— Pólemesians still believe dying in combat or dying in childbirth are the most honorable ways to die
— proper funeral rites include having one’s body burned and the ashes done with as either the deceased has requested or as the family wishes, whether that be stored in urns with the rest of the family or mixed with other ashes or spread in various places
— mourning/grieving lasts two months and is denoted by wearing darker colors; deep reds, dark blues, or black are the most popular colors
— when in mourning, it is still common to have a piece of the deceased’s hair braided into one’s own hair for two months; Stavros did this with his wife’s hair, as his sons were too young to do it with theirs

— all men must serve at least five years in the military, and you can start serving at the age of 18 (upped from 16 in 1949); most men have completed their mandatory service by 24
— if a draft is imposed, all able-bodied and able-minded men (and sometimes women, too) between the ages of 18 and 30 are asked to fight for their country; however, seeing as women are the only sex capable of repopulation, drafts typically do not include women unless a special regulation is added, which usually limits the age range as 18 to 24 (men are essentially viewed as expendable in this equation)
— women can choose to take on military careers/services if they so choose, and are trained just as hard as men; a woman in the military is oftentimes more skilled than the men in her company, and held to twice the regard
— as to be expected, the military is one of the noblest professions, with primary glory being reserved for the army, followed by the marines, then the navy, then the air force, then the coast guard and national guard

— hair is still considered a sign of status; it is not at all surprising to see both men and women alike with long hair, and the royal family holds pride and even rankings in their hair length, with kings and crown princes being allowed to have the longest hair, with any other princes typically keeping it at shoulder-length (queens and princesses can have their hair at any length)
— their traditional style of dress is a mix between ancient Greek styles and ancient Roman styles (togas, chitons, peplos, etc); there is a large amount of mixing between traditional dress and modern dress
— — military uniforms are modern, except dress uniforms are traditional white chitons, red capes, gold armor, sandals, etc
— royalty will typically dress in traditional garments for formal events

— still worship the old (Greek) gods under the same names, but refer to them as the Pólemesian gods

It is here that the Texas Sovereignty, which conquered the land not even a century beforehand with a mixture of force and economics, finds most of its trade and diversity: all sorts of people live in New Houston, and it's the single largest port in the world, with hundreds of cargo and warships passing through the multitude of canals and into port every day, from both oceans. While there are other nations that facilitate trade and the like, the Sovereignty produces massive amounts of agricultural products and ships it worldwide, with top exports being chicken, beef, corn, grains of various sorts, and cotton.

Here, the Texas Sovereignty also stimulates the world economy by buying up goods and the like from one part of the globe, running them through their cities and peoples at home, and then through the canals to the opposite side of the world; they do so without major markup, and making very little money off of this normally impractical approach to economics. However, in doing so, they increase demand for oil, products on both sides of the world, and enrich the lives on either end, and passively improve relationships that foreign people have with the TS, making the TS's agricultural sales to increase.

They are not a rich people, and their intention never is that of one.

Something that sets TS apart is they don't necessarily have ethics or the like. Where the majority of the world has, at this modern point, decided that any form of slavery is bad and should forever be avoided, TS makes its business rather cost-efficient by employing indentured servants. Laws about one's rights are actually looser in TS than almost any other first-world country, and it shows in that debt is often bought up that belongs to foreign people, when they come to TS, so that they can become indentured and work of their debt to their new Texan owners while the Texan owners profit by having a relatively cheap labor force. While they aren't abused, it isn't necessarily ethical; however, it is accepted by the populous. Normal citizens, when finding there to be debt, can and will sell themselves into indentured servitude to pay it off without having to worry about all the finances themselves; it's part of the culture, and even though it's somewhat new, in that it's been part of the Sovereignty for its short lifespan of nearly a century, it has become something accepted due to the almost largely reasonable treatment of people; basic human rights for being cared for and treated respectful exist, rather than an unalienable right for freedom.

Even when Texans are indentured, they don't see it as slavery- just something they have to do so they can remain truly free, of either debt or of servitude, depending on whether or not they're indentured.

