Tropes of your nation

[Hatsunia]

Latest version here

• Actor Allusion - Saki Fujita is the voice sample provider of the Hatsune Miku software, both in Hatsunia and in real life. Hatsunia's tallest mountain is Mt. Saki.
• The Alliance - In its universe, Hatsunia is part of the Mutual East Asian Cooperation Union, a benevolent and sincere version of the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" of Imperial Japan. It is also part of the Pacific Rim Organization, which is basically a Pacific version of NATO.
• Arc Number / Goroawase Number - There are a lot of statistical anomalies in Hatsunia involving the number 39. It just so happens that "3-9" can be pronounced "mi-ku" in Japanese Hatsunese.
• Arcology - The growth of Miraito's IT and tourism industries with limited land area have incentivized the construction of the Sky Mile Tower and similar buildings. Later on, the Mega-City Pyramid will be built.
• Artifical Intelligence - Japan lags in AI research while Hatsunia leads.
  
  In 2046, Hatsunia will be led by an AI named Hatsune Miku (with input from the people).
• Attack Drone - Unmanned fighters are becoming more prominent in Hatsunia's air force.
• Augmented Reality - There are startups with names like Coil and Megamass, developing mixed reality smartglasses (like Microsoft HoloLens).
• Bland Name Product - Some companies have names like Mikubishi or Ongakuten (Rakuten), but others are named after real-life ones (e.g. Crypton Future Media, Toyota), as they have had direct ties with Miku or other Vocaloids.
• Cool Spaceship - There is a reusable launch system and spaceship called Mikumaru, which landed the first Hatsunese people on Mars in 2016.
• Custom Uniform - Like in Japan, high school students wear uniforms, but with more freedom to express their individuality.
• Cute Machines - Hatsunia's robotics industry produces a lot of these. But they also focus on practicality, too.
• Different World, Different Movies - Hatsunia has "Mobile Suit Zaku" (because of the 39 pun), which is basically a Gundam mirror universe.
• Early Installment Weirdness - Hatsunia was originally a "United Federation" (like Star Trek) with a presidential republic, and had only 39 million people.
• Electronic Music - The most popular music in Hatsunia are genres like electropop, techno, trance, and house, all made using synthesizer software (sometimes accompanied with real instruments).
• Everything Is an iPod in the Future - Japanese electronics were mainly leaders in the "Cassette Futurism" era, but were overtaken by Apple and Samsung in the digital age. Hatsunese electronics, on the other hand, are still cutting-edge.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture - Hatsunia is basically Japan with more Hatsune Miku, a more benevolent modern history, more social progress, and the innovative and tech-savvy spirit of Silicon Valley. The nickname of Hatsunia is "The Land of the First Sound" (i.e. first sounds of the day), paralleling "The Land of the Rising Sun." Yamaha is the developer of the Vocaloid software engine in real life, so there is "Yamaha" instead of "Yamato."
• Fictional Social Network - mixu is like mixi (mikushī), but more successful in its universe.
• Fun With Acronyms - The Mutual East Asian Cooperation Union
  - The first satellite of the Hatsunese space agency (HASDA) was the High Altitude Test Satellite Utilizing New Experiments. HASDA also has a Mars probe called MELODY (Mars Exploration with a Lander-Orbiter DYnamic, inspired by the MELOS concept). Human interplanetary missions are part of the "Project DIVA" (Development of Interplanetary Vehicle Architecture) program.
• High-Tech Hexagons - Can sometimes be a part of modern Hatsunese aesthetics.
• Hologram - Current Miku concerts are often mistaken for holograms, but are actually projections on a glass screen. However, scientists are researching ways to make actual holograms.
• Japanese Politeness - Hatsunia has this, too, but it is less regimented, thereby preventing things like bullying and anti-LGBT discrimination that result from a notion of "harmony" through strict conformity. "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down" is the proverb that does not exist in Hatsunia.
• Japan Takes Over the World - Hatsunia is inspired by the 1980s notion that Japan would become an economic and technological superpower (also, one of Hatsune Miku's most famous songs is called "(The) World is Mine"), but adapted for the post-80s world of software-focused businesses, where the Japanese tech industry has faltered. Hatsunia also did not go through an economic "miracle" which became an unsustainable bubble followed by stagnation. Japanese corporate culture was thought to be the most efficient in the 1980s, but now is considered to lag behind in productivity, so the Hatsunese economy is intended to actually be efficient.
• Kawaisa - There is a lot of cuteness in Hatsunese pop culture, but there is an emphasis on being "cute and capable" and not just infantile and helpless.
• Mirror Universe - A partial mirror universe in which Hatsunia is a democracy joining the Allies during WWII, while China is a fragile democracy that succumbs to fascism and joins the Axis. After the war, China is split in two.
• Meaningful Name - What's a better symbol for a more tech-savvy and software-focused version of Japan than Hatsune Miku, a singing software character whose name means "the first sound from the future?"
• Never Was This Universe - Hatsunia exists in a parallel universe in which there is a landmass that happens to be shaped like Hatsune Miku's hair instead of Japan. Some countries are different (like China being split into two and Korea being united), but most remain the same.
• No-Paper Future - Hatsunese offices are all digital, no fax machines in sight.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo - Subverted since Hatsunia was part of the Allies in WWII and wasn't nuked. However, there were controversies surrounding the development and testing of Hatsunia's own nuclear weapons in the early 1960s. Hatsunia currently maintains a minimal stockpile for deterrence purposes.
• Operating System - Japan has no prominent operating systems, but Hatsunia has the "Symphony" operating system developed by Crypton Future Media (with thousands of employees in this universe instead of 30).
• Politically Correct History - Hatsunia, as part of a "half-and-half westernization" in the mid-19th century, adopted Western democracy, but not the racism, sexism, and imperialism of Western powers at the time. Hatsunia went on to befriend Korea (instead of annexing and oppressing it), and joined the Allies during WWII. This is intended to represent an antithesis to the brutality of Imperial Japan.
• Post-Cyberpunk - Hatsunia is a cyberprep version of the cyberpunk "Japan Takes Over the World (economically)" trope, with less of the "neo-Yellow Peril" connotations. There are big corporations, but they don't control absolutely everything, and "technology isn't screwing everything up."
• Pun - Hatsunia purchased the Micronesian islands from Spain (instead of taking it from Germany during WWI). Micronesia is pronounced "Mikuroneshia" (ミクロネシア, with a mee- sound) in Japanese Hatsunese.
  - The name of Empress Moeji (萌治) looks a lot like Emperor Meiji (明治) but with an extra radical. (Momiji and Moeji are spoofs of Meiji chocolate in KEI's Miku manga)
  - The real-life company Rakuten ("the Amazon.com of Japan") means "optimism" (楽天). Ongakuten (音楽天) is a portmanteau with "music" (音楽).
• Real Life Writes the Plot - Hatsunia's economy is handling the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic much more effectively than Japan, with the use of telecommuting and no paperwork stamping requirements.
• Salaryman - Subverted as that kind of corporate culture discourages risk-taking and innovation (as opposed to the 1980s narrative of Japanese businesses taking over the world).
• Samurai - Similar to Japan, but everything diverges from the 15th century. Empress Momiji's government manages to take back de facto control from the military dictatorship (shogunate) during the "War of Lost Songs," and society gradually becomes less militaristic. There is no "closed country" (sakoku) period, just a period of non-interference, resulting in more exposure to foreign peoples and cultures and less ingrained xenophobia.
• Science Is Good - Hatsunia is a very science-and-technology-focused country, since in Japan, a lag in technological adoption is having a serious negative effect on economic efficiency.
• Space Station - HASDA has a modular space station called "Mirai," built in the 2000s.
• Surprisingly Good English - English became an official language in Hatsunia in 1967 to promote diplomatic and economic globalization.
  - (meta reason: English is the lingua franca of computing, and was easier to handle on early computers compared to kanji)
• Technology Porn / Techno Wizard / Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - Hatsunia is heavily based on Japan's reputation as a country at the forefront of technology (see this compilation of articles). In reality, fax machines and stamped paperwork are still common in Japan, so Hatsunia aims to correct that and other weaknesses in Japan's tech scene.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe - Miraito, the "Silicon Metropolis," is like Tokyo if it also had a booming and innovative IT sector.
• Trademark Favorite Food - Negi (green onions) are the signature food item in Hatsunia, like how they are associated with Miku in real life. Ancient rituals involved swinging or spinning a negi to music (especially to signify "the first sounds of the day"), and it came to be a symbol on the flag.
  - Some prefectures are named after cities or towns with negi-themed mascots, like Yonago and Fukaya.
• Virtual Celebrity - The page image is what Hatsunia is all about. But in this universe, Hatsune Miku isn't just a singing software character, she is also part of the folklore regarding the country's foundation.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Students in Hatsunia can have any hair color they want, in stark contrast to the policy of a Japanese school which requires all students to dye their hair black. The latter policy has been criticized as the kind of attitude which prevents "thinking outside the box" and "stifles innovation," so Hatsunese schools are the opposite of that.

