Rhodellia

Kingdom of Rhodellia Königreich Rödelia
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Komm und nimm es dir" (Come and take it)
Anthem: "Halten Sie Ihr Gewehr an Ihrer Seite" (Keep your rifle by your side)
Status	Independent State
Capital	Friedrichstadt
Largest city	Neuhafen
Official languages	Alemannisch, Anglish
Religion	90% Atheist 6% Christian 4% Other
Demonym(s)	Rhodellian
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	August III
• Prime Minister	Philip 'Phil' Seymour
Legislature	Reichstag
Establishment
• First Dolchic colonies in Roedelia	1594
• Rhodellian Commonwealth	1643
• Kingdom of Rhodellia	1755
Area
• Total	89,200 km2 (34,400 sq mi)
Population
• 2021 census	10,000,000 (estimate)
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Total	$450,000,000,000
• Per capita	$45,000 (estimate)
Currency	Rhodellian Thaler (RTR)
Time zone	UTC -5
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+64
Internet TLD	.rd

Rhodellia, officially the Kingdom of Rödelia (Alemannisch: Königreich Rödelia), is a sovereign country and former Dolch colony in central Aurelia, in Eurth. It is situated on the Gulf of Auriel's northeastern shore, mostly surrounding a smaller gulf called Waldseemüller Bay. Its territory covers an area measuring roughly 89,200 square kilometres (34,440 square miles) and accomodates an estimated population of 10 million people.

The kingdom is divided into seven provinces (Königsheim, Janbourg, Rabeswalde, Gottesthal, Westfalen, Nordwalde, and Ostwald) and ten relatively small Native Aurelian reservations. The national capital is Friedrichstadt, though the kingdom's population and industries are more decentralised, owing to the split importance of the colonies that used to comprise it; Rhodellia's most populous city is Gottesberg in Königsheim Province, its main financial centre is Silberstadt in Westfalen Province, its technological centre is Ahrensbucht in Janbourg Province, and its main industrial centre is Eisenthal in Janbourg Province.

Human settlement within the South Paranne region can be traced as far back as 10,000 BCE. The region hosted various Indigenous Aurelian societies and civilisations over the millennia, with the most prominent among them being the ancient Powanak civilisation. The Powanaks dominated the region up until about 1600 CE, when the Empire of Dolchland launched the Aurelian Crusade to conquer, colonise, and christianise Powanak territories. The Dolchic colonies would collectively be called 'Rödelia' after the House of Rödel, the most prominent Dolchic noble family backing the crusade. The earliest colonisation drives were spearheaded by the Order of the Dagger and other Dolchic chivalric orders in a similar fashion to Dolchland's earlier conquests across central Argis. But starting from around 1700 CE, later immigration waves, driven by overcrowding across Dolchland's original coastal colonies, would carry on the momentum by launching their own large-scale expeditions to conquer the Central Aurelian interior. In 1643, Dolchland's Rhodellian colonies confederated into the Rhodellian Commonwealth. By the mid-18th century, the exorbitant cost of waging war against the Powanaks would force Dolchland to gradually abandon its colonial ambitions in Rhodellia. This led to the Commonwealth declaring independence and reforming into the Kingdom of Rhodellia in 1755.

Rhodellia's conflicts against Indigenous Aurelians have played an enormously influential role in its development. Powanak factions have been the primary opponent in most of Rhodellia's wars. Even throughout the First Aurelian War, Second Aurelian War, and Grand War, Rhodellia dedicated significant portions of its manpower and resources to fighting Powanak factions. In the present day, Rhodellia continues to fight a low-intensity conflict against Powanak rebels in its Nordwalde and Ostwald provinces.

Rhodellia is a developed country with a strong mixed economy. It is a founding member of the Aurelian League. The country ranks highly in some international metrics of education, healthcare, protection of civil liberties, labour rights, consumer protections, and freedom of the press. Its citizens have access to universal healthcare, universal basic income, free higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. However, the Rhodellian government receives heavy criticism for its militarism, heavy-handed and often brutal suppression of Native Aurelian dissent, and frequent refusals to 'properly' confront the darker aspects of its colonial past in regards to the treatment of its Indigenous peoples.

Etymology

Rhodellia is an anglicisation of Rödelia. Rödelia is derived from Rödel, a metonymic occupational name of Dolchic origin for a scribe or registrar, which is in turned derived from the Middle High Alemannisch word 'rodel', meaning ‘list’ or ‘roll’.

Rhodellia was named after the Rödel family, a Panedonian noble house. The Rödels were the biggest sponsors of the exploratory expedition where Dolchic explorer, cartographer, and scholar Martell Waldseemüller accidentally sailed to Western Aurelia and landed in what is now Rhodellia. Waldseemüller claimed the region for Dolchland and named it Rödelia in honour of his benefactors in the Rödel family. Upon returning to Dolchland in 1595, he would officialise it with an imperial colonial charter.

