Introduction to New Periapsis

Introduction

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New Periapsis, often referred to as "The Phoenix Pioneer", is a large island nation with 13 administrative provinces and a population of 520.03 million people spread across 7 designated residential provinces^[1]. New Periapsis was founded in September 12, 2018, and since has made its mark on history. The denizens of New Periapsis are managed by the administrative technocracy that leads the nation.

The word "Periapsis" is an astronomy term that indicates the point of an orbit where a satellite is nearest to the body that it orbits and at its highest orbital speed as a result. The name "Periapsis" was chosen due to humanity's nature in the modern age; the modern era is currently the fastest scientific advancements have ever been made in human history with an explosive rate at which we develop that is comparable to the evolutionary leap that allowed our brains to have higher functioning. As our technological capabilities rapidly progress, the possibility for a more peaceful world that is united for the sake of exploration and self-improvement grows closer.

The flag of New Periapsis, known as the "Star and Wreath", is quite simplistic and has only two solid colors: a blue field and a white charge containing two symbols. Its blue background represents the Earth in the way it was referred to as a "pale blue dot" by the American astronomer Carl Sagan. The two symbols forming the flag's charge is a basic 5-pointed star icon surrounded by an olive branch wreath. The star itself represents Sol or more commonly known as the Sun, the only star the Earth and all other celestial bodies in its system orbit around and how the entirety of humanity has been underneath the same star since the dawn of all its history. The olive branch wreath surrounding the star represents peace and the hope of a unified future for humanity.

The national motto "Aut inveniemus viam aut faciemus" is a classic Latin phrase slightly modified with the plural "we" making the phrase translate to "Either we shall find a way or make one".

For those interested in planning or are going to be taking a trip to visit our nation in the near future, feel free to visit our tourist information page HERE.

For any questions regarding anything not covered in New Periapsis factbooks, there is an official public outreach page which can be reached HERE.

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Geography

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Terrain
The terrain of New Periapsis is quite unique; a majority the main island is covered in flat plains and hills along with mountain ranges in the southwest region of the area. Concentrated mostly between the center and the mountain ranges, the main island is also home to various cave systems, abandoned underground structures, and roughly a dozen ravines.
Climate
The climate of the island nation is typically pleasantly warm in the spring and summer with rainfall being slightly above average geographically due to the predictable seasonal wind patterns causing the common phenomena of small South American monsoons forming nearby. In the fall seasons, the temperature is slightly chilly with cool, crisp air. Additionally, it should be noted that there is a very slight amount of snowfall in the nation's mountainous areas during winter season. It is because of the island's subtropical climate that the nation is often a destination for ecotourism.
Biodiversity
DESCRIBE WILDLIFE
Ecological Policy
The national administrative government of New Periapsis has various regulations regarding air, land, and water pollution, with several more policies aimed at combating climate change. As of 2018, New Periapsis is attempting to formulate a climate treaty that would significantly reduce the pollution from first world countries while allowing developing countries to be mostly unaffected.

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Demographics

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People & Population
In general, the nation's populace is known to be friendly, good natured, and surprisingly humorous with a large degree of empathy despite their infamous calculating nature. Both teenagers and adults alike are also known to have a high level of scientific literacy due to their educational system not only giving students more freedom to pursue their interests, but also allowing people of all ages to participate in additional/updated "refresher" courses to expand their knowledge while often recruiting some of the foremost experts in various fields to be teachers.

DESCRIBE PEOPLE

The national population ratio of men to women (105:100) is marginal and similar to the debated globally estimated average of 107 to 100, though this is suspected that this national gap will mostly close in 2063.

Men: 51.22%
Women: 48.78%
Race and Ethnicity
Due to the unique nature of the nation's origins, citizens typically have family heritage from the United States of America, Switzerland, Canada, and Japan with considerable numbers from Uruguay and Poland. Additionally, there is a significant number of people from the Czech Republic and various other European, South American, or miscellaneous nations.