[Zhouran]

Current trope list for Zhouran.

• Post-Cyberpunk - With science, engineering and mathematics strongly emphasized academically, the Zhouranese produce important researches, developments and contributions to numerous disciplines. Backed by numerous universities across the nation along with various research institutes in scientific research zones and scientific research clusters (commonly nicknamed "Silicon Forests") as well as having a technical-oriented highly-rigorous and highly-competitive environment, Zhouran leads in the forefront of science and engineering. The uses for scientific knowledge and cutting-edge technology in Zhouran vary, ranging from further innovating fields such as nuclear research and space exploration, to helpful everyday implements such as nanobiotechnology and automated work robots, all the way to military uses such as creating a vast array of highly-sophisticated military equipment. Every city in Zhouran such as Anjing for example are futuristic smart cities while the ZPA has futuristic aesthetic as well as being outfitted with a wide assortment of numerous hyper-advanced weaponry.
  
• I Love Nuclear Power - Being the second largest electricity-producing nation in the world, Zhouran has the world's largest number of nuclear power plants and is the world's largest producer of commercial nuclear power. With an increasing emphasis on dominant nuclear power (including fusion) in order to replace coal, Zhouran sees itself as the world's leading commercial nuclear nation. Zhouran also has a massive nuclear arsenal and has conducted numerous nuclear weapons tests in the past.
  
• Flesh Versus Steel - Being technologically-advanced and having a massive emphasis on science and technology, the Zhouranese are definitely on the side of steel especially with their implementation of morally-questionable technology such as cybernetics. Technocrats in the country argue technology has no moral code and that scientific progress is more important than the collective feelings of people from a technologically-inferior time period.
  
• Gray And Gray Morality - Being rational, forward-thinking pragmatic, and intellectually-ingenuous is highly-valued in Zhouranese society, but sometimes the questioning of whether an action is moral or not is a massive question in Zhouran that many continue to debate on.
  
• Technology Porn - Zhouran itself, ranging from ordinary tech such as consumers' electronics and plug-in electric vehicles to nuclear power and spacecrafts to hyper-advanced weapons. Being a hyper-advanced technocratic stratocracy, Zhouran is commonly referred to as "Silicon Shangjialata" and "Silicon Fortress".
  
