Nation

Nations are the personifications that exist within the Hetalia universe.

What is a Nation?

Nations are entities that personify real-world countries. They have the physical appearance and most traits of a human, but they also possess some supernatural capabilities.

"World☆Stars Chapter 1" introduces a few key elements about Nations, namely that they can live anywhere between a few days to several centuries, that they can disappear one day and reappear again later, called back by "somebody's sudden memory". It is also stated that they can change names and personalities over time, which was shown on multiple occasions in Hetalia, and that they let their bosses order them around.

Birth

How exactly Nations are born is uncertain, and there seems to be more than one possible scenario. In "World☆Stars Chapter 12", a footnote states that most Nations are born as babies, implying a growth process similar to that of humans (albeit with a much slower metabolism), but Germany was said to look a little older at birth because "he already had an existing body". It has since been confirmed that this was because Holy Roman Empire and Germany are the same entity despite the latter having no recollection of his early life (more detail on the Rumors and Misconceptions page).

Nations do not come into existence as newborns, but rather as toddlers. Examples of Nations in their earliest days include America ("The Battle for America" adapted in Episode 39 and Episode 40), Egypt, Greece, Japan ("The Story about the Early Days of China and Japan" adapted in Episode 16), and more recently Iceland ("World☆Stars Chapters 114-118").

Iceland's childhood told in World☆Stars is so far the only case of a Nation's first awakening shown on-screen. It reveals that Nations are born with the ability to speak as well as an advanced state of consciousness, but they're unaware of what being a Nation entails beyond the fact that they can sense a difference between themselves and humans (which humans can also sense, since they're confidently able to identify the personification of their land).

Death

Nations cannot permanently die from things like physical wounds, illnesses, or old age (more information below). However, in situations where their people cease to exist, they seem to to move on to another plane of existence; the most concrete examples to exist so far are Ancient Rome and Germania. Germania describes this condition as "attaining eternal peace" and "being liberated from bosses and war".

This "moving on" is ambiguous, as Nations who have moved on are still able to occasionally interact with humans and other Nations, but seem to still go through the process of physical decay as described with Rome and Germania (described as "having rotten to bones"). This is so far the only explicit evidence of the "death" process. It also seems like deceased Nations cannot interact with the physical world as they please, as "Grandpa Rome’s Visit Home" mentions Rome sending a "home visit request" to God, which was then approved.

Rome especially has a tendency to keep in touch with the physical world, which usually means appearing to other Nations through dreams or in person ("Together with Grandpa Rome" adapted in Episode 32). He also appears as some sort of supernatural occurence singing the infamous Heaven And Hell On Earth song on multiple occasions.

Germany is a very special case, as he was technically reborn from Holy Roman Empire 65 years after the latter's dissolution. While HRE was explicitly said and shown to suffer from a quickly declining health and nearing death, what happened to him between his official dissolution and the "birth" of Germany is unknown.

Poland stands in a grey area canon-wise. While he has never explicitly been said to have died like previously cited characters, he gained the nickname of "phoenix" by surviving several occurences of his territory being completely absorbed by other entities (namely after multiple partitions and annexations, more detail in Poland's Biography section). However, it is unknown whether or not that counted as "death", and what exactly happened to him during times where Poland did not exist as its own geographical entity.

Familial Relations

A lot of Nations are canonically related to other Nations. This is due to multiple factors such as a shared History, geographical entities being split apart and reuniting later down the line, cultural influence and/or mentorship, or ancestry through the evolution of the ancient peoples. Canon material seem to distinguish three categories of relatives.

True Relatives

These Nations are bound by a lot of overlap in their historical territories (which remain relatively similar to the modern-day countries) and shared History that still unites them in some way, shape or form in the present day. These include Italy Veneziano and Italy Romano, Germany and Prussia, (split apart then reunited as one single territory), as well as ancestry. The former territory of Ancient Rome along with its people became the Italy brothers and possibly Romania, while Germania eventually gave place to Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Prussia, Holy Roman Empire and Sweden. Austria's Hetalia☆Collezione profile states that he, Germany and Prussia are cousins, and although no further information was given for the other Germanic-descendant Nations, it is safe to assume the same logic may apply to the rest of them.

