Kasnia

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Kasnia is a fictional country which appears in the Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman cartoons.

Kasnia appears to be a Balkan country that is wracked by civil war between the Northern and Southern factions of the country. The Northern Kasnias are composed of tribes and have the appearance of a guerrilla movement. The Southern Kasnians appear to be a regular military and there is some evidence that they are the 'legitimate' government of the nation.

Kasnia is an authoritarian monarchy ruled by the jet setting Queen Audrey of Kasnia who was briefly married to Vandal Savage. The wedding of Vandal Savage and Queen Audrey appeared to be Greek Orthodox in nature and it is likely that it is the religion of the Southern Kasnians. This is chronicled in the Justice League two-parter Maid of Honor.

Kasnia suffered terrible economic woes with the funding of a destroyed World Space Station (secretly a weapon for Vandal Savage) and later by civil war (also in Maid of Honor). The civil war was briefly made even more intense when the overwhelmed Northern Kasnians were given a mobile battlesuit by the Greek god Ares. Though the Northerners and Southerners stopped fighting when they realized they were being manipulated by the god, it is clear that they intended to resume their fighting. This is chronicled in the Justice League Unlimited episode Hawk and Dove.

The subsequent episode The Great Brain Robbery revealed that the country was eventually unified and joined the European Union, joining the Euro. The Legion of Doom attempted to steal a shipment of Euros as they were being transported into the country. Despite this apparent improvement in the country's political situation, as well as Audrey's connections to the League, especially Wonder Woman (her good friend from Maid of Honor), it appears that things ultimately deteriorated. In Rebirth, the pilot two-parter of Batman Beyond, Kasnian ambassador Vilmos Egans (who briefly appears as a background character at the ISS reception in Maid of Honor, Part 1) arrives in Gotham just in time to do business with Derek Powers. Powers was developing a new kind of terribly fatal nerve gas, the topic of which cost future Batman Terry McGinnis' father his life. That Kasnia would do business for such a weapon suggests that the country continues to experience conflict and strife. Another Batman Beyond reference to Kasnia is in the episode "Spellbinding", where the auction house director is locking up the "Princess Audrey Collection" of dresses.

Kasnia first appeared in the Superman series, where it hired John Corben to steal a military battle suit from Lexcorp during Superman's first high-profile debut in Metropolis. A faction of the Kasnian military later attempted to purchase a large number of high tech arms from Gotham mobsters The Penguin, Rupert Thorne, and the assassin Bane. Given Queen Audrey's connections, it seems likely that it was the Northern Kasnians rather than the Southern. The Northerners never received these arms and likely intend to retaliate against the Penguin along with Thorne for cheating them.

[edit] Trivia

In The Great Brain Robbery, a location in Kasnia is listed at the coordinates 45°9'8" N, 19°58'13" E. This places the nation in the former Yugoslavia. The second coordinate is unclear: although it appears to be 19°58'13", the 8 is obscured. Neither does the E actually appear; however, if one assumes it to be "West", the coordinates point to the middle of the Atlantic.