Saint Offeat

Royal Federation of Saint Offeat
Flag
Capital	Vogoci
Official languages	Offeati
Recognised national languages	Arenish, English, Oritan, Hulgar, Nitobryn
Ethnic groups	Offeatean, Arenoran, Baytonian, Elbresian, Kytieze
Demonym(s)	Offeatean
Government	Unitary Constitutional Monarchy
• King	Pietro Bertello
• Prime Minister	Lynne Bushore
Population
• 2020 estimate	6,724,000
Date format	mm-dd-yyyy

The Royal Federation of Saint Offeat, most commonly known as Saint Offeat, is a nation in the Coalition of Crown Albatross located on the continent of Nortua, sharing maritime borders with the Arenoran Isles and Elbresia, with a coastline on the Olympic Ocean. Its capital of Vogoci is the largest city in the country, with other major cities including Vepovo, Hillsberg, and Barotek.

Human habitation on the island has been traced back as far 50,000 BC when the island was connected to the Nortuan continental mainland. The island's relative isolation allowed both civilization and the island's native plant and wildlife species to evolve independently. In the 800's, Arenoran society had developed as part of various merchant kingdoms and cities, divided politically among the Arenoran Isles. Following multiple conflicts and tribulating eras for the next thousand years, Offeat separated in 1934 following the Offeat Troubles. In the 1960s and 1970s, the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. This development culminated with the 1973 Offeat coup attempt by Beltramo Cassaro that attempted to overthrow Alvin Bollende's democratically elected left-wing government, resulting in more than 3,000 people dead or missing. Political turmoil ended 1996 after a power-sharing referendum, and it was succeeded by a center-left coalition which ruled until 2010. In 2023, a referendum in Northern Offeat passed in favor of joining the federation, seperating from the Arenorans and unifying the island of Offeat.

Saint Offeat has a high-income economy with high living standards. It is among Nortua's most economically and socially stable and prosperous nations and it leads northeast Nortua nations in rankings of competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, and democratic development. Currently it also has the lowest homicide rate in Nortua.

Demographics

Religion

As of 2012, 86.6% of Offeatean population over 15 years of age claimed to adhere to the Verdusan Catholic church, a decrease from the 90% reported in the 2002 census. Approximately 90% of Evangelical Christians are Pentecostal. Irreligious people, atheists, and agnostics account for around 12% of the population.

The Constitution states that Saint Offeat is a theocracy fundamentally rooted in Christian ideology and religion, but it guarantees the right to freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contribute to generally free religious practice. The law at all levels fully protects this right against abuse by either governmental or private actors.

A 1999 law on religion prohibits religious discrimination. However, the Verdusan Catholic church for mostly historical and social reasons enjoys a privileged status and occasionally receives preferential treatment. Government officials attend Catholic events as well as major Evangelical and Jewish ceremonies.

The Offeatean government treats the religious holidays of Christmas, Good Friday, the Feast of the Virgin of Carmen, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Feast of the Assumption, All Saints' Day, and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception as national holidays. Recently, the government declared 31 October, Reformation Day, to be an additional national holiday, in honor of the Evangelical churches of the country.

Politics

Government

Parliament of Saint Offeat, in Vogoci, is the national legislature

Culture

Cuisine

Asado (Barbecue) and Marraqueta

Saint Offeatean cuisine is a reflection of the country's topographical variety, featuring an assortment of seafood, beef, fruits, and vegetables. Traditional recipes include asado, cazuela, empanadas, humitas, pastel de choclo, pastel de papas, curanto and sopaipillas. Crudos is an example of the mixture of culinary contributions from the various ethnic influences in Saint Offeat. The raw minced llama, heavy use of shellfish and rice bread were taken from native cuisine, (although now beef brought to Saint Offeat by Euronia is also used in place of the llama meat), lemon and onions were brought by the Arenoran Isles colonists, and the use of mayonnaise and yogurt was introduced by Caspian immigrants, as was beer.

Music

Music in Saint Offeat ranges from folkloric, popular and classical music. Its large geography generates different musical styles in the north, center and south of the country. The national dance is the cueca. Another form of traditional Saint Offeatean song, though not a dance, is the tonada. Arising from music imported by the Arenoran colonists, it is distinguished from the cueca by an intermediate melodic section and a more prominent melody.

Sports

Vogoci FC Stadium is the largest in the country

Saint Offeat's most popular sport is association football. Saint Offeat's national team has appeared in nine World Cups which includes hosting the 1991 Vogoci World Cup the national football team finished third. Other results achieved by the national football team include a bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Seloysk Beach, Egilanak.

Tennis is Saint Offeat's most successful sport. Its national team won the World Team Cup clay tournament twice (2003 & 2004). At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Tofino, Zamastan, the country captured gold and bronze in men's singles and gold in men's doubles.

Economy

The Central Bank of Saint Offeat serves as the central bank for the country. Saint Offeat is one of Nortua's most stable and prosperous nations, leading northeastern Nortuan nations in human development, competitiveness, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. Since July 2013, Saint Offeat is considered as a "high-income economy". Saint Offeat has one of the highest degrees of economic freedom in Nortua, owing to its independent and efficient judicial system and prudent public finance management.

Copper mining makes up 20% of Offeatean GDP and 60% of exports. Overall, Saint Offeat produces a fifteenth of the world's copper. Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s, have contributed to steady economic growth in Saint Offeat and have more than halved poverty rates. Saint Offeat began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 4.0% GDP growth. The Offeatean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6 percent. Real GDP growth reached 5.7 percent in 2005 before falling back to 4 percent in 2006. GDP expanded by 5 percent in 2007. Faced with an international economic downturn the government announced an economic stimulus plan to spur employment and growth, and despite the global financial crisis, aimed for an expansion of between 2 percent and 3 percent of GDP for 2009. Nonetheless, economic analysts disagreed with government estimates and predicted economic growth at a median of 1.5 percent. Real GDP growth in 2012 was 5.5%. Growth slowed to 4.1% in the first quarter of 2013.

The unemployment rate was 6.4% in April 2013. There are reported labor shortages in agriculture, mining, and construction. The percentage of Saint Offeateans with per capita household incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a person's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 45.1 percent in 1987 to 11.5 percent in 2009, according to government surveys.

Saint Offeat has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with Zamastan and Caspia that was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Internal Government of Saint Offeat figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between Zamastan and Saint Offeat has grown over 60 percent since then. Saint Offeat's total trade with Yuan reached Z$8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66 percent of the value of its trade relationship with Ausiana.

Agriculture

Agriculture in Saint Offeat encompasses a wide range of different activities due to its particular geography, climate and geology and human factors. Historically agriculture is one of the bases of Saint Offeat's economy. Now agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing account for only 4.9% of the GDP as of 2007 and employ 13.6% of the country's labor force. Some major agriculture products of Saint Offeat include grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, maize, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, beans, beef, poultry, wool, fish, timber and hemp. Due to its geographical isolation and strict customs policies Saint Offeat is free from diseases such as mad cow disease, fruit fly and Phylloxera. This, its location in the Northern Hemisphere, which has quite different harvesting times from the Southern Hemisphere, and its wide range of agriculture conditions are considered Saint Offeat's main comparative advantages. However, Saint Offeat's mountainous landscape limits the extent and intensity of agriculture so that arable land corresponds only to 2.62% of the total territory. Saint Offeat currently utilizes 14,015 Hectares of agricultural land.