Raingate

Principality of Raingate Japanese: 雨門公国 (Amemon Kōkuni) Korean: 우문공국 (Yuwen Gong-gug) Afrikaans: Vorstedom van Reënhek
Flag National Symbol
Location of Raingate in Outernatia
Capital	Solitude
Official languages	English
Recognised regional languages	Japanese, Korean, Afrikaans
Ethnic groups	91.6% Caucasian 7.1% Asian 1.3% others
Demonym	Raingatian
Government	Constitutional principality
• Prince	Louis Tomlinson
• Prime Minister	Karren Brady
• Deputy Prime Minister	Kris Jenner
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	High Order
• Lower house	Order
Establishment
• Principality of Raingate established	11 April 2010
• Ascension Day	11 April 2010
Area
• Total	261,625 km2 (101,014 sq mi)
Population
• 2015 estimate	10,562,333
• Density	40.13/km2 (103.9/sq mi)
Currency	Rainfall Pound (£) (RFP)
Time zone	UTC+9
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Drives on the	left
Calling code	+55
Internet TLD	.rg

Raingate, officially the Principality of Raingate, is a sovereign state located in Outernatia. It is bordered by Lettuce in the north, Gandhara in the east, Frostfall in the south and by the Artemitic Sea in the west. It has a population of around 10.5 million people making it Outernatia's 12th-most populous nation, and has an area spanning 261,625 km² (101,014 sq mi). The official language is English, although Japanese, Korean and Afrikaans are recognised as regional languages.

Raingate, as a principality, was established on 11 April 2010 after the dissolution of the Rainfall Federation. It is governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with the current Raingatian monarch Prince Louis Tomlinson as head of state. Although Prince Louis is a constitutional monarch, he wields substantial political power and influence.

Raingate consists of 10 provinces; Princeland, Sunshine Coast, Florem, Cambria, The Vale, Whiterun, Blackreach, Winterhold, High Rock and The Rift. Its capital city Solitude, located in Princeland, is one of the most urbanised cities in western Outernatia and is an important global city and financial centre with an urban population of 1.5 million. Raingate also has two overseas territories; Dawnguard and Duskfall.

Raingate ranks highly in many international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, equality, prosperity and human development. It has formed a union with neighbouring nation Frostfall called the Rainfall Alliance and it is the founding member of the Outernatian Union.

History

Rainfall Federation (1945-2010)

Main article: Rainfall Federation

The Raingate Republic, together with the Frostfall Republic, the Winterhold Republic and the Twilight Free State, formed the Rainfall Federation on 5 April 1945. Out of the 4 nations that made up the Federation, the largest in size and over half of the total Federation population was the Raingate Republic, which came to lead the union for its entire 65-year history.

Principality of Raingate

The Principality of Raingate was established after Frostfall peacefully declared independence from the Rainfall Federation in 2010. The Winterhold Republic and the Twilight Free State decide to remain in union and officially became part of Raingate. A monarchy was adopted after the Status of Raingate referendum in March 2010 which asked citizens whether Raingate should become a single republic once again or adopt a constitutional monarchy. Adopting a monarchy won the popular vote with 87% and Prince Louis was selected to become prince as he was already an influential political figure who was passionate about the nation and was anticipated to be a unifying force for the country as social unrest was feared after the dissolution of the Federation and absorption of Winterhold and Twilight Free State.

Politics

Prince Louis Tomlinson of Raingate

Raingate is a sovereign state run under a constitutional monarchy with Prince Louis Tomlinson as the head of state. The monarch has "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn".

Raingate has a parliamentary government know as The Order and it meets in the Royal Chambers of Solitude, Princeland. All bills passed are given Royal Assent before becoming law. The position of prime minister, Raingate's head of government, belongs to the person most likely to command the confidence of The Order; this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in The Order. The prime minister chooses 9 members within their party to form a High Order and appoints each of them as a leader of one of the 10 provinces. By convention, the prime minister is always the leader of Princeland Province. The prime minister, the 9 leaders within the High Order and the member of The Order are formally appointed by the monarch to form the government of Raingate. Conventionally, the Prince respects the prime minister's decisions of government and has rarely overruled laws passed through the houses.

