User:Occred/Sandbox3

Union of Rhowyden Rhowyden
Flag of Rhowyden Flag Emblem of Rhowyden Emblem
Motto: "Beneath the pavement, the beach."
Anthem: Solidarity Forever
Logo of CERES File:Logo of CERES.svg
Map of Rhowyden's Regions Map of Rhowyden's Regions
Capital	Gydenborg (de facto)
Largest	Mikelby
Working language	Rhowysh
National languages	Avonic Burnish Cargish Howingese Merelandic Sharlan
Religion	63% No religion 31% Velism 6% Other
Demonym(s)	Rhowysh
Government	Council federation
• General-Secretary	Aaa
• Presiding Arbiter	Aaa
• Chief Coordinator	Aaa
Legislature	Public Forum
Formation
• Dagerby culture	c. 30,000 BCE
• Sovereign Copper Culture	c. 2000 BCE
• Aughtonian Confederation	c. 600 CE
• Valsian invasions	c. 14th century CE
• Malachite Declaration	1719 CE
• Vital Revolution	1979-1991
Area
•	32,356,439 km2 (12,492,891 sq mi)
Population
• 2020 census	845,245,440.00
• Density	26.12/km2 (67.7/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$42.7 trillion
• Per capita	50,523
Gini	15.3 low
HDI	0.955 very high
Currency	Sol (ᛋ) (ROS)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+23
ISO 3166 code	RW
Internet TLD	.rw

Rhowyden (/roʊwɪdɛn/ ROH-wih-den), officially the Union of Rhowyden, is a sovereign country encompassing the continent of Rhowyden, the island of Sharlow, the smaller surrounding islands, and dozens of overseas autonomous territories. Most of its land area of 32,356,439 km² (12,493,000 mi²) is characterized by cold, wet, mixed forests, although the southern coast is warm year-round. It is surrounded by oceans on all sides. The de facto administrative capital of Rhowyden is Gydenborg, while its largest city is Mikelby. Other major urban centers include Lisitas, Bramwin, Leraster, and Leander.

Humans first arrived in Rhowyden around 30,000 CE during the last ice age Beginning in the 15th century, large numbers of Proto-Valsian peoples of undocumented origins began arriving by sea on the west side of the continent, conquering and assimilating much of the indigenous population by the beginning of the 17th century, leaving a plethora of large, independent warlord states in the wake of the campaign. In the 1640s, the Archimandry of Holburn was the first recorded great power on the continent, briefly conquering most of the continent’s eastern half, before collapsing during the Malachite Wars from 1719-1742. Industrialization of the continent began amid these conflicts, with the first commercial steam engines entering use in Leraster in 1732. The ensuing economic and technological boom led to dramatic urbanization and socioeconomic upheaval, until much of the continent began transitioning into a deindustrialized service-based economy in the mid-20th century. Rising discontentment due to precarious economic conditions, environmental degradation, and rising authoritarianism led to the Vital Revolution beginning in 1979, which eventually unified the continent into the modern polity of Rhowyden.

Today, Rhowyden is a libertarian socialist council federation where the predominant political current is vitalism. It is divided into 6 regions, 42 zones, and 9,735 autonomies. The federal government is based upon the Community for Equity, Research, Ecology, and Security (CERES), and a system of advanced e-democracy is implemented at all levels. Rhowyden utilizes a decentralized planned economy in which basic needs have been decommodified and all firms are either employee-owned or community-owned, with production coordinated through an advanced decision support system named DAGDA. Major industries and exports include foodstuffs, forest products, commercial vehicles, industrial machinery, telecommunications, and tourism. Rhowyden ranks highly in international measurements of political freedoms, government transparency, education, and quality of life.

Etymology

The name Rhowyden is derived from the Middle Rhowysh word ‘’prowetinne’’ (“prophetess”). It first entered common usage in the mid-1700s as a derivation of Prowetinnesrewlm, referring to the Archimandry of Holburn and the wide-reaching influence of Archabbess Alinora the Most Holy. Though the “Prophetess’s Realm” dissolved in 1739, the name remained in use for at least a generation and began being used as a common name for the continent by the turn of the 19th century. Among speakers of Burnish and Merelandic, the word soon mutated into Rhowetinn, and eventually Rhowyden, following the establishment of standardized spelling by the now defunct Academy for the Rhowysh Language.

