Hangria

Hangria is a pan-theological matriarchy with a scientific national focus located in the northern continent. It is ruled (technically) by a single leader, designated as the “grand priestess”. This name is mostly just reference to the nation’s beginnings in modern day, as the nation is not a theocracy. If a male was ever to become the leader of Hangria, the title would probably be “grand priest”, yet this has yet to happen in Hangria’s history.

## Overview

Hangria is a pan-theological matriarchy with a scientific national focus. That sounds like a lot of weird buzzwords, I know, but I’ll explain it more in a moment. It is ruled (technically) by a single leader, designated as the “grand priestess”. This name is mostly just reference to the nation’s beginnings in modern day, as the nation is not a theocracy. If a male was ever to become the leader of Hangria, the title would probably be “grand priest”, yet this has yet to happen in Hangria’s history.

## Religion

As stated before, Hangria is pan-theological. What this means is instead of having a single national religion; Hangria practices an extreme freedom of religion, promoting all religions as equal within the country. There are strict laws in place that enforce this equality, notably stating that while people are free to believe as they will, it is forbidden to act on those beliefs in anyway that would prosecute or harm another person.

There is, technically, a specific Hangrian ‘deity’, however since Hangria has always been a place for religious freedom it’s not quite a deity in the normal sense. Haltana, the astral messenger, is described in ancient texts as the “connector of the heavens and the earth”; and is considered to be a celestial messenger, offering connection between people and gods.

When a high priestess takes the throne, she must stand in the centre of the grand temple (explained later) and bow to all the gods, as well as Haltana. It is their duty to act as envoy of the gods historically, and while the cling of religion has slackened over the centuries, the high priestess is still meant to perform her religious duties.

## Scientific focus

While Hangria is pan-theological and has a great deal of religious importance ascribed to it’s leaders, the nation is actually one that has a focus on science - and a large one. Hangrian society heavily invests in research and technological development, and it has been this way for some time. They may not be a particular powerhouse, but they have the will and some of the infrastructure to really push the technological edge if they needed to.

You may be wondering why this is the case when the religious is so heavily incorporated into the society, and it wasn’t actually always this way. Hangria in its early days used to be completely religious based, and as a result fell behind technologically. And then along came the 7th Grand Priestess, Taia Thespyse, who recognized that a nation who stagnated technologically in a world of progression would be a nation doomed for failure, began to shift the societal focus to the pursuit of progress and understanding. This, alongside the work by her daughter Kali Thespyse - the 8th Grand Priestess - to solidify the new focus, stuck; and Hangria became focused on science and progress like it is today.

In modern day the religious side, while important culturally and historically, does sit passenger to scientific method; and while the Grand Priestess’ spiritual duties are viewed as highly important, they’re mostly ceremonial like most modern royalty.

## Organization

While the grand priestess is technically the ruler of Hangria, it has grown increasingly clear throughout the world in recent times that one person alone cannot effectively rule a modern nation. As such, there is the Hangrian council. Made up of a series of high ranking officials, the Hangrian council is the decision making force of Hangria. The regular members of the council are voted in democratically, however the grand priestess is still a curated appointment by the previous (or by the council if necessary for whatever reason). As implied just now, the grand priestess is indeed a member of the council, and does have authority to make final say on decisions; however (with most grand priestess’ since the council’s formation) this power is rarely used.

## Cultural aesthetic

Hangria has a somewhat Egyptian styling to them. And by somewhat I mean kinda heavy. For example the royal guard uniform include helmets with large metal “ears” that makes them somewhat reminiscent of some sort of Anubis-like being (shown below)

The clothing of high ranking military often come across as more spiritual than military/imperial, once again owing to the country’s deep pan-religious ties. The official dress colours of the military are black, yellow, and white.

## Military

Speaking of military, Hangrian’s armed forces are in modern days not overwhelmingly large. Hangria has seen little conflict, so their force is in a way a ceramonial force. Despite this, the technological progress strived for by the nation means their small numbers are supplemented by… I hesitate to say “advanced” technology, but high quality for it’s time.

One thing to note is that Hangria is especially small in terms of navy; however with the increasing focus on development of naval powers, the country is starting to consider making moves to bolster this.

Hangria is not eager to enter wars offensively; much preferring to be a more defensive nation militarily. The one time they decided to really go on the offense was when they joined the Great Northern War in the 18th century, and promptly decided they didn’t like that so they stopped.

I feel like I have to specify that it is still a matriarchy, so most high ranking officials are female.

## Landmarks

### The Grand Temple

Located a few dozen miles from the capital of Hangria “Gold Path”, the Grand Temple is a massive, ancient, pyramid-like structure designed to act as a megatemple to all religions. In the centre is a large statue of Haltana, however in the many halls of the Grand Temple there are statues and worship places for all sorts of other religions and deities. The Grand Temple is often considered as the true heart of Hangria, and a few centuries ago the Grand Priestess’ living place was moved to the massive religious place. Be warned any government that for whatever reason decides to take down the grand temple: if you do, Hangria’s people WILL go full maru on your ass.

