History Roleplay / Esquarium

* FaceoftheBand: Arguably, Charlotte Durrough of Daecon, Kuo Zhang of Namor, Ecgwulf Oswinessunu of Saexland and Cedric Liet of Francilie for the far-right populist political movement. They are arguably the most recognisable of the far-right leaders in Esquarium, and they are notorious for getting into long running Twitter spats with various leaders, which include Elis of Katranjiev, Nareste La Via of Luziyca and the Tilkisi Muslims of Atlia. They were also featured on the front page of satirical magazine ''Trang Vai'' and was the main feature article of The Liberal, Geadland's main newspaper on March 26, 2016.

** Gibbs, the IRC nick of Gibberan, lost its connotation with the player after the player changed his nation's IC name to Walminghaven. However it has become a [[MeaningfulName]] after it was retained [[ShoutOut as a reference to Mark Harmon's character on NCIS]]

* {{Born in the Wrong Century}}: Hippo wants to return to the divine right of kings and is a fanatical monarchist, wanting to turn the world back to around 1500.
** Seax to a lesser extent. Whereas Hippo sees the 16th Century as ideal, Seax wants to revive Old English and Anglo-Saxon paganism, although he is far more accepting of egalitarianism and is against monarchism.
* {{Cultured Badass}}: A fair amount of people on IRC.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Luziyca seems to fit this role to a tee.
* FanBoy: Unolia on several things. Musicals, Series/{{House of Cards|US}} and literature seems to be his favorite things to muse about.

** Weis and Qian qualify as Game of Thrones fanboys.

* FreudianTrio: Arguably the Triumvirate nations in the IRC.
** Zieg is obviously the id, talking about his (sarcastic) desire for world conquest and absolute control (not that sarcastic at time).
** Koyro and Unolia switch roles as ego and super-ego from time to time, although they usually play the roles in order.

* {{Insane Troll Logic}}: Plenty.
** See Unolia's example above in his role as {{Almighty Janitor}}

* {{Only Sane Man}}: Vyvland has time and time again proven to be among the most level headed Esquarians.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Luziyca is more of a douchebag and a twat, but thinks himself to be a major player in the region.

* TheBusCameBack: A general rule of thumb is that if somebody leaves the region and doesn't CTE, more often than not, they will return.
** Sjalhaven is incredibly well known for doing this often.
** Columbion has had three total Esquarium residencies, the third and current one has going for over a year and settled down permanently before ceasing to exist.
** [=StJames=] left in September 2015 and returned within a matter of hours, but not before causing a mass panic that nearly led to a rewrite of much in character history. This time, he seems to have finally left for good.
* VerbalTic: Reno_Lam (handler of Tuthina) uses the word "well" a tad lot.
** Justified, since he says that before an explanation.
* WeAREStrugglingTogether: Sums up the region most of the time.

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!!History

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!!Current present and active nations: (Puppets are shown beneath their main accounts)

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!!This Roleplay contains examples of

* AbdicateTheThrone: Enforced in Geadland, where the monarch must retire after 32 years on the throne. Why 32 years? Because two historical kings went mad with power in the 33rd year of their reign.
** King John IX of Scotia also abdicated, simply for retirement.

* ArrangedMarriage: A matter of fact in Tuthina, as most marriages, especially between noble clans, are political and/or financial in nature. Love between the couples is unnecessary.

* ArtifactTitle: The Christian Republic of Luziyca has more or less been a secular state since the mid-1960s as a result of the Quiet Revolution.

* AuthorityInNameOnly: The Tuthinan emperor, despite being the absolute and (mostly) undisputed ruler of the empire and its (nonexistent) colonies, has surprisingly little power beyond his personal holdings. His influence varies between monarchs and locations, but in most cases, he is not as powerful as the largest clans in the empire, who control the throne to make sure it stays this way.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Tuthina

* BoomTown: The city of Leamington, in Daecon, since it is the centre of the Daeconese Military Modernisation Program.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: A few nations practice Roman Catholicism, while Luziyca (and his puppets) practice Lutheran Catholicism.
** Not the case in Nevanmaa, Qianrong, Sakatia, and several other countries with regional churches. Generally these are either Christianity is Protestant or Christianity is Orthodox, though Qianrongese Christianity's closest RL equivalent is the Kakure Christianity of feudal Japan.

* LesCollaborateurs: The Empire of Namor to the Chorean Empire, during the Second Great War (what amounts to a fictional version of WWII).

