Empherias

the High Kingdom of Empherias, (Empheri:, Exteras: ), commonly known as Empherias , is a nation in the Ewynnia region of east Alaxia. It has been a constituent country of the greater High Kingdoms of Alaxia since 2448. It is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, but the monarchy plays little to no part to politics in Empherias, living in Kiavalar and Esperiy.

The country's population is approximately 70 million. The true number of Emphers are unknown as there are many living in Empherias who haven't fully immigrated or assimilated, and there are many ex-patriots living in other countries, particularly in other High Kingdoms members, and the International City which hosts around 130,000 Empherians. It borders the Kingdom of Karkuss to the west, Koresa and Ahitereira in the northwest, Grensalbourg and Palakkinen in the east, and the Hveden Federation in both the north and south.

Since 2488, the nation has been ruled by Prime Minister Lucy King as leader of the People's Socialist Party, which runs as a subsidiary of the larger Red Bloq party that runs nationally in High Kingdoms' elections. Lucy King has won the previous 3 elections: those being 2491, 2495, and 2499. She intends to run in the next election, rumoured to be in 2503. On top of these, the Socialists also won the 2487 election with the former leader, Alistair Walker. Before these socialist successes, the nation was run by the Empherian Liberal Party (who are now the largest opposition party) under beloved Prime Minister, Scarlett May.

Geography
Empherias is a relatively small country, located on the southern flank of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. By surface land area, Empherias occupies 1,353,583 km2, making it the 31st largest country in the world. It is often misattributed at being a large nation (although only the 3rd largest in the HKA) due to the distortion of the globe in a map projection. The country is relatively diverse in biomes, primarily dominated by mixed forests in its lowlands around the Ewynn Valley and vast swathes of Taiga in its highlands. To the north, the country occupies a portion of the massive Grensalbourg Volcanic Field, which forms large fractures or dikes resulting in relatively steep valleys around its margins. Otherwise, the country is not geologically active at all, with sparse seismic activity near its highlands. The country is split between the Kaarad-Tbek Mountains and Eastern Durbinian Mountains, which share a similar geology though the Ewynn cuts through the two ranges. Empherias is generally mild, with frostless winters throughout much of the country and cool summers everywhere.

The largest city in terms of population is the capital, Wynnoa with a population of approximately 9 - 11 million people. It is located in the south central region on the river Ewynn. The river also sits on the bank of many other cities, such as the second largest city of Esthullen. Rommes is the third largest city, but is rivalled more recently by the much faster growing city of Gateshaven, the largest port city in the nation. Vreimer has traditionally acted as an important trading hub with the rest of the High Kingdoms and has maintained a spot as the fifth most populated. Rhequons is a traditional large city which remains the seat of many company institutions but has declined more recently to be just the eleventh most populated. Other famous cities include: Nieuwbourg, an exclave that is surrounded by the sea and Koresa and is a large port city; and Mertens, which has the lowest crime rate for any large cities.

Climate
Empherias' climate is diverse, ranging from relatively mild to extremely cold in certain areas. Snowy winters typically dominate throughout the southern half of the country, though the lowlands and north rarely ever experience freezing conditions.

Queer rights
The rights of queer people across the country has been more widespread and accepted than other countries in the world. The native Sisinic peoples that inhabited the lands were generally more accepting of fringe ideas and thus ideas such as non binary identities weren't ridiculed and socially accepted, although they never grasped widespread popularity to the slow nature of moving media and a lack of general interest.

Lesbian and gay rights
People who did not stick to regular heteronormative relationships were not ever deemed lesser throughout Empherias for most of it's history. However, through later centuries, some upper classes were inspired more by other cultures and so the practice wasn't deemed illegal nor wrong, but not given benefits in law. Homosexual marriages were not permitted initially and violence against them became more and more pronounced throughout the twenty-third century. By the 2300s, the practice had gained an underground movement and by 2318 had it's first openly homosexual establishment. The rest of the century saw many new pushes for gay and lesbian people to be treated better, bisexuality became more popular, and homosexual marriage was made legal in the early 2400s under Prime Minister Felix D'laminet.

