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Astraios (Ἀστραῖος "starry"), officially the Republic of Astraios, is the first and only superterrestrial country. The orbiting mega-station began construction in 2020, was completed in 2030, and granted nationhood the following year. It is comprised of 5 states: Boreas, Notus, Eurus, Zephyrus and Eos. Many debate its legitimacy as a country, as it is man-made and does not belong to any continent, however, as it has its own government and is a member of the UN, it is defined as a country.

Astraios was first created as an attempt to recreate an Earth-like environment in a foreign location, so that in the future, colonisation of planets could be very simple and provide a familiar environment for humans. Nowadays, however, Astraios has become the home of many, and turned from a simple science experiment into a nation thousands are proud to call home, with many expressing a passionate patriotism toward the country.

Naming conventions
The name Astraios is derived from the Greek astrological deity and Titan-god of the same name. Four of the five states are named after the four Anemoi ("Winds"): Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus, whom Astraios was father to. The capital state, Eos, is named after the titansess and wife of Astraios. The five non-capital cities, Stilbon, Hesperos, Pyroeis, Phaethon, and Phainon, are all also named after descendants of Astraios. They are the known as the Astra Planeta, or, the Wandering Stars — planets. Their Roman equivalents are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn respectively. It is said that Phainon (Saturn) was chosen to be the name of the central (but not capital) city, as the outside of Astraios forms a ring around it (paralleling Saturn's rings), however, this is believed to be anecdotal as no official information has stated that this is the case. The capital city and state capital of Eos is Astraea, which is named after the final descendant of Astraios and Eos, Astraea, goddess of innocence and purity.

Political Geography
Astraios has five states: Eos, Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus. The state's capitals are Astraea, Stilbon, Hesperos, Pyroeis, and Phaethon respectively. Referring to the picture on the left, Eos is the middle circle, and Astraea is the smallest circle within it. The top-right quadrant is Boreas, and the topmost city is its capital, Stilbon. Continuing clock wise is Notus and Hesperos, Eurus and Pyroeis, and Zephyrus and Phaethon. The outline around the quadrants is a kilometer wide workplace for the scientists monitoring and maintaining the quadrants.

Environmental Geography
The four quadrants each contain wildly varying environments to cover a wide range of flora and fauna. All of the plants and animals are heavily genetically modified, to live longer and fruit more. Zephyros is a tropical area, often used as a resort to the Astraise. Boreas is a snowy taiga, home to polar bears, penguins and other cold-inclined animals, and the large Mount Zeus. Notos is a humid rain forest, with a thick canopy and large many wild species of animals. Eurus is a completely subnautic coral reef, modelled after the Great Australian Reef, and comically named the Greater Astraise Reef. Eos is a giant urban metropolis.

Religion
The religion of the Astraise is called Originism. It is the belief that, due to cause and effect, one thing happened because of another, which happened because of another, and so on. Continuing going back, Earth was created because of something, which was caused by the beginning of the universe. The Astraise believe that they can obtain complete knowledge by finding a singular formula which defines the universe, and using this, simulate the inception of the universe and learn everything there is to know.

Language
The official language of Astraios is Simple English. This is a derivative of English in which the symbols of the IPA are used instead of the traditional English letters. This language was created as somewhat of a compromise so that English-speakers would not have to learn new vocabulary, while at the same time, non-native speakers would not have to face some of the inconsistencies of traditional English (for instance, tear and tier are pronounced the same, whilst tear and tear are not).

For example, the sentence:"Man, I have a great Global Innovations teacher!"becomes:"mæn, ɑɪ hæv eɪ ɡreɪt ɡləʊbɔːl ɪnəʊveɪʃʌns tiːt͡ʃɜːr"The phrase:"Cough, rough, though, through, thorough"which appears it should rhyme, however doesn't, looks a lot more distinct in Simple English:"kɒːf, rʌf, əʊ, ruː, ʌrə"And the phrase:"Pony, bologna"which, does rhyme, but doesn't look like it should, becomes:"pəʊniː, bæləʊni"which is much clearer.

While Simple English provides some aid to learning the language, it can only help with pronunciation, and grammatical idiosyncrasies (word plurals, tenses, etc.) will still have to be learnt over time.

