Quotes of People in Your Nation Mk. VI

[Imperium Vistrovia]

"I hate this New - Age Spirituality shit."

---

❖ Supreme Emperor Vistron Gaelagus Matixima the III, Supreme Emperor of the Vistrovian Imperium, the Holy Proprietor of the Order of the Vniin, Supreme Commander of the Vistrovian Annihilation Armada, Apex Inquisitor of the Impetus Presidium

[Mata-Wahi]

"Ugh, why did the Great Spirit make water?"

"For the Ga-Matoran, I suppose."

"Then why couldn't Mata-Nui put them on another planet?!"

"Because the first of the Three Virtues is Unity."

"Well, if Unity is so great, why not just make a bridge between our planet and the water planet?"

"Poku, just stop."

"I'm just asking why the Great Spirit made Po-Matoran, made us swim as well as a bag of rocks, and then put us on a planet that is over seventy percent water! It's a question worth asking."

"... Destiny, I guess? It's usually the vague and subtle hand of the fates that does stuff like this."

"It's always Destiny..."

"Yeah, because it usually is. Look, this kind of stuff is for Turaga and maybe Ko-Matoran to muddle over, let's just focus on getting this statue done and talk about this later."

"Fine."

- Two Po-Matoran, discussions while carving a statue.

[Verdiga]

"There could be leaders who exploit ideologies so that they can live their lives comfortably at the expense of others, and those that do try to change the system so that their lives will be bothered are punished by disappearance at most. For instance, look at the Kims; they've been abusing the system such that they live luxuriously, and those that try to change that disappear. Not that they're 100% selfish, just that they seem to have these tendencies. Oh and a side note: It becomes more accurate if, in the first sentence, the word 'leader' is replaced with 'private entity', save for the 'and those that try to change the system...' part, which, while still true, is more subtle." -Politics student

"Why do the Americans use the primitive MMMM DD, YYYY and 12-hour system, as well as the obsolete Imperial system? And why does America not have European-style welfare?" -Person who dislikes the USA

"I want to read a story where the hero loses and the villain wins, where the protagonist loses and the antagonist wins, and where good loses and evil wins, and that won't result into a sequel. Sure, there's Norse Ragnarök, but is there any more?" -Random person

"What if people asking for justice actually don't want justice, but rather, revenge? And if they want justice, what if justice is just rebranded revenge?" -Debater

"People in power who hate change are more likely to be dictators. Not that they are, but they have a chance to become one, and if they aren't, they actually could be, albeit in a subtle manner." -Former Prime Minister Karl Vargheim

[Auroya]

"This island is a fortress, and it is a fortress of the Auroyan peoples - not of anybody else. We are native here. We have no obligation to accept anybody who will not become Auroyan, and we certainly don't have to feel guilty about it - the first duty of a government is to ensure the well-being of its own people, not the people thousands of kilometers away."

--- Sir Ploton a. Sara

[Nizov]

"Hmm... the smell of death in the morning, nothing better than it, except slaughtering sounds before sleep." ~Lunatic Frings, you guessed it Tito Werewolvov(You all thought it was Dean Ambrose, you got owned)

[Noraika]

"The people? The people do not know what is best for them. The previous government showed, if anything, just that. The people, in their incompetence and slovenly ways, opposed many of the programmes which gave them the conditions and services they now sing the praises of! Without the state the people would have nothing, and if the state followed the people, rather than the people followed the state, the state would be nothing. We believe in democratic governance, but the people should be kept as far away from governing as possible, for their own sake and for the sake of the nation as a whole."

- The Right Honourable, Lára Ingasdóttir MP, Premier of the Commonwealth of Noraika

[Lansuo]

The idea that the 'people do not know any better' is an inherently dangerous idea if the context and circumstances allow it to be so. The people, given the required training and the skills, may very well be more capable than any.

