Cuthland

Kingdom of Cuthland-Waldrich Cingdom of Cuþland-Waldrice (Cuthish) Keninkryk Cutlân-Wâldryk (Waldish)
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "God, Cing, and Rice" (Cuthish) "God, Kening, and Lân" (Waldish) "God, King, and Country"
Anthem:   "Loofsong of Hallow Wybert"(Cuthish) "Lofsang fan Hillige Wybert" (Waldish) "Hymn of Saint Wybert"
Capital	Kingsham (executive and administrative) Grienfjild (legislative and judicial)
Largest	Kingsham
Official languages	Cuthish Waldish
Recognised regional languages	Widdalian
Ethnic groups (2020)	76.5% Cuthish 20.8% Waldish 1.3% Widdalian 1.4% Other
Religion (2020)	88.5% Christianity 3.4% Unaffiliated 8.1% Other
Demonym(s)	Cutho-Waldish
Government	Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy
•      Monarch	Edwin IV
•      Foresitters	Clifford Goodwin (protecting) Ale Dykstra
Legislature	Wittenmoot
• Upper house	House of Lords
• Lower house	House of Burghers
Establishment
• Unification	21 February 1085
• Proclamation of the First Cuthish Empire	11 January 1444
• Establishment of the First Cuthish Republic	6 October 1797
• Haltboruh Restoration	30 June 1800
• Alhstead Restoration	19 June 1830
• Dual monarchy	30 March 1919
• Current constitution	2 September 1919
Population
• 2020 census	44,793,500
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$1.848 trillion
• Per capita	$41,248
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$1.502 trillion
• Per capita	$33,536
Gini (2020)	32.4 medium
HDI (2020)	0.887 very high
Currency	Pund (CWP)
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+39
ISO 3166 code	CW
Internet TLD	.cw

Cuthland-Waldrich (Cuthish: Cuþland-Waldrice, Waldish: Cutlân-Wâldryk), officially the Kingdom of Cuthland-Waldrich (Cuthish: Cingdom of Cuþland-Waldrice, Waldish: Keninkryk Cutlân-Wâldryk) is a sovereign state located on the Telmerian Peninsula in northern Berea. It lies between the White Sea to the north, Lake Sigismund to the east, and the Dentrian Mountains to the west. The nation shares borders with Mascylla, Lilienburg, X, and X. With a population of approximately 44.8 million and spanning an area of approximately X square kilometers, Cuthland-Waldrich is the Xth most populous and Xth largest state in Aurorum.

Cuthland-Waldrich is governed as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. King Edwin IV serves as head of state, while Foresitters Clifford Goodwin and Ale Dykstra both serve as the diarchic heads of government. Although constitutionally limited, the monarchy maintains substantial powers that gives the crown considerable influence over domestic governance, leading many international observers to label the nation as authoritarian and a de facto absolute monarchy.

Cuthland-Waldrich is a multinational state consisting of the two autonomous constituent countries of Cuthland and Waldrich, each with its own distinct ethnic identity. The Cuthish are the country's largest ethnic group and constitute a majority of its population at 76.5%, followed by the Waldish at 20.8% and the Widdalians at 1.3%. This ethnic diversity forms the basis for Cuthland-Waldrich's unique structure, which splits many institutions between the two constituent countries. The country is officially bilingual, recognizing both Cuthish and Waldish as official languages with Widdalian enjoying regional status. In addition, Kingsham, the country's largest city and the state capital of Cuthland, serves as the federal executive and administrative capital, while Grienfjild, the country's second largest city and the state capital of Waldrich, serves as the federal legislative and judicial capital. Other major cities include Whitford, Alderport, Fenmouth, Meerboarg, Newbridge, and Wealdbury-upon-Cyne.

