History Main / EnemyCivilWar

* While not an actual EnemyCvilWar, the first level of ''MetalGearSolid 4'' takes place during a battle between rebels and a mercenary army, who will attack anyone who does not belong to their faction. While the mercenaries work for the BigBad, they are only in the city because someone hired them, and the rebels really have no interest in Snakes mission at all.
* Further to the [=WoW=] examples above is the ''WarCraft'' universe in general, in which for example it is canon that an EnemyCivilWar is what allowed the Alliance to defeat the Horde in ''WarCraft II''. The warlock Gul'dan took his entire ''clan'' off on a personal quest; Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer had to divert crucial forces to track him down and slay him. What was worse was that he got almost none of them back; magical catastrophe killed pretty much everyone there.
** Actually, the catastrophe only killed Gul'dan's clan. His ally's clan was wiped out by the Blackrock clan, which itself was nearly wiped out by Admiral Proudmore's ambush at sea (the orcs were smart enough to build ships but not smart enough to put weapons on them).

** The Forsaken later undergo ''another'' internal civil war during the upcoming WorldOfWarcraft expansion, as [[spoiler: traitors under the dreadlord Varimathras unleash the Forsaken's secret plague weapon against both the Scourge and against ''everyone'' attacking the Lich King, and nearly kill the Forsaken queen Sylvanas Windrunner to boot. This conveniently acts a cathartic experience to solidify the relatively "loyal" Forsaken to the service of the Horde, purging the nasty hints that have foreshadowed the race's untrustworthiness from the very beginning of the game]].

->''Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.''
--> -- '''[[TheBible Jesus]]''', and [[OlderThanTheyThink famously paraphrased by]] '''AbrahamLincoln'''

->''We'z 'avin' a party! Waaaagh!''
--> -- [[BloodKnight Orks']] attitude to this trope, ''[[{{Warhammer 40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]''

* The Archers from ''[=~Assassin's Creed~=] 2'' will attack anyone on a roof who isn't another guard. This isn't limited to Ezio or thieves, but also pickpockets and Borgia Couriers, who are also enemies of Ezio.

** In ''Warcaft II'', Gul'dan betrays the Horde on the eve of their victory by taking off with the Stormreaver and Twilight's Hammer clans to search for the Tomb of [[TheDevil Sargeras]]. While this still left plenty of troops for Orgrim Doomhammer's siege of the Capital City of Lordaeron, Orgrim chooses honor over victory and sends the Blackrock clan, which constitutes a good third of the Horde forces, after the renegades. With the main [[TheAlliance Alliance]] army about to arrive and box him in, Orgrim is forced to call a retreat so close to victory. Furthermore, the battle between the renegades and the Blackrock clan results in the complete destruction or the renegade clans through sheer attrition (the orcs aren't known for their battle tactics). The seriously reduced Blackrock clan is further devastated by Admiral Proudmore's surprise attack at sea, leaving only a few thousand clan members alive. The war goes pretty much downhill for the orcs at this point.

* ''The Punisher'' has the Yakuza mook-army attacking the various factions that the Punisher has weakened. In one moment in the Kingpin's lobby, just wait in the elevator until the Yazuka has weakened the Kingpin's security forces.

* In MassEffect 2, you learn that [[spoiler:the Geth are split into two faction: the main "True" geth that have no real hostility towards organics and which Legion belongs to and the Splinter-faction "Heretics" who follow [[EldritchAbomination The Reapers]] and are the ones you fought in the first game]]. You're later able to resolve this by [[spoiler:reprogramming the Heretics to return to the True Geth.]]

* In ''TheGodfather'' game, it is possible to have gangsters from the different families fighting between each other, though it's more likely that [[EverythingTryingToKillYou they'll be attacking you]].

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' has the Blood War, the continual battle of OrderVersusChaos as represented by the devils and the demons, respectively. The demons, AlwaysChaoticEvil, act like it, and are also at war with each other, the classic rivalry being Orcus versus Graz'zt versus Demogorgon.
** The Blood War really doesn't count as this because the demons and devils were never on the same side to begin with; they aren't one faction suffering from infighting, they're two separate factions of evil who are constantly at war.
** The forces of good in ''{{Planescape}}'' actively encourage the continuation of the Blood War by selling weapons to both sides, reasoning that having the forces of evil rip each other apart saves the rest of the multiverse from facing a united tide of evil.

** This is the very definition of politics in the [[DungeonsAndDragons Nine Hells of Baator.]] Every archdevil is constantly scheming against each other to usurp their position--some even declare this openly. Asmodeus, the Lord of the Hells, being the epitome of TheChessmaster, once instigated a revolution against himself so his rivals would destroy each other in their grab for power. Yes, he came out on top again.

* ''FarScape'' has the big XanatosRoulette of the protagonists at the end of season 4 try to start one of these. Not even as the plan, but as a ''component'' of a plan. Yeah, Crichton was pretty nuts.

* The ''{{Flash}}'' series actually had a storyarc called ''[[RoguesGallery Rogue]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin War]]'' wherein he had to stop three seperate factions of villains from killing each other and a bunch of innocent bystanders. Four if you count [[EvilKnockoff Zoom]] as his own faction.

* The ''{{Flash}}'' series actually had a storyarc called ''[[RoguesGallery Rogue]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin War]]'' wherein he had to stop three seperate factions of villains from killing each other and a bunch of innocent bystanders. Four if you count ''[[EvilKnockoff Zoom]]'' as his own faction.

* The ''{{Flash}}'' series actually had a storyarc called ''[[RoguesGallery Rogue]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin War]]'' wherein he had to stop three seperate factions of villains from killing each other and a bunch of innocent bystanders. Four if you count ''[[Evil Knockoff Zoom]]'' as his own faction.

* The ''{{Flash}}'' series actually had a storyarc called ''[[RoguesGallery Rogue]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin War]]'' wherein he had to stop three seperate factions of villains from killing each other and a bunch of innocent bystanders. Four if you count [[Evil Knockoff Zoom]] as his own faction.

* The ''{{Flash}}'' series actually had a storyarc called ''[[RoguesGallery Rogue]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin War]]''.

* It is implied that it is precisely this that maintains the tenuous Balance of Power in the ''OnePiece'' world. Lack of unity is the only thing that keeps the Four Emperors (the four strongest pirates in the ''One Piece'' world) from becoming an even greater threat than they are already. This can also apply to a lesser extent to the other half of the Balance: The Marines and the Shichibukai, and even amongst the Shichibukai ''themselves'', as it's stated at one point the mere idea of a group of Shichibukai fighting as a team was unthinkable.

This is usually because an enemy faction is rarely if at all fleshed out, [[AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries making them appear completely homogenous]], but curiously the more information we get about these guys the more interesting they become. A side effect of this can lead to an EnemyCivilWar. Rather than wait for the BigBad to keel over, one or more factions in the evil empire break off and start fighting the main group for power. Note, nowhere in that sentence was there a HeelFaceTurn. The second group ''may'' do such, but it's likelier they'll simply be either slightly less evil than the [[EvilerThanThou "loyalists"]], or at the least more open to an EnemyMine with the heroes (or, alternately, they'll be complaining that the Evil Overlord isn't evil ''[[EvilerThanThou enough]]''.) For extra fun, the factions make take turns trying EnemyMine.

* In {{Half-Life}}, Gordon Freeman and the employees of Black Mesa are caught up in the Xen invasion of earth and are at the same time being killed by elite units of the US Military, who in turn are fighting a losing battle against the Xen forces.

* This is, essentially, the setting of most of ''MetalGearSolid 4''. You're usually infiltrating battlefields, with a running battle going throughout the level.