Your Nation's Fact of the Week

[Ultima Antivictoria]

Having isolated and corrected many undesirable genetic markers that could otherwise be transmitted to future generations, the laws against consensual incest have been completely overturned.

[Legatra]

Legatra is located on major oil deposits in the Pacific Ocean, which contributes massively to the economy.

[Nova Samnium]

Upon divorce, the father/husband always gets custody. Then again, divorce happens by only one method: a formal bill of divorce, unilaterally issued by one spouse or the other, usually the husband.

[Zhouran]

A ZPAAF Jian-20-1-0 fighter jet undergoing a refresher course on June 17, 1983

Both the Zhouranese People's Army Air Force and Zhouranese People's Army Naval Aviation utilize a form of flight training for combat pilots called Aviation Training Conversion, which was first created by the Zhouranese Imperial Army Air Service and Zhouranese Imperial Navy in the late 1930s. Thanks to the ZPA's rigorously-methodical military training and meticulously-complex military education along with Zhouran's bleeding-edge state-of-the-art fighter jets, Zhouranese fighter pilots have highly-impressive combat experiences compared to foreign counterparts, in fact the Zhouranese have highly-excellent track records with extremely lopsided kill ratios favoring Zhouranese fighter pilots against foreign counterparts. As a result, Zhouran currently has the highest-scoring supersonic fighter-jet aces. 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.

A ZPAAF Jian-20-6-2 fighter jet landing at the Zhouranese overseas installation Air Base Ziliraya in Sakaruyaan on August 13, 2011 following a mock dogfight drill

When a ZPAAF or ZPAN fighter pilot returns to duty after vacationing, they must undergo refresher courses before being mobilized for duty. Meanwhile, new fighter pilots who have completed flight training and initial fighter combat instruction must undergo operational conversion courses before being posted to operational units. Fighter pilots, both new and experienced, must always undergo refresher courses when returning back to duty. Since the early 1970s, Zhouranese fighter pilots always go through air combat simulation training in order to experience a realistic simulation of air combat. For aggressor aircraft, ZPAAF and ZPAN utilize Zhouranese fighter jets painted in unique non-standard paintschemes that emulate the paintschemes used by foreign air forces, however they will also utilize foreign fighter jets that have been covertly acquired from other countries via clandestine means (many details surrounding foreign fighter jets covertly operated by ZPAAF and ZPAN for aggressor simulation remains classified with exception to a limited amount of declassified materials).

A flight of three ZPAAF Jian-23-0-1 fighter jets flying in formation during initial fighter combat instruction training on December 12, 2004

Zhouranese aggressor instructors are among both the ZPAAF and ZPAN's most experienced fighter pilots, and often play a major role developing new tactics, in co-operation with fighter combat instructors from dedicated training units. Both aggressor instructors and fighter combat instructors can be posted to operational fighter units as weapons-and-tactics specialists and can also be called upon to conduct operational frontline tasks in certain circumstances. For Zhouranese ace pilots, it is quite common for them to become either aggressor instructors or fighter combat instructors due to their experiences and skills.

A ZPAAF Jian-24-0-1 fighter jet belonging to Air Combat Simulation Training Unit 77 painted in a paintscheme emulating the one used by Zollerhollorn F-15Es during a joint Zhouranese-Tshekovian aerial exercise in Tshekovia on May 7, 2003

[Greater Angelus]

Buried by official disinformation campaigns, a decade-long struggle in the 1980s-90s against the militant doomsday cult the Society of Truth's Children is a largely forgotten part of modern Angelan history which heavily involved the Ministry of State Security and its Anomalous Incidents Department. During the mid part of the second decade of Angelan independence, during which the initial euphoria of hard-won national sovereignty and the return of much of the diaspora had given way to bitter political disagreements, reports of grisly murders and unexplained disappearances began taking hold of the MSS's attention within the rapidly expanding urban landscape of Victorique. AID agents quickly became involved upon the discovery of the ritualistic and anomalous properties of these occurrences, with authorities determining the existence of individuals affiliated with the so-called Society.

