Countries and Identity

Names, aliases, tags, flags, colours, reputation, leaders, and countries that hold no land at all.

A country in Open Historia is not a row in a table of stats. It is a name, a set of things it is known for, a reputation, a flag, a colour, and whatever territory it holds — and the world reads all of that when deciding how to treat it.

Identity and names

Every country is known by one name, and that name is its identity. A scenario keeps a registry of its countries — independently of the regions they hold, so a country can exist with no land at all — and region ownership, the colour palette, flags, tags, statistics, diplomacy, the war records and your standing goal are all kept under that name.

Three practical consequences:

In the map editor, typing a new country name creates that country. There is no separate "add nation" step: type a name nobody has yet as a region's owner and press Enter (or Create), and the country is made and given the region. Leaving the field only ever assigns a country that already exists, so a typo cannot quietly mint a one-province country.
Renaming moves the country, not just its label. A country renamed after a revolution keeps every region, flag, tag, colour, statistic, conversation and war record: the rename carries all of it over to the new name, and the map labels it by that name. A name that already belongs to another country is refused — a rename cannot merge two countries. The world renames a country you do not play only on a regime change, a change in its fundamental way of governing, never for a new leader or ruling party; your own country is renamed whenever you order it.
Territory handed to a country that does not exist yet founds it, under exactly the name given.

Countries also carry aliases: alternative names the game will recognise as the same country. This is what lets a scenario use a historical name while still matching modern data. A rename in play keeps the old name among them, so events and conversations written under it still find the country; a rename in the map editor keeps no old name, since everything that used it is renamed with it.

The country card

Click a country, then ⓘ on its map card. The card shows the country's flag (Flag changes it), its tags, its Alternative Names, its Sovereign Regions and, where they differ, the regions it holds that are not its own (Controlled, Not Sovereign) and its own that someone else holds (Under Foreign Control). Below them are its Related Events, which you can search and filter by importance, and two buttons: Advisor Report, an AI reading of the country on request, and Open Diplomacy.

On beta the card does more. It says what you know of any puppet arrangement the country is part of, and has a Stats button, which opens the country in the Country panel (see national statistics).

Reputation

International reputation runs 0–100, where 0 is a pariah and 100 is universally trusted.

It moves only when a turn's events genuinely change how a country is seen — breaking a treaty, brokering a peace, being caught doing something indefensible. It is not a score you grind up; it is a summary of how you have behaved.

Low reputation makes diplomacy harder in exactly the way you would expect: fewer countries will take your word, and more will assume the worst reading of what you do.

Intelligence rating

Also 0–100, and it works the same way — moved by events, absent meaning ordinary (40). It is the espionage system's master statistic. See espionage and national statistics.

Leaders

A country has a named leader, stored on its stat sheet. When a leader is overthrown, assassinated, dies, resigns or is voted out, the successor's name is written there as part of the same event — so the stat sheet and the story never disagree about who is in charge.

The leader is who you are talking to in diplomacy, and their voice changes when they change.

On beta a country has a government, not just a leader. A scenario can generate its Political World: each country's government, its head of state and head of government, and the parties or power blocs that compete for it. The 🏛 Politics tab of the Country panel shows them (see the Politics tab), and the panel says whether a country is a Major power, Regional power or Minor power.

Colours

How a country paints on the map. Resolution order:

The scenario's own palette.
A colour explicitly set on the country.
A match against the country's aliases.
A colour derived from the name itself.

Step 4 is the fallback that guarantees every country has a colour, including one you invented five seconds ago and never picked a colour for. It is also why two countries very occasionally land on similar shades — the derivation does not know about the rest of the map.

Flags

Countries can carry a flag from the built-in set, from a scenario's own flag pack, or from a community flag pack. Invented factions can pick one or go without. In play, Flag on a country's card changes its flag.

The diplomacy and spy pickers show the scenario's own flags, and a flag changed mid-campaign updates live. One deliberate rule: a country that holds no land never borrows a real country's flag. A government in exile that happens to share a name with a modern state does not get that state's flag, because it is not that state.

Landless countries

A country can exist while holding no territory at all: governments in exile, national movements, international organisations, rebel administrations. They are full participants — they talk, they are talked about, they can be spied on, and they can acquire territory later. An armed force that holds ground without being a country at all is a group instead.

You can play one. It is a genuinely different game: nothing to defend, nothing to lose territorially, and everything resting on what you can talk other people into.

Inventing a country

The Create a faction tab of the new-game picker creates one. You choose the name, colour, flag, starting regions (or none), and — the part that matters most — the lore.

The lore is read by the world. A faction with a paragraph explaining who you are, what you want and why you exist gets treated as that thing. A faction with a blank lore field is a blank to everyone, and gets treated accordingly. It is worth writing properly.

Any regions you claim at creation are taken from whoever held them, and that country will have opinions.

On beta, Create a faction is part of Play as a group. The picker's second tab is Play as a group. Where the scenario has groups, you lead one of its groups or make a new one, which controls an area without owning it. In a scenario with groups switched off, the same form invents a country, as above.

Editing countries mid-campaign

The cheats panel has a Country Editor — the country's name and colour, and, once it has a stat sheet, the sheet itself: population, GDP and growth, capital, currency, stability, inflation, unemployment, debt, budget balance, the six strategic indices (international reputation among them) and the GDP sector split — and an Add Country tool. Useful for repairing a country the simulation has drifted on, or for authoring the world by hand.

On beta the Country Editor also edits the country's Political World: its government and political system, its strategic outlook, its parties and power blocs, and its political traits.

National statistics — the numbers behind a country.
Diplomacy — dealing with them.
Territory — what they hold.

Open Historia is under active development on two channels, and this wiki is written by hand — a page can fall behind a release. Last checked against the game on 2026-10-25 · main 6e6239c4 · beta d7e8fa85. If something here does not match what you see in the game, trust the game and say so on Discord.