History

Reconstruction of a Bronze Age Dagerby culture settlement.

Rhowyden has been continuously inhabited by modern humans since at least 30,000 BCE, when it is hypothesized that paleolithic fishermen reached the continent by sea while following seal populations. The oldest known evidence of human habitation is found in Haser on the northern coast of Sharlow, where a stone carving depicting a fish dating back to approximately 30,000 BCE was found in 1962. These indigenous inhabitants, who are called the Dagerby culture by modern historians, proceeded to spread out across Sharlow and then mainland Rhowyden. Humans are believed to have reached the southern coast by 15,000 BCE.  

Around 2,000 BCE, the first evidence of metallurgy appears in the archaeological record. The Sovereign Copper Culture, centered around Lake Sovereign (for which the historical group is named), began producing copper jewelry and later tools, eventually moving into bronzeworking by the 5th century BCE. Tools from this period are found throughout the Thousand Lakes basin and as far south as modern Lisitas. The Sovereign Copper Culture is believed to be the first major regional polity in Rhowyden.

By the 6th century CE, knowledge of advanced metalworking had disseminated far from Lake Sovereign and other groups began competing with the Sovereign Copper Culture for resources. The most successful of these rivals was the Aughton Confederation, named for the town of Aughton where ruins of their capital (whose name remains unknown) were discovered. This confederation spanned much of the southern Great Bay region in the early first millennium CE. In the 12th century, the eruption of the volcano Mt. Bedes in northern Sharlow caused a volcanic winter in much of Rhowyden, caused a tsunami which temporarily submerged the Dagerby peninsula, and cast a toxic cloud over much of the continent's eastern half that killed an estimated 20 million people.

Valsian invasions

In the 1300s, large groups of Proto-Valsian peoples began arriving on the west coast of Rhowyden. While their origins were never recorded, archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that they came from <<PLACEHOLDER>>, forced to leave in a mass exodus potentially indirectly caused by Mt. Bedes's volcanic winter.

The Proto-Valsians engaged in a brutal war of subjugation against the continent's inhabitants, establishing the Kingdom of Valsia in southern Sharlow and sending out independent expeditionary forces to the mainland with promises of their own kingdoms. The exact reasoning behind this feverish conquest, but limited historical records suggest it was religious in nature. This is also where records of Ys, the primary deity in Velism, are found for the first time, as the Valsian war goddess Iyozh.

By the 17th century, most of the continent had been conquered by Valsian invaders in some form and numerous independent warlord states began to form around victorious mercenary captains and warrior-princes. However, in most places, the Valsian invaders began assimilating into the indigenous culture, creating a new creole culture that eventually formed the foundation of the modern Rowysh culture.

Malachite era

1682 portrait of Alinora the Most Holy.

The early 1700s were marked by the rise of the Archimandry of Holburn, ruled by Alinora the Most Holy, who claimed to be a prophetess of Ys and spearheaded a millenarianist movement in the Great Velgard. Under her leadership, the Kingdom of Holburn was subsumed by the Ysgard into a theocratic confederation, and went on to conquer much of the eastern half of the continent in the Malachite Wars, beginning in 1719. The term "malachite" was applied to the conflict by the supporters of Alinora (the "Alinorists"), referring to the symbolic meanings of malachite such as rebirth and protection, and eventually adopted by Alinora herself.

A coalition of the Kingdoms of Sharlow, Avony, and Howingar, nominally united under Matriarch Avril III (the "Avrilists"), united against Holburn. The war's demands resulted in the first steps towards industrialization on the continent. The first steam engine entered use in 1732 in Mikelby, but superior logistical planning allowed mass-production of firearms and cannons to begin in Bramwin in 1735, turning the war in favor of the Avrilists. The war ended in 1742 with the collapse of the Archimandry and Alinora's suicide by self-immolation at the age of 39. However, popular support remained in favor of the Alinorists and resulted in a series of revolts that established several "Alinoran" states throughout the east, thus creating the two main branches of modern Ysism.

