Your Nation's Fact of the Week

[Tsarus]

In Hachlar Mysticism, the Enlightenment, industrialism, social progress, and especially feminism is referred to as the Tainting of Yeþ’ya, Yeþ’ya being the Hachlar goddess of innocence and femininity.
Due to this, the common man has been enabled to emulate the wise, thus devaluing both the common man and the wise man - the two have been blended together. Wise men working common jobs, common men working wise jobs.
Women have become encouraged to emulate men as men are diluted into mundanity and limp wristedness.
The Hachlar mystics are not worried, however. Only those who manage to survive the coming era of death will be the ancestors of humanity far into the future as those who have succumbed to the degeneration of society will eventually die off from conditions too rugged to survive.

[Zhouran]

Scrapyard - Timesplitters 2

While tanks in Zhouran are associated with cavalry just like with foreign militaries, one peculiarity however is that fighter pilots in Zhouran are also associated with cavalry too. Going back in time, Zhouranese military thinking of ancient times divided soldiers into two main categories: Niujiazhu (foot infantry) and Majiazhu (mounted infantry). With ancient Zhouranese military thinking, majiazhu warriors played an important role in the battlefield. While heavy nuijiazhu warriors advanced towards the battlefield in large shielded formations, armed with long polearms and large one/two-handed swords with long blades (traditional Zhouranese weapons are known for being quite large due to the large build of the Kangyuli people), heavy majiazhu warriors on the other hand acted as highly-mobile shock troops that would charge directly into the enemy formation's flanks while light majiazhu warriors armed with recurved composite bows known as ayankezhanyanggus would pick off any enemy soldier from a standoff distance while moving at high-speed. As a result, the battlefields of ancient and medieval Zhouran have been widely-renowned for having a massive emphasis not only on heavy armor and powerful weaponry but also on high mobility, constant manoeuvres and "first sight, first shot, first kill" as well. The Zhouranese have been fighting each other for several millennia, and thus this would permanently influence the way modern Zhouranese military planners view military warfare against foreign enemies.

A mural inside the Military Museum of the Grand War Memorial in Ouyang showcasing early 3rd Century CE/AD light majiazhu archers from the Silin Army firing their ayankezhanyanggu bows


3D recreation of a heavy majiazhu warrior and its horse in armor from the mid 8th Century CE/AD

For Zhouranese tankers, they are referred to as Armored Dragoons, while Zhouranese fighter pilots are referred to as Aviation Fighter Dragoons. For Zhouranese military theorists, tanks are just modern replacements of a heavy majiazhu's horse in armor while a fighter plane is akin to the mythological zuliyake (a winged horse in Zhouranese mythology that is said to fly and gallop at such extremely high speed that it is too swift and elegant to be mounted by any ordinary man with only the most experienced and proficient warrior and horseman being capable of riding it). As a result, tanks form the centrepiece of armored shock offensives while fighter jets are the focal point of total air-dominance combat.

