An Examination of Oktotheio (Closed, TG for Entry)

[Oktotheio]

"Oh no, it can happen anywhere any time, so I guess we've just gotten lucky that those we've passed by today weren't in the mood." Berenice responded as the waiter came back and started taking the other women's orders. "However, I believe it's related to your question." she continued while turning to Gaves "You see, as we mentioned before beauty is a blessing from the goddess, and so to hide it is considered very selfish, however the law only applies to citizens who are of age, so kids, tourists and other visitors such as yourselves are free to stay dressed."

[Sombreland]

"So...selfishness is against the law?" said Gaves. "Is it also against the law to refuse to share candy or hold the door open for someone?"

"Is the lemons as part of diet similar...lost in its sacred origins?" wondered Andeson.

"All this seems to be something of a mystery," said Prince Galo. "But we are, perhaps, being a bit selfish. Surely you have questions for us? We are an open book."

[Oktotheio]

Berenice shook her head. "Ah, no, those are frowned upon of course but not illegal. As for the lemons that's simple, they're our national fruit, we grow literal tons of them year round~!"
Meanwhile Petroula lit up, smiling as she said "Oh yes, I've got questions~ I want to know what kinds of goods and services Sombreland could supply us with and visversa, so tell me what your primary and secondary sectors are like~!", and Despina followed up by asking "I was hoping to learn what you could provide in terms of defence, but don't get me wrong General, we don't need weapons, what I care about is info, so you're in the Air Force right? What kind of recon aircraft do you have?"

[Sombreland]

"The primary and secondary sectors of our economy are as follows," said Andesan, warming to a subject familiar to him. "And please to reciprocate.

"The secondary sector of our economy is very important, production of construction materials, for example, and preparing them for export as finished materials, such as timbers, brick, concrete, stone, mortar, and aluminum. We can also provide construction tools, glass, fiberglass, and chemically produced goods such as paint, cleaning supplies, and chemicals for industry. In addition to this, our country is one of the world's top producers of heavy water.

"Our country also produces medical supplies. There is a wide range here, from medicines to supplies such as bandages, chemical products ranging from saline to iodine.

"As you can imagine, our country is somewhat rich in quarrying, mining and forestry, but we are weaker when it comes to fuel, food, and clothing materials. We also do import many items of advanced technology: computers, motherboards, software, vehicles, and military equipment."

General Pron, in response to his question, replied, "I used to fly a plane called the F-18, Madame. I rarely fly anything anymore. Recently, our Directorate of the Armed Forces received a larger budget and funding to buy everything from uniforms to planes from a corporation called Wolf Armaments and another company called Murakami. The most common planes we use are a multi-role fighter called the Bartgeier, a ground attack fighter called the Gap Dragon, and a drone called the Blackfly. We also use a mid range cargo plane, the TA-06, and a maritime patrol plane called the Pelican.

"Ours is not an aggressive nation, but all this has prepared us to defend ourselves well and support any allies we have. Recently, I am proud to say, all these purchases of air technology, in addition to naval and Marine force improvement, enabled us to send a military expedition to the nation of Gyzantia during its civil war. This was handled, if I may boast, so well that while not inflicting a single casualty, we brought food shipments in to the city of Hatrap, and were able to persuade the Gyzantians and nations supporting it to work things out in a peace treaty. Of course the treaty itself was conducted by the Princess-Regent, but the military provided key support.This was Sombreland's first time on the world stage in decades, and everyone is very optimistic as a result."

[Oktotheio]

As they spoke Petroula and Despina took notes with pen and paper Berenice had brought with her just in case. "Nice, nice, those materials are always useful..." the Trade Secretary mumbled. "Ooh, weak on food, that's something we can help with then..." "Ah brilliant, with that kind of support we wouldn't to worry as much about the prudes of the world..." Despina mumbled too before asking "'Decades' though? You sure you're not rusty?", followed my Petroula speaking up "Our focus is mainly on agriculture and mining, producing stuff like lemons, grapes, sulfur, iron and gold in addition to many other fruits, flowers and minerals, so we could also trade you the materials your secondary sector needs to actually make things with."

[Sombreland]

"Rusty?" said General Pron. "As I was trying to explain, in Gyzantia, as foreign nations began to pile on to support the republican and socialist factions, the Technate appeared to be standing alone. When the Princess-Regent expressed sympathy and concern, Grand Admiral Lio Teroth, thee the Kingdom's principal military advisor, urged that a force consisting of the Royal Navy's carrier task force and the Royal Marine Division be offered as military support for the Technate. The end result of this conflict was the Treaty of Hatras, which was strongly encouraged by the Princess-Regent herself, who also gave the combatants ideas on how to create a constitutional monarchy.

