Country of Hats

So you have yourself a good idea for a story: A Badass Crew from Not-Europe-- the land of humans-- Walking the Earth on their Cool Boat. to explore strange new lands, seeking out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!"

wait... that sounds like a plot you'd use for a Science Fiction Series, but no, you can't have that! Your story is a Heroic Fantasy and there are no aliens in your setting! So what do your characters meet in the story?

Well quirky tribesmen of course! But wait, that would grow old pretty quick. You can't just have them meet only tribesmen. So make them somehow come across Gimmicky Towns, then it hit you. How about countries?

There's the Sci Fi Planet of Hats but that applies to homogeneous planets(or just species); and Gang of Hats is just a small group(heterogeneous or otherwise with one defining quirk; So what do you use?

Enter Country Of Hats. A country with one defining trait. It isn't just National Stereotypes, locals nationwide would be Exclusively Evil and apply Klingon Promotion or something, even if the country is large enough for culture and politics to be radically different per region. The locals could be a combination of Fairies, Elves, and Human "aliens", and may not live near each other(but still live in the same country), they will be characterized as if they belong to one race, even if they never knew other races lived in their country as well.

Sub-Trope of Planet of Hats. Compare Gang of Hats and National Stereotypes.

Literature

 * The floating island of Laputa from Gulliver's Travels, where everyone is a lunatic researcher trying to accomplish something nonsensical or impossible. So written by Jonathan Swift to satirize what he thought of scientific thought in its early days.