World Guide

The World Guide is a brief (one or two paragraphs), high-level description of your nation so that people can quickly get a sense of what it is all about. Focus on the things that make your nation unique.

Crona

Central Region

League Occupation of Varshan

The League Occupation of Varshan is a League of Nations-run administration governing the former Worshipful Realm of Varshan from 2024 onward after the former monarchy's dissolution after the end of the Final War of the Deluge and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Electorsbourg. Its primary purpose is to deconstruct the most harmful elements of Varshani culture and the Arzalist faith. Prior to the post-Deluge occupation, Varshani culture revolved heavily around Orthodox Arzalism and a caste system that placed a strong emphasis on religion and a warrior ethos (do note that the former Varshani caste system placed supposed demi-gods, the priesthood, and the warriors above the commoners); marriage as an institution was strict in its application of the caste system and punishments were severe (executions for males; enslavement for females). Human sacrifice was also a commonality for many religiously-based rituals. Indeed, it was these cultural aspects and practices that were among the first to be purged and deconstructed, with resistance to such measures often leading to outright revolt, by the occupation administration.

Economically, Varshan is currently dependent on the economies of the occupying governments and other countries in order to facilitate its reconstruction. Food security is deemed a great concern for the League of Nations as combatting malnutrition and famine have become major priorities for each occupation zone as well as ensuring agricultural self-sufficiency for Varshani farmers. Infrastructure is currently being reconstructed, particularly infrastructure connecting areas to bordering nations to facilitate trade, as much of it was heavily damaged during the war. The former Varshani capital of Anzo is placed under "direct international administration", the only part of Varshan not a part of any of the five occupation zones (the five zones respectively belong to Alstin, Cartadania, Daxia, Kiravia, and Urcea, the original signatories of the Treaty of Electorsbourg).

South Crona

United Republic of Alstin

The United Republic of Alstin, commonly known as the United Republic or Alstin, is a sovereign state comprising the entirety of the Alstinian Isles off the coast of Crona, in addition to a number of overseas territories. Founded in 1559 as a sanctuary for Protestant refugees, exiles and outcasts as a direct consequence of the then-ongoing Great Confessional War, it began its formal independent existence in 1565 as the Kingdom of Alstin, with the House of Ryefield reigning until the end of the Alstinian Civil War in 1688. The following year, the United Republic was formally established, the oldest surviving federal republic, and has long championed the ideals of democracy, civil liberties and rule of law the world over.

The United Republic has emerged as a highly developed nation, ranking among the highest in several measures of socioeconomic performance, as well as being considered as one of world's most technologically-advanced countries. While the Alstinian economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of both the service and information industry, the manufacturing sector remains one of the proficient in the world. These, combined with its Geo-strategic positioning along many of major shipping lanes of the Ocean of Cathay, Sea of Orixtal, and the Polynesian Sea, as well as its long naval tradition, has enabled the United Republic to emerge is one of the world's foremost economic and military powers, as well as allowed it to become a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations.

Confederated Provinces of Arcerion

Located in South Crona, the Confederated Provinces of Arcerion is a parliamentary democracy with strong diplomatic ties to other members of its alliance, the Cronan Security and Trade Union. Founded by the Kingdom of Carna in the 1700s, Arcerion emerged as a settler state and a major agrarian and rail hub on the continent during the 1800s, of which much of that period was spent fighting the Bush Wars. As it entered into the modern era, it participated in both Great Wars, culminating with Operation Lightfoot, the invasion of The Cape during the 2nd Great War. Arcerion is a major exporter of staple foods and agricultural equipment, an homage to its deep-running cultural heritage as an agrarian democracy. It regularly participates in peacekeeping initiatives with other nations such as Paulastra, and regularly works with Stenza on military exercises in the Songun and Polynesian Seas. Arcerion is also a major diplomatic hub, with it being part of the short-lived South Crona Congress and participating as a member of the League of Nation's Security Council, assisting in multiple humanitarian initiatives. A keystone part of Arco foreign policy is the counter-piracy and counter-terror operations around the Malentine Sea to ensure freedom of maritime navigation and protecting commercial freight passing through the key Warrington Straits waterway. Progressive social policies and common-sense economic legislation make Arcerion one of the most stable democracies in Crona, regularly receiving international acclaim for its civil rights and safe cities.

