General /who/ Lore

/who/ flag

Basic lore

Fortress republic /who/
On a vast range of multiple climates and elevations, the young republic had to fight since its very beginning to earn its place, it's militarization was swift, and its forts plentiful, although in the present time, most of these defenses are relaxed.
The military currently employs a system of mass conscription and an extreme love for artillery, this in addition to the multiple forts and weapon caches of the nation dictates a doctrine for sieges and attrition warfare, however, the military is still prepared and suited for the occasions in which it needs to go on offensive warfare. The Navy is of relatively small size and mainly a merchant one, with a focus on raiding and interception of potential enemies in war times, when not in war it dedicates itself to the protection of shipping.
The republic's system of beliefs states that the development of the human species gave rise to the creation of a being that represents it, the more humanity grows, the stronger this being will get. This has led to a cult of technology and a love for historical investigation across many of the scholars of the republic. The current technological focus is on the possibility of vehicles that could travel across the skies and their use as weaponry nicknamed "the Pixy project"
It holds a large and growing population from many diverse origins, this does cause occasional friction between groups about any multitude of topics. The most noteworthy of these were the "Odin drinks cum" and the "Hand proportions" arguments.
The population mainly subsists on potato farming and meat, these potatoes are then exported into the wider world economy, self-sufficient production of machine parts for more specialized products (in particular, weaponry and farming equipment) exists. In addition to previously mentioned economic activities, there is a tradition to gather pitches from the marshes to be made into boiling tar, its main use is for torture.
Its inhabitants use clothes from multiple eras, from ancient clothes to the most modern styles, but the standard uniform for state workers is a paper bag over the face and a brown cloak that covers the body, those that live in the republic will most often also wear some sort of face cover, even if it's not a paper bag.
Generally, the population is warm to tourists, but there are high standards to citizenship that everyone is expected to follow

The republic maintains very good relationships with the mountain monks of /rrat/ and the citizens of Watson, and will often reach out to other places in search of healthy alliances, although most of these attempts tend to be cut short by lack of interest by either party or by logistical constraints.

Interactions with sister splits
Small trading relationship with /nasa/ but logistics are difficult due to terrain, there exists a desire to eat the bread dogs on /who/'s side.
Ocassional trips into /uuu/ forest to collect material, but other than that the roads are blocked due to saplings not wanting human entry.
Cold to nonexistent relations with /infinity/, no hostilities are in sight.
Mountain monks of /rrat/ occasionally make trips into /who/ to maintain relations, there is a large amount of trade and they are well-liked.

Among it's more troubling groups is the cannibal cult, which states that the nameless being that is worshipped by the republic is in fact a cannibal and thus they must honor it by the cannibalization of the enemies of the republic, they are kept under quiet surveillance by the security forces and often told to keep themselves from being too open about it as not many want to entertain them or their dangerous ideas.

Coat of Arms

Simplified Coat of Arms of the Owl Republic The Simplified Coat of Arms of the Owl Republic, the most commonly used and found version in the country. A more elaborate version with elements such as supports and a motto exists, but it's usually reserved for things like important documents.

The different elements in the escutcheon represent:

Book: Knowledge, Wisdom, Tradition and Reason
Waterwheel: Industry, Technology, Human ingenuity and Progress
Fortress: Security, Honor, Steadfastness and Memorial of the Founding War
Cauldron: Justice and Community
The inescutcheon in the middle consists of the Nameless One's Crest, which placed within the context of the overall design represents the guidance the Nameless One gives in these aspects of the country.
Coat of Arms with just the escutcheon

Respublika Owl / Republique Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク and it's Religion, this is the text detailing /who/'s base religion and how i'll be structuring it in the future, things are still subject to change of course.

Religion

The Republic does not hold an official religious policy to spread and is in fact, rather close to an atheist state, this is not due to a lack of deities thought, but due to a large amount of often conflicting beliefs by much of the population and the lack of material and text detailing the origin of the stories.
The Republic often steps in fights between the groups and forces them to make peace, it's in part thanks to this that the Republic is so centralized.
These beliefs do tend to have the following features in common

They speak about a nameless being
This being is related to humanity in some way
This being is typically represented as a woman
This being is not a god

Owl Belief is not an actual religious belief, but of the commonplace relation that Owls, specifically Eagle-Owls, receive to the Nameless being.
Polytheism isn't unheard of, especially after 2-way communications had been established with the sister nation of the Mountain monks to the east and references to each other mythology had been found, current talks with the explorers from outside the planet have yielded interesting propositions about the religious belief of all our nations. References to the religion of the mountain monks and their deity, a being of chaos that is surprisingly level-headed are most numerous. The fact that the Mountain Monks hold the most unified religion aside from the far eastern islanders of /infinity/ probably influenced this. the Druids of the northern forest also hold a system of beliefs that references that of the other sister nations, but due to logistical constraints and the shifting paths of the forest, it is hard to investigate.

Many groups claim that she is formed by the collective power and intelligence of every human in existence, she is humanity itself. Others, however, claim that she is a reflection of humanity instead, some claim that she is civilization's mother, others that she is civilization's daughter.

The Cult of Reason stands among other cults by taking the concept of the "humanity itself" theory and pushing it to its logical extreme, humans must grow in power and knowledge to surpass any enemies and eventually, allow the nameless being to kill the gods that constrain humanity. Many of the Republic's politicians, scientists, and military leaders form part of this cult. This does mean that they are in positions of political power and will often try to push forth scientific investigation, and less known, espionage on other nations and states.

A much more obscure and suppressed Cannibal cult exists, rising independently and before the /meat/ warriors retook the beliefs of the older world, the Cannibal cult is jingoistic and states that the nameless being is a cannibal, she shall cook the gods alive in a boiling pot and eat their soup, the cannibals believe that they must honour her by the cannibalization of the enemies of the Republic. It's members are good at hiding and only occasionally pop up in public space, despite their jingoism, they still respect the Republic's diplomatic strategy and contain themselves and their beliefs.

Notably, many of these groups never detail whether or not an afterlife exists, and most outright deny it

While there is a central religious organisation, the First Temple as it's called, holds no real power over the local temples, even less so the disparate branches of the faith. It serves more as a place for dialogue, debate and cooperation between the different denominations of temples. In a "secular" state, with the Religious mission of maintaining civilisation and spreading progress taken care of by the state, the First Temple also has no political power, its role only ceremonial. In more sinister terms, it's also where the government monitors the religious groups. The First Temple has its own clergy and holds official ceremonies for the state. Each local temple serves as a communal hub for the locals to bond over, but gatherings are not mandatory and very casual. Gatherings are usually held during a set day(usually at the weekend) or a festival. The priests are less moral arbiters like some other countries with strict religious hierarchy, and more the glue and lubricant that helps the community stay together. That role is left to religious scholars, politicians and the citizens themselves. Regarded as a kind of specialist and professional, their role is public and not separated from the ordinary citizens. They may help resolve any small conflicts that are not worth taking to the law, head funerals or organise local festivities(almost always with the help of the local administration).
Like many other nations that worship female deities, female clergy members are highly regarded. Female clergy outnumbers male clergy in the country. Clergy members, much like the casual nature of the worship, also do not wear religious clothing like robes and veils as they are reserved for ceremonial use unless it's a rule for their particular congregation. The organisation and avenues of advancements in the different congregations vary wildly just like their belives and practices, so it's not worth listing them all. But some very small temples without links to any bigger organisations would just take in orphans or willing youth to train them as the next generation of priests.

Prayers are generally done by making a Sign of the Owl and placing it in front of one's chest, the back of the hand facing out. The palms are straightened, fingers slightly spread out and one palm placed in front of the other(based of the front palm should touch the wrist of the backhand). With thumbs bending slightly backwards with the mid sections touching, forming two feathers or horns. It's also used as a formal greeting together with a gentle bow. Another religious hand sign is the "Defensive Mode". The pointer is raised slightly with the base of the thumbs half folded towards the centre of the palm. The hands are formed as a slight cup and then crossed at the wrist with the back of the thumbs facing outward. This hand gesture has many applications. It's used in a wide array of contexts, for example, when one wants to invoke spiritual protection during stressful situations and as sort of a sign of provocation, signalling firm confidence.

Owls are the national symbol and figures of worship. Many scriptures also suggest that the nameless one in fact assumes the form of an owl and watches over the country(but still under fierce debate like many other notions). As such, many laws are in place to protect them. For starters, they are not to be hunted or domesticated. Though owl houses are built in almost every backyard and are encouraged. Sharing stories of their feathery tenents is a favourite pass time of the Republic's citizens. Deforestation and hunting in areas with large owl populations are also restricted and monitored. The conflict between the ceremonial value and sacredness of owls is resolved by adopting injured owls and maintaining a line of domesticated owls that descended from them. They are taken care of by professional caretakers and are kept in spacious enclosures with occasional free flying time outside. These owls are trained to perform ceremonial duties(i.e. standing on a pole and getting fed occasionally) during processions. Outside of this, all attempted domestication is forbidden.

Owl feathers are popular decorative items that are used in lucky charms and wind chimes. In the military, the wearing of owl feathers denotes the rank of officer. All feathers are derived from the domesticated owls and occasional encounters in the wild. Finding one is considered a sign of good luck even more so than spotting a live owl. Feathers are commonly used as a stake during bets or even duels(well or just common bar brawls), with the victor taking them away as trophies. As intentional injury and capture of owls are punishable by boiling tar, none are willing to risk their lives for an otherwise relatively common item.

