Mapetra

The nation of Mapetra is a completely sea based nation located in the very westmost of Eldham with Aristios and Florandia to its west and Andor, Lechja, Anglunia, and Bagrat to its east. It’s capital is Pespetri located in the very middle of the sea.

Forgotten period
Long ago, time so ancient that history has turned to myth, there once was a great island empire. It was a grand kingdom with lands stretching far and its coffers full, but its people soon took to decentness and arrogance. So proud and foolish they had become they spat at the gods and only spoke of their greatness. As their evil grew the waves soon threatened to destroy them, only the still faithful, the still pure foresaw this great catastrophe. When the sea came to swallow them all, their once great cities were left to ruin, the waves scraping what left. Only those still faithful were saved, huddled in a temple made for their God.

The survivors of the catastrophe became the Mer, and took up residence of what was left of their great empire. Instead of water surrounding the temple, the sea just suddenly stopped, leaving great water walls on the edge of the area. Sea floor was all that could be found in the place they know called home, only the temple itself and the tiny ruins dotting the area to mix up the landscape. Without any real access to any resources and the knowledge to make most technology lost, with the death of so many people, the Mer devolved into a hunter gather group jumping into the sea to hunt for food and making the great rift in the sea their home. They lived a happy and peaceful existence for a untold time.

This period would eventually end however. With the discovery of Eldham many explores came from Rathnir, coming in hopes to find new land to claim for their father state or simply to explore its unknown reaches. One such explorer group was a group of men hailing from haven managed by sheer chance to find the home of the Mer. With only one lost vessel, the explorers made contact with the Mer. The Mer treated the explores as great quests out of mix of fear and excitement caused by there presence. They talked with and feasted of them telling stories of their travels but quickly enough the explores realized all they desired to hear was there homeland. They told stories, of great wars between great empires and the life of its people. They eventually left, saying farewell to the Mer. And in their wake a once dead empire was reborn.

Reconstruction Period
This time period would be defined by a flurry of decisions, conflicts, and development. For many of the Mer, the reestablishment of contact with the outside world brought many mixed feelings. So long had they lived in peace, playing in the sand and hunting for sport, safe from all the worries and tribulations that contact with other civilizations brought. Yet here they were, spending thousands of untold years doing nothing. The outsiders, the land dwellers, they were goliaths to them, capable of such beauty and destruction they can had only imagined in tales of old. They felt shame, here they were, the chosen of Angility and yet they were mere children to these people. Fear, they could destroy their way of live in a instant if they so desired. Hope, so long they have been left to their devices, now they could finally proves themselves. Maybe this is what She had planned? Already had she gifted them wisdom, could this be a sign that She deemed the ready? Glory, oh so great glory, lost so long ago could be gifted once again. For days the only thing on the mind of the Mer were what was to be.

A conference was eventually held by no one else the Queen of the Mer. Long ago when the Mer had crawled out of the remains of temple to remains of their once great kingdom, they had appointed one amongst them to lead them. But everyone knew the king had only been a formality, having no much more authority then any Mer, at best acting as a peace keeper. But she first led to the discussion and the leaders of Mer gathered agued and discussed for hours, even days. Legends say that one speaker dropped dead on the spot after being at one meeting for three days straight without sleep or break. Though through all the talking it was deemed most important first to make a government to lead their people. The Queen at the time had led the discussion and did a admirable coordinating the event, and so speakers made a plan. Those who had spoke at the meeting and won the hearts of the people would run the government. The Queen would then be challenged with coordinating the meetings where they would discuss matters and handle any other responsibilities like appointing other roles in government. On the final of these lengthy talks, they all came together and created the Constitution of Mapetra, finally birthing the nation seen today.