In terms of armored vehicles, the ZPA Ground Force has a diverse line-up of various armored vehicles, with main battle tanks being the main centerpiece. The Zhouranese operate the most advanced tanks on earth as well as the largest fleet of armored vehicles in total. In the early 1960s, the Zhouranese became the first in the world to operate main battle tanks with thick composite armor for superior protection, powerful fire-control system for long-range firing on enemy targets, a large fully-stabilized 120mm rifled gun for superior performance over 100mm and 105mm rifled guns, and a roof-mounted heavy machine gun that can be controlled from the inside which not only allows for usage without leaving the safety of the tank but also allowing tank commanders to visually-observe the battlefield. As a result, Zhouran's 2nd gen. MBTs such as the Type 63 main battle tank and Type 67 main battle tank were superior to all western tanks such as the American M60A1 and British Chieftain Mk. 2/3/5 in all aspects of firepower, protection, and fire-control systems, not to mention mobility too as these Zhouranese are much lighter than their western counterparts, are powered by highly-powerful liquid-cooled diesel engines, and utilize superior transmissions for superior mobility over western counterparts. Plus, in the early 1960s, the Zhouranese were also the first to widely utilize armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds, which meant that Zhouranese tanks could easily puncture the non-composite basic steel armor of western counterparts, and given that Zhouran's early 2nd gen. MBTs use thick composite armor that provides protection several times higher than that of basic steel armor, basically the presence of these early Zhouranese MBTs brought devastating destruction on the battlefield. As MBT technology grew, so did the evolution of Zhouranese MBTs. The end of the 1970s and the start of the 1980s saw the introduction of Zhouran's early 3rd gen. MBTs such as the Type 66-100 main battle tank and Type 82 main battle tank, featuring improved armor for increased protection, upgraded electronics, increased mobility, and the utilization of 125mm smoothbore guns that are fed via autoloader for reduced workload. With their superior armor, firepower and electronics, as well as the continued evolution of Zhouranese APFSDS, these tanks are fully-capable of eliminating emerging western tank designs at the time such as the M1/IP/A1 Abrams and Challenger 1 with little-to-no difficulty. Zhouranese MBT evolution continued on with the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s seeing the birth of Zhouran's mid 3rd gen. MBTs such as the Type 76-200 main battle tank and Type 89 main battle tank with significantly-increased performance for total dominance over foreign designs such as the M1A2, Leclerc and Challenger 2, followed by the appearance of Zhouran's late 3rd gen. MBTs throughout the 1990s such as the Type 93 main battle tank and Type 67-300 main battle tank, and the creation of Zhouran's enhanced 3rd gen. MBTs since the late 1990s and early 2000s such as the Type 64-500 main battle tank and Type 75-99 main battle tank. By the mid-to-late 2000s, Zhouranese tank evolution had quickly evolved to the 4th gen. designs such as the Type 06 main battle tank and Type 77-09 main battle tank, followed by the introduction of 5th gen. MBTs in the late 2000s to early 2010s such as the Type 07 main battle tank and Type 13 main battle tank, which are widely renowned for their unrivalled armor protection and their powerful bleeding-edge 140mm electrothermal-chemical smoothbore gun. Thanks to this impressive evolution, Zhouranese main battle tanks remain unmatched on the modern battlefield.

Maritime-dragoons, armored-dragoons and a Type 63-05 enhanced 3rd gen. main battle tank from the Naval Guards Forces looking out from a hill during operations near the southern outskirts of Turalei in South Sudan on April 21, 2018

With Air Force and Naval Aviation, they operate a wide range of advanced combat aircraft, the main stars being the fighter jets themselves. The ZPA Air Force and ZPA Naval Aviation both operate the most advanced fighter jets in the world as well as the largest fleet of combat aircraft in total. In the late 1970s, the Zhouranese People's Army Air Force became the first in the world to operationally use fully-commissioned fighter jets equipped with passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radars, giving PESA radar-equipped fighter jets such as the Jian-20-1-0 and Jian-19-0-1 an advantage over rival fighter jets equipped with standard pulse-Doppler radars such as the US Navy's F-14A Tomcat and the US Air Force's F-15 Eagle. Not only that, since the mid-1980s, the ZPA Air Force was the first in the world to operate fully-commissioned fighter jets equipped with thrust vectoring engine nozzles, giving supermaneuverable fighter jets such as the Jian-21-2 and Jian-18-2-0 a dogfight advantage over rivals. The Zhouranese currently operate a wide array of various highly-sophisticated fighter jet designs including the Jian-25-1-2 gen. 4++ fighter jet, Type 114-900 gen. 4++ carrier-borne fighter jet, Jian-24-3-0 gen. 4+++ fighter jet, Type 116-200 gen. 5+ carrier-borne stealth fighter, Jian-30-1-0 gen. 5++ stealth fighter, and Jian-31-0 gen. 6+ stealth fighter, all designed for maximum full-spectrum total air-dominance over friendly and hostile skies. The effectiveness of both Zhouranese fighter pilots and fighter jets is so high that there are actually debates regarding maximizing the effectiveness of Zhouranese fighter pilots. The controversial close-knit group known as the Boys in Blue (Putonghua: 蓝衣人), consisting of military officers from the ZPA Air Force and ZPA Naval Aviation along with civilian defense analysts and military researchers, use past and present combat experiences of various Zhouranese fighter pilots for their arguments in favor of retiring all light fighters and dedicated CAS aircraft in exchange for more heavy multirole fighter jets, although not everyone shares their radical sentiments. Regardless, Zhouranese fighter jets remain unsurpassed, their full-effective capabilities allowing them to fully-dominate over friendly- and enemy-skies with little-to-no difficulty whatsoever. To go along with Zhouranese powerful fighter jets are bleeding-edge within-visual-range and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles that surpass all foreign peers. Not only do these AAMs have superior flight performances over their foreign counterparts but they also feature highly-sophisticated powerful electronic sensors that are unrivalled, thus allowing Zhouranese AAMs to remain highly-resistant to even the most advanced radar and infrared countermeasures fielded by foreign militaries.

