Roleplay / Noctur

Noctur is an intermediate-level roleplaying region on NationStates.

The region was originally known as the "Humanitarian League", which grew with too many members and eventually split up. The original members of the Humanitarian League region then joined a re-formed region called Noctur, with new members joining subsequently.

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This Roleplay contains examples of:

• A Child Shall Lead Them: Akiyasu, the Tuthinan emperor, is 14 years old.
• Aerith and Bob: A lot of people in Radiatia have very exotic sounding names (e.g. 'Traiyan Silviu', 'Vereinen Freiheit', 'Soden Perstesht) while an equal number seem to have very ordinary names 'Steve Mccarthy', 'Bob Mcdirt' and most famously, 'Greasy Joe Bendicks'.)
• All Love Is Unrequited: Sijur ke-Driovion (lover) and Kiana Ivers (lovee).
• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: The Nui-tan monks.
• Alternative Calendar: Almost every nation in Noctur has its own calendar, which usually do not run at the same speed.
• Arranged Marriage: 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.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In some states in Radiatia it is fully possible to get away with murder. However, selling bootleg VHS movies is enough to make you "Public Enemy Number One" in the eyes of federal law enforcement agencies.
• Authority Equals Ass Kicking: Tuthinan nobles are required to take part in some form of martial art training in addition to their usual art training. While usually not as stong as dedicated warriors, they tend to be decent fighters when necessary. Some are more eager to prove their strength than others.
• Authority in Name Only: The Tuthinan emperor, despite being the absolute and (mostly) undisputed ruler of the empire and its 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.
• Beast Man: Tuthina has a sizeable Beastling population.
• Big Fun: Soden Tord Larssen.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Tuthinan culture has shades of this. It is all fair and well to eat adolescent girls, but firebombing civilian centres and total warfare is considered evil (unless it is the only way to win), as is whaling.
• Bodyguard Babes: The Emperor of Tuthina has his own squad of armed Miko that serve as both his servants and bodyguards.
• Bread and Circuses: The primary method, and the main reason why the despotic Tuthinan government managed to stay in power for three millennia and counting. It offers an extremely high level of civic rights (to the point it is regularly abused by people with means) and a good and booming economy (with fewer regulations than usual foreigners would be comfortable) in exchange of having no political rights to speak of.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: While the Air Forces and Navy of Tuthina has a decent collection of the newest toys, the Army is stuck operating tanks that are 40 to 50 years old, if not even older. Justified as being an archipelago with thousands of miles of high seas surrounding it on all side, land defence and, by extension, army budget is not very high on the priority of the military. The Interservice Rivalry between the Army and the (ruling) Navy does not help either.
• Censorship Bureau: The Imperial Censorate of Tuthina. As a record department, it records everything that happens within the empire. By the same vein, what it does not record does not exist in the empire as well, and it has the means to enforce it. See Unperson below.
• Church Militant: Sword is a basic equipment for Miko (and their male counterpart) of the imperial cult of Tuthina. They also serve as The Political Officer for both the neighbourhood watch (militia) and most units of the imperial armed forces.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Nui-tan politicians dress in the color of their political party. The color of a man's tie is a dead give away as to his party: Ultimus Renton wears purple ties, Evan Isaci wore blue ones. Females wear dresses of their color rather than ties.
• Comically Missing the Point: Radiatians tend to have many instances of this in the news.
  • Rather than use their powers to correct a typo in the state constitution, the state of Luntzbusch makes sure that there is one, but only one, camel at all of their proceedings. They misspelled "unicameral" as "unicamel".
  • Radiatian pork sausages come under fire for not actually containing any pork. When the company comes under fire, a spokesman defends the company by stating that the company marketed the sausages as "pork-flavored", not strictly "pork".
  • When a soldier accidentally kills nine of his comrades during a training exercise, the Federal Ministry of Defense states that since the point of the military is to kill people, the soldier is up for a commendation.
    • In a hilarious twist of events, the RPNN actually attempts to interview the dead soldiers for their input, only to state that they were unable to gain an interview because the dead soldiers weren't available for comment.
  • A spokesman for the Radiatian Airlines company has stated that he was surprised with customer dissatisfaction with the new slogan: "We Don't Crash Very Often".