Telmerian settlement in modern day Cuthland-Waldrich dates back to classical antiquity. These early tribes began to coalesce into various pretty kingdoms and duchies at the dawn of the Early Middle Ages, leading to the Cuthland's dominance by Four Kingdoms from the 6th century onward while Waldrich unified under the Kingdom of Waldrich. During the 11th century, Edmund the Great of the Kingdom of Meerland unified the Cuthish states for the first time under the Kingdom of Cuthland. Cuthland remained geopolitical rivals with Waldrich for the next four centuries, culminating with the Cuthish conquest of Waldrich during the 15th century and the establishment of the First Cuthish Empire as the most powerful state in Telmeria. Cuthland continued to expand throughout the early modern period, conquering parts of X, western Mascylla, and the northern Dentiran Peninsula while establishing one of the world's first colonial empires in Alvinia and northern and eastern Pamira. During the mid-18th century, Cuthland's dominance in Telmeria began to falter due to increasing ethnic tensions within the empire and the rising prominence of Dulebia and the Mascyllary states. The death of Emperor Edmund VII without an heir in 1715 led to the War of the Cuthish Succession, which ended with Dulebia and the Mascyllary states partitioning parts of the Empire. A second partition ceded additional territories to Mascylla in 1778 following the First Cutho-Mascyllary War, including significant parts of the Cuthish colonial empire.

The popularity of the monarchy declined significantly following the second partition, leading to the Cuthish Revolution and establishment of the First Cuthish Republic. Foreign intervention led to the Cuthish Revolutionary War, which briefly restored the monarchy and led to the end of the Cuthish Empire following its third and final partition. The nation was plagued by instability for the next 30 years and cycled through numerous republican and monarchist governments, ending with Cuthland's stabilization under the Alhstead monarchy in 1830. The Alhsteads established the highly nationalist and revanchist Second Cuthish Empire, declaring war on Mascylla in 1838 in an effort to reclaim Cuthish territories lost in the second and third partitions. The war ended with the Treaty of Alderport in 1841, which restored eastern Cuthland to its pre-1778 borders and returned large portions of the Mascyllary colonial empire to Cuthish rule. Cuthland enjoyed a return to international prominence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, expanding its colonial empire in Caphtora and Pamira and challenging Mascyllary dominance. Tensions between Cuthland and Mascylla and their respective power blocs led to the outbreak of the Great War in the 1910s, ending in a Cuthish defeat which saw the abolition of the monarchy, the cession of many of Cuthland's eastern territories, and the loss of its colonial empire.

Post-war Cuthland subsequently experienced an economic collapse and the outbreak of a three-way civil war between communist, republican, and monarchist forces in 1916 following a failed coup d'état by communist revolutionaries. The war ended in a monarchist victory in 1919, with the Treaty of Newbridge restoring the Alhstead crown as a dual monarchy in which both Cuthland and Waldrich hold coequal status. The newly reorganized Kingdom of Cuthland-Waldrich established an authoritarian regime, carrying out thousands of extrajudicial killings against political dissidents during the Royal Terror. Cuthland-Waldrich assisted Melasian revolutionaries against Mascyllan colonial forces during the Melasian Crisis, ultimately leading to a brief military conflict with Mascylla that reestablished Cuthland-Waldrich as a global power and marked the beginning of the Cold War. Cuthland-Waldrich and its allies, known as the Mageiros League, remained the primary challengers to the geopolitical dominance of the X bloc until the Recession of 1967, which severely weakened the Mageiros powers and led to rioting and unrest across Cuthland-Waldrich. The unrest led to a series of economic reforms throughout the 1970s and 80s which opened up the nation to foreign investment and transformed its economy into one of the most developed and diverse in the world. Following the collapse of communism in Aurorum during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cuthland-Waldrich once again emerged as the primary non-democratic global power.

Modern day Cuthland-Waldrich boasts a developed mixed economy, which is Aurorum's Xth largest by total nominal GDP. The nation maintains a comprehensive social safety net and ranks highly in measures of education, life expectancy, and health. It is one of Aurorum's major military powers, maintaining the Xth largest nuclear arsenal and Xth largest number of active military personnel. The nation is a member of the Mageiros League and Assembly of Nations, serving as a founding member of the former. Due to its substantial economic, diplomatic, and military strength, Cuthland-Waldrich is widely considered to be a great power in the international system.