A ZPAN Type 115-900 gen. 4++ carrier-borne fighter jet intercepts an USN F/A-18E during a Zhouranese air-policing operation above the South China Sea on November 13, 2015

Unlike many militaries of other nations, the Zhouranese People's Army has no official doctrine whatsoever. For Zhouranese military planners, they know warfare is fluid and not static, and given Zhouran's several millennia old history as well as the Zhouranese people's highly-impassioned warrior culture and fervid martial-ethos, the Zhouranese have a very-meticulous and methodical view on military warfare the same way they view science & technology. For Zhouranese military planners, they know war is situational and thus not every war is fought the same, especially when factoring things such as geography, enemy types, technology, etcetera, instead their emphasis heavily-leans towards flexibility and adaptability. While the ZPA may not follow any official doctrines, the military mindset is Maximum Combined-Arms Full-Spectrum Dominance over enemy forces, through the heavy utilization of devastating firepower, bleeding-edge hyper-advanced technology, and battle-hardened highly-experienced well-trained personnel. The Zhouranese People's Army utilizes a vast array of highly-sophisticated military equipment designed to keep the military successful against competitors in the global arms race. Thanks to its numerous assortment of powerful highly-advanced weapons and cutting-edge technology, the Zhouranese People's Army is capable of inflicting overwhelming destruction on enemy forces and dominate over any battlefield. Meanwhile, the average Zhouranese soldier and officer serves multiple years of numerous tours of duty abroad in other countries, fighting in various terrains ranging from forests to urban to jungles to deserts. As a result, the average Zhouranese soldier and officer has the battle experiences and know-hows, and for commissioned officers this is backed by five years of highly-rigorous highly-competitive technical-oriented military education in Zhouran's various military academies. Highly-experienced and battle-hardened, the ZPA conducts various military expeditionary operations abroad and overseas military-operations-other-than-war (MOOTW) every year. Thanks to rigorously-methodical military training and meticulously-complex military education, Zhouranese military personnel are trained as highly-skilled highly-efficient warfighter capable of executing any mission with very-high proficiency and accurately calculate every move made by the opposing forces.

[Chalq]

In 2004, a member of Parliament from the Democratic Socialist Party was caught shooting up heroin while Parliament was in session. This MP was Cassidy Sullivan, and she was forced to go to rehab for seven months and was then allowed to return to Parliament where she served from 2005-2012. This serves as the one and only time a Chalqian government official has been caught shooting up heroin.

[Laka Strolistandiler]

As Lakan high ranking government officials are not offered state protection, nor can they offer to buy a private ones, most of the times they have to defend themselves. As such, they undergo rigorous military training and are quite capable in defending themselves against any threats.

However, should they encounter dangers of being captured, and possibly revealing sensible gov info, they are issued with multiple suicide devices to prevent this from happening. Usually, such devices include cyanide pills, however, some prefer to carry a revolver just for this cause.

Queen Lavinia, personally, uses a heavily modified mixture of cyanide that shall not only kill her instantly, but at the same time immediately start a process of decomposition. Although no high ranking officials were captured, and as such committed suicide, during shoot down on Mi-26 in colonies that was transporting Lavinia she almost used the pill on herself.

[Destyntine]

The top three most popular boy names:
1. Björn
2. Sven
3. Erik

The top three most popular girl names:
1. Astrid
2. Alva
3. Sylva

[Riam]

The nation is placed in a space-time bubble in the 10th dimension, by the Hiperurànion.