White: 62.1%
Black: 5.7%
Asian: 12.3%
Multiracial: 17.5%
Other: 2.4%
Education
Since it's conception as a safeguard against man-made cataclysmic events, the government of New Periapsis has had free and effective public education as one of its highest priorities. After the period lasting from 1993-2011 known as the "Great Reform" during which research experiments conducted on millions of people in an attempt to learn how to optimize important aspects of government and society were performed, nearly countless education studies regarding environments, social systems, class structure, intellectual development, and more with test subjects ranging from preschool students to college graduates were published. Since the program's successful conclusion, New Periapsis has integrated the results of these studies into their educational system with incredibly positive results. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights as an intellectual sport, while kindergarten students are capable of reading entire chapter books within hours with a alarmingly high degree of comprehension by the time they graduate. Elementary, Middle, High school and college students enjoy classes that allow them the freedom of self-paced learning with a generally low degree of stress and hundreds of after school clubs and activities. There are also many other unique aspects present in the nation’s educational system—such as the requirement of all students to clean up classrooms and school janitors being nonexistent in order to teach students how to be more responsible citizens and how to respect their surroundings. Additionally, science centers and state of the art laboratories are known to be ubiquitous throughout the nation.
Largest Cities
Kelina, 21.3 million
Dalry, 15.2 million
Aquul, 13.2 million
Epilido, 10.6 million
Polane, 9.9 million
Aragon, 8.7 million
Welford, 8.4 million
Islego, 7.26 million
Adenas, 3.2 million
Seon, 1.7 million