Etymology

"Cuthland-Waldrich" is a double-barrelled name combining the names of the nation's two constituent states, Cuthland and Waldrich. "Cuthland" is derived from the Cuthish Cuþland, which translates to "known land" or "famous land". "Waldrich" is derived from the Waldish Wâldryk, which is itself derived from the Old Waldish Waldrīke, meaning "forested realm".

History

Revolution and instability

The Gledworth Massacre in 1795 is widely considered to mark the beginning of the Cuthish Revolution.

The second partition had left the Cuthish Empire a state of economic and social disarray. Cenhelm I died in 1780, leaving the throne to his son, Edmund IX. Edmund IX attempted to pay off the debts that had been incurred over decades of war and economic malaise by levying a highly regressive tax regime from which the nobility and clergy, who collectively represented the first estate in feudal Cuthland, were exempt. This enraged the second estate of burghers, who bore the brunt of Edmund IX's new taxes, and led to an increasing acceptance of liberal and republican ideals associated with the Enlightenment among the lower and middle classes. These ideals were most notably promoted by the Council of Reason, a society led by enlightenment thinkers such as Alfred Harwood and Dunstan Millard that published various articles and pamphlets between 1790 and 1795. The publication of Just Governance and the Rights of Man in 1795 proved particularly controversial for its denouncement of the Cuthish monarchy, and led Edmund IX to order the arrests and executions of both Harwood and Millard for treason. The executions led to a rapid deterioration in relations between the estates, culminating on 10 October when a group of demonstrators protesting the executions were fired upon by soldiers of the Royal Guard in front of Gledworth Palace in Kingsham. The soldiers killed 14 demonstrators in what became known as the Gledworth Massacre, leading to waves of riots and unrest across the nation and signaling the start of the Cuthish Revolution.

The Gledworth Massacre caused outrage in the House of Burghers, an advisory body to the Cuthish monarch which represented the second estate in the Wittenmoot. In March 1796, members of the House of Burghers established the Popular Committee with the intent of organizing revolutionary activities in Cuthland. The Popular Committee issued the Declaration of Rights and Liberties on 19 May, which condemned feudalism and absolute monarchism in Cuthland as infringements on the natural rights of man. The Declaration was accompanied by the Petition of the Burghers, which asked Edmund IX to abolish feudalism and the privileges of the first estate and to provide for representative government based around the Enlightenment concept of popular sovereignty. The King attempted to quash the nascent revolution by sending soldiers to arrest the members of the Committee on 3 June, leading to a violent confrontation known as Bloody Monday when the soldiers clashed with peasant militias that had been raised to defend the Committee against royal interference. News of Bloody Monday led Cuthish soldiers assigned to the garrison at Leihstead-on-Fen to mutiny, occupying the city for 10 days until a contingent from Edgton was dispatched to restore order.

Fearing that the mutiny in Leihstead would spread, Edmund IX's advisors recommended that he accept the Popular Committee's demands in order to avoid a military coup d'état. After months of negotiations, Edmund IX signed the Cuthish Constitution on 17 September 1796, officially abolishing feudalism in Cuthland and reorganizing the Wittenmoot as a legislative body. However, the monarch retained substantial powers, including the ability to veto legislation and appoint government ministers. These powers enraged the more radical members of the revolutionary movement, who had advocated for the monarchy to be abolished completely in favor of a republic. The schism between the republicans and constitutional monarchists became increasingly evident at the first meeting of the Wittenmoot, when radical leader Harold Blace famously denounced the body before storming out of the House of Burghers with 162 other republican members.

Tensions came to a head on 26 August 1797, when Edmund IX dismissed five republican ministers appointed by the Wittenmoot. Outraged by what they viewed as an undemocratic exercise of royal power, republican revolutionaries led by Blace staged an uprising in September that ended with Edmund IX's arrest. Edmund IX was subsequently tried for treason and famously executed along with his family in front of Gledworth Palace on 10 September. The republicans subsequently abolished the Wittenmoot and replaced it with the newly established Popular Council, which declared the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the First Cuthish Republic on 6 October, with Blace as the new government's first President. The republicans subsequently rounded up and executed suspected counterrevolutionaries in the Republican Terror, killing over 30,000 royalists, constitutional monarchists, moderate liberals, and remaining members of the nobility over the next three years.