• Cold War: There is something of a cold war between Radiatia and Tuthina, although later on things do begin to thaw especially once Segland and the UNCA become the new Big Bad.
• Consummate Professional: Radiatians value "efficiency" above all things, and aren't ones for letting silly things like emotions get in their way.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Radiatians are not known for their ethics, especially not in business. After all, capitalism is about competition. And competition is about winning - right?
• Crapsaccharine World: Tuthina, the land of beautiful and devote women and men, marvellous scenery, preserved environment, advanced technology and horrible oppression of any non-monarchist ideologies.
• Culture Police: Prevalent in Tuthina, enforced by both the government and the neighbourhood watch of some of the more xeonophobic population.
• Daddy's Girl: Sophine Isaci towards Evan.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Evan Isaci and Kiana Ivers.
  • This is also true of Radiatia as a whole - while today it's a functioning democracy with the strongest economy in Noctur, this trope is frequently invoked whenever Radiatia's communist past is brought up.
• Divorce Requires Death: For the state of Sangaur in Nui-ta.
• Dragon Ascendant: This somewhat applies to Hadin, who go from being simply an ally of Segland to becoming a threat to Free Noctur in their own right.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In early roleplays Radiatia had a Prime Minister as well as a President - now, it's just a President.
  • The Radiatian language also used to be more prominent, whereas now it's generally assumed that all Radiatians speak English.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Josko Ivers' life story fits this trope. His first wife and child die in a tornado when he's young, his second wife is wounded in the Hadinian war, his Presidential ambitions are dashed four times, his second wife dies and when he finally does become President it's when Noctur is at war and Radiatia is on the verge of surrendering. He then leads Free Noctur to victory against unfathomable odds and STILL loses the next election. But by the time of his death he is a national hero and widely recognised as being Radiatia's greatest ever President.
• Elective Monarchy: The laws of succession have shades of this. The emperor (and, sometimes, empresses) has a massive harem that is composed by at least one member from every one of the hundreds of noble clans within the realm, in addition to a few that is not. The successor is often "suggested" by the most influential clan of the realm at the moment, and the successor is more often than not from the same clan. While not an explicit vote, it often involves numerous schemes and plots to garner enough support for the successor to be enthroned without (much) challenge.
• The Empire: Tuthina, to the point the government almost never refer itself as anything other than The Empire or some form of variation of it. Downplayed as Tuthina is not the most powerful nation in Noctur, and would probably lost if it tries to fulfil its goal.
  • Hegemonic Empire: Tuthina considers itself to be one, as at its apex, it is the sole power in the Oriens ocean, and has enormous influence on the local states even after their independence.
  • Vestigial Empire: What Tuthina resembles more nowaways, having lost a majority of its influence beyond its mainland and have to face against rising powers such as Radiatia with vastly less resource.
• Enemy Mine: Radiatia and Tuthina end up fighting on the same side against Segland.
• Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Crossdressing and transexual courtesans are considered of higher value than their male or female counterpart in Tuthina.
• The Exile: Soden Larssen essentially being forced to flee the RPSU for Tri-City Combine would count as this. He does get to return to the successor state, however, so it all works out.
• Far East: Tuthina is a mix between Imperial Japan and Imperial China, plus a few more places.
• The Federation: Radiatia, to the extent that it sometimes refers to itself as simply "The Federation". (Its official name is "The Radiatian Federation."
• Female Misogynist: Mail-order brides are very common in Radiatia and several of these brides have been known to willingly be married off to foreign suitors as they feel they'll be treated with more respect abroad than in Radiatia.
• Femme Fatale: A stereotype of Tuthinan noblewomen, because of the abundance of Feuding Families and political feuds in the Imperial political system. Word of God states Grand Princess Ateko is supposed to be one, who is highly seductive, knows well about it, and does not restrain herself from using that for the gain of her own goal, whatever that might be.
• Feuding Families: Kind of inevitable given the feudal nature and the millennia of history of Tuthina, with many of the older clans often at odds with each other. Most of these is either resolved by having one side completely killed off, or merged via marriage, or both.