Transgender rights
It has always been generally accepted that some people would change genders in society. Some people of the opposite sex would do stereotypical things of the opposite sex, such as going by a different name or wearing different clothing, and it was not looked down upon. Although violence grew against these people in the 2200s with the emergence of Anternian ideals and family values, there were never any legislation brought to limit them. Certain sects of intelligentsia were actually fascinated by the possibility of changing genders and sex, and the exploration of non-binary identities - these group throughout the 2300s with the re-emergence of good sentiment towards the queer community.

Sex change operations were attempted throughout the late 2300s and early 2400s although medical technology of the time did see some patients die as a result. There was legislation levied by the Conservative government of 2391 to implement measures to prevent deaths by requiring certain prerequisites for patients and doctors to go through first, although this law would later be repealed in 2403 by the Populist government.

Currently, the law dictates that in order to start the process of changing sexes, the person must be diagnosed with gender dysphoria after meeting and being approved by a psychiatrist, and must be at least 18 years old. The process of hormone therapy would be heavily monitored with blood tests and constant review by doctors and psychiatrists. A person can legally change their sex on their birth certificate as soon as they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. All surgeries are down to the individual on whether they want to take it and most are covered by free healthcare. For some select surgeries requiring hormone therapy prior, and have major post-surgery care, they will consult with their doctors as needed.

For children, direct cross sex hormones are not permitted to be given under the age of 16. Between the ages of 16 and 18, a similar process is used as the adult but more intervention is taken by psychiatrists than usual and the parents are included in the discussion. Children below the age of 16 may be given puberty blockers, of which their effects are reversible, with psychiatric and doctor approval. As defended by the Socialist government in 2497, the PM Lucy King defended having more safeguards in measure to ensure certainty that this is the option the individual wants to pursue, but not too slow that it causes irreversible trauma and damage to their mental health.

Law and Criminal justice
Local courts would, as usual, take on all types of court cases. Certain levels of appeal would bring the case up and up. The highest court in Empherias is the High Court of Empherias with 7 chief justices. However, the High Court can be overruled, or appealed to, the Supreme Court of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia, with it's 15 chief justices.

Media
Over the last few years, many more leisure magazines, such as fashion or sports magazines have began selling extremely well, more so than many national newspapers. It is predicted that these magazines will have huge cultural impacts. For example, the Rechtjucke Magazine created a massive trend starting in 1932 for women to wear shorter and shorter skirts that has now spread nationwide with no indication of the trend slowing down. Magazines also created a massive boost in popularity for Football, with the sport overtaking the number of fencing clubs, the national sport in early 1934. Magazines will surely have a huge influence over our culture.

Football

 * See also: Empherias in Football and Empherias Football Club

The most popular sport in Empherias is football, however this hasn't always been the case. Fencing, now the second most popular sport, had held an iron grip over the nation in terms of popularity for centuries as a symbol of the culture. This domination quickly crashed down following the standardisation of football in Ahitereira, and the big culture crossover. Empherias' success early on in the High Kingdoms Football Cup and the GPA World Cup, and it's abundance in media, led to a quick takeover from Fencing to this more engaging sport. Other top sports in Empherias include Hockey, Cricket, and Skiing.

Empherias has been very successful in Football. It's football confederation was founded in early 2418. It's first international match was with Grensalbourg on 9th March 2420 but the majority of interest during this period came from the interior leagues within the nation. Empherian teams played in Ahitereiran football leagues from 2419 until 2472. It has hosted the High Kingdoms Football Cup three times, and has won the tournament on five occasions (2470, 2472, 2490, 2494, and 2496). They scored a victory consecutively two different times. The team have never come in last place. They have won the biggest victory award 6 times (2468, 2470, 2472, 2490, 2494, and 2496) with the largest of these being their 11-2 victory over Koresa in 2470. They also received the top scorer award 5 times, every time simultaneously with winning the whole event. Alex Rhommel, Harry Heron and James Maguire have each won this award once, with Mikael Rettz winning the award twice (2490 and 2494) which puts him in a second-place-tie for the person with the most top scoring awards (being tied with Miqel Davi from Ahitereira, and being beaten out by Holimer Siva from Ahitereira with a record 6 awards).