After the government was figured out, its growth and development took center stage. This is when the reconstruction really began, as Mer explorers were sent out to establish formal contact with any civilization nearby. When contact was made, either deals were struck and either resourced or men were acquired or volunteers came willingly came to help, usually in hopes of starting a new life in the fledgling nation. When enough iron was gained with the little gold they still held from the olden days, they immediately got to work mining for more resources to pay for more workers and resources or to directly be used for the nations development. A untold variety of specialties were needed and acquired, from farmers to governors, architects to generals, teachers to bankers. Everyone was needed and instrumental. And to make sure Mer culture still stayed in tact and any newcomers didn't get any funny ideas, a bit more work and funding then all else was put into the military, training native Mer and equipping them. While a mostly peaceful time conflicts did arise, pirate attacks, revolts and a failed coup. But through all the turmoil Mapetra grew. A culture with almost nothing to its name became so much more, with industry, culture, and power. They had done it. They had found Glory.

Infancy
Mapetra was created 6/4/2021 by Crescent_Moth originally intended to be a Paloro colony. With having found no islands within eldham on the very first day of the Eldham and the mapping of eldham not yet finished, Crescent_Moth eventually found a sea temple on their travels and decided to use the temple as a jumping start for a colony. After having plenty of trouble starting the nation, struggling to just carve the inner temple itself, he was able to enlist the help of JoushTLincoln from Paloro. With the help and and encouragement of JoshuaTLincoln and occasional help from Snek_Sounds another citizen from Paloro, they managed to clear the inside of the temple, create a functional farm, and drain a sizable circle around the temple. During and after the job was done Crescent_Moth became more and more interested with simply creating their own nation, giving it a name and creating a entire constitution. When finished with the draining and giving its own name (Alterra at the time) Crescent_Moth and JoshuaTLincoln held a meeting with the council of Paloro, asking for independence which was granted without much trouble.

With the nation know independent and groundwork created, Crescent_Moth deemed the nation ready for advertisement and began recruiting members. With very little room within the soul city they owned, the three of them agreed they needed to make more room for potential future citizens. Therefore a month long effort was enacted, where the original three, random citizens, and some palorans would help excavate a large cavern underneath the sea temple that acted as the sole structure within the city (there was a house but it was tiny). Most of the work was done by Crescent_Moth with different people pitching in occasionally over time. While this was going Crescent_Moth was able to recruit new citizens, the very second citizen every recruited being TissueIceCream who would go on to create Novum_Momont almost immediately after joining. Crescent_Moth was also able to recruit other citizens, one of the most important being BrunoVK.

Close to when the cavern was finished Crescent_Moth promoted BrunoVK to Head Architect after seeing his amazing building skills. With this enacted BrunoVK made a concise effort to improve the structure and buildings of Mapetra. BrunoVK would quickly construct the caverns, a beautiful large cave with water falls and ponds dotting the area and he would then create houses within the cavern that were also of great quality. This would be a great boon as a new stoneworks video was released recently and there was a great boom of new citizens within Mapetra, numbering around 7. With that finished BrunoVK would drain more land surrounding Pespetri the capital of Mapetra and construct the Fort, a well designed fortress on a island, designed to expel any attackers that dared attack Mapetra. He would finally focus on the top of Pespetri and creating farms, houses, and important structures like the library and town hall. This would mark the end of infancy era as the population has reached the total of 30 and many new structures and writings were created submitting Mapetren culture.

Government
The government is split into three powers with varying authority. (this a repeat of information from the constitution, if you would like more information you can read it here.

The royalty are two important positions given out by the King. There is the Lord commander who controls the military and has the responsibility of heading any military conflicts and managing the military. Their job is to protect the nation of Mapetra and do whatever to ensure that (within reason). The head architect will act as head builder having jurisdictions over any constructions in any city, planning cities, and creating new constructions. Their job is trying to make the city of Mapetra as beautiful and functional as possible.

