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
• Dolchlander 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	left
Calling code	+64
Internet TLD	.rd

Rhodellia, officially the Kingdom of Rödelia (Alemannisch: Königreich Rödelia), is a sovereign country in central Aurelia, in Eurth. Rhodellia is situated on the Gulf of Auriel's northeastern shore, mostly around Waldseemüller Bay. It covers an area of roughly 89,200 square kilometres (34,440 square miles) and accommodates an estimated population of 10 million people. These people are settled across 6 provinces (Königsheim, Janbourg, Rabeswalde, Nordwalde, Gottesthal, and Westfalen) and 10 Native Aurelian reservations. Its national capital is Friedrichstadt, its financial centre is Silberstadt, its most populous city is Neuhafen, its technological centre is Ahrensbucht, and its industrial centre is Eisenthal.

Rhodellia has a millennia-long history of human settlement dating as far back as the Neolithic period. Its present-day territories were once home to several ancient Native Aurelian cultures. These range from the Powanaki civilisation, which rapidly conquered much of the region before mysteriously collapsing between 2500 and 2300 BCE, to the Empire of Kimsantinsuyu, an advanced civilisation that controlled the southeastern Paranne Mountains and most of the Waldseemüller Bay area before its collapse in 1736 at the hands of Dolchlander colonists. Dolchlander colonisation began in the late 16th century, when eight Dolchlander 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 Rhodellian in 1755. Between the late 16th and 19th centuries, Dolchlander pioneers aggressively expanded outwards from the shores Waldseemüller Bay, gradually incorporating new territories along the way. New lands came under Dolchlander control or influence often through military conquest or the diplomatic annexation of Native Aurelian allies and vassal states. Dolchlander expansionism displaced many Native Aurelians and played a significant role in the collapse of several major Native Aurelian civilisations. Rhodellia would lose 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, resulting in the inconclusive Armistice of 1948. Rhodellia saw significant civil unrest during the Nordwalde Troubles from the 1960s and onwards, in which several Native Aurelian separatist organisations, the largest of which being the Native Aurelian Liberation Army (NALA), fought to secede from the kingdom. Some separatist factions have successfully achieved de facto independence for their respective regions after forcing the Rhodellian military to withdraw south of the River Nordfluss. With this, Rhodellia was reduced to its core provinces as of the mid-17th century. 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.

Rhodellia is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy and representative democracy. Its monarchy serves a purely ceremonial role. Its ruling dynasty, the House of Rödel, has reigned since Rhodellia declared independence as a kingdom, though members of the clan have served as colonial governors and officials starting with Friedrichstadt Colony in 1595. The current monarch is King August III, who has reigned since 2015. Rhodellia has a long history of egalitarianism and democratic rule starting with the Colonial Assembly of Friedrichstadt in 1594, which was open to all of the colony's permanent residents above the age of 16 regardless of gender, ethnicity, social status, wealth, or property ownership. Rhodellia has a long history of multiculturalism shaped by millennia of migration, immigration, conquest, and creolisation. As such, the country is a diverse melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. Rhodellia is a developed country with a strong mixed economy. The country ranks highly in some international metrics of education, healthcare, protection of civil liberties, labour rights, consumer protections, freedom of the press, and government transparency. Its citizens have access to universal healthcare, universal basic income, free higher education, subsidised housing, and a comprehensive social security system. Levels of perceived corruption are low. However, the Rhodellian government has received criticism for its militarism, heavy-handed and often violent suppression of Native Aurelian separatism, the mass surveillance of its citizens, and its refusal to properly confront the darker aspects of its colonial past.

Etymology

Rhodellia is derived from an Anglish misspelling of Rödelia, which the country has stopped bothering to correct since the 19th century. Rödelia is derived from Rödel, a metonymic occupational name of Dolchlander 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 wealthy landowning Dolchlander clan that historically served medieval Dolchlander kings as bureaucrats and government officials. The Rödels were the primary sponsors of the exploratory expedition where Dolchlander explorer, cartographer, and scholar Martell Waldseemüller accidentally sailed to Western Aurelia and disembarked where the city of Friedrichstadt is situated today. Mistaking it for terra incognita, Waldseemüller claimed the surrounding region for Dolchland and named it Rödelia after his benefactors in the Rödel family. Dolchlander colonists would continue to attribute the name 'Rödelia' to all of the land surrounding Waldseemüller Bay. The Rhodellian Commonwealth (Alemannisch: Rödelisch Bund) would be named after this geographic region in which its core colonies were located, as would the later Kingdom of Rhodellia (Alemmanisch: Königreich Rödelia).

