Flag:
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Nation Name (long): Republic of Racatrazi
Nation Name (short): Racatrazi
Capital: Racatrazi
Largest City: Racatrazi (metro area pop. 1.15 million)
Demonym: Racatrazašta, Racatrazan
Language: Tavari, Ngodian
Species: 56% tiefling, 32% orc, 6% mixed species, 4% elf, 2% other
Population: 2,406,717
Area: 2,352.6 sq km (371 px)
Government type: Parliamentary Republic
Leader(s): Chief Administrator Kanor Tarelda Voštoi
Legislature: National Diet
Formation: Independence from Tavaris in 1908, Second Republic established 1941, Third Republic established 1999
Total GDP: $24,319,875,285
GDP per capita: $10,105
Currency: Racatrazi Našdat (RAN, ŋ)
Calling Code: +46
ISO 3166 code: RA, RAC
Internet TLD: .ra
Map:
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Historical Summary:
The port city of Varghavn was initially established by Norgsveldet in the 1680s as part of a small plantation colony known by the same name as the city. The indigenous population consisted of Ngodian-speaking tieflings, primarily adherents of Duarism. The Norgsveltian settlers initially had good relations with these natives, but gradually the natives either took or were forced into positions as plantation laborers in the Norgsveltian colony, often for low wages—if not as outright slaves. Beginning in 1700, Tavaris began to settle Elatana, to the east in Arcturia, and later the region of Ilarís in what is now the UFC. The journey to and from Tavaris was long, and the Tavari regularly worried about ensuring there would always be friendly ports of call along the route to resupply. Additionally, the military threat posed by the Balistrians who claimed Elatana caused the Tavari government to desire as much opportunity to maintain military personnel and equipment in the region of Elatana as possible.
The Kingdom of Tavaris purchased Varghavn from Norgsveldet in 1742 for about five hundred thousand Tavari našdat. By then, the Norgsveltians had realized a profit from their involvement in the region, and they sought positive relations with Tavaris as a new trade partner entering the region. The original Tavari name was Tažraca Trazi, meaning “Feather Port,” chosen because the beach was said to have been littered in colorful feathers when the first Tavari landed on the island after the purchase, a sign of good fortune in Tavari culture. That name was later shortened, first informally and then officially, to “Racatrazi,” which also happens to be a phrase used as a greeting during Tavari festivals.
In contrast to most other Tavari colonies, which were primarily settled (and funded) by Akronists, traditionalist Tavari within the government made a concerted effort to establish a significant Avatidar presence in Racatrazi—a so-called “traditionalist colony.” While Akronists did establish a temple in the city as early as 1744, aggressive land discounts offered to members of local shrine associations across Tavaris encouraged a wave of new settlers, almost all of whom were among the staunchest Avatidar in their communities. This accomplished the goal of a majority traditionalist Tavari population, but it also encouraged land speculation, and after a two-year period of unusually severe storms in the region, the bubble burst in 1751, virtually collapsing the colony’s economy.
Another threat to the local economy came in the form of outbreaks of violence between orcs and tieflings, which occurred largely as a result of the high number of more extremist Tavari traditionalists in the population. The tieflings’ Duarist faith was centered on the worship of deities of the sun and the moon, the latter of which struck many particularly observant Avatidar as too close to Akronism for comfort. Fighting also tended to break out at taverns and at the docks, both places where alcohol was plentiful. Rodoka had solved this problem by outright banning sales of alcohol, but the Avatidar would tolerate no such thing, as rum was sacred to them. As such, Racatrazi quickly gained a reputation as “the roughest port in the empire,” a reputation it regularly held for essentially its entire time as a Tavari dependency.
Not only did Racatrazi lag behind the rest of Queen Melora’s Empire economically, it eventually became known as a relatively lawless place, famed especially for illegal gambling operations and smuggling of illicit goods. The export of coca leaves had been banned in Tavaris in 1674, but Racatrazi quickly became a global hub for their trade—and in the modern day, the illicit Tavari cocaine industry continues to have significant operations in the country.
Racatrazi would never become an economically powerful Tavari possession. In 1904, Tavari colony Metradan began seeking independence, an action which sparked Racatrazan tieflings into a campaign of work stoppages (and later riots) to achieve the same. While Tavaris initially used its military to quell outbreaks of violence, the start of the Great War rendered it impossible for Tavaris to spare the military power and so, in an unceremonious Order-in-Council that was famously effective only 48 hours after it was signed almost immediately severed Racatrazi from the Tavari empire, rendering it an independent state without a constitution or so much as a single law.
A brief war broke out in the midst of the sudden independence, but order was generally restored by orcish militias within two months. An administration calling itself the Republic of Racatrazi was established in September of 1908, and one of its first actions was to order its ports open to all traffic on either side of the Great War, as an expression of neutrality and in hopes of maximizing the amount of visitors. Tiefling riots continued for several years until the Republic of Racatrazi agreed to section off a significant portion of the country’s interior as a native reservation. While this brought peace to the region for the first time in decades, it rendered Racatrazi’s options for economic growth much slimmer, and pressure would increase upon the tieflings to allow economic development and resource extraction on their lands.
In 1940, bands of orcs began illegally crossing into the native tiefling reservation to cut down trees and plant coca and hemp fields. This, in turn, sparked a violent response from the tieflings, who began raiding orcish towns at night, breaking windows and attacking people. In April 1941, the Racatrazi military entered the reservation and seized its largest village, known as Maanbriak’s Heart, killing more than a hundred civilians. In response, the second Racatrazi Civil War raged for eight months before the December 1941 peace agreement established the Second Republic, a federal system with a President elected by joint vote of an orcish Diet and a tiefling Assembly.
The Second Republic would last until January 1999, when Racatrazi defaulted on its foreign debt and, as a result, an economic crash jeopardized the delivery of fuel and food supplies to the country. A mass demonstration of more than 300,000 people—equivalent to nearly a third of the capital region’s population—swarmed the government complex and broke into the executive mansion, ransacking it and eventually burning it to the ground. A group of 14 members of the National Diet were killed, and the President of Racatrazi survived only by fleeing the country. The military, acting under the orders of the President of the National Diet (who was constitutionally second-in-command), secured the capital region after six days of widespread rioting, and in August the constitution of the Third Republic was ratified in a referendum.
The Third Republic does away with any ceremonial executive and places the Chief Administrator as both head of state and head of government. The national government is a parliamentary system with the Chief Administrator being the leader of the controlling faction of the Diet. However, the Constitution establishes strict proportionality requirements for not only seats in the legislature but in the entirety of public sector hiring, and the National Elections Administration and Government Ethics Administration are Constitutionally-mandated independent bodies designed as anti-corruption measures. The country is divided into two provinces, each of which is divided into several townships.