What have you learnt after reading the AN’s factbooks? III

[Norse Inuit Union]

Saelmstica: I learned that their capital is Coieanisva and their largest city is Coieanisva. Their official language is NationStatish (English and they have a lot of national languages which are Ampelean, Cavonish, Frluttan, Kanlayan, Laitaic, Salmacian and Zulaq.

Continental Free States: One thing I learned that is something I didn't realize previously which I should of is while they don't have an official language their national languages are English, German, and Spanish. They have good relations with France, Germany, and Great Britain as they share a similar heritage. Another thing I was surprised by is that they don't have good relations with Egypt or Brazil

[Emneshire]

The Norse Inuit Union (NIU) Community Centre or Gathering Commons is a community-centre type facility constructed in Nuuk in the 15th century. Standing at 270 feet in height, it is an impressive structure even today, and nets approximately 250 visitors daily. It was built for the purpose of showing the might of the NIU, and still remains a powerful symbol of the NIU's cultural achievements.

[Hintuwan]

Aradermy is also known as Ear an Duirmidh which translates to "Southern Forest". The region is home to much shrubbery and is pretty much flanked by it as well.

[The Astellian Kingdom]

Hintuwan's most prominent topographical feature is the Hangzuishan mountains. This mountain range creates a natural barrier that protects the lands against the seasonal rains that form from the Hintuwan Sea.

[The Finntopian Empire]

The Rosa Mystica is apparently the heart of an Astel. It is also the very essence of their soul, of the magical energy that gives them life. It has the shape of a rose, but I'm unsure how that functions.

[Araneberg]

The Rosa Mystica is apparently the heart of an Astel. It is also the very essence of their soul, of the magical energy that gives them life. It has the shape of a rose, but I'm unsure how that functions.

I learned from reading the above nations factbook that the national bolshevist party would kill me.

[Reich of the New World Order]

They were a British colony that gained independence after a duel and some guy managed to commit terror attacks for 200 days before being shot and killed.

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

Even though they are alien and decidedly dismissive of humanity and most other races, they still rely on a phonetic alphabet that directly translates into the phonemes of the Latin Alphabet. It doesn’t even have any accents or non-standard letters!

Sounds like a good thing to point out to piss ‘em off, really.

[Hintuwan]

Crime is uncommon in Caleshan, but when it does happen it is extremely violent. Given what I know so far about the Caleshan Valkyrie, I suspect it is because they are a naturally violent people.

[Emneshire]

The term "Hintuwan" itself can be traced to the earliest preserved copperplates issued by the First Bataran Dynasty of the Kedatuan Hintuwan. It is commonly accepted that the term is related to the word "hintuan" meaning "place of stoppage" or "place of rest".

[The Great Basin Kingdom]

I learned that Emneshire has an official national flower, the maru eaimhnidht or Emnian sage. It's a blue variety related to common sage. Where the species is very prevalent, like in Barony Derrimy, you can see entire fields of blue. As a variant of sage, Emnian sage can be used in cooking and has a peppery flavor. Unfortunately, Emnians have apparently stopped used it for culinary purposes in favor of using common sage, which has a stronger flavor than Emnian sage. Seems too bad, since it's their national flower and all, but I guess national pride isn't the greatest reason for using an apparently inferior ingredient. But in any case, Emnian sage is pretty cool. It's still part of the natural landscape and still used decoratively, and it has some fun former uses in its history for cooking and as an oil. A national flower is a pretty neat way to add texture to the nation. Maybe I should pick out a national flower for GBK too.

[Hintuwan]

Elizabeth Sleet legalised homosexuality and polygamy.

[Kingdom of Lechia]

The Royalist Party of Hintuwan is one of the oldest but also it's the smallest elected political party in the Kapulungang Bayan.

[Pan-Pacific Unity]

Europe apparently has a really bad time over the coming decade, with the emergence of warmongering far-right governments in multiple countries kicking off a series of bloody conflicts.

[Continental Free States]

Dongnan, a corporatocratic confederation controlling Formosa and much of the Chinese south and southeast, is the only independent Chinese state to exist in the 22nd century. It has a population of 356 million, and adheres to an ideology described as Neocameralism, which I genuinely have no idea what that is.