Edmund IX's brother, Algar III, met with X of Dulebia and X of Mascylla during the winter of 1797-8 in order to organize a coalition to intervene in the revolution and restore the Cuthish monarchy. Algar III offered significant territorial concessions as compensation for their assistance, granting the two nations many border territories and colonial possessions that would bring Cuthland to a historic territorial nadir and effectively end the Cuthish colonial empire. The negotiations produced the Ulich Agreement in February 1798, which led to the outbreak of the Cuthish Revolutionary War in the spring of 1798 when the Dulebian and Mascyllary armies launched a two-pronged invasion of the Cuthish Republic. Fighting spread to the Cuthish colonies during the summer, beginning with the Mascyllary invasion of X in June and spreading to Alvinia and eastern Pamira during the fall. Initial gains made by coalition forces in continental Cuthland stalled following a decisive Cuthish victory at the Battle of Crestwick in December, giving way to a Cuthish counter-offensive in the spring of 1799 that pushed coalition forces past the antebellum borders and resulted in the sack of several major Mascyllary and Dulebian cities in August and September. However, the tide turned with X's entrance to the war the next spring at the request of Algar III and the coalition powers, securing a decisive victory at the Battle of Edgton in May 1800 that allowed coalition forces to advance on Kingsham. The increasingly dire situation for the Cuthish revolutionary forces, coupled with rising public disenchantment with the authoritarianism of the Republican Terror, contributed to a strengthening reactionary movement in Cuthland that opposed the republic and advocated for the return of the monarchy. Internal instability led to a military coup d'état by royalist sympathizers on 30 June that overthrew the republic and invited Algar III to return to Kingsham, ending the war and restoring the Cuthish monarchy.

As a consequence of the war, Algar III became the first Cuthish monarch since 1444 not to hold the title of Emperor. The new Kingdom of Cuthland was reduced to a rump state in the nation's third partition since 1715, which ceded significant territories to the victorious coalition powers in keeping with Ulich Agreement. The Treaty of Swithtun allowed Mascylla to annex X and most of Waldrich, while Dulebia took control of X and X. X, which was not a part of the original Ulich Agreement, was nevertheless ceded the territory of X separately in the Treaty of Bloomford. In addition, the remnants of the Cuthish colonial empire were divided among Dulebia and Mascylla, with Dulebia taking control of Cuthish colonies in eastern Pamira while Mascylla was granted the remaining Cuthish possessions in Alvinia and northern Pamira.

Politics

Government

Clifford Goodwin
Foresitter (protecting) from Cuthland since 2018

Ale Dykstra
Foresitter from Waldrich since 2014

The political framework of Cuthland-Waldrich was established by the nation's current Constitution, ratified in 1920. It is structured as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unique division of power that reflects its status as a multinational and multicultural state. Cuthland-Waldrich's two constituent states, Cuthland and Waldrich, are granted substantial autonomy over their internal affairs, and most of the federal political institutions are divided between the two states.

Legislative power is vested in the bicameral Parliament (Cuthish: Wittenmoot, Waldish: Wittenmoet), which consists of the House of States (Cuthish: Huse of Rices, Waldish: Ryktenshûs) and House of Burghers (Cuthish: Huse of Burgers, Waldish: Boargershûs). The House of States is the upper house, consisting of 100 seats evenly divided between the states. Members are elected to staggered four year terms, with half of the seats up for election every two years. Constitutionally, each state determines its own method of filling its allocated seats in the House. In practice, however, members from both states are elected through a nearly identical process by the respective state legislature. The House of Burghers is the lower house, consisting of 223 seats (220 minimum + 3 overhang) allocated based on the population of each state. All members of the House of Burghers are directly elected every two years by mixed-member proportional representation. Half of the seats are elected by equally populous single-member districts using single transferable voting, while the other half are elected statewide by an open party-list with a 5% electoral threshold in order to balance out the seats proportionally by party.