There are generally three kinds of festivals in the Owl Republic. National, public holidays such as the National day on the 22nd of August. Regional holidays such as the Seeding Festivals, celebrated in the agricultural belt of the Republic, typically in late November after all the planting has been completed. A more unique type of festivals are the celebration of a new divination. While oracles and prophecies are a common practice to receive divination and connect with the Heavenly realm across the world, the Republic has its own distinctive customs. Notably, due to material shortages during its initial founding, Hopium, which was once abundant (overly so) in the country was commonly used to conduct the ritual by priests. But differing from the contemporary ritual, only Hopium is used instead of a complex concoction of chuubanite and various herbs. Due to this, and the lack of regulation led to many inaccurate or downright false divination. Now, only Oracles, high-ranking clergy members conduct such rituals and divination obtained with only Hopium are not treated seriously. Once an Oracle was able to connect with the Heavenly realm and receive the Sacred words from the Nameless One, other priests would rush out of the Temple, yelling the phrase "It's time".
After the divinations ended, the result would be gathered and cross-referenced with those received by other Oracles. The verified content would be published in the myriad newspapers in the Republic, or more immediately announced by a crier outside of temples. Celebrations of such divinations can last for weeks. Though they are not like public holidays, where most production and work pauses. The celebration is localized to temples and the districts surrounding it. Impromptu markets and stages are set up with troupes performing to entertain any visitors wishing to read the full text written by the Oracles. Public games like soccer are often held during the celebration too.

Fairgrounds
To accommodate the growing population in cities and towns, fairgrounds were established to divert the flow from the increasing cramped temple districts. But as time goes on, these fairgrounds had become more permanent, opening every weekend or even all week in the bigger cities. These locations usually host water or human-powered rides, like pleasure wheels or simple cart rides. But in cities like the Capital and Eulhaven, chuubanite and steam-powered rides are slowly being introduced, curiously even faster than the industries in the Republic. This is perhaps due to the Nameless one's proclamation of "Theme parks" being the peak of civilization (scholars and priests have deduced it's a kind of location performing a similar role to fairgrounds). Aside from fairgrounds, cities often host Botanical or zoological gardens too. Developed from gardens owned by academies, Zoological gardens keep various animals, not just native species like Bubon Ursus but foreign ones like Akimeras from Matiyotl or even Death sloths of Moriji (exact details on how the Eulhaven Zoological Garden managed it is still a subject of curiosity by the media). Sweets and game stalls are a common sight in such locations.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Funeral rites.

Whenever someone dies, the subjects will is to be examined for any special requests and it will be decided which are possible and which are not. Often people will put in light jokes and small petty requests as a form of humor to be found after their untimely demise, the most common of these is the "Boot to the head" treatment. If no will can be found, then the death of the subject will be dealt by the spouse or a familiar of the subject, the priority list will give the spouse rights over the funeral first, then the siblings, then the parents, then any other family members.
Bodies are often burried in the backyards of the home or in the state graveyards very unceremoniously, coffins are not used in order to better feed the body to the earth, with grave spots being marked by stones upon which the full name and nickname if there is one, birth-to-death date, and occupation are stated, if the person has done any admirable acts during their life, then it will also be stated under these.
Ceremonies consists of groups of people getting together and drinking beer or other alcoholic bevarages, the last drink is reserved for the dead and it is poured over their burial spot.
If the body is not claimed by anyone, or no one decides to take resposibility of the corpse, then it will be buried by the state in one of the graveyards, as is often the case for deaths in combat or in military service.
Cremations are less common, but when they are done the ashes will tipically be spread across a place of significance for the person.
Criminals or those that have been executed by the state (often by boiling tar) will either be given as soup to those that wish to taste the body, or burried in the state graveyards.
The state requires for everyone to register those that have died and keeps records and logs on them.
Graveyards keepers hold a reputation for unhingedness and dark humors, their bloodied shovels and wide eyes along their imposing figures certainly not helping their reputation, they will walk during the nights and protect the graveyards from wild animals and corpse stealers with a special kind of ferocity.
Corpse stealing used to be an issue due to the need for those in medical institutions to have proper examples, and thus a legal system was put in place to give corpses to medical institutions and centers of learning for the medical doctors to study and teach their students about the human body.

Republic Owl/ Respublika Filin / Republique Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Navy

The Republic's strategy and naval doctrine are dictated by the large port that it uses for imports and exports alongside its relatively small coastline in comparison to its neighbours, unable to build up a Navy due to the early wars of the Republic's existence, it is only recently that the naval wing of the armed forces has been established.
Seeing these constraints, the Navy was built up to mainly wage a commerce war, where the ships will be used to interrupt the logistics of the enemy, raid their shipping, and divert the enemy's attention to prevent any blockade from hitting the Republic. Winning every small battle and eventually whittling down the enemy to cripple their naval war capacity while maintaining the integrity of ours.
The ships used are heavy frigates created to pack as much of a punch as they can while still being fast enough to avoid the enemies fighting fleet, in short, increasing the individual strength of every ship to counteract the smaller numbers of the fleet, in addition to all these points, the use of carronades allows the Navy to also increase the firepower of the ships.
The scientific approach to war and other aspects of the world, prompted by the cult of reason gaining so many followers in the political system of the republic, means that despite a lack of experience in naval warfare doctrine development and work on naval theory has sped up immensely. This also means that the Republic is very willing to invest in more experimental affairs and ships, such as the submersible prototypes for coastal defence, the use of iron and steel to protect the ships, and the use of alternate power sources for use on the ships and allowing complete independence from the sail, although most of these have shown themselves to still be too expensive for mass production.

The current alliance with Hoshiyomia, the strongest naval power on the western coast of the continent has also allowed the Navy to gain experience and technique, along with joint development for new naval and astronomical technology.

Writing System

owl-a /who/ used multiple scripts and alphabets before it settled into it's modern form, one of these is a recovered form commonly refered to as "Owl-A", in this text comes written details about the Republic's religious belief, it looks like it was equally as disconnected and unorganized as it is nowadays. Due to how quickly systems changed in the early moments of the Republic, it was thought lost until an intrepid reporter managed to rediscover it as he was writing for the national newspaper.

Republic Owl/ Respublika Filin / Republique Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Foodstuffs

The Republic's main consumption is potatoes and meat. The potatoes were found in the hills the land and mass farmed to assist the logistical difficulties that the Republic faced in its early wars, the potato managed to keep starvation away thanks to the ease of planting in any terrain, large yield results, and its high nutritional value.
Meat on the other hand remained a harder to produce product, as the wars didn't allow for much cattle to be farmed or imported. After the wars thought, both potato and meat production were focused on and increased in order to properly feed the population, the preferred meat is cattle and goats, these two animals can easily survive in the hilly terrain of the lands, although goats are a lot more free-range than the cattle is. The export of meat to other states aside from those directly neighbouring the Republic only recently took off due to the difficulties in maintaining it cool on long trips be it across sea travel or through the land.

Other crops aside from potatoes do exist to a lesser degree, mainly wheat which is used for bread baking, small amounts of sugar beet for local sugar production, gathering berries is often done as a communal activity by many of the Republic's rural areas. Experiments with cash crops generally failed due to climate and terrain concerns.
Due to a relative shortage of wheat(sicne most wheat farms are state-owned and yields stockpiled in strategic reserves), urban bakers and rural farmers use boiled potatoes or potato flour to stretch out the wheat flour. Although potato bread doesn't last as long as wheat bread, due to its moist and fluffy texture it's one of the national food of the Republic, a staple besides the usual beef and potatoes. Bakers working in the joint /nasa/-/who/ industrial bakery also make potato rolls for the republic's burger chains. The airy buns are perfect for hamburgers due to their pillowy texture, sweet flavour and crispy crusts when toasted.
Greenhouses near urban centres cultivate crops that don't grow as well in the republic's climate such as exotic fruits like pineapple, they are limited in number and only serve the demand of wealthier citizens.

The Republic does not hold the need to import food, it is the exporting nation for its neighbours, although rarer foods and crops are often brought by the richer citizens that wish to try more exotic food and by researchers that are looking to study and improve the agricultural production of the nation. The diet for the average citizen of the Republic is healthy and varied enough to avoid any malnutrition problems.

The cuisines of the Republic are divided by climate and geographical lines. In the West, the food reflects the diverse agriculture and food source afforded by the region's warmer, sunnier climate and coastline. Fish and other bounties of the sea are widely available even in areas further inland(albeit in a still limited radius) thanks to improvements in transportation methods. Fruits like peppers, olives and tomatoes are featured heavily in the cuisines of the Western lowlands. A wide variety of culinary fruits like citruses are planted in the West as well, so their presence in dishes is notable, though not as common in desserts. The importation of rice from nations like /morig/ and limited farming in the west aided the spread of rice consumption, but it's still far behind potatoes and wheat. The cuisine in the East appears more rustic, mostly consisting of soups and stews. Since most Eastern arable land is used for grazing and potatoes, hardier vegetable crops are grown. Freshwater fishing and hunting are important supplemental protein sources for people living in this area, although the continued industrial exploitation of resources saw a moderate decline in such activity.

Due to the material shortages during the founding war and the general nature of the people, the cuisine is quite simple. You wouldn't find any half suckling pigs stitched with half a hen in the country. Dishes are mostly no-frills with basic or no garnish. And chefs try to let the natural flavors of the ingredients come out, so milder, warming spices preferred like nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. The Republic's food is generally low in spices but perhaps contradictingly, its citizens do enjoy heat a lot. Every dining table isn't complete without a bottle of hot sauce. Originally made as a hobby by an officer garrisoning a Naval fortification in the West, The vinegary Tobias sauce is popular among both soldiers and civilians.

Typical etiquette for eating is considered informal and flexible, as long as you eat the right stuff and don't make a mess no one will tell you anything, often workers will have mid-work lunches so that they can re-energize in the middle of the day. This also traduces itself to the political upper class, as most will simply sit down along with friends or family and eat what they've prepared without paying much attention to proper etiquette. It is to be mentioned however that most people will not speak at all during their meals.
Host to a growing working class, both in number and income, cities in the republic have developed a restaurant culture. Bistros serve more well-off workers(often white-collar) looking for meals that are closer to home-cooked and high-end establishments serve the wealthy and middle-class citizens. Though most still workers fill their stomachs in canteens of their respective factories.

Some notable dishes:

Fried rice: Medium grain rice is fried together with sour, pickled leafy vegetables, onions, garlic and egg. Seasoned with fermented chilli sauce and chilli powder, diced chicken or seafood are added as well. It's typically made with leftover rice, when one has cooked too much.

Seafood pasta: Popular among visiting tourists, sauces range from cream, tomato to simple garlic and olive oil. You would suddenly get a craving for it.