*** The infamous "Bloody Emperor" Sinryong in 1677, who, after being heavily offended by a nobleman's objections to his (justifiably unfair) proposal, [[spoiler:Restrained the nobleman and his family in question, mutilated his family one by one (starting with the kids), broke his legs, beat his face bloody and crushed his head with a gong hammer, all in front of the other nobility]]. Oh, and he [[spoiler:[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Put them up in display]] in front of his palace, as a reminder to everyone to not even try to disagree with him in any way.]]
* DyingTown: The entire Luziycan state of Kashui.

* {{Eagleland}}: Quite a few countries give indications of being such. Luziyca is Flavor 2, though it professes to be Flavor 1.

* EnemyMine: Quite a few such alliances. For example, there's [=NOSDO=], an alliance between several liberal democracies and the raging racists in semi-democratic Nevanmaa.

* EverybodySmokes: With how frequently most people smoke in Koyro, it is the epitome of this trope.

*** Min, while officially based off of Bali and the like, takes very much from East Asia, especially with the Esoteric Buddhism.

* FightingForAHomeland: The Shudri before they got Sinhako in late January 2015.

* FromBadToWorse: After its "Revolution", control of Uguria shifted from the hands of an ill-fated [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-intentioned]] [[LesCollaborateurs collaborator]] to a PsychopathicManchild who has nearly absolutely no idea what he has been doing.

** Phazayazk takes this to an entirely new and incredibly complicated level.

* HilariousInHindsight: Geadland's election results, published in June 2013, turned out to closely mirror the results of a RL election in Norway which was held three months later.
** On July 25th 2015, Namor and Qianrong released a series of articles in which it was revealed that ASQ terrorists had covered up the death of ASQ leader Ngo Huu Tra in June. Four days later, on July 29th, the Afghan government revealed that the leadership of the Taliban had covered up the death of leader Mullah Omar for nearly two years.
*** Yet another incident involving Qianrong and the Taliban came in September of the same year; the fall of a major Qianrongese city to a different rebel group in Esquarium was followed shortly by the Taliban capturing the strategic town on Kunduz.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In Geadland, both King Alexander III and Tomas Kirk were tried and executed in the same castle where their enemies were imprisoned and executed.

* HomeGuard: The majority of the population of Tuthina ([[ChildSoldiers from age 12 and up]]) is required to participate in military and civilian service as members of the local neighbourhood watch/militia/state guard of the Empire. Their morale, training and equipment status varies greatly.

* InsaneTrollLogic: In the Mk 2-3 eras, practically anything the Luziycan government ever said.
** Also practically everything Qianrongese state media said during the FDRQ.

* IronLady: Phoebe Wilhelm of Luziyca and Ciorstag Saomùlong of Scotia.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Song Li-Chao, absolute dictator of Qianrong for some time, was kidnapped by a group of terrorists and held for six months, where he was starved, waterboarded, beaten, harassed, burned, and even ''castrated'' by the group's sadistic leader.

* MilitaryCoup: Qianrong suffered one in December 2014.
** As did the Ocelot Isles the following month.

** Lecistan also suffered one in August 2015.

* NewsParody: Satirical news sources occasionally get featured on the news thread, mainly ''The Pickle'' from Namor. Satirical news also often makes the news; Pickle subsidiary ''The Constipation'' being sued by Luziycan newspaper ''the Constitution'' is the best example, though another Pickle subsidiary, the ''Ice Cream Cone'', provoked a Qianrong-Namor Twitter war.

* NorseByNorsewest: There are quite a few Nordic-themed nations which don't line up with [=RL=] Nordic nations. In the northwest, by coincidence. These include Geadland, Vyvland and Vjaarland. The former two are also Dutch-influenced.

*** Exaggerated under the rise of Lt. Gen. Malcolm Nyawuza, who turned into essentially an African-Gaelic version of Nazi Germany. Luckily (for the rest of the world), he was eventually deposed after a failed invasion of Magane.

* PermanentElectedOfficial: Qianrong's leadership under the FDRQ was ostensibly elected and then reelected basically continuously. The legitimacy of this story was dubious at best, of course.

* PointlessCivicProject: Everywhere in the PDRU Airstrips.

* TheRepublic: Many, many examples, from Ainin, all the way to Luziyca.
** Exaggerated with Arkiasis for the first half of the 20th century, going as far as to fund and arm any revolution with the word "Republic" in it. Long gone today, but many Arkiasians view the era with a NostalgiaFilter.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Unolia under Jarrod Thuman. Cools down a little back now that they're under new management.

