Auptecht

Auptecht has the unfortunate distinction of being the "loneliest country" in all of Ealdremen; in an enormous meta-survey taken of countries throughout the system, this Estvoldian island nation was ranked the lowest in how many close relationships its citizens reported having, with many answering none at all. The results of this study caused enormous sociological attention to fixate on the small country, and the reasons for the citizens' loneliness were thought to be traceable to the Godbomb when it was abruptly cut off from communications with the mainland of Kyrol and forgotten until many years later. This appeared to breed a sense of cold self-reliance among the populace that has persisted to the modern-day with many people throwing themselves full-force into their work and rarely spending time outside of it; there is a persistent feeling of not having yet "earned" rest or that there is still more that can be done. Auptecht's people have also been noted to have higher amounts of stress and mental illness than the general populations of most countries even when adjusted for population size differences, though it is unclear if this is from their general "loneliness" or if the loneliness is caused by these factors.
However, the people of Auptecht generally deny being lonely or sad in any way even in anonymous surveys. They may downplay their struggles, such as claiming that everyone gets stressed by work sometimes or that the surveys are misleading in some capacity. Altogether, their emotions are muted and not highly expressed, lending to a stereotype that an Auptechtian who won the lottery would merely shrug and go back to work. It is also uncommon for Auptechtians to leave their island home, even for work; foreign businesses struggle to establish footholds in this insular country, especially if travel to other locations will be required. Auptechtians tend to stick out when abroad; the majority of their population consists of darkrunners who will have drab feathers, and their very demeanors are sometimes unsettling or even upsetting to people unused to an Auptechtian's generally dreary disposition.
The country is ruled via democracy, but elections are extraordinarily apathetic to the point where many candidates run unopposed. Other governments have sometimes indicated that Auptecht's ambassadors and foreign affairs officials appear to seem "rattled" when outside the country too long. Reportedly, one anonymous official in the middle of a hearing for Auptecht's potential induction into the Veriol Alliance was heard apologizing over and over again to an unseen individual and was driven into a state of panic with no clear reason why. Though Auptecht's official statement was that the official merely had schizophrenia or another similar disorder, the event -- as well as the bland, "too normal" explanation for why it happened -- has cast conspiratorial scrutiny on the strange, lonely island.
Category:Ealdremen Nations
Category:Estvoled
Category:No Spoilers