Modern era

The political situation in Rhowyden remained very volatile after the end of the Malachite War.

Geography

Most of Rhowyden consists of the continent of the same name, which is 28,755,303 km² and lays between latitudes 55°N and 32°N and longitudes 173°W and 66°W. Despite its large size, Mainland Rhowyden's climate and terrain are relatively consistent, with wet, continental forests spanning most of the continent. North of the Thousand Lakes, the northern third of the continent has a subarctic climate with harsh, cold winters and short summers. The moderating effects of the Veta Winds and Thousand Lakes ensure that Rhowyden is unusually warm despite its high latitude, meaning that, even in some of the more northerly regions, productive agriculture is still possible during the short summers. Some regions, such as the Dagerby Peninsula, can receive more than 400 cm in snow annually.

Köppen climate map of Rhowyden.

The majority of the continent is divided between warm-summer versus cold-summer continental climates in the north and south, and monsoonal versus distributed precipitation in the east and west. In the southeast, a humid subtropical climate persists year-round, with some southern-pointing peninsulas even experiencing a Mediteranean-type climate. The city of Yupoly on the southern coast of Avony is the only place in Mainland Rhowyden that has a tropical climate. The island of Sharlow, located across the Great Bay and Mazarine Sea from the mainland, is approximately 4,263,670 km², making it the country's largest island. The northern half of Sharlow is subarctic tundra, while the southern half is a warm continental climate reminiscent of mainland Mereland. Sharlow's is the only part of Rhowyden with active volcanos, which have shaped much of the landscape. As a result, Sharlow is also the only part of the country to normally experience earthquakes.

The Great Bay, located on the west coast between Sharlow and Mereland, is notable because its water is nearly fresh due to the immense drainage of many rivers into it and more brackish seawater being limited by the Dagerby Peninsula and Olan Islands. Aside from the area immediately surrounding the western boundary, the Great Bay's water has salinity levels that allow for safe human consumption. The Great Bay is linked to the Thousand Islands by the Great Canal, which runs nearly 2000 kilometers through southern Mereland, between the major cities of Leraster and Mikelby.

Rhowyden's highest point is the Juniveil, at 2723 meters, and its lowest point is the Great Green Lake at 7 meters below sea level. The highest temperature ever recorded in Rhowyden was 39°C, in Yupoly in 2023, while the lowest temperature ever recorded in Rhowyden was -48°C in Varholm in 1997

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  The Juniveil is the highest point in Rhowyden at 2723 meters.

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  Winter on the shore of Lake Sovereign.

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  Vineyards in eastern Avony.

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  Cranes taking flight in a marsh in northern Mereland.

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Rhowyden

Rhowyden is a federation of council republics in the vitalist tradition. The current polity came into existence in 1989 towards the end of the Vital Revolution. Most of Rhowyden's executive and legislative functions fall under the purview of the Community for Equity, Research, Ecology, and Security (abbreviated as CERES), which is legally a supranational union of all 9,735 autonomies that make up the country. Membership in CERES requires adherence to the Basic Code, the organization's foundational document, which stipulates various protections of human, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as integration into the union's decentralized economic planning system. The core of the political system is the Public Forum, afederated digital e-democracy platform that allows any permanent resident to research, debate, and vote on most policy issues and referenda and which functions as the country's de facto legislative branch. The official legislature, the General Convention, is an annual conference where representatives from each autonomy attend workshops, seminars, and courses about various political and economic issues. In theory, should the Public Forum ever stop being used, the General Convention would regain conventional legislative functions. Elected representatives in Rhowyden abide by a delegate model of representation and imperative mandate. They build upwards as nested councils from neighborhood to regional councils, and may be recalled at any time.

Executive power rests with the Working Committee of the General Convention, an assembly consisting of 25 commissioners who are elected for staggered 3-year terms, 6 region-level elected delegates and 5 liaisons of the major CERES bodies, for 42 total members. The other five major CERES bodies include the Continental Defense Council, the Accountability Task Force, the Economic Coordination Board, the Conciliation Council, and the Ecological Stewardship Council, all of which ultimately answer to the Working Committee. The General Convention may hold a vote of no confidence at any time, which, if successful, dissolves the entire Working Committee and requires new elections.