Meritocracy heeds not to the arrogance of so called 'rightful rulers' especially if they themselves are just as human and just as flawed as any other. Meritocracy demands the society and by extension the state to be flexible and ever changing, an endless cycle of progress through true competition.

It is not the state that should guide the people with the firm hand as that is a recipe for stagnation and decadence, rather, it is those most deserving through talent and diligence that should guide the state.

―Dēwan Ẁai, radical member of the UPP

[Ashkera]

"'Ashkera has a place for me.'"
- citizen, echoing government advertisements, standing in front of assigned underground VR stasis pod during nuclear war of 2040

"Even Ashkeran cars weren't designed to operate for forty years without maintenance or replacement parts, and there haven't been car factories for forty years, now. So that means we have to go out there."
- outlander, mainland Xawin, 2086

[Las Palmeras]

"Good has lost and evil has won here, for at least almost five consecutive centuries. Then again, we're the good guys right?"
-No Name

---

"Why There are No Supervillains Here was a 1988 comic book which probably wouldn't have made it past the censors before 1983 and even then raised controversy; seeing as how it realistically mirrored the ways Las Palmeras effectively dealt with Mafia elements in the country and went after 'serious offenders against the People' abroad.

A very dark 'Only in America' joke...or sober warning; about how only a 'Modern Western' country would lock up the criminally insane over and over or eventually find use in them Suicide Squad style; and how an 'Asiatic' society (Las Palmeras) with centuries of practice in covert oppression would simply have the Secret Police get rid of more human supervillains."
-Office Lady

[Greater Mackonia]

"It is not original, but one of the oldest questions in the world: "Why should the stupid man, be he crowned by ballot or by scepter, lit by the seraphs of divine right or the flood-lights of the rally-ground, cloaked in ermine and done obeisance to on golden throne or swaggering flat-capped before dumb crowds, chosen by God, by birth, by sword, by the united cry of the population entire - Why should this stupid man ever rule over the clever man?"
-Z.Maglos.

[Ashkera]

"Why There are No Supervillains Here was a 1988 comic book which probably wouldn't have made it past the censors before 1983 and even then raised controversy; seeing as how it realistically mirrored the ways Las Palmeras effectively dealt with Mafia elements in the country and went after 'serious offenders against the People' abroad.

A very dark 'Only in America' joke...or sober warning; about how only a 'Modern Western' country would lock up the criminally insane over and over or eventually find use in them Suicide Squad style; and how an 'Asiatic' society (Las Palmeras) with centuries of practice in covert oppression would simply have the Secret Police get rid of more human supervillains."
-Office Lady

"I think it's telling that, in United States of Elan superhero comic books, the Ashkeran 'superheroes' are largely absent or assassins secretly employed by the government. 'Ashkera attempts to use super powers to take over the world' has become common enough to be a cliche. It makes sense by the Utilitarian-like reasoning of the Ashkeran government, however. I'm quite confident that if supervillains really did exist, the Ashkerans would do their damnedest to just assassinate them and be done with it.

In Ashkeran superhero comic books, supervillains sometimes are just killed. It's considered a bit 'darker' by the USE readers, admittedly."
- newspaper columnist

[Ultimate Korona]

"Your methods are stupid! Your progress has been stupid! Your intelligence is stupid! For the f*ck sake of the mission, you must be terminated!"
~ ???

[Belantica]

"Ugh, can't even get to work on time anymore!"-Random commuter

"Headin' out for another day of school! I got a water bottle full of vodka!"-Typical state university student

"Them city folks are all one giant pain in society, all they do is it there in their fancy lil' offices, and not workin' the land like we are. Them city boys are sissies too, actin' like they are some type of hoodlum when they get easily scared by the sighting of a revolver in yer hip and instantly become good citizens when they see a cop"- Someone who lives in the countryside

