19. Onboarding & Nation Selection

Ten permanent choices are too many to preview one by one. Onboarding therefore narrows the choice in stages – families, then a shortlist of three, then hands-on previews – without hiding any nation, and nudges the population toward balance without forcing anyone.

19.1 First-session flow

1. Arrival (2 min): a cinematic flyover of the world of Harimu in Three.js; one line per nation; a title card: every nation is governed by AI – you will be one of its citizens.
2. AI disclosure (30 s, v0.7): a short card explaining that leaders, AI citizens and Notables are AI and always badged, that humans never hold office, and how human collective action outweighs AI citizens (Section 11.9).
3. Nation families (1 min): the ten are grouped by how power works – The Democracies (Kindle, Hoarvale, Veldwood), The Party States (Confluence, Meridian, Korund), Crown & Canon (Aurelle, Ilmar) and Power Blocs (Varkand, Fulmara) – with the comparison chart (Figure 2) one tap away. Two optional lenses re-sort the same ten: Money (free-floating: Kindle, Hoarvale, Veldwood, Fulmara; managed or pegged: Confluence, Meridian, Varkand; backed by gold or faith rules: Aurelle, Ilmar; no market money: Korund) and Faith (free: Kindle, Hoarvale, Veldwood, Fulmara; registered or supervised: Confluence, Meridian, Varkand; state faith: Aurelle, Ilmar; no faith allowed: Korund). No grouping is element-based any more.
4. Citizenship Questionnaire (optional, ~12 questions): play style (freedom vs security, solo vs collective, intrigue vs building, voting often vs rarely, wealth vs rank) plus two v0.3 questions – how much do you want to trade and speculate with money? and how central should faith be to your citizen’s life? – produces a shortlist of three nations, weighted toward under-populated ones (Section 19.2) – never forced; ‘browse all ten’ is always visible.
5. ‘Day in the Life’ previews (5–8 min): short guided vignettes in the three shortlisted nations (or any three the player picks): vote for an AI candidate in Kindle, swing a by-election that topples an AI coalition in Hoarvale, pledge to an AI pretender in Aurelle, beat a quota under Korund’s AI Chairman, pass a checkpoint in Varkand, sign an initiative in Veldwood, bid for a share in Fulmara, collect rations with a coupon book in Korund, seek an audience in Aurelle, keep the dawn Vigil in Ilmar, collect the Citizen Dividend in Veldwood.
6. Nation choice + Oath of Citizenship: two-step confirmation of permanence (Section 5.2), with a clear note that one free change is allowed within 48 real hours as long as no political action has been taken.
7. Character creation: name (filtered), appearance within the nation’s rules, starting job preference, and faith from the options the nation allows (or Unaffiliated; Korund offers an optional hidden faith).
8. Tutorial quests (first 3 real days): job, economy, civic action and social steps tailored to the nation (in Varkand, folded into National Service).

19.2 Balancing population across ten nations

With ten nations, an even share is 10% of enrollments each. Since v0.7 imbalance is far less dangerous – AI leaders always govern and AI citizens fill population – but a nation with few humans still has weak collective action, so balancing still matters. Balancing uses the levers below, in order of increasing force. All thresholds are [ASSUMPTION – tune in alpha and Early Access].