The Royal Marines and Carrier Task force sustained no serious casualties and inflicted none; their presence, however, made negotiations possible and also helped ferry supplies to people suffering from famine in Technate held Gyzantia." He finished his statement "Does that seem rusty to you?"

Andeson responded to Petroula, saying, "Yes, that would be a good exchange. What about terms of trade though?"

[Oktotheio]

"Hmm, I guess not..." Despina mused, meanwhile Petroula replied "Ah yes, while I would love to get that sorted out here it'd likely take a lot longer than just one meal, plus Berenice still has her story to tell.", to which she nodded. "Yep, I can begin once our food gets here which should be very soon now~"

[Sombreland]

"And what are your country's foreign affairs concerns?" asked Prince Galo. "We partly became involved in this because recently there were rumours within the alliance we belong to, the KTO, of hostility. It turned out, thankfully, to be mostly hot air and sabre rattling, but naturally we were concerned."

"Yes, an examination of your country's record in foreign affairs as has been publicly known hasn't suggested a history of hostility or warfare," said General Pron. "In fact we had heard that your Queen is anti-war. We were wondering how this hostility with some KTO members had come about."

"Although our countries are very different, war is such a drastic response that we are not simply interested in trade, if you follow," said Andeson.

[Oktotheio]

"Ah yes, the Goddess told me and Tasia about that, thankfully though you seem much more reasonable that the rest of your allies." Berenice explained, with Tasia following up "Indeed, from what the Goddess told to me she received threatening letters out of the blue from them demanding surrender which she refused to accept, and even though they eventually backed off it got really scary for a while as the police all needed to be called up." "My agents too." Despina noted, and finally Petroula smiled as she replied "Yep, that kind of trade isn't one we're interested in either." before the waiter returned with two others bringing everyone's ordered food and drink.

[Sombreland]

The Sombrelanders began to sample the starters. As they are, Andeson remarked, “This is very interesting. I am a gourmand, and I recognize the favours individually, yet their proportions and combinations are very different from what we eat, even how we eat. There is also intensity in different ways. Most interesting and unusual”

“There is a tang,” observed Prince Galo thoughtfully. He found that he was also thinking how to describe this strange place. It was like going into a ladies changing room by mistake, and being encouraged to enjoy a meal. Everything normally hidden was revealed. He was curious to see if these ladies used napkins.

“Yes, a fine meal,” said Gaves, who found the flavours too unusual and too strong, but wished to be polite. “One of the things your government and culture were accused of was of being…harmful to children. I think that at least to some extent this was due to your age of consent, but also because of the legally enforced acts of intimacy. What have you to say to that?”

[Oktotheio]

As the Oktotheioans dug in to their own meals, which yes included the use of napkins, Tasia sighed in response to Gaves' question. "Ah yes, that... Such a vague claim, and patently untrue as well, as we said children are exempt from the nudity law, and while the age of consent is a little lower we're far from alone in that in the world." "In better news though, I can tell my story now, so listen up guys~" Berenice beamed.

[Sombreland]

Prince Galo could see that the Oktotheians were so unused to explaining themselves that they barely bothered to. Truly, human memory was both a mercy and a curse. They had come very close to war, yet had not seriously thought on how to avoid it. Truly, and the Queen had kept the correspondence private even from her own government. When journeying in the outer world, it made one glad to be a Sombrelander.

“So the children are except? How does that work?” began Gaves.

“Please, let us have the story first,” said Prince Galo, thinking that they’d been waiting forty minutes for it, with repeated requests that she tell it, with every distraction leading them astray…

[Oktotheio]

Nodding, Berenice begun to tell the tale. "So originally there was just the Harem Girls, they acted as advisors for the goddess in addition to getting to be intermate with her. In order to become one the goddess would normally invite those whose exploits have become so well known in the nation that news of them reaches her, but alternately you can go to her directly and be personally tested to see if you have the skill needed to impress her, which is er... *blushes* which is how I became a member~ This was open to citizens, but as mentioned a while back visitors could try it too though for a fee, and if successful not only could you join but you'd get citizenship too."

"Eventually though the desire for a better way for the needs of 'those who are unable to leave behind everything to live in the palace' to be heard was big enough for our goddess to devise the current government system we still use today. The Harem Girls power would be formalised, and while they'd remain and still keep their right to lay with the goddess, but now the rest of our new upper house would get that right too, meanwhile the lower house that Tasia and Petroula are part of deals with day-to-day stuff like getting the funding for the sunscreen dispensers and the public intercourse rework."

Taking a few deep breaths, Berenice looked over at the men and finished with "Hopefully that explained everything you needed to know, but if not Tasia and Petroula can probably answer whatever questions you've got left." before resuming eating her food.