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History

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1985: The Cold War begins as the United States of America begins to pursue a policy of ideological containment against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1949: On August 29, the Soviet Union has its first successful nuclear test with the detonation of their first nuclear device, the RDS-1 (codenamed "Joe-1" by the United States). News of this event quickly prompts the creation of Project Safe House; an American initiative to investigate ways to safeguard the American public in the event of a nuclear war.
1957: On October 4, the Soviet Union (USSR) successfully launches the first manmade satellite into orbit, triggering events that would lead to the creation of an American government agency next year and the Space Race's escalation.
1958: On February 7, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is created by the United States.
1960: Nathan Emari manages to gain an opportunity to work with ARPA through the use of extensive social networking. He immediately joins Project Safe House only to leave it later the same year and start Project Koalemos.
1964: The Periapsis Societal Utopian Project begins as a division of Project Koalemos after the idea for creating an artificial culture to ensure minimal likelihood of repeated man-made apocalyptic events is proposed during a meeting for catastrophic event contingency planning.
1972: ARPA is renamed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
1986: x
1991: On December 26, the Soviet Union dissolves into its component republics, marking the end of the Cold War.
1992: Project Koalemos is renamed to Project Lethe.
September 2, 1993: Project Safe House is created as a global initiative to begin the construction of underground superstructures serving as public doomsday bunkers.
November 7, 1994: During a routine brainstorming meeting for catastrophic event contingency planning, the idea for creating an artificial culture to ensure minimal likelihood of repeated man-made apocalyptic events is proposed.
December 18, 1994: After several iterations of Project Safe House, Project Lethe is created as an experimental proactive safeguard—prioritizing the construction of MUES Facilities and the artificial culture simultaneously.
March 10, 1996: The Periapsis Societal Utopian Project begins as a sociology experiment.
January 6, 2010: The nation of Periapsis is founded on the island of Alterra after experiments result in overwhelming success within the remote testing campuses and communities participating in the large scale experiments.
June 15, 2010: The nation of Periapsis legalizes immigration.
October 2012: The nation of Periapsis reaches a population of 826,000,000.
November 9, 2012: At 21:13 PM, the nation of Periapsis declares a state of emergency for unknown reasons and is left abandoned in the process of a mass evacuation from at least one undefined Catastrophic Event Scenario unfolding. 70,000 people are confirmed to have died during the immediate beginning of the incident. Additionally, an estimated minimum of 27,000 people are thought to have been near-immediately evacuated during the first ten minutes due to proximity or possession of waterborne vehicles capable of evacuation.^{[DETAILS UNCONFIRMED]} According to interviews with survivors, within the first hour approximately 480,000,000 people evacuated to secondary emergency shelters while over approximately 36,000,000 took refuge in buildings with reinforced "Safe Zones" or tertiary-class emergency shelters as they were unable to locate secondary emergency shelters due to the destruction of landmarks.
November 10, 2012: Approximately 1.2 million confirmed dead. Due to damage sustained by various elements, several vital communications and information systems are destroyed—forcing the Catastrophic Event Response Agency to resort using secondary information systems as a result. The utilization status of primary emergency shelter safeguards (see MUES Facilities) is unknown. At 8:41 AM, several ash columns spontaneously begin to erupt in various locations despite the island not being home to any volcanic activity.
November 11, 2012: Attempts to continue satellite monitoring directly overhead the island of Alterra halt due to plumes of smoke, ash, and dust begin to form clouds that are obscuring large portions of the island as they continue to grow. Satellite monitoring attempts at different angles continue. Throughout the day, a large portion of ash columns eventually taper off. 70 million Periapsis denizens are confirmed to have successfully evacuated. Five Periapsis naval ships return to the island nation for additional support and an additional 13,480 denizens are reported to have been rescued by 14 civilian ships from nearby routes responding to automated hails for assistance. At 12:17 PM all civilian assistance has ceased due to safety concerns and/or insufficient additional capacity.
November 12, 2012: All special research and engineering projects funded by the government of Periapsis have been evacuated and shut down successfully. At 16:36 PM, the unexplained volcanic activity reaches a climax as an eruption with a rating of 6 on the volcanic explosivity index (VEI) occurs. The resulting cloud of ejected ash reaches into the upper levels of the stratosphere.
November 13, 2012: At 2:57 AM, all attempts to continue monitoring via satellite halt due to the total inability to see through the ash and dust now clouding over the entire national region. Later, at 11:43 AM, seismometers detect a minor anomaly around the same time an explosion off the coast of the island is reported; this is suspected to have been a major failure at a nearby test site for an underwater geothermal energy project.
November 16, 2012: The former government of Periapsis declares the national evacuation complete. All available data is uploaded to ArcNET and submitted to the World Assembly for review. Upon confirmation of all available information uploaded, the Catastrophic Event Response Agency requests an immediate WA security council meeting.
November 20, 2012: The World Assembly forbids any travel to where the former nation of Periapsis was located. The navy of the former nation of Periapsis continues to monitor and rescue survivors.
December 20, 2012: 14 million Periapsis denizens in total have been rescued in the last month. With no further remaining survivors of the incident found after a period of four months, all relief efforts are ended.
December 27, 2012: After a massive weeklong collaborative effort between a volunteer group formed by survivors of the incident and the temporarily nomadic government of the former nation of Periapsis, the number of survivors is tallied at 516,379,143. The number of Periapsis denizens dead or presumed dead is numbered at 309,620,857.
December 30, 2012: Resources initially invested into public catastrophic event response and mass evacuation have been completely shifted to accommodate efforts focused on finding a new landmass to occupy.
March 15, 2013: The survivors, having used the Galápagos Islands as a temporary staging area to better deal with the anomalous catastrophic event since mid-November last year, contact United Kingdom ambassadors at the World Assembly to request permission for continued usage of the uninhabited land.
March 21, 2013: Faced with the threat of causing a guaranteed migrant crisis in addition to international backlash, the United Kingdom not only approves, but unexpectedly offers the remnants of Periapsis's government an opportunity to gain the island as their own territory under the condition that a payment of $750,000 USD and an alliance with the United Kingdom is to be made once their nation is refounded. Having had no other territory beyond repurposed oil rigs and the original island, Periapsis accepts. The Galápagos Islands are recognized as legally occupied by the nearly 520,000,000 surviving denizens of the former nation of Periapsis according to the World Assembly.
March 21, 2015: After a period of two years with no major activity invested into locating a new landmass to officially occupy, Periapsis denizens are given a formal notice by the World Assembly to consider declaring the Galápagos Islands to be a new nation.
September 12, 2018: The nation of New Periapsis is officially founded.
December 4, 2018: New Periapsis was reclassified from Liberal Democratic Socialists to a Left-wing Utopia.
January 4, 2019: The flag of New Periapsis was instituted.
March 12, 2019: Remote observation studies of the former homeland island of Periapsis, Alterra, begins with the utilization of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) controlled from offshore Periapsis Naval ships.
November 15, 2019: Anomalous radio signals are detected from Old Periapsis by UAVs conducting surveys.
December 28, 2019: Antarctica Colonization Project resumes.
November 9, 2020: International ban on travelling to Alterra expires to allow for an investigation by a manned team on-site. Operation Reclamation, a joint task effort between New Periapsis, the United States of America, Canada, and a large portion of the European Union begins with the intention of reestablishing habitability on the island of Alterra and ascertaining the cause of the 2012 Anomalous Catastrophic Incident.
November 11, 2020: Ground assets for Operation Reclamation arrive on Alterra.
November 12, 2020: The primary Forward Operating Base (FOB) for Operation Reclamation is completed, marking the beginning of recovery efforts.
February 12, 2021: All personnel on-site for Operation Reclamation are temporarily evacuated from Alterra due to the detection of nuclear fuel decay.
April 9, 2021: Operation Reclamation is resumed but given a lower priority as moderate radiological cleanup operations begin.
June 9, 2022: The construction of a temporary sarcophagus building for the Louis Slotin nuclear power plant is finished, marking the completion of all necessary radiological cleanup operations. Operation Reclamation is put back into full force as rubble is searched and cleared.
November 13, 2022: 4,325 more survivors of the 2012 Anomalous Catastrophic Incident are discovered sheltering in place across Alterra. While many contain merely a few dozen or even hundreds of individuals, one major group of 1,257 people were found living inside a rudimentary "city".
November 15, 2022: Approximately 60 million people are found to have been sheltering inside what remains of the Alterra MUES shelter in addition to a total of 3 million found at Secondary Cataclysmic Event Shelters (SCESs), many of which were thought to have been destroyed or even evacuated.
November 20, 2022: All remaining denizens of Alterra are confirmed to have been evacuated. Members of the New Periapsis government begin to deliver personalized apologies as they struggle to attempt providing psychiatric counselling to the sudden influx of newly discovered survivors.
November 23, 2022: Wreckage of an unknown technology is discovered on Alterra.
November 18, 2027: Nathan Emari is voluntarily hospitalized for geriatric care purposes.
December 2, 2027: Nathan Emari dies, prompting a nationwide (and to an extent international) period of mourning.