Numerical System
While retaining the traditional "1, 2, 3, 4..." of terrestrial countries, the Astraise are a lot looser when it comes to base. Terrestrial countries, especially Western ones, retain a basic decimal system, a base-10 number system. This means that every tenth object becomes on set of ten in the next column. The Astraise, on the other hand, may use a multitude of bases. Consider 2 dozen eggs. Usually, we would say this is 24 eggs. The Astraise, however, may say that this is 20[C] eggs. Throwing one egg on someone's face would leave you with 23 on Earth, but in Astraios, you'd have 1B[C]. You see, where non-Astraise would count 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and then loop back to zero in the units and put a one in the tens columns — "10"—the Astraise can count up to 35 (36 digits if you include 0) before having to put a digit in the next column. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, and then, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.... etc, up to 1X, 1Y, 1Z, 20. It is quite niche to use base-36 (denoted as n[Z], as you can count up to Z in the units column) as previously demonstrated. Whenever writing a number in a given base, the highest unit value is put in brackets ([]) to signify the base. If there is no base identifier, context may be used. e.g. Egg and month counts are in base-12 (n[C]).

Consider the following: You have 5 weeks and 3 days until holidays. It is quite clunky to say "5 weeks and 3 days", but confusing to say "38 days" (the person you are talking to would now have to work out how many weeks that is). Instead, on Astraios you could say "53[6] days" (the start bracket is pronounced "en", therefore "fifty three en six days).  Now the person you are talking to knows how many weeks and it is also smoother than saying "5 weeks and 3 days".  Just like how in English when we reach 10 we put a one in the next column (10), signifying one set of 10, when you reach 7 in base-7/n[6], we put a one in the next column, signifying one set of seven — a week.  10 in base-7 is the same as 7 in base-10 (this many: OOOOOOO).

The following tables translate between bases:

Flag
The flag of Astraios is a light blue, chevron-like shape pointing to a white five-pointed star on a black background. The blue represents humanity and the human race and the sky we like under. The shape of the blue represents the frontier of science and it pointing towards the star signifies that Astraios is the first step in advancing humanity towards colonising the stars. The star is five-pointed, representing the five states of Astraios. The black represents the unknown and the vast emptiness of space.

Just the answers to the questions
1.      Astraios [uh-stree-us] – a mission to create an Earth like environment in space

2.      Orbiting Earth (i.e. it has no exact location on Earth as it moves)

3.      The outside is split into four distinct districts; Notos, a humid rainforest with many trees forming a thick canopy; Zephyros, a tropical area with sand and palm trees; Boreas, a snowy taiga with small mountains; and underwater coral reef. These all, of course were artificially made to sustain a wide variety of flora and fauna, while at the same time use genetically modified plants that grow quickly and produce a lot of fruit and oxygen.

4.      The climate depends on what environmental quadrant you are in. In the rainforest it – quite obviously – rains often, and is generally quite humid. In the tropical area it is very hot and windy. In the taiga it is often lightly snowing, however sometimes more forceful sleet occurs. In the ocean biome it is quite cold underwater but sun still penetrates the top of the water. Remember, all these climates are artificial. All sunlight is sunlight that has been caught from the sun, flowed through the station’s “mirror tubes”, until they are diffused appropriately in the quadrants. Wind is simulated with large fans. Rain, hail and snow are simulated via sprinkler systems.

5.      The people of Astraios are scientists from various fields, supervisors that manage the scientists, hotel workers for the centered hotel, or children of the aforementioned people. They are a group of about 1,000,000 altogether, quite small for a country, however, considering there are no office workers, and only a small group of jobs are necessary, this is quite reasonable.

6.      The culture of Astraios is a group of workaholics. Hard working is considered one of, if not the most attractive trait. They are dedicated to advancing the front of science.

7.      The religion of the Astraise is called Originism. It is the belief that, due to cause and effect, one thing happened because of another, which happened because of another, and so on. Continuing going back, Earth was created because of something, which was caused by the beginning of the universe. The Astraise believe that they can obtain complete knowledge by finding a singular formula which defines the universe, and using this, simulate the inception of the universe and learn everything there is to know.

8.      Astraios is a Federal presidential constitutional republic