The Federacy of the Cape

The Federacy of the Cape is an constitutional republic located on the southern point of Crona. Formed through a gruesome War of Independence against Kiravia and Cartadania, the Cape today is a multiracial and multilingual society with an Occidental, liberal, and modernist culture. It is one of the world's most vital transshipment hubs, and its Songun Straits are some of the busiest waterways in the world. Shaped roughly like a trident, the Cape is home to over 127 million people.

It is home to a variety of LONESCO world heritage sites and is heir to the rich history and culture of the indigenous Cahok peoples and the legacy of Kiravian and Cartadanian colonization. Besides from its cultural sites and bustling cities, the Cape is also known for its vast savannah, imposing mountain ranges, striking escarpments, and white beaches. The Cape is perhaps the favourite destination for Kiravian and Fanerian travellers, seeking a respite from the cold in a nation sharing cultural and economic ties.

While instances of crime and racial or sexual discrimination are few and far between, the prospective traveller should exercise caution nevertheless. The Cape is governed as an authoritarian democracy and a one-party state with limited judicial redress for certain crimes. One should refrain from insulting both republican institutions and the nation's founder, Melvyn Kalma, and his personality cult.

Tierradorian Woqalate

The Tierradorian Woqalate is one of the largest countries in South Crona as well as one of the wealthiest in the region. The predominantly mountainous and sub-tropical nation is a semi-constitutional monarchy organised in a unitary manner with its furthest domestic reach being the Saukhin Islands (which also boasts high biodiversity) near Australis; its current form of government having been in place since the late 1980s after the corporatist republican regime was deposed and the former royal House of Woqelee was restored. The nation's demographics are diverse, most especially after the immigration boom of the 1970s and 1980s, with as many as 21 ethnic groups boasting at least one million self-identifying members. Linguistically, this has made Tierrador one of the nations to have a form of Ænglish as a nationally-recognised official language, specifically the Tierradorian dialect of said language. However, the regions and even the provinces have the right to determine a regionally or provincially-recognised official language, the majority of which recognise an indigenous Abio language as such although Cartadanian and Kiravic Coscivian are also known to have received regional or provincial recognition, although records state that over 150 languages have been noted to have been spoken on Tierradorian soil.

With one of the largest economies in Crona, Tierrador's economic influence on the world economy is rather sizeable with many Tierrador-based companies being amongst the largest on the planet, which in turn has led to the rise of the term "Tierradorization". This term is used to describe Tierrador's status as a cultural superpower as well as its commitment to liberty, equality, and cross-cultural brotherhood (known as the Tierradorian creed). Because of this Tierrador has among the highest ratings in civil rights, gender equality, and LGBT rights. One major aspect of Tierrador's culture is athleticism, or the encouragement and commitment to an active lifestyle as well as the prevalence of sports ranging from gridiron football to ice hockey.

Kiroborea

Kiravian Federacy

Centred on an island continent between the Arctic and the Odoneru Ocean, the Kiravian Federacy is a civilisation-state known for its bizarre autochthonous culture, pervasive alcoholism, and miserable weather.

Long oriented toward the sea, Kiravians have engaged extensively in seaborne commerce, exploration, and colonisation, with the nation emerging as a major mercantile and colonial power during the Age of the Sail. Kiravian settlers populated much of what is now the Cape and Paulastra, as well as various other territories such as Æonara and Suderavia that remain part of the Kiravian realm today. A relatively early entrant to industrialism, Kiravia today has the second-largest national economy in terms of nominal GDP, underpinned by strong export-oriented industries such as electrical equipment, alcoholic beverages, and pharmaceuticals, as well as maritime trade and a burgeoning service sector. However, development and medium-term economic prospectus is uneven across the nation, with wide disparities in living standards and infrastructural quality between coastal and inland areas and metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, and among the country's various cultural and geographic regions.