## History:

211 AD: Hangria is officially founded, under the leadership of the first Grand Priestess Hatasu Pasophi. The country is much smaller as a good chunk of it’s land is currently owned by the Reman empire, but will slowly gain land over the next few centuries as the empire struggles and ultimately collapses

362 AD: The construction of the Grand Temple begins. The massive structure takes several decades to be finished

406 AD: The Grand Temple has finished construction.

525 AD: A short conflict between Hangria and the Bolish tribes began during the recession of Reman lands, lasting a few months and ending in slight loss of territory for Hangria. That said, Hangria is also taking a good deal of land from the collapsing Reman empire anyway at this time, so territory is still a net gain.

562 AD: A civil war known as the first religious schism breaks out as tensions among some of the religions that weren’t so happy just coexisting bubble over. The source of the schism is primarily ascribed to two religions - followers of Aluprinity and Eaicism. Aluprinity were a dominant religion in the lands at the time of Hangria’s founding, and it’s followers had been for a long time displeased with having to now share followship with other religions. Eaicism was new on the block, but had strict teachings of followers of other religions being heathens. It is unknown which of the two struct the other first, but the civil war started just between those two religions, before quickly spiralling out of control and dragging the whole country in. During this bloody civil war, 2 Grand Priestesses are killed.

586 AD: the first religious schism is finally ended, and laws are put in place to better enforce the coexistence of religious groups.

819 AD: War with Jabaristan breaks out over territory disputes. During the war, Celtica burns down the Grand Temple, causing the resistance from the Hangrian’s to skyrocket. While they had taken a good amount of territory prior to this, Celtica was forced back and the battle was ultimately considered a Hangrian victory despite little territory being gained.

839 AD: Rebuilding of the Grand Temple is begun

862 AD: Rebuilding of the Grand Temple is finished.

912 AD: The current (12th) Grand Priestess, Ti Xanephia, moves her residence to a specially build chamber in the upper reaches of the Grand Temple in order to continue her duties after medical complications make it hard for her to make the long travel between Gold Path and the temple. Ever since, Grand Priestesses have lived in the temple.

*A long ass period of nothing much really happening because fuck if I’m expected to write up 2000 or so years of history and have stuff going on in ALL of it.* *I may add more in future*

1450 AD: This is widely regarded as about the point where Hangrian views on the importance of religious practice begins to properly fade into simply a historical and cultural tradition rather than of particular vitality.

1472 AD: The second religious schism begins due to outrage about the current (19th) Grand Priestess, Ahit Peshishia, denying some religions she viewed as ‘problematic’ (in the case of Eaicism which was one of said religions, it was arguably right to see them as problematic; but many weren’t and the decision was still viewed as a breach of the morals and duties of a grand priestess) being allowed to be added to the Grand Temple.

1481 AD: The second religious schism ends in victory for the revolutionaries, who execute Ahit Peshishia under declaration she has forsaken the sacred duty as Grand Priestess and instate the 20st Grand Priestess, Khata Zelisa, instead. Khata allows the religions to have their gods be entered into the Grand Temple, and peace is restored

1518 AD: Khata Zelisa dies in part of a sickness that ravages the nation for about a decade. The country recovers, but it goes down as one of the darker times of Hangrian history

1602 AD: Taia Thespyse takes the throne as the 23th Grand Priestess, and begins to make major reforms to prevent the country from falling behind any further technologically as explained in the section on the scientific focus.

1624 AD: A civil war began due to the reforms put in place by Grand Priestess Taia. The war ended within the year, however Taia is killed during the conflict. Her daughter, Kali, is the one to end the civil war, and continues in her mother’s footsteps to reform the society.

1648 AD: Historians consider this the approximate point that the scientific focus was solidified and fully accepted by Hangrian society. It will take about half a century for Hangria to catch up technologically with the rest of the world.

1665 AD: Kali Thespyse dies peacefully, and alongside her mother - who collectively are regarded as the mothers of Hangrian science - are celebrated by Hangria.

1687 AD: In the light of Hangria slowly growing harder and harder to manage with a single ruler, the 23rd Grand Priestess Safiya Synyse forms the first Hangrian Council.

1712 AD: Hangria joins the conflict in the Great Northern War in order to try and increase their part on the global stage, aiding Joeson with albeit a token force as they do not have a huge military.

1724 AD: Hangria pulls out of the conflict, deciding that it wasn’t going anywhere and they didn’t want to drag themselves down in the conflict for very long

1786 AD: A university is constructed near the Grand Temple, and slowly and to this day the area has been turning into a city of it’s own; though heavy restrictions have been imposed on development of the lands for the sake of cultural preservation.

1886 AD: The 29th and current Grand Priestess, Maibe Ciriphia, is put on the throne by the Hangrian Council after the previous Grand Priestess dies in an accident. Maibe was previously a high ranking member working at the Grand Temple, and had graduated from the local university. All things regarded, she looks to be a hopeful candidate for a good leader for Hangria.

## Doc link

You can find all the information for Hangria in the below google doc link, until I get around to actually spending the time making a full size wiki page for it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fc1cnaIzseh3ZJLftF2wmcBy4b02RHB0KhfgYRuSEy8/edit?usp=sharing