Iceland and Norway fall under this category because despite being colozined by the Norwegians, Iceland did not have any indigenous people, making Norsemen settlers the first actual inhabitants of the island and de facto making modern Icelanders distant descendants of ancient Norwegian people. This relationship is explained in "Wordy Nordic Comic" (adapted in Extra Episode 1).

Romania and Moldova also fall under this category (as mentioned in Hetalia☆Collezione) despite still being two separate territories.

Sworn Relatives

Some Nations are referred to as "sworn siblings" in Hetalia☆Collezione. It is unclear why exactly some specific characters were labelled as such and not others, but the pattern seems to be that sworn siblings have neighboring territories which may or may not have overlapped at some point in History, but developped as separately into adulthood without being united as one territory later down the line like examples cited above. This would include America and Canada. This category also seems to translate real-world alliances that unite specific countries, such as Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg (the Benelux Union) or Switzerland and Liechtenstein (with Switzerland historically safeguarding Liechtenstein's interests).

This also includes relationships between Micronations and their anchor Nation (though only Monaco and France's relationship has been explicitly described as such).

Adoption/Custody

So far, the only canon case of adoption is that between Sweden and Sealand. After Sweden won Sealand's auction by being the only bidder, the Micronation has been regularly shown living under Sweden's roof (such as in "The Nice Products that Come from Scandinavia are…" adapted in Episode 79, or "The Creation of Dambolis" adapted in What Italy Forgot), and Sweden has been referred to as Sealand's "papa" on multiple occasions, reinforcing his new role as a father figure to Sealand. More information on their main articles.

Ladonia has also been depicted multiple times as depending on Sweden and implied to live in the same house as him where Ladonia and the Nordics wait for Santa to arrive at Sweden's house. (probably by default because real-world Ladonia is located on Swedish territory), and Wy even confronted him about Sweden being supposedly his guardian. Ladonia even once caught himself almost calling Sweden "papa",^{[citation needed]} hinting that he secretly feels a deeper bond to the Nation he depends on. More information on their main articles.

Situations where Nations gain "custody" of others mostly reflects cases of real-world colonization. Some on-screen examples are America being fought over before England ultimately takes him in and raises him as his younger brother ("The Battle for America" adapted in Episode 39 and Episode 40) or Italy Romano being handed over to Spain and raised as a servant.

Traits

Immortality

Nations are immortal, living for as long as their people continue to exist. They are capable of living for hundreds or even thousands of years, and some have been shown to struggle with the fact they will outlive the people they meet, therefore sometimes trying to avoid forming deep bonds with humans.^{[citation needed]}

The longevity of Nations also rubs off on animals that spend a lot of time around them (such as Hanatamago or Pochi), though if these animals were to be separated from their owners their lives would continue normally. Additionally, if a normal human had prolonged exposure to a Nation in the same way their pets do, then that person's perception of time would become so warped that they would eventually lose their mind.

In addition to longevity, a Nation's immortality also includes rapid healing and an inability to truly die from fatalities. More detail below.

Health

While Nations cannot die from physical wounds or illnesses, they are not immune to suffering. In The Hetalian Horror Show, Finland recalls a scary incident in which he fell into a frozen lake, and while he admits that his story might not sound scary to another Nation because they are well aware of the fact that they cannot die, he also emphasizes that Nations "suffer alongside humans".

Common symptoms such as congested nose, sneezing, headache, muscle or joint pain/soreness and fever are also widespread occurences in Nations. Some examples include England catching a strong fever in "England Caught a Cold" (adapted in Episode 57 and Episode 58), Russia exhibiting mild symptoms in "A Wise Man has No Specialty" (adapted in Together with Russia) or another similar case with Japan in the World☆Stars Volume 3 extras (adapted in Industrial Revolution - Part 5).

