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Characters / NationStates

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This is the character sheet for nations on NationStates.

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Your Family

     You 
Your alter ego, the leader of your nation.

  • Character Customization: You can choose the name. That's pretty much all.
  • Featureless Protagonist: Unless you develop your character on your own, the most you can hope for is some minor assumptions made by issue writers, most certainly unconscious.
     Your Brother 
Your loser brother.

  • Character Development: In early issues, "your brother" was often the character who advised you to ditch democracy and rule as a dictator, with the implication he's the little black shirt of the family. Later issues play that as a part of a wider slacker-dom, and the advice such as this one as just honestly bad. Of course, it's nowhere stated it must be the same brother.
  • The Slacker: Depicted as rather none-too-bright and a bit of a sexual sleaze.
     Your Niece 
Your teenage niece.

  • The Fundamentalist: At some point got in with the fundamentalist crowd and urges you to make the state enforce religious laws.
  • Nephewism: Plays the role of a teenage female relative in issues where that matters. The leader doesn't seem to have any children of their own.
  • Soul-Saving Crusader: To repeat, urges you to make the state enforce religious laws, because how else would all these heathens save their souls from damnation?

NPC Nations

    Maxtopia 
The first nation in Nation States, created by the game's creator Max Barry, Maxtopia is one of the most mentioned nations in issues.

  • Egopolis: Named after Max Barry himself.
  • No Communities Were Harmed: Although the nation is used mostly generically in issues, it seems mostly based on the real life United States, though to a lesser extent than the United Federation.
     Brancaland 
A liberal nation known for its snowy landscapes and delicious maple syrup.

  • No Communities Were Harmed: An obvious stand-in for Canada.
  • Serious Business: Maple syrup. One issue has an entire diplomatic incident happen because your nation's leader was caught eating non-Brancalandian syrup.
     Bigtopia 
A third world nation in your sphere of influence. Its citizens tend to suffer a lot of prejudice.

     Blackacre 
A nation with chilly relations with yours. Lead by Valeria Drake, who harasses world leaders on Twitcher. Also shares cultural similarities with your nation.
     Dáguò 
A far East Communist nation which constantly antagonizes yours.
     Brasilistan 
     East Lebatuck 
     Marche Blanche and Marche Noire 
     Skandilund 
A Scandinavian inspired nation where laws are seen as guidelines. Once feuded with your nation over the frozen island of Hanshedrik. Lead by Anders Anderson.
     United Federation 
A gun-loving, enthusiastically capitalist nation standing in for the United States. They don't like entering any international pacts that might limit their freedom to do as they please, especially in economic contexts.

Notable Player Nations and Regions

    Astholm 
Astholm is a nation that has territories, enclaves and exclaves everywhere.

    Aurora Confederacy 
    Aurora Region 
Bearing no relation to the Aurora Confederacy, Aurora is a player-created region that holds itself to very high RP standards. Founded and led by Norvenia, it is an MT (Modern Times) region famed for its very talented (or, at least, very verbose) writers.

Aurinsula
The Republic of Aurinsula is an Expy of conservative, militant East Asian democracies, particularly Taiwan and South Korea.

  • Alternate History: Relies on this, but not to the extent that you'd think - it's very much an Expy of Taiwan, albeit considerably scaled up.
  • Alt Itis: Both Aurinsula and Songhia, despite having completely unrelated histories, are played by the same person - the only example of this in Aurora to date. Their stories generally interact as little as possible.
  • Faction Calculus: The Aurinsulans call their method of waging war the 'Pancake,' as distinguished from the Norvenian 'Cereal Bowl' or the Skorzenian 'Jelly Doughnut.' In short, their armed forces relies on being a big, durable, homogenized mass that can exhaust enemies through sheer attrition.
  • Iron Lady: Their current president, Zhao Yingtai, is something like this (or at least tries to be).
  • MegaCorp: An enduring feature of their society, the largest ones have a huge influence over the country's politics.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Aurinsulans are unhappy about their dependence on foreign aide to fight the Skorzenians, but they know that they don't stand a chance without it.
  • Translation Style Choices: Definitely option 2; Aurinsulans refuse to truck with phonetic transliterations of anything and always translate for meaning. They religiously track down the origins of foreign names and render them in their own language, however it might end up sounding. This works in reverse, too; the name of the country is a reverse-translation of its actual name, Jindao - meaning 'The Golden Island.'
  • We Have Reserves: How Aurinsula prepares to fight a full-scale war. They have a book that rates the value of all their forces and those of the enemies, and are encouraged to make trades - kill 20 points of your guys at the cost of 15 points of our guys - without hesitation. Average soldiers are the cheapest thing in the book.
  • Worthy Opponent: To Skorzenia; the Aurinsulans are very well-prepared for a fight with them.