• Flanderization: Originally Radiatia was portrayed to have a reasonably intelligent populace with a handful of less-intelligent folk in rural areas cropping up from time to time usually Played for Laughs. At some point, rednecks became the national stereotype of Radiatia and their prominence was played up so much that Radiatia even elected an uneducated redneck as President (Jaagen Autenberg.)
• French Jerk: While they're not actually French, this is pretty much how Radiatians view Poldania.
  • Averted with Faransia, despite it being heavily based off real life France.
• Forbidden Zone: A lot of Radiatia is still off limits, even after the fall of communism. Theories as to why range from "secret military applications" to "UFO's" to "the President's secret stash of pornography".
  • Sakan, the imperial capital of Tuthina, is off limit to most foreigners. Combined with a strict ban on most modern technologies (including all audio/video recording equipment) means few has ever seen it.
• For Happiness: The guiding principle of Tuthinan philosophy. The combination of it and Sex Is Good leads to a society where Everybody Has Lots of Sex.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: The vampires in Tuthina are no more or less evil than humans or other species, and their drains do not deal permanent harm to the victim, and is rather pleasurable all things considered.
• The Fundamentalist: The Catholic Church of Tierra Azure, who intervenes on every law that passes through the House of Representatives. The Crataan church also had spades of this before they are ousted by the Order of Kratos.
• Fun with Acronyms: Radiatian Special Operations Division, Arghneedanamic Regional Security Establishment, Arghneedanamic Secret Service...
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Nui-tans have a weird obsession with former Radiatian President Yerkal Nathus, to the extent that he's considered a celebrity there. By contrast, in Radiatia Nathus is considered an obscure former President that few people still remember.
• God-Emperor: The Emperor of Tuthina is considered the deity of humanity in the official religion of Tuthina, and requires worship or reverence.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Gold Party makes a point of wanting to kick Ultimus Renton out of the PM seat because he is the son of a noble and a colonist. Until AN 80, half-castes in Nui-ta had no rights, no value to society, and could essentially be murdered with little to no consequence.
• Happily Married: The i-Harendos, and also Vincentius III and his wife.
  • Josko and Kiana Ivers are also a prominent example of many happy marriages between Nui-tan and Radiatian characters.
• Harmless Villain: Rango Mango
• Harsher in Hindsight: There was a deadly virus outbreak in the Radiatian state of Diifgrao caused by extremely bad hygiene practices at a Greasy Joe's restaurant, leading to a major lockdown.
  • This particular plot, which was Played for Laughs at the time, was written more than a decade before the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Hobbes Was Right: What the autocratic Tuthinan government believes, and goes a long way to prove/persuade its citizens to believe the same.
• Home Guard: The majority of the population of Tuthina (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.
• Human Sacrifice: The fact that one such instance is legal in Tuthina, and even receive a visit from the Emperor somewhat becomes a Never Live It Down moment for Tuthina.
• Idol Singer: Grand Princess Ayako of Mahiduru, which doubles as Royals Who Actually Do Something.
• Ignore the Disability: Nui-ta actually has two of these, Ultimus Renton (his right eye doesn't work and rolls around in his head), and Hashan Kanashadi (missing arm).
• Industrial Ghetto: Where a good number of Radiatians live, but particularly the Radiatian city of Midgard.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Sophine Isaci's eyes fit this perfectly. Think about it, it's kinda weird that her relatives all have green/gray eyes and then all of a sudden Sophine comes out with deep blue eyes. This is especially strange considering that it is later revealed by Word of God on the forums that Evan Isaci is actually her biological grandfather, so her eye colour is even more strange as it doesn't match to his.
• Interfaith Smoothie: The Imperial Cult of Tuthina, both in and out of character.
  • In-character, the Imperial Cult is the result of the government to integrate the various native faiths into one single religion, with the Emperor being the head priest as well as one of the major deities of the new religion. In order to minimise resistance from the powerful local clergy, the Imperial Cult works in Broad Strokes in terms of the myths and lores, meaning that it not only encompasses most local faiths, but almost all non-monotheist faiths in the world.
  • Out-of-character, the Imperial Cult (and the native religions it bases on) is a mix between Shinto, Thelema, Taoism and a few other beliefs that the player of Tuthina happens to agree on.
