI for the slaughtering of Białystok. Afterwards, Nod broadcast a fake news report claiming GDI razed the whole town on suspicions of Tiberium smuggling.

Following the First Tiberium War, the death of Kane caused the Brotherhood to factionalize into small armies, ruled by random generals. For quite a long time, they fought more against themselves than against GDI. When Kane resurfaced 30 years later they reunited and once again faced off against GDI forces. According to the official C&C storyline, Nod is again defeated by the Global Defense Initiative. It is discovered that Kane did not survive unharmed. Large portions of his face were hidden under metal, covering what appear to be massive burns. This was particularly surprising, as all transmissions from Kane to both Nod and GDI showed a flawless face; a possible explanation is that the images were digitally-altered, which is partially confirmed by a GDI technician. In Firestorm, it is revealed in the end of the Nod campaign shows that here is a hidden lab with stasis tubes; one of them had Kane inside.

General Slavik manages to escape the facility where he is about to be executed as a GDI spy under the authority of Nod's current leader, Hassan, who is secretly allied with General Solomon in order to be able to maintain his position of power. With the assistance of his second-in-command and right-hand woman, Oxanna Kristos, Slavik wages a war against Hassan in the name of Kane, his forces surrounding Hassan's pyramid headquarters very quickly. He succeeds, and much to everyone's surprise Kane's face appears on a wall screen to his loyal subjects just as Hassan is about to be publicly executed on-stage. Hassan's throat is slit by Anton Slavik, the Brotherhood reunited in full for the first time since the end of the First Tiberium War. Not long after this, the war is then turned against GDI. It is then a fight which could mean a total devastation of the world or Peace. After a mission in which Jake McNeil (brother of Michael McNeil) is captured, three nuclear missiles are set to destroy the orbiting "Philadelphia"... The three ICBMs hit the Philadelphia, annihilating it, much to the dismay of the captured O'Neil. After this event, Kane broadcasts to the brotherhood that "A new age is upon us", and subsequently fires a missile, with so much Tiberium aboard that the crystal is able to cover the entire surface of the globe from orbit. As the missile is launched, Kane mysteriously teleports away.

It should be noted that the massive burns on Kane's face (and the metal plates) had not appeared during the Third Tiberium War. There is also no evidence that they were ever there as well. By Command & Conquer 3, Kane once again appears unscarred; however, in the Tiberium Wars novelization, he suffers from occasional chest pains, due to being stabbed by McNeil.

The Firestorm Crisis starts with Slavik arguing with the inner circle of the Brotherhood over leadership issues now that Kane has disappeared. Slavik orders his men to recapture CABAL, a move which he believes will help reunite Nod while at the same time allowing Nod to compete with GDI. Slavik's men recover the device, but after CABAL's reactivation the computer seizes control of all Nod cyborg units, and assassinates the inner circle members. Slavik, who alone managed to escape the death that claimed the other generals, orders all Nod forces to evacuate from CABAL's cyborgs. Slavik assists in this evacuation by manoeuvring the Montauk to a Nod installation and recovering the survivors. Slavik then orders a surgical strike against a massive GDI air force base to recover an EVA unit, which is reprogrammed to assist Nod forces.

Unable to beat CABAL on his own, Slavik approaches GDI general Cortez with a cease-fire offer so that they can work together against CABAL. GDI agrees, and both sides begin attacking CABALs auxiliary bases, in Nod's case a Tiberium harvesting facility and civilian settlement. With CABALs auxiliary bases down Nod forces deploy members of the elite cadre to clear out a patrolling CABAL cyborg team before establishing a base and launching an offensive against CABAL. Ultimately, Nod forces were able to destroy the CABAL Core, thus eliminating CABAL as a credible threat to the Brotherhood.

This, however, was not the end, as CABAL's face was once again displayed on a screen within a room, overseeing several human bodies hooked up to life support systems and in cryogenic sleep, with Kane being one of the bodies.

The Third Tiberium War begins with the Brotherhood of Nod again emerging from the shadows to battle GDI. In the very early stages of the Third Tiberium War, Nod launches a successful attack on GDI's Goddard Space Center, rendering all of GDI's anti-missile capabilities useless. GDI is caught off guard, with its senior commanders and acting director up in the Philadelphia for the annual energy summit. Due to the loss of its anti-missile defences, the Philadelphia becomes vulnerable to attack and is quickly destroyed by a Nod missile. Nod uses the confusion to attack all major GDI installations and were almost successful in taking the "North Eastern Blue Zone" (North American Eastern Seaboard). However, GDI rallied its forces and drove Nod out of the regions they had captured.

It quickly became apparent that Kane and his leading scientists were working on a liquid Tiberium bomb which would be strong enough to wipe GDI from the face of the planet. While GDI was in Africa, destroying what it believed to be Nod's chemical weapons factories, Nod was transporting its new weapon from the real chemical factories in South America to their reconstructed temple in Sarajevo in eastern Europe. After GDI finished their campaign in Africa, they turned their attention to Nod's stronghold. What GDI did not know, however, was that they had been lured into a trap.

GDI flocked to Sarajevo in hopes that this would be the final encounter with the Brotherhood of Nod. They established strong footholds deep in Nod territory and used them as leverage to launch a devastating attack on Nod's Temple Prime. During the attacks, Kane stealthily slipped away, knowing that his work there was complete. When GDI was successful in neutralizing Nod's ion disruption towers, they fired upon the temple with their ion cannon. When the ion cannon was fired, the temple was destroyed instantly. The ion particles broke through the layers of the temple until it reached the lowest lying part, wherein the liquid Tiberium bomb lay. Upon contact with the ion particles, it detonated, sending shock waves across the planet. Millions of people in Eastern Europe were feared dead, but to Director Redmond Boyle - it was a price worth paying for the death of Kane and Nod.