The odigia are the elected politicians of the people and handle law making. Odigia get their position only through the consent of the people and their voting in. Every two month a election will be held and if they get majority support a politician will get the position on the Odigia council. Any citizen can become an Odigia by becoming a candidate and running for office. The odigia control all law making and have regular meetings to decide on matters of importance. Meetings will end when 2/3 of the assembly agree on a matter or a timer of one hour ends

The king is the face of the government and is only passed down through succession. The king acts as a mediator during meetings and as the face of the country. During meetings the king will act like the speaker of the house. They will direct the discussion and try to make sure the meetings runs smoothly and arguments are kept to a minimum. If the Odigia cant decided on a matter before the timer ends, the king will put in their own vote to end a tie. If the decision cant still be made then whatever point the king agreed with is the decision.

Culture
For all their achievements, ancient past, an supposid mystical origins, Mapetrens live mostly normal lives. They create families, go to work, eat or buy from a shop, and maybe go to the library for a nice novel to read, and even go to homes with modern sensibilities. What really separates them as a culture like any other is their values, freedom, progress, and pride.

Even with having a king since the very beginning of their existence, mapetrens or really the Mer have always put value on the individuals say and needs. The government was created to serve the people primarily and allow for their say within the nation. This can even be reflected in their religion Bathysian that is based on developing one's own beliefs and knowledge. Which leads to the value of progress.

While importance and reverence is put into the past like many nations and people, the further development and prospering of the nation as a whole has a lot more importance than the past. This mostly comes from the reconstruction period where the Mer went through a grueling period of fast paced modernization and development within an area that previously was nothing more than sand and tribesmen. The rapid modernization of the Mapetra left Mapetrens with a great appreciation for progress and a great drive to continue to push the nation to its best. This history of growing above themselves and becoming something more left them with great pride.

Pride for the people, the history, and nation is ingrained within Mapetren culture greatly. While never as destructive as some elven or human arrogance that goes as far as genocidal, the pride that Mapetrens have developed while deserved, is still a problem many see within the nation. While Mapetrens are welcoming of any people to join their nation (quite actually being the opposite and over encouraging), anyone they perceive as an outsider is treated almost as a child. While never directly hostile, many visitors to Mapetra have talked of Mapetrens usually leaving passive aggressive comments on their culture and people, and their own superiority. This is as far as it will go almost always but this does not win Mapetra popularity awards.

Races
Mer make the dominant group of Mapetra, making up over 71% of the population in Mapetra, humans being second with 15% of the population, the last 14% is made up of different smaller race groups not large enough to make a full dent in the statistics. Mer are the ancestral creators of Mapetra therefire allowing for their disproportionate share of the population. The humans being the most common race in eldham help their share in the population but many humans also originally migrated to Mapetra during the reconstruction period, giving them a head start and better stake within the nation. All other races are simply to small to make a their own identity within the statistics but that does not mean they have made their own impact on the nation.

Religion
Almost all Mapetrens believe in Bathysian being the state religion. Bathys believe in a patheonic religion where the head god is Angilty the omnipotent creator and mother of all of life. The other gods are her offspring all playing different roles in the grand cosmos. All the gods represent different aspects of life and ideas with the greatest of them representing over encompassing concepts of existence.

Cities
Pespetri: The capital of the nation and birthplace of its people. The city holds a special place in the hearts of the mapetren people. The cities architecture is mix of what is known as traditional and modern. Traditional architecture is usually used for places of importance and is usually fashioned to resemble to the Temple, the first real structure of mapetren culture. Modern is usually divorced from trying to resemble older architecture and wouldn't look out of place if put anywhere else. The main attraction of city being the temple, a ancient structure that dominates the landscape and the great cavern, a natural wonder found during mining expedition and now fashioned into a beautiful living space.

Novum_Momont: Novum_Momont is a wonderfully built artificial cityscape built into the ocean. Instead of being made by some goddess, Novum Momont was created by a architect Cream hailing from a far gone land. When the home city of Pespetri was getting close to be considered cramp, the strange green abomination of nature that frightened many onlookers, offered to build a new city if offered ownership of the city. The government agreed and managed to create the architectural wonder of Novum Momont. The city is made up of different rooms and building all connected through stone tubes with glass windows, allowing citizens to watch sea life move around them.