Bleingro

The island was mostly highly mountainous, with about 50 km of lowlands bordering the coast on each side. In terms of climate, 95% of it is continental, with the Southern Coast lowlands being of the hot summer variant, and the mountainous inland being mostly of the warm summer variant (Dfa, Dfb). On the mountains, people would grow and harvest the cereal grain Snorg, which was well suited to being grown in sloped areas. They had special boots which would dig into the mountains to help them navigate them better.

Usually, Grengs (lords) would manage about 20-30 farms each. They would allocate land, negotiate with other Grengs and oversee or appoint people to oversee the harvests. Then, Grengs would be overlooked by SwarGrengs, which would clear up conflicts, negotiate with other SwarGrengs and have a variety of other duties. While there was no unitary, king-like authority for the island as a whole, there was a spiritual authority, the Narn. While the Grengs and SwarGrengs didn't have to obey him, they nearly always would in practice, as he was highly respected, seen to be the representative of the Gods on Earth. Today, the Narn is not the chief spiritual advisor (for those who adhere to traditional religions/RS) of the country. Instead, he is the mostly secular Head of State and Head of Government. However, he does appoint a FarsNarn, who basically acts as how the Narn did pre-1940, although with less power. This is because, when the non-Bleinish discovered the island, they wanted to know who the authority was, and they gave them the Narn, who then became the Head of Government (and state) after that.

It was first settled about 12,000 years ago, by Aleuts, through the Lesser Gackswon Islands, which were a great deal larger then then they are now. It discovered farming in about 1000 BC. Owing to its isolated location, the island managed to evade outside discovery until 1940, when it was discovered by some people in the Japanese navy. Soon, a brutal war was fought between the Japanese and Americans about the island. Eventually the Americans won. The war, along with new diseases, caused over a quarter of the population to die-the population went from roughly 10 million to 7 million. The country then became a colony of the US. However, the native people there weren't very happy about that, so, in 1946, after the war ended, they demanded they gain independence. After two years of protest, they succeeded and in 1948 the Narnian Republic of Bleingro became a member of the United Nations. Straight away, it faced many problems-it was a nation which was a mix, in many ways, between Ancient Greece and Feudal Europe, when some parts of the world had television, and, more pressingly, it had been devastated by war. However, the country, led by the great Narn, Gornwing Sworstem (1905-1978), persuaded the US to give the country lots of aid money. This entirely repaired the damages created by the war, but could do more, as well, seeing as the population of the island was so greatly reduced. It had nearly brought the country into the modern world. With Sworstem's excellent governance, the country soon became relatively prosperous and well-off. Sworstem is the national hero of the country. He is venerated almost religiously be some people, as a type of saint. Today, it has a population of 20.2 million.

Gornwing Sworstem:

He was born in 1905, in the Eastern wing of the country, in a small highland village two hours away from the nearest city. His father was the local Greng. His mother, who had extensive training in music, died when he was only 5, so he was mostly raised by his aunt. When he was 12, he entered training to become a Sams for his local religious order, embarking on his Tamar (experiential journey) in what was, to the outside world, 1921. In 1926 he completed his training and entered a Samsorn, where he specialized in calligraphy and srcipturing. He excelled at this, becoming a senior scripturer to the Narn in 1938.

On October 12, 1940, the island was first discovered by the outside world-by the Japanese, to be specific, who wished to keep their discovery secret. At first, they talked to the council of SwarGrengs, who they took to be the leader. Two weeks and three days later, the Americans found it and it was no longer secret. Then, in July 1941, the Narn died. Sworstem was the Narn-in-waiting by the written wishes of the previous Narn, so then he became the Narn. He persuaded a majority of the SwarGrengs to led them lead him, setting out a consitute about what powers he would have. So, when the Japanese invaded in early 1942, he held a position equivalent to un-majority-elected, slightly autocratic president of the country. He brilliantly manoeuvred the country through the war, until with the help of the Americans the Japanese backed away in mid 1944. But then, it became a colony of the US. He wasn't very happy about this, and led a series of mass protests (including hunger strikes) against it, which most of the country participated in. The turning point came when the UN was established. He took the matter to the international court and argued that the US should not have annexed the island. They agreed, so he then became the leader of an independent nation, leading according to a (slightly modified) version of the consitution that had been created eariler. He also appointed a new Narn (a SampNarn), different to himself, to be the spiritual advisor of the country. At first, his main focus was on industrializing the country and transitioning it to capitalism, with the help of the aid money the US had given the nation (there was a lot of it.) He passed many economic reforms to this effect.