Formally a federative crowned republic under the sovereignty of the Marble Emperor, the Kiravian political system is generally regarded as democratic, though at the federal level it has been subject to criticism from Occidental liberals for counter-majoritarian elements of its constitution, the strength of its executive, and a perceived democratic deficit.

Travellers may find it difficult to manage outside of relatively cosmopolitan port cities such as Valēka, Saar-Silverda, Bérasar, Sirana, Pontevedra, and Sar-i-Pául. Comprehension of major international languages such as Latin and Ænglish outside of these urban centres ranges from unreliable to nonexistent, though speakers of Gaelic are reasonably common in many parts of the country. The challenges posed by a different script, different timekeeping system, different units of measure, and an apparently wilful refusal to adopt many informational signage conventions and international technical standards are compounded by alien social customs and a minefield of cultural taboos, the particularities of which can vary widely from locality to locality. The Office of Visitor Services strongly advises foreigners looking to experience the "real Kirav" to invest in an accredited guide or interpreter and a comprehensive guidebook.

Levantia

Northern Levantia

The Republic of the Fhainn

The Republic of the Fhainn is a country in northern Levantia with coastline on the Nordska, Kilikas, and Vandarch seas. Its core region, the Ninerivers, sits along the Vandarch Basin. It posesses several minor overseas territories as well as Sorhaithe, which is a province not contiguous with metropolitan Faneria. It is dominated by the Fhainnin Gaelic culture group, with notable Coscivian, Aenglo, and foreign Gaelic minorities. Its government has four branches and a tricameral legislature, and is considered a unitary constitutional democracy with good civil and legal rights but a somewhat authoritarian political system dominated by the Republican Party with legal but weak opposition parties.

Faneria originated from a patchwork of shifting petty states to become a kingdom in the 14th Century A.D. with an aristocratic, feudal elective monarchy eventually being eroded into a functionally absolute state and, by the 19th century, a constitutional one with a weak Senate and defanged petty nobility. Faneria was an aggressively expansive great power in the late 18th and throughout the 19th Centuries. At the close of the 19th Century, it was decisively defeated by the Commonwealth of Fiannria, destroying the monarchy's prestige and ultimately driving the nation into civil war in 1906 and emerging as a radical revolutionary republic under Callac Cananach and his version of republicanism. It later attempted and failed to create a pan-gaelic union in the 1930s and would eventually settle as a high-ranking secondary power with close ties to the Coscivian world and work to repair its relations with much of the outside Gaelic world.

The Fhainnin economy features strong native cultural goods, electronics, and especially chemicals sectors, and produces high-quality medical equipment. It also sees tourism for winter and water sports and manufactures wood products and crude lumber, seafood, and industrial precursors and materials. Its financial sector is popular for international travel insurance agencies, low-risk investment plans, and for banking clients not welcome in Sarpedonian or Levantine Union institutions.

Fiannria

Southern Levantia

Grand Thalassocratic Republican Principality of Burgundie and her Commonwealth

Burgundie is a vast, post-industrial nation, made up of four constituent countries, and overseas territories, but its "core" is the Burgoignesc Metropole on the northwestern coast of the Sea of Istroya, known by landlubbers as the southeastern coast of Levantia, Burgundie is known for its Cisterian culture (think Protestant work ethic, but Catholic), and being progressive paternalist globalists which they express through the following general societal tenents:

a strong support for supranational agencies like the League of Nations and global improvement institutions;
a strong navy and maritime gendarmerie to maintain the concepts of free trade and Freedom of the seas;
seeking international trade and military agreements that maintain market stability; and
establishing new, economically healthy markets for goods carried by the Merchant Marine of Burgundie.

Burgundie has a long history of colonialism which led to its maligned nature in some corners of the globe, mostly expressed through the conspiracies of the Global Burgieman, Levantine Creep, and Burgophobia. However, Burgundie is a strong partner to globalist, capitalist nations the world over a s carries 60% maritime trade via its many logistics firms and vast trade network.