Nations are capable of being injured, but seem to quickly recover from them due to their nature. Russia, for example, once jumped from a plane and broke several bones but did not die nor seemed to suffer long-lasting consequences from it.

Another instance shows Prussia being bitten by one of Germany's dogs. Germany isn't overly worried about it, guessing that it'll heal right away, but the last panel shows the dog itself puzzled at the fact that the bite was inflicted a week prior. This not only confirmed that recovery time (at least for minor wounds) is extremely fast for Nations, but also that their immune system can be compromised. Prussia specifically has been theorized to have a declining health due to his possible future disappearance.

Other than that, Nations still experience the same physiological needs as humans (such as hunger, thirst or tiredness). Although they can't die from consequences of not fulfilling those needs, they experience them with the same intensity and at the same rate as humans. It also seems to be the same when it comes to alcohol intake.

Universal Language

Nations speak their own native languages, and are capable of learning and speaking other languages too, but they also have their own universal language that only they can understand. This universal language is important to them as it allows them to communicate in all situations, for example, with Nations who were just recently born and have not had any contact with the world outside of their people yet.

Nonlinear Growth and Aging

Nations do not age or grow at a steady or consistent rate. Instead, a Nation's aging is determined by a variety of different factors (such as when the real-world country was founded or first recorded, economical or cultural growth, and times of peace or war among others), and the rate at which they age is ever changing and is different for each Nation.

Micronations are stuck in a perpetual stage of childhood or early teenagehood due to the fact that they are self-proclaimed and de facto not independent territories, their limited political power and their restricted (singular landmark like Sealand, Ladonia or Kugelmugel) or fictive (Aerican Empire) geographical area.

Moldova and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are currently the youngest Nations of the cast, although no official explanation was given as to their childish appearance. The most likely hypotheses is that the former consistently ranks among the lowest when it comes to economical growth, and the latter is a contested state only officially recognized by Turkey, which it entirely depends on for economic, political and military support.

Magical/Spiritual Capabilities

Some Nations are able to perceive and interact with supernatural creatures of human folklore, but not all of them do (this is largely based on each Nation's personal beliefs). England, Norway, Iceland and Belarus^{[citation needed]} have been canonically confirmed to possess the ability to see supernatural entities, and some of them even consider some of these creatures as pets or companions (trolls and fairies sometimes ask for Norway's advice, and England's companions inclue the Flying Mint Bunny and a unicorn, which he gave to America). More detail on the Creatures of Hetalia page.

England is also capable of seeing Japanese yōkai (as shown in "Ghost Culture of England and Japan" adapted in Episode 30), but Japan himself can no longer see them. There doesn't seem to be any kind language barrier between Nations and the entities they interact with, no matter their region of origin.

Whether or not Sweden can see supernatural entities has been purposely left unsaid.

Status Within Society

Despite being different from humans, Nations still serve a role and purpose within the society that humans created. In the modern day, most Nations are loosely considered as government officials, and organize their own meetings to discuss national and international matters separately from humans (these events have been called "World Meetings" or a variant of that term). Their tasks include what human diplomats or representatives would do, which essentially consists in negotiations and compromises to protect their own intrests and that of their allies.

However, they ultimately obey their chief of state, sometimes blindly so and even if they personally disagree with the human in charge; many real-world historical figures have made a canon appearance in Hetalia. Germany has notably shown blind trust in his past boss (Adolf Hitler), obeying his bizarre requests and not believing that he would be unstable enough to imprison the personification of his own country. Despite that, Germany did not hide his disapproval when he was asked to annex Austria by all means necessary ("The Austrian Anschluss" adapted in Episode 75).

More examples of Nation-boss interactions can be found on the List of Human Characters page.

Despite not intervening directly into human affairs and rather being a reflection of what their peoples are up to, it seems like some Nations can still make important choices for themselves, such as voting for their chief of state.