Raingate
Motto: "Let It Rain" | |
Anthem: "Raining Diamonds" | |
Location of Raingate in Outernatia | |
Capital | Solitude |
Official languages | |
Ethnic groups |
|
Demonym | Raingatian |
Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional principality |
• Prince | Louis Tomlinson |
• Prime Minister | Karren Brady |
Legislature | Order |
Formation | |
• Grand State of Solitude | 1750 |
• Princeland Realm | 1801 |
• Principality of Raingate | 13 March 1851 |
Area | |
• Total | 261,625 km2 (101,014 sq mi) |
Population | |
• 2015 estimate | 10,562,333 |
• Density | 40.13/km2 (103.9/sq mi) |
HDI | 0.925 very high |
Currency | Raingate Pound (£) (RFP) |
Time zone | RST (UTC+9) |
Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
Drives on the | left |
Calling code | +55 |
Internet TLD | .rg |
Raingate (Afrikaans: Reënhek) is a sovereign state. 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 languages are English and Afrikaans, and Japanese is recognised as a regional language.
Raingate is governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with the current monarch Prince Louis Tomlinson as head of state. Although Prince Louis is a constitutional monarch, he wields substantial political power and influence. The country is officially bilingual at provincial level with the official languages being English and Afrikaans.
Raingate consists of 9 provinces; Princeland, Sunshine Coast, Auridon, Winterhold, Cambria, The Vale, Alik'r Desert, 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 three overseas territories; Queensland, Raingate Ocean Territory and Dawnguard & 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 is the founding member of the Outernatian Union.
History
Grand State of Solitude
Princeland Realm
Principality of Raingate
The Principality of Raingate was established on 13 March 1851. The Winterhold Republic decided to remain in union and officially became part of Raingate. A monarchy was adopted after the Status of Raingate referendum in March 1851 which asked citizens whether Raingate should become a single republic or adopt a constitutional monarchy. Adopting a monarchy won the popular vote with 87% and Prince ??? was selected to become monarch and head of state 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 absorption of Winterhold.
Politics
The basic political system in Raingate is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system 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". The Constitution of Raingate is "unwritten" and consists mostly of a collection of written sources, including statutes and judge-made case law, together with constitutional conventions and customs. As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and "constitutional law", the Raingatian Order can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Order, and thus has the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Order can pass laws that future Orders cannot change.
Government
Raingate has a unicameral 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 8 members within their party and appoints each of them as a leader of one of the 9 provinces of Raingate. By convention, the prime minister is always the leader of Princeland Province. The prime minister and the appointed leaders in 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 never overruled laws passed by the Order.
The current Prime Minister is Karren Brady, who has been in office since Raingate's general election on the 15 April 2010. Brady is the leader of the Raingate Conservative Party. For general elections, each of the 9 provinces in Raingate are split into several constituencies each representing a seat in The Order. The total number of constituencies and therefore seats in the Order is 155. The people in each constituency elect a single Order Member (OM) by simple plurality. The party with an overall voting majority (more seats than all the other parties combined) following an election forms the government. If no party has an outright majority, parties can seek to form coalitions with other parties until an overall majority is achieved. 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 Raingate Conservative Party is Raingate's main political party and represents the Raingatian values of socialism and civil liberalism. The other main parties include the Centre-Left Covenant, the Afrikaans Alliance, the Green Party, the Winterhold National Party and the National Front.
Political System
Legislative power is vested in the Order of the Raingate which consists of 101 members. Majority approval from members of the Order is needed to pass legislation.
The members of the The Order are elected every 5 years. The 101-seat Order is elected directly through the proportional representation system whereby each constituency elects a set number of members to represent them in the Order. The number of constituencies, and therefore order members, per province is determined by the population density within that province. For example, the most populous province of Princeland is split into 25 constituencies (or seats) in The Order, while the least populous province of The Rift 3 representatives in The Order in comparison.
Following the most recent general election in June 2015, the current prime minister is Karren Brady of the Raingate Conservative Party. The majority of The Order is made up of members from this party.
The Order of Raingate | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party Name | Seats | ||
Raingate Conservative | 54 | ||
Centre-Left Covenant | 26 | ||
Afrikaans Alliance | 10 | ||
Green | 5 | ||
Winterhold National | 3 | ||
National Front | 3 | ||
Total seats | 101 |
Demographics
Provinces
Raingate is divided into 9 provinces each governed by a leader, who is appointed through the mutual agreement between the Price and prime minister of Raingate. Each province is further split into several constituencies which are run by local authorities who are in turn governed by the The Order of Raingate in Solitude. These local authorities work on local matters within their constituency and serve as intermediaries between the main governmental province leaders.