Most Serene Grand Duchy Yonderre

Yonderre is a middle power with a population of 100 million located in central Levantia boasting a strong economy, having the world's second-largest economy by GDP per capita. A highly developed country, Yonderians enjoy a high standard of living and the country offers social security and a universal health care system, environmental protections, and a tuition-free university education. Yonderre ranks highly in most metrics of national performance, including education, health care, protection of civil liberties, democratic governance and gender equality. Yonderian cuisine is famous worldwide, particularly for its pastries and beers.

Yonderians speak Burgoignesc and/or East Gothic and are ethnically and culturally considered to be a mix of the two since the 19th century, referred to simply as Yonderians (eg Yonderian people, Yonderian culture). Yonderre has a highly romantic relationship with its past as a nation of noble pagans conquered by knights in shining armour, see also Northern Ideal. Yonderre also has a highly active movie industry centred in Gabion, Vandarcôte that acts as an Ixnayan Hollywood. Military technology represents a notable Yonderian export, eg Brochet-2 and YOLO.

See List of Yonderian idioms to get a feel for how Yonderians view themselves and are perceived worldwide.

Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea

Urcea is a superpower which occupies most of southwestern Levantia. It is a constitutional monarchy with fairly considerable civil and democratic rights, though society is entirely viewed through the perspective of the Catholic Church, which is the single most important social institution in the country. Accordingly, the economic institutions of the country are relatively inclusive while its social views are considered archaic and discriminatory by most non-Catholics. Quality of life is very high, but lags for marginalized groups due to soft discrimination which is mostly technically illegal. The country internally has a mix of medieval, Catholic distributist, and democratic institutions which create a somewhat unique social blend. The ideology of Organicism is the primary governing ideology of the country. Much of the country is like the American northeast or American west with European overtones for some of its cities. Urceans themselves are a fusion of Gaelic and Latin peoples, and their language - Lebhan language - is intended to be a Romance language incorporating Gaelic and Latin.

Urcea's origins lay in the collapse of Great Levantia, an empire which spanned most of the Levantine continent. Its capital city, Urceopolis, was center of the empire. As the empire collapsed into a number of tribal and feudal polities, the continent was partly united again by the Holy Levantine Empire. Urcea originated as a series of dynastic holdings within the Holy Levantine Empire centering around Urceopolis, which was held by an ancient Great Levantine family known as the Julian dynasty. The Julians amalgamated several territories in southern Levantia before uniting it all in a kingdom in 1098. The country underwent various phases of civil war, religious strife, and reform before becoming a major global power towards the end of the 19th century, a status which was confirmed as one of the primary participants in the Second Great War during the early-mid 20th century.

Abroad, Urcea is heavily invested in its sphere of clients in Crona - the Nysdra Sea Treaty Association - and with ensuring the continuity of the Levantine Union, especially keeping it free of influence from Caphiria. Urcea will also occasionally intervene in favor of pragmatic diplomatic stability (rather than specific ideologies) as required or humanitarian missions, though the latter somewhat rarely. Urcea sees itself as the champion of minority ethnic groups and its preferred style of empire-building is by building a large network of small client states forged from minority groups, which it will nearly always attempt to convert to Catholicism.

Ultmar

Audonia

Democratic Republic of Daxia

Daxia is an ancient nation whose culture extended and dominated the greater part of eastern Audonia for centuries, it further spread its influence across the southern seas by wielding the slave trade as its engine of colonial expansion. The country was historically dominated by centralizing dynasties and modern Daxia is a one-party, amoral, totalitarian empire with one overriding goal: keeping its iron grip over its own population. It achieves this by fake populism, jingoism, fostering xenophobia and iron fisted security services. Abroad it seeks to increase its clout and extend its tentacles in many ways such as engaging in seemingly benign mercantilism, active participation in the League of Nations, attempts to weaponize its diaspora communities (results may vary) and engaging in and fostering corruption with local elites.