The earliest known Anglish collective name for Dolchland's Waldseemüller Bay colonies, Rodellia, first start appearing in the early 16th century when knowledge of the colonies' existence started spreading to other parts of the wurld. It is likely a phonetic spelling. The modern-day term Rhodellia first appeared in Anglish records soon after during the mid-16th century. The 'h' was likely added by mistake by an unknown Anglish official, merchant, or bureaucrat. But nevertheless, it caught on. Outside of Dolchland and its overseas colonies, Rhodellia would gradually become the dominant spelling, supplanting Rodellia, Roedelia, and Rödelia. The Waldseemüller Bay colonies, the Rhodellian Commonwealth, and the Kingdom of Rhodellia made no serious attempts to correct the spelling error until the 19th century. But by then, it was already too late as usage of the 16th-century spelling error became too entrenched among other countries' cartographers and governments to be suddenly replaced. Rhodellian government officials then had no choice but to accept Rhodellia as the official Anglish spelling for their country's name.

Geography

(WIP. Temperate climate. The capital city Friedrichstadt is located either along the coastal and/or Riverside, preferably close to a river delta.)

History (W.I.P)

Early Pre-Colonial period

Evidence of human settlement in Aurelia's Southwest Paranne region can be traced as far back as the Neolithic period. Numerous Native Aurelian tribes inhabited the region. Many tribes survived as nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. This lifestyle saw the most prevalence in the deserts of the Aurelian Waste and the depths of Rhodellia's inland old-growth forests. In the Paranne Mountains and in the coastal forests along Waldseemüller Bay and the Gulf of Auriel, some tribes would go on to form large and sophisticated civilisations, often incorporating or assimilating other tribes as they expanded.

The Powanak Empire

Rise

Between the 13th and 16th centuries, a Paranne Mountain tribe, the Powanaks, carved a sprawling empire across the region. It began as a small city-state situated atop a large plateau. Its original Powanak-language name was historically erased as a result of Dolch-Rhodellian cultural assimilation efforts between the 18th and 19th centuries, though contemporary Xi and Kirvinan diplomatic and trade records suggest that it roughly translated to 'huge rock pile'. The Powanaks rapidly expanded their territory across the inland river valleys and foothills along the west side of the Paranne mountains before reaching out towards the Gulf of Auriel.

The first 'great leader' of the Powanak tribe, a semi-mythical hermit-turned-prophet best known in the modern day as 'The Visionary' (his true name was also lost to historical erasure), led the tribe's earliest conquests. According to Powanak oral tradition, the Visionary received frequent visions from the gods urging him to unite the land's tribes against an unknown apocalyptic foe. The Visionary first tried to rally neighbouring settled lowland tribes to his cause, only to be laughed off as a crazy mountain hermit by every chieftain he met with. Slighted, the Visionary vowed to prove he held the favour of the gods.

A series of Powanak stories, collectively known as the Tale of the Visionary, recount the Visionary employing detailed reconnaissance, diversions, surprise attacks, and defeat-in-detail tactics to defeat the lowland tribes in quick succession. The river valleys and hills that cover much of inland Rhodellia present natural barriers to observation and communication. They hindered cooperation between the Powanaks' opponents, and proved vital to the Visionary's strategy.

The Visionary began by destroying the village of the first chieftain to insult him. The Powanaks burned every house and killed everyone but the village's storyteller, whom they tasked with spreading knowledge of the massacre to other tribes. The other tribes, seeing the smoke rising from the village and terrified by the storyteller's account of the Powanaks' brutality, formed a coalition to fight back against the Visionary. The coalition's fighting men outnumbered the Powanaks' four to one.

Many of the coalition's warriors convened at one village to discuss war planning. In the night, as the warriors slept, the Visionary's warriors infiltrated the village to sabotage the canoes the warriors depended on as their main mode of transport across the region. They also set up numerous traps just outside the village along likely routes of overland travel. In the morning, the coalition warriors noticed their boats were no longer functional. Warriors from neighbouring villages also noticed smoke stacks rising from the directions of their homes. Panicked, they tried to rush back to their homes on foot, only for many to fall victim to traps and prepared ambushes. The Powanaks made sure no coalition warrior lived to inform their allies back in the village, and that any bodies remained well-hidden. They would repeat this as more groups of coalition warriors left the village. Within three days of hostilities, the Powanaks had effectively halved the coalition's fighting force.

The Powanaks, concentrating their warriors for massed assaults, would then go on to capture the enemy's weakly defended villages one by one. Coalition warriors would be opportunistically picked off if they were encountered alone or in small groups, either around the perimeter of their villages or while they were out hunting in the forests.

By the time the coalition's remaining leadership realised what was happening, too many of their villages and warriors had fallen for them to put up any meaningful resistance to the Powanaks. And so, they surrendered and pledged fealty to the Visionary. The campaign lasted only five days.

