First Tiberium War

Background
The First Tiberium War began in 1999 and ended in a GDI victory three years later. The advent of Tiberium and the surfacing of the Brotherhood of Nod as well as the official forming of GDI, were the primary catalysts of it. Tiberium granted these two organizations the ability to acquire a huge amount of wealth quickly, allowing them to rapidly expand their armies.

During the First Tiberium War, Kane's goal was to conquer the world in order to reshape it, as well as the complete destruction of GDI, which was an impediment to this goal. Kane believed that to do this, total manipulation of mass media and the public opinion, both through propaganda forgery and hacks (e.g. Netwarriors who were used to hack into the GDI networks and turning the GDI ion cannon against civilians) they could make GDI lose their financial backing and moral high ground, thus eliminating them from the game, leaving Nod the sole global superpower.

GDI was a force used by the United Nations to uphold and enforce their New World Order. Existing as far back as the 1950s, they were at first a covert black op organization, forced to go public after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. Their primary objective was destroying the Brotherhood, while adhering to the UN regulations.

The Setup
Before the war had even begun, Nod was already an economic superpower. With their intricate knowledge of Tiberium, they held most of the world's Tiberium assets, in total 49 percent of the world's Tiberium assets, while GDI only about a quarter of the Tiberium the world had to offer, due to Tiberium harvesting technology being owned by Nod and their lack of scientific understanding of the substance. With this much Tiberium at his disposal, Kane, leader of the Brotherhood, made a crucial decision.

His organisation would openly engage GDI on political, media and military fronts. Although the Brotherhood had been extremely successful in utilizing such tactics before, the scale of this venture was unlike any operation before. Nod begun to seize territory and build up it's military. After a series of high profile urban bombings (including the Grain Trade Center in Vienna, which was the 17th target), Nod begun regular military operations in Africa and parts of Europe.

Following the terrorist attacks in Slovenia, the United Nations Security Commitee entered a close session and gave permission to GDI to engage Nod openly.

The War Begins
The war broke out and spanned much of the globe, with most military action concentrating in Europe and Africa. In order to do secure territory and backing of the people, Nod removed numerous petty warlords in Africa. One of these was Nikoomba.

Although Nod had been active before, this was the beginning of a new stage in their plan - not simply a removal, this was a move to gain a foothold and seize territory and hold it - providing a fixed resource base, but also attracting GDI attention. Afterwards, Nod forces had targeted and attacked numerous GDI outposts in Africa, razing it to the ground and throwing GDI forces into confusion. Nod, always on the offensive, then began a major campaign against GDI forces on the continent, beginning with the takeover of Egypt, after estabilishing forward attack posts within it.

With Egypt taken, Nod attacked Sudanese GDI prisons, liberating Nod POWs and supporting Nod loyalists against GDI in Chad (during the Mao civil war) or making an example of certain GDI friendly villages (Oum Hadjer).

At this point, reports surfaced of Nod high commander Seth being personally executed by Kane for high treason. He dispatched numerous troops to the USA in order to attack and destroy the Pentagon, in hopes of performing a coup d'etat in the Brotherhood and deposing Kane and the resourceful commander. However, his plans were found out by Kane, Seth executed and troops recalled. During this time period, Captain Nick Parker took part in a battle in Guatemala to save prisoners and civilians from Nod brainwashing, one of the few, if not the only, battles that took place outside Africa and Europe. Commanding GDI forces in the area were Captain Duncan (army forces), Captain Soanso (Naval forces), and General Adam Locke. The operation was a decisive success despite early GDI losses and may have kept the war from spreading into Central America.

Meanwhile, in Europe, GDI began an amphibious assault against Nod positions in Estonia. Through the use of the MCV, GDI managed to deploy enough infantry to secure the beachhead. Gunboats contributed by neutralizing some of the Nod shore defenses, such as the turrets. Fortunately, Nod defenses were rather light.