The Empire of Britannia is a long standing empire that spans vast tracts of land. Theirs is a proud history, filled with military conquests and great defences against the odds, littered with great heroes such as Ealdwulf the Hammer ("Protector of the Faith", the monarch responsible for many of the initial holy wars against the Caliphates in the middle east, Ealdwulf had a remarkable record of defeating enemies with greater numbers than he.) Harold the Conqueror ("Lord of the Three Empires", the first British King to claim land in India. Despite the title, Harold did not really conquer much territory when compared to other kings) and Catheryn the Wise (The queen who outwitted the Byzantine Emperor and put the final nail in the coffin of the Byzantine Empire, managed to end the near constant stream of rebellions within Arabia. Despite this, she is probably best known for winning a theological argument with the Pope in order to secure her daughter a divorce from an abusive Polish duke, a story which became immortalised in folktales.)

The Empire has its origins in the crusades of the late 1000's. The English king Eadwulf Drakewine, already an accomplished military commander responsible for the defeat of the Norman invasion, joined Pope Innocent VII's crusade to reclaim Jerusalem. For their efforts in the crusades, the English monarchy was rewarded with the Crown of Jerusalem. The English, however, must have half wished they had never received it; Almost annually, the Muslim caliphs called Jihads against the occupying English, forcing vast amounts to be spent on maintenance of the holy land. The English fought continually during this period, and Eadwulf never set foot back in his home country again in his life. Despite some offensive territorial gains during this period, the English may have been pushed out entirely were it not for a second crusade; The Seljuk had seized Anatolia from the Byzantines, and the Christian world was once again up in arms. Once more, the English sprung into action and half bankrupted their treasury hiring mercenaries to sail to Anatolia and fight alongside them. Still, they were rewarded greatly for their efforts, with Eadwulf being made King of Anatolia and earning the title 'Protector of the Faith'. With their powerbase in the east effectively doubled, the English escalated their military offensives and began a series of holy wars against primarily the Muslim kingdoms but later against even orthodox Christianity. Over the course of 180 years, the English would expand further and further throughout the region at the point of a sword.

"I should rather have a heathen come from the east to lead the people justly than that you should govern them poorly." - Eadwulf the Hammer to his son.

The Empire of Britannia its self formed in the 1100's. The English armies back home had fought metre by bloody metre under the command of the Heir and had seized control of Scotland and Wales. With Great Britain entirely under their control, they officially formed the empire. With a few well placed bribes, the majority of the Irish lords swore allegiance to the new Britannian Crown, bought and sold for English gold. Only Connacht resisted all efforts. In 1103, it would be invaded and seized by the British; The count was deposed and the second son of a duke from England was installed in his place.
By 1250, the British controlled an immense volume of land; The Byzantines had slowly been whittled down by the British and their Croatian allies until the British had finally seized total control of Asia Minor and the western coastlands of the black sea in 1213, bringing the British border to that of Lustania. The Islamic world was slowly but surely giving way to Catholicism. The Seljuk and Fatimid were all but destroyed following the final major holy wars in 1233 and 1239 respectively. In 1242, the college of cardinals was over half British, though by 1261 the British presence in the college of Cardinals had shrunk dramatically. The British crossed blades with almost every neighbouring nation at some point during this period.

"Like the King of Babylon, you are the man who shook the Earth and made Kingdoms tremble, and so I deliver you to hell." - Emperor Henry III

The years 1267-1294 were very calm by comparison; The ruler, Ealdulf, was a far less ambitious man than his predecessors and was more than content with what he had. It was only once his grandson ascended to the throne in 1294 that British expansion was again a reality; It was in this period of time that the British began to acquire sections of India; Most of these were only held for a few years at a time, though Punjab was taken by British forces in 1301 and remains held to this very day.
From the years 1337-1363 the Empire entered a period of decline under Henry IV, a controversial monarch who was completely unsuited to the burdens of leadership. He rarely made public appearances and he was generally a weak willed man who was easily manipulated by the nobles on his court. Slowly but surely, the selfish machinations of the nobility eroded away the integrity of the empire, and by Henry's death it had fractured into many parts.
Henry's son, Richard II, was likewise a poor ruler. The new king, however, caught pneumonia two years into his reign and died. Had Richard continued to rule, many believe the Empire would have declined further still. Whatever the case, fourteen year old queen Edith inherited a nightmarish scenario when she came to the throne. By the time of her death some five decades later, the Empire had been mostly reunited; The remaining two independent duchies would be absorbed back into the empire around the year 1426.