What is known about the Society remains in the AID's classified archives but it was known to department leaders that the group worshiped "transcendence of the flesh", with members undertaking rituals of apparent self-mutilation, whether consensual or not. Reports from the period indicate the disappearance of an entire city block which was later reported by authorities to have never existed at all, strange off-season lightning storms explained away as unusual weather phenomena, and a quickly-contained contagion of unknown origins in which the Ministry of Health and Welfare was turned away from investigating. Terror activities were blamed on Humanocentrist agitators and Human-Aichellian militant groups despite vigorous denial by those accused. By the 1990s, the scope of the AID's mission - as well as its budget - had been significantly expanded, though any mutterings of discontent were quickly hushed up by the government. In 1996, a a prominent Pthumeran-born shamaness by the name of Renna Adranoe was taken into custody by MSS agents, surprising members of her neighborhood who claimed she had done nothing but good for the community.

[Zhouran]

Zhouran's massive socialist economy is fueled by the nation's extremely-abundant natural resources, a highly-developed state-of-the-art infrastructure, and extremely-high productivity. The average Zhouranese has the highest average household and employee income among all other nations. Zhouran is the world's largest trading nation as well as the second-largest manufacturer after China. Zhouran ranks No. 1 globally in patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, and creative goods exports and also has three (Hexie, Tanzhou and Ouyang in the 1st, 2nd and 4th spots respectively) of the global top 6 science and technology clusters, which is more than any other country.

Pre-packaged high-powered gaming computers being manufactured automatedly at a factory in the city of Anjing owned by Zhouran Intech

With a massive industrial base capable of easily rivalling other global powers with no difficulty, Zhouran's massive industries including the civilian and military manufacturing industries has easily outproduced other competitors. Numerous civilian and military products in Zhouran, ranging from children's toys to firearms, and even warships and artificial satellites, are all built with the use of highly-sophisticated industrial-level additive manufacturing and multiaxis machining for quick, easy, efficient and precise manufacturing. Being a highly-industrialized self-reliant nation with very-high social mobility and an active work-force, the People's Republic of Zhouran is an export powerhouse. The industries of Zhouran are highly diversified, world leading and high-technology innovative, with the country having the second largest industrial output in the world. In terms of bilateral trade with another nation, Zhouran generally exports raw materials, agricultural goods, petroleum, machinery, extremely-reliable and rugged vehicles such as motor vehicles and maritime vessels, bleeding-edge state-of-the-art electronic devices, and sometimes weapons, at concessional prices while importing consumer goods, industrial supplies, motor vehicles, crude oil (although Zhouran has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, the country prefers to conserve its reserves), food and beverages (mainly fruit and vegetables not grown in Zhouran as well as foreign goods), and lumber.

An automated robot inserting in steel castings at a steel foundry in the city of Jingnan

[Zhouran]

Although the Zhouranese People's Army is commonly seen as a forward-focused expeditionary-oriented offensive-based military force fully-capable of overwhelming both conventional militaries and asymmetrical irregular paramilitaries, it is actually for the most part a defensive-oriented military as only a fraction of both active & reserve personnel are deployed overseas while the rest obviously stay to defend the Zhouranese People & Nation.

Public shelters are common across Zhouran as the Zhouranese place a strong emphasis on defensive posture (large technologically-advanced well-trained military on constant alert, large available pool of volunteers willing to join the military, very-high gun-ownership rate, nuclear deterrence with first-strike policy, highly-active air-defense network, etc.). As a result, public shelters can be found anywhere in the country, from the rural countryside to suburbs and even in urban areas. Thanks to the Ideal National Military Model*, the government strongly stresses the importance of social mobilization and collective responsibility in order to keep the country not only prosperous but also impregnable and fortified.