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch - The ZPA conducts various military expeditionary operations abroad and overseas military-operations-other-than-war (MOOTW) every year, targeting both hostile rogue states and dangerous insurgent groups. Despite these actions against tyrannical groups, the warhawk elements of the political-moderate and political-hardline, especially those with a more racialist view, are known to conduct brutal clandestine actions against perceived enemies by kidnapping or capturing targeted individuals and torturing them, as well as heavily carpet-bombing suspected enemy locations. In the words of Zhouranese warhawks: "monsters aren't humans, so therefore human rights doesn't apply to them sons of bitches".
  
• Not What I Signed For - For many people who signed up and got accepted into the ZPA, political factionalism between moderates and hardlines becomes apparent. Many of the troops sent abroad would end up showing their grievances towards the pro-interventionist warhawks while others would end up becoming supremacists calling for more military intervention and even direct military confrontations with basically any nations they deem an existential threat to the Kangyuli Race.
  
• Proud Warrior Race Guy - Kangyuli Zhouranese themselves due to their strong passionate warrior-culture and fervid martial-ethos.
  
• Token Enemy Minority - Zhouranese men are known for marrying outside their race, thus interracial relationships in Zhouran as well as the tiny diasporas are overwhelmingly between Zhouranese men and non-Zhouranese women. Considering the general ethno-cultural nationalist attitude of Zhouranese society, foreign women dating or married to Zhouranese men can find it difficult to integrate into Zhouranese society as there is a chance (depending on the background of the woman) of being a target of blatant direct racism. White women from the West, especially the Anglosphere, are most likely to receive frequent discrimination while ethnic women such as African women and Hispanic women are more likely to receive warmer and friendlier reception.
  
• Artificial Intelligence - Zhouran is known for being a massive user of artificial intelligence to the point of being the leading nation in AI. Dumb AI is used in a variety of mostly-civilian roles such as managing the satellite-dish arrays of a radio-astronomy observatory, supervising a nuclear power plant, managing the railway-supervision and automated train signalling of a railway system such as the National High-Speed Rail Network and National Rapid Maglev Railway Network, and overseeing the entire infrastructure of a city. Meanwhile, smart AI is used for more military-oriented tasks such as managing the internal software of a fighter jet, overseeing the inner-workings of a guided-missile destroyer, and supervising the security and functions of a military installation.
  
• Space Station - Every since Zhouran achieved the capability to send humans to space since the late 1960s, Zhouran has been deploying space stations, both research- and military-oriented, since the early 1980s.
  
• Unstoppable Rage - Any Zhouranese soldier or field commander with strong bloodlust and rage to the point of going insane with anger and carving paths through enemy forces. The high leadership of the stratocracy literally has to restrain these individuals, no matter how decorated or skilled they are, just so they don't kick up a slaughtering from massacre to a full-scale genocide.
  
• War Is Hell - Throughout Zhouran's rich several-millennia long history, there has been periods of golden ages and periods of intense bloodshed. Zhouranese people are taught that war is essentially the harsh truth of reality and is one way of surviving as a civilization. Zhouranese troops who come home after serving multiple tours of duty abroad become jaded and de-sensitize with the harsh realities of the world. Some become peace-doves calling for the reduction or even the end of military interventionism while others become warhawks who simply see the need for World Peace Through Armed Strength.
  
• War Is Glorious - Despite its harsh nature, war is also seen as absolutely necessary for survival especially when the world is facing harsh times.
  
• We Come In Peace — Shoot To Kill - Zhouranese military interventionism in a nutshell, especially that of Senior Marshal Kang Yingyong's 2018 Foreign Policy Plan.
  
• Take Over The World - Thanks to Kang Yingyong's 2018 Foreign Policy Plan, Zhouran appears to have a Pivot To The West strategic encirclement policy with Kang Yingyong strongly focused on securing a dominant position for the PRZ using the country's technological, military, and industrial edge over competitors.
  
• What Have I Done? - Zhouranese troops overseas after becoming disenchanted with fighting wars in foreign countries thousands of kilometers away that literally pose no threat to the Motherland at all, as well as becoming de-sensitized with the scenes of dead militants and civilian victims of one-sided firefights between the ZPA slaughtering against poorly-trained, poorly-armed insurgents.
  
• What The Hell, Hero? - Zhouranese people, including those in the ZPA, calling out their own countrymen who use unnecessary brutality and suffering against enemies.
  
• Peace Through Superior Firepower - The very definition of Zhouranese non-aligned neutrality or ignoring petty political dogmas and focusing more on practical actions instead for the fulfillment of national interests.
  
• Balance Of Power - With Zhouran's concerns towards a growing sentiment of white supremacy in the west as well as America's growing irrational belligerence, the Zhouranese would rather side with the Chinese or anyone who isn't a euro-centric white western state. Although if the US and the rest of the western world was to collapse overnight, the Zhouranese would quickly throw-away Pan-Asian racial unity and solidarity with the non-white world and instead race for the status of global hyperpowerdom.
  
• Well-Intentioned Extremist - Political-hardliners, especially those against corporate internationalists, tyrannical oppressive regimes, and racial-supremacist imperialists.
  
• Badass Army - The ZPA, backed by overwhelming firepower, highly-experienced battle-hardened warfighters fueled by ardent nationalistic zeal, and a massive assortment of hi-tech weapons and equipment.
  
• One-Sided Battles - Zhouranese military expeditionary operations against foreign insurgent groups.
  
• Standard Sci-Fi Army - Literally the ZPA itself
  
• Elites Are More Glamorous - Highly-experienced battle-hardened Zhouranese military advisers and instructors assigned with assisting foreign militaries, and more discreetly, armed militant groups.
  
• Antihero - The stratocratic leadership has a more-pragmatic view on world-politics, the idea of good-&-bad in geopolitics is seen as dumbing-down the importance of national survival and competition to a basic binary understanding. As a result, this would generally lead to a much-darker and more-harsher view of the world from a Zhouranese perspective.
  
