Yeah sorry maddoctor, but at present Quebec is mine
Jub, I should have all of Quebec as well, but to avoid squashing Imperial too much, I'll shift my boarder to a line starting at the southernmost point of Maine, up to Ottawa and then NNW up to that southern dick-shaped extension of Hudson Bay.
Good to know that the OTL-US parts of my nation are roughly the climate I wanted. Can I extend that further north so I can actually use most of the territory? I can live with some Northern Ice Wastes though, as long as they aren't too big. Also, is Hudson Bay navigable?
So, I am officially declaring the Empire of Orion (I told you I'd be re-using things). The Empire has existed in virtually it's current form for most of a thousand years and have always been among the largest and most advanced nations on the continent. They have led the way in the study of the natural universe, with Orion scientists claiming many great discoveries: calculus, details of optics, the heliocentric model, early experiments with electricity and so on). While not "industrialised" per se, agriculture is as advanced and efficient as possible given the time. Helping with this is magic.
Orion has always had a love-hate relationship with magic. Whilst lower-level magical ability is relatively commonplace (affecting perhaps one in four of the population) the Empire has historically produced very few high-level mages. Those that do exist are shunned, distrusted and disliked. Even among the common low and mid-level mages there is a curious and almost unique phenomenon. Virtually no Orion mages manifest what may be termed "offensive" magical abilities. You will not see an Orion war-mage throwing fireballs or summoning lightning.
That is not to say that magic is not used in Orion's army and navy. The most common ability found in Orion is telepathy, which is used to communicate armies and fleets over great distances. Telepath-choirs are found in all five of the major cities (the capital Hephaestus, Port Rigel, Bellatrix, Saiph and the cold northern city of Fenris) and most of the larger towns, these are used to spread news and gather information from all parts of the Empire.
In addition to using telepaths for communication between army units, it also has more immediate uses. A skilled war-mage (one or more of which is attached to every army unit of Company size or greater and every Navy ship of sixth rate of larger) can produce an extremely strong will to fight among their soldiers and can also make them appear far more terrifying to enemy troops. It is also believed that this magic also speeds up Orion soldier's reflexes, though this has not been confirmed.
A more civilian use for this telepathy is found in the police force. With telepaths (called Interromancers) on hand, it is virtually impossible to conceal a crime from them. Orion police and courts have a 99% arrest and conviction rate, leading to a consierably lower crime rate than might be expected from such a nation. As telepaths are able to establish guilt with extreme precision, it has become known throughout much of the continent "never lie to an Interromancer."
Among the more unique magical abilities found in Orion is the ability to lower an object's weight, making it easier to move. This ability is not common enough to be used on the scale of individual soldier's weapons, but it is used for artillery and in the construction of naval vessels, making the guns and ships lighter and easier to move. Thanks to a fortuitous discovery, it can also be applied to the gun's munitions as well.
Orion chemists, while attempting to discover a superior form of black powder for cannon, found a special additive that not only makes black powder burn slower (not quite smokeless powder, but think about half-way between that and black powder in terms of effectiveness) but also cancels this weight-lifting effect on the shot. Hence a gun crew can load what feels like a 12-pound shot into the gun, but once it fires the shot reverts to it's original 36-pound weight without losing any speed (OOC: yes I nicked the idea from Mass Effect).
As a result of this, ships of the Orion Imperial Navy are considerably more powerful than might otherwise be thought. Their ships are more maneuverable and can, on average, sail 4-5 knots faster than a comparably-sized enemy ship. With the weight-lifting magic, much heavier guns can be carried on the upper gundecks without compromising stability, meaning in a contest between an Orion 100-gun First Rate and a hostile ship of the same type, the Orion ship may fire perhaps twice as much weight of shot in a broadside.
The Empire of Orion as a nation is moderately xenophobic, has no organised religion (the old tribal faiths died out rather rapidly after magic users began appearing) and has an overall philosophy that anything and everything can be measured, understood and quantified. This is part of their love-hate approach to magic: the common lower-level abilities can be easily defined, measured and controlled. Higher-level abilities are too erratic, too illogical and too unsafe to their fellow humans to appeal to Orion.
As such, the Empire thinks very poorly of other nations that use such "offensive" war-mages or allow them to roam around uncontrolled. We have fought many wars over the years and we continue to be ready and willing to fight if provoked. Our Navy is among the strongest in the world, with powerful ships of the line cruising up and down the eastern seaboard keeping the maritime peace. Fast and powerful frigates patrol the Northern Sea and the Hudson Bay against pirates, bandits and the occasional sea-monster.
Our border with the rest of the continent runs in almost dead straight line north-west from the Atlantic coast to the Hudson Bay. This was decided on in order to make it easier to defend, with no exposed salients presenting weak points. The border itself is heavily fortified, anyone crossing it without authorization, in either direction, is shot.
OOC summary: Basically, nation of rationalists and scientists circa 1800, with added low-level magic use, no high-level crazy shit. However, I found a way to have radios (borrowing the astropath idea from 40K), Interromancers (again, 40K) and make my naval guns and land artillery even more awesome (heh). Strongly fortified border, have fought many wars in the past. Strong navy, strong army (not as large as others, but the telepathy and the boost morale/terrify enemy powers act as a force-multiplier).
We have some steam engines in use but nothing on an industrial scale as yet. We are working on it however, and if an Industrial Revolution were to happen in-game, it would probably be us that started it.