Advice for Creating Countries

Quick Summary
A good place to start is by thinking up a core concept for the country, something that really defines it which can range from the mundane, such as specialising in trade or military conquest, to the extraordinary, like being governed by werewolves or having access to advanced technology; it can (and sometimes should) be a cross of both the extraordinary and mundane, as extraordinary places still require mundane things to function and a country that's too mundane/generic runs the risk of being boring.

Summarise this idea in as few sentences as possible, ideally one or two, or a short paragraph at most; You can expand on this in other sections describing your country, so don't worry if you don't get everything in.

Name Your Country
Countries are often named after defining features, things which are distinct or plentiful in that land. However, perhaps you don't want your name to sound dull or unimaginative, so translating it into another language (real or imaginary) or being abstract can help. For example, a country could be called "Ironland" as the land has a lot of iron, or because its people have a reputation for being hard and unyielding, like iron. Ironland could even be its nickname rather than an official one, if say you want a less ordinary sounding name but also still want a name which is easy to remember (as players can forget what a country's name is very easily but may remember significant features of the land).

In the real world, many countries are named similarly, such as ending in "ia" (Australia, Romania, Russia), "y" (Germany, Turkey, Hungary) or "land" (England, Poland, Greenland), so consider perhaps naming your country similarly to other countries already in the game. For example, the Tircaes Empire and Tirganol Empire both start with "Tir" as they were both named by the same civilisation. Likewise, Aera Karn and Scina Kaern both end with similar words, but they both mean different things: "Kaern" means "Land" whereas "Karn" means "Kingdom".

A useful reference for ideas on country names is the wikipedia page on country name etymology, and there are name generators online such as this one which can get you started.