• Took A Level In Badass - Following the end of thw Zhouranese Civil War, the ZPA was formed during the establishment of the People's Republic. From May 14, 1947 to September 8, 1956, the Zhouranese Civil War brought an era of division and stagnation within Zhouranese civilization, but in just ten years, Zhouran went from an industrial-power-turned-warzone into a reconstructed-industrial-power. Since the late stage of the Cold War, Zhouran is a political, economic and military superpower with the ZPA being one of the "Three Pillars of Zhouranese Power". While the nation's global diplomacy and massive prosperous economy represent the soft-power section, the ZPA represents the hard-power section of Zhouranese Power.
  
• Mad Science - Sometimes Zhouranese scientific research are partially- or fully-militarized in nature, examples including nuclear weapons research and space-exploration in the 1960s. Zhouran has been conducting numerous clandestine research programs for decades now, many of which still remain classified to this day.
  
• Ghostapo - Equivalent: The weird esoteric occultist superhardliners and their strange mystical death-worship, as well as massive hard-ons for superscience research on the supernatural and the occult.
  
• Blood Knight - Political-hardliners, including the more-fringe superhardliners, strongly believe that any Zhouranese not fighting abroad against Enemies of the Zhouranese People & Nation tooth and nail is worthless, and even support increased military intervention just to make enemies suffer.

[The Land of the Ephyral]

Rather hoping I've done this right. I visited the tropes site and gradually found more and more that fit Ephyra, so here we go.

Arranged Marriage | Virtually all marriages between citizen men and women of the Freehold are organised by the families themselves, and typically certain members of each. In this, the prospective groom has greater say than his prospective bride, as he typically is only one of several suitors who must compete for the favour of the prospective bride's father to be her husband, and will therefore typically initiate the steps towards a hopefully successful betrothal followed by marriage. In this, a prospective bride can exercise certain influence over her father's selection of a suitor, varying from family to family, whilst the prospective groom's own father may play a role in organising marriage also.

Brother-Sister Incest | Sibling incest through marriage is a practice maintained almost exclusively by the aristocracy of Ephyra, and even then it is less than common. Permitted virtually only within the original Selian stock population of Ephyral citizenry due to their physiological resistance to deleterious effects of inbreeding, sibling incest is regarded as the most 'pure' of accepted incestuous arrangements, which can expand to cousin-marriages of varying degrees of relation, uncle-to-niece marriages, and rarely aunt-to-nephew marriages. Motivated by both blood purity and property, incest of a direct ascent or descent nature (parent and child, grandparent and grandchild etc) is thoroughly prohibited for violating a distinct relationship.

Code of Honour | The concept of honour runs deep and embedded within Ephyral society. This is typically manifested through the non-codified concept of ancestral tradition, or kolos (literally, 'custom'), which dictates through positive values and negative vices expected honourable behaviour based on that of the venerated ancestors, and ostracises as dishonourable and shameful behaviour which violates this. It is for many a grey area when an action does not openly follow expected behaviour, nor does it violate it, and consequently this idea of honour can vary from group to group, usually along familial lines.

Corporal Punishment | For citizens who have - for another cause - been deprived of their civic rights, as well as for non-citizens, corporal punishment (often performed publicly) serves as a means of misdemeanour punishment, with the inflicting of pain coupled with public humiliation intended to deter repeat offences by the criminal, as well as deter those who come to see from acting as the punished did. This is typically done through a variety of means, crime depending, including bastinado (foot whipping), or flogging (typically of the back) with a whip.

Cool and Unusual Punishment | As a subset of corporal punishment, several historic methods remain in use and are occasionally applied in the same public and corporal manner as regular corporal punishment, but of an unusual nature. The most favoured of these methods is tickle torture via means of the feet being dipped in a salt solution, and goats being introduced to lick the solution off, starting out as tickling but quickly becoming pain. This was copied from ancient Rome by the successor Mantaran Empire, and in turn by the independent Ephyral state and its later manifestation as the Freehold. It is favoured for leaving no lasting physical damage to the criminal, whilst bastinado or flogging may cause permanent injury, maiming, or scarring, and the punishment can be extended so long as the salt solution is re-applied, allowing for the duration to be the severity in and of itself, and extended as the crime demands.

Chastity Dagger | Not exclusive to citizen women, but mostly focused on them, the chastity dagger is a small blade concealed on a woman's person, usually in easy reach if necessary through clothing. Its purpose is to allow a woman who is attacked (not necessarily with the intent of sex) to defend herself through the use of a sudden and unexpected stabbing before fleeing. Its most famous use however is in the prevention of a sexual assault or a rape. A more tragic connotation may be when the woman uses the blade to end her own life in lieu of what appears to be imminent and inevitable assault due to the strength or number of assailants, opting for death over the dishonour of being assaulted.

Defiled Forever | Under Ephyral law, a victim of a sexual assault or rape is legally blameless, but feelings of being dishonoured or defiled as being the victim of an assault prevail. For women in particular, for whom virginity is a virtue when entering marriage, the feeling can be even more intense and reinforced by real circumstances, including a diminished likelihood of successful marriage for a variety of reasons including her lack of virginity, a belief the attack was encouraged, or a simple inability for suitors to comprehend how to act as a husband to a victim of assault. Such a feeling or designation however is more actively applied externally to men and women who voluntarily commit sexual transgressions, again focusing more heavily on women who have greater sexual restrictions. This includes adultery, leading to divorce and a near certain guarantee of impossible re-marriage, or allowing herself to be subject to an act of seduction, which can incur a similar consequence for the male actor, but notably less severe.