[New Antarcticania]

Despite being a socalist republic- antarticans are encouraged to have at least one firearm in their house at all times, in fact- the most armed man in antartica has a collection of over 500 self-derense firearms.

[Zhouran]

Robot Factory - Timesplitters 2

Zhouran's political fringe outcasts known as the superhardliners are considered to be esoteric occultists that dabble in what could be described as "esoteric new-age post-political enlightened occultism". Compared to the ordinary mainstream hardliners, the superhardliners are so radically hardline and so esoteric that both the political moderates and even the hardliners see the superhardliners as "mentally-unstable occultists".

While the beliefs of each superhardliner depends on each individual and group, the esoteric occultism they tend to follow would be an extremely-hardline diverging variation of the Spiritual Mandate, which is the indigenous religion of the Kangyuli people that was created somewhere in 3,270 BC. In the Spiritual Mandate, the meaning of life is seen as living in harmony with the surrounding world. Believers view their existence as sustained by the Eternal God, Yekezhong (Putonghua: 叶克忠; Pinyin: Yèkèzhōng; Ancient Zhouranese: Yekejong) and the Fertile Goddess, Kang Yulu (Putonghua: 康玉露; Pinyin: Kāng yùlù). However, for the superhardliners, their belief differs from that taught by the Spiritual Mandate. Rather than showing respect to Yekezhong, superhardliners show undying loyalty to both Hasa Keyong (Putonghua: 哈萨 可勇; Ancient Zhouranese: Haxa Keyong), who is the God of Suffering and Torment and Ruler of the Land of Suffering, and Kusa Yulu (Putonghua: 苦萨 玉露; Ancient Zhouranese: Kuuxa Yulu), who is the Goddess of Chaos and Destruction. Although the esoteric occultism of the political superhardliners is influenced by Zhouranese philosophy, art, literature, and music, some individuals and groups also add-in some Abrahamic concepts, such as Satan and the fact that he is a "servant to Hasa Keyong".

The mystique nature surrounding Zhouran's political superhardliners remains quite mysterious and enigmatic, especially to foreigners who have little-to-no knowledge on Zhouran's unique syncretic politics. As a result, many foreigners would compare the Zhouranese superhardliners to the supposed Nazi occultists, which has led to the creation of various conspiracy theories surrounding Zhouranese superhardliners. Not only that, many conspiracy theorists claim that the People's Republic of Zhouran has various cabals of powerful superhardliners that hide within the unique political landscape of Zhouran and that these secretive cliques use their power and immunity to conduct highly-clandestine esoteric research on mysticism and the occult, and secretly practice occult rituals and dark magic. These shadowy cabals are often described as "powerful nests of high-ranking officials within Zhouran's stratocratic hierarchy who are heavily involved in, and in some cases personally lead, the nation's various esoteric paranormal research efforts".

While various superhardliners tend to believe that the ultimate goal for the Zhouranese People & Nation is to "pragmatically follow the Sacred Path Towards True Awakened Enlightenment", there are various claims that more-secretive superhardline cliques hold more-sinister intentions, ranging from "establishing a heavily-mystical Kangyuli-dominated Zhouranese World Order that will last for an eternity until the End of Existence" to "pursuing an Absolute Total War for eternity until every single men, women and children are dead in order to reform the world, clear the foundation and build a new divine existence based on absolute fear, torment, submission, agony, distress, suffering, anguish, and misery, all for the sake of undying loyalty to Hasa Keyong".

Within the nation, there is a highly-classified elite covert group called the 33rd Strategic Battle Group, in which not only do they conduct supernatural warfare, esoteric research, and the combating & containment of anomalies worldwide, but also monitoring any key military and civilian figures that have close ties to political-superhardline groups to ensure the safety of the political-moderate and political-hardline from radical occultist elements of violent superhardline extremism. Both the 33rd SBG and various superhardline cliques engage in silent shadow wars across the entire world, which also involves the heavy anomalous usage of supernatural warfare and esoteric paranormal weaponry against one another.