Considering that Zhouran is a several-millennia-old stratocratic civilization with a highly-impassioned warrior culture and fervid martial-ethos, the country is essentially a hyper-militarized giant fortress. For Zhouranese people, the Motherland is the Shangjialata of the Zhouranese People, and with the Kangyuli Zhouranese being a martial race of warrior people, Zhouran is their Fortress of Independence and Prosperity that is worth defending even with their own life. Due to this hyper-militarized nature, the Zhouranese People's Army is known to operate numerous underground military installations nationwide including underground armories for firearms & crew-served weapons, underground depots for ground vehicles, underground aircraft caverns for fighter jets and ground-attackers, and even underground vessel caverns for surface warships and submarines. The ZPA utilizes a vast array of highly-sophisticated military equipment, its total combined firepower being second-to-none globally, and while massive numbers of these weapons & equipment are in frontline active service, the ZPA also operates a large quantity of weapons & equipment in rearline reserve service including those placed in storage-reserve. The ZPA has several thousand military installations all across Mainland Zhouran and Overseas Zhouran, in fact the ZPA operates the largest number of military installations on earth. Each Zhouranese military installation feature highly-complex networks of underground tunnels and bunkers that are large enough to not only fit hundreds and thousands of various weapons but also hundreds of armored vehicles, combat aircraft, and thousands of military personnel, all while still being spacious in order to permit freedom of movement without being restricted by confined spaces. As a result, Zhouran is the most heavily-tunnelled country in the world, and Zhouran has always been a heavily-fortified land for thousands of years since ancient times. On average, Zhouranese military installations are known to be particularly massive in size, dwarfing those of foreign militaries, and with Zhouran's military installation being the largest, the massive underground tunnel networks found in every Zhouranese military installation are so large that Zhouranese military analysts have stated that, hypothetically speaking, the ZPA can place its entire manpower and firepower underground in what are essentially "underground shangjialatas" as they commonly nickname.

Many of Zhouran's unrivalled highly-robust public infrastructure feature secondary military uses. For example, Zhouran's massive National Highway System (second largest highway network in the world) commonly feature highway-runways, which are a section of a provincial highway or controlled-access highway that is specially built to allow landing of military aircraft and to serve as a military airbase. These were built to allow military aircraft to operate even if their airbases are destroyed. Various active and reserve units from the ZPA Air Force as well as ZPA Naval Aviation commonly conduct take-off & landing drills on highway-runways every month. Another example of Zhouran's highly-comprehensive transportation infrastructure having secondary military purpose would be the National Metro Railway Network which have a 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. Large military installations are also connected to some stations, and some lines are solely for military use. The ZPA Ground Force is to known operate numerous covert underground metro lines, which are used for a variety of clandestine functions including troop transportation, weapons transportation, etcetera.

Public shelters in Zhouran that are used for civilians vary in shape and sizes. Small reinforced-concrete shelters can be found in every public space such as parks in every town and city nationwide, these shelters are generally used for hiding from the elements such as rain, snow and hail, but can also be used by soldiers as a form of cover protection for urban warfare. The largest and most-complex type of public shelter in Zhouran would be the Central Emergency Complex, which can be found in every town and city across the nation. A Central Emergency Complex is a type of underground network of tunnels and shelters located beneath the People's Republic of Zhouran for the purpose of military defense. First created in early 1969 and maintained by the Ministry of National Emergency of the People's Republic of Zhouran, the shelters were designed to accommodate and protect the inhabitants of the nation while providing a defensive refuge.

Each network contains several tunnels with roads that connect to different shelters, while each shelter has a small apartment, a medical facility, a communication center, a power station, ventilation systems, heating and cooling systems, water supply, and thick blast doors.

Depending on their size, a central emergency complex can house several thousands of people.

There are hundreds of thousands of different public shelters all across Zhouran. The Ministry of National Emergency has stated several times throughout the years that the entire national population can be fitted inside the public shelters including the central emergency complexes.

Artistic representations released by the Ministry of National Emergency in 1987 showing the interiors of a central emergency complex in the northeast of Anjing that was newly-built at the time.

The Ideal National Military is a Zhouranese school of thought created in early 1938. Based on the nation's passionate and intense warrior culture, which dates back to the birth of the Silin Dynasty in 7 BC, the concept states that a military plays a broader role than merely defending the national security of a country. According to the model, a nation's strength for an emergency situation is based on the combination and joint participation of active and reserve military personnel, as well as paramilitary personnel. The Ideal National Military concept believes that in case of war or other emergency situations, able-bodied citizens must regularly participate in military training in order to be prepared for military service.

[Gandoor]

Despite episode 1793 of the long-running drama series Rose's historical status as the first colour television broadcast in colour, for many decades, the episode was considered to only exist via a black and white copy created for foreign sales. A copy of the original colour version of the episode would not be recovered until 2005, nearly 50 years after the episode was first broadcast in 1958, when it was found in a mislabelled film canister in the GBC's archives.

[Meretica]

Meretica has only ever down-sized the size of its Senate once, following the most recent Meretican Civil War.

[Vallermoore]

Whilst nearly all the racist laws of Vallermoore have been repealed, one remains. A black businessperson must have a white business partner that can take half the profits.