While Daxia often likes to present a facade of reason and normalcy to outsiders, the use of shocking violence is never far away; is the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons against a civilian target without provocation. Daxia has a large economy but one that is profoundly unequal and polluting relative to its size, the nation's environment and its protection is forever an afterthought of industrial policy.

Vallos

Vallos is a region without a local power, the closest having been the Loa Empire (which consisted of lands that are now a part of modern-day Almadaria, Rumahoki, Takatta Loa, and Vallejar). Surrounded by Sarpedon and colonies of those even further it is a tropical paradise for bigger nations. The area is defined by its diversity in climate, geography, and population, but also the array of living conditions and conflict. The latter brings out the ire of the stakeholders in the region: Burgundie, Caphiria, Cartadania, Pelaxia, and Urcea. Burgundie exercises its influence through Equitorial Ostiecia, Caphiria through its overseas province of Vespera, Cartadania via its island state of Porta Bianca, Pelaxia via its proximity to and more recent history on the subcontinent, and Urcea through its protectorate of Arona. There also exists the island of Eileada which has been under the rule of Faneria continuously since the late 1960s.

Culturally, Vallos is a rich tapestry and has often seen the convergence of the Cronans, the Polynesians, and the Latins. This in turn has led to the emergence of ethnic groups that take pride in their mixed ancestry to some extents. However, it must be made clear that just because the people of Vallos are more likely to be of mixed ancestry it doesn't necessarily mean that the subcontinent hasn't had its fair share of chauvinistic ethno-nationalism and xenophobia. The most notable, and perhaps the most infamous, being from the Delepasians, Pelaxian-speaking people who claim descent from the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas, who for decades took part in a system of institutionalised racial laws designed to deprive the Loa of civil and political rights until it was forcibly dismantled in the 1990s.

Republic of Arona

Formerly a part of the Kingdom of Oustec until its dissolution and partition after the Odurian War in 1859, the Republic of Arona is the sole Tainean nation-state in Vallos, albeit with a distinct Urcean influence after many years of being a protectorate of Urcea (most notably in its form of government, that being a form of Julian republic). This last fact has often been seen as a thorn on the side of those in Vallos who subscribe to the idea of the dangers of Levantine Creep, which in turn has resulted in less than sublime relations between most of the other independent nations of Vallos with Rumahoki being the sole exception due to its sizeable and politically active Tainean minority. It does, however, hold the last remnants of the traditional Tainean culture found before the colonial era complete with a significant warrior ethos on account of it having been a military frontier, something that also applies to its form of Reform Tainean which retains much of the innovations of the pre-reform tongue.

Because of the small nation's proximity to the equator, Arona's climate remains hot and tropical year-round with tropical rainforests and highlands being a commonality inland. This means that much of the Aronese population generally prefer the comparatively more temperate coastal flatland region, hence being home to the more urban areas of the country. Economically, Arona holds a decently stable economy that, although smaller compared to its larger neighbours, manages a small and somewhat evenly-spread manufacturing sector in urban areas that are focused on designs licensed from their Urcean counterparts. Otherwise, Arona's other two notable sectors are the service industry, also mainly found in urban areas (most especially in the nation's capital of Toucari where the University of Arona and a sizeable presence of the Urcean Royal Navy are found), and agriculture, mainly found further inland and is largely self-sustaining and profitable.

Equitorial Ostiecia

Formerly a colony, Equatorial Ostiecia is now a Burgoignesc constituent country with its own merits, sporting a large material and transportation economy for the Burgoignesc Metropole. Despite this economic reliance the land is known for its proud, Mercantile Reform Protestant population of those who settled the foliage-riddled jungle frontier. The country's transport economy would come in the next century after the area developed a capacity to support itself. In present day, Equitorial Ostiecia has a diverse economy and population, though being an extremely outward-facing country, its resources are sent abroad for manufacturing. Meanwhile, the populace primarily works in the tertiary economy and largely does so from concentrated, urban, coastal settlements. Still, this area of Vallos knows comparative prosperity.