The Visionary would later die of an infected battle wound at some point between the early and mid-14th century. His descendants would go on to successfully challenge the larger and more established civilisations of the lowlands. The Powanak Empire reached its peak in the early 15th century. It controlled territories reaching as far as Waldseemüller Bay and the Gulf of Auriel. One of the various titles for its emperors (as of the mid-16th century) suggested that it ruled up to one hundred distinct Native Aurelian tribes.

The Powanak Empire is particularly notable for its high level of sophistication and engineering works. They built and maintained a complex road network across their mountainous territories. And as the empire expanded into Rhodellia's lowland river valleys, they would also dig canals further branching out from the region's already-extensive network of navigable natural waterways. At the empire's peak, these massive infrastructure projects facilitated flourishing trade, centralised government control, and well-supplied armies. The infrastructure laid down by the Powanak empire essentially laid the foundation for the modern Rhodellian transportation network.

Decline

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Powanak Empire went into decline. There was no single cause; various factors contributed to its downfall. At several points, its economy is said to have suffered massive hyperinflation from mining so much gold, which in turn likely affected its ability to maintain its massive infrastructure network, administrative apparatus, and state military. By the late 15th century, the Powanaks depleted many of their vaunted gold mines. Mass disease outbreaks, some particularly harsh winters, and natural disasters also likely played a role. By the mid-16th century, many towns (especially those of which gold mining was the main industry) were being abandoned en-masse by their inhabitants, falling into ruin, and rapidly being reclaimed by nature.

The decline the late 16th century, the empire adopted a highly decentralised system of government; many of its frontier provinces converted into tributary states that, in general, enjoyed high levels of autonomy so long as they paid regular tribute to the emperor and protected the borders.

Early Colonial period

In the late 16th century, Dolchic explorer Martell Waldseemüller, landed in a sparsely populated coastal area of the Powanak Empire and mistook it for terra incognita. At the time, he was leading an expedition to find a rumoured undiscovered southern Thalassan continent, but they had been blown off-course by a storm. They soon made contact with local tribespeople, who mistook them for Kirvinan merchants. Waldseemüller learned of a dying Powanak Empire along with legends of a 'city of gold' up in the South Paranne mountains. He returned to Dolchland and, desperate to distract from the failure of their expedition's original goal, advertised this region of Aurelia as a viable colonial venture. He succeeded, and secured significant backing from the Kingdom of Panedonia, the Order of the Dagger, and the wealthy House of Rödel.

The Order of the Dagger offered to fight as mercenaries for the Aurelian Empire in the later stages of the latter's wars of unification, in which the Powanak Empire was an opposing belligerent. They did this on the condition that Dolchic settlers were allowed to use the Aurelian Empire as a staging area for an invasion of the Powanak Empire. The Dolchs, benefiting from recent technological and military innovations from Europa and Argis, proved to be valuable assets. The Powanak Empire's armies, then led by Emperor Flying Swallow, would suffer many catastrophic defeats against the Dolch-Aurelian alliance. Most of their losses consisted of levies, warriors, and nobles from the Powanak Empire's tributary states. This led to much unrest, upheaval, and resentment in the Powanak tributary states. Furthermore, Flying Swallow began demanding larger tributes to rebuild his treasury and fund a new army; the resulting outrage led to an assassination attempt on Flying Swallow. This in turn led to Flying Swallow launching punitive expeditions to reassert centralised Powanak control over the tributary states.

In 1596, an Order of the Dagger invasion fleet led by Komtur Friedrich von Rödel sailed into Waldseemüller Bay. They sought to colonise the area under the pretense of a 'crusade' to Christianise its people. The Order's soldiers established various forts along the coastline. Some Powanak Empire tributary states and local tribes welcomed them as liberators who could free them from Flying Swallow's tyranny, and actively nurtured the early growth of what would become the first colonies. Other tributary states saw the Dolchs as the greater of two evils, and remained nominally loyal to Flying Swallow and the Powanak tribe.

The Dolchs would gradually expand outwards from Waldseemüller Bay, repelling various Powanak-led campaigns to drive them back into the sea in the process. However, these victories came at great cost to the Order.

Back home in Dolchland, Waldseemüller greatly exaggerated Dolchic military successes against the Powanaks. He also returned with promises of land and riches to everyone who signed up to help fight. This attracted waves of Dolch colonists to reinforce the Order. Of course, the Order was not conquering enough land to guarantee every prospective colonist a sizeable share even on the assumption that the majority would die either from disease or battle.