[New Tryphalia]

Now that Colonel Demetrios Poulas has become leader of Tryphalia, no fewer than eight lawsuits against him have been settled with shocking speed...largely on very favorable terms for the colonel, of course. This includes a lengthy dispute with his ex-wife, who has battled for a share of his army pension for the past seventeen years. Of course, the law has now been changed to abolish any spousal rights to military or naval pensions, by order of none other than Colonel Poulas himself.

[Aikoland]

The coronation of Empress Isabelle V in 1960 was the first to be broadcast on television in Aikoland.

[Republica Federal de Catalunya]

Catalan TV switched to color emissions in October 1st 1969.
We used PAL system.

[Zhouran]

Zhouranese folk dance refers to the traditional folk dances of the Zhouranese people. Often described as energetic, fast-paced, and entertaining, traditional Zhouranese dances are known for their quick dancing tempo. Indeed, Zhouranese folk dances strongly symbolize the Zhouranese people's rich heritage, identity, and culture, and the vibrant nature reflects the Zhouranese people's active, dynamic, spirited energy and vigorous emphasis on staying physically and mentally active.

Examples of two famous Zhouranese folk dances that are well-known globally would be the Zhouranese Line Dance and the Zhouranese War Narrative Dance. The former is typically associated with the stereotype of Zhouranese people dancing in large straight/curved lines during special occasions such birthdays and weddings or in random places such as in the streets with random strangers, while the latter is associated with the stereotype of Zhouranese people celebrating victory by doing the dance (which is sometimes known by foreigners as the "Zhouranese Squat Dance").

[The Enlightened Regenerationist State]

The Enlightened State is, along with Yugoslavia, one of the two countries in history to have a pentacameral legislature. Currently, it is the sole country in the world to have five houses in a legislature. The pentacameral National Congress was established in 1978 under the first government of the National Techno-Artistic Party.

The lower house, the People's Chamber, is the largest house of the National Congress. Each state elects a number of Congressmen proportional to their population. The minimum number of Congressmen is ten, while there is no maximum limit. The People's Chamber only has basic requirements for running for office. These requirements include having no serious criminal record, be a Brazilian citizen, and have lived in Brazil for the last three years. Unlike the other four houses, the People's Chamber does not have additional requirements for candidates. The lower house is a regular chamber, unlike the other houses which hold special status.

The lower middle house, the Constitutional Council, is not elected by the population. It is composed of judges and "people deemed to have proficiency on law". The Constitutional Council is elected by the Commission of Brazilian Judges and Lawyers, those which are appointed every five years by the protector-president and the second protector-president. The Constitutional Council is responsible for approving or rejecting constitutional amendments, censoring the executive if its actions are considered to be "against the public interest", and even initiating an impeachment process. The Constitutional Council is composed of 100 Constitutionmen.

The upper-middle house, the Federal Council, is composed of three Councilmen from each state, with a total of 93 Councilmen. The Federal Council is directly elected by the population. The requirements for being a Councilmen are higher than for Congressmen: you need to be older than 25 years old (for Congressmen it is 18 years), have a college degree, and pass the "Technical Exam of Merits" (ETM). The ETM evaluates how apt someone is for being a Councilman. The ETM consists of an IQ test, a neuropsychological test, and questions about your life. If someone is found to be lying, they are banned forever from attempting to take the ETM again. The ETM is criticized for being a "gatekeeper", although it is justified by the technocratic position of the government, which wants to give more political space for "the smart and the apt". The Federal Council acts as a smaller People's Chamber, as it holds no special powers except for its capability of initiating an impeachment process against any executive official, although the Constitutional Council has the final say on any impeachment case that may appear.

The upper house, the House of the Illustrious, is a completely technocratic house of the National Congress. It is elected by the population, but its candidates are pre-selected by the Talent and Endowment Commission of Brazil, a body independent from the government which is elected by universities, research institutes, scientific facilities, intellectual centers, artistic centers, etc. The House of the Illustrious is elected every eight years, different from the lower houses, which have four-year terms for its members. The illustrious candidates are not bound to state frontiers - they compete in a national election, just like a presidential election would work. In the end, the number of the House of Illustrious is always changing: for every four candidates, one will be elected. In the last election, 753 candidates ran for office, which meant the 188 most voted candidates were elected.