There are no conventional political parties in Rhowysh politics. Rather, political factions coalesce around circles, which evolved from the salons of Avony. Circles serve as local discussion groups that critique and debate political ideals and solutions to current issues, usually under the auspices of guiding ideals or philosophies. These circles are typically non-exclusive, with individuals encouraged to join several simultaneously. Circles can take the form of simple social groups, fraternities, newspapers, and more. As circles are non-exclusive, it is difficult to ascertain the popularity or membership of any of them. However, members of the current Working Committee have publicly expressed affiliation with the Intervention Circle, Open Society Circle, Technocracy Circle, and Surrealist Circle.

Law

Rhowyden has a common law system originating from a fusion of continental legal systems and modern socialist law. At the local level, citizens of a municipality elect members of a neighbors' court, which serves to mediate minor disputes and make decisions on minor criminal cases. At the autonomy level, citizens (who need not be trained jurists) are elected to six-member regional courts, mediated and presided over by a trained jurist appointed by the autonomy's legislature. These courts lead to the regional courts, comprised of a triumvirate of trained jurists appointed by the regional legislature. The specifics of term lengths, term limits, compensation, and titles vary considerably depending on the jurisdiction. At the federal level, the CERES Conciliation Board serves as the court of last resort for the entire country and is presided over by seven judges appointed by the General Convention and Public Forum for single 20 year terms.

Rhowyden lacks the conventional police departments found in other countries. Instead, law enforcement is handled primarily by local "support agencies", whose personnel are colloquially called supporters or agents, usually headed by a reeve's office, with regional and federal agencies providing broader services. Support agency is a term for an umbrella organization containing multiple specialized and interconnected agencies for public safety, staffed by both professional specialists and volunteers. These can include first responder teams trained for medical and mental health emergencies, fire departments, criminal investigation specialists, dedicated traffic enforcers, sexual assault response teams, rangers who monitor and maintain parklands, domestic violence response specialists, substance abuse or homelessness assistance offices, armed rapid response units, and so on.

Traditional beat cops are replaced with watchmen: uniformed, unarmed civilians trained in conflict de-escalation, whose primary responsibility is to identify problems and emergencies on the ground and coordinate a swift, suitable response from other agencies. Watchmen often employ intimate community policing strategies and neighborhood police boxes are common, augmented by ubiquitous neighborhood watch organizations who are sometimes given training in mediation by support agencies.

The Rhowysh justice system is oriented towards restorative justice. Capital punishment has been a cultural taboo for centuries and was finally formally banned in 1985, and homelessness, possession and recreational use of drugs, and sex work are all decriminalized. Courts are oriented around mediating crimes and examining and taking steps to address their causes on both an individual and systemic level through extensive social services, community outreach, and educational programs. In cases where punishment is deemed helpful, proportional fines, probation, and community service are typically employed. Incarceration is only contemplated in cases considered unrelated to mental illness and more severe than a misdemeanor, and even then house arrest is generally the favored method of incarceration. There were 23 incarcerated individuals per 100,000 people in 2020, and the recidivism rate in 2016 was 15%, very low in an international context. Penitentiaries where individuals are incarcerated are managed at both the regional and federal levels. These facilities generally resemble university campuses or boarding schools, with prisoners allowed considerable freedom of movement and activity within a given campus where they live in dormitories, and are able to make use of various facilities or even make daily excursions into the surrounding community. Many penitentiaries may also be democratically-managed by staff and prisoners, and make use of extensive, paid prison labor to clean and maintain their facilities. Depending on their specific sentence, prisoners may be required to attend or participate in certain therapeutic, psychiatric, or educational programs; typically, various elective programs and courses are also available, which may go towards acquiring technical, vocational, or other post-secondary degrees or certifications. The most extreme punishment in the Rhowysh justice system, for those who are eventually deemed "exhaustively unrehabilitatable", is a prolonged or even life sentence in penitentiaries called reflection camps. Reflection camps are rural estates where prisoners are confined and directed to live communal, self-sufficient lives chopping firewood, farming and cooking, and studying in on-site libraries, with therapeutic and educational resources available on request and regular reviews to determine whether they can return to a conventional penitentiary or qualify for parole or compassionate release. Reformers and international observers have criticized reflection camps as unusually cruel for their isolating nature and the sometimes unpleasant, dangerous nature of wilderness lifestyles.