The executive branch is diarchic, consisting of two Foresitters (Cuthish: Foresitters, Waldish: Foarsitters) who collectively serve as head of state and head of government. They are elected by a joint session of Parliament to two year terms. One Foresitter is elected from each state, chosen from a list of five candidates nominated by their state's legislature. The Foresitters hold the reciprocal right to veto, and no executive decision is considered official unless both have consented. One Foresitter is always considered to be "protecting" (Cuthish: warding, Waldish: beskerming), a position which rotates between the two on an annual basis. The protecting Foresitter is considered to be primus inter pares, and has the ability to make emergency decisions during times of national distress without first consulting his counterpart. The Foresitter who is not protecting may veto an emergency decision at any time, and must be consulted by the protecting Foresitter within 30 days of its enactment. The current Foresitters are Clifford Goodwin (protecting) from Cuthland and Ale Dykstra from Waldrich.

Cuthland-Waldrich's highest court is the High Court (Cuthish: Hih Þing, Waldish: Heechgerjocht), which is the final court of appeal in the federal judicial system. The High Court consists of 7 justices, who are appointed to 14 year terms staggered every 2 years. Appointments for all federal justices are proposed by the Foresitters, and must be confirmed by a two-thirds supermajority vote of a joint session of Parliament.

Political parties and elections

Cuthland-Waldrich operates under a dominant party system, with the populist and pan-nationalist Union of Farmers, Laborers, and Shopkeepers (UFLS) maintaining power in every federal and state election since 1945. Other political parties with federal representation include the left-wing Democratic Alliance for Reform (DAR), center-left Liberal Progressive Party (LPP), and right-wing Dísitrúar Union (DU). Following the 2019 elections, the UFLS holds a supermajority in both houses of Parliament.

Cuthland-Waldrich has been described as an illiberal democracy by observers. The 1945 Constitution places heavy regulations on the formation and activities of political parties, notably banning movements that advocate certain stances and objectives from engaging in the electoral process. Additionally, the voter registration process is highly complex and restrictive. Prospective voters are required to fill out a lengthy application and appear before a local Electoral Conduct Board (Cuthish: Walish Bearing Board, Waldish: Ferkiezingsgedrachsbestjoer), with supporting statements from two currently registered voters who can vouch for the applicant's status as a "hard-working and upstanding member of society". A 2011 study on global political freedom by the Assembly of Nations stated that institutional barriers to competition have made Cuthland-Waldrich a de facto one-party state, with the UFLS holding "nearly uncontested authority" over the nation's sociopolitical institutions.

Demographics

Language

Native languages in Cuthland-Waldrich
Cuthish			55.9%
Waldish			36.2%
Rethish			6.2%
Widdalian			1.1%
Fawstonian			0.6%
Other			0.8%

Cuthland-Waldrich is linguistically diverse, and maintains a policy of official multilingualism at the national level.  The Constitution establishes the responsibility of the federal government to protect the nation's linguistic heritage, recognizing Cuthland-Waldrich as the homeland of the Cutho-Waldish languages. Both Cuthish and Waldish enjoy official language status, and serve as the primary native languages in Cuthland and Waldrich respectively. Cuthish is the most widely spoken language in the country as the native tongue for 55.9% of the population, followed by Waldish at 36.2%. The federal government is legally required to provide all services in both languages, which is overseen by the Office of Linguistics within the Ministry of Cultural Preservation.

In addition, several minority languages native to Cuthland-Waldrich are recognized as regional languages. Regional languages are constitutionally protected, and the state governments are mandated to ensure that they receive equal and co-official status in their respective cultural regions. All local and state government services in minority regions must be multilingual, including road signage, school instruction, and legal proceedings. These regional languages include Widdalian in Widdal, Fawstonian in Heihfirthshire and Stanworthshire, and Rethish on the Island of Reth.  