Pepper salad: Sweet peppers, onions, perfectly cooked, juicy chicken and other fresh vegetables, covered in a refreshing vinaigrette, what's not to love? Just remember to not undercook the chicken.

Tuna salad: Can be made with either raw or canned tuna, it is mixed with finely chopped red onions and celery(perferably in a blue bowl). Dressed with mayonnaise and mustard, it's served either in lettuce leaves or a small loaf of bread.

Meat and potatoes: Classic among classics, it IS the staple no matter where you are from. Beef and mutton are the most common type of meat used. Common seasoning includes warm spices like black pepper and mace, vinegar and mustard.

Poorman's pasta: Said to be the creation of impoverished students in the country's school towns, the cooked noodle is added to fried garlic and shallots, mixed with canned seafood. It is then lathered in Tobias sauce.

Vegetable soup: Might not be filling to the stomach but it will fill your heart. Served with potato bread, the childhood food of every citizen alongside meat and potatoes.

Cheese and bread: Large amount of cattle also means a large amount of cheese. Literally just cheese and bread. But who would eat like a peasant?

Pizzas: Another favourite of tourists, also children. Although only limited to red sauce, there is a large variety of toppings available, including the famous sun-dried tomato pizza. Remember, the crust the the best part.

Coffee cake: Contains no coffee! But as the name implies, it goes well with a cup of hot joe. Just don't eat too much lest you get a sugar high.

Fruit yoghurt: Either flavoured with preserves made with berries, topped with real fruits or both. Makes for a nice summer treat in the West or a light dessert after a filling meal in the East.

Fruit compot: Made with berries or other kinds of fruit. It's either drunk as a sweet soup or thickened with starches. Can be served hot or cold.

Ice cream: It's ice cream! What's not to love? Generally flavoured with fruits and spices. It's sold almost everywhere in the country, though in villages, it's limited during occasions. And the cost of making them means it's mostly considered a delicacy.

~~Long pig: ???~~

Due to the Nameless One's affinity for sugary treats, festivals dedicated to the Nameless One are heavily associated with sweets. The 3 main types of sweeteners used in the Republic's traditional treats are fruits, honey and beet sugar. The bee farms in the Republic's rural areas provide the nearby villages with pollinators for their orchards and honey to sweeten their cakes. Although the Republic's refineries have massively improved the purity of beet sugar produced in the country, honey and fruits are the most common in rustic, ye olde style of sweets such as honeycake and compote because the association of beet sugar with a foul taste. Newer styles of sweets are made by patissiers in the cities, these kinds of sweets often incorporate new, exotic ingredients like cocoa, brownies and coffee cakes are popular choices for hoomans to enjoy with their caffeinated drinks.

Despite the Republic's reputation for a rather simple style of cooking, placing satiation and nutrition over presentation and flavor, its sweets are some of the best in the world. Weekly fares in towns smell like a giant pastry store, with cakes, biscuits and sweet bread lining the stalls. The public gardens and Fairgrounds in cities would set up carts selling various kinds of candies to the visitors. Even the most impoverished peasants would make sugary desserts during celebrations of the Nameless One. Making and consuming desserts echo the stories told in the scriptures, about the sweet gifts the Nameless One received from the beneficiaries of her knowledge and protection. As the citizenry regards these kinds of communal activities as signals of the progress and prosperity of their society, it's also about giving thanks to the good that civilization brings and to the Nameless One herself.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

The brilliance of the hamburger!

If you are looking for the marvels of civilization then look no further! We have reached the single most important step into human development. With a brilliant approach to the way foodstuffs are produced, you will never be satisfied after a taste of Republic hamburgers! All you have to do is step into one of the many burger places in any of our cities and have a bite of true power.

Hamburgers are crafted with the ultimate combination of ingredients only possible thanks to the power of civilization, with finely baked breadbuns that could make your mouth water just by smelling it, multiple juicy vegetables like tomato, lettuce, and even gherkin if you can believe it, such delicious onions that even the goddess Aqua would blush, all that is already hunger inducing, but let's get into the "meat" of it, the steak! as fresh as possible too! many hamburger joints have small places where they keep cattle, that in addition to our well made ice boxes means that the steak is always safe for consumption, not only that, but in addition to steak you can also ask for grounded meat done with the newest techniques in the making of the culinary masterpiece.

So what are you waiting for!? come now and TRY IT OUT!

Republic Owl / Respublika Filin / Republique Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Clothing and fashion of the population

Thanks to weather conditions, the clothing most preferred by the population is simple, warm, and covering shirts and long pants, with the use of gloves and boots, and the common face covers that most of the population decides to use. A lot of these face covers are paper bags and similar things. Generally, the more the face is obscured the better. There is a lack of color in the clothing, with black and muted browns, blues, and greens being the preferred and most common color seen on the typical working class.
As an interesting note, the population seems to have little to no division in men and women's clothing, with some women sometimes using warm skirts and dresses, most still use the shirt and pants combo. The common face covers and the use of coats and cloaks can make it difficult to determine the gender of someone that's just walking the streets. This lack of division is theorized to have risen when the Republic simplified its production lines during the early wars and the clothing manufacturers were made to produce soldier wear, this soldier wear then filtered back into the civilian population.
Clothing is usually made of wool and linen.
Brown cloaks are in use by state workers as standarized uniforms, these are modeled after the one used by the nameless being that is worshipped by the Republic, however, they are simplified and lose the symbols that should be in place, so in the end it still just looks like a brown coat with a green inside.
The gloves and mittens typically worn are often white or black, and are made from wool. The most common design is a repurposed form of army gloves.
Boots are often made of leather and in the shape of adapted combat boots, socks are rarer, so footwraps are used instead. Other shoes are used, with an enphasis on flexibility and warmness.

While the working class does not really have formal wear, most have some sort of variety of simple long sleeved shirts. The upper class allows itself to be more eccentric in the clothes they use, althought still following the muted colors from the rest of the population.

Republic Owl / Respublika Filin / Republique Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Economics, resources, goods production, and industry

Due to the violent beginnings of the Republic, formed in the middle of war and conflict, the impressive and fast mobilization had influenced the Republic to produce cheap and reliable goods to feed and arm its needs, all the while also funding research and development to aid in the mass production directed for the harsh conditions of the wars. Once the wars were over after the Republic managed to fully secure itself, it still mantained its preference for cheap and reliable, as can be observed from the cloth infustry that exists, you most certainly won't find high quality cloth, but instead a large amount of cheaper products that will do the job right.
The Republic's first economic sector is made up of agricultural produce that has been addresed in a previous document, and the mining sector, as the large amount of hills and woods of the land allow for it. Of these, iron, coal, aluminium, and some amounts of potassium are the main ores drilled from the mines. These resources are then brought to manufacturing centers where they will be processed by the smiths.
Steel working has sped up recently in order to sustain the Republic's growing infrastructure and as an export to trade. The previously mentioned cloth industry, also referred to as the textiles industry has a solid economic base due to its importance, and is currently growing. The shipmaking markets and the ports are constantly working thanks to growing naval investment in part of the Republic, it also takes care of assisting the Hoshiyomia navy in its duties and providing logistics aid to them. Alcoholic beverages are produced and sold in the nation, of particular note is the one made from fermenting potatoes, originally starting from a moonshine operation to raise funds, it got nationalized and turnt into a state controlled industry to avoid further issues relating to legality, another popular alcoholic beverage is beer made from wheat, the mountain monks tend to enjoy the drinks a lot despite the differences with their own traditional drinks, so they are big buyers for it.
Cans of food and the canning industry, originally for military use only, is now being repurposed for civilian and economic use as a way to ensure the safety of food across large distances, most popular with soldiers are the famed canned potatoes and meat.
The arms industry is somewhat large, as the Republic had it as a priority for much time, however, with the relaxation of militarism in the country, weapons are mainly left in stockpile and not sold away, with almost no arms trade taking place unless it is with direct allies such as Hoshiyomia.
Trading agreements with the druids of /uuu/ are difficult to do as they are very self sufficient, but the free movement of goods across their territory means that the Republic still ends up as the main trader in the area.
While you may not think so, the Republic holds a very advanced national newspaper and is the main paper producer of the region, even if the printing presses that are used are faulty and prone to breakdowns, this has lead to a widespread hate for printing presses and the difficulties of dealing with them by the population.

This is a very basic text, I'll eventually think of more things to add. Things are always subject to change as always, but this will be the main structure of the economy from now on.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Wildlife of the Republic and surrounding regions

Bubon Foxhound

The Bubon Foxhound is a canid native to Northern /who/. Due to the nature of the region, details remain scarce regarding when the species was domesticated.

The carnivorous animal is known for its thick red coat of fur, pale underside and black tipped tail. Adult Bubon Foxhound tend to grow to be roughly 54-62 centimeters (21”-24.5”) with little variance between the genders. Found in the wild, they frequently hunt in smaller packs of 3-4, but gather in somewhat larger clans of around a dozen. These wild hounds are quite rare however, most are frequently found born and raised by the citizens of /who/ as either companion animals, shepherds or to assist hunters in tracking, chasing and retrieving pray anywhere from the size of a small birds to big game. It is not too uncommon to find them among foraging parties within the army.

It would not be strange to make comparisons between them and the owls of the Republic, both being highly valued animals and considered as friends of Hoomans. There are some key differences however. Much like the avian, depictions of the hound can be found in old scripts and murals depicted together with the Nameless One. Not sharing in the Nameless One’s owl-like nature, the Bubon Foxhound is not considered sacred in the same degree as the owls of the land. While any bond forged with an owl is made on their terms, the Foxhound is raised more typical to a domestic dog. Beyond any religious belief, this may be part due to their intellect and at times mischievous nature requiring them to be raised with discipline if they are to ever be able to follow a Hooman properly. As an example, even if raised well as a shepherd dog, it can at times be seen playing various tricks and pranks on farm animals when it isn’t “on duty”.

There are unfounded rumors that the aforementioned disciplining of these canine involved boiling liquid. The closest truth is that many owners report that the animal is not very fond of being bathed, and said owners admitting to at times joking about giving their companions steaming hot baths as punishment for misbehavior.