Administrative divisions

Due to the decentralized nature of Rhowyden's federal system, administrative divisions are not thoroughly standardized in name or size. The Basic Code of CERES lays out broad guidelines for the organization of zones and autonomies, but does not require specific features. The fundamental administrative unit of Rhowyden is the block, which is a group of households that consider each other neighbors, and which cooperate to fulfil each other's basic needs. Blocks need not span literal city blocks; for example, they may also be comprised of floors of an apartment building, or clusters of rural homesteads. Blocks send representatives to neighborhood councils, which in turn send delegates to borough or district councils, and so on.

 Avony

 Cargstrath

 Holburn

 Howingar

 Mereland

 Sharlow

The autonomy is the most ubiquitous subdivision in Rhowysh politics; that is, the level at which most economic and social programs operate. Autonomies can encompass anything from massive urban cities to tiny hamlets surrounded by wilderness. There are no strict criteria or definition for an autonomy. Rather, it is a heuristically-determined polity comparable to a municipality but generally encompassing an entire geographic and economic region. This means that they can grow or shrink based on infrastructure or economic trends in their area, which may alter the amount of employment and resource interchange between places. Autonomies make up zones, the the most stringently defined subdivisions. Zones are based on a holistic evaluation of ecoregions, watersheds, and autonomies, with the goal being to devise an economic area encompassing a sustainable, managed environmental sector.

The six regions of Rhowyden were established in 1993 based on geographic and cultural ties and approved by popular vote. Regions primarily serve as statistical and logistical units, aiding economic organizers in developing and coordinating plans across large areas. They also serve as the highest level within the nested council system, with each one sending a delegate to serve on the Working Committee.

Region Capital Area (km2) Population Avony Bramwin 3,097,555 219,763,814 Cargstrath Mansfeld 7,050,176 42,262,272 Holburn Lisitas 2,703,945 177,501,542 Howingar Leander 7,433,428 143,691,724 Mereland Mikelby 7,476,753 202,858,905 Sharlow Drytholm 4,594,582 59,167,180.80 Rhowyden Gydenborg 32,356,439 845,245,440.00

Economy

Rhowyden is an industrialized country with a high standard of living, a low GINI coefficient, and a GDP per capita of $50,523. The service sector contributes approximately 55% of the total GDP, manufacturing 35%, and agriculture 10%. The unemployment rate was 6.9% as of January 2020. Rhowyden possesses a full range of natural resources which fuels a large industrial base that produces a wide spectrum of goods, products, and services. Abroad, Rhowysh firms are particularly known for capital goods, commercial and utility vehicles, wood and paper products, industrial machinery and components, and processed foodstuffs (especially dairy and corn products), as well as civic, computer, aerospace engineering.

The Rhowysh economy is a socialist system consisting of a series of interdependent economic models, and all land is held in usufruct. Generally speaking, all jurisdictions function under a socialist mode of production in which all firms are democratically owned and controlled through workers' councils. Due to this structure, Rhowyden largely lacks stock exchanges or real estate markets, and its financial industry is oriented almost entirely around cooperative banks.

At the local level, most citizens' basic needs are addressed by an informal gift economy drawn from local farms and businesses, with many specialized services also provided in a system of mutual aid. Basic needs such as food and housing have been thoroughly decommodified and are provided for by various entities. Different administrative subdivisions frequently collaborate in the spirit of mutual aid, sharing resources and expertise to accomplish both shared and individual goals. On a national level, there is a decentralized planned economy in which organizations at various levels negotiate and arrange for the sharing of resources, manpower, and expertise in pursuit of meeting needs and planning goals. If the local economy is unable to provide an important good (for example, food in an urban area) economic-political entities are tasked with setting up supply lines for it. CERES helps facilitate this planning through the Economic Coordination Organization, which aggregates and analyzes economic data and stimulates communication between smaller economic entities. The ECO is one of the major bodies of CERES and functions as the equivalent of other countries' ministry of the economy.