Future events:
June 20, 2033: Mars One space mission begins.
2053: [EVENT RESERVED]
2082: [EVENT RESERVED]

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Economy & Infrastructure

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Economy
In short, the economy of New Periapsis is primarily driven by the knowledge-based quaternary sector instead of being dominated dominated by the service-based tertiary sector unlike other countries. Although the pillars of the three-sector theory (raw materials, manufacturing, and services respectively) are still considered important as the means of any tangible good requires it, their importance is considered to be much less in comparison due to the nation's technological infrastructure and each citizen's ability to either self-provide or help provide for the community. In addition to this, they practice an economic system which bears some resemblance to the economic theory of mutualism.

Officially, the entirety of the nation partially runs off of a state-planned economy while experts perpetually argue that the majority if not the entirety of the economy is state planned with additional arguments being made that the nation is socialist. However, the nation argues that they are unable to be classified as practicing any traditional economic system as they do not believe in capitalism, socialism, or communism. Additionally, the national government's Department of Economics states that "while a large amount of the investment of resources is state planned, there is areas in which the government is not consistently involved. Private transactions may be made between individuals and small groups as it allows for the replenishing of resources. As such, it does not necessitate government intervention so long as it does not result in the detrimental stockpiling of wealth."

New Periapsis uses an innovative economic method of "Credits" which is based around an intricate blend of community-focused work and analytical decisions involving mathematics that account for the value of resources involved, time required, maintenance of surplus, and the education or training required to make a specific product. While competition is not promoted with this system, denizens are encouraged to work collaboratively in order to continually improve their future. Consequently, practices such as planned obsolescence are both forbidden by legislative action and vilified by the public, who view consumerism as being toxic.

Unfortunately, due to the unique economic system used, universal conversions from Credits to other currencies have not as of yet been officially declared to be mathematically possible according to the international community, with attempted efforts continually bringing unsuccessful results. It should be noted that some Periapsis government workers and economists have argued as it is the fault of the foreign civilian public for not perceiving the converted values as "consistent" when comparing different goods and services due to the differences in their individually respective levels of complexity and the necessity or overall value it has to society.