Bubon Ursus

Also referred to as Owl-Bears are a species of bears native to the region and their territory expands across the western part of the continent.

The omnivorous animal has a thick brown fur with some stripes and patches around it of lighter color, their tails are small and brown. Adults will generally be around 200-350 centimeters tall and weights of 160-260 kg with males being slightly larger than the females. They are quite phisically able and agile, they can reach speeds of 65 km/h, powerful bites, and can crush trees easily.

In the wild they will hunt and protect their territories in small groups of 2-4 with each bear collaborating in switching patrols, the territories they range through are quite vast and as such the bears are known to not be rather relaxed in what they tolerate in their territories, multiple unrelated groups of bears can overlap on territory held with little to no issue. These groups of bears will sometimes get together with other groups around rivers during mating season, there the bears will choose partners for the next season, fights among the bears are uncommon as they are avoidant of each other.

If a couple mates and have offspring, the couple will separate from their groups and proceed to reduce their home range becoming highly territorial. The parents will proceed to care for the cub together, althought the father has to be careful due to the mother being in a highly aggresive state. Once the cub reaches a year old the parents will abandon it so that it can fend for itself.

The bears will often eat whatever they find and prey on larger animals in addition to their opportunism, this sometimes causes the bears to enter human towns and cities to scavenge food, tolerated by most of those living in the cities. The Owl-Bears are surprisingly friendly and smart, they will not attack humans as long as they aren't offended first, and their small socialization tendencies indicate that maybe they could be tamed. There are stories about children and hunters going up to Owl-Bears and hugging them, leaving unscathed, still, it is not recommended to get close to the bears regardless as they are highly respected animals and considered a symbol of the Republic.

Flightless Strigeas

Standing 1 meter or so tall, and mostly seen in the lightly forested areas in the East, these omnivores are however not considered True Owls. Although they have a superficial resemblance to owls, they lack several features that define owls such as binocular vision. Suspected to have split off from the Strigeaform Clade long ago, they behave like prey more than predators. They use their flexible necks to survey their surroundings and make up their smaller vision cone with keen hearing. The giant but blunt talons are used for picking up fruits and small prey and delivering them to their protruded beak.
These strange birds live in loose packs of 5-6. Scaredy creatures, these land birds run and screech at the slightest movement of a suspected predator.
Unfortunately, they were often the target of hunters and even children armed with slingshots. These poor critters are originally the target of a popular children's game called "Church, bat, van", being chased around until they are batted by a participant. But their once dwindling number due to overhunting is, fortunately, rebounding due to hunting restrictions, rural depopulation and rule change of "Church, bat, van".

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Entertainment and street culture

The population tends to be somewhat quiet, with a strong preference for small and sharp responses, if you walk by in the streets, no one will greet or try to bother you, and most people expect the same, this does not mean that the population is unfriendly or unreceptive as most will still reciprocate the greetings. It is to be considered that the population tends to be rough, crude and irritable, and thus fights can commence easily, tipically after the street brawls the involved will simply carry on with their path, althought sometimes grudges are kept between the participants. The guards try to interfere as little as possible whenever brawls happen, but will be forced to if the situation gets out of control. As a fun fact, martial ability isn't state sponsored, but it's very common among the population thanks to the large amount of veterans that wend back to civilian life and spread the techniques they learnt in their service.

The traditional music of the Republic uses drums at its core, with very heavy drumming being preferred, and vocals to carry the melody, other instruments are in use to aid in the carrying of the melody or to outright replace the vocals when no capable vocalist is present, the cello is also a favorite of many musical groups.

People often go to the pubs to drink and have a good time, this does result in a higher than usual amount of bar brawls and guards are often placed nearby to stop them once they get violent enough.

Theather plays are somewhat uncommon, and famously bad, ironically, this makes them a good tourist attraction as people want to see just how bad they are, comedy plays are the usual.

The Republic sometimes organizes public games.

In the rural towns and villages in the hilly east, children and youths participate in games where they chase down large owl-like land birds with bats. This practice seems to stem from a folk tale regarding a fanatical follower of the nameless one, barging into a local temple with a bat and claiming the nameless one is among the female worshippers. Historians cannot ascertain whether the story really happened but this game remained one of the most popular children's games in the republic. In cities and villages in the east where there's no such bird, children playing as the 'bird" are dressed in cloaks instead.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Notes on what the early war is

The Republic gets established unceremoniously in an unowned land plagued by schizos
The exact age of the Republic will be kept vague to allow me more flexibility while writing lore, but it is a very young one.
Large amount of population starts moving in
War began against the schizos
War is economically heavy on the Republic
War influenced how the Republic was shaped
The Republic becomes an expert at siege warfare
The war is a very confusing affair
War ended relatively quickly and decisevly
War may or may have not influenced the lack of etiquette, why the people are so crude and the somewhat intense street culture
The war against the schizos may or may not intersect with the lore of other council splits, it is down to their choosing
If they do choose so, that would also have to make the council splits interested in sharing the lore also about as young as the Republic
Potential ways other splits could share the lore
with /nasa/: some of the schizos in the tundra may have fought in the wars, they may have moved north after getting eliminated from the lands owned by the Republic
with /uuu/: Druids may have began their religion when the forest and mother nature aided them in the removal of schizos
with /rrat/: The order of the monks may have begun as a martial order to kick others off from their mountains, similar to /uuu/ in that regard.
with /infinity/: dunno

pantheon
Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Pantheon

Notes:
It's the basic structure of the pantheon and it's common interpretation by the Republic, it's basically suposed to represent a bunch of combined legends, myths, stories, and the like that have been built up from many peoples across the lands.
Mumei is commonly represented as a Homer/Herodotus type character that travels the earth and records things, this is why she pops out in many stories and myths. She then became the main figure in the religion of the people.
Ame is meant to be a hero type character with multiple exploits and things like that, still a human thought. I'll change it if /awat/ does not like it.
Ina has a different type of divinity than the others (because lovecraft), but since /wah/ hasn't made any lore, I won't touch her for now.
The soulpath is the name for the underworld, where the soul of living beings is taken for ???, I'm not smart enough to come up with an afterlife system, maybe they go back to the land or something. I'm open for suggestions here.

The other splits are fully welcome to reference, use, and modify the pantheon for their own means, I'd make a prettier version, but I really need to go to sleep
This is only an attempt at creating a sensible pantheon, I might just scrap it completely if I don't feel it's good enough.

Rations of the army

Around 55% of wheat fields, 35% of grazing fields and 20% of potato farms in the Republic are owned by the military. These centralised, state owned farms are the main source of the army's provisions. Centralisation(at least in theory) yields more food, improves smoothness of logistics and quality controll, even if it has some shortfalls compared to private options, the military still perfers the security and stability over the potential effeicency of private market.
To combat digestion problems related to the monotonous diet of the military, fruit preserves, espically prune plums are supplied to units. Other than the usual prunes there's also pears cooked in wine, candied cherries and wild berry compote.

When a Legion marches, the provisions typically include salted beef, mutton or pork, canned foods(from potatoes & meat, smoked fish to string beans), fruit perserves, bullion cubes, suet/salted pork fat , sacks of wheat flour/potatoes, boxes of hardtacks, sugar, coffee, vodka and other nessities such as candles and soap. Fresh produce(including milk!) are usually provided twice ot thrice a week but that's under ideal circumtances and thus aren't expected to be maintained in wartime. The Republic's provision does not rely on fresh produce to keep its soldiers healthy due to its large canning industry and the logitical ability to distribut them. The various canned food are designed to provide at least the baseline of nutritional needs for months.
When regiments are garrisoned, their weekly provisons also include eggs, various smoked meats and more kinds of fresh produce bought from local farmers.

When encamped, brick ovens are constructed to bake bread for the men. Field kitchens cook big pots of stews or even roasts if fresh meat or cattle is avalible. Energy dense food such as hardtack and canned meat & potatoes are reserved for marches.
Light infantry or other reconnaissance troops perfer bringing canned meat & potatoes, bread, salted pork fat and fruit perserves as they don't require any cooking and thus the need to light fires. Perfect for picket duty. They typically bring 3-4 days worth of rations while marching ahead of the supply trains.
Line infantry usually bring hardtacks, canned food, bread, salted meat and animal fats while on the move. As they march relatively close to the supplies, they would typically only bring 1-2 days worth of food on their person.

Even though the Republic's canned rations are incrediblely varied(there are 23 different varieties excluding perserved fruits), the amount one can bring is limited. Bringing more than 4 cans starts to become cumbersome when combined with all the other equipment one has to carry. As such, soldiers came to learn different recipies to make the less agreeable provisions like hardtacks more edible.

The Tartarus stew:
Fatty meat/fat is rendered in a pan. Then Hardtacks are pounded into chunks and added into the rendered fat(if fatty meat is used, it is best to be taken out and added back in later, though many soldiers skip this step). After around 15 minutes, the hardtack became crispy and flavourful. If perfered water and chopped canned vegetables are added in.

Hardtack pudding:
Hardtacks are pounded finely and then mixed with water or milk if avalible. While the hardtack is left to sit, fruit perserves are chopped and mixed with sugar and spices if one's lucky enough to have a relative mail it to them. The hardtack mixture is rolled into a crust and used to wrap the fillings. The pudding is then steamed in a pot for up to 2 hours.

Lobscouse:
Fatty meat or animal fat is rendered in a pot. Canned vegetables are chopped and if situation allowed, fresh, foraged wild vegtables are used as well.
Meat(either canned or salted) is added and left to brown and hardtacks are pounded into small chucks. The vegetable are then added with bouillon and water. The hardtack chucks are added with some reserved to add crucnch if one perfers. After around 20 minutes the stew is seaoned to taste and ready to serve.