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

Early modern period

• 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.)

Economy

Rhodellia has a developed mixed economy with a social capitalist economic model rooted in Rhodellian egalitarian values and tempered by liberal and 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; and low levels of perceived corruption. Rhodellian citizens enjoy low unemployment rates, lower-than-average income inequality compared to other capitalist market economies, extensive consumer protections, and strong workers' rights. 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), higher-than-average barriers to entry, higher-than-average overhead expenses, higher-than-average costs of living, limitations to the growth of big businesses, and businesses of all sizes facing fair but increasingly stiff competition.

The quaternary and tertiary sectors account for a fairly significant portion 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 with robotics and automation. 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 in conflict zones around the wurld.

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. Due to Rhodellia's strong martial culture, gun ownership being a legal requirement, extremely lax laws regarding civilian weapons ownership, and long history of near-continuous warfare, the arms industry has historically dominated Rhodellian manufacturing in terms of industrial output and revenues. The country is also aiming to revitalise its domestic automotive, aviation, and shipbuilding industries. 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. This creates a growing demand for affordable prosthetics and drives innovation for more advanced prosthetic technology. Construction has been another major secondary industry since the end of the Second Anéantic War. 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.

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 still comprises the largest industry within the country's primary sector. The country is a modest producer of a variety of metals such as iron ore, tungsten, aluminium, platinum, titanium, copper, molybdenum, beryllium, silver, and palladium, and lead. It is also a minor producer of petroleum and rare earth metals. However, the country's production output when it comes to natural resource extraction pales in comparison to those of many other countries that export the same resources. This is usually due to either limited availability, difficulty of extraction, or environmental concerns. Rhodellian governments have attempted to compensate for this by either prospecting for more resource deposits or importing resources from other countries that sell for them cheaper. 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

Rhodellia has very modern and well-maintained transport infrastructure. Since the start of Prime Minister Paul Webbe's administration in 1960, as part of the 'Webbe Initative', successive Rhodellian governments have committed significant resources to rapidly expanding and modernising the country's transport infrastructure. Webbe justified to other ministers in the Reichstag in 1962 that a 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.' On the other hand, multiple Native Aurelian community leaders (including NALA co-founder Matunaagd Freemann) have opposed the Webbe Initiative as a 'thinly-veiled means of facilitating Dolchlander settler colonialism'. By 2021, Rhodellia has achieved some of the highest road and railway densities in Aurelia.

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; 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), which has been 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. Cycling continues to be a highly popular mode of transport as a result of various government-led fitness and environmental protection initiatives. 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 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 Dolchlander settlers and 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.

Like many other Aurelian countries, Rhodellia has an advanced and very extensive train transportation network, all of which is owned and operated by the Rhodellian government. 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 modern 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 oldest and most notable of which being the Gottesberg Underground, the Friedrichstadt Metro, and the Gottesberg Elevated Railway.

Rhodellia has numerous navigable waterways, the total length of which amounts to 2,795 kilometres (1,736 miles). The country's natural and artificial waterways have historically served a vital role in Dolchlander settler migration and Rhodellian military logistics. 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 inland 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. Waterways continue to play an important 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 has 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 grids 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 off the coast within Waldseemüller Bay, but some are found in the Gulf of Auriel. Rhodellia has also has a few large solar farms but the government is struggling to find space 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 as backups in case the national grid goes 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 sabotage by hostile state or non-state actors), a few older coal and petroleum plans are still being mothballed in case the hydroelectric dams do not go back online by the time the country's battery plants exhaust their energy reserves. As of 2021, 100% of the electricity Rhodellia consumes is sourced domestically from renewable energy sources.

Culture

(WIP. Primarily a mixture of German, American, English, and Native American cultures. I envision Rhodellia as being a very diverse, multicultural, and creolised country, so people from across a wider variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds tend to feature in my posts.)