[Sombreland]

"Interesting story," said Prince Galo, feeling it was about as informative as anything the women had said. They seemed so steeped in their own culture they did not seem to realize how opaque they were. His experience with other people,, however, suggested to him that he needed to be somewhat immersed in their society before things became clear. Most people were not very good at seeing themselves; they were good at simply being themselves.

"Yes, intriguing," said Gaves, looking serious.

"According to our intelligence," said General Pron, "You have thousands of police, able to respond to emergencies. But you don't wear clothing, so how can they be that effective? First: how many men to women ratio is there? Do they wear footwear? Do they even wear hats? And what kinds of equipment do they have? What would they have done if you were actually invaded?"

"Furthermore," he continued, "I heard that you had patrol boats. What kind of patrol boats are they? What kind of weapons do they carry? Does your country have radar arrays or planes capable of detecting a possible invasion?"

"I must hasten to say," said Prince Galo, "That these questions are not being asked as a prelude to an invasion; far from it. But one thing that would put many minds to rest is putting aside the concern that your government has no active plans to spread its ways beyond your borders. How does your government see relations with other nations, and what kind of relations are you seeking?"

"I should add, by the way, that for the most part Sombreland as a country and our government in particular rarely cares what other people do or believe, since our ancient and sacred ways are incomprehensible to many others. I will have to be posted here for many years before I understand your people, no doubt, and I expect the same will be true for your people given diplomatic or trade postings to my country. In other words, we could really care less if foreigners don't like to wear clothes or want to copulate in public. What we are interested in is why, but I suppose that will eventually be made clear."

[Oktotheio]

"Ah, that may not be my field but I do work with them and so I know a good bit about them." Despina spoke up once more. "If I recall correctly, it's a little closer to male than the national average, to be exact 1:3.5; yes; yes again; a special utility belt to help them carry about as much as a foreign officer; again if I recall correctly the plan involved defending the beaches from amphibious invasion, might be wrong though since back then I was very busy elsewhere getting my agents ready and so I didn't really pay attention."

"Hmm, I only know they've got Panther 57 Fast Patrol Boats and Sa'ar 4.5-class Missile Boats, but what they carry is too far out of my scope." she admitted, and so Tasia explained in her place. "In the interest of time I'll just summarise their weapons for you, the former has a machine gun and the latter, as the name implies, has a wide selection of anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles in addition to more machine guns and a couple 20 mm cannons, don't worry about all that though, 99.9% of the time those weapons aren't activated and the ships are used for Coast Guard duties. As for radar we've got plenty of that but no planes."

"Ah, that's simple." Tasia continued. "We wish to befriend as many nations as possible, spreading our enlightened teachings as far as we can, and sharing our resources and services with all."

[Sombreland]

"Ah, that may not be my field but I do work with them and so I know a good bit about them." Despina spoke up once more. "If I recall correctly, it's a little closer to male than the national average, to be exact 1:3.5; yes; yes again; a special utility belt to help them carry about as much as a foreign officer; again if I recall correctly the plan involved defending the beaches from amphibious invasion, might be wrong though since back then I was very busy elsewhere getting my agents ready and so I didn't really pay attention."

"The police would defend from amphibious invasion," said General Pron, raising his eyebrows.

"Hmm, I only know they've got Panther 57 Fast Patrol Boats and Sa'ar 4.5-class Missile Boats, but what they carry is too far out of my scope." she admitted, and so Tasia explained in her place. "In the interest of time I'll just summarise their weapons for you, the former has a machine gun and the latter, as the name implies, has a wide selection of anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles in addition to more machine guns and a couple 20 mm cannons, don't worry about all that though, 99.9% of the time those weapons aren't activated and the ships are used for Coast Guard duties. As for radar we've got plenty of that but no planes."

"If I may be frank," said General Pron, who had been eating while listening and now dabbed his mouth and put down his napkin. "Sombreland, alone, would be able to effect an invasion of Oktotheio. Your patrol boats would be swept aside by our force of destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and submarines; there would be naval air assets as well as surface and submarine forces. If our carrier and cruiser were involved, long range missile attacks, fighter attacks and attack helicopters would remove your air and sea assets would be overwhelming. In addition to this, drone and helicopter assets would support any amphibious landings. Fighter and missile attacks would strike at your transportation and community hubs. By the time our Marines actually landed...er..not to be threatening, " he exclaimed, realizing that the other Sombrelanders were all staring at him. "But I'm sure you take my point..."

"Ah, that's simple." Tasia continued. "We wish to befriend as many nations as possible, spreading our enlightened teachings as far as we can, and sharing our resources and services with all."

"Yes, we do understanding that your country is very keen on trade, which we share an interest in..." began Prince GAlo.

"Ahem, excuse me, Highness," said Gaves. "But what are these enlightened teachings?"