A mysterious light appearing somewhere in the forests of Zhouran on November 16, 1994, conspiracy theorists claim the light is possibly the result of the 33rd SBG and superhardliners engaging in a firefight using anomalous weaponry against each other, although the government claims that these are simply the headlights of a ZPA military convoy that can be seen several kilometers away due to stability of an inversion layer

[Greater Angelus]

The Anomalous Incidents Department (AID) of the Ministry of State Security is one of the most opaque divisions in a ministry already largely hidden behind layers of black budgets, secretive agencies with overlapping responsibilities, and fierce territorial instincts on bureaucratic independence. Said to work in cautious tandem but also sometimes in direct competition with a much larger international counterpart, AID's mission statement is as follows:

The Anomalous Incidents Department is dedicated to preserving the integrity of our Socialist Republic through the containment and study of anomalous phenomena, and to pursue the benefits of such study in the service the preservation of normalcy, peace, and security in our country. We also work to reclaim such phenomena that rightfully belongs in Angelus and the fruits of which belong to her people.

Since the primeval past, Angelus has been a most sacred land, touched by its natural connection to phenomena outside the realm of human experience. Our ancestors learned to live alongside these things, constructing much of our civilization and our faith around the need to coexist and share the land with entities and events they did not fully understand. As time wore on, and our towns and cities grew, and under the boot of the imperialist slavers, we were disconnected from this past and forgot much of what was once common knowledge.

To aid in the establishment of our proudly sovereign and independent Socialist Republic, those who retained such knowledge, those who continued to delve into the eldritch and unknown to preserve and advance our glorious country throughout the dark years, created the predecessors of our department. The Order of New Pthumera, the Holy Catrionan Sisterhood, the Followers of Thessana, and others all merged into one so that they could combine their efforts to the protection of our hard-won freedom and the security of our people.

[Accelerationist Fuime]

Salvador Dali has a secret cult dedicated to worshiping his artwork in my nation!

[The Imagination Animals]

The Crossoverian people are mostly open to everyone no matter of gender, race, identity, or anything. They like people just how they are, and they don't want anyone to change who they are if they are already perfect.

[Soveiniesberg]

fact of the week since I skipped it a couple times

in Soveiniesberg it's common to have pie for your birthday instead of cake

[Can No Rey]

About 30 years ago, the Can No Rey R&D department of the Special Forces Command funded and developed a psy-ops warfare experiment and research, but the research was abandoned after many participants experienced nervous breakdowns or suicide.

[Kauzat]

in Kauzat, the military uses many cartridges and doesn't use a few specific ones for things

for Infantrymen these are the cartridges you can use in guns: 5.56mm NATO, 7.62 by 39mm, and that 5.45mm cartridge that is used in the AKS-47U

for Snipers and Marksmen or just something similar to that, these are the cartridges you can use: 7.62 by 54R, .308, .338 lapua magnum and the fictional .404 Cart round which has a pointed bullet, and isn't necked down to .404 caliber.

for machine gunners: anything goes really

for other stuff: 9 x 19mm, 9 x 18mm makarov, 10 x 25mm, and .38 special

[Zhouran]

In Zhouran, although the three years of high-school (15-18) is actually voluntary, most children will attend high-school regardless in order to prepare themselves for university or receive vocational training. As a result, secondary-diploma attainment rate in Zhouran is currently around 96.8%, which is quite high. For those who don't attend high-schools, there are various reasons including joining the workforce after graduating middle-school, living in the rural countryside and thus don't need higher-education for working in farming, working at home in a self-employed Internet-based occupation, etcetera.

[Bennystania]

bennystanian fun fact#1:we rarely lose wars, due to strong military, advance weapons, vehicles and armor, and good strong allies.
bennystanias strategy is to bomb enemy industry and factories. the idea of this is to slow down the enemy's means of production.




following the bombings on industry bennystania bombs key military locations on enemy soil and enemy bases that are stationed around the world. following these bombings bennystania attacks any surrounding islands around the enemy island, what this allows bennystania to do is to have key places near enemy soil.

then follows drone strikes/naval bombardments on shore defenses and inland defenses


following is a blitzkrieg attack to attack the already crippled enemy. airborne troops along with beach landings along a strategically selected coast
line. the idea is to push to the enemy capital (which gets bombed heavily during pre-invasion bombardments. if enemy's show enough resistance use of napalm becomes widespread. mustard and chlorine gasses are used to flush out enemy bunkers or trenches.

