Kia ora or G'day!

Name: Noa Kirkland
(Noa is the Maori form of Noah which is one of the most popular names in NZ presently for males)

Representative of: New Zealand

Gender: nb Masc

Age:
19 human
376 euro-historic
~1000 maori discovery

Brief personality:
Noa has a relatively mild and even temperament with a laid back attitude towards life. They have a particular soft spot for nature and animals and often prefer animals over humans. Conversations with him are typically brief and to the point, he's not really cold or particularly aloof they just tend to be relatively quiet and succinct. It's not that they're cold or standoffish so much as shy or uninterested in the conversation, however if you get them engaged they have a sunny positive personality and are highly intelligent. Their humor is often a bit blunt and sometimes dry but down to earth and often satirical. He's not against having a laugh at their own or others expense. His shyness however is actually deep rooted in the fact that his identity was once very flat and deeply tied to Arthurs while he was more involved in the commonwealth. Today he still struggles to separate himself from that culture but he is developing his identity with some help from Alfred, Jack and his fellow Oceania nations.


Brief physical description:
He's about 5'8 with curly brown hair that goes down to his shoulders but is typically up in a pony tail. Body type wise they're a bit chubby and even softer around the gut but have decent enough muscle mass, not as much as Jack (Australia). They're actually a bit on the hairy side body hair wise and can technically grow a beard but prefer to be clean shaven. Noa has a few noticeable scars, his right leg has a gnarly one that goes from his upper outer thigh to his knee which he got in a caving accident (inspired by tectonic activity in christchurch) he has a smaller, older more ragged scar on his right shoulder (volcanic ring in auckland) and a series of smaller burn scars on his left calf (water decimation of the otago planes).

His skin type means he has a couple of more noticable moles, one similar to Marilyn Monroe, one on his right collarbone and one on his stomach semi close to his belly button (belly button inspired by Lake Taupo, largest inactive volcano in the world, moles generally inspired by high skin cancer rates caused by UV ray intensity in NZ). Their eyes are warm brown. Clothing wise they typically dress casually and masculinely but during formal circumstances they wear the uniform they have in cannon. Their favourite clothing items are their blue swanndri, classic all blacks jersey and flip flops. They will never not be wearing their pounamu (greenstone) Toki - Adze (a sort of rectangle) necklace as it is deeply important to them.


Brief history:
New Zealand is a young country both geologically and by human discovery standards so it doesn't have a very extensive or especially dramatic history for the most part. Notable parts of it are that it was discovered inatally by Polynesians (who were later named Maori) between 1200-1300 AD and then during the year 1642 it was found by Europeans. Because historically Europeans are kinda assholes they did try to essentially wipe all Maori culture clean by fighting them off the Island however because Maori society was historically warfare based (they invented trench warfare actually :D) this was not on. Instead the Treaty of Waitangi was proposed and all the major Maori tribe leaders signed it along with a representative of The Queen (UK).

Then things calmed down a lot more and Europeans were actually able to settle here. Maori culture ended up being taken down more quietly as Maori people leaned harder into the culture europeans were bringing over while their children were forced to learn English instead of Te Reo. Today however New Zealand is making a much bigger attempt to keep Maori Culture alive with events such as Matariki being made into national holidays, Te Reo week and Te Reo being taught in schools. Genuine efforts are made to consult with tribes about usage of sacred land, traditions like the Haka being used in Rugby internationally mean that they are also not left to dust and cultural centers are being progressively built around the nation.

Today New Zealand is relatively stable and centralist politically with a focus on developing more socialist policies in the government, it is one of the most environmentally pure nations in the world despite the extensive deforestation that has happened to the native bush. It is primarily a neutral power having actually semi-split away from the UK while remaining on the  edges of the commonwealth and having refused to stay fully allied to America when it refused to remain part of the ANZUS agreement because America kept trying to bring their vessels through NZ waters without being screened for nuclear power during the 1980's. It does still have racial issues like all countries do but it was one of the first countries to speak up about the apartheid in South Africa during the Bok's tour of 1981. It was the first nation to legally allow gay marriage and one of the first to allow women to vote :D

Geologically it lies right along the Pacific ring of fire which means that it is at risk of a lot of volcanic activity (see Auckland) and earthquakes (Christchurch having gone through several disasters and the capital Wellington has regular minor shakes) but it also has a lot of incredible landscape with rolling hills, the beautiful Milford Sound and the awesome Southern Alps. Other parts of NZ are so young that the ground is still settling, Rotorua in particular has a lot of Geothermal activity. It is the closest nation to the antarctic and the second largest nation of Oceania behind Australia.

TDLR; NZ is pretty small and new but it's also pretty radsauce and open to development because of this!

Religious affiliation: agnostic but open to most religions, once was heavily christian

Any special powers or abilities: nope!