"Oh my gawd, WHO WANTS TO COME OUT HERE?! There is literally NOTHING here except stupid rednecks with no teeth and endless miles of farm or grass. The only thing you can do is drink, and that's what the yokels do! I can't believe I wasted an entire day just to come out here and "enjoy nature" like my yoga teacher said! Maybe next time I'll just go to nature IN THE CITY instead of going all the way out to any Podunk town!"-Typical arrogant city-dweller most likely from Albany City, telling by his vulgar language

"Albany City thinks its the head of trade and commerce, but what they don't know is we have the busiest port and the more feasible business tax rates"-Nuranto mayor Christopher Yawkey

"I need to pay off some money I lost to the casino down in Playas. So maybe if we just raise taxes slightly, then I can pay it off, and hopefully nobody notices. Maybe just for good measures, we raise them again so I, err, we have have cushioning for paying for stuff they want"-A particular Senator from Enfield who has a gambling problem.

"Even since where I'm going is about a hundred or so miles away, I can get there in less than an hour, or quicker sometimes, depends on traffic"- A lady in here car about of jump on the highway (with no speed limits)

"There are many reasons why we are a tourist hot spot, but we have too many in my humble opinion"-Janice Cobbler, a travel agent

[Saurisisia]

"Your conclusions are questionable, your methods are sloppy, and your theories are absolute tripe; you are a poor excuse for a researcher and are a blight on the reputation of this institution. Your behavior will not be missed here once you are gone, rather it will be instead an improvement."
~ Professor Chasmio Petronio Minieri of the Scimeca Astronomical Research Institute at Anatia in Othneia Province in Mesozoica as he dismisses an incompetent researcher

[Ashkera]

"Secret Ashkeran Robot Presidential Candidate Frustrated at 'Unfathomable Stupidity' of Elanican Voters"
- headline, parody newspaper, United States of Elan

[Cumberlanda]

"All is worth choosing for."

-Cumberlandian proverb

[Oroloo]

"Halt, fiends!"

"Okay."

"I'm warn- wait, what?"

"We're halting. We're halted. We're putting our weapons on the ground."

"You're... Not going to pull any funny business?"

"Well, if we were, we wouldn't tell you."

"Alright, uhm, but you better not."

"Why are you so... Awkward?"

"Well, I was expecting you all to draw weapons and rush me. I was not prepared for actually taking all of you alive."

"Why the fuck would we do that? We know what you are, one of those protectors with enough strength to lift up a house with one hand! You'd cut us all in half with a few swings!"

"Well, hm... I'm sorry, I'm just new to all this. I just assumed you would resist, that's how all the old tales went."

"Yeah, those stories are always set in the time before you guys were common knowledge. The average bandit would laugh at any random prick claiming they could throw boulders with ease, or catch arrows mid-flight, or create storms with their mind. These days, most folks have accepted that you guys exist and, well, react accordingly."

"... Is this how it usually ends, like, are you guys just the really aware exception?"

"You're one of those people that joined the Faith of the Three expecting a slew of legendary fights, aren't you?"

"... Kind of. Initially, I grew past that."

"Yeah, no, this your life now. There's a reason most folks don't sacrifice their soul to live it, it's boring save fighting the occasional supernatural horror, but those are an actual threat to your life."

"Have you done this before?"

"Oh, yeah, fourth time I've bumped into one of you folks. The greenhorns are always like this."

"Ah. Well, uhm, okay. Get in line and start marching... I think the nearest settlement is down that road. Oh, and I think I'll have to... hm."

"Have to what?"

"Shouldn't I bind your hands or something? Like, I only brought four cuffs and don't have any rope."

"Leto's bowels, we're unarmed, what can we do?"

"Slit my throat in my sleep with a sharp rock or something?"

"... Oh, fuck, we could do that. Dammit, I could have gotten out the third time I ran into one of you."

"Yeah, so, do any of you guys have anything?"

"... I think some of them do. Oi, give the big lady all the rope we have!"

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"..."

"Still a bit awkward, aren't you?"

