New Canciona

Not to be confused with Republica des Canciones Molestas or Canciona.

New Canciona is a benevolent dictatorship to the north of Occidentalis, which split off from the RCM during The Scourge. It is a member of the Homaric Alliance, and has plans to become a leading figure in the development of aviation.

It was formed in late 1908, CCRP years; or 8 January 2022, real time. New Canciona has a lot in common with the RCM; most differences are due to the change in location.



Players
The country is owned by @Tolkienfan, who rejoined Country Clash after months' inactivity but did not wish to regain control of her original country, the RCM (which is now owned by @Pixelation-Creations, and temporarily being controlled by @Fictia).

History
New Canciona split off from Republica des Canciones Molestas during The Scourge. It was the result of an uprising in the north of the country, where victims of the Scourge were attempting to break into the RCM. The uprising was led by Lady Nicholas Cangrejo, who appealed to Fictia for land in which to start a new country that would be unaffected by the governances of the RCM. Fictia gifted her a small island to the north of its main territories. This has resulted in a de facto alliance between the two nations.

Despite such a beginning, New Canciona is officially allied with the RCM. This is only partly to do with the RCM's membership in the Homaric Alliance.

Resources
Currently, the country is so new that it has not had time to build proper industry yet. Their land has been gifted with a wealth of food commodities, and has coastal waters abounding in fish. This effectively makes the nation self-sufficient in food supplies.

As part of the Homaric Alliance, New Canciona has access to resources of all other members in exchange for generous provision of its own. It has plans to buy ships from Humerland, and also wishes to begin an aviation industry. The nation has built Cangrejo Aviation Research Centre, which has an airstrip, but the Centre is largely undeveloped and under-resourced as the industry has not yet officially begun.

Exploration
New Canciona wishes to send exploration missions to the north and west of the map as soon as it has a fleet, and to colonise any land it may find. It is under obligation to return its current occupied land to Fictia in the event that there is indeed land to the west, as Fictia will require the land for strategic reasons; however, New Canciona only requires the land if there is no land to the west. Therefore, the arrangement suits both countries perfectly.

The country has a philosophy of only investing a lot of money in really important things, and merely making do with what will do the job for everything else. This philosophy manifested itself in its decision to buy outdated frigates from Humerland for their exploration.

Impact on industry plans
The country has officially decided not to commence research and production of aircraft until their first exploration mission has returned. Other countries have assumed this was because aviation currently has such a small impact on military that it's not worth developing yet; however, Lady Cangrejo has been quoted as explaining that "I'm mainly waiting because if there's going to turn out to be a western continent, I don't want to build a dirty great factory floor here only to abandon it later".

Response to The Scourge pandemic
Since the main reason why New Canciona split off from the RCM was concern about The Scourge, the nation has taken biosecurity seriously. Being an island state, they are able to lock down without any major impact on the country; the only precautionary measure necessary was constructing an offshore quarantine dock for incoming ships, which is a compulsory stopping point.

See also Big Fungus.

Culture
The author apologises for going overboard in descriptions of culture, but wants to leave them in anyway.

New Canciona's culture is very similar to that of the RCM (as recorded before the RCM was given to @Pixelation-Creations). The culture is inspired by third-world, capitalist Latin American countries.

Naming conventions
Pixelation-Creations established a cultural detail stating that in the RCM, male children inherit their mother's first name and their father's last name, and female children inherit their father's first name and mother's last name. Hence General Isabella Gamba is a man, and Lady Nicholas Cangrejo is a woman. Tolkienfan continued this tradition in New Canciona as it is entertaining.

As with Humerlandic names of locations, New Cancionish last names are often related to crustaceans. 'Cangrejo', for instance, is Spanish for 'crab'.

Religion
The two main religions of New Canciona are pastafarianism and Coming of the Great Star Lobsterism. The latter is the belief that in the distant past, a huge star-dwelling crustacean attempted to eat the solar system but was discouraged by prayers to the Great Nephrops (see the state religion of Humerland). One day it will return to eat the entire universe. Other religions are tolerated but discouraged.

National dish
As with the RCM, New Canciona's national dish is 'cangrejo hervido en salsa Pepsi Max dos horas y servido en baguette', more commonly known as 'crab boiled in Pepsi Max for two hours and served in a baguette'. It is served on special occasions.

Festivale de la explosion de los oidas
Also known as 'Festival of the Exploding Eardrums.

This is the most popular event of the year- especially with sellers of hearing protection, who do a roaring trade for months beforehand and afterwards. During the day, a parade of learner musicians line up in no particular order and march through the streets at random while playing their instrument as loudly as they can. Typically no two musicians will be playing the same tune. None of them will have played ther instrument in public before, and some won't have played it at all. These musicians can make a lot of money out of participating, as spectators will pay them to stop. In the evening, families will play loud music long into the night to see how long it takes for a neighbour to ask the local constabulary to arrest them.

Festival de la Langoster Estrella Gigante
Also known as the Festival of the Giant Star Lobster.

The chief event of the festival is the Star Lobster Parade, where a giant papier mache lobster is carried down the streets by civic authorities. Citizens feed it seafood, meat and alchohol to appease its wrath against the solar system. At the end of the parade it is ceremonially burned on a bonfire. An ancient Cancionish law states that all pubs do business for free during the festival, which makes it very popular.