Flag | Province | Capital | Population | Area |
---|---|---|---|---|
Princeland | Solitude | 3,005,581 | 44,598 km2 | |
Sunshine Coast | Azure Bay | 1,956,923 | 36,538 km2 | |
Auridon | Florem | 1,252,499 | 26,668 km2 | |
Winterhold | Winterhold | 1,242,411 | 47,087 km2 | |
Cambria | Breton | 912,476 | 29,846 km2 | |
Alik'r Desert | Sentinel | 799,413 | 21,393 km2 | |
The Vale | Valenwood | 751,145 | 33,175 km2 | |
High Rock | Daggerfall | 376,497 | 7,077 km2 | |
The Rift | Riften | 214,326 | 15,243 km2 |
Overseas Territories
Flag | Territory | Capital | Population |
---|---|---|---|
Queensland | Port Louis | 51,062 | |
Raingate Ocean Territory | Port Elizabeth | 35,093 | |
Dawnguard & Duskfall | Dawn Harbour | 5,225 |
Largest cities or towns in Raingate
Source? | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Province | Pop. | Rank | Province | Pop. | ||||
Solitude Azure Bay |
1 | Solitude | Princeland | 1,005,552 | 11 | Breton | Cambria | 127,844 | Kingsland Reënfontein |
2 | Azure Bay | Sunshine Coast | 544,955 | 12 | Eastmarsh | Winterhold | 111,431 | ||
3 | Kingsland | Princeland | 338,405 | 13 | Autumnwatch | Auridon | 99,462 | ||
4 | Reënfontein | Princeland | 329,688 | 14 | McQueen | Princeland | 84,992 | ||
5 | Maverick | Princeland | 277,655 | 15 | Valenwood | The Vale | 65,554 | ||
6 | Great Bay | Sunshine Coast | 223,152 | 16 | Sentinel | Alik'r Desert | 57,329 | ||
7 | Florem | Auridon | 202,664 | 17 | Crystal Springs | Auridon | 33,661 | ||
8 | Winterhold | Winterhold | 167,047 | 18 | Riverstone | High Rock | 32,616 | ||
9 | Anchorage | Princeland | 152,621 | 19 | Darkwater Crossing | Princeland | 29,486 | ||
10 | Phon Coast | Sunshine Coast | 129,453 | 20 | Riften | The Rift | 23,143 |
Languages
Raingate's official languages are English and Afrikaans. English is spoken by 98.7% of the population with an estimated 68.6% of those being monolingual English speakers. Afrikaans is spoken by an estimated 24.4% of the population. According to the 2015 census, English and Afrikaans are the first languages of 76.9% and 21.3% of Raingatians respectively. Over 98.8% of Raingatians have working knowledge of English while 30.1% have working knowledge of Afrikaans. Under the Official Languages Act of 2010, both English and Afrikaans have official federal status throughout Raingate, in respect of all government services, including the courts, and all legislation is enacted bilingually; although the use of English is far more common.
Japanese is recognised as a regional minority language. In the 2015 Census over 14% of the population said they had "some knowledge" of Japanese with 5% stating they are fluent. Alik'r Desert province has the highest concentration of Japanese language speakers with 29% of people stating they could speak Japanese fluently.
It is compulsory for pupils to study English or Afrikaans as a second language up to the age of 18 in Afrikaans and English languages schools respectively in Raingate.
Province | Total population | English | % | Afrikaans | % | Other languages | % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Princeland | 3,005,581 | 2,981,536 | 99.2% | 1,039,931 | 34.6% | 93,173 | 3.1% |
Sunshine Coast | 1,956,923 | 1,939,310 | 99.1% | 890,399 | 45.5% | 91,975 | 4.7% |
Auridon | 1,252,499 | 1,249,994 | 99.8% | 288,074 | 23.0% | 26,302 | 2.1% |
Winterhold | 1,242,411 | 1,226,259 | 98.7% | 265,875 | 21.4% | 19,878 | 1.6% |
Cambria | 912,476 | 911,563 | 99.9% | 267,355 | 29.3% | 8,212 | 0.9% |
Alik'r Desert | 799,413 | 770,634 | 96.4% | 140,696 | 17.6% | 231,829 | 29.0% |
The Vale | 751,145 | 739,877 | 98.4% | 130,699 | 17.4% | 51,829 | 6.9% |
High Rock | 376,497 | 373,861 | 99.3% | 58,733 | 15.6% | 8,282 | 2.2% |
The Rift | 214,326 | 209,396 | 97.7% | 31,934 | 14.9% | 24,004 | 11.2% |
Raingate | 10,511,271 | 10,374,624 | 98.7% | 2,564,750 | 24.4% | 731,584 | 6.96% |
Immigration
Country | Men | Women | Population |
---|---|---|---|
Frostfall | 359,822 | 312,486 | 672,308 |
Kimmystan | 151,531 | 132,468 | 283,999 |
Thorway | 28,392 | 21,843 | 50,235 |
Victoria | 7,827 | 19,384 | 25,124 |
Gandhara | 11,523 | 2,823 | 14,346 |
Jhe Freeh | 2,423 | 6,734 | 9,157 |
Lettuce | 3,346 | 2,856 | 7,723 |
Waticania | 3,283 | 2,694 | 5,977 |
Tikata | 2,534 | 2,019 | 4,553 |
Folkloria | 1,724 | 1,645 | 4,271 |
Total immigrant population | 572,405 | 504,952 | 1,077,357 |
In 2016, there were 1,077,357 inhabitants of foreign background and their descendants (foreign born and children of international migrants) composing around 10.2% of the Raingatian population. Around 1,072,804 or 95% came from Outernatia and 4,553 or 5% came from Internatia. With the total population being 10,562,333; roughly 5.4% of the population were born abroad, 3.8% of the population were born in Raingate to two parents born abroad, and another 7% were born in Raingate to one parent born abroad. Resulting in 16% of the Raingate population being of at least partly foreign descent.
Geography
Raingate is located on the eastern coast of the western island continent of Outernatia and covers a total area of 261,625 km² (101,014 sq mi). It features many different terrain types; including forests, highlands and mountainous regions. The western coastal areas along with the south and central regions of the country are fairly low-lying, whereas the north features a high plateau know as the Alik'r Plateau that separates the north from the central areas. The west is dominated by highlands and mountainous areas. The highest point of Raingate is Death Mountain at 1,085 m (3,560 ft).
Climate
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 Artemitic Sea, 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 of the country are therefore the driest year-round.
Continental windstreams bring hot summers and mild winters to the western provinces of Sunshine Coast, Auridon and Cambria; while ensuring milder summers and colder winters in the eastern provinces of The Vale, 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 Auridon, 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 depths towards 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 and mild climate.