Country indexes for fantasy nations

[Ban]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen.

I, Banten, the slightly overzealous worldbuilder have found another way to flesh out my main fantasy world. Currently I am going through the process of writing a brief summary of the political structure of each of the countries within this world. The format that I use goes like this:

-country name:
-Provinces/client states:
-Capital:
-Largest City:
-Official Language:
-National Language:
-Demonym:
-Government form:
-Executive branch:
-legislative branch:
-judicial branch:
-monetary branch
-military branch
Legislature
-Upper house
-Lower house
-Head of state:
-Head of government:
-State Relgious body:

-Currency:
-Religion:
-Ethnic groups:

-Establishment of country:
-Area:
-Population:

-Anthem:
-National holidays:

-Important laws:
-example: Legality of slavery



*Not all of these are applicable for each country and in one of the two country indexes that I have written, the executive/military/judicial/monetary branches are all subservient to the legislative branch.

*The world is not set in a real-world time period. I believe the presence of magic would prevent that from happening. This world has nationstates, modern ideologies, radio technology and early trains, but guns, modern medicine and knowledge on advanced science is scarce at best. Therefore the suggestions can range from anything between fuedal to 20th century government type.



I would really appreciate some suggestions on interesting styles of government and more important laws that I should quickly mention in these indexes. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ban]

I'll provide some countries to play around with.

1. Crossing the sea of a thousand isles you will come across an island of sawas, temples and mango trees. Here the people are short and hairy and live as long as over two lifetimes. These people wield magic with unsettling ease. Luckily they prefer to use it for warming up tea and growing food than for war. This peaceful mindset carries over to their government which is fully run by the clergy unopposed.

2. If you travel much further overseas, you will strand upon a land of eternal twilight. Mangroves and jungles dominate most of the land, only disturbed many miles in between by small towns and tribes. However on the coast lay 2 ancient cities, which have grown into bustling metropolises. Each of these cities has its own elected king and both kings convene multiple times per year in a great national council. The culture of this nation is a vague mix of south-east asian and pacific islander cultures.


If you have an idea for a system that would fit either of these countries, please tell me.

 

[Malik]

I do a PMESII-PT / ASCOPE crosswalk for each of mine. Of course.

 

[Ban]

I do a PMESII-PT / ASCOPE crosswalk for each of mine. Of course.

Not as much of an "of course" as you might think. I have never heard of this system before.
Thanks Malik.

 

[TheKillerBs]

I had never heard of that one, either. I've been using a rather abbreviated version of the Zaharam-Chapelle-Parunas Ethnographical Questionnaire (as in, I write a brief blurb under each category that answers the questions I feel are most relevant to the culture instead of trying to answer each question).

 

[Malik]

By "of course" I mean it's a military thing. And most of us in the military sigh and shake our heads when the briefer starts talking PMESII-PT/ASCOPE because we know the next twenty minutes are going to feel about five years long.

 

[Devor]

By "of course" I mean it's a military thing. And most of us in the military sigh and shake our heads when the briefer starts talking PMESII-PT/ASCOPE because we know the next twenty minutes are going to feel about five years long.

Boring or not that system looks really useful, and everyone reading this should at least google it.

 

[Malik]

Boring or not that system looks really useful, and everyone reading this should at least google it.

It is insanely useful. It's also exhausting. You usually have a handful of junior soldiers who do nothing but update that bastard all day every day, too, because it's a living document. I've seen hardcopy crosswalks done on plotters that took up an entire wall.

And you never, ever, brief it. Ever. You might mention something that came up from the PMESII/ASCOPE team this week -- a new president, say -- but you're never supposed to take someone through the whole thing.

 

[WooHooMan]

I generally don't dig questionnaires or profile things for defining anything fictional, including countries. I find they're usually insufficient.

For example, with your profile thing, I have a country whose government has an audit branch but no judiciary branch or state religion. I also have a country that, more or less, doesn't fit into any known government structures (which is by design)
And the issue with questionnaires should be obvious. I tend to answer most of the questions with "not applicable" or "who cares?" while leaving-out important information.

So, basically, I'm no use to this thread. I'm not even sure why I'm here. Just bored, I guess.

 

[skip.knox]

As a medievalist, I snort in derision at such schema! <derision>*snort*</derision>

On a more serious note (E flat), this scheme presumes modern nation-states. That's cool if you are intending to set your fantasy in a nation-state. But it can lead to a governmental scheme that is really out of place with lots of quasi-medieval worlds.

On an even more serious note (B flat, obviously), one way to create interesting nuances and unexpected variations in a quasi-medieval world is to do exactly the above. So if you want to use the template, go for it!

 

[Ban]

Woohooman and skip.knox, I would normally agree with you that this sort of scheme isn't applicable to most fantasy governments, especially feudal ones. However, because this world is set in a timeperiod very roughly equivalent to the 19th century, I would say that most countries within my world would have developed a full nation-state. Nation-states in our world typically opt for some form of division of powers, so the system would mostly work. I will likely change the template to the above mentioned PMESII/ASCOPE scheme, though.

On a side note, how do you summarize your countries? Do you just write a short(ish) description or do you just keep it in your head. I would assume the latter could work for most stories, but mine is focused on politics, so this is a must

 

[skip.knox]

FWIW, I deliberately do not think in terms of countries. I have kingdoms, republics, cantons, duchies, one empire, tribes, etc. I do it deliberately to force myself to wander off the main paths in terms of political relationships--rivalries and alliances, mainly. I figure if I can keep myself off balance, looking in unexpected places, maybe I can do the same with my readers.

 

[WooHooMan]

On a side note, how do you summarize your countries? Do you just write a short(ish) description or do you just keep it in your head. I would assume the latter could work for most stories, but mine is focused on politics, so this is a must

Depends on the country, really. I have a chart for the one I mentioned that has an audit branch. Then I have a paragraph for the other one I mentioned.
I wrote a fantasy-political thriller a while ago and for that country, I used a spreadsheet.