[WIP]

Dolchic colonisation began in the late 16th century, when eight Dolchic colonies were established along the Gulf of Auriel's northeastern shore. These colonies would later unite into the Rhodellian Commonwealth in 1643 and then declare independence as the Kingdom of Rhodellia in 1755. Between the late 16th and 19th centuries, Argisian and Europan (most of them of Dolchic origin) migrated outwards from the shores Waldseemüller Bay, gradually incorporating new territories as they expanded. New lands generally came under Dolchic control or influence through military conquest or the diplomatic annexation of Native Aurelian allies and vassal states. Rhodellian expansionism displaced many Native Aurelians and played a significant role in the collapse of several major Native Aurelian civilisations. This trend of Rhodellian regional supremacy would be abruptly reversed in the early 20th century. Rhodellia lost many of its border provinces after they were overrun during the First Anéantic War, conceding them to various neighbours in the 'Black Peace' of 1922. During the Second Anéantic War, in 1940, Rhodellia launched the Rhodellian Crusade to reconquer many of these lost territories but failed to decisively defeat its opponents and force an advantageous peace treaty. The Crusade stalled and failed, resulting in the inconclusive Armistice of 1948. From the 1960s and onwards, Rhodellia saw significant civil unrest during the Nordwalde Troubles, in which several Native Aurelian separatist groups, the largest of which being the Native Aurelian Liberation Army (NALA), fought to secede from the kingdom. With foreign support, some separatist factions have successfully achieved de facto independence for their respective regions after forcing local Rhodellian military garrisons to withdraw. With this, Rhodellia was reduced to six of out eight of its core Waldseemüller Bay provinces. With the exception of a few treaties signed with the Empire of Greater Zaxar, all recent efforts to secure lasting peace between Rhodellia, Native Aurelian separatist organisations, and its immediate neighbours have all resulted in failure

• 1594: [Insert Dolchlander kingdom here] establishes some distant overseas colonies starting in 1594. Their explorers name the region 'Rödelia' after initially mistaking it for a new, undiscovered continent. Their chosen location happens to already be settled by native peoples, who are already well-aware of colonialism and its consequences. Half of the locals try to destroy the colonists on sight. The other half try to exploit the colonists to their own advantage, but end up being assimilated into the Dolchlander colonies over time. The colonists expand outwards using 'Manifest Destiny' as a casus belli. Their progress is soon checked by larger, developed (and still hostile) native civilisations. They put up better fights than smaller tribes and minor kingdoms, and thus would survive to become Rhodellia's historic long-time rivals.
• 1643: The Dolchlander colonies form the Rhodellian Commonwealth together in 1643 so that they can more easily coordinate defense and the pursuit of common interests.
• 1755: The colonies merge together into the Kingdom of Rhodellia in 1755 in a bid to improve their international standing and attract potential allies. However, the new royal family only played ceremonial roles. The old colonial assemblies and Parliament maintained their authority.
• Rhodellia and its neighbouring rivals frequently war with one another, primarily over arable land and natural resources.

20th Century

• 1914 to 1921: Rhodellia is repeatedly invaded by its immediate neighbours. It loses. Rhodellia loses a significant chunk of its population during the fighting and is forced to concede large swathes of territories in a traumatically humiliating peace treaty signed in 1922.
• 1922: Rhodellian left-wing populists incite a popular uprising against the 'traitorous' and wildly unpopular government. The Prime Minister is coerced into stepping down and organising a snap election. The new parliament after the 1922 General Election is dominated by a coalition mainly consisting of the Rhodellian Socialist Party, The Social Democrats, and The Communist Party of Rhodellia.
• 1938: Rhodellia has recovered enough to start re-annexing some of the old territories it lost in the 1922 treaty. This triggers another major war in 1940.
• 1944: Against all reasonable expectations, Rhodellia does exceedingly well in the early stages of the renewed conflict. However, Rhodellia's momentum stalls as what started out as a war of manouevre gradually shifts into a war of attrition not too dissimilar to the previous war. The war becomes 'completely unwinnable' by 1944, if it was ever winnable in the first place.
• 1948: Rhodellia is forced to sue for an armistice in 1948 because by that point it lacked the manpower, access to natural resources, and industrial output to continue fighting. Its enemies are similarly too battered to see prolonging the conflict as worthwhile. So they accept the peace offer. No territories end up exchanging hands, so Rhodellia remains with its 1922 borders.
• Rhodellia and its long-time rivals focus on reconstruction and economic growth so that they may continue where they left off at a later date. For various reasons, their elected leaders never get around to escalating their tensions beyond occasional border skirmishes.
• Rhodellia initiates a campaign to attract highly skilled and well educated foreign immigrants to help rebuild and help repopulate itself faster. Its socialist-led government tries to entice newcomers with promises of workplace democracy, reasonable living and working conditions, fairer compensation for labour, universal healthcare, free further higher, and universal basic income.
• Historians accidentally uncover the true scale of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and cultural erasure of native peoples at the hands of Dolchlander colonial governments between the 16th and 19th centuries. Knowledge of their shocking discoveries proliferate quickly thanks to Rhodellia's freedom of press laws, leading to a major separatist movement being formed by outraged Rhodellians of native descent. Their common goals are to 'liberate' their native-descended brethren and protect their local cultures from eradication by an increasingly centralised and 'Dochlanderised' Rhodellia.
• The Rhodellian government tries to crush the insurgencies with superior violence. These early attempts at counter-insurgency go very, very poorly. A few insurgencies succeed in making Rhodellian forces cut their losses and withdraw. This results in further territorial losses as some regions become de facto independent.

