Traditions and everyday life — 969 to 2018
A civilisation born of the unlikely encounter between the Christian West, the Buddhism of the caravan routes, and the Japan of the shipwrecked survivors of 1120. A 1 000 years later, an Eldorian bears a Japanese name, prays in a Gothic cathedral and greets others according to a Shinto ritual — without ever seeing any contradiction in this.
Eldorian culture did not arise from conquest but from 3 successive waves of settlement. Its origins lie with the clans of Khorosan, which were unified in : a pastoral society, a clan-based structure, and oral customary law.
The second contribution is European, arriving along the caravan routes and with religious missions between the 10th and 13th centuries: Roman Catholicism, Gothic architecture, Latin script, written law.
The third is Japanese, and it is the most unlikely. In , a Japanese merchant ship drifted ashore on the Gulf coast. Its occupants would never set sail again. They brought with them Shintoism, clothing, family coats of arms and a concept of service and honour that would permeate the whole of society.
What sets Eldoria apart from ordinary multicultural societies is that the 3 influences do not simply coexist side by side: they have merged. The imperial coronation of already combined Catholic, Buddhist and Shinto rites in a single ceremony, conducted by 3 officiants acting in unison.
An Eldorian does not think of themselves as a ‘Catholic of Japanese origin’. They see themselves as Eldorians, and regard the 3 traditions as 3 facets of the same heritage. This absence of identity-related tension explains the country’s remarkable internal stability: in a 1 000 years, Eldoria has never experienced a religious civil war.
| Confession | Share | Establishment | Social role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Catholicism | 37% | Since the 10th century, along the caravan routes | Rites of passage, traditional civil status, official architecture |
| Buddhism | 21% | Since the 11th century, along the eastern routes | Education, traditional medicine, the philosophy of leadership |
| Shintoism | 18% | Since , by Japanese shipwreck survivors | Ancestor worship, family shrines, seasonal festivals |
| Unconfessed | 24% | Steady growth since the 1970s, particularly in the major cities | Participation in civic ceremonies without adhering to any particular doctrine |
Three-quarters of the people of Eldor belong to a religious denomination, but a large proportion are non-practising believers: they get married, hold funerals and pray in accordance with their tradition, without regularly attending church, a temple or a place of worship. The 2018 surveys indicate that around one in 4 believers attends services regularly.
This equality has been enshrined in law since 1913: the Law on the Three Religions recognises no state religion, treats the 3 faiths on an equal footing and designates their major festivals as public holidays for everyone. Since the Civil Status Act of 1909, civil marriage has been compulsory and marriages between followers of different faiths have been recognised. Freedoms and civil status, 1900–1935.
The festivals of the 3 faiths are celebrated on an equal footing: each has its own national public holidays, and most families also celebrate those of the other 2. Christmas, Vesak and the Shrines’ New Year bring the whole country together, believers and non-believers alike — see the national calendar.
In , as part of the institutional overhaul that followed the abolition of the monarchy, a national directive stipulated that only these 3 faiths were permitted within the country. This measure was accompanied by the systematic dismantling of Muslim places of worship in the territories that had been incorporated since 1940.
It is the most controversial decision in modern Eldorian history, and the only one for which the official records make no attempt to provide justification. It is presented as a measure of cultural unification intended to consolidate the provinces acquired 30 years earlier. Its demographic and human consequences remain an open area of historical research.
In , the amendment to the Fundamental Law restored freedom of worship to all; the government officially acknowledged the injustice of the demolitions. Only the 3 denominations retain official status, but none is now imposed.
Major state ceremonies — coronations until 1971, investitures since then, state funerals and commemorations — follow a protocol established in and never amended since: 3 officiants, one from each denomination, conduct the service together rather than in succession.
The order of the words alternates at each ceremony according to a fixed cycle, so that no single tradition can ever claim precedence.
Eldorian took on its classical form upon the founding of Aldara in . Its grammatical structure is derived from Late Latin; its technical and administrative vocabulary borrows from Germanic languages; its phonetics — pure vowels, the absence of hard final consonants, and pitch accent — derive directly from the Japanese spoken by the shipwrecked survivors.
The phrase of nineteenth-century foreign linguists has stuck: Latin sung with a Kyoto accent.
Approximately 420 million speakers: 205 million as a first language and 215 million as a second language, including 190 million outside national borders — in the Gulf client states, the Overseas States, Japan, South Korea and amongst technical staff and students in OMCI member countries. As a working language of the OTMN and the OMCI, it has been an official language of the UN since .
Eldorian is the world’s second most widely used language for technical documentation, a direct consequence of the country’s leading role in IT standards: as the original specifications are written in Eldorian, engineers all over the world learn at least how to read them.
| Language | Speakers | Mother tongue | Technical documentation | Scientific publications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ~1 450 M | ~380 M | 48% | 52% |
| Eldorian | ~420 M | ~205 M | 27% | 19% |
| Mandarin Chinese | ~1 120 M | ~920 M | 6% | 10% |
| Japanese | ~128 M | ~125 M | 7% | 5% |
| French | ~280 M | ~80 M | 4% | 4% |
English remains the world’s most widely spoken language; Eldorian is the language of those who build: IT (TekOpsOS systems, network standards), nuclear energy, aeronautics and Gulf finance. One in 3 engineers worldwide reads Eldorian, according to the OMCI.
Eldorian became the sole official language under the Beirut Accord, at the time of the nation’s rebirth. The languages of the newly acquired provinces — Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish and Aramaic — retained recognised regional status for civil registration and primary education.
National martial art, codified in the 13th century by Soren Yanagi, a descendant of the castaways of 1120, under the reign of Édouard II. Tensu combines the close-quarters wrestling techniques of the Khorosan clans with the principles of distance, rhythm and evasion drawn from the Japanese schools.