Karren Brady, prime minister of Raingate.

The High Order are traditionally drawn from members of the prime minister's party. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and leaders. The current Prime Minister is Karren Brady, who has been in office since Raingate's first general election on the 15 April 2010, with Kris Jenner standing as Deputy Prime Minister. Brady is the leader of the Liberal Labour Party. For general elections, the people of each province vote for which party and party leader they would like to govern Raingate. The party with the most votes in a province wins a majority for that province. The party with the most provincial majorities then wins the general election and is sworn into power. For elections to The Order, the 10 provinces each elect a number of members of parliament who are then elected to represent that province within the house by simple plurality. General elections are called by the monarch when the prime minister so advises. The Parliament Act 2010 requires that a new election must be called no later than 5 years after the previous elections.

The Royal Chambers of Solitude, location of the Parliament of Raingate.

The Liberal Labour Party is Raingate's main political party and represents the Raingatian values of socialism and civil liberalism. The other main parties include the Liberal Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Winterhold National Party and the Asian Front.

Political System

Main article: Raingate general election 2015

Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Raingate which consists of 60 members; the prime minister, the 9 leaders of the High Order and the 50 members of The Order. Majority approval from both Orders is needed to pass legislation.

The members of the The Order are elected every 5 years. The 50-seat Order is elected directly through the proportional representation system whereby each province elects a set number of members to represent them in the Order. The number of members representing a province is determined by the population density within that province. For example, the most populous province of Princeland has 10 members (or seats) in The Order, while the least populous provinces of High Rock and The Rift has 3 and 2 representatives in The Order respectively.

Following the most recent general election in July 2015, the current prime minister is Karren Brady of the Liberal Labour Party. The majority of The Order is made up of members from this party.

  Liberal Labour: 42 seats

  Liberal Democratic: 12 seats

  Green: 2 seats

  Winterhold National: 2 seats

  Asian Front: 2 seats

Raingatian Parliament structure
Party Name			Seats
High Order			10
	Liberal Labour	PM Karren Brady	1
		Province Leaders	9
The Order			50
	Liberal Labour		32
	Liberal Democratic		12
	Green		2
	Winterhold National		2
	Asian Front		2
Total seats			60

Demographics

Provinces

Raingate is divided into 10 provinces each governed by a leader, who is appointed through the mutual agreement between the Price and prime minister of Raingate. Each province is run by local governments which are in turn governed by the Parliament of Raingate in Solitude. These local governments work on local matters within their province and serve as intermediaries between the main parliament province leaders.

	Flag	Province	Capital	Leader	Population
		Princeland	Solitude	Karren Brady	3,505,581
		Sunshine Coast	Azure Bay	Kris Jenner	1,507,985
		Florem	Florem	Deborah Meaden	1,052,499
		Cambria	Breton	Liam Payne	942,411
		Whiterun	Dragonsreach	Thomas Daley	882,476
		The Vale	Falkreath	Niall Horan	859,413
		Blackreach	Dawnstar	Yunho Jung	780,145
		Winterhold	Winterhold	Zac Efron	512,664
		High Rock	Riverstone	Scott Disick	304,827
		The Rift	Riften	Hilary Devey	214,332

Overseas Territories

Flag	Territory	Capital	Population
	Dawnguard	Port Louis	31,608
	Duskfall	Tristan	19,454

Languages

Raingate's de facto official language is English, which is spoken by 98.8% of the population with an estimated 93% of those being monolingual English speakers. Japanese, Korean and Afrikaans are also recognised as regional or minority languages. In the 2015 Census over 21% of the population of Blackreach province said they could speak Japanese fluently, and 12% said they could speak Korean. An increase from the 2010 Census (18% and 9% respecitvely). In the same census in The Rift province 10.4% stated that they had "some knowledge of Afrikaans". Overall 834,424 people in Raingate (just under 8% of the population) have some regional language ability.

It is compulsory for pupils to study a second language up to the age of 16 in Raingate. Japanese and Korean are the two most commonly taught second languages. All pupils in The Rift province are taught Afrikaans as a second language up to age 16.