21st Century

Rhodellia is trying to secure its own survival by growing its economy, making more friends on the international stage, and building up soft power.

Politics

(Government. Separation of powers. How rules, how, and for how long? What levels of government exist? How about the local level? Who makes the laws? Who deals out your justice? Which government services exist? What is the name of your police? How are the armed forces organised? Foreign affairs, alliances, membership of international organisations.)

Owing to a longstanding tradition of egalitarianism and democratic rule dating back to colonial times, Rhodellia is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy and liberal democracy. Many early settlements were founded by commoners without the oversight of noble lord or an imperial-appointed colonial mayor. In lieu of more traditional authority figures, settlers on the frontier developed various systems of representative and direct democracy to elect their own leaders and make other collective decisions. Meanwhile, some of the larger and more established coastal colonies operated their own colonial assemblies (albeit with more exclusive electorates). These systems of 'frontier democracy' would lay the foundation for modern Rhodellian democracy.

Rhodellia has an elective monarchy that, in modern times, is purely ceremonial in function. The kingdom's ruling dynasty, the House of Rödel, has reigned since Rhodellia's declaration of independence as a kingdom. However, members of the clan have earlier served as colonial governors and officials as far back as the establishment of Friedrichstadt Colony in 1595. The House of Rödel, being a large clan with over 300 members, elects the head of its own household, who normally keeps the position for life. The head is also crowned as King of Rhodellia. King August III has reigned as the ruling monarch since 2015, following the abdication of King Ferdinand III on health grounds.

Economy

A server room in the Janbourg Institute of Science and Technology.

The Rhodellian government aims to make Rhodellia one of the fastest-growing economies on Eurth and a dominant economic power in Aurelia. It has a developed mixed economy with a social capitalist economic model rooted in Rhodellian egalitarian values and tempered by socialist ideals. It features a mix of private enterprise and significant state ownership in key sectors. It benefits from a highly educated, highly skilled, and highly motivated workforce; high levels of innovation; excellent infrastructure; and low levels of perceived corruption. Rhodellian citizens enjoy low unemployment rates, extensive consumer protections, strong workers' rights, and below-average income inequality compared to other capitalist market economies. The vast majority of Rhodellian workers are members of trade unions. The Rhodellian economy supports a strong welfare state that actively seeks to eliminate poverty and ensure a good standard of living for all of the country's citizens. As such, Rhodellia ranks very highly on the Human Development Index (HDI). However, Rhodellia's economic policies have also resulted in high taxation (tax revenue accounts for roughly 46% of Rhodellia's total GDP), above-average barriers to entry, above-average overhead expenses, above-average costs of living, limitations to the growth of big businesses, and businesses of all sizes facing fair but increasingly stiff competition.

Industrial robots manufacturing electric cars on an automated production line in Eisenthal.

The quaternary and tertiary sectors account for a large percentage of the total GDP. Research and development flourishes as a major component of Rhodellia's quaternary industry. Rhodellian businesses and state enterprises are consistently trying to increase their competitiveness on the global market through the application of science, technology, and engineering. Their most common solution is to enhance productivity using robotics and artificial intelligence to automate processes. Retail, telecommunications, information technology, mass media, security, education, and transportation comprise the largest portions of the tertiary sector. The country's most notable tertiary industry is its private security industry. Rhodellia has a long, distinguished history of producing high-quality mercenaries, forged by a strong martial culture, longstanding military traditions, and centuries of near-continuous warfare. As of 2021, tens of thousands of Rhodellians are continuing the time-honoured tradition of mercenary work by offering their services as private military contractors, operating in conflict zones around the wurld.

A Rhodellian-made bucket-wheel excavator removing overburden in an open-pit lignite mine in Gottesthal.

Rhodellia has been a post-industrial society for several decades, though its secondary sector remains fairly sizable and continues to see significant growth and investment. The arms industry has historically dominated Rhodellian manufacturing in terms of industrial output and revenues. This is due to Rhodellia's strong martial culture, extremely lax laws regarding civilian weapons ownership, long history of near-continuous warfare, and last but not least gun ownership being a strict legal requirement for every household. Rhodellia once had sizable domestic automotive, aviation, and shipbuilding industries, which the country is still trying to revitalise. These industries were crippled by sabotage operations and strategic bombing campaigns during the Second Anéantic War and never managed to fully recover. The country's prosthetics industry has also seen significant investment and growth in the past decade as significant numbers of Rhodellian soldiers, private military contractors, and civilians continue to be maimed in accidents, in conflicts, or by the remnants of war every year. This creates a growing demand for affordable prosthetics and drives innovation for more advanced prosthetic technology. Construction has grown as another major secondary industry, especially after the First and Second Anéantic Wars. Successive governments have worked to redesign and rebuild damaged towns and cities as well as construct a larger, more advanced network of modern transport infrastructure to facilitate rapid economic growth.