Most Serene Sovereignty of Rumahoki

The Most Serene Sovereignty of Rumahoki is located at the junction of Tainean, Delepasian, Cartadanian, and Loa cultures. Historically, Rumahoki was split between multiple smaller countries which have only been united under one flag since 1976, but the nation's current constitution dates back to 1996. The country boasts having the only known imperial head of state in the region, that being Emperor Maximilian I, an Alstin-born man who was unexpectedly elected as monarch of both the conservative and authoritarian Delepasian Commonwealth (pre-1994 Rumahoki) and the subsequent post-1994 democracy. The Rumahokian Emperor is both a semi-constitutional monarch and a semi-elected monarch, the electoral process being a complex electoral machinery that alternates between sortition and miniature internal elections.

It was once the crown jewel of the Pelaxian colonial empire as the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas, such a status that led to the rise of a form of nationalism known of Delepasian exceptionalism which once served as the main ideology for many of the Delepasian polities from 1852 until the end of the Rumahokian Civil War in 1996. These days, it is a multicultural nation that boasts one of the most biodiverse regions in the subcontinent, and holds one of the strongest economies in the region as well, with the special economic zone in Portas Gemeas being home to many of the Vallosi branches of some of the world's largest multinational companies.

Sarpedon

Fourth Imperium of Caphiria

The largest country in Sarpedon in terms of land area and population (second-largest in both categories overall), the Fourth Imperium of Caphiria is one of the world's three foremost superpowers. Located almost smack-dab in the middle of the world according to most mainstream map projections, Caphiria is home to the Latinic people and the Latin language (both the formal Classical and the more practical Caphiric tongues) from which all the world's Romance languages and cultures can trace their ancestry from. It should be stated that Caphiria's landmass is rather widespread, with its extent going as far as the Overseas Possessions in Australis (Escal Isles) and in Crona (Cenendovia).

Caphiria is, according to its constitution, a unitary constitutional republic. However, it would be dangerously naive to assume that Caphiria functions as such. In reality, Caphiria is an autocratic-caesaropapist constitutional republic with an immensely powerful head of state, that being the Imperator. Despite the fact that the term "Imperator" translates to the word "Emperor" in countries like Rumahoki, the Caphirian Imperator is not a monarch nor is he an emperor. Because monarchy has left a very bad taste in the mouth of many of the people of Caphiria for the past millennia, the Imperator is a republican leader and commander-in-chief who may not necessarily lead for life (as was the case with Atancello II who lived to see the ascension of his successor and incumbent Imperator Constantinus I) while the rules of succession are meritocratic in nature.

As one of the largest economies in the world, the Caphirian economy is noted to have taken an extreme laissez-faire approach to most sectors, with the exceptions being the public transit and national defence sectors which are under heavy government intervention. It also has two currencies, the fiat Aureus (₳), used internationally and in highly developed areas of the country, and the copper-backed Uncia (₡), a legacy currency used by the poor and in lesser developed areas of the country. Caphiria's economy is also noted to be highly balanced, a means to ensure long-term economic stability by not overly relying on a single sector.

Australis

Republic of Stenza

On the northern part of Australies lies the Republic of Stenza, a Polynesian nathion that has taken to the international stage after an isolationist past not too long ago. Being a loose collection of tribes struggling for power among each other for most of ancient history, Stenza was tamed and industrialized by Daxian colinization before breaking free under an authoritarian, isolationist government.

Stenza has been a democracy since the early 2020's, with the nation fighting to prove itself on the international stage while growing economically from the onset of international trade. The nation advertises itself as a modern, prosperous hub for Polynesian culture, set on showing the old world what a 'once colony' is capable of while speaking out against the continued existence of other colonial holdings within the Polynesian sphere.

Modern day Stenza has been described as a pleasant place to visit if one sticks to the major areas of civilization, with the contrast between the developed cities and the less developed in-land towns being clear to all who dare to venture beyond the concrete of Stenza's metropolitan areas. Even the rural areas are seeing modern development however, with a lot of new wealth being put into the once backwards areas.