Effectively the faction that digs up and activates the gate to kickstart the plot is a bunch of Turkish inspired tribal/clan industrialists currently united under force by a Saddam like strongman. Hes run the show for quite a few years and has had military blunder after military blunder, his latest being the occupation of the neighboring nation to their northwest. Known of the Lebian Barony, it not only has a more mild climate versus the north African/eastern med of his, but had his campaign succeeded would have also netted them an open water port. However aside from land gains and more hospitable farmland, they've netted a hostile population, an insurgency, and growing unrest at home. His last hope is a strange group that has approached him and revealed the presence of an ancient technological facility underneath these occupied lands and a gateway to another world.