Its founding principle — never to meet force with force, but always to shift the point of leverage — has extended beyond the realm of martial arts. It is explicitly referred to in military command manuals and in treatises on diplomatic negotiation taught at the Aldara Academy.
Compulsory in secondary school since , 2 hours a week. Some 8 million practitioners worldwide, 5.2 million of them in Eldoria. A demonstration discipline at national ceremonies.
Ranks are counted in ‘ways’ — 9 in total, with the ninth being awarded posthumously only. The current Grand Master heads the Aldara Central School, founded on the site of Yanagi’s original dojo.
The distribution of first names has followed a stable hierarchy for centuries: predominantly Japanese, followed by Nordic and Germanic names, then French and German names. Mixed first names — combining a Japanese root with a European one — are not only accepted but also culturally valued: they signify a long-established family, descended from the earliest alliances.
Empress Marguerite-Sakura I, who reigned from 1856 to 1902, is the canonical example: her compound name was chosen precisely to embody the nation's dual origin.
Eldorian heraldry combines the European shield with the Japanese mon: a stylised, monochrome circular emblem set in the centre of a shield bearing the house’s colours. 340 houses are listed in the national heraldic register, the oldest being the House of Vinter.
Ceremonial dress similarly combines the cut of the kimono with heavy European fabrics. It is still worn at weddings, state ceremonies and rites of passage — but never in everyday life, where people dress as they do in any industrialised society.
National flag — 3 equal vertical stripes, bearing a sword and a snake
Adopted at the imperial coronation of 1642, when the Empire of Vintermark took the name Eldoria: a white flame on a broad diagonal purple band, with fleurs-de-lis at the corners. Purple, the most expensive dye in the medieval world, signalled commercial power rather than military might.
The dynastic emblem of the House of Vinter since its foundation. An animal native to the highlands of Khorosan, symbolising vigilance rather than strength. It adorns the House’s standard, which served as the country’s first flag from 969 to 1642.
Adopted under the Beirut Accord. The imperial flame was replaced by the sword and the serpent: the emblem now represented the State rather than a crown. This was the last change to the flag.
Central emblem
The black sword represents military discipline, upright and motionless. The purple serpent coiled around it symbolises patience and trade — it does not strike, but constricts. Together, they encapsulate the national doctrine.
The Three Stripes
The purple of the Imperial Flame, the white of armed neutrality, the black of the Khorosan highlands. No stripe takes precedence: they are strictly equal.
Motto
The 3 founding pillars: trade, military discipline and patience. The order has never changed.
Currency
It replaced the Mirail in . International code: ELM. Its symbol, an ‘M’ with the lower stroke curved into a hook, is modelled on the loop in the imperial seal; no other currency uses it.
The 3 flags since 969, anthem, orders and decorations: see the National symbols page.
Primary school becomes compulsory and free in 1889, under Marguerite-Sakura I — before most European powers. The literacy rate reaches 99.4% in 2018.
The Eldorian Dream introduced completely free higher education and subsidised student meals. The campaign doubled the number of universities. In 2018, the country welcomed 1.1 million international students a year.
Since , the city has enjoyed special tax and social security status. With its gambling, nightlife and relaxed property laws, it is the most liberal and hedonistic city in the country, within a state that is otherwise strictly regulated.
The exception is deliberate and instrumental. It attracts foreign capital and elites, concentrates in a single place what society tolerates poorly elsewhere, and brings in about 4.2 billion Marks≈ 4.58 bn € · 5.38 bn $ a year.
The Japanese heritage has left a view of public service as an honour rather than a burden. A civil engineer, an officer or a teacher enjoys greater social prestige than an entrepreneur of equivalent wealth.
This hierarchy explains the country’s ability to sustain programmes over several decades — the Aurora project kept 3 generations of researchers busy, yet none of them lived to see its completion.
| Date | Celebration | Established | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 March | Foundation Day | Aldric Vinter’s unification of the 7 clans in 969 | |
| 4 April | Trade Day | Establishment of the OMCI in Ankara | |
| 19 June | Resistance Day | Surrender of the forces that had landed in Beirut | |
| 1 August | Maritime Sovereignty Day | Arrival of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean | |
| 27 September | Science Day | 1952 thermonuclear test, disclosed following the declassification of the Aurora | |
| Solstices | Sanctuary Festivals | Time immemorial | Seasonal Shinto rituals, celebrated at family shrines |
| Date | Holiday | Confession | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st — 3 January | Shōgatsu, New Year at the shrines | Shintoism | First visit to the shrine, family meal; 1st January is a public holiday for all |
| March or April | Easter (public holiday on Monday) | Catholicism | High Mass in Aldara, processions in the towns on the plateau |
| May full moon | Vesak, the birth of the Buddha | Buddhism | Lanterns on the rivers and canals, temples open all night long |
| Solstices | Sanctuary Festivals | Shintoism | Seasonal rituals at family shrines (21 June and 21 December) |
| 8 December | Bodhi, the Buddha’s Enlightenment | Buddhism | Meditation, and free meals of rice and milk served in the temples |
| 25 December | Christmas | Catholicism | Midnight Mass; the celebration most popular with non-believers |
The official calendar does not commemorate any conquests. Neither the 1940 Levant offensive, nor the 1941 Turkish campaign, nor the fall of Jerusalem in 1982 are listed as national holidays.
The 3 military dates highlighted — 1958, 1997 and, by implication, 1952 — all mark occasions when Eldoria resisted or deterred an attack. This is a deliberate construct: the nation presents itself as a country that defends itself, never as one that attacks.