Helman

"Barres Province"

- on Helman.

General Info


The Helman Empire is the oldest Human nation in the current era, and boasts the largest infantry, specially trained from an early age, it is truly an elite military nation. Helman is a country in the northern parts of The Continent. Its lands are cold and barren, which made the lives of its citizens very harsh.

Population: Approx. 51 million

Capital: Lang Bau

Leader: Sheila Helman

Originally established as a Republic Nation, upon the enthronement of the Empress in LP0002, the government shifted to Imperialism instead.

The leader of the nation was Empress Sheila Helman, but she was only used a puppet, being the chancellor Stessel Romanov the one that held the actual power. Under the command of Stessel, the government was sank in utter corruption, and the nation's power has been reduced to half of its former glory. Even then, it still overwhelms  Leazas  in both sheer population and military forces.

During the years of Stessel's ruling, the nation greatly weakened, with many dying from hunger, diseases or the living conditions, aproximately 12 million people died in just a few years. In LP0006 a revolution took place after the exiled prince Patton Misnarge, who was deemed dead upon Empress Sheila's enthronement, returned to the country and formed the Helman Revolutionary Army with the objective of taking down Stessel. The bloody revolution took many lives, but Stessel was killed and Helman shifted back to Republicanism, with Sheila given the position of President as a result and holding real political power this time.

Political Structure
Helman was originally a National Republic, with a comittee of eight trustees that would help govern the nation with the Emperor.

As of the year LP0002, the political system has been overhauled to imperialism, the country name was changed to "Helman Empire". Many of its members either died, defected or were removed from power and, after the Helman Revolution, the nation has yet to fully re-establish this group.

Council of Eight
The Council is a group of political leaders that lead the national power along with the emperor, distributing different roles among the economical and military affairs. While it was made to avoid an absolutistic power set in one person, the group was terribly corrupted and/or incompetent in the most recent years, with the ones that were well intended being either imprisoned or abandoning the position for other reasons.

After the events of the Helman Revolution, all of its remaining members perished and the group was disbanded with the change of the political institution in the country.

Living Conditions
As Helman is primarily a military state, most of the budget goes into army maintenance and training facilities.

This means that Helman has the most poverty of the three great nations, with many people living very poor lives without food, housing or education.

Most able-bodied young men are drafted into the military and even the women are brought in to work heavy industry, wages are generally poor and most can't even support their families. Helman is also a nation notorious for having prominent sexism and discrimination towards women, who are mostly seen as inferior, especially in the military.



Despite the extreme poverty, there is actually a cache of 100 million gold in the Emperor Palace, though that is reserved for personal use by the royal family. The fact that Helman is situated in the frozen north doesn't help the situation either, crops cannot be grown and the only precious resources are rare metals.

To the west is a border to the Monster Realm but they are secured by a long Fortress called Banra Fort. The structure is mundane compared to Zeth's Maginot Line, with just a fortress made of rocks and simple catapults. However, it is secured by strong Helman soldiers, and the other side of the borders is ruled by the Hornet Faction, which is a non-aggressive moderate faction that seeks peaceful coexistance with humanity, which means Helman has yet to receive a heavy attack from the Monster Realm.

Despite all these negative points, with the reform after the Helman Revolution and the fall of Stessel from power, things will likely start to improve.

Trivia

 * Helman is based heavily on the real life country of Russia, being a massive military nation with cold climate and poor farmland that relies on conquest and warfare to maintain its economy. The tendency for Helmanian men to be tall and well-built is also derived from a common stereotype about Russian men.
 * In the Rance Series, Helman is the country with the largest number of male characters by far.