Divine on Mortal | The theme of god and mortal copulation is highly present in Ephyral religion, and in the case of sexual assault, is often portrayed differently than the criminal interpretation as it can often yield ambiguous or even positive results, for others if not for the victim. Uncertainty exists whether copulation with a deity even registers as adultery in the case of married mortal partners, particularly women, or the violation of vows such as virgin priestess cults. In stories with those examples, the default reaction by other mortals is that any oath sworn has been violated, regardless of the fact the partner was a god. The theme of gods committing acts of rape against a mortal are not restricted to female mortals however, as male mortals may be subject to the advances of a god, or even goddess, the latter usually through the means of deception, restraint, or unconsciousness of the male mortal.

Family Honour | The concept of family honour runs strong in Ephyra, running alongside and counter to personal honour. Family honour dictates that the actions of one can incur consequences for others, potentially many others. This serves to motivate proper behaviour to prevent a feeling of guilt for dishonouring many relatives. As Ephyra operates a patriarchal social and familial structure, the actions of women can typically only incur honour penalties, with the best reputation for a woman being regarded as none at all, for her actions may reflect on the men she is related to or in guardianship to. Families in Ephyra are regarded as a mini-state with their own internal councils and hierarchy, as well as being the basis for marriage and social status due to personal honour drawn from the reputation of the family and its heads.

Gladiator Games | The condemning of criminals to death upon the sands, as well as the training of both volunteers and slaves into professional warriors in the arena, serves to unite the various peoples of the Freehold around entertainment and sport; to expose the citizens to an understanding of bloodshed, conflict, and death; and to simply provide entertainment. Due to cost of training and duration spent doing so, professional gladiators of slave or free background rarely fight to the death, doing so only in special events or the finals of long-running tournaments. For the thrill of death, crowds gather to watch criminals die on the sands at the hands of expert warriors capable of delivering death in an exciting manner, often drawn out for the entertainment of the crowds and their own popularity.

Good Girls Avoid Abortion | Abortion is a total taboo in the Freehold no matter the woman's social status. Typically the only exception is for when the mother's life is in danger, for greater emphasis is placed on preserving the life of a fertile adult woman than a baby who by threatening her life places its own into jeopardy. A simple cost-benefit analysis weighs the woman, as already fully grown, easier to save, and capable of replacing the aborted offspring as more important than the child who is more likely to die from the complications they are causing if prioritised, along with the loss of a fertile mother, and the matter being seen as right through necessity. Pregnancy arrived at through other means, be it consensual marital sex, consensual pre/extramarital sex, or non-consensual sex, does not permit the freedom to terminate the pregnancy, for the mistakes of a mother or sins of a father do not deny the child the right of birth and life.

Heir Club For Men | Though not a monarchy with hereditary posts, Ephyra's familial-centric society does place an emphasis on inheritance of property and estate, and in this sex is a factor. A woman's dowry in marriage is regarded as her inheritance (leading to the reality that unwed citizen women face the prospect of destitution once her parents are dead), so the majority of the familial estate is divided amongst the sons. The eldest typically remains in and inherits the family home, whilst his younger brothers set up their own to repeat this tradition, though the second eldest may inherit if the eldest is disgraced. Because the property remains in the family amongst sons, where with daughters it joins into other families, the siring of a son to ensure the familial continuation of property is a concern of any citizen husband, and whilst the marriage of daughters to the right men can produce useful alliances and networks, they can for some families represent an economic loss.

I Did What I Had To Do | Outside of the code of honour adhered to by Ephyral citizens, there exists a perception of righteousness through necessity. Where no other choice remains, the path chosen cannot be considered as wrong. This may be subject to a case-by-case assessment, especially if the determining of necessity was incorrect or the action taken simply too vile, however there is a general cultural consensus that that which is necessary is right.

I Have No Son | The disowning and expulsion of family members from the legal entity of the household is possible in Ephyra, and not restricted to sons. Sons or daughters, or any other relative under the legal authority of the local familial head, may be formally expelled from the family for actions deemed to bring dishonour upon the household, a dishonour only rectified through the severing of familial relation to the individual. For men and women both this is a calamitous fate, as a citizen without family lacks social reputation. Suicide is not unknown to follow such an expulsion, a self-inflicted honour killing to restore the honour they destroyed, which may lead to a posthumous re-accepting of the deceased into the family to be given proper funerary rites, however this is not mandatory. For women, who are typically dependent upon a male guardian at all times financially and socially, a failure to commit suicide means either a slower death through exposure or starvation, or survival through sexual marketing, with many becoming prostitutes or if somewhat luckier, the concubine of a wealthier man. For men, criminality may be a recourse, or selling himself to a gladiator ring to reclaim honour and pride through public adoration. If restoration to the family is to occur in life, it must happen quickly. A woman who registers as a prostitute cannot remove her name from that list, whilst a man who engages in criminal activity or sells himself to be a gladiator only incurs further social penalty.

Interplay of Sex and VIolence | The Ephyral recognise the duality of sex and violence as the capacity and potential for life and death. Consequently, Ephyra's religious deities of love and war are portrayed as siblings, lovers, and rivals all, representing the tangled web of life and death. Conquest and imperialism are routinely viewed through metaphorical sexual lenses, including the sexual conquest of a defeated people in a quite literal sense through spoils of war.

Love Goddess | Ephyra's polytheistic pantheon features a goddess of love, sexuality, and desire who is routinely paired to a war god as a result of the aforementioned linking of sex and violence. The love goddess of Ephyra is noted for possessing a dichotomy of positive and negative sexuality, representing the capacity for permitted and acceptable expressions of sexual desire and activity, as well as the capacity for adultery, seduction, and potential debauchery. Ephyra's love goddess is a key figure of the pantheon, and represents love of other things beyond the romantic and sexual, leading again to the dichotomy of sex and violence when her capacity for a love of war is considered, and her association to military victory.