Nod followers were understandably shocked. Their temple was destroyed and their great leader was dead. Kane's second in command, General Killian Qatar, took over control of the Brotherhood and called all forces to her Australian base so that they may be able to regroup. Unbeknownst to them, the liquid Tiberium blast had other consequences. An alien species known as the Scrin had been waiting on the edge of our solar system for millennia for a signal to invade Earth: a liquid Tiberium explosion. The Scrin landed in Red Zones and began deploying infantry, spacecraft and vehicles against any resistance they encountered. In Australia, Killian Qatar made a desperate alliance with GDI to fight off the new threat. During a major battle in Australia, Kane resurfaced, and was furious at Killian for allying herself with GDI and ordered her death. Killian was killed and Kane revealed his masterful plan.

The tacitus from the Second Tiberium War had contained information on a future alien invasion, and that the invasion would begin when a liquid Tiberium explosion occurred. Kane saw this as an opportunity to invite a superior race to Earth - one with vast knowledge of Tiberium. However, Kane and his scientists could not find a strong enough detonator to get the desired results. As a result, Kane started a war with GDI, knowing that they would retaliate with their ion cannon on his temple - the only force strong enough to detonate the bomb to gain the necessary explosion.

When the Scrin arrived on Earth they began to construct giant towers. When each of these towers was constructed, they would become an interstellar gateway to other galaxies and worlds. Also, on completion, they would become invulnerable to any attack. The towers housed vast information on Tiberium.

After GDI fought off the initial Scrin attack, it noticed the towers for the first time. Knowing that whatever the towers do could not possibly be good, they launched co-ordinated attacks on every tower across the globe. Kane realised that at least one tower must live for this campaign to be successful and orders Nod's energy to be focused on defending one particular tower in southern Italy, near where Tiberium first came to earth in the form of a meteorite. GDI assaults the tower with tremendous force but is held back by Nod and is eventually pushed from the area. All other towers across the globe were destroyed and the tower in southern Italy was the last one standing. Kane's plan, as a result, was a success.

Abrahamic reference
Throughout the Command & Conquer series, Brotherhood of Nod loyalists of different generations alike have made the allusion that Kane is none other than the Abrahamic figure of Cain - allegedly the first man in Earth's history to have committed murder according to the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Cain and Abel were the two sons of Adam and Eve, born after the Fall of Man when Adam and Eve had been tempted into eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The story is told in the Bible at Genesis 4 and in the Qur'an at 5:27-32. In both versions, Cain, a farmer, commits the first murder by killing his brother Abel, a shepherd, after God (called YHWH) rejected Cain's sacrifice yet accepted that of Abel.

God then sought out Cain to ask him where his brother might be, to which Cain replied: "I know not; Am I my brother's keeper?". Upon this answer, God cursed Cain to wander the Earth forever, unable to die of old age. In his fear, Cain pleaded with God, who then placed a mark upon him. Because of this mark, whoever kills Cain, vengeance would be upon them seven-fold. Cain then departed to wander the lands. Early translations of Hebrew text described these alleged events, stating that Cain "departed to the Land of Nod. And Adam had another son, whose name was Seth.". Later on, Cain is mentioned as a father, naming the city of Enoch after his son.

Where the Bible and Qur'an versions both state that Cain killed Abel, another book named the Midrash told the story of a fight between them. Cain was the first to attack, however he was quickly overpowered by his stronger brother. Abel spared his brother's life and turned to leave, but Cain subsequently surprised his brother and murdered him in cold blood.

The mark of Cain is considered to be powerful in Christian and Islamic literature. God agreed that Cain could not be killed until he had seven generations of children. However, a Jewish Biblical commentator wrote that after seven generations Cain was killed by one of his own descendants, a man named Lamech.

In a direct correlation, the original manual for the first Command & Conquer game lists a quote by Kane, with the source cited as a file named "#GEN4:16". This is a reference to Genesis 4:16, which states; "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden".

To further this reference, the player can find an underground tomb in Command & Conquer: Renegade which depicts the murder of Abel, with Kane himself stating that the coffin contained Abel's remains. No other reference to the tomb has ever been made since, as it was destroyed along with Nod's Cairo temple. Finally, the Scrin themselves claim that they have known of Kane prior to the events of the games, yet that they are unable to recognize his genetic makeup. Kane is also apparently immortal, as his actions span over 100 years (as of the latest installment in the C&C franchise), yet he appears to have not aged a day since his first canonical appearance as Joseph Stalin's mysterious advisor in Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

Superweapons

 * Nuclear Missile
 * The Nuclear Missile is used in the First Tiberium War. It is launched from the Temple of Nod and lands on the specified location. When it lands, it causes a devastating nuclear explosion capable of blowing up even the strongest objects.


 * Multi Missile
 * The Multi-Missile is used in the Second Tiberium War. It is launched from the Missile Silo and hovers over its target. Once above the targeted location, a cluster of missiles splits apart and lands on the ground, damaging multiple units and buildings.


 * Chemical Missile
 * The Chemical Missile is used in the Second Tiberium War. It is launched from the Missile silo but it requires the Tiberium Waste Facility. When the facility is full of Tiberium veins, the missile can be launched. When it hits its target, it creates a chemical explosion that causes chemical gases to spread across the area which can turn infantry into Visceroids.