The Supreme Forum is appointed by the protector-president, the House of Illustrious, state governors, and "interest groups". These groups include trade unions, the military, the Magisterium (a national institution composed of teachers and professors), ethnic minorities, and many more. There are 1242 Senators in the Supreme Forum. The Senators have the final say in all matters, except those pertaining to the Constitutional Council. In theory, the Supreme Forum has more power than the president and the lower houses combined, although, in practice, the president still is the most powerful institution in Brazil, since the Supreme Forum is the "right-arm" of the ruling party, and on most occasions, it is just a "rubber-stamping body". While the Supreme Forum is a chamber that serves mostly for consultation, the lower houses are the ones which truly have the power to oppose the government.

[Bears Armed]

Wizards in Bears Armed (other than 'Grimdark the Grey' himself) have been subject to widespread hostile prejudice for a long time, for historical reasons. The "wizarding community" is now trying to boost its public reputation by exploiting the general public's interest in Sports and sending a team to compete -- in the nation's name -- in the latest Quidditch World Cup.
(OOC: see 'Quidditch World Cup 11', in the NSSports forum...)

[New Tryphalia]

Marriage has been abolished in New Tryphalia. That is, civil marriage with licenses. Virtually any consenting adults can hold weddings for themselves and their partners with family and guests in attendance, but the State will no longer grant or issue marriage licenses to anyone recognizing any kind of unions between them whatsoever. This has been ostensibly done to unclog family law courts of all divorce cases and simplify all disputes between parents of minors to being merely over custody and child support, but there are rumors that Colonel Poulas also wanted to end alimony and the concept of marital property as well as reduce the risk of paternity fraud.

[Lytrovia]

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the most influential religion in Lytrovia. But it isn't the largest. In fact, Muslims make up 53% of the religious community, followed by the Orthodox Church and then Catholicism. At the bottom is Buddhism with 8% of the share.

[Zhouran]

The most pressing issue in Zhouran would be the need to further reduce greenhouse gasses by abolishing mass-use of fossil-fuel and moving towards 100% full-renewability and full-reliance on nuclear power. Because of the nomadic origins of the Kangyuli people, Zhouranese culture has always emphasize the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature, which is why the Zhouranese are very environmental-conscious. Environmental protection itself is already highly-important in the country. Zhouranese people believe that the Motherland is precious and must be treated with respect the same way an individual would respect his/her own house. The country has strict environmental protection regulations to prevent industries from damaging the environment while the R&D sector is busy researching on various eco-friendly projects such as nuclear fusion and hydrogen power.

Due to the strong importance of environmentalism within Zhouranese culture and society, the country, being the second largest electricity-producing nation in the world, has the world's largest number of nuclear power plants and wind farms. As a result, Zhouran is the world's largest producer of commercial nuclear power as well as the largest producer of commercial wind power.

Regarding electric vehicles, Zhouran is the leading producer of road-legal light-duty, medium-duty and heavy-duty electric-vehicles and has the highest number of plug-in battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles and fuel-cell electric-vehicles on the road. Electric vehicles and charging stations are heavily subsidized as the government provides incentives to owners of electric vehicles.

[Destyntine]

There are no political parties in the Destynic government. Individualists and non-political figures are encouraged to run for government positions, to match the current needs of the state. Many of those who get into political positions are scientists, inventors, businessmen, doctors, and military. It would be very difficult to get into politics without a superior skill to hone in on during a term. A District Jarl's council normally consists of members with very diverse backgrounds, who can lead in specialized areas and bring ideas to the table for the Jarl to decide the importance of.

[Zhouran]