Despite this complication, the nation of New Periapsis is quite notable in international trade. The nation's leading exports are ecotourism, scientific research, and industry. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing and Book Publishing. Additionally, the nation pursues a policy of autarky, the state of economic self-sufficiency.

For more information, please visit the Currency Information page.

Energy
New Periapsis values longevity in its utilities and prioritizes eco-friendliness wherever possible. As a result, a majority of the country's infrastructure runs off of renewable geothermal and hydroelectric energy with the remaining 28% using alternatives to fossil fuels such as nuclear energy and methane, which are the largest forms of non-renewable energy practiced. Currently, the administrative government is investing in research for improving the efficiency of solar panels and hydrogen energy.

Public Services
The government is aided by the use of AI Planning, which has promoted a high level of efficiency in solving problems of any notable size in the nation and has helped in establishing a continually improving infrastructure.

GENERAL
X

PUBLIC UTILITY
X substantially

X
X

FIRE
X

MEDICAL
Since the founding of Periapsis or "Old" Periapsis, the nation of New Periapsis has possessed a similar system of healthcare to Luxembourg with additional traits adapted from other countries such as France providing Mycology training to pharmacists. Medical service is bolstered with the educational and denizen immigration requirement to learn CPR and basic First Aid in addition to optional training courses for recognizing medical threats (such as cardiac arrest, stroke, depression, etc.) that the Department of Health encourages people to undergo.

A majority of vaccines are a mandatory requirement due to the nation's strict, unchanging laws for health and safety along with herd immunity policies. Despite large sections of the nation's Constitution and Bill of Rights being adapted from their American counterparts, they remain a requirement regardless of religious affairs. An exemption for vaccination may only be made for individuals that are immunocompromised. One of the few exceptions for mandatory vaccination that are the most well known is the common cold. Influenza remains a mandatory vaccination despite its current threat level designation as a Class-1 biological agent due to concerns over the possibility of a deadly pandemic occurring.

Similar to most methods of education within the nation, medical student training commonly involves either a seasoned professional and/or educated expert as a class teacher along with the use of apprenticeship learning/job shadowing.

Beyond the numerous measures taken to ensure quality national healthcare, there are a considerable number of proactive measures also taken to ensure effectiveness; such as hospital receptionists being required to wear face masks. The reasoning behind this unique measure is to insure that disease outbreaks being introduced or currently an issue are mimalized due to preventing hospital receptionist staff from becoming a transmission vector.

POLICE
Despite the numerous citizen's arrests that are made within the nation, Periapsis has an organized police force. Though due to the low crime rate, it is often found to be unnecessary. Despite this, it is well-funded with numerous assets and stockpiles of equipment available on standby to be readily available if a situation calls for it. Often, this equipment is burrowed by the nation's various Mobile Task Forces for training or utilization during operations in order to ensure that the resources invested are not wasted and left perpetually unused.

X
X

X
X

DESCRIBE PUBLIC SERVICES (POLICE, FIREMEN, LIBRARIANS< GOVERNMENT WORKERS, ECT.)

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Military

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While there is no conscription in Periapsis, all citizens are required to go through a military training course in order to ensure survival in world-ending scenarios. In the event that an apocalyptic event occurs, MTF personnel will respond and assist the local military and, if necessary, additional personnel from the Department of Emergency Management or the Catastrophic Event Response Agency will be deployed. All actions of active personnel are mandated by a series of protocols that are enforced at Administrator discretion.

Standard MTF training is quite peculiar compared to the military training of most nations as it includes yoga, parkour, and more. Additionally, the nation is famous for its soldiers bravely charging in wave after wave of until the enemy is defeated.

With all denizens of New Periapsis having received military training, any citizen that has not volunteered and been accepted for a position within a specialized Mobile Task Force is normally assigned to Black Team. Black Team (also known as Task Force Heracles) is a general purpose MTF that is normally dormant and activated in response to an emergency or catastrophic event. As there are currently over 40 different Mobile Task Forces in existence^[x], it is not uncommon for someone in Black Team to be reassigned to an MTF due to their skills.