[Oktotheio]

"If I may be frank," said General Pron...

"Mmm, indeed that is the case, but that is why defence agreements with nations like yours are so important, so that our own forces are the last line of defence rather than the only one." Tasia responded.

"Ahem, excuse me, Highness," said Gaves. "But what are these enlightened teachings?"

"Oh, I speak of our Oktotheioan faith, but don't get us wrong, we don't force anyone to convert like colonists would centuries ago, rather the main goal is education, dispelling rumours and making it clear that it is a religion just like any other based on a foundation of love and compassion." she added.

[Sombreland]

“Well,” said Prince Galo, “Before we continue, I apologize if General Pron overstepped. He is from the military caste, and he is a good man but he tends to be rather blunt. However he does bring up good points. If we were to make an alliance with your people, what would that involve?

“We did not come here for that, you see. Simply to get to know your people and be reassured of your good intentions so that we can dissuade our allies of war, which I think we can put aside for now. And of course for trade, which I think shows very good possibilities.

“But we really must know more about your country’s ideals, and how you share them with others. We are…I think…unclear about that. If you could explain that very clearly I believe that would put our concerns to rest.”

[Oktotheio]

"It's quite simple, we'll help defend each other if one of us is attacked, and during peacetime my agents and any you may have will keep tabs on any nation that could be a threat to us so we can be ready if they try anything." Despina remarked.

"Huh, our ideals..." Berenice thought out loud. "I feel like only the Goddess could fully answer that, as for me it's hard to put into words we haven't already used, but maybe if you could get some insight as to what your nation's ideals are I could give you a satisfactory answer."

[Sombreland]

“ You have been a little bit evasive so far,” said Gaves bluntly. “It appears that you are not taught why you do anything; why nudity is mandatory, why intercourse in public is mandatory; why the highest offices are required to fornicate with others. We do not know why your Queen is worshipped as a goddess. On the one hand, you have a bicameral legislature, yet your laws appear to come from your Queen’s whim. It is very difficult for us to get a true picture of what your morality is, or your beliefs. While you are friendly and hospitable folk, you are also very opaque. In spite of being uncovered, you are very mysterious.”

“For instance, “ he continued, “Maybe you were not being intentionally vague when you were asked about the teachings you would spread, but I have no idea of what your teachings are. Could you not provide a summary or examples?”

[Oktotheio]

Berenice blushed embarrassed, strongly feeling like she was on the spot. "I'm sorry, it wasn't our intent to hide anything, um, in short we believe that our goddess made this island and filled it with its natural beauty and bountiful resources, and then she endowed all of the people with her spirit which is why intercourse is such an important part of our way of life, it's both one why we worship her and how her spirit flows through us all so she can bless us with her boons. Er, nudity as mentioned before is another way we show our thanks, altruistically showing everyone the beauty the goddess has gifted to us, and public intercourse is a show of your skill, the better at it you are the more desirable people find you, and so for a long time we thought not letting anyone see you do it was a waste of time, that opinion is changing now though."

[Sombreland]

“I see. And I take it that that is why your people do not wear clothing?” asked Gaves. “In which case, if it is sacred, this set of laws and customs, why are you changing them?”

“And how would they be changed?” wondered Andeson. “It is not clear to us if your Monarch is constitutional, in which case perhaps laws are changed by legislation, or whether she rules by decree. And if it is by legislation, then are these mandatory laws losing in popularity?”

“I think what my worthy companions are driving at, is that we are also trying to figure out this: to what degree are your people happy with the laws on clothing and intimacy?” said Prince Galo.

[Oktotheio]

"Well yes, it is because the public intercourse law is losing some of it's popularity, but specifically the 'mandatory' part, the rest is still popular with the people so the new bill won't touch anything but that." Tasia explained. "All our other laws about intimacy are also still fully supported, but it's issues like this that are why the goddess now constitutionally shares some of her legislative power with us in the National Harems."

[Sombreland]

“What about laws concerning marriage, and children?” asked Gaves. “How does marriage work culturally and legally?”

“Of course, most marriages are arranged in our country. People are joined but so are the families. Many considerations are taken into account, including compatibility, ancestry, caste, age, and oracular foretelling,” explained Gaves. “And many more. It is a serious matter, marriage.”

He pondered. “Intimacy is not even depicted in our country. Even in our fiction, it is only implied, never described. Some feel that even that is going too far.”

[Oktotheio]

"Oh my, we're quite the opposite in that regard." Berenice remarked surprised. "Arranged marriage is unheard of here, pretty much all our media has some kind of intimacy, and polygamy is totally legal and even expected of some people, the reason being our goddess' love for us is infinite, and so we seek to emulate her by loving as many people as we can."