Rumahoki

Rumahoki, officially the Most Serene Sovereignty of Rumahoki (Latin: Serenissima Dominatio Rumahociae; Pelaxian: Serenísima Soberanía de Rumajoqui; Reform Tainean: Serenisim Sauberanetas des Roumahauki), is a located in eastern Vallos. It shares a land border with Takatta Loa in the southwest, Almadaria in the west, the Caphirian exclave of Vespera in the north, and it shares a maritime border with the Cartadanian state of Porta Bianca in the northeast and Puertego in the southeast. Its coastline runs throughout the Taínean Sea. Like its neighbours, Rumahoki is a megadiverse nation boasting one of the highest biodiversity across the biomes within it. The Rumahokian economy is a with elements of  and  with most public services (most notably healthcare, electricity, and mass public transport) being controlled by the government. However, private industries are permitted to operate in most other sectors such as telecommunications, shipping, and retail. Uniquely, the Rumahokian government is a  under a  with a democratic  and a  with a powerful.

From 1976 until 1994, Rumahoki was under a regime greatly inspired by and  ideologies complete with a sham democracy. This regime was known as the Delepasian Commonwealth, using the former Pelaxian name of the nation. This all changed with the Velvet Revolution in 1994 when left-wing factions of the Rumahokian Imperial Armed Forces overthrew the government and pushed through a series of sweeping democratic reforms, eventually culminating in the Rumahokian Constitution of 1996.

Rumahoki is a member of the League of Nations, though it maintains a non-interventionist stance in international peacekeeping efforts.

Etymology
"Rumahoki" originated from antiquity as a term meaning "earthly paradise" in the eastern dialects of the Tainean language. The meaning behind this term is currently debated upon, but it may have