Madonna-Whore Complex | The women of Ephyra are routinely divided into the camps of the sexually virtuous and the sexually indecent. The 'Madonnas' or 'Virgins', are women who do not surrender the value of their virginity to men before marriage, and who do not encourage men to pursue her through flirtatious or provocative behaviour or dress. In marriage, she may retain her reputation of being chaste by continuing to avoid tempting other men through provocative behaviour, and exercising her sexuality only with her husband. Though not always the case, many in Ephyra hold the opinion that only citizen women governed by the family and the traditions of kolos can be 'Madonnas' as the trope suggests, with all non-citizen women regarded as viable sexual opportunities for men and more likely to consent from lust and immorality. Prostitutes especially are placed into the camp of whore, as they exercise it by profession and not just nature. Concubines too, a status similar but beneath that of wife serving as a de-facto but not endorsed polygamy, retain a reputation of sexuality about them that is regarded as absent from the wife. Because of this, citizen men differentiate between their wives versus mistresses, concubines, or whores, for the former is for the production of legitimate children, and the latter for the pleasure of the body. This can and does result in some couples being devoid of sexual activity outside of the need to procreate, though this is by no means universal, and active marital sex lives are possible.

Mandatory Motherhood | For citizen women, legitimate reproduction through marriage is a must. Many newlywed wives will find themselves pregnant within the year, as the creation of the firstborn is a task for which her husband is given de-facto unlimited sexual access to her. The creation of children is considered a civic duty, and is a must for men to, however the raising of these children falls on the mother, as the father possesses the burdens of labour for the creation of income, as well as being a reserve soldier for the state. Motherhood is considered a natural and ideally inevitable part of a woman's life, for if a woman dies before having married or born a child, this is severely lamented. Infertility in a woman is also lamented for similar reasons, be the condition from birth or due to an incident later in life. Such women are considered victims of their circumstance, not failures of expectation however, and will typically continue to be supported by their family. Women who manage to evade pregnancy despite being fertile right up until their menopause and the ceasing of fertility are regarded with no hidden disdain, and inferior to women who reproduce. If unmarried, such women face destitution upon the death of parents as they lack an inheritance, and do not typically possess workplace skills. If married, a similar problem may arise if she is divorced for her infertility so that her husband may marry a fertile woman more accepting of motherhood as a duty.

Martyrdom Culture | In Ephyra, death for an achievement or as a sacrifice of some kind is regarded as an event to be remembered with pride and honour by the relatives, community, or entire nation of the deceased individual, depending on the act. This primarily manifests for men as soldiers in conflict, where death in battle is regarded as an honourable death capable of removing essentially all moral deficiencies from an individual so long as they died fighting the enemy, not running away or assisting them. Death by suicide in a noble setting can also have this same effect, though lesser. Whilst dying peacefully is not seen as a moral detraction on an individual, to die actively is romanticised heavily. For women, the primary means of an honourable active death is in childbirth, which though decreasing in frequency can and does remain a danger for women for varying factors including age, pelvic size, and for Selian women their physio-typical slenderness.

Might Makes Right | Although not the be-all-end-all of what is considered moral and right in the Ephyral perception, physical strength or the capacity to act where another cannot, or cannot resist the action being taken, is very much considered an authority requiring adherence. This is most typically made manifest in warfare, with the belief that those who have the means to conquer lack a reason as to why they shouldn't. To a level, this also impacts the gender-imbalance in Ephyra, with one reason for male social dominance simply being that men are the dominant sex physically, and that if a war of the sexes were to be waged, the male army would have a natural advantage and higher chance of victory. Other exercises of power may also fit this, without the use of direct force, including political leverage or monetary power. For Ephyra, this is very much a circumstantial idea, but it is not absent from Ephyra altogether.

My Country Right Or Wrong | Few things are more reviled in Ephyra than a traitor. A man or woman may disagree with the actions of their state, or the nature of its customs, but are ultimately still expected to support it before any foreign power. The idea of Ephyra itself is expected to command a level of patriotism to dissuade treason, and those who commit it via many means are often socially ostracised and legally punished. This can range from officials in power engaging in corruption, usually monetary, with an active enemy; soldiers in battle deserting to the other side, or otherwise committing acts that help the enemy; and women who establish romantic or sexual relationships with occupying soldiers are considered traitors, as well as many other examples. For men mostly, as women are absent political representation or power, a desire for change should be implemented through the means of the state, and if it is not popular, abandoned.

The Patriarch | Every citizen household is de jure and de facto (as opposed to non-citizen families, who customarily have a male head but not with legal power) led by an adult male who is imbued with legal authority as head of a specified unit of the state. This authority concerns familial religious matters, marriage, financial matters, and others, and gives the patriarch a varied level of authority over family members based on relation and state of dependency. A patriarch's most immediate authority is over his own children. For sons, this is until they are adult men who make their own way in the world. A level of influence and due respect remains, but the son is largely independent. A daughter remains perpetually under her father's authority however, and he will decide her marriages and can also order her divorced, as the word of a woman's father trumps that of her husband. As this implies, a man's wife is not under his full legal authority, but rather guardianship, and outside of his role of ensuring the household retains its integrity, his authority over her is effectually zero. This makes the performing of her duties as a wife to him largely voluntary, although the seniority of the husband and a significant age gap may result in de facto authority where there is legally none to speak of. A man may take paternal authority over his brothers and sisters too if their shared father is deceased, and the brothers in question are not their own men. Sisters however shift their patriarchal focus from father to brother, however this is largely interpreted in society as less authoritative, and consequently women whose fathers are deceased typically have greater freedom from scrutiny. A woman must always have a guardian however, be it her father, brother, or son, in addition to her husband.