Socially, he was fairly conservative, believing that the philosophy of the RS and other, smaller traditional Bleinish schools of though should consider being the guiding philosophies for the Bleinish, even in modernity. However, he was not opposed to some socially progressive moves within the bounds of that.

He retired from his position in 1975, due to old age. He died four years later, in 1979.

He never married, although he had one illegitable child when he was twenty (something which was socially acceptable at the time) who was raised by the mother and her husband. He was known for his love of science fiction novels in his free time. He published a widely lauded autobiography in 1976.

Religion:

Traditionally, religion was presided over by the Narn, an especially holy-divine- man. He gave people advice on how to "live right" and obey the Gods rules and requests. Generally, there was held to be a kind of mysterious, immaterial substance which could be manipulated by magic, and a pantheon of Gods with a head God presiding over them, detailed in the Risbalt Scripture, a collection of mythology and philosophical/religious writings organized into one book. Some places or regions had additional variations in their religious beliefs as well, which were not condemned, and there have always been a few localized versions of the RS. The country doesn't collect official religious data, although studies have shown that most people profess to follow the RS (with around 5% considering themselves Christian- 4% Protestant and nearly 1% Orthodox.) Traditional beliefs are also common. The RS is divided into three parts: Before, Present and After. The Before part details the events of a mythological before-time, simply called the Before (or the Tengshaus), when the world had just been formed and people could still talk to Gods. The Present details a number of tales from this Age, and the After is made up of prophecy about events which will happen, after another Great Turning happens and we are in a new Age. Each of these Ages were then further divided into sub-Ages. Through these stories and the experiences of their protagonists, lessons are learnt, and great principles are revealed. Perhaps the central message of the book is that beauty (which takes on a wider definition than it does typically in English, and can be better summed up by the Bleinish word Tarnten), intellect and ritual are the most important aspects of life, and indeed, its purpose. Also, that while life may seem hard, the Gods are not malicious, and all challenges are opportunities for learning and discovery. Some of it is in the form of poetry, some is in a more narrative format, and it is usually heavily illustrated. These and other lessons and reiterated, clearly, at the end or back of the book.

It forms the basis of Bleinish culture.

Traditionally, poetry, music and Bleinish calligraphy have been the most highly valued art forms. Visual art is generally dismissed as an art form except to depict mythological scenes (great care is put into those). Poetry is often combined with calligraphy (as in, the poetry is written calligraphically), and can be used for a range of purposes-narration, or illumination of experiences, beauty or emotions, or expression of philosophical ideas-sometimes in a rather roundabout way. Even today, poets have a very high status and most people read poetry regularly. Music comes in two forms: "high", which is practiced and created by professional musicians, and "low", which comes from the untrained people, and may be likened to folk music. Yodeling was popular in "low" music (more recently, it is being used in music which traditionally be considered "high", as well.) A unique way of singing, which involves the nose and sounds like a trombone, is also found commonly in Bleingro. Bleinish calligraphy consists of writing Bleinish in a pretty and elegant, often detailed, way.

The official and national language of Bleingro is (standard, or capital), Bleinish. There are more than 25 dialects of this language, some of which are barely intelligible to each other. It is written using logograms, which are arranged in spirals, or sometimes circles, which each make up a sentence.

A widely revered animal across the country is the cat, which was probably first domesticated in around 800 BC. It is seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and even perfection.

A very important part of Bleinish culture is reading-or indeed, words in general. On average, Blenish residents read 4.2 books per month, or 50.4 books per year. There is even a book on the flag, via the coat of arms. In 2019, the government decided it would do a national IQ survey, to compare its scores off those in other countries. They tested 95.6% of the population, and found on average, Bleinish people had an IQ 8 points higher than Americans.

1921.

Language: Mag-Mountain

Sounds (standard):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_front_unrounded_vowel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_central_unrounded_vowel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_central_unrounded_vowel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-open_front_unrounded_vowel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_front_rounded_vowel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel

Mag-Mountain