[The Great Basin Kingdom]

I learned about how Director-General Pranav Sarkar's tumultuous childhood contributed to his radical politics. In India, he was born into a middle-class family; though part of an intelligentsia class, those aren't necessarily auspicious for orienting someone toward world communist revolution. However, when the Republic of India collapsed, his parents fled the country, taking him to Australia, where as immigrants they had "a significantly more dire economic position," such wording suggesting a working-class life at best and grinding poverty at worst. But Sarkar's family managed, and Sarkar himself got into university. There his intelligentsia parents, economic deprivation, and university education mingled and Sarkar started getting involved in radical politics. So a circuitous path in life—from middle class son, to a working class refugee, and then back to university—shaped Sarkar and brought him to radical and revolutionary anti-capitalist politics.

Ninja'd

As for Continental Free States, by reading their factbooks I've learned that the NationStates user seems like a World War II buff, or otherwise someone with pretty robust knowledge of the period. I mean heck their background section has references not just to the shortcomings of the WWI peace settlement, but also to so many of the interwar difficulties: Spanish civil war, Second Sino-Japanese War (I suppose it varies whether one counts that as part of the Asia-Pacific War/WWII Pacific Theater or as a separate war), and even stuff going on in French colonial Indochina (modern Vietnam). It's not all straight history—there's some changes, including the major change of the war ending with nuclear bombings from multiple Western powers all against one another—but there's so much detail I figure it must be rooted in some research. I wonder what sort of references the user is working from: online research, or a book, or some mix?

[UNSPDC]

In quite a deviation from normal American christian doctrine and into the halls of Mormonism, polygamy is practiced under the justification of Biblical polygamy, with sources being from the Basin Kingdom's first farmhand prophet claiming that fetishization of a two-person marriage was a bourgeois practice that led to isolation from communities and family. In theory, this would have the marriage between multiple people of each gender. In practice, it is rigidly patriarchal to a T. However, in a peculiar case, Polygamy has had several deviations and meanings as seen with the Presidentess, with it slowly leading towards same-gender dating alongside opposite-gender dating, which creates a complex interweb of familial bonds through marriage. I personally think it's interesting, it is an alien take to my old catholic morals, but I always operate under OOC/IC distinction so it's a cool take.

[Hintuwan]

Unlike the UN of our timeline, the UN of their timeline recognizes the sovereignty of the Republic of China.

[Continental Free States]

Historically, the many people of Hintuwan did not have a tradition of patronymics or matronymics, leaving people without any surnames. After Pordhes colonized Hintuwan, they introduced the Pordhesian convention of having multiple personal and two surnames -the father's, and then the mother's, both paternal. This was in large part as a means to simplify the tax collection system and maintain a census as the archipelago's population increased. After Doraltic conquest, they introduced the tradition of using an abbreviation of one's maternal name as a middle name.

[Kanaka Maol]

In there universe, america has only 11 states instead of 50

[Norse Inuit Union]

They are a founder of The Pacific Alliance, they have a population of 2.7 million, have an economy worth 2.55 trillion Pacific dollars, and they have a big fishing industry.

[The Great Basin Kingdom]

North Polean political parties have their own flags to communicate their cause and interests. There's a lot of great designs there, but I'll shout-out just one. For all that I dislike its platform and planks, the acronym-troubled Freedom for All Party has a good flag that really fits its priorities: the silhouette of a person sits at the center, with what looks like Wi-Fi bars radiating out from them. It's a perfect fit for a party that promotes laissez-faire capitalism and a libertarian approach to laws, saying that the individual is at the center of things, and their platform is about pushing the rest of the world away.

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

Basinite Christianity is a strange one that many of the conventional/modern denominations would consider heretical. They do not see God as a three-in-one entity, but a discrete entity known as God the Father along with a partner entity known as God the Mother. Jesus is considered a third entity that is not an embodiment of God but a more literal offspring (if I read that right).

Were I to guess, the biggest issue that other religions would have with their version of God would be that they are anthropomorphizing Him/Her/Them to a greater extent than would be permissible if the idea of an unknowable deity is to be held.

[Hintuwan]

The Starwalkers are the clan most responsible for orbital development and the Caleshan Valkyrie's space program.

[The Finntopian Empire]

The Commonwealth President's duty is to lead the executive branch of the Hintuwani government and sign into law bills that have been voted upon by the Kapulungang Bayan, apparently.