Zhouranese civilization as a whole is considered meritocratic and technocratic in nature. Because Zhouran is a several-millennia-old stratocratic civilization with a highly-impassioned warrior culture and fervid martial-etho, extremely-high level of militarization unseen anywhere else, and strong rigorous emphasis on education & research that remains unparalleled, the country has the nickname of 'Silicon Shangjialata' and 'Silicon Fortress'. Due to Zhouran's nomadic origins and several-millennia long history of golden ages characterized by scientific growth and dark violent ages characterized by violent conflicts, both craftsmanship and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are considered to be extremely-important in the growth of the Zhouranese Kangyuli civilization. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Zhouran strongly play an important role in Zhouranese culture, society and identity, having a long history in Zhouran since ancient times and producing numerous significant developments and discoveries in various scientific disciplines. The native folk religon of the Kangyuli Zhouranese, the Spiritual Mandate, is not only secular but also knowledge-centric. Meanwhile, Zhouran's globally-unrivalled technical-oriented highly-rigorous, highly-methodical & meticulously-complex education system strongly promotes initiative-driven innovation-centric pragmatism, enlightenment and science towards students. Zhouran is a stratocracy, however the Zhouranese have their own variation of stratocracy that differs completely from other nations called Yuhukekang (Putonghua: 裕瑚克炕; Ancient Zhouranese: Yuhuukuukang), which was created in 7 BC during the birth of the Silin Dynasty and the emergence of the Zhouranese warrior culture. Thanks to Yuhukekang, the highest national leadership is military-led but the civilian element of the government that does not pertain to nation-security (including government bodies such as the Ministry of National Education and lower-level local governments) are led by actual-qualified knowledgeable civilian experts who are elected democratically by the proletarians based on their merit, experience, skills and knowledge on a specific field. As a result, the military element of the stratocracy is led by high-ranking highly-experienced military officers who have gone through Zhouran's internationally-unmatched rigorously-methodical military training and meticulously-complex military education that has effectively turned them into "Walking Calculators" and "Biological Computers", meanwhile the civilian element of the stratocracy is led by highly-knowledgeable experts from various knowledge-intensive fields including engineering, medical, economics & finance, science, etcetera. Thus, Zhouran can be simply described as a Meritocratic Stratocratic–Technocracy.

The modern People's Republic of Zhouran, established on September 9, 1956 and succeeding the former Empire of Zhouran, is a socialist state, however unlike other socialist states that tend to follow either Marxism–Leninism (Communism) or Utopian Socialism, the PRZ follows a Zhouranese form of Scientific Socialism called Zhouranese Socialism. Specifically tailor-made for the material conditions of Zhouran, ZhouSoc is a form of scientific socialism in that the sovereignty of power rests upon reason. Under ZhouSoc, one must engange in dialectic thinking through understanding and predicting social, economic and material phenomena by examining their historical trends through the use of the scientific method in order to derive probable outcomes and probable future developments, as well as carefully and pragmatically make important decisions by calculating and planning policies before implementation and then closely observe and experiment with such policies for a certain period of time before making a decision on whether to make changes to an existing policy or replace it with another policy.

For us Zhouranese, our civilization was not only built in the blood of our ancestors who sacrificed their lives fighting for a better prosperous future but also by the knowledge our forefathers have given to us every generation. The only thing sharper than a sword is knowledge, and knowledge in its most basic form is the key to securing victory on any battlefield. We live to learn everyday and to seek knowledge whenever possible. A warrior should not only be athletically fit but also intellectually healthy. The principles of the Spiritual Mandate teaches us to be physically strong and healthy, and intellectually pragmatic, rational and knowledgeable. If one can dominate the physical battlefield via strength, then imagine one could do with knowledge on the metaphysical battlefield. The very nature and wisdom of knowledge itself is magic, but unlike magic, knowledge is real and rational.

- Field Marshal Chen Nalan, Commander of the 5th Guards Army of the ZPA Ground Force, during a conference on the future of the Zhouranese Youth at the highly-prestigious Yansunren University in Ouyang

[Kauzat]

fact of the week for Kauzat.

there is a stupidly large tunnel system under the capitol building, from around 1968. nobody really cares for it, yet there have been reports of some strange noises coming from inside of it lately.

[Vikoland]

Since 1977, Vikoland has had absolute primogeniture for succession to the throne. The country previously used male primogeniture and since the law was changed, Princess Sophia has become fist in line to the throne despite having 2 younger brothers.

[Alternate Garza]

Prior to entering politics, President Carlita Ruiz was an adult film star, but more of the gritty, old-school, grindhouse porn than modern, tech-savvy, digital smut.

[Nova Samnium]

Nova Samnium has consistently refused to intervene in the internal affairs of all foreign powers, period. We will be neutral in all civil wars and most foreign wars as well. We typically only fight to defend our own homes. This is a result of the Edomite War of 2012, which ended in such a bloody stalemate that our leaders have committed themselves ever since to the current policy of strict neutrality.