As a result of Cuthland-Waldrich's unique linguistic situation, language instruction is heavily emphasized in the educational system. All students nationwide are required to study both Cuthish and Waldish, with those in minority regions receiving further instruction in their regional tongue. The nation consequently has extremely high rates of bilingualism and trilingualism, with nearly 95% of all citizens claiming the ability to speak more than one language.

Linguistic purism is a major political issue in Cuthland-Waldrich. The purist movement began with a series of language reforms during the Peninsular Fervor, in which Peninsularist revolutionaries reverted many of the changes that had been imposed on the Cutho-Waldish languages under Cornice rule. These reforms saw the establishment of regulatory agencies within the federal government over the use of Cuthish, Waldish, Rethish, and Widdalish, which largely focus on removing Latin loanwords in favor of terms derived from Hesurianic roots. The continued use of the Latin script has been a point of particular contention in recent years, with many hardliners pushing for a return to the runic script used prior to the Cornice period.

Culture

Sports

An ice hockey match between Alderport HC and Wynndale Boruh during the 2019-2020 National Division season

The sports landscape of Cuthland-Waldrich is dominated by the nation's affinity to ice hockey, which was developed in northern Cuthland during the 19th century and is widely considered to be the nation's national sport. A 2012 poll held by the Sportswriters Association of Cuthland-Waldrich found that ice hockey was the preferred sport of 45% of the population, making it the most popular sport in the country. The Ice Hockey Association of Cuthland-Waldrich (IHACW), founded in 1890, serves as the sport's highest governing body and the oldest such ice hockey organization in the world. The IHACW operates the Cutho-Waldish ice hockey league system, which organizes every internationally sanctioned division of professional ice hockey in Cuthland-Waldrich under a system of promotion and relegation. The National Division, the highest division of ice hockey in the country, is the most widely viewed and attended sports league in Cuthland-Waldrich and the Xth most valuable in the world. Internationally, the Cutho-Waldish men's national ice hockey team has won the International Ice Hockey Championships (IIHC) nine times and taken home five gold medals at the Auroran Games, most recently in 2018.

Other popular team sports in Cuthland-Waldrich include association football, rugby, and cricket. Football is significantly more popular in Waldrich than in Cuthland, and two of the nation's Waldish-based clubs, FC Grienfjild and Meerboarg Sport, are among the top clubs in the world. The Cutho-Waldish men's national football team has also seen periodic success internationally, most notably winning the 1974 Auroran Cup. Rugby and cricket, by contrast, are predominately Cuthish sports, seeing their greatest popularity among the upper classes in major cities such as Kingsham, Alderport, and Whitford. Rugby is particularly popular in communities along the coast of Lake Sigismund, in some areas surpassing ice hockey in popularity.  Alderport Rugby is the most successful rugby club in the nation, having won the RFCW First Division, the highest level of professional rugby competition in Cuthland-Waldrich, seventeen times. Cricket has declined significantly in prominence in recent years, and is now the fourth most popular team sport in the nation despite once rivaling ice hockey in popularity. Nevertheless, Cuthland-Waldrich remains a major hub for the sport, with the Cutho-Waldish men's national cricket team winning the World ODI Cricket Championships twice in 1987 and 2003.

In individual sports, golf maintains the strongest following nationwide. The Royal Ashbury Golf Club, built in 1790, is among the oldest golf courses in the world, and is the site of the prestigious Ashbury Classic golf tournament. Other notable golf courses in Cuthland-Waldrich include the Prestford Manor Golf Club, Hatchbury Golf Club, and the Royal South Bexford Golf Club. Tennis, skiing, squash, swimming, fencing, and martial arts are also popular individual sports in Cuthland-Waldrich.

Cuthland-Waldrich has historically been successful at the Auroran Games. The nation ranks third all time in medals with a total of 860, of which 223 have come at the Winter Games and 637 at the Summer Games. The nation and its predecessor states have hosted the Games five times: the 1904 and 1996 Summer Games, as well as the 1934, 1950, and 2006 Winter Games.