Army gruel:
Hardtacks are pounded into small chunks. The pounded hardtacks are added either in a pot of boiling water or left to soakover in a bowl night. If added into pot, around 30 minutes with ocassional stirring is needed. Fruit perserves are chopped and added into the pot/bowl. If avalible, milk is also added when finishing or on top of the bowl. The gruel is then seasoned to taste with sugar or spices.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Information corps

Information, be it scientific, technical, or folk, is an important form of advancing the power available to humanity, unfortunately, there are those that wish for their techniques to not be spread or known about and keep them under wraps, and equally there is such information that must not fall to potentially dangerous elements. This necessitated the creation of a govermental department of the Republic dedicated to intelligence and counter-intelligence.
3 different "information corps" active during wartime were consolidated into a single entity by various diplomats and leaders of the nation:
The 1st being "Special Diplomatic Division" (SDD). Agents that the Republic had for diplomatic and interstate activities, these were mainly involved in obtaining and stealing anything that comes from other states and political entities, also dealing with backdoor deals.
2nd was the "Military and Disciplinary Action" (MDA). The information Corps of the Military before consolidation, while the SDD dealt directly with interstate activities the MDA was originally tasked as an internal police force for the armed forces, it very quickly evolved into an espionage force for obtaining enemy plans and infiltrating their leadership structures, penal battalions were often used and reformed into units for these goals, in short, causing as much mayhem inside enemy formations and knowing their next steps.
3rd is a tad different from the others, being originally formed by lower class citizens and middle class merchants to "Protect the Republic" the "Republican Vanguard" (RV) was an extremely violent and aggresive counter-intelligence volunteer organization that wished to uproot any potential infiltrators and enemy agents, their success rate was originally quite low, they very quickly gained much experience and became an extremely competent organization.
Further information about these organizations and their structures has been scrubbed from books, althought inferences can be made based on records about how they acted.
All of these organizations were forcefully unified and consolidated in structure into the Republic Intelligence Division (RID) by multiple leaders of these organizations and by pressure of the Republic itself. Notably, the main reason the organizations united is said to be due to a shared interest in technology and intelligence regarding technology. Thus, the new organization took on all previous duties and jumbled a lot of its personnel together to maximize its experience and has a current interest in tech stealing. Very few is known about its activites since the consolidation however.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

R.I.D assessment of the space explorers

Basic overview
The Space explorers come from above the sky, they seem to have lost their way while traveling through the stars and crash landed here in our planet. They traveled in what looks to be a large starship that can fold and unfold upon itself. The information that can be obtained is somewhat limited by their health restrictions and their focus in keeping anyone outside from their ship, althought it's still obtainable due to the relaxed and carefree nature of their population. Their current goal is to find a way to repair their starship and lift off from the planet into their previous authority.
Political Structure
Power seems to be highly centralized in what they call the principal, who organizes their efforts. The principal is known to have confidants and secretary, and it's reasonable to believe they might have a board of important persons and departments to make clear their interests to the principal. All else is conjecture, but very few of the space explorers have any considerable political or economic power, which seems to somewhat bother some of the workers that we've talked to.
Grand directive
It's been known that they seem to have some sort of doctrine or set of rules about communication with others from this world, the exact specifications of this are unknown, but they're supposed use is to avoid the intervention of the "natives", most of the explorers we've talked to have expressed annoyance whenever dealing with it, any break of the directive seems to be met with heavy punishment.
War capacity.
The Space explorers have exactly zero capacity for war, with all their weapons being reserved for ultimate defense of their starship, most of their population seems untrained for weaponry, be it from our world or for their own. Their weapons are currently indecipherable, most of it looks to be spear shaped, there seems to be strange sorts of armor suits, they apparently have firearms, how they work is entirely unknown.
The Starship itself
It's not shaped like anything that exists on the planet, it's propulsion method appears to be through some big furnace (?) that they call "the reactor" that burns material to lift itself up, currently the reactor is either too damaged or does not have enough fuel to allow them to leave the planet. (in theory, with enough explosives you could presumably escape the planet's gravity pull)
The current make up of it's structure is unknown, and the metal it's made of seems to be a strange alloy. It's internal workings is divided into "sectors" where the explorers work and live in, the ship seems to be a specialized research expedition and its functions reflect that. Currently the only known thing about its inner transportation is that it has a minecart-like system where things will be transported by the ship automatically.
Space suit
Their suits are strange and large with a multitude of functions, they cannot take it off otherwise they die of disease or allergy, the clearest function is that of automatic language translation, however, it takes time to translate, so it has earned them a reputation for being slow talkers, those that decide to learn the lingua franca of the continent speak much faster, their accent seems to be inherited from the mountain monks, probably due to their translator basing itself of them. It probably has an airfilter, and it is lightly armored to avoid ripping, it holds modularity for job specialization. Further capabilities are not known.
Physiology
Oportunity to study their bodies has been rare to non-existent, whenever outside, they will always have their suit on due to previously mentioned conditions, and we do not have access to a space where one of us can be in the same room as them unsuited, it would need a glass room with an airfilter for it to happen. We do know that they are in fact very tall, presumably due to the light to non-exitent gravity in space. We do not know if their starship has a way to generate artifical gravity.
Technology
The technology they hold is on a very different level than us, althought they seem to be losing the ability to replace and repair it due to logistical and material constraints, similar stories have been passed around about the moonlanders and the Ioforia village system of the eastern part of the continent, those lands have also lost most of their technology. Most of their tools seem to be powered by engines heavily reduced in size, most of their technology is thought to use electricity, but other than that it remains a mystery. From copied blueprints we have found that their units seems to be a metric decimal system like ours, so unit conversion has been eased up. Their language is much harder to decipher, it will require the direct aid from one of the space explorers.
Bread dogs
Curious little things, they are cute and fluffy, edible too, but they can be quite a bother whenever extracting information, they act as counter-intelligence to make up for the human element of the space explorers, their small size means that they can often get in places and eat important blueprints and documents, their structure is a small square frame surrounded by bread, the bread protects the interior mechanics of the breaddogs. They are delicious.
Conclusion
The Space Explorers of /nasa/ are an extremely valuable ally due to their knowledge and technological know-how, due to existing conditions the recommended strategy for them is observation and diplomatic treatment, securing an alliance with them before they lose the knowledge and ability to replicate the technology they hold is of key importance.
Accomodation in case of emergency should be given, we are to consider them our friends, in the same way, the technology they hold must not be allowed to fall into the hands of any other state and organization to avoid any potential conflict that comes from their importance, knowledge would ideally be spread in such a speed as to not destabilize the world, so cooperation with the R.I.D. should be offered once they trust us enough.
/nasa/ does not hold any offensive capabilities, and their population is too low to support any operations. They are currently limited to purely diplomatic affairs and small cooperative efforts.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

R.I.D. Report No.[REDACTED] A.K.A. "Stellar Steak" Incident

Involved persons of interest.

Director of starship /nasa/
General of starship /nasa/'s military police
Blessed warrior of /meat/
Naval Captain and explorer from /infinity/ being accompanied by:
Alchemist of the Kaiserreich FP
Mercenary from VSPO
the Blessed warrior is presumably traveling together with them

Summary.
On the date of [REDACTED] the space station of /nasa/ was going through civil unrest due to dissent surrounding the "grand directive", the director apparently shut down most of the ship's functions in order to convince the population to accept the changes in the grand directive he proposed, this prompted a coup by the General. The director is currently escaping away from the starship into a secured location, with aid of the rangers this secure location has been found to be no less than [REDACTED]km away from the starship. The intention of the coup is to restore power to the ship and presumably establish a military government.
Current actions are limited to observation and non-intervention.

While traveling to the secure location, the director was seen with a small, brown, girl possesing a highly trained body, she seems to be uniformed in what's thought to be provisional clothes from the starship. The girl is known to be a blessed warrior from the lands of /meat/.
The Captain and explorer from /infinity/ has been identified as being from the 1st Kroniisiah Flotilla and has been under vigilance due to such position and existing tensions with the state of /infinity/, the girl was first seen travelling alongside the Captain, an Alchemist from the Kaiserreich, and a mercenary from VSPO, at some point they had separated and the girl ended somewhere along the tundra.

Conclusion.
Due to current developments, suggesting change in diplomatic strategy to the starship, if the director manages to take control of the ship again: Aggresive friendliness should be fostered and attempt to gain exclusive access to /nasa/ technology before they make any more deals with other nations can be made by them.

If the military coup succeeds then it is to be assumed that cooperation with /nasa/ will be highly reduced with the exception of the bakery business, in such case, attempts to mantain diplomatic relations should still be done with a special focus on vigilance and isolating them from any other state.

Dealing with potential tech smugglers of the starship: Forcefully take in and/or arrest every single posible smuggler, depending on the result of the civil crisis at the starship we will use them as bargaining ships to improve our standing with /nasa/, however, if the military government is established then we will insert them into our research teams and study the tech instead.

Extra notes:

The headquarters of the ship can somehow control the flow of energy, investigate further.

Folk tales

the Sandman
In the darkness of the night during full moons the division between the soulpath and our reality is at its weakest, the sandman crosses into our world to pay visits, a wicked being, you may be doing an essay or catching up on the newspaper and he'll surely appear! With all the care in the world, he'll treat you nice, get you comfortable before he strikes, Huzzah! it's suddenly morning and you didn't get to finish that oh so important work you had... You sure do feel well rested thought.
Jabberwock
Oh what a brutalliant day it seets to be.
Let yourself clight and frill for a jab at it.
The Jabberwock won't be pealfed at me.
But I'll clack it up with my bladient Vorpal.
Just as the Unknown did so in a gest past.
Kris blade ot and belk 3 mountains, pal.
Ghosts
Some people seem to live lifes full of grudges and resentment, others just don't seem to care too much about death in the first place, some believe this causes them to appear in the world even after death, be it to carry out their grudges or simply to hang out a bit more in the world, maybe they somehow managed to find their way out of the soulpath, or maybe there is more to the mind of a living being that we think.
Hero Watson
the legendary usurper of time, who challenged the gods and made a nation for herself, a human hero of grand proportions, the Nameless being watched and spied with great fascination until she could learn more about such a character. From their many interactions with each other, it'd be easy to confuse them for sisters due to the care they give each other.
King of the mountain
King Monty,the charismatic hidden king beneath the mountains and hills, along with his court of eccentric characters, all old friends of a certain vagabund with no name, it is even said that she stole the crown sitting a top of the king as a gift for him.
Bean juice fairy
Access to coffee has been rare across the Republic, that is until the mass importation of coffee from Anya-Petra Global, with this powerful substance that allows one to mantain themselves awake even after hours of intense strain be it mental or physical, it has quickly become a beloved drink of anyone from the working class to those of the upper classes, it comes with a danger however, if you consume too much coffee you might attract the attention from a malicious fairy, it will implore you to keep drinking coffee even when you don't need it, addiction is a serious issue after all, but you could certainly be addicted to more harmful things, so there's nothing wrong with pouring another cup I'd say.
Everywhere System
Not quite a folk story, but commentary of how the nameless being would appear in multiple stories and legends across the continent even if she had no real business being there, generally having small lines and doing things that might be considered somewhat amoral.
Sunken city
In her quest to learn more from the world, the nameless being once found information about a supposed sunken city that was protected by the Lady of the seas, many attempts were made to breaking in and finding out more, but the Lady was always there to stop her, ultimately, the nameless being swore that she'd remember it, and one day she will pay, nothing much came from these threats however, thought they did manage to keep the Lady on edge.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Library System of the Republic.