Although Nod counterattacked, GDI was able to press the assault and conquer the small Nod base, despite the presence in the enemy base of a refinery, whose appearance in the area had gone unnoticed by GDI intelligence. However, a second MCV had to be brought in to press the assault on Nod forces in Estonia.

In Europe, GDI was doing much the same thing, managing through to seize a number of Nod bases due to their advantage in armor and numbers. However, things took a turn for the worse for GDI, as fabricated reports done by Nod and spread by the WWN reporter Greg Burdette convinced the United Nations that GDI had massacred an entire town full of innocent civilians on suspicion of them being 'Tiberium Smugglers.' The UN immediately began an investigation and cut GDI's funding, but even so, a young GDI commander named James Solomon managed to stop a Nod counterattack on a poorly defended outpost and destroy the Nod base supplying the attacks.

Later on, with funding restored (thanks to general Mark Sheppard's persuasion skills), GDI began a full campaign to wipe out the Brotherhood in Europe, deploying forces to eliminate Nod bases and commando raids to weaken their hold on the continent. Eventually, however, they had to rescue Dr. Mobius, the world's greatest scientist in regards to Tiberium, from a Nod onslaught. After conducting a second amphibious assault and rescuing their agent Delphi who was stationed in Greece, they believed they had found out the whereabouts of Kane himself.

Crucial decisions
In Africa, Kane built up his forces and attempted to eliminate key threats, such as a group of Mammoth tanks that had been deployed to Africa. Immediately prior to his attack on GDI's fortress of South Africa, he attempted to take control of the Ion Cannon by capturing one of GDI's Advanced Communications Center. The plan succeeded, but GDI managed to completely isolate the Orbital Defense Matrix at the last moment, before it could be used against GDI. Still, he managed to destroy all GDI forces from the regions north of South Africa.

He then turned his attention - and the vast resources of Nod, towards eliminating GDI's bastion of strength in South Africa. Nod's forces raced into the area and, backed by the power of the Temple of Nod and its Nuclear Weaponry, destroyed all GDI forces in that area, despite GDI's use of airstrikes, three bases and the deployed Mammoth Tanks.

The first Temple of Nod was erected at the site and became the hub of Nod communications. The second one was constructed shortly after in Cairo, over the site where Abel, Cain's brother was entombed. Kane, meanwhile, traveled to Europe to inspect Tiberium research that was being performed there, and oversee the construction of the third, largest and most important Temple of Nod in Sarajevo.

However, he underestimated Solomon, who destroyed the Tiberium research facility that Kane had supposedly been visiting. In reality, Kane had already left the Tiberium research facility, and headed to the newly completed Temple in Sarajevo, in order to prepare the Nod forces and the freshly acquired ballistic missiles.

While Kane was preparing for this final battle, GDI forces destroyed an important supply convoy that was heading to the Sarajevo Temple, and in the aftermath, tracked down Nod's base and Kane's location. Although evenly matched, GDI used superior tactics to strip away the defenses from around Nod's last bastion. Solomon's teams combatted the last lines of defense for 72 hours before deciding to call in for an Ion Cannon strike, whose blast incinerated Kane and levelled the temple, as evidenced by recovered CCTV records. Kane's remains were never found.

In the light of such stunning success, the UN quickly reversed its tune, and applauded the brave warriors of GDI. Nod, meanwhile, was thrown into chaos as some of the surviving commanders began to grab whatever power they could. GDI was able to sweep through the disorganized Nod forces in Africa following that pivotal battle, assisted by the general chaos in the Nod lines. Wherever they could be found, Nod was hunted down. The South African Temple was occupied by GDI forces in short order, after another Nod faction broke down its defenses.

Effect
The First Tiberium War had the effect of catapulting Nod and GDI to the world stage. It also united the free world, and also the third world under GDI and Nod's banners, respectively. However, its most lasting consequence was to establish the importance of Tiberium, as previously mentioned, none of the spectacular successes gained by either Nod or GDI would have been possible without this important element. A large portion of Africa and Europe were devastated by the war, and there were massive casualties among both sides. Furthermore, Nod's operations in Africa caused numerous civilian casualties as well.