• Interservice Rivalry: Between the Army and Navy in Tuthina. Justified as the Army is built, maintained and commanded by local feudal lords, while the Navy is either under direct service of the Emperor or the largest maritime states that also happen to be on his side most of the time, resulting in conflicting loyalty between them. A milder case of this also exist between the Space Forces and the Strategic Rocket Forces due to overlapping goal and budget.
• In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race: The newer generation of Nui-tans are becoming more and more commonly involved with this trope. This is important considering that all of these people are going to have to be the ones who face up to a class-dominated society. Examples include:
  • All three i-Harendo children (Viscount father, commoner mother)
  • Ultimus Renton
  • Johanna Ivers (colonial mother, father is a foreigner)
• Intoxication Ensues: Give Trenta i-Harendo two shots of vodka...
• Kimono Is Traditional: Most, if not all Tuthinans wear either kimono or its derivatives. Justified as the Tuthinan culture is partially based on a modern version of early Imperial Japan, 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 The Empire.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Most Tuthinan military commanders firmly believe in that, thanks to millennia of low-intensity civil war and the lack of formidable foreign enemies that refined warfare in Tuthina into a glorified form of mass duelling. Naturally, they are horrified by other nations that use modern, total warfare tactics in war.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Children in Nui-ta always inherit their FATHER'S name (unless they are illegitimate), regardless of who their mother is. For example, regardless of the fact that Trenta i-Harendo was one of the greatest Prime Ministers that Nui-ta had ever seen, her children's lineage and name is that of their father, who was not of political importance but was socially well-endowed with the birth-rank of Viscount.
  • In rare cases, a woman of higher social ranking than her husband can pass that ranking to her children, but this is almost unheard of as society demands that if you can't marry within your class, women marry up and men marry down.
  • The lineage of the imperial family of Tuthina is passed down patrilineally. While female monarchs are not unheard of, the next in line is always someone else from the patrilineal lineage.

• Madonna-Whore Complex: Inverted in Tuthina as Sex Is Good is in full force of its culture, meaning that a woman with more sexual experience is a more preferable choice of couple and wife. While the same is true for man as well, women are hold in higher standards than men.
• Martyrdom Culture: Tuthina, to a degree, as individuals sacrificing for the greater good is encouraged, and sometimes forced, in the Tuthinan culture. Stupid Sacrifice, however, is discouraged as it is considered a waste of human life.
• MegaCorp: Best exemplified by such mega-conglomerates as R-BEC (The Really Big Evil Corporation).
  • The Mizuho Group of Tuthina directly contributes to about 5% of Tuthina's GDP, as well as one fifth of its total export. The owner of it, being the dominant noble clan for the last three centuries, used its power and influence to expand it until almost all known products within the realm is made by either Mizuho or someone belong to, or at least related to it. It is also directly responsible of providing most essential services in several states, namely those ruled by the owner clan. There are several, lesser conglomerates in Tuthina that is similar in nature, and they together formed the backbone of the nation.
  • The Greasy Joe's Corporation has also become this - evolving from a fast food chain into something that has its fingers in almost every aspect of Radiatian life and rivals the federal government for the amount of power, influence and money it holds.
• The Men in Black: Much like the military, very few people know the details of how Radiatian law enforcement agencies work. They just know that they do work, are very effective, and it's best not to ask questions.
• Nightmarish Factory: If you're not rich in Radiatia, you work here.
• Norse by Norsewest: Penguinmark has the Danish language, Swedish politics, Norwegian geography...and Antarctic wildlife.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Very common in the Radiatian government.
• Officer and a Gentleman: How Tuthinan officers are expected to behave, as many of them comes from either aristocratic background, or a long line of famous officers (or both), with training on both practical military skills and many traditional arts to further enhance the image. Sometimes it works better than others depending on the situation and the place the officer in question hailed from.
• Our Elves Are Different: The Enciw is considered the predecessor of the Tuthinan civilisation, which was among the oldest surviving cultures in Noctur.
  • Screw You, Elves!: The subjugated human population chased the Enciws from the main islands after a little ice age weakened them. They were eventually assimilated, and is now part of the Tuthinan people.
• Perfect Pacifist People: Crata, which goes as far as insisting on not having a standard army.