The most infamous Mobile Task Forces in the nation's arsenal is Delta Forces. Interestingly, their activities are completely unknown and it is debated if they have ever even been used at all. Few records in the national archive proves their existence however, they are heavily redacted which is an extremely rare occurrence for anything within the nation. Due to the redaction, it is unknown what the files once contained and therefore only prove of their existence.

It is implied in the uncensored portions of related documents within the national archive that the people recruited as Delta MTF personnel are a dangerous threat and even potentially risky to handle; explaining why Delta Forces are an asset that are seldom if not never used despite the 100% success rate. Evidence that supports this theory is that there are only two training camps for Delta Forces in remote locations named Androktasiai and Anaideia and that all records of training handlers for these sites are almost completely expunged under the Wilkes-Booth/Oswald Protocol.

What little information about Delta Forces that is known is that training for Delta MTF personnel is taken to an extreme far beyond any other standard, special authorization is required for deployment, and they are considered to be a last resort—possibly a very desperate one considering the usage of the phrase "in order to ensure maximum likelihood of success."

For more information on the military of New Periapsis, CLICK HERE.

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Government & Policy

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The government of New Periapsis is an administrative technocracy with positions of authority being delegated to any denizen of New Periapsis that is a legal citizen with the appropriate qualifications and successfully passes the screening process. Essentially, the entire government is run by by scientists, engineers, economists, and various other technical experts with their positions being given to people selected on the basis of their ability. Typically, Province Overseers, District Administrators, and Local Managers are voted into office as individuals with their own set of policies as political parties are outlawed. Although it does not happen often, it is possible for a national director to be voted in instead of being appointed by a third-party council. Additionally, it is possible for any member of administrative personnel to be removed from office at any time either by public vote and/or by administrative reprimands.

For more information on the government of New Periapsis or its international affairs, visit the Central Administration or the Department of International Affairs webpage.

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Culture & Tradition

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Language
English is the official national language of New Periapsis. Despite this, denizens have consistently integrated "untranslatable" words from various languages into their colloquial.
Cuisine
A common breakfast consists of x, x, y, w, and x with hot chocolate to drink.

DESCRIBE NATIONAL FOOD
Traditions
DESCRIBE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS & TRADITIONS
January 6: Founder's Day
Founder's Day is a national holiday celebrating the day the original nation of Periapsis was officially created.

September 12: Resettlement Day
Resettlement Day is a national holiday celebrating the official creation of New Periapsis.

October 28: Jonas Salk Day
A national holiday dedicated to the American medical researcher and virologist Jonas Salk. He is primarily celebrated not only discovering and developing one of the first successful polio vaccines, but for refusing to patent the product; saving millions of lives by making the vaccine as affordable as possible.

DATE: HOLIDAY NAME
DESCRIPTION
Religion
Officially, New Periapsis practices atheism with agnosticism being its second largest practice in religion. The largest practices of official religions are Buddhism, Shinto, and Christianity.

The government of New Periapsis is secular, and typically appoints atheists or agnostics as the Head of Religious Affairs. While the main reason behind this is conflicted, it is important to note that the nation's government has a strict separation of church and state policy. The officially stated reasons as to why atheists or agnostics as the Head of Religious Affairs range from the previously mentioned separation of church and state policy, insuring that there is absolutely no bias in religious affairs, and the comparatively low priority ranking religion has in government affairs.

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Miscellaneous

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The official dating method is MONTH/DAY/YEAR.

xxxxx

xxxx

x

x

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Trivia

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xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

x

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Sources Referenced

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1. "Maps of New Periapsis" Published by the New Periapsis Government, updated October 25, 2018
x. "List of Periapsis MTF Divisions" Published by the New Periapsis government, updated December 30, 2018
x. x
x. x
x. x
x. x
x. x
x. x
x21-1. SC/RES/4435(2021), Retrieved from World Assembly Log of Resolutions Adopted
x21-2. "2021 'Show and Tell' Incident - Recorded Footage", retrieved from Periapsis National Archives, Archive ID: #NA-2021/VAC/Incidents/InterNat/WASC-NPAA
x. x
x. x
x. x
x. x
xC. "Maps of New Periapsis" Published by the New Periapsis Government, updated November 28, 2019
x. x
x. x
x. x

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