Afalia
The Kingdom of Afalia is an Expy of Australia with some Irish influences. A former Regnum Albion colony that gained independence in 1952 it is now a tolerant, stable, wealthy parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy although since a terrible war in 2013 it has been going through the motions.

  • Big Bad: Undoubtedly the biggest enemy of Afalians everywhere is the dictator of Titanica Jack Lazin, a fascist dictatorship which attacked Afalia in 2013 in the bloodiest war in its history. He is currently on trial for war crimes.
  • Civil War: The Harling Terrors-the ongoing conflict between the Harling Freedom Army and army. The HFA is fighting for independence in a conflict suspiciously reminiscent of The Troubles.
  • The High Queen: Queen Amelia of Afalia who became monarch in 2013 espouses beauty, kindness and wisdom despite her young age. Despite being a constitutional monarch she enjoys enormous respect and thus some power.
  • Irish Priest: The minority of vicars in the Church of Afalia and the majority of priests found in Harling.
  • Iron Lady: Chancellor of the Exchequer Jessica Shaw and to a lesser extent Queen Amelia.
  • Kangaroos Represent Australia: Afalia's national animal the Volo is basically a kangaroo.
  • Land Down Under: Much of Afalia is dense forest and bush, uninhabited except by the toughest of citizens.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Princess Laura, Queen Amelia's younger sister and future wife to Emperor Napoleon of Valyria, presents herself as a little stupid but has Hidden Depths. She is suspicious, jealous and power hungry and wishes to not only be simply powerful but the power behind the throne.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: Prime Minister Christopher Kelly is a mixture of President Iron and President Personable although he will soon be a Retired Badass.
  • Penal Colony: Colonists set up a penal colony in Afalia at the same time as the free colonies during the first wave of settlement.
  • The Vicar: 95% of Church of Afalia vicars are like this.
  • Western Terrorists: The Harling Freedom Army from Harling Island who demand independence from Afalia. They are the main side, along the Royal Afalian Army, in the Harling Terrors conflict.

Bratoslovoukia
The Federal Republic of Bratoslovoukia is the largest nation in Aurora by area, and is its Expy of Russia and the Soviet Union. Bratoslovoukia recently lost a war with Norvenia and the Cookish States, leading it to reform its political system.

Lydenburg
AKA the Trekboer Republic of Lydenburg.

  • Amoral Afrikaner: White Lydenburgers in a nutshell.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: Both the white regime and the black guerrillas attempting to overthrow it have harassed or abused innocent civilians.
  • Dirty Commies: Anybody who opposes colour bars is clearly one.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Possibly the greatest social taboo.
  • Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: The Lydenburg National Police are above the law. They don't answer to Joe Public, they question his politics and beat confessions out of him. It's no surprise they're far better at curbstomping dissent than solving any actual crime.
  • Shadow Dictator: Prime Minister Hendrik Strydom.
  • Shown Their Work: Lydenburg is played by an actual South African and fluent Afrikaans-speaker, lending all of their posts a definite ring of verisimilitude.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Morota National Party (MNP) insurgents are alternatively depicted as communist terrorist scumbags, or selfless patriots liberating a disadvantaged people.
  • Wretched Hive: The country's black townships are squalid, dangerously overpopulated, slums ignored by health services and law enforcement.

Norvenia
The Commonwealth of Norvenia is Aurora's resident super-power, and is an Expy of the United States, at least in the role it takes in the region.

  • Eagleland: Type I. Norvenians are devoted to liberal interventionism, and don't hesitate to deploy troops in order to overthrow oppressive regimes.
  • The Federation: Norvenia not only sees itself as this, but tries very hard to live up to it.
  • Proud Warrior Race: Norvenians hold the armed forces in very high regard, and have a standard of training and equipment for every soldier that is unmatched except by the most elite of foreign armies.

Seahold
The Grand Duchy of Seahold is an Expy of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, if it got colonized by Anglo-Saxon and Norse seafarers instead of the Spanish.

Skorzenia
The Holy Empire. Skorzenia is the ultimate antipode of Norvenia; it is a tyrannical state ruled by a shadowy order that oppresses its toiling masses. It is also very well-written, all things considered.

