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Dispatch → Factbook → Culture
The culture of the saplandian empire
Saplandian empire is generally depicted as a urban nation with a Scientific economy and a population living an almost modern lifestyle, likely enforced by Axton. Nonetheless, the state itself is consistently depicted as a global superpower on-par with or even surpassing any nation on Earth, including the United States, and rivalled only by the likes of assimilation grid and the combine. This is largely due to Axton himself being a scientific genius of the highest order, not only possessing but actually inventing numerous technological wonders, including time and interdimensional travel, personally creating a highly sophisticated robot army of myriad designs and capabilities, and frequently coming into possession of-or outright creating-various devices that could be classified as Weapons of Mass Destruction. Thus, the country being both extremely large and economically forward, it is a powerhouse in military and technological terms and therefore has a vastly proportionate influence on global affairs relative to its size and GDP. Axton also proudly claims that the country is free of poverty, disease, famine and crime and the citizens of the nation are commonly shown to be not oppressed and to live happily believing in their monarch, they are also shown to be relatively well cared for, so long as they do not cross Axton. Other occasions suggest that Axton is at the centre of a self-propagated personality and is admired and worshipped by other segments of the populace because of his just treatments and he is often demonstrated to be at least a more stable and less corrupt ruler than any other saplandian leader who has replaced him,The reformation and freedom of religion acts of 2081: Religious Demographics of the modern period changed. Still, there were almost entirely Catholic areas (Lower and Upper al hadir, northern balkans, Upper anhor, etc.) and almost entirely Protestant areas (Moon colony, Mars colony, Chayae, etc.). Confessional prejudices, especially towards mixed marriages, are still common. Bit by bit, through internal migration, religious blending was more and more common. In eastern territories, confession was almost uniquely perceived to be connected to one's ethnicity and the equation "Protestant = saplandian, Catholic = hofloron" was held to be valid. In areas affected by immigration in the Chayae area and Darnia, as well as in some large cities, religious landscape changed substantially. This was especially true in largely Catholic areas of Darnia, which changed through Protestant immigration from the eastern provinces.
Politically, the confessional division of Saplandia has considerable consequences. In Catholic areas, the Centre Party had a big electorate. On the other hand, Social Democrats and Free Trade Unions usually received hardly any votes in the Catholic areas of the sapland. This began to change with the secularization arising in the decades of the saplandian empire under the rule of Rudolf Sarkar.