  • Technical Pacifist: Word of God states that the Crataan civilians are well-armed and ready to fight against tyrants, oppressors and invaders alike when the need arises, though.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: David Gellert, the leader of Arghneedaname's anti-immigration party.
• Polluted Wasteland: Most Radiatians actually believe that smog is good for your lungs.
• Privately Owned Society: Most of the nobles who run the local government of Tuthina also run a myriad of business and companies, which in turns provide service to the people under the rule of said local government.
  • Zigzagged with Radiatia: While most of the country is heavily influenced by a group of mega-corporations and it's widely assumed that everything has been privatised, the reality is that the Radiatian government does actually provide public services, but it does this so poorly that Radiatians turn to private companies to provide the basics instead.
• Quintessential British Gentleman: They aren't British, but Vincentius III and Edgar von Traumend fit this very well in other respects.
• Royal Harem: Tuthina has one, and is probably the largest in the entire region, with 400 wives (of various different genders) and counting.
• Religion Is Wrong: What Crataans generally believe.
  • A belief shared by Radiatians too, with atheism enshrined in the Radiatian constitution.
• The Republic: Several, but Crata is the biggest and most famous among them.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The republican uprising in Tuthina is one of the bloodiest civil wars in Tuthinan history, with casualties numbered more than a dozen millions. The legacy of it still affects many aspects of Tuthinan society, including the repressive ban on republican thoughts and the pervasive coverage of the imperial cult.
• Runaway Fiancé: Hariem i-Harendo.
• Saintly Church: Nui-ta's Stalari Temples. A religion that is actually concerned with people's well-being rather than just filled donation boxes.
  • The imperial cult of Tuthina claims to be one as well, although its political affiliation with Tuthina makes it a questionable statement.
• Samurai: Tuthina has a lot of these, as the local version of knights, some nobles, as well as honorary commanders of units.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Nui-tan students are in their uniforms pretty much all the time...even on break.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As the emperor is the de jure source of secular authority of the Tuthinan imperial government and law, legally it is impossible for him to breach the law since when the Emperor does it that means that it is not illegal. Whether it is not illegal just for the emperor or for the general population varies on the circumstances, but it has been used (successfully) for commoners to argue against the authority based on that.
• Secret Police: R-SOD of Radiatia, and the Imperial Tribune of Tuthina.
• Shared Unusual Trait: The entire Kavian race have heterochromia, although Ultimus Renton is special because one of his eyes is damaged so it looks even more mismatched, and the other is black (a symbol of the nobility). This actually has cultural significance, as having mismatched eyes automatically denotes colonial blood in Nui-ta and puts you on the low end of the class scale. Having only one eye of nobility means that you're an outright mutt.
• State Sec: The Imperial Censorate of Tuthina is one of these. It originated as 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 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.
• Tangled Family Tree: More like a tangled family tumbleweed for the Tuthinan imperial family. It is implied to be Royally Screwed Up, 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.
  • Nui-ta is basically a gigantic one of these which was so complicated the nation's maker had to make a family tree just to keep track of it all...many complicated series of events in the past have resulted in characters like Evan Isaci and Hariem i-Harendo to actually be distant blood relatives of each other.
• Token Religious Teammate: As far as the Humanitarian League is concerned, everyone is either agnostic or from Nui-ta.
• Trophy Wife: Maresha Isaci, and probably Katina Larssen as well.
• Unperson: The primary intelligence role of the Imperial Censorate of Tuthina apart from censoring things is to remove the existence of something or someone from the realm and even the entire world. It has not been shown in roleplays, though, either because it only does it rarely, or it is very good at its job.
• Values Dissonance: Examples include the contrast between the predominantly Christian Arghneedaname and the "religious regulation" which occurs in Radiatia.
• Vetinari Job Security: 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.
• Worst News Judgement Ever: Amidst a tense confrontation between a number of nuclear powers, the RPNN decides to lead with a story about a man falling off his bicycle.

  RPNN: "In other news, Noctur is currently on the verge of thermonuclear war."

• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: 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.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: The Tuthinan idea of an ideal woman (and sometimes man). Many of them tend to have a certain degree of Yandere as well.