  • Awesome, but Impractical: The P.2000 Behemoth Tank. It's based on the P.1500 Monster and weighs over 2,000 tons. In general, all of their equipment is explicitly like this.
  • After the End: Skorzenia's cities and economies were destroyed in the nuclear 1984 War. The nation as it exists now is a little over a dozen massive factory cities built around Fraternity bunker complexes, with most of the country remaining lawless wasteland.
  • The Battlestar: The Poseidon-class battle carrier is a mashup of a supercarrier and a dreadnought.
  • Big Bad: Of Aurora; the country takes the role of master-antagonist.
  • Cool Car: The Pursuit Units of the Ranger Patrol Troop drive muscle cars with 550 cubic inch supercharged V12s. Skorzenians in general love overpowered vehicles.
  • Dystopia: Members of the Steel Fraternity get democracy, education, and civil rights. The other ninety-plus percent of the population get random mass killings, deliberate mass killings, engineered poverty and overcrowding, government-backed gangs of psychopaths, human experimentation, starvation, and general soul-crushing oppression. Young prole men actually fight each other for the chance to be conscripted as Cannon Fodder for the Imperial Army.
  • Eagleland: The original Republic of Skorzenia, founded by American adventurers following the Civil War, had Type I ideals, but always skirted close to Type II. The Steel Fraternity likewise has Type I dreams, but following a period of laissez-faire corporate rule, a civil war, a nuclear civil war, and multiple attempts to destroy their nation, they reacted by going to the far end of Type II, then right on past it to build an oppressive oligarchy.
  • The Empire: It's even in the name!
  • Emperor Scientist: Brother-Polymath Johnathan Keyes, leader of the Steel Fraternity and Emperor of Skorzenia, is an accomplished scientist who now devotes most of his time to gerontological study in an attempt to increase the lifespan of Fraternity members.
  • Evil Versus Evil: The Fraternity has conquered several neighboring nations and basically enslaved their populations. They did this in retaliation for said nations attempting to annihilate them (for the second time) and oppressing (or even attempting to exterminate) Skorzenian refugees within their borders.
  • Faceless Goons: The Skorzenian National Police and most of the Fraternity's infantry wear face-concealing helmets.
  • Homage: To Fallout. The Brotherhood of Steel is represented here as the Steel Fraternity, and their elite warriors wear armor modeled after the Power Armor from the game. Also, the Skorzenian National Police are modeled after Judges, and the Ranger Patrol Troop is the Main Force Patrol in all but name. Johnathan Steuben, the sadistic commander of VANGUARD is named after Joachim Steuben of Hammer's Slammers. The oppressed underclass are referred to as proles, and the nuclear war that led to the Fraternity's takeover of the nation occurred in 1984, both references to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
  • Hypocrite: The Steel Fraternity is militantly and vocally dedicated to democracy and liberty, despite being a brutally oppressive oligarchy ruling an autocratic empire.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: The upper leadership of the Steel Fraternity is acutely aware of what an oppressive, authoritarian hell hole Skorzenia has become. They consider their regime to be a necessary evil to preserve true freedom, liberty, and democracy in the face of socialism and invasive government.
  • The Order: The Steel Fraternity.
  • Powered Armor: Used by the Steel Paladins, though equipping and training one of them costs as much as an entire conscript brigade.
  • Slave Mooks: Part-and-parcel of their 'Jelly Doughnut' system. The parts of their army that aren't super-elite are all slave conscripts.
  • State Sec: The Skorzenian National Police exist to maintain suppression of the prole population.
  • Super-Soldier: The Steel Paladins, the single most elite forces anywhere in Aurora. Their initiation requires them to defeat - and kill - other Skorzenian soldiers.
  • Tank Goodness: One of the Steel Fraternity's greatest passions.
  • Token Evil Teammate: The special forces/intelligence organization VANGUARD is this, even compared to the rest of the Fraternity. On an individual level, the psychotic commander of VANGUARD is this to the rest of the Imperial High Command.

Songhia
The Republic of Songhia is a very troubled nation in southern Afrosia.

  • Alt Itis: As mentioned above, it's played by the same person as Aurinsula.
  • Bling of War: Much has been made of Songhia's devotion to fancy uniforms as a tangible job benefit. The President's elite guards actually wear white uniforms when on the job, making them spectacularly conspicuous.
  • Bulungi: More-or-less this, complete with its very own...
  • The Generalissimo: The irrepressible David Sundiata, who seized power in 2003 and continues to hold it to this day.

    Pugna Archipelago 
Pugna Archipelago is a player-created RP region consisting of very small (by NationStates standards, ie less than a hundred million) islands and groups of islands usually MT with some Fan T aspects.

