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Fighting For a Homeland: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"The day I set my flag down, it'll be over my body or over a nation I believe in."''|'''Ulysses''', ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''}}
Usually, when someone fights, it's for a reason. Sometimes it's for patriotism or to fulfill an ideal. Sometimes it's to protect something or someone. And sometimes it's for some sort of compensation.
The motivation of fighting solely for monetary gain is generally not treated as sympathetic. However, when the compensation is more than simply money, that can change.
This group of people lost their homeland and has been seeking it ever since. Perhaps it was destroyed, or they were exiled, or they were on the losing end of a war. Whatever the reason, [[Home, Sweet Home|they want someplace to call home]]. Preferably their original home, but they might choose not to be picky. And they'll do just about anything for someone who can promise them that home back.
They often have no one but each other. As a consequence, their commander is often [[A Father to His Men]], and they are [[True Companions]]. (But not in more cynical stories.)
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{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* The war for the Palace in the last quarter of the original ''[[Elf Quest]]'' series is an odd mix of fighting for a new and old home. The Palace is the original "home" of the first elves that came to the world, yet the elves who now fight for it were born long after their ancestors were driven from it. Until recently they did not even know that it existed, and even while they fight for it they don't know ''what'' it is.
* In the ''[[Daredevil|Elektra]]'' trade, ''The Scorpio Key'', HYDRA apparently hopes to find a permanent home in Iraq under the auspices of sympathetic dictator Saddam Abed Dasam (a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Saddam Hussein).
== Film ==
* ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''. Although they aren't mercenaries per se, the railroad workers are willing to help the people of Rock Ridge against Hedley Lamarr's troops.
{{quote|
* With one member of the ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' looking to settle down as his quickness dissipates, perhaps they qualify.
== Literature ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]] This is the plot of Xenophon's ''Anabasis''. And it's [[Truth in Television]], since Xenophon's March ''actually happened''.
* The Golden Company in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. Made up of exiles, their one true dream is to be able to return to Westeros, the country of their ancestor's origin, and make a home for themselves. They're portrayed as fairly honorable for mercenaries, having never {{spoiler|until recent events}} broken a contract.
* The Tedral Mercenaries in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series are a example of a less honorable company. When their own homeland was conquered, they became mercenaries to raise money to get the land back. Over the years, the goal went from ''the'' land to ''any'' land. They are also the largest group of mercenaries ''not'' represented in the Guild (why yes, mercenaries have a guild. They may fight for money, but they do have professional standards), because they aren't willing to just settle for cash anymore. (That was part of the reason Karse hired them in ''Exile's Honor''
** Valdemar itself was founded by a group of political refugees from [[The Empire|the Eastern Empire]].
** The Kaled'a'in also briefly play this role in ''Mage Wars'' after the destruction of their homeland by the Cataclysm. Split into three groups, one by distance and the other two by irreconcilable differences over the role of magic in their lives, they each go in search of a new homeland. Each does eventually find what they seek, and it's revealed in increments over ''Mage Winds'' and ''Mage Storms'' that all of this was deliberately engineered by the gods in an attempt to set up the conditions to avert the return of the Cataclysm three thousand years later.
* ''[[
* The sci-fi novel ''[[White Wing]]'' by Gordon Kendall has humanity joining a [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]] [[The Federation|Federation]] fighting an evil alien race responsible for the destruction of Earth. All the good colors were already taken, so the homeworld-less Terrans got stuck with the non-color of White, hence the title. Terrans in the novel are all warriors sworn to avenge the destruction of their homeworld and mercenaries earning money to terraform 'Wing Moon' into a New Earth.
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[
* Jerry Pournelle's ''[[
* [[The Reveal]] of the [[Frederick Fosyth]] novel ''The Dogs Of War'' is that the titular mercenaries conquered [[Bannana Republic|Zangaro]] to give the dispossessed tribe they fought for in the prologue a home rather than deliver it to the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] who hired them.
* The dwarves in ''[[The Hobbit]]''.
* The arrival of the Edain in the west and their [[The Alliance|alliance]] with the elves in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.
* In the ''[[
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The Drakh in ''[[Babylon
* This trope is what ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' is all about when it comes down to it.
== Myth & Legend ==
* Virgil's ''Aeneid'' is about Trojans looking for a new
== Radio ==
* The ''[http://www.clockworkcabaret.com/ Clockwork Cabaret]'' is a [[Steampunk]] [[Radio Drama]] in which the Davenport sisters and the crew of the airship Calpurnia search for a place to call home, while avoiding the clutches of the evil organization CLANNG.