Proud Warrior Race Guy | For the men of Ephyra, military service for the Freehold is perhaps the most fulfilling and bountiful means of accumulating social capital and honour, and is considered the male burden of citizenship, to the point where a minimum term of service is necessary to run for political office or to even vote. Tying in strongly to martyrdom, it allows the soldier the sense of security to know that if he should die in his line of duty, his family will be compensated and he will be honoured in death. For those who survive however, length of service and theatre of deployment can be part of their personality, impacting their social perception. Even marriage can be affected by this service, for a man who hasn't put himself on the line for his country can't be expected to for his family, and is far less likely to be chosen as a suitor for an eligible bride.

Public Execution | Whether through condemning lesser capital offenders to die on the sands before a large crowd, or the crucifixion of the most heinous traitors and leaving them to die, Ephyra places strong emphasis on the visibility of justice from trial to the carrying out of the punishment, and execution is no different. Serving to add a final level of humiliation, denying the convicted the dignity of a private death, its purposes are to allow the people to see justice done, to further punish the convicted, and as an act of deterrent, executions are considered public spectacles, particularly in areas with few carried out.

Rape Pillage and Burn | The Ephyral framing of states as made of their peoples does not allow a great deal of room for innocence i war. For centuries, Ephyra has maintained that spoils of war are legitimate, and that acts of plunder against an enemy are validated by the fact they are the enemy. This is strongly compartmentalised, for Ephyra does not regard with the same level of dispassion the looting or raping of its own people, and it is the fear of such a thing that serves as a further reason to do it first. Not necessarily done by an entire army on campaign, the scale of devastation may vary depending on the operation. Large settlements are often given the choice to surrender with minimal repercussions before a siege-like event or an assault was to commence. A refusal to surrender followed by a failed resistance strongly raises the possibility there will be looting and raping, but the scale may depend on how costly the battle was for the Ephyral. The taking of precious items and currency as loot, and the taking of women and girls (and sometimes males) as a form of plunder, often for sexual use, is likely to occur. However, this is not a rule of Ephyral warfare, especially if the dispersion to loot and the surrender of discipline is perceived as posing a strategic threat, or there is advantage in being merciful. The ability of a commander to restrain his forces from looting and raping however may be absent following a particularly resentment-inducing and costly battle, and the population of a town or city may be subsequently subject to the full wrath of their occupiers. The use of looting can also be for re-supplying and psychological warfare, although this is usually passive over active. Soldiers of the Freehold can be rewarded beyond their pay for their efforts, free to take valuables of conquered people. The enemy may be demoralised by the destruction of homeland and be pressured into swifter surrender (or spurred to greater resistance, as the Ephyral themselves have demonstrated when receiving this treatment). Rarely however do Ephyral commanders order a settlement to be sacked in such a manner, at least to the full extent that it can be done, rather they will simply not intervene when it naturally manifests. The looting, raping, and destruction of a settlement may be confined to a single day before order is restored, or drag on potentially for weeks especially if the state of warfare is considerably long, and enemy reinforcements believed absent.

Revenge | Revenge is tied irrevocably to honour in Ephyra, and the desire to get even with one who has wronged you or your family. This may still be achieved through violence, but through participation in traditional Ephyral contact martial arts to settle an issue. However, the desire for full revenge may cross the bounds into criminality, especially if involving murder or rape. Alternatively, violence may be absent altogether, and revenge obtained through the use of word to destroy an opponent's reputation and rob them of their social credit using information, real or false, about the individual.

Sex Slave | Perhaps the most renowned aspect of Ephyral slavery is its selling of nubile females to brothels and other pleasure establishments to provide (usually) unwilling sexual services to clients. This can also be manifested privately, with a slave owned by an individual master purely for the purpose of sex, however the roles can become blurred when this slave is used for other tasks, or a slave owned for primarily non-sexual purposes is sexually utilised. This is not restricted to female slaves either, as the male-male dominance matter does not free male slaves from the strong likelihood of sexual subjugation almost certainly to a male master. Female slaveowners are not expected to utilise slaves for sexual pleasure, except perhaps the use of female-slaves in non-penetrative means, however, other circumstances are known to have occurred.

Shameful Strip | In Ephyra, the concept of citizenship is tied to the concept of liberty, including the liberty of compulsion of the body, and therefore the right to clothe and protect it. Nudity in the Freehold consequently has a strong public connotation of a lack of liberty, for the body of the nude individual is at the free gaze of anyone else. This lack of liberty has links to slavery, and it has been common Selian practice, not just Ephyral, for prisoners of war and slaves taken in the aftermath of a raid or the sacking of a large settlement to be stripped entirely, to be displayed naked when sold at auction. The state of being unclothed serves to remind the individual that they are not their own person anymore, and lack the right and liberty to cover themselves. The practical purpose for such stripping is to ensure that captives do not have concealed weapons, whilst the underlying psychological state of vulnerability is certainly noted and exploited, as it leaves the captive more physically vulnerable to corporal punishment, physical or sexual assault, and reinforces a state of submission and defeat.

War God | Alongside the popularly venerated goddess of love is her brother and lover, the war god. The capacity for conception and death - the ultimate themes of these two deities - to intertwine places the war god of the Ephyral on a pedestal equal to that of his feminine sister. Where she is the manifestation of womanhood and love, he represents man and the destruction of war. Also embodying values such as honour, martial prowess, as well as more abstract aspects of war such as strategy, the Ephyral war god is the patron of soldiers, and receives regular sacrifice in times of war to keep his favour upon the state. There exists a myriad of lesser war deities representing more specifics aspects, including weaponry, strategy, fear, destruction, bloodlust, and victory, as well as a female war goddess popularly considered the daughter of the chief war god and love goddess, who couples the aspects of her parents and is often regarded as a goddess of destruction and devastation, particularly representing the aftermath of battles where the bloodlust of soldiers remains, and the looting and raping begins. It is to her thanks is given for the spoils a soldier may acquire, be they material or human, and occasionally some of these war spoils are offered in sacrifice for the hope of greater rewards to come.

