i’ve had some random almyra headcanons floating around my brain recently, so i thought i’d share them and see what other people think!
• almyra’s a pretty diverse place in terms of geography - this is actually mentioned all little in the travelers journal in the library somewhat but not elaborated on much. the middle of the kingdom is mostly desert, but in the west by fodlan’s throat is more forested. the land is a lot more fertile in the eastern, western, and coastal areas, and there are probably a lot of rivers by the mountains.
• because of those rivers, the most populated areas end up being by fodlan’s throat. the capital is around here, being right on a river towards the north. the river runs right through the middle of city.
• almyra’s only a bit bigger than fodlan physically, but much larger population wise.
• it’s common to see people traveling all over the country. most people have a horse or a wyvern, and theres a couple cities throughout the kingdom that are known for their tourism. it’s also very normal to move somewhere else once getting old enough to.
• speaking of wyverns, they’re considered a sort of symbol of almyra. they’re on the flag and are almost always used by the royal family in battle. a lot of people in rural areas spend their lives taking care of wyverns, and horses too.
• the royal family has three classes of wyvern riders: barbarossa (claude’s unique class, they use bows), gurgan (shahid’s class, they use axes), and hyrcan (my made up class, they use lances). they are all typically very skilled in swordsmanship as well. the royals have similar armor they use in battle to distinguish them, like how claude’s barbarossa outfit is pretty similar to shahid’s outfit.
• despite how they try to stand out in battle, almyra’s royalty isn’t very formal in the sense of how they act. like how claude’s behavior is considered “not very noble” in fodlan, most of them don’t try to actively assert themselves over all of almyra’s citizens. think the opposite of how someone like lorenz (at least as a student) would act. it’s actually considered improper for royalty to not actively engage with the common people on the regular too. doesn’t mean they’re perfect about it though.
• almyran as a language is mostly pretty informal. this makes some sense to me given how claude, cyril, and nader all speak in more casual ways.
• almyra is split into a handful of smaller provinces each with their own governor of some kind, but those people specifically only deal with politics within that region. these governors are elected by the people who live in that province by popular vote, so there’s some democracy in almyra. the monarch still has significantly more power than the governors, however, and is the one who picks the candidates.
• the heir to the throne is chosen in a much different fashion from fodlan. the current monarch picks who they want to be the next ruler out of their children, and that choice has to be approved by a majority vote in the council. because of this, those who end up as heirs tend to have a lot of kids. kids have the ability to decide not to be considered though if they have no interest in ruling. if for any reason the current ruler dies before picking an heir, the decision is left completely up to the council but since one person needs a majority vote, they usually can’t pick someone. It often leads to conflict among the heirs and an unorthodox way of someone taking the throne.
• the council is a mix of royal advisors, retainers, and elected officials. they don’t have tons of power but their job is to approve certain laws the ruler wants to make among other small things. a lot of members tend to be high ranking military leaders as well.
• as much emphasis as almyra puts on fighting, they’re not violent people. most people do learn how to fight, but it’s treated more as just a skill to have than anything else. some people do make a hobby out of sparring though.
• communication between almyra and fodlan is essentially nonexistent. what does get around is word of any significant battles at the locket, but even then it rarely gets out from around the border. most info they get about the other is based on rumors that tend to start near the border, and typically escalates into exaggeration due to their negative stereotypes of each other. even very important news like a change in leadership might not be heard of until years after the fact.
• almyran as a language is actually not too dissimilar from the language of fodlan. speaking-wise it’s not that difficult to learn, and most royalty and those who love and work near the border learn to speak it. however, they use very different writing systems, and few try to learn to read anything from fodlan since it’s so different.
• it’s traditional in almyra to have someone important to you braid a small part of your hair. for children it’s typically their parents, and as people get older it tends to be a significant other.
• almyra doesn’t have any kind of religion, but most people are spiritual on some level. there’s a general belief that nature is the foundation of everything, and is treated with a lot of respect.
• record keeping and history is considered incredibly important. being any kind of scribe, historian, or anything of the sort is one of the most respected jobs to have. being accused of purposefully writing an inaccurate account or report is also considered a serious offense. libraries are also everywhere across almyra, and the royal library in the palace is even open to the public. that library is actually one of the biggest buildings in the nation.
wow that ended up being a lot more than i initially planned. hopefully it was actually understandable and not just random ramblings lol. i know for a fact that government structure is probably not super cohesive or solid but hey i’m no expert. if you have any thoughts on these or any headcanons of your own, i’d love to hear them! almyra deserves more attention from this fandom and i don’t see nearly enough about it unfortunately. thanks for actually making it to end of this :)