Breheim
Nordic Republic which is based on Scandinavian countries during the cold war, along with aspects of the DDR, Revolutionary France, The New Russia and other things.

Cossackia

Île de Cuivre
Francophone Apartheid state.

Tyresia

    Qhevak 
The Oortian Community of Qhevak is a decentralized transhumanist Oort cloud habitat federation in Future Tech Roleplay.

  • Attack Drone: Most combat synthmorphs have hordes of these for support.
  • Brain Uploading: Widespread.
  • Cool Starship: The HAV-190 Archangel, an over two kilometer long "space fighter" with massive DEW firepower and enough nuclear weapons to raze a planet.
  • Deus est Machina: The main goal of the Entangled Order of Saint Teilhard.
  • Energy Weapon: Widespread on all levels of warfare and treated mostly realistically. Combat synthmorphs typically use self-focusing pulse lasers as their primarily weapons while warships pack high-relativistic particle beams. Almost everything in military use is also covered in multi-spectrum smartmatter phased arrays for point defence and ECM.
  • Genius Loci: The Loci Clade, intelligences distributed amonst the ecosystems of Dyson Trees.
  • Hive Mind: Positively portrayed and widespread, to the point that brain to brain networking is normal for groups working on a shared problem.
  • Human Subspecies: Nearbaselines in general.
  • Libertarians IN SPACE!: Mostly, though individual habs within the Community can be quite authoritarian - albeit anyone can leave whenever they want.
  • Low Culture, High Tech: Kumihos and Tribeships are both ultra-advanced posthuman cultures with mostly tribal modes of societal organisation.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: The Oyuin Clade were founded on the premise that these are straightforwardly better than reality.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: The Hounds of Tindalos task force fired 1,100 standoff missiles with 15 submunitions each at the opening to the Second Battle of Everfree, a relatively small scale engagement.
  • Mechanical Monster: The MIU-43 Rockhound combat synthmorph of the Hounds of Tindalos, a heavily armored half ton robot wolf packing more firepower than an Information Age IFV. The spiderlike Djieien of Shivastra Offensive Services also qualifies.
  • Orion Drive: Common for warships, though the mechanical pusher plate system is typically replaced by an electromagnetic field system. The "SNAK" warheads common in space combat also use the force of a nuclear explosion to fire explosively formed kinetic darts at up to ten thousand kilometers a second.
  • Private Military Contractors: Most Qhevaki forces seen outside the Community are these, due to the isolationist posture of society as a whole.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guys: The Hounds of Tindalos mercenaries of the Kumiho Clade mostly qualify, being posthuman tribal predators that decided to go for larger prey than was available on their purpose built habs.
  • Post-Cyberpunk: Mostly. Despite the cyberpunk aesthetics, traditional poverty is a thing of the past - though inequality between clades isn't and traditional humans are essentially obsolete.
  • Power Gives You Wings: Power means you'd better have giant liquid metal droplet radiator wings if you don't want to fry yourself from waste heat.
  • Space Fighter: Played with - "fighters" exist, but are the largest widespread class of military vessel as energy weapons and fusion power get better with scale, only being called such as the term is used to refer to dedicated anti-ship space combatants. Smaller fighters similar to the traditional SF definition also exist but are only used in and around planetary atmospheres.
  • Space Station: Most people live in these.
  • Starfish Robots: Most synthmorphs.
  • Transhumans in Space: The premise of the nation.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: The high-relativistic particle beam cannons used as the main guns of many warships.
    Vi Zi On 

Others

     The World Assembly 
An international organization that serves as a central governing body for the many nations in the Nation States universe. Membership is optional.

  • Fictional United Nations: Originally it was literally named "United Nations", until a copyright claim by the real organization. The page for it still carries the UN acronym in its url.
  • Doves Mean Peace: The WA's main goal is the preservation of peace, and its logo is a white dove to reflect that.

     The Order of Violet 
An extremely popular religion/cult that worships an eldritch goddess.
  • Human Sacrifice: It seems to be practiced by Violetists, or at least the more radical ones. One issue allows you to legalize the practice in your nation.
  • Religion of Evil
  • Knight Templars: Violetists are behind several religiously-motivated terrorist attacks. Notably, one issue chain involving Violetist terrorists was inspired by the September 11 attacks.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Violet, the goddess worshipped by the religion, is said to have tentacles that secrete slime.
  • Color Motif: The color violet, obviously.
  • Shout-Out: The religion is a reference to a member of the Nation States mod team, whose username is also Violet.

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