** The current Lecistani civil war may quickly follow this trope.

* SaintlyChurch: The Imperial Cult of Tuthina claims to be one as well, although its [[TheTheocracy political affiliation]] with [[TheEmpire Tuthina]] makes it a questionable statement.

* {{Shoutout}}: Esquarium is full of these.
* SeriousBusiness: Luziycans take their football (soccer) very seriously, [[PowderKegCrowd rioting]] every time their team is eliminated from an international tournament. Especially noted after the team's early elimination in the fourth Coupe d'Esquarium.

* StateSec: The Imperial Censorate of Tuthina is one of these. It originated as [[FromNobodyToNightmare a historical department]] that was a glorified bookkeeping organisation. Later, though, it gradually grew in power until it can decide what information exists in the Empire by simply documenting it, and what information {{Unperson does not}}, and later gained the means to enforce that. Since the modern era, the Imperial Censorate grew fully into this trope, with the additional responsibility to maintain the pseudo-feudal status quo of the Empire by restricting internal population movement, controlling the movement of many strategic goods (from heavy machineries to cash crops, effectively ensuring the inland farmers will stay growing crops that feed the population), as well as [[BigBrotherIsWatching spying on pretty much everyone in the Empire in the name of "recording history"]], effectively holding enough information to depose all but the most powerful individuals in the Imperial hierarchy. To enforce that, it has its own network of spies and agents, as well as connections with ''other'' secret agencies to gather intelligence, its own military division to deal with those spies cannot, an administrative system to keep everything in one piece, its own research department to study on things deemed too sensitive for others, as well as huge political sways because of the aforementioned reasons.

* StreisandEffect: Used a few times. For instance, there was the time when Luziyca's newspaper ''The Constitution'' sued a Namorese parady version called ''The Constipation'', to prevent it from being published, with predictable results.

* SwampsAreEvil: The Nevel region in Vyvland.

* TemptingFate: A government report in 1957 in Kraq stated that "The high standards of living, probably higher than that in even Aininian Notasia within the Dominion has all but assured that Craik is the most stable country within the continent, and that within fifty years, it will be at par with that of East Luziyca." One year later, riots ensue between white settlers and Lutheran Catholic Arabs against Muslims.

* TheCaligula: Mingwok's "Bloody Emperor" Sinryong. With the combined extreme narcissism, violent tendencies and megalomania, he became the perfect figure for hate and villany (a-la Hitler) within Min history, especially due to his [[spoiler:very gruesome actions during his reign]].
* TheGreatWall: Built after the Third Namo-Luziycan War, the Namo-Luziycan barrier was meant to keep soldiers, illegal immigrants and propaganda in both countries from running into each other.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Ziegenhain, pretty much.

* TrueCompanions: The NOSDO nations, once upon a time.
** WeAREStrugglingTogether: The NOSDO nations now, mostly due to the racist policies of Nevanmaa.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Unolia, a right-wing anarchist version of a communist dictatorship.

* TheUnPronounceable: The Vyvlander language is particularly notorious for its long and unpronounceable compound words, such as ''mefwerkliggemends'' (districts) or ''fiskalezoekonomibeleeds'' (fiscal policies)

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: In 1872, Žygimantas Ramanauskas was elected President in the country of Aucuria after paramilitary forces rigged the election, establishing a brutal dictatorship that lasted for decades. Guess how many presidents there were before him.
* VetinariJobSecurity: The Imperial government of Tuthina tries to invoke this, citing that the brief republican government during the Republican Uprising is plagued with a lot more problems than the monarchy would ever have.
** Geadland's coalition government is a more short-term example. The other two parties do not always get on with the dominant Conservatives, but in both of their cases, it is not in their interests to pull out.

* TheWoobie: The Swedish Vyvlanders, who were brutally forced out of their homeland by a fascist dictator. Those who escaped to Geadland still faced many problems, including crime, poverty and a devastating flood in 1955.
** The Shudri also are like this, due to experiencing consistent discrimination by people and various governments over many generations.
** The Zelenagorans (descendants of Katranjian settlers in Abishag) in the fascist era are also like this, having endured persecution, forced Gaelicization, and even outright genocide.
** The Lecs prior to 1945 easily fill this role.

* WouldNotShootACivilian: Tuthina, most of the time. It is more because civilians are considered valuable properties of the land the war is fought to claim, and civilians do not pose a real match than genuine care for the civilian population.

