Happy Happy WBW! <33 So, Magnolia. Tell me about it please, because it sounded suuuch a fun country as a story element! I imagined that all of it's people love fashion, but how society there looks like there anyway? And how magic affected it, how they perceive magic? A country full of artists can be chaotic as hell lol but I love the idea. OH ALSO, is any aspect of it related to the flower magnolia?
Yesssss!!!! I would love to!!! Thank you for the ask!!! ❤️❤️❤️
(In my very first world-building draft notes, this was their flag. I will definitely make a better one some day, but visuals always look nice on long texts posts. Have an eye break before I ramble on forever lmao).
Obviously Magnolia isn't a totally homogenous culture and their population is pretty diverse with varied interests, same as any real-world country, but there is DEFINITELY a cultural emphasis on aesthetics, art, poetry, creation, etc. While some cultures have cornerstones of "hard work leads to success" or whatever, Magnolia has the philosophy of "your quality of life is greatly impacted by your environment. Let's make it as beautiful as possible", and with varying definitions of "beautiful" in the different regions of Magnolia. Also, yes, they are definitely viewed as the most fashionable country in the world! Even a more casually dressed Magnolian will look more colorful and put together than, say, your average Crestwall citizen. When they were invited to the cultural exchange by Crestwall, they had Met Gala-levels of dresses and outfits created for the visit!
Art and public works projects are very well-funded, and most of the artists who "make it big" have the cultural expectation of being patrons to other artists, architects, poets, etc. starting out. While differences are celebrated, there is a pervasive idea of "communal inspiration", the concept that interactions big and small may inspire someone else and that art is a product of your time and materials, but also the inspiration and support from the entire community.
Magic is hugely embraced in Magnolia! Instead of an "apocalypse", the Hour of Magic was viewed as the world itself evolving. Geographically, Magnolia was lucky to not have very many abyssal wealds, so monsters aren't much of an everyday threat for the average Magnolian. With magic to make life easier, Magnolians as a whole feel their civilization can focus on culture. Like that John Adam's quote: "I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy...in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.” Magnolia believes themselves to be at the apex of their civilization and with a strong Alliance with the other countries, they feel fairly secure. They are in their #tapestry and pottery era. 😎😎😎
I'm not 100% done developing their government, but my idea is that they have a royal family because that's just very romantic and they love that ✨👑🌹royal-core🌹👑✨ aesthetic, but any significant decisions are put to a popular vote (and I'm pretty sure their sovereigns are just flat out elected. So basically they are a democracy with the visuals of a monarchy (in the same way that modern readers love a good fantasy royal but are probably anti-monarchy irl.)).
"OH ALSO, is any aspect of it related to the flower magnolia?"
Yessss but not in the way you'd think!!! The deity that they worship is named Magnol. Magnol is known to be a very beautiful being no matter their form, so the Magnolia flower, and the country, was named after them! (I really liked the name as a country since it immediately evokes images of a very beautiful place, but I didn't want to use too many real-world influences. This was a way to sneak in our world's flower lmao).
Thank you again for the ask!!! Magnolia is probably my least fleshed-out country at this point, and they are definitely deeper than they appear, but I like what I have so far!