A shopping mall in Niederhausen, Westfalen.

The primary sector comprises the smallest percentage of Rhodellia's total GDP. Rhodellia is not particularly rich in natural resources aside from lumber and stone. However, mining has traditionally comprised the largest industry within the country's primary sector, and still does. The country is a modest producer of a variety of metals such as iron, tungsten, aluminium, platinum, titanium, copper, molybdenum, beryllium, silver, and palladium, and lead. It is also a minor producer of petroleum and rare earth metals. Rhodellia's governments, mining companies, and energy companies are currently prospecting for more resource deposits as existing resource deposits are either exhausted or become increasingly inaccessible or difficult to extract resources from. Rhodellia's agriculture is also fairly advanced and productive. The country is self-sufficient in its food needs thanks to high availability of arable land, the use of GM crops, extensive irrigation systems, mechanisation, and acknowledgement of its vulnerability to naval blockades. It is also not uncommon for Rhodellian agriculture, mining, and forestry operations (particularly in militarily strategic locations along the country's western, north-eastern, and south-eastern land borders) to encounter unexploded bombs, artillery shells, and landmines left over from the First and Second Anéantic Wars. These hazards have resulted in the creation of large 'Red Zones' where human habitation and economic activity is either temporarily or permanently forbidden.

Transport

An interchange under construction in Wallenstein (2019).

Rhodellia benefits from very modern, extensive, well-maintained transport infrastructure. Passengers and cargo can quickly and easily travel to almost anywhere in the country by road; by rail; by air, and by canal, river, and sea. Since the start of the Pfiefer administration in 1932, successive Rhodellian governments have committed significant resources to expanding and modernising the country's transport infrastructure. In 1960, Prime Minister Paul Webbe's administration began the 'Webbe Initative', which essentially accelerated Rhodellian infrastructure building to a rapid pace. In 1962, Webbe justified to other ministers in the Reichstag that a strong national focus on infrastructure projects will 'stimulate economic growth and recovery [after the devastation of the Anéantic Wars], bolster national security [by facilitating military logistics], and foster national unity [by linking Rhodellia's disparate peoples and communities].' On the other hand, multiple Native Aurelian community leaders (including NALA co-founder Matunaagd Freemann) have opposed the Webbe Initiative and concurrent immigration drives as a 'thinly-veiled means of facilitating settler colonialism of traditionally Native Aurelian lands'. By 2021, Rhodellia has achieved some of the highest road and railway densities in Aurelia.

High-speed trains in St. Karola Station, Hohenstein.

Rhodellia has a comprehensive road network. It has 160,856 kilometres (99,951 miles) of paved public roadways, which includes 3,293 kilometres (2,046 miles) of 'Autobahn' controlled-access highways. As of 2021, Rhodellia has a modest rate of car ownership comparable to most other developed nations on Eurth; there are approximately 5,860,000 non-two wheel motor vehicles, or about 586 per 1,000 people. A growing percentage (currently 23% as of 2021) of these vehicles are plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). This was made possible by several government initiatives to build more charging stations, reduce reliance on foreign oil imports, and make Rhodellia a global leader in electric car usage. Rhodellia's roads and pavements are also regularly used by large numbers of cyclists. Cycling continues to be a highly popular mode of transport as a result of Rhodellian environmental awareness, cultural inclinations towards improving personal fitness, and bicycle-friendly urban planning. Rhodellia's bicycle route network has a total length of 26,371 kilometres (16,386 miles) including 15,383 kilometres (9,558 miles) of segregated dedicated bicycle paths and lanes, most of which are concentrated in urban areas. Many present-day Rhodellian highways originated as Native Aurelian military roads paved by the Empire of Kimsantinsuyu between the 6th and 17th centuries CE. Wherever navigable waterways did not flow, this road network historically served as migration routes for Dolchic settlers and as supply routes for Rhodellia's armies. Prime Minister Dieter Pfiefer began converting much of Kimsantinsuyu's historical road network into the foundations of the modern Autobahn at the start of his administration in 1932, a trend that would be continued by later governments.

A river barge being loaded with container crates at an inland port in Geldach, on one of the Nordfluss' distributaries.

Like many other Aurelian countries since the Eustacian Wars, Rhodellia maintains an advanced and very extensive rail network. The entire network is owned and operated by the Rhodellian government, specifically the Department of Transportation. The total length of the country's rail transport networks amount to 11,150 kilometres (miles) of Aurelian standard gauge railway. Since the late 1990s, Rhodellia began rapidly building electrified high-speed rail (HSR) systems to better-connect its towns and cities; facilitate economic growth, urban development, and cross-city economic integration; and stimulate the economy. They also serve to more closely integrate outlying regions (especially remote Native Aurelian reservations) with the rest of the country, economically, culturally, and politically. As of 2021, 2,888 kilometres (1,794 miles) of high-speed rail is currently in operation with more still under construction. Rhodellia's most ambitious (and controversial) ongoing HSR construction project is currently the Fegelein line. All Rhodellian cities and many large towns also have extensive mass rapid transit (MRT) systems of both the underground and elevated varieties, the most notable of which being the Gottesberg Underground, the Friedrichstadt Metro, and the Gottesberg Elevated Monorail. Rhodellia's railways are renowned for their safety, reliability, and punctuality; it is a common stereotype that in Rhodellia the trains always run on time. While delays do sometimes happen under extraordinary circumstances, their lengths average at less than one minute. This extreme commitment to avoiding delays exist not only because of 'punctuality' being a 'Dolchic Virtue', but also because the railway network doubles as critical military infrastructure.

