Nehelipa has been around for a fair few centuries, and is considered one of the great centres of learning of Ardora. Occupying the lands immediately east of Falgarias, they have always been open to joint research and the sharing of knowledge with other nations in exchange for their borders being left alone, and military assistance where necessary.
The people of Nehelipa prize wit, wisdom and intellect. The nation's capital city, Kelari, is home to countless libraries, debating halls, laboratories and workshops, whilst the city of Tremino is almost entirely the Great Library in which are archived vast collections of writings, knowledge and records.
Another city, Trevasa, is largely owned and occupied by the nation's University, renowned across the Myriad Nations. It is here that people from across Ardora and even in some cases further afield come to study subjects from Medicine to Art.
The general view is that all things should be done with a view to understand them, on both a philosophical and a personal level, and this extends to practical crafts and acts of worship.
The leading scientists of Nehelipa were particularly keen to try to understand the advanced technologies brought by the Ennarian Empire, but they were reluctant to share despite arriving on good terms, and no arrangement was made before their technology ceased to work. Much of the research going on there now centres around trying to understand the Moonrise Event, how it might relate to this technology and the new powers it has revealed.
Nehelipans tend to be inclined more towards pacifism, seeking to negotiate away from conflict, hence their arrangements with several nearby nations that keep their borders safe in return for the sharing of knowledge. However, they do have some local security forces primarily to keep those who are so inclined occupied and from causing trouble, and it is widely suspected that somewhere within their array of knowledge are the designs for various experimental seige weapons which could rapidly turn the tide in battle if anybody actually ever did start on them.
Outsider Description: Elitist brainiac bookworms
The people of Nehelipa are a diverse mixture of Genera as many travel from other nations to study at the University or visit the Great Library, but much of the local population are Cutani.
Not counting people who have come from other nations and thus have other names, Nehelipans typically have only one name, as they view family as necessary for upbringing and support but largely irrelevant to intellect. What they are big on is suffixes that denote academic achievements, as this makes their intellectual qualifications more clear, and so the scholars of Nehelipa will generally make sure to use any post-nominal letters they have earned wherever possible.
Various organisations provide qualifications and merits which may be used by combining the appropriate level with a shortened form of the subject in question. The University places an additional U between these in qualifications they grant.
The levels are:
Usually each different subject is listed once at the highest level attained, with the highest level (and thus most prestigious) ones listed first.
Example Names:
Those judged to be of the highest intellectual standard are permitted to rule in Nehelipa. Every year in August they have “The Examination”, a several day long exam and test of wits devised and graded by the current Overseers to test suitability in governing the nation (and accompanied by an associated festival), the top ten scorers of which become the Overseers for the next year. After being an Overseer one cannot take the role again for the next two years.
Whilst stupidity is not literally a crime, the law does not look favourably on situations where problems arise from rash actions and “insufficient due intellectual attention” where one could reasonably have been expected to have made a better decision by application of intellectual reasoning.
Within the cities, the carrying of offensive weapons is permitted only by those in the local security forces or those with special licenses and a good reason for doing so. One's likelihood in obtaining a license is proportional to one's ability to rationally argue why they should have it.
Those accused of crimes are given a trial which takes a form largely similar to a debate, in which a prosecuting Scholar or Sage of Law and the defendant will each argue their cases. The result is decided by a panel of Scholars or Sages of Law, usually including at least one Overseer.
The most serious of crimes are violence against intellect (eg. stabbing a Scholar) and violence against knowledge (eg. book-burning), which tend to be met with imprisonment and several years of forced labour copying illuminated manuscripts and the like in the hopes that one will actually learn something.
Religion in Nehelipa is a fairly philosophy-ridden affair. Rather than full on gods people tend to follow the teachings of people from the past whom they view in a manner similar to prophets. People are free to undertake what religious practices they wish so long as they remain within the bounds of the law, but they are encouraged to try to understand the meaning of each religious action they take, and what it means on a philosophical level and how it relates to them and their relationship with their gods.