In it's efforts for centralization of education and existing information, the Library is there for such uses along with multiple subsections in cities and towns to ensure the free access to information and education to the people.
The state manages what it calls the library system, where all libraries in the Republic are organized after, it's goal is for every person in the Republic to have access to a library nearby them. To achive this the Republic has taken to building up such centers of knowledge in all urban centers, even small villages have relatively access to a library. Often times library managers will be taught basic education techniques for any children that desire to improve their reading skills, and schools have mandatory trips to libraries to foment the habit of reading in the youths.

Currently the biggest library in the Republic is the Central Library residing in an important city of the Republic, it acts as the headquarters of the Library System, and it is setup in such a way as to make sure there will be no book or document lost if a disaster were to befall it. Its concentration of books deals with anything from basic cooking recipes to collections of the legends and mythological stories regarding many sites of the continent. An important part of the central library is the somewhat large research center it has and the many professors that work inside it. Althought the structure of the central library was meant to be simple and easy to understand, some would argue that it is pretty much a maze. Book stores are commonly run by private enterprises, but they still have to deal with the guidelines set by the Library System in order to not be closed.

If a foreigner asks someone in the street about finding relevant information, the most common response will be to "check the library".

What's your nation's current goals now.

At a state level: To further the diplomatic and economic presence of the Republic in the world.
At a societal level: Expand the field of studies and improve the quality of life of those in the Republic.

What are you trying to aim for your development?

Scientifical, technological, societal, and cultural advancement of humanity.

Would said development make your people happy?

Presumably.

Paper and printing industry of the Republic:

Influenced by the Nameless One's commandments, the Republic practices archive keeping keenly. This led to a higher standard and volume of paper making even during the establishment of the Republic compared to other nations. This trend is maintained by a robust state-funded education program and a large population of avid readers in the Republic. The Republic's papers are mostly made from flax and cotton, though research into cheaper paper production using wood pulp is underway as well.

Newspapers run daily in cities and most towns, and the demand for books consolidated the publishing scene of the Republic into several prolific publishers. The most famous and oldest newspaper is the Weekly Owl(Unrelated to the most circulated paper, the Daily Owl). Due to the large market and experienced publishers, many foreign authors from the region would choose to publish their works in the Republic. The surplus of printing capacity means books and papers are one of the most important exports for the economy. Maps are another famous paper product of the Republic. While military maps are of course strictly forbidden from exportation, the Republic's maritime maps are famed for their accuracy and quality.

To satisfy the hunger for more paper, each city has large paper mills and printing presses. But due to the unreliability of early models, and the somewhat sacred quality of papers, early hoomans learned to hate the printing machines. "Printer" became the popular slang for an irritating person, and evolved into the word meant for heretics sprouting disparaging information against the Nameless One use today.

Education

All children once reached the age of 5 are subject to 9 years of compulsory education. Children of eligible age are first educated at the Élémentaires for 5 years, and then the École for 4 years. In the École, pupils need to choose to either continue their standard École courses or to start a vocational course in trades. After graduating from the École, these teens have the choice between starting work or continuing their education. The third tier of education institutes are the Collège and Ecole des métiers. Usually lasts for 2 years, the Collège prepare students for the Academy and Ecole des métiers teaches advanced trades skills.

The four main subjects of the Élémentaires and the first two years of École are the Arts, Sciences, Society and Physical. Arts cultivates language and artistic skills and Society teaches the basics of the Republic's politics and history, with a side of Theology. Young hoomans learn about math(particularly hated by them) and nature through Sciences while Physical teaches basic skills like sewing and woodworking.

The Academy is the highest and most prestigious rank of education. Only 5% of students are able to be admitted. It's simultaneously one of the most important institutes of the Republic as the various Academies are where the bulk of research and development happens. The Ministry of Innovation and the military keep a close relationship with the Academies and evaluate their research output. Any findings worthwhile are funded by the state or in some cases the private sector, and quickly exploited in the name of progress. Although this doesn't always pay off the program maintained the Republic's relative technological advantage over the years. Military and Commerce Academies exist but they are vastly different from the Academy for research and require a different pathway to enter.

Conscription and enlistment:

Any male citizens over the age of 16 who have not achieved an education level higher than the École or obtained the relevant certificate of trade/profession proficiency are subject to conscription. Conscripts are distributed to either the Army or the Navy. Two years of mandatory service means that most hoomans have a big incentive to continue their education or achieve intermediate proficiency in their trade. However, since being honourably discharged comes with benefits and welfare, many sons from poorer households would wait for their ticket or enlist right after École.

Army Drill camp lasts for six weeks, where conscripts are trained in basic combat skills, marching and discipline. After Drill camp, conscripts deemed eligible are sent to regimental reserve units for specialisation training, where they become specialists like sappers or artillery gunners. Specialist training lasts for around one to two months. As these specialists are especially valuable, their service is extended to three years and their pay is raised compared to the average line infantry. Since enlisting would guarantee a recommendation from the recruiter, making entering specialist corps easier, conscription isn't the only way for the army to recruit. The Republican Military's deep pockets and defensive doctrine mean the average conscript and recruits have great marksmanship, able to train with at least 60 rounds and 80 blanks during their basic training. New recruits for calvary pretty much only include those who had previous riding experience, while the Cuirassiers only accept volunteers and had a longer training period.

The Navy however don't have any training school besides an officer's academy. Any new conscripts are initiated as a landsman and trained by senior seamen while onboard their assigned ship. Sailing requires extensive knowledge and experience, as a result, conscripts who became a landsman are required to serve for a minimum of four years. But as the experience gained and the title of able seaman allows for a worthwhile career path in private shipping, the navy is nevertheless popular with hoomans enlistees who grew up on the coasts. Any students who chose to be trained in sailing during École would have a quicker path to becoming a midshipman and eventually a warrant officer. Spurred by patriotism and the handsome rewards, many experienced mariners are on the registry for wartime recruits as well. The mostly volunteer sailor corps of the Navy is one of the reasons for its relative success in combating pirates and raiders despite the young age.

Although female citizens are not subject to conscription, many still volunteer their service. Their roles in the Femhoomen's Army corps are strictly limited to supportive and logistical work such as nurses, cart drivers and bakers. Emergency measures to accept female volunteers in combat duty exist. Since there's a relatively large amount of women service members in the military, some foreign rumours even assert that there are female combat personnel in some units. Even though that has been refuted as nonsense by officials and generals multiple times.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Government departments of the Republic.

Department of Education

State schools
Library system
Sciences development

Department of State affairs

International affairs
Public Strategy
Internal Strategy
State Bureaucracy

Department of Public Affairs and Infrastructure

Roads maintenance
Public safety
Sewage maintenance
Organization of public holidays
State Newspaper

R.I.D.

Intelligence and CounterIntelligence

Department of Economics

Industrial Strategy
Business
Food production
Tax collection

Department of War

Joint Military Command

All departments work together effectively and collaboratively under the Republic.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

notes on political system

-unitary presidential republic
-regions have their elected officers participate in the republic (regional divisions still pending)
-still very centralized
-technically anyone can try to get elected
-rough factions and party system has formed (factions will be revised later)
-government departments will often have their own recruiting systems, but have to go by guidelines established by the Republic
-R.I.D. keeps documents on every elected officer
-urban regions are more militant (to increase the industrial power of the cities and republic as a whole)
-rural centers are more economically liberal (to get military demands out of their backs and increase their potential selling yields)
-president has a cabinet of the departments and persons of relevancy

Republic Owl/ Respublika Filin / Republique Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Postal service:

The Republic's citizens are avid readers. But with such a large amount of literate population, and the absence of long-range, mass communication methods that can connect friends and relatives, separated by the rapid advance of industry and progress, an efficient and standardised post system is needed.
Luckily, the infrastructure in the Republic enables mail and parcels to reach from the Easternmost mining towns to the ports in the West in mere days. The Postal Department is also well funded, both by the government and the massive amount of citizens who enlist their service. Aside from selling normal stamps, the Department also prints special editions that are prized within the not insignificant collector circles within the nation.

Pigeon post: Every city & town has at least one post office that houses messenger pigeons. For rural areas, post offices in the junctions between villages would have some capacity to house and send pigeons.
Their value as battlefield messengers is of course not lost to the military. The carrier pigeons in military service are all bred and trained with the help of professionals from the Postal Department. Whether military or civilian, they all wear a small whistle to ward off birds of prey.
There are also specially bred breeds. The most famous of all is the Northern Messenger. They boast a fast training and memorisation process than regular doves. They have longer necks, wider bodies and longer feathers. There is also the noticeable outgrowth of the eye cere, and their duller color (mostly brown & light grey, almost no white). Their more developed muscle and wings allow them better endurance and slightly faster flight, but these birds are also bigger and need more movement space. As such, they are mostly only suitable to be used in conjunction with special carts for the military or from fixed locations.
Their exploits are often recorded in commercial books, the press and official histories. Though their significance is, of course, lower than the national avian of the Republic, they nevertheless have their own attire during parades and celebrations. Military pigeons usually wear a small gorget, helmet and harness during such occasions. And civilian pigeons are dressed in colorful feathers and masks.