"Very. I did not expect a conversation this... Polite. Or cooperative."

"Hey, in a prison cell or outside a prison cell, I like being alive. Same goes for most of the folks here."

"You do know that if you have repeated counts of theft, that the Magisterial Courts will likely slot you for execution. Right?"

"I'll think of something, this isn't my first time. Better odds running away from normal men armed with whatever spears the Magisters gave them then semi-divine bastards armed by, well, actual Gods."

"That- that's fair."

- Sybil Merlith, Protector of the Faith of the Three, and Rancent Ames, bandit leader.

[Noraika]

"You be sure to be on your best behaviour while you stay in our country Ðæóltéút ("foreigner"). Be aware that the eyes, ears, and fists of the law are everywhere, and you will not escape justice if you violate our laws. Read this pamphlet of basic etiquette and laws to keep in mind, follow our laws, and don't cause trouble, and you'll enjoy your stay here. Have a good day, and let us, or the relevant authorities, know if there is anything we can do to assist you in your stay."

- Customs officer approving tourist for a entry into Noraika

[Teyogina]

No you cannot just wait it out and break the enemies' weapons with your face. I mean sure, you may be radiating with 'the dark' that protects you from harm but you have a bloody tome bloody use it you dastard.

―Toyjian Hinterlands, discussion between two dark mages

[Voltrovia]

"In spite of the wretched suffering which this unholy war shall wreak, it has no purpose religious or political. The creed of reason has no place in the barbaric world of the fanatic - it is they in their paroxysm of hatred who will bring chaos to the concord it is my work to defend."

— Namer Weldern, Harmoniae Archon and Grand Patriarch of Maltrovis, commenting on the outbreak of First Northern War in 1696.

[Las Palmeras]

"I think it's telling that, in United States of Elan superhero comic books, the Ashkeran 'superheroes' are largely absent or assassins secretly employed by the government. 'Ashkera attempts to use super powers to take over the world' has become common enough to be a cliche. It makes sense by the Utilitarian-like reasoning of the Ashkeran government, however. I'm quite confident that if supervillains really did exist, the Ashkerans would do their damnedest to just assassinate them and be done with it.

In Ashkeran superhero comic books, supervillains sometimes are just killed. It's considered a bit 'darker' by the USE readers, admittedly."
- newspaper columnist

"The most memorable appearance of Palmeran villains is singular because most (except the leader) tend to be more like Punch-Clock Villains and normal Mooks; however the country or an organization on a whole is prone to represent entire national goals of typically Well-Intentioned Extremism- the most cliché being an occult/radio hypnosis Assimilation Plot or the Ministry of State Security and assassins gunning for villains and heroes going against Lawful Evil.

American works until 1987 at least had more shades of 'Dirty Commies' save for period pieces, and have since mellowed down to just being obstructive government agents and MIBs, inefficient due to their banality for good or evil. The Japanese works in anime and manga are more variable to good/bad but more specific as Palmerans are almost always around with a Chinese character; more than oft the Jeeves or passive-aggressive Maid of the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy, the Funny Foreigner, or the bubbly Qipao girl."
-Office Lady resuming portrayls

[The Gamindustrian Union]

"Outlaw breast milk products? Not on my watch." -Vert

[Greater Mackonia]

"Human's conceive evil as a 'force', greed, hatred, selfishness, cruelty, ambition...all of these are active forces which must be opposed by the heroes. Hence the standard human plotline is of epic battles between good and evil. For Mackonians evil is simply what hinders you from fulfilling your good, it is a passive force, something which degenerates and corrupts from within, you can't really have a battle between good and evil in Mackonia, because the moment evil starts leading armies they are noble warriors who merely labour under a different self-interest. Its similar to the Zhdanov Doctrine, Mackonian Morality states that the good is what aids your struggle, a person or faction who adopts the bad should not be able to put up any kind of effective resistance to the good, thus there can be no real struggle in Mackonian fiction.