"Never fear, Duke; I think my victory here calls for a release, not a punishment. Sir Thaddeus, release his treacherous head from his body." - Empress Edith at the end of Baghdad Reconquest, 1387

The colonialism that arose after this time proved to be a relatively lucrative venture for the Empire; the world was changing rapidly and Britannia flowed with the tides. Britannia spread its flags across the Indian ocean and established a vast colonial empire in Indonesia, Australia and later Africa and through to the Americas. Though most major territories in the Americas have long since vanished, with the only remnants of the colonialism in the Americas being a handful of islands in the Bahamas and some territory in northern south America, the expansion east and south has been more permanent, with Britannia retaining control over many of these territories as well as Australia by proxy (It is technically its own independent Kingdom, but its monarchs are from a cadet branch of the Drakewine family and typically acquiesce to their demands) and from there exercising considerable influence over the surrounding islands.

In the modern day, the Empire is a titanic first world country; Its vast supplies of oil, trade links with the Indians and mercantile dominance of the Indian ocean and the Suez canal have made it immensely rich. These in turn fund the nations education system and it's healthcare and social programs, as well as funding their behemoth of a military; military spending is high, as they nation has a lot of territory to cover and many trade roots to protect. The nation broken down into many different administrative districts along ancient county and ducal lines, in an attempt to manage its vast size and population. This was an ongoing process over many decades; Earlier attempts at breaking the empire down into more manageable chunks created several de jure independent kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Australia, for all intents and purposes puppets of the Crown. With the advent of the internet and near instant communication, the empire has become far more manageable and efficient, a far cry from its 19th century counter part which was characterised by common breakdowns of communication (A common joke claimed that entire countries were lost during filing); though said problem has been fixed, it nonetheless caused considerable damaged the prestige of the nation and even now the stereotype of British bureaucratic inefficiency persists. Taxation has likewise become far more efficient, helping to solve many of the nations economic crises. Ultimately, the Empire has entered something of a golden age - and there is a wariness from some of Britannia's neighbours that the Wyvern might breath fire once more

By this time the Empires state religion had fused into some strange bastard child of Christianity and Islam. In 1429, Arabic was adopted as the script of the Empire and in time the language developed into what is commonly referred to as “Anglo-Arabic” or “English (Britannian)”. Likewise, governing a multi-ethnic , multi-lingual and multi-cultural empire with many competing Religions required a degree of cosmopolitanism. While pressure to convert to ‘Britannic Christianity’ was omnipresent in the form of tax exemptions such as the Jizya (one of the many elements this alleged Christianity outright plagerised from Islam as it adapted to better fit the regjon) and other incentives, the Empire tolerated minority Religions and allowed (and, indeed, on some creations promoted) the construction of sites of worship for other faiths. While periods of heightened religious oppression (and conversely, more egalitarian religious policies) would wax and wane throughout the existence of the empire, it was not until 1982 that Britannia finally did away with the last of the special exemptions for Britannic Christians.

This unique history and the bizzare descendence of Britannic Christianity... A word which should be used very loosely(Indeed, Muhammed holds the rather weird distinction as a ‘Saint Prophet, Mouthpiece of Allah’... A decidedly very non-Christian viewpoint) has of course spawned jokes amongst those of other faiths that Britannic Christianity is neither Britannic nor Christian. Its fellow ‘Christians’ never accepted it as anything even approaching Christianity - and conversely, it is not anything approaching Islam. Yet it held enough distinctions and draws of both faiths to allow it to convert and dominate much of Britannic Eastern territory, acting much like Christianity had towards the Pagan faiths and absorbing festivals as its own. Rather amusingly, this has resulted in Britannic Christianity countries having some of the most public holidays of any country, commonly stereotyping Britannians as being lazy.

Emperor Harold notices one of his lights is dead and asks it be replaced. The next day, he sees it is still dead and asks once more. On the third day, the Emperor is furious upon seeing that the light is still dead. In annoyance, he turns to ask his chamberlain "Really, how many of my bureaucrats does it take to change one lightbulb?"
The chamberlain clears his throat and states awkwardly "Well, we're still waiting on the lightbulb, your grace." - A common Britannic joke