[Gandoor]

The 2025 Gandoorese Census, conducted last year, was the first census to allow for the selection of multiple ethnicities. According to the census data, 8.1% of the population (approx. 19.6 million people) consider themselves to be of mixed ethnic background.

[The Imagination Animals]

Crossoveria is home to GoAnimate characters, and there even is a province named Vyondia after the group of people that live there. GoAnimate logic and groundings are frequent.

[Greater Angelus]

The Victorique Metropolitan Railway (V-Met), an extensive mixed heavy and light-rail system that connects all key areas of the capital city's metropolitan area, has consistently been cited as the source of Victorique's excellent international rankings on city walkability, pedestrian-friendliness, and lack of traffic congestion. Also of note is V-Met's extensive sponsoring of local artists for commissions to decorate the rail's many stations. From murals to stained-glass set-pieces to sculptures, these, alongside the busy underground shops and "rail-eatery" food stalls, have become a feature of the Victorique commute.

[Zhouran]

Unlike other nations, all rapid transit systems in Zhouran form a nationwide network called the National Metro Railway Network. Across the nation, every city and most towns feature a rapid transit system each. The NMRN's top ten largest and busiest metros are placed in the world's top twenty, with Ouyang Metro ranking 1st in Zhouran and 3rd overall internationally. Despite Zhouran currently having the 6th highest motor per capita in the world at around 792 motor vehicles per 1,000 people, public transport remains popular and commonly used across Zhouran, one of the reasons being the highly-affordable low-price fares while other factors include the country having very-high social safety nets and an extremely-low level of crime, as well as Zhouran being the second largest electricity-producing nation in the world, world's largest producer of commercial nuclear power and the largest producer of commercial wind power. Zhouran's numerous metros that form the National Metro Railway Network strongly contribute to environmentalism being highly-important due to Zhouranese cultural view on healthy symbiosis between man and nature, not to mention it creates strong competition between public transportation and privately-owned motor vehicles.

Because towns and cities in Zhouran use the Zhouranese Cityscape/Townscape Model, cities in Zhouran are classed as smart cities. Thanks to this model, every town and city in Zhouran are not only pedestrian friendly but also vehicle friendly as well. The NMRN has proven to help reduce traffic congestion, thereby further reducing carbon footprint. Not only that, the NMRN also has the secondary function of being emergency bunkers, as underground stations and underground lines are built several meters below ground. As a result, underground metro stations can serve as nuclear shelters. For this purpose, the stations are fitted with large steel doors, tight gates and life-sustenance systems. Large military installations are also connected to some stations, and some lines are solely for military use. All metro systems that make up Zhouran's NMRN are connected to Central Emergency Complexes, thereby providing shelter for civilians in the event of a total war.

The outer entrance to an Ouyang Metro station


The inner entrance to the station


Because the depth of an average Ouyang Metro station is 105 m underground, people have to descend through a long, hardened tunnel


The beautifully-decorated corridor


The platform

[The Hazar Amisnery]

Fun fact: The Hazar Amisnery is landlocked yet we have a fully functioning Navy which operates out of an island in the Pacific Ocean. The WA has condemned our navy because of the 2016 “Somali Incident” in which a HA cruiser was firing missiles at a pirate boat but missed and blew up a small village killing 200 people.

[Teryitadies]

Treyitadies doesn't have solid land claims so no one knows what land they have actually.

[Aikoland]

David Gallois was the oldest serving Aikolandais Prime Minister, he became Prime Minister in 1882 at the age of 67 and served until the age of 81 in 1896.

[Perikuresu]

The prefecture of Rue du Bassin (in L'Hexagone Island) is named after Basin Street Blues and the prefecture of Yeni Zapadoslavya (in Aptal) is a reference to Nowa Polska in TNO

[Western Fardelshufflestein]

WFian bakeries are experiencing shortages of cakes all across the nation, which is significant enough that it's a top news story (within WF).