Geography

Raingate is located on the eastern coast of Outernatia and covers an area spanning 261,625km sq (101,014 sq mi). The landscape in the eastern coastal areas and in the south is fairly low-lying whereas the north and west of the region is dominated by mountain ranges.

Climate

Main article: Climate of Raingate

Raingate has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round. The temperature varies with the seasons and rarely drops below −15 °C or rises above 35 °C. The prevailing wind is from the west and brings frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Ocean, although the eastern parts, particularly High Rock and The Rift provinces, are mostly sheltered from this wind due to the majority of the rain falling over the western provinces; the eastern parts are therefore the driest. Continental windstreams however bring hot summers and mild winters to the western provinces of Sunshine Coast, Florem and Cambria. Whereas these windstreams bring milder summers and colder winters to the eastern provinces of Winterhold, High Rock and The Rift. High Rock is particularly prone to significantly cold winters due to the mountainous terrain shielding the warmer oceanic wind streams. Summers are warmest in the south-east of Raingate, particularly in the provinces of Sunshine Coast and Florem, the former of which is a popular tourist destination. Heavy snowfall can occur in winter and early spring on high ground, and occasionally settles to great depth away from the hills. Winterhold province is notorious in regards to fallen snow taking an excessive amount of time to clear due to the provinces expansive and low lying ground.

Music of Raingate

Outernatia Song Contest

Main article: Raingate in the Outernatia Song Contest

Raingate participates in the Outernatia Song Contest from the thirteenth edition onwards. The National Selection for Raingate is know as M FEST and is held by the national broadcaster, RGTV.

Edition	Artist	Language	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
13th	Koda Kumi	Japanese	"EX TAPE"	Failed to qualify		13	30
14th	Delta Goodrem	English	"Wings"	4	92	No semi-finals
15th	Rita Ora	English	"I Will Never Let You Down"	11	75	9	49
16th	The Vamps	English	"Wake Up"	4	95	4	56
17th	Troye Sivan	English	"YOUTH"	Failed to qualify		10	52
18th	Benjamin	English	"Young and Restless"			No semi-finals
19th	Zayn	English	"PILLOWTALK"
20th		Afrikaans

Internatia Second Chance Contest

Main article: Raingate in the Internatia Second Chance Contest

Edition	Artist	Language	Title	Place	Points
21st	Auryn	English	"I'll Reach You"	10	64
22nd	Lee Scott	Afrikanns	"Vir Ewig"	2	74
23rd	Cheryl Cole	English	"Call My Name"	7	59
24th	Taeyeon	Korean	"I"	3	62
25th	MAX	Japanese	"Tacata"	4	70
26th	Cheryl Cole	English	"Under The Sun"

Junior Internatia Song Contest

Main article: Raingate in the Junior Internatia Song Contest

Edition	Artist	Title	Place	Points
17th	Cody Simpson	"Wish 'U Were Here"	9	50
18th	Austin Mahone	"Say You're Just a Friend"	9	68
19th	Emily Osment	"All The Way Up"	10	53
20th	Abraham Mateo	"Lánzalo"	5	59
21st	Benjamin Lasnier	"Love You Out Loud"

ISC -1

Main article: Raingate in the Internatia Song Contest -1

Edition	Year	Artist	Title	Place	Points
10th	1985	Whitney Houston	"How Will I Know"	12	49
11th	1966	Diana Ross & The Supremes	"Stop! In The Name of Love"	9	49
12th	1995	Cher	"Just Like Jesse James"	6	63
13th	2005	Dannii Minogue	"I Begin To Wonder"	9	49
14th	1959	Vera Lynn	"As Time Goes By"	9	57
15th	1979	Lesley Gore	"You Don't Own Me"

Internatia Classical Music Contest

Main article: Raingate in the Internatia Classical Music Contest

Edition	Artist	Song	Final	Points
1st	Hitoshi Sakimoto	"Theme of The Empire"	6	9
2nd	Jeremy Soule	"The Streets of Whiterun"	1	59
3rd	Koji Kondo	"Sonata of Awakening"	4	51
4th	Jeremy Soule	"From Past to Present"	1	75
5th	Hitoshi Sakimoto	"Time of Rest"	3	53
6th