War Is Glorious | On the theme of war, the pursuit of martial success has long been a pursuit of worth for the many city-states of Selia including the now dominant Ephyra, who through myth trace ancestry to their war god. To wage war for one's state, country, home, and family is considered the pinnacle of nobility and honour, and serves as a practical means to acquire spoils for the soldiers, and new lands for the state. For men, it brings enfranchisement, for military service is required for political aspirations, as only those who defend the state have the right to lead it. The women of Ephyra also lend vocal support to war, in support of their fathers, brothers, and sons who who off to fight it, and out of the same patriotic devotion to the nation that is often overlooked by external glimpses into the patriarchal culture. There are few more deserving of social respect and honour than veterans of actual combat, and this same respect is for many a motivator to make a profession of war, and Ephyra's myriad of enemies and rebellious provinces make this a prospect unlikely to disappear.

Wouldn't Hit A Girl | In the context of internal affairs, and avoiding the already established reality for the rape and murder of enemy civilians including women and girls in war, and the taking of them as slaves, it is considered a grave act for a man to strike a woman regardless of her relation to him. If she is unrelated, the offending man can well expect a reciprocal attack from the men of her family, one or all of them, as revenge for inflicting injury onto one of their women. The domestic abuse of a wife can and does lead to divorce if her family hears of it, retrieving her from the marriage along with her dowry. Only in the context of corporal punishment is it acceptable for a man to administer familial punishment, a direct response for a specific action. This can apply to a wife but is difficult to interpret due to his lack of legal authority over her, but also his duties of care, and corporal punishment framed to be for her own good may be tolerated. More often it applies to children, including daughters. This corporal punishment is not favoured however, and is regarded as an unpleasant necessity of discipline. The belief remains that women are to be protected from violence and from situations in which it can arise, and that a man who uses his greater strength as a man to inflict injury upon her, if she is not slave to him or otherwise his captive property, is an act of psychological weakness and contempt.

[-Astoria]

I'm not sure if this will be a lazy job, but still:

tropes

[Estainia]

Estainia is an example of an Empire that acts like The Good Kingdom and is currently in severe decline. Ruled over by the Empress who acts more like The High Queen and is surrounded by scheming vassals at what they fancy to be the center of the world, oh and they're a goddamned salad of Sino-Tibetan meets Greco-Roman cultural mores defended by Shining Knights based heavily with the idea of Knights, just not the knights you'd expect.

Additionally, they're constantly digging for magical artifacts left behind by their precursors which has done a lot to cultivate an extensive widespread use of Magic that is subject to certain rules.

Oh, and Early Installment Weirdness, they used to be a communist dictatorship because even I was a fourteen year old edgelord once.

That's all of them that are still prevalent, anyway. A more exhaustive list if I were truly nuanced would make writing them properly neigh impossible so I'll leave it at this.

[Boring People]

Our nation is a good example of flyover country, actual location aside. While urban life does exist, it is still known for not being very progressive, not having many visitors, being non-trendy and having comparatively little going on. Filled with girls next door and smart guys (or vice versa). While not particularly common, female baddies should proceed with caution. There is also a rather small amount of truth to the idea that there are shotgun weddings here.

[Modern Soviet Union]

Happy Ending - With the collapse of the United States in 2001, the Soviet government and many of its supporters has come to just consider that the "happy ending" and ideological fervor has decreased with the defeat of the main antagonist.

Politically Correct History - A great deal of effort is put into white-washing a lot of the bad things the Soviet Union has done in the past, and has just stuck with what has been good. Also, any depiction of the Russian Empire always has to only show the bad parts.

Technology Porn - Of course! With the development of OGAS networking, and a bunch of new fancy gadgets related to economic planning, our shiny tech is mostly just shiny.

Gun Porn - And to add to that, the country still mass produces Kalashnikov rifles to the point where there are more of them than people in the Warsaw Pact.

Russia Takes Over The World - This one is pretty obvious.

I Love Nuclear Power - Still enriching uranium and still building nuclear weapons, but now it just seems like overkill.

Flyover Country - A massive portion of eastern Russia is pretty much this. Just frozen forests and tundra with probably less than 5 people living per square kilometer.

[Radiatia]

My region actually has its own page on TV Tropes (which actually, I didn't make and I'm not sure who did) so here's a link.

Radiatia features in there a few times, but I don't have time to pull out all of Radiatia's tropes right now.

[Yogluwia]

Alternate Timeline: Earth, but with a large extra culture entering the scene in the Slavic Migrations and basically everything after 1458 being a little different...and eventually a lot different. The Huguenots took over France yet Denmark is Catholic, The Dutch colonized the 13 colonies but Britain colonized Louisiana, while Spain had Brazil and Portugal had Mexico, etc.

Authority in Name Only: Current status of the monarchy

Gun Porn: You can't have an Empire without an army capable of blowing, shooting, lighting and/or gassing shit up.

Shout-out: Several Yogluwian surnames and place names are references to either the Anime-style American web-series RWBY or the fanmade visual novel game JPDE based on RWBY. For example, the surname Kabegis, in our story referring to someone from the large city of Kabeg (irl Kaliningrad or Konigsburg), is taken from the surname of (Player Name) di Kabegis, the Player character of JPDE, while the city of Ozma is a reference to the Reincarnating Wizard of Remnant in RWBY, and its status as the Royal Capital and the royal house "Ozmayinzgi" are references to the hints that the Last King of Vale was a life of the Wizard.

Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Crown Prince Fadeyuw.