Rather in the standard Mackonian plotline the antagonists take the form of shadowy internal forces behind the crown or in the heroes mind, the most typical is of a loyal general who must deal with a corrupt or incompetent superior. Sometimes its even more general, one of the most effective stroylines involves the great hero coming home to see the country gripped by degeneracy, in the face of which he slowly falls into despair or madness. Shakespeare's Coriolanus remains the most popular piece of human writing in Mackonia. The result that almost all of the action is just people talking makes them seem more 'high-brow' to some, but that is not the intention, it simply does not make sense to include many battle scenes - to Mackonians there is nothing particularly special about war and violence, if they wanted to watch that they would go hunting, or to the arena or to militia training, it would be like humans showing detailed scenes of meat-preparation, useless.

Culture does not reflect the state of its civilisation but its dreams, those can be what it aspires to be or what it wants to escape, hence why in the war-ridden and feudal societies of the world you get the standard good vs evil morality fable, because that is not what life is like, and how in the West and Japan you get edgy sociopathic heroes in dark and violent settings: because life is highly moralistic and peaceful. Stories either enforce what a society wants or escapes from it, they rarely just state the values of the culture again. Hence it is not, in fact, strange to see Mackonians obsess over the most saccharine Japanese cartoons. Mackonian Protagonists are no more amoral sociopaths than the human protagonists are all Jesus of Nazareth; the amoral sociopath is the highest moral ideal, the man who knows no boundaries and for whom all things are possible...The amoral sociopath will be the guy the protagonist is working for, rather than fulfilling totally Mackonian morality (which should make him a leader), he will rather be used to demonstrate loyalty to those who do so - his equivalent of "moral flaws" which human heroes have to struggle with would be a series of mistakes (some of which, such as forgiving enemies rather than immediately executing them, do in fact contradict human values) which hinder his goal.

But like I said, culture frequently rebels against its dominant values even if this rebellion is perceived through them. I suppose the Mackonian counterpart to the western anti-hero would be a sort of Prince Myshkin figure, who while behaving utterly irrationally still manages to come out on top (and hence at least fulfill the aims of Mackonian morality...and hence arguably showing double the merit because he achieved them through transgression), or alternatively a character who shows all these values but labours under an utterly false cause of altruistic collectivism.

While Mackonian Protagonists are not necessarily simply the villains of humanity, it would not be wrong to say Mackonian Antagonists are very similar to what most human media portrays as heroic. Zealous, unquestioning, irrational and seemingly imbeciles. When a stereotypical human hero turns round to the villain's monologue and declares "You may be right, but I'm still gonna stop ya!"...That for Mackonians is the epitome of evil. But as I said, it is very hard for Mackonians to really have concrete 'antagonists', as individuals cannot really "do" evil, so the closest you can get to 'antagonists' will be masses, crowds, herds...the ungrateful or misled populace. There will not really be a singular villain, as that would show leadership and merit and nothing to be condemned but simply an opposing interest, rather a kind of faceless conspiracy without ends, if there is a singular villain they are portrayed as empty characters used solely to represent the evils of a particular idea. In modern times it cannot be denied ideology has been influential here, with several successful movies all portraying nefarious social-democrats rising to power while the troops fight and die on the front lines."

-Tseila Kathangi, speaking to an Ashkeran Director in his part-time consultancy role.

[Multiversal Transcendence]

"Do not fear, any invasion of the Ascended Realms is doomed. There are many advantages to being able to bend reality at a whim. Alas, we only possess such power within our home. Otherwise, we would punish the destroyers wherever they might be found."
-Apophis

[Cumberlanda]

"Protagonists in a Cumberlandian film are bad about civilian casualties. It isn't a good comic unless the hero has to kill a kid because he has a bomb stitched in him. Lovely dose of reality, innit?"

-Dan Wade, CEO of Admiral Comics