Rhowyden's currency is the sol, abbreviated using the symbol ᛋ. The sol is a metabolic cryptocurrency pegged to the price of electricity and issued by publicly-owned utility companies throughout the country. Given the country's economic structure, currency is less preferable in most transactions than institutional planned bartering or reciprocity; as such, currency is typically only used in either high-level resource transfers or for the purchase of certain luxury goods for personal use, such as alcohol, electronics, or artwork, or else to make up for supply chain disruptions or systemic inefficiencies by buying goods usually acquired in other ways from international businesses. Thus, it is entirely possible for an individual in Rhowyden to go their entire life without interacting with currency.

Most conventional Rhowysh firms (that is, ones which aim to turn a profit and expand, or do business internationally), are typically cooperative federations or worker-consumer hybrid cooperatives. These firms are generally required to meet requirements for ethical trade and sustainable economics in their supply chains, as well as meeting a certain standard of unionization or employee-ownership, in every country they do operate in, and foreign businesses are held to similar standards if they wish to operate in Rhowyden. As a result, most foreign firms operating in Rhowyden tend to be already-existing cooperatives or state-owned enterprises, especially those originating from other socialist countries. Some countries refuse to allow Rhowysh firms to do business in their territory on the grounds of preventing a trade deficit, or avoiding Leftist subversion from active examples of economic democracy in action. The vast majority of Rhowysh businesses have fewer than 250 employees.

Demographics

Rhowyden's large population of 845,245,440.00 has a relatively low population density of 26.12 per square kilometer (67.7 per square mile). Most of the population is concentrated on the western and south coasts, although the Thousand Lakes area in northern Mereland is a notable exception. The population is also highly urbanized, with 85% living in an urban area, but metropolitan areas rarely exceed populations of 500,000. The largest city in the country is Mikelby, with a population of 2,333,627 as of 2020.

There are no official statistics regarding ethnicity. Numerous polls suggest that approximately 30% of the Rhowysh population is either foreign-born or have foreign-born parents. Rhowyden's policy of open borders and refugee resettlement have resulted in a constant influx of foreign immigrants since the 1980s, which is credited with causing Rhowyden's population to increase by 25% since 1990 despite the stall in population growth caused by the Vital Revolution, from 633,750,000 in 1990 to 845,245,440.00 in 2020. As of 2023, Rhowyden's population growth rate is estimated to be 1.7% per year, which is unusually high for a country of Rhowyden's level of development.

Largest cities or towns in Rhowyden Source: CERES Economic Coordination Commission
	Rank		Zone	Pop.	Rank		Zone	Pop.
Mikelby Bramwin	1	Mikelby	Great Bay Moraine Zone	2,333,627	11	Drytholm	Maritime Sharlan Coastal Zone	1,240,312	Leraster Leander
	2	Bramwin	Istervanic Archipelago Zone	2,041,099	12	Timmingham	Great Bay Moraine Zone	1,238,488
	3	Leraster	Lake Sovereign Basin Zone	1,980,445	13	Rosheamus	Southern Meric Lowlands Zone	1,223,188
	4	Leander	Green River Delta Zone	1,976,742	14	Glasmere	Great Green Lake Basin Zone	1,178,455
	5	Balworth	Balworth Bay Zone	1,722,998	15	Kininkle	Sea of Spears Zone	1,047,350
	6	Lisitas	Salhet Peninsula Zone	1,608,764	16	Delwen	Abbey Straits Zone	965,237
	7	Gydenborg	Lake Sovereign Basin Zone	1,517,065	17	Rinbrouk	Great Bay Moraine Zone	946,420
	8	Yupoly	South Avonic Tropical Coastal Zone	1,463,413	18	Lanasford	Great Green Lake Basin Zone	888,592
	9	Josbury	Southern Meric Lowlands Zone	1,456,788	19	Sorden	Howingese Northern Plateau Zone	755,331
	10	Drosstad	Salhet Peninsula Zone	1,318,435	20	Mansfeld	Aspholm Bay Zone	721,098