== Religion ==
* [[
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* ''[[Eberron]]'' sees this trope a lot. The people of Cyre in particular, as the Day of Mourning which ended the Last War created [[Mordor|the Mournland]] out of their former home.
* ''[[GURPS]]: [[Traveller]]'' The sample campaign 100 parsecs in the volume "Sword Worlds" is about an attempt to preserve Sword Worlds culture by founding a colony far away in empty space.
**A large part of this goes through empty space though there is fighting to do. More fighting is probably to be found when the Sword Worlds are started by soldiers from a faction on Earth that had lost a civil war leaving them searching for someplace to go. That someplace was found by negotiating a deal with an Aslan clan which had enough connections to get them across Aslan territory, but needed help to fight both a local war and their client clan's war without being overstretched. Along the journey through Aslan territory there were plenty of stops, negotiations, wars with third parties and so on.
== [[Theater]] ==
* In ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'', Simon Zealotes encourages Christ to lead a revolution against the Romans for this reason, clearly considering Roman-occupied Judea to not be "home" any more:
{{quote|''Keep them yelling their devotion.
''But add a touch of hate at Rome.
''You will rise to greater power.
''We will win ourselves a home.''}}
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The New Conglomerate rebels in ''[[
* The Zortroa Kinship of ''[[
* Outer Heaven of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' was (at least originally) this.
* This is why some Quarians seek a war with the Geth in ''[[
* The Dalish [[Our Elves Are Better|elves]] in the ''[[
* ''[[
* The Advent from ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', who were exiled from their homeworld 10000 years ago by the Trade Order for 'deviant' behavior, basically not conforming with the Trade Order worlds' culture and practicing what they considered to be taboo. Now, they've returned with a vengeance, with advanced technology and honed psychic abilities, to try and reclaim their desert homeworld and destroy their past tormentors.
* ''[[
* The ''Resistance'' [[Expansion Pack]] of the original ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'', featuring the titular resistance fighters of the Soviet-occupied country of Nogova.
* According to the translated lyrics of the ''[[Super Smash Brothers]] Brawl'' [[Ominous Latin Chanting|theme song]], this is what {{spoiler|Tabuu}} is doing.
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* Pretty much all the various Germanic and Slavic tribes during the Migration Period.
* The [[Chew Toy|numerous]] Polish armies in exile.
* The Sforza dynasty was started by the leader of a band of [[Private Military Contractors]] that used his men to take over an Italian city-state. They decided on Milan; Sforza ended up hiring [[Leonardo
* The first Czech legion, after World War one. Their country was then merely a province of Austria-Hungary, who started the war and teamed up with the Germans. The Czechs had very little reason to fight for them, and surrendered to the opposing Russians whenever they could. Through a lot of political scheming, the Russians were convinced to raise a Czech legion of 60,000 men to fight against the Austrians. Then the Revolution broke out, and with the peace treaty between Russia and Austria, and the vicious warfare and politicking in Russia, they would not get their goal, an independent Czechia, so they turned to the western allies. They could not leave the country through the western side, so the allies chose to rendezvous with them in the port of Vladivostok, ''on the other side of Russia''. They crossed the country in three years, using the railways that they hijacked, joined with the Russian White Army(anti-communists) and the allies, stole the Tsar’s gold, traded it for free passage to Vladivostok with the advancing reds when they lost, [[Earn Your Happy Ending|and safely sailed home, to the newly founded country of Czechoslovakia.]]
* According to legend an [[Anglo-Saxon]] nobleman led a party of disaffected survivors of refugees down the Russian rivers to Constantinople to take service with the Byzantine Emperor. After some dickering over the contract it was agreed to allow them to settle in what parts of Goth territory they could conquer. The result was the English "colony" of Nova Anglia. Evidence for this intriguing tale is unfortunately unreliable, including some place names and hints in one or two chronicles and sagas; if it happened the colony was long assimilated. The best one can say is that someone had a [[Bittersweet ending| sort of happy]] ending [[What A Senseless Waste of Human Life|after]] [[Last Stand| Hastings]].
**It is fairly well established that a large numbers of Saxons took service with the Byzantine Emperor, so if that story isn't true and they didn't found another kingdom of their own, at least individually they found a home.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
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