* WretchedHive: Played straight with West Cortoguay

* AlmightyJanitor: Unolia has the sarcastic position of "Sports Czar", but he de facto is the final word on all things related to sports in Esquarium, on an OOC basis.
** Turned up to eleven with Unolia banning all members of the #nssports channel due to a feminist discourse he saw. He used the logic that since #nssports is a ''sports'' channel for nationstates, it fell under his jurisdiction.

* AuthorityEqualsAssKicking: Tuthinan nobles are required to take part in some form of martial art training [[CulturedWarrior in addition to their usual art training]]. While usually not as strong as dedicated warriors, they tend to be decent fighters when necessary. [[WarriorPrince Some are more eager to prove their strength than others]].

** Abishag in the 1980s. After the ouster of Gen. Gordon McNeil-Sophitsho by the [[KlingonPromotion overambitious]] Lt. Gen. Malcolm Nyawuza, power in the fascist Democratic Republic [[EvilVersusEvil went]] from an already brutal PresidentEvil to an AxCrazy GenocidalManiac with [[SmallNameBigEgo massive delusions of grandeur]] and megalomaniacal desire to rule all of Nautasia.

*** Taken UpToEleven by the infamous "Bloody Emperor" Sinryong in 1677, who, after being heavily offended by a nobleman's objections to his (justifiably unfair) proposal, [[spoiler:Restrained the nobleman and his family in question, mutilated his family one by one (starting with the kids), broke his legs, beat his face bloody and crushed his head with a gong hammer, all in front of the other nobility]]. Oh, and he [[spoiler:[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Put them up in display]] in front of his palace, as a reminder to everyone to not even try to disagree with him in any way.]]

*** Turned UptoEleven under the rise of Lt. Gen. Malcolm Nyawuza, who turned into essentially an African-Gaelic version of Nazi Germany. Luckily (for the rest of the world), he was eventually deposed after a failed invasion of Magane.

** Taken UpToEleven with Arkiasis for the first half of the 20th century, going as far as to fund and arm any revolution with the word "Republic" in it. Long gone today, but many Arkiasians view the era with a NostalgiaFilter.

* TangledFamilyTree: More like a tangled family [[UpToEleven tumbleweed]] for the Tuthinan imperial family. It is implied to be RoyallyScrewedUp, as the imperial family has an unusually high ratio of female offspring to male, and most members of it seem to be slightly eccentric at best.

** Turned {{Up to Eleven}} with Unolia banning all members of the #nssports channel due to a feminist discourse he saw. He used the logic that since #nssports is a ''sports'' channel for nationstates, it fell under his jurisdiction.

** Scotia on ''WesternAnimation/{{Phineas and Ferb}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Gravity Falls}}'', ''Franchise/{{Pretty Cure}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{The Loud House}}''

* RoyalHarem: Tuthina has one, and is probably the largest in the entire region, with 400 wives ([[BiTheWay of various different genders]]) and counting.

The "Mk 5" era would ultimately begin on October 19th, when Sjalhaven ejected Luziyca (since he wanted to do it) and banjected Hippo before departing the region. Vyvland would take over as delegate, and has reversed the decision. However, unlike many Mk 5 scares, the Mk 5 era had been generally peaceful, with the transition having been quite smooth.

* Britanno: An English-speaking island nation. A democracy with a centre-right government that recently went through a [[{{Belgium}} Belgian]]-like political impasse, and a member of NOSDO and the Esquarian Community.

The community is open (there is no password) and employs modern tech and realism. It's now a closed world: members ''can'' interact with other nations outside of the region, but it would not be recognised as being canon (RP ideas/concepts like YouTube still get mentioned though). In practice though, it is rare for these to be done. Most nations tend to be democracies, but there are some prominent exceptions to this. Since late 2012, many role-players have come and gone but a few have been around for quite a while. Many nations have frequent interactions and intertwining history.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Aininians seem to have a bureaucratic nature that makes even the Vogons from TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy look like the most lenient bureaucrats in the universe.

* Luziyca: A large nation on the Western continent, opposite Namor, their arch-rivals. For most of its time in Esquarium, Luziyca has been an authoritarian and dystopian parody of the UnitedStates, albeit with Slavic influences and a large Swedish population. Lately, the authoritarian aspects of Luziyca are being slowly written out. Its language is a Latin/Swedish/Slavic-influenced ConLang.