Balloon mail: Both coal and chuubanite driven air balloons are available for the postmen of the Department. Mostly running fixed routes, they still often go where is needed too. Balloons are used for delivering urgent medium weight parcels like medicine to remote villages(mail posts in rural areas have dedicated landing pads).
Though limited by the weather, fuel and slightly slower than pigeons on average, they are still extremely flexible.
The artillery observation corps of the army has its roots in the balloon pilots of the Postal department. The corps continually draws some of its personnel from skilled balloon postmen.

Horse & carriage: The most common method and delivers the largest volume, despite the Republic's large pigeon fleet, more than half of the mail and parcels are transported by horses. Horse carriages are used to centrally distribute to various smaller posts both within cities and between villages. Stamps are also tiered, least expensive and most common stamps are transported by horse instead of pigeon or other alternative methods.
Green: Horse Blue: Pigeon Yellow: International(i.e. Ship) / Add on: Orange for mail that needs ballon transport; Red for urgent

Intra-city mailing: While there are some pigeon services within larger cities, many postboys run mail around the cities on push velocipedes. The many narrow city streets, while excellent for defending, are however not very suitable for horses or carriages. Once you leave the wide main avenues near the centre, such vehicles are needed to deliver mail in residential areas in a timely fashion. There are also pedal-driven ones but they are slowly catching on.

Messenger ravens: A lot less common and limited in number, but they are more flexible than pigeons. These smart critters can memorise more locations, and their intended destination is communicated through coloured cards by their handler. Limited to daytime and range, they are only carried by a select few offices or in the military, higher-level or command units.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Discrimination in the Republic

While the Republic's humanist rethoric and doctrine is propagated to and by the population, this very same population holds multiple beliefs that are considered discriminatory against others, generally this discrimination is directed against foreigners and those that do not comfort to social norms.

Those in the frontier and port cities are not nearly as disriminatory when compared to those in the industrial and inner cities, it is reasoned that this is because the population in those cities are more in contact with foreigners than other places of the Republic. Going over neighbouring and sister countries can show that there are general trends to observe.
When regarding the druids because of their particular features of branches and plant life in their body being more off-putting to the population, some frontier towns are varied in how much they tolerate the druids for some are more aggressive while others are much more accepting of their features.
The Sanallites don't face discrimination as they are seen as more comforting towards the Republic's culture due to their large suits, and there's not enough sanallites to actually create an impression from the general population towards them.
The mountain monks are seen in a very good light due to their percieved wiseness and healthy relations between various religious temples of the Republic and the various orders of the mountain monks that engage in diplomatic dealings.
There is strong discrimination towards kronies in part due to the cold relations between the Owl Republic and the Kronie Oligarchy and in part due to the different cultures and bad history. Even in the port city they are looked down upon by the general population and in the inner country are the target of violent crime.
The Hoshiyomi are well liked due to the relations between the navies and the fact that they are a good market for the farmers and merchants of the country, who then spread their good experiences towards the general population.

The social norms and culture of the Republic is very relaxed if quiet, and allows its people much freedom on the ways they wish to act, however, if one starts to become more socially unbearable and starts acting in ways that may be considered annoying by other civilians then that person may start facing discrimination and insults by others.

Those that are not human face much stronger discrimination than those that are human, perhaps because of the very same humanist doctrine of the Republic. Humans that hold strong non-human features face varying degrees of opposition according to the extent of their changes.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Taxes.

Economic policy is dictated first by the government's department of economics, it recieves advice and requests from the other departments, the department of ecomony does yearly reviews from every 4th month and 6th day for however long is needed where it will check fund allocation and collect taxes.
In these yearly reviews the department will also organize business owners, farmers, traders, economic theorists, industrialists along with industrial workers, and miners under the "Industrial Strategy Meetings" to further the economic strength of the Republic, currently divided between the industrialist faction, the neo-physiocrats as the biggest factions, but there are multiple smaller factions working towards securing certain goals.

The Republic's tax system is at a national scale and regulated by the Republican Revenue and Income that employs the aid of the National Bank and the Postal Service under the Department of Economics.
The RRI as an office performs investigations and rulings on fiscal crime and those that have commited rule breaks. They have wide ranging powers to ensure the swift workings of the government's bureaucracy and are feared by those working in grey areas. They end up being a law enforcement agency all on their own.
Yearly tax collection is done by the postal service of the Republic under direction of the RRI, typically armed with pistols and short blades if the need comes by, a common urban legend of the postal service is how they'll lay siege towards entire sectors of a city if they do not obtain what they ask for.
The national bank aids the postal service and the RRI by easing adminstrative tasks.

Progressive income tax of 10% at a minimum of 200 Beryls per year, increasing to a maximum of 50% income tax at 4200 Beryls per year through a system where tax is increased every 200 beryls by 2%
Property tax is considerably lower at a stunning rate of 0%, property is not taxed unless the land is unused by the owner, in which case it is taxed at a rate of 20% by the sale of land. Property tax remains in debate by the Industrial Strategy Meetings.
Tax grants can be given according to certain ventures a citizen may or may not take, decorated soldiers, centers of institution, researchers in sciences and technology, physically discapacitated persons, among others can all recieve tax relief by 5% to 20%. Research grants by the government are not subject to taxation.
Government administration workers all recieve a 5% tax reduction by default.
Corporation tax is a recent addition to the taxation rules, before that corporations and business fell under income tax rulings.
Corporation tax works by the reviewing of individual tax against the income and earnings of the company, individuals are unable to dodge taxation by investing towards the company for the company itself will be taxed by percentages to what has been invested in it. This only applies to the initial investment.
Discussion towards the taxing of individual gains on finalized investments are still ongoing.
Generally, 15% taxes on investments towards a company is the standard, but it may grow depending on how large the company in question grows. In addition to the investment tax, companies are also taxed for earnings at a rate of 5% to 20%, companies may apply for tax relief if the products they market are considered strategic goods.
Regarding foreign companies, taxation is much heavier, with up to 60% taxes on investment and earnings.
Businesses generally have steady and low tax rates, up to 5% starting from 1% due to the nature of consumer goods in the Republic. Small business owners may request reductions in personal income tax to care further for their businesses.

Tariffs are multiple, they target foreign products to ensure that Republican products remain cheaper than them unless it is a product that does not exist in the Republic, in such a case the tariff is reduced.
As an example, steel is the subject of protection and foreign steel is subject to heavy tariffs up to 100%. However it is a very extreme case.
Most foreign products recieve an import tariff rate of 2% to 25% depending on the product. As an example, foreign foodstuffs are not taxed as much as foreign wool is.
Those under the reduced tariff rule start at 2% and max out at 10%
Export tariffs on the other hand are given out according to strategic and diplomatic need, exports toward rival or unfriendly regimes get large tariffs while exports toward direct allies can recieve negative tariffs.
Only direct allies may recieve tariff reductions, tipically for strategic resources as is the case for Hoshiyomia and their need for potatoes and their navy's relationship towards the Republican one.
Free trade agreements may be given out to allied nations in which their exports and imports recieve very few tariffs.

Industry

Gunpowder

All gunpowder production in the Owl Republic are state owned and controlled. Saltpeter is produced both by the importation of crude, unrefined saltpeter and local farms. Each farmstead is required to either build a saltpeter barn on their own land (state owned farms usually have their own barns and sometimes refine their own saltpeter from the resulting decomposed material), or have their manure to be centrally collected by the local government, and placed in a public niter bed. Though some in the government have long pushed for the freeing up of farmer's burden of manure collection, which hampers the yield by taking away precious fertilizers, imported sources of niter and fertilizers produced from it have made the argument die down considerably. And farmers are still subsidized or awarded tax exemptions for their cooperation.
The resulting saltpeter is of good quality, when combined with selectively sourced charcoal and distilled, disinfected water, and sulfur produces some of the best powder in the world. The raw materials are shipped to the various powder mills in the country, which all by now have standardized, variable speed water mills, resulting in consistent pressing and corning of powder. The introduction of steam engines also increased production somewhat by being able to pump water from elsewhere during drier seasons or increasing the speed of the wheels beyond their normal speed. Though like many state owned factories, the recent introduction of expansion engines has made the Department of Economics to consider retrofitting all production facilities with direct steam driven mills or at least supplement them with one. But the biggest obstacle is the high production of gun powder, which the Republic already has too much of. Due to this reason, the Owl Republic is also one of the biggest exporters of gun powder, mostly slower burning powder for blasting and some high quality hunting powder with powder intended for war reserved for close partners and allies.

The country also produced the Grade XI powder, which incorporated chuubanite in its pulverizing and glazing process. Coal chuubanite is added during the pulverization. And Vitubim from chuubanite in the country, produced from burning, then condensing the steam resulting from it, are added to a secret, proprietary mix of chemicals, which results in an alternate glazing material from graphite. The coating is relatively waterproof and provides extra heat and energy when detonated, which allowed the operation of firearms in the rain (chance for hang fire is considerably reduced). The powder also produces less smoke, almost half of normal, high quality powder. And despite eschewing graphite as the glazing material, is still easy to pour. Scholars have long debated what exactly causes the Grade XI to detonate when it doesn't come into contact with any activator substance. The current most popular thesis is that the compound created by the coating when it is ignited triggers the vitubium compound, which in turn also induces the chuubanite within to explode beyond the normal powder ingredient within.
The Grade XI is most popular aboard as a hunting and sporting priming powder, which are corned more finely than normal priming powder. The powder produces less smoke and flash when denoted, and the more violent reaction also ignites the charge faster, allowing the prey less time to escape when the trigger was pulled. The powder is of course best known within the country as an powder reserved for the elite forces. The Grade XI destined to the arsenals are milled to a smaller grain than usual, because the chuubanite coal introduced bonds more weakly than normal powder, despite the coating also acting as a protector. As such, Grade XI is only used in small arms, which the rangers and elite light infantry units are able to exploit its advantage the most. The smoke produced by the powder makes shots made from a treeline virtually invisible beyond 70 yards, and the slightly higher velocity also gives the bullet better ballistics. The powder also produces a brilliant blue and amber colored flame when ignited. Although the biggest downside to the powder is the fouling that comes with repeated use.
The fouling is lightly hydrophobic, unlike normal fouling, which make it harder to clean in field conditions. The problem is especially present in rifles, which sometimes outright prevent the ball to be loaded as the grooves become filled with a compound containing spent chuubanite or impure chuubanite that was left in during manufacturing, making the fouling harder. The same problem is also present in shooters that use the Grade XI in sporting or hunting but these uses usually do not fire for long enough during each use for the fouling to become a problem. But the Grade XI also faces competition, as a solid priming compound was invented in 1118. The new type of primer are contained in their stand alone caps instead of being loose powder. Although the Grade XI will most likely see to be displaced by these caps in all fields, as a result of massive efforts from the Military to modify the service rifles into cap fired guns, Grade XI is still expected to remain as a situational but highly effective powder, and the branding effect still makes it one of the go to powder for many hunters both foreign and domestic to use it before cap fired guns have replaced most firearms in the world.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Capital city.