Other Sports
Fencing is a very popular sport, mainly due to it's tradition routes and link to culture. Every two years there is the Fencing Competitive Championships but these gain low viewership on television. Fencing is more predominately popular for use in schools and passive activities, rather than competitive or television play. There is no official set of rules, but guidelines produced by school curriculums. It was introduced by an old monarch to get children to learn sword fighting at a young age to gear them for war, but has since became a staple of the culture. When more modern laws were introduced and new war technology outdated the use of swords, fencing became popular through duels and young publications. Many film choreographers hire individuals from Empherias to help learn and teach the moves of traditional fencing to make movie fighting more accurate.

Hockey, Cricket and Skiing enjoy a comfy minority as a sport. Hockey is showcased at the Hockey World Cup held every 3 years, and the Empherias Hockey League held annually. Viewership is relatively low but the finals are viewed by as many as some of the most popular TV shows. Cricket isn't a very popular sport on TV and like fencing is mainly played in schools. There is no major cricket league in Empherias, but they do compete and do well in the Cricket World Cup held every 2 years. Skiing is not very popular in terms of television popularity, but is often played by people going on holiday to the mountainous south or east and trying the sport. Empherias also have a great showing in the Skiing segment of the Olympics.

Fashion
Fashion may vary considerably according to age, social class, generation and occupation. There have also been waves of popular fashion often characterised by decades and styles. Empherians have a vast number of choices in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect his or her personality or interests. When people who have high cultural status start to wear new or different styles, they may inspire a new fashion trend. People who like or respect these people are influenced by their style and begin wearing similarly styled clothes. It can be argued that Wynnoa is the fashion capital of not only Empherias, but the High Kingdoms of Alaxia, or even the entirety of Alaxia.

Tailors and dressmakers were responsible early on for innovations, while magazines, books, and later television have huge impact on sales and therefore trends in fashion. Major clothing stores in Empherias include: Merigold's, Enrommes, Leseker, Heinrettes, Kaia Kyte, and Augereau.

Women's
There are many fashion magazines that well extremely well which have large cultural impacts into fashion, especially women's fashion. For example, the Rechtjucke magazine created a massive trend for women to wear shorter skirts such as mini-skirts in the early 2430s which has continued until the modern era today.

One of the current trends is a feminisation of men fashion and a revival of older fashion. Flared and breasted trouser suits are gaining popularity in black, navy blue, purple, pink, grey, cream and tartan. Blazers and suit jackets have also peaked in popularity alongside pencil and mini skirts. Traditionally feminine clothing like maxi and gingham dresses also spiked in popularity. Tights, mainly black or white, are commonly used in formal wear.

National symbols
There are various national symbols of Empherias in terms of colours, landmarks, and regular symbols, although many are not official. Prominent colours in representing the nation include the flag colours of red, white, and blue, alongside gold in the royal standard. Pink is also sometimes correlated with the nation. The sport of fencing saw the prominence of swords in national symbolism, with butterflies or fairies also being popular folk creatures. Therefore, some works of fiction have seen fairies holding swords as popular tropes named Fyzwaards. Dolphins are the national animal. Rivers, mountains, and the northern volcanic fields, and the valleys are often symbols representing the physical geography of the nation - the river Ewynn more specifically. Sometimes, the colour red and more especially the ideas of socialism or progressivism are associated with Empherias and the wider 2395 revolution. Sometimes, alongside other High Kingdom nations, the idea of peerages and nobility is also associated.