Esmon

*This was actually an amalgamation of multiple flags I thought were pretty. Some or all elements may be off-center, but they're not intended to be.*

## Overview

Esmon is a country on Evis, located on the Wonovellian-Esmonese landmass and sharing its western border with the country of Wonovell. It serves as sort of a counter to Myalis; Esmon is known for being very fast paced and rapidly advancing technology. It has a population of 1.4 billion people, making it the most populated country on Evis. Esmon's capital is Grandis, though the largest city is Lyri.

## Culture and government

Esmon is a direct democracy, in which the people vote directly on almost every proposed policy. The people who hold and oversee these elections and count the votes are also elected.

Esmon is characterized as a rather technocratic, even semi-dystopian, society, with computers, smart technology and AI playing a major role in day-to-day life for most Esmonese. Privacy invasion, particularly by government and data companies, is a concern in Esmon- however many Esmonese look more at the convenience aspects of these intrusions as opposed to their diminishing privacy. The ones that do bring up how much power tech companies have are usually viewed as crackpots and conspiracy theorists at best, or punished for attempting to incite fear and panic at worst.

## Trivia and miscellaneous facts

### "Bloody Hell, My Eyes"

Esmon’s largest city, Lyri, has a downtown district that is known world-wide for its bright, garish colors and extreme amounts of neon lights. Though officially simply called “Downtown Lyri”, or “Lights Acre” by the locals, the area has gained a different nickname, particularly used by Wonovellians and Myalians especially: “the Bloody Hell My Eyes district”. This derisive nickname comes from what one traveler from Myalis, visiting Esmon on vacation, had to say about the area in a review of Lyri on Travel-Q (sort of like Evis’s equivalent of Yelp or TripAdvisor). He didn’t write favorably about Lyri at all, going on to say, “...and for the iconic downtown area that my guide talked up into oblivion, I only have this to say: BLOODY HELL, MY EYES. There was such an overabundance of rainbow lights and electronic screens on everything, that you could feel the heat from them standing near buildings, not to mention the pain from my head and eyes rejecting this nightmare of color.” This epithet for the area stuck after the review went viral, especially becoming popular in Wonovell (where the most Travel-Q users live) and Myalis (many of whom have an unfavorable opinion of Esmon anyway). Although a good portion of Esmonese find referring to downtown Lyri as the “Bloody Hell My Eyes” district offensive, viewing it as an insult to one of the most beloved areas in all of Lyri- most of them will either not say anything or sort of laugh it off.

* This meme spawned the BHME Challenge, which involved people (typically Wonovellian teenagers) going into downtown Lyri and screaming “Bloody hell, my eyes!” as loudly as possible, and cowering whilst covering their eyes, or showing other extreme reactions. Another variation involves putting stickers that read “Bloody hell, my eyes” on things like light poles, benches, etc. without getting caught.
* Perhaps the most famous stunt related to this challenge involved one still-unidentified individual hacking into an electronic billboard in downtown Lyri and writing “Bloody Hell, My Eyes!!!” on it. The message stayed up for almost 5 hours before the owners of the sign finally fixed it and changed it back to normal, during which time countless videos and photos were circulated around the Internet.

### Other trivia

* Esmon is the largest consumer of electricity on Evis, due to how many electronics are used in day-to-day life by Esmonese people.