The birthplace of the nation, the capital city was founded by settlers looking for a new life in the great north of the continent, these settlers would congregate in what used to be called the city of settlers, once war came and went, and the nation had developed in a multitude of ways, the city of settlers would recieve a new name to celebrate, the City of Victory. It is located on a hill besides the great river.

The capital is the administrative center of the Republic, it is where power is concentrated and where the headquarters of government offices are placed. It is where the house of government and state lies and organizes itself. Along with state critical infrastructure, it is where the University of the Republic has its main institution, thus making the Capital an important center for study. Due to the natural growth of the city, the use of city sectors is not present, with industrial zones overlapping residential and market places. The only places that have been actively organized in the capital are the academic and the administrative offices by the buying of land and rebuilding it as such.

The history of war has undeniably affected how the city developed, most of the architecture is rustic and durable enough material until peace was achieved, due to the status of center of the Republic, both geographically and tradition-wise, this has influenced how the Republic's architecture is shaped in general, very minimal decorations and buildings have generally blocky and triangle features over smooth shapes, as these were much harder to produce in a war economy, the use of steel has started to become more common and many buildings are being renovated with newer materials.
While some architects have started to decide on the use of decorations, others have grown to like the simple aesthetic and defend it, causing a rift in architecture schools.
It has various forts in and outside the city along with hosting an important military HQ and supply depots. There used to be a large wall until it got scrapped by the citizens of the city across the years for building material.

Alcohol

Different types of alcoholic beverages are made in the Owl Republic. In the lastest survey conducted jointly by the Department of Economics and the Bureau of Health in 1125, different types of Beer and Vodka are the most consumed drink by volume, with wine coming in next.

Traditionally, Hooman beer are made with smoked malt and gruit. The type of wood used in different parts of the country also varies. The most famous beer made in the Western Republic uses a mix of apple and beech are used to impart a fruity and nutty taste to the unfermented wort. Some parts of the East also used peat to smoke their malt as well, which gives it a deep, earthy and slightly burnt taste that pairs well with grilled and pot-roasted meat that is often consumed in the region. Gruit are used traditionally to flavour many of the brews in the Republic. Though many kinds of Hop plants are native to the region, their use was never discovered until after the Founding War, brought in by both immigrants and renewed trade with the outside world. The popularisation of hop use if partly due to the preserving effect they have to the beer, which began to be traded across the vast landmass that constitutes the Republic. In the aftermath of the post war trade boom and unification of the East and West, beer making in many parts of the country has gradually conformed to be more standardized. Though gruit have not fallen completely out of use, as many breweries and independent brewer, bars still produce and use their own gruit mix. The more bitter herbs are taken out or reduced, and the dried herb mix are usually added later than the hops to preserve as much of its unique flavor as possible. The use of gruit is a reason Republican beer can enjoy a premium compared to other types of beer in the international market. More modern types of malting kilns have long been made and used in the Republic, though the traditional method of wood smoking is still preserved despite the penchant of novelty and innovation in the country. Sometimes traditions have a reason to remain, the wide selection of beer styles that such a mix of techniques allow is perhaps one.

Vodka is made traditionally with grain. Though spirits distilled from potatoes or a mix of grain and potato became the dominant type in the last two centuries. Some styles are flavored with spice berries. This type is often made into a table drink by pouring it into a pitcher with mashed berries, then diluted with water. Most traditional vodkas are barrel aged, the lightly charred wood gives them a nice aroma and flavor. Most are consumed on their own, chilled in a cellar, or poured into a pitcher full of cut fruits. Aged Vodka similarly also fetch a high price not only due to the use of local herbs but also its aging process. The rocking motion the liquid content undergoes at sea makes Republican Vodka unique compared to many other aged spirits. Its consumption as a luxury item is especially noted in the Eastern Continent.

Wine production is mainly concentrated in the West historically. Though the fertile valley in the maritime climate of the North East has become one of the most profitable wine region in the country in the recent decades. While its consumption is lower, its culinary use is notable. Traditionally a large portion of the must are used to make vinegar instead. The large scale drinking of wine only became more prominent from foreign demand which resulted in overproduction.

While brandy isn't traditionally made on any scale, pomace brandy and other types of fruit brandy are consumed in many parts of the Republic. Apricots, apples, Berries and Peaches are made into a sweet spirit that is often purchased as gifts. Sugar beet molasses are used to distill a bitter tasting brandy in some rural communities. While sugar cubes are often added to make it less unpleasant, the unique flavor of the drink makes it a social drink, where the experience mattered more. It is seen as a bonding exercise to finish a bottle with your buddies.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Cult of reason

Many figures in the Republic, be it political, scientific, or in other areas of importance, have recently taken a liking to the Cult of reason, while it is called a cult, it is more of an intellectual movement.
This "movement" originated from a combination of the temples embracement of humanist rethoric and various researchers of multiple fields getting together in coffee shops to discuss their findings, while the temples have no political influence, they have plenty of cultural one, and many researchers based themselves off this existing culture of belief in the human being to find ways to improve upon their work and society.
The movement itself discusses certain ideas, the main one being that of "Cultural, technological, and human advancement", where those involved will often discuss how to best forward their ideas to such a goal. Often think tanks and large reunions are planned in universities, coffee shops, temples, and wherever it is seen as a good idea to do so. Nationalist ideas, while commonly floated around, are not a main point of the movement, as it is a humanist one. Efforts to combine nationalism and humanism have been mildly recepted.
The temples often have a variety of opinions on the Cult of reason, while some temples, mainly those that prefer the peaceful development of the Republic, argue that it takes away from actual worship of the true religion, other temples are much more involved and highly support the movement, linking together both the stories and myths of the common religion to the goals of the Cult of reason. As a result, temple leaders tipically get completed educations in a variety of subject in order to better host the movement.
Many of the military, political, and economic class support the movement, and the working class is receptive to the ideas proposed by the Cult of reason.
The impact on the arts has been interesting, with many artists choosing to represent humanity and a variety of animals with their own ideas of progress. A famous painting is by an eccentric artist who instead imagined the potential horrors by painting a citizen sitting alone on the moon. The use of sharp lines, pencils, and gradients is common in this new movement, but it is still being changed by many of the artists involved.
International scholars and researchers are also ocassionally invited, thought, due to the waryness the government has towards foreign governments and the RID's care for the mantainance of technological secrecy in important sectors, it is quite a bit difficult for some belonging to more neutral contries.

Currently, there is tought about formalizing the Cult of reason and its reunions into a more official seminar hosted by the university and a variety of temples.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Baseball in the Republic

A sport brought from the nation of hawks, baseball became popular in the Republic to the papers a hooman reporter did on the results of the game during his breaks, generating enough interest in the Republic for him to go back and decide to become a teacher for the sport in various cities of the Republic.
Soon enough a variety of university and amateur baseball clubs formed in various places, these teams would then have games played with each other and attract audiences if it was considered a game between good teams.
The game is popular with the army and the navy too, the 2 branches will organize their own leagues and then will have their winning team face off against the other branch.

Currently there is only a single organization attempting to standarize the sport across the Republic, the "Republican Baseball Federation", their main apports have been the standarization of the ball shape and bats used, and the standarization of a good playing field. Wooden bats are in use and the current ball has 108 stitches on the cowhide leather, used to cover the core made of cork and made to weight about 150 grams.
Thanks to the efforts of the RBF a few factories have popped up that do game materials to the standards established, cheapening their price heavily, as before the factories it was quite expensive.
Game reports get checked into the library by a few aficionados of the sport working under the RBF.
The game gets played by children and adults everywhere in the Republic, tipically with handmade balls and wooden bats. Access to regulation balls is still too expensive to spread to the common population. But the wooden bats can be well carved by local lumberjacks.
Due to the grassroots nature of the RBF they often enlist the aid of local aficionados that enjoy the sport to have everything marked down, and invite clubs to help discuss official rules and techniques. This has made some in the RBF dream of a future where everybody can enjoy the sport at a truly professional level, such dreams are still far away thought.

Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国ワシミミズク

Currency

The republican Beryl is represented by a coin made from 3/5 copper and 2/5 nickel. 25 mm in diameter and 1.75 mm thick. Its design features a feather in one side and a regional marking on the other according to the bank it was minted by.
5 beryls use the same measurements but the mass is changed with 4/5 copper and 1/5 silver, along with a different design featuring the eye of an owl on both sides,
10 beryls onwards use a special paper mixture with specialized design to ensure its validity.
The paper bills are used for 10 beryls, 50 beryls, and 100 beryls. Proposals for larger quantity bills are to be considered whenever the bank regulator agency considers it appropiate.

Minting is done by a variety of private banks and enterprises, all regulated by the national bank, who sends orders of design and changes in minting techniques.
All banks in the Republic recieve a monthly guide on these changes.

Massive changes in wealth, mainly by large sales, are done by a check system where the national bank will officiate it, local banks will have to mail it to the national bank and as a result they may take longer than smaller wealth exchanges.