Post by Nearly Headless Mandee on Aug 9, 2012 23:02:25 GMT -5
[/u] - While this can mean literal house, it can also refer to the land mass that belongs to a nation. This term is most often used with nations speaking to other nations, because of the confusions that could easily arise from the terminology. Then again, it would look awfully strange if a nation referred to an entire land mass as their house in front of a human anyway, so perhaps that's another reason why. =PThis will be a glossary of sorts, of terms that are frequently used in both Hetalia canon and site canon. It may also function as an FAQ, and new items may be added as need be. With that said...THE LIST!
Boss - Refers to the leader in charge of a nation, or the head of state. So, in layman's terms, people like Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, Queens, Emperors, Dictators, etc. We are aware that some countries have more than one of the aforementioned items. For example, Great Britain has both a Queen and a Prime Minister, and Russia has both a President and Prime Minister. In this case, choose the one that has the most power in government. In Great Britain's case, this would be the Prime Minister. In Russia's case, this would be the President.
Some examples - Alfred/America's boss is Barack Obama, Matthew/Canada's boss is Stephen Harper, and Ivan/Russia's boss is Vladimir Putin.
House/Place
An example - Matthew likely has an actual house (or more), but this RP, taking place in Prince Edward Island, takes place at Matthew's house - The land mass of Canada.
Illnesses - Nations, for the most part, appear to be immune to normal human illnesses. Even if a human sneezes right into their face, they aren't going to contract a cold from it. The very rare exception to this is the case of a pandemic or plague, where large numbers of a population are suffering from an illness at once. In that case, a nation may feel something akin to the symptoms of the illness, but not because of the actual pathogen itself, but rather because so many of their citizens are ill.
As for nation illnesses themselves, they are either brought on by war situations or economic hardship. Recessions will manifest themselves with cold-like symptoms, and will be often be referred to as 'catching a cold'. Depressions, on the other hand, can be a lot more debilitating...as they should be. When a depression hits, a nation's illness is more extreme, often mimicking a flu-like illness or worse.
Body Parts[/u] - Each body part of a nation corresponds to a piece of land. If something happens on that piece of land, such as an attack or some sort of disaster, it may appear as a physical wound on the corresponding body part. The connection is not as straightforward in the opposite direction. Rarely does an injury to a body part correspond to some sort of disaster in the corresponding piece of land, but it can happen. See this on site example - Alfred and Mattie clocking each other in the head with hockey sticks and causing the 2003 Northeast Blackout. =)
Examples - In canon, Alfred/America's cowlick is Nantucket, and his glasses are Texas. Italy's nipple is Corsica. Get the idea?
Scars - Somewhat related to the post above. These can happen for a number of reasons, but are usually caused by wars/attacks on a nation. Canon is not as straightforward on this, nor are we going to be too picky on how and where your character has scars. The only thing that should be noted is that a nation is not going to get a scar from, say, physically tripping and cutting a gash in their forehead. No, it has to be something on a national level to leave a scar, not a physical level. When it comes to actual physical injuries, nations heal abnormally fast.
Death - Nations can die, but it generally comes from a dissolution of government or the actual destruction of a land mass, NOT from, say, being shot in the head. That said, if a nation is shot in the head, they will physically die, but only temporarily. Their systems will shut down, they will stop breathing, their heart will stop beating, and to the onlooker, they will look dead as a doornail. However, depending on the injury as well as the nation itself, after some time passes the same healing process occurs as does with an injury. The injuries will start to heal over, any missing limbs will regenerate, and the nation will seemingly come back to life with very little evidence that they were dead in the first place (other than perhaps blood-stained clothing and the like). Thankfully, this rarely happens around humans.[/blockquote][/blockquote]