** FarEast: Tuthina is a mix between UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan and UsefulNotes/ImperialChina, plus a few more places.

** FarEast: Tuthina is a mix between ImperialJapan and ImperialChina, plus a few more places.

* KimonoIsTraditional: Most, if not all Tuthinans wear either kimono or its derivatives. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as the Tuthinan culture is partially based on a modern version of early ImperialJapan, complete with the sentiment that wearing foreign clothes, along with not appreciating the traditional values, is socially inappropriate, if not a mark of potential traitors against TheEmpire.

* Arkiasis: An English-speaking country on the end of the northwestern continent. A democracy with a centre-right government, and a member of NOSDO and the Esquarian Community.
* Atlantica: A cold, sparsely populated mountainous democracy that's a blend of Iceland and Norway, but also has quite a few other influences, especially Switzerland, the Netherlands, and France. Homogeneous and dominated by social democratic ideas and unions.
* Britanno: An English-speaking island nation. A democracy with a centre-right government that recently went through a [[{{Belgium}} Belgian]]-like political impasse, and a member of NOSDO and the Esquarian Community.

* Koyro: A UsefulNotes/NorthKorea -style dictatorship led by Ohanka Jon Bak-su. Probably the most totalitarian nation in the region. A member of the Triumvirate.

* Masseau: A large latin nation with a mostly romance-speaking population. Has a centre-left government. Has a relatively small population, and has somewhat large influence on its neighbors. Considered a Middle Power, and co-founded the Southeast Oriental Entente.

* Vjaarland: A medium-sized Nordic nation which once possessed a sizable empire in Western Esquarium. Governed as a democratic constitutional monarchy with staunch social and fiscal conservative policies. Notable for its arch-rivalry with the Triumvirate alliance. A NOSDO member.
** Kinzeria: A small Vjaarlandic ex-colony in Nautasia. Generally acts as a Vjaarlandic PuppetState, much to the chagrin of its other ex-colonizer, Katranjiev, who is trying to gain more influence.

* West Cedarbrook: A large English-speaking and predominantly Jewish nation, located in the far southeast corner.
* Teutonia: A Nazi dictatorship, essentially a direct copy of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, and very totalitarian and militaristic in nature. It is a member of the Iron Pact alliance alongside Unolia and Koyro. Left on January 12th due to being tired with the toxic environment. Later came back on March 10th.

* Francilie: Also called Franc. A medium sized capitalist democracy in Conitia. Francophone and proud. Left on May 22nd, 2017.

** Francilie is loyal to France, where he was born and currently where he resides. However, being in a family with Flemish/Dutch roots, he also quite likes the Benelux.

** Columbion has had three total Esquarium residencies, the third and current one has going for over a year and has settled down permanently.

* Mingwok: An absolute diarchy on the north, influenced by Japan, Tuthina and Vajrayana Buddhism. A fairly sized island in the northern Lahudican archipelago, the Min are one of the few monarchies who are socially liberal, the only difference is that theirs was a natural development.
** Taigan: A quasi-japan, Taigan is a monarchy whose social order is partially modeled after Tuthina and Mingwok, but unlike the two has embraced modernism and is very open to the world. Formerly controlled by Gigaverse until it was handed over to UCV (Mingwok).

* Qianrong: An East Asian archipelago to the south of Luziyca and Namor; presently divided between a democratic government hampered by the capriciousness and xenophobia of the populace in the north, and an outright psychotic not!communist government in the south. Recovering from a revolution and a civil war, just to top it all off.

** The Min of Mingwok has a pretty dark and distorted sense of justice, with punishments that usually contains [[spoiler:Continuous physical, emotional and psychological torture]] in it. In fact, it's pretty much twisted that they'd even go up to the point of [[spoiler:burning people alive]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: a significant number of Esquarian nations are arguably this, including Namor to China, Koyro to North Korea, Britanno to the UK, New Audholm to New Zealand, Luziyca to the USA (allegedly), etc.

*** Taigan, Mingwok and Karanawa can be regarded in a similar light.

* GenderIsNoObject: Mingwok is basically this, due to their rejection of social hierarchy (other than the usual nobility-commoner divide) and their religions. Since Mingwok's society does not recognize any it is common to see transgenders, gays and similar people in most places in the Empire, especially in the big cities.

** UCV/Mingwok, being a Filipino, has this sense of national pride (albeit not as misplaced). He is sometimes being ironic with the idea.

** UCV/Mingwok to some extent, he's deist.