Many thousands of shipping containers in the container terminal at Neuhafen.

Rhodellia has numerous navigable waterways, the total length of which amounts to 2,795 kilometres (1,736 miles). The country's natural waterways have historically enabled Dolchic settler migration and Rhodellian armies to advance inland into Native Aurelian territories. Rhodellia has 552 discrete rivers, the longest, widest, and most significant of which is the Nordfluss river. The Nordfluss services many inland ports and continues to see massive quantities of freight barge traffic. Beginning early in the Industrial Revolution, the country has committed significant resources to augmenting its natural waterways with complex systems of canals and canal locks, enabling barges to cost-efficiently transport raw materials extracted from the remotest corners of the country directly to its industrial centres. Both natural and artificial waterways continue to play an integral role in the cost-efficient long-distance transit of cargo between different parts of the country. Rhodellia also has six major seaports, four of which are located within Waldseemüller Bay. The oldest, largest, and most technologically advanced of Rhodellia's seaports is the Port of Gottesberg. Rhodellia also operates multiple ferry services dedicated to transporting goods and passengers between the northern and southern shores of Waldseemüller Bay and the western and eastern ends of the Behaim Strait

Rhodellia is serviced by three international airports: Gottesberg International Airport, Janbourg International Airport, and Von Richtofen Airport. There are several smaller domestic airports as well.

Energy

Solar panels installed on the roof of a building in Schwarzwald, Nordwalde Province

Rhodellia is notable for its commitment to environmental sustainability, green energy, and the phasing out of fossil fuels. Since the start of Prime Minister Alvara Jäger's administration in 1980, the country has historically been committed to tackling global warming and climate change. As most of the country's population and industry is concentrated in coastal areas or adjacent to natural waterways directly connected to the sea, Rhodellia's governments and most of its citizens fear the consequences of melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels. Rhodellia's national grid is actually divided into multiple separate power grid networks to make the entire country less vulnerable to being shut down by a few ballistic missiles, artillery strikes, surgical strikes by enemy special forces, or cyberwarfare.

The Kammhuber Dam. Hydropower has been Rhodellia's most important source of electrical energy since the early 20th century.

Rhodellia is a minor producer of fossil fuels, mainly oil and coal. Most of Rhodellia's oil is drilled by off-shore oil rigs within its international waters, most of them within the country's territorial waters. They collectively do not produce enough to meet the country's annual oil consumption, so the country is a net importer of oil. The country seeks to significantly reduce oil consumption by 2030 by incentivising its citizens to walk, cycle, use trams and trains, carpool, and purchase hybrid or electric vehicles. Rhodellia has historically been a major producer of brown and black coal, but most of its deposits were lost when its largest coal-producing regions were ceded in the Black Treaty of 1922, never to be returned. Coal fueled the country's Industrial Revolution in the 19th century and met most of the country's energy needs until 1953, at which point most of the country's remaining surface coal mines were either exhausted or outcompeted by foreign coal imports. Chronic fossil fuel shortages were so problematic for Rhodellia that historians generally agree that securing oilfields and coal mines were primary motivators for the Rhodellian Crusade.

A wind farm in Waldseemüller Bay.

Chronic fossil fuel shortages, along with an inability to build nuclear power plants, motivated Rhodellian governments since the Jäger administration to gradually overhaul the power grid and switch to renewable green energy. Hydropower and tidal power are responsible for the vast majority of Rhodellia's energy production. The remainder is provided by a mix of wind, solar, and wave power. Rhodellia's two largest hydroelectric dams are the Túpac Hydroelectric Dam and the Vörg Dam, both of which are located in the Paranne Mountain range. Viable spots for cost-efficiently building hydroelectric dams are extremely limited, so the Rhodellian government is also investing heavily in variable renewable energy (VRE) sources. It plans to build more solar and wind farms to further increase its energy production and serve as backup sources in case its dams go offline for whatever reason. The country has many wind farms both onshore and off-shore that collectively generate a steady of stream electricity. Most of the country's largest and most productive wind farms are located just off the western coast in the Gulf of Auriel, but some are found in within Waldseemüller Bay. Rhodellia has also has a few large solar farms but the government is struggling to find suitable land to build more. Many Rhodellian homeowners and business owners are also choosing to install a mix of solar panels and wind turbines on their roofs (along with batteries in their basement) as backups in case their local section of the national grid is suddenly brought offline during a conflict. Electricity generated from VRE sources is typically stored in lithium-ion battery plants. In the event of a catastrophic grid failure (likely the result of attack or sabotage by hostile state or non-state actors), a few older coal and petroleum plans are still being mothballed in case the country's hydroelectric dams fail to go back online by the time Rhodellian battery plants exhaust their energy reserves. As of 2021, 100% of the electricity Rhodellia consumes is sourced domestically from renewable energy sources.

Culture

Rhodellia is a very diverse and multicultural country. It is home to a broad variety of ethnic groups and cultures, largely united under a banner of Rhodellian civic nationalism and a collective sense of duty to defend their nation against external threats. In the 15th century, the territories Rhodellia currently occupies were inhabited by 8 distinct Native Aurelian peoples, 5 of which still exist today. Dolchic settlers first began colonising the region in the late 16th century, integrating Native Aurelian peoples into Dolchic society as the colonies expanded. The Dolchic colonies the began receiving successive waves of Argisian, Europan, and Alharun immigration over the centuries, resulting in a mix that can be described as both a homogenizing melting pot and a heterogeneous salad bowl. Mainstream Rhodellian culture is largely derived from Argisian and Europan cultures with significant influences from other sources; for example, Rhodellians often adopt loanwords, traditions, fashion items, and cuisines from the other cultures they live alongside. Most Rhodellians whose can trace their ancestry in the region to before the 20th century are, at least to some degree, mixed race. Many Rhodellians of mixed heritage (especially Dolchic and Native Aurelian) proudly observe traditions from their multiple parent cultures; historically, some have even fused their parent cultures, forming a various distinct 'hybrid' cultures. At the same time, many Native Aurelians, immigrants from other continents or regions of Aurelia, and their descendants retained distinctive cultural characteristics and strong cultural identities.

Militarism

The vast majority of Rhodellians still hold views on war that are archaic by the standards of many other developed countries: war is an inevitable fact of life, military service is a patriotic duty, and engaging in combat is a glorious thrill to be coveted. Rhodellians have been traditionally been characterised as being stalwart, disciplined, and stoic people. At the same time, they have been stereotyped as being aggressive, bloodthirsty, and warlike killers with serious hedgehog mentalities and victim complexes. Both perceptions have kernels of truth to them, as they are derived from their country's violent past and precarious present-day geopolitical situation. Today, Rhodellians are infamous for the 'excessive' ways in which their nationalism and martial culture manifests in their media, education system, and everyday life. Rhodellian-published Dolchic, Anglish, and Native Aurelian dictionaries used by government and academic institutions formally define 'peace' (Alemmanisch: Frieden) as 'the time used to prepare for the next battle'. In the 427 years since Martell Waldseemüller founded the first Dolchic colony in Waldseemüller Bay, only 30 of them have been 'peaceful'. As most of Rhodellia's wars are fought 'close to home', they have collectively made a significant impact on the average Rhodellian's psychology, an impact that is reinforced by the Rhodellian national curriculum. Rhodellians grow up being taught to see themselves as next generation of soldiers standing in the way of their nation's destruction and people's extermination at the hands of hostile neighbours. Most Rhodellians proudly consider themselves to be warriors ready to fight, either in defense of their homeland or to restore it to its 'former glory'. From Kindergarten to retirement, to mandatory military service, to retirement old age, they spend their entire lives training as such.

Gun ownership

Rhodellia arguably has the highest rate of gun ownership in Eurth; according to the Department of Defence, there is a minimum of 120.5 registered firearms per 100 people. Every adult is required by law to own at least one 'long arm' chambered to fire intermediate or full-powered rifle cartridges. All Rhodellian students are given regular shooting classes as part of the normal school week. High marksmanship skill is also a gradable requirement to enter many secondary schools, colleges, and universities. Gun laws regarding civilian ownership are extremely lax; Rhodellian citizens are easily able to purchase almost any 'military-grade' weapons platform provided that they have no history of mental illness, have never been convicted of a 'serious' violent crime, and are able to pass a mandatory background check. Rhodellian citizens can purchase and own small arms and light weapons such as automatic rifles, belt-fed general purpose machine guns, anti-materiel rifles, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Theoretically, citizens can even purchase and own heavy weapons such as fully operational armoured fighting vehicles, howitzers, fighter jets, attack helicopters, and nuclear-powered supercarriers. It is often joked that Rhodellians' right to bear arms even extends to weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) (dubbed 'Recreational McNukes'). However, private ownership of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons has been outlawed since 1976 after NALA threatened to legally buy a thermonuclear bomb from abroad and detonate it on Rhodellian soil. However, this ban was met with significant controversy. Rhodellians fiercely protect their right to bear arms; it is considered a 'political death sentence' for any political figure or party to even consider passing minor restrictions curbing gun rights or the availability of gun parts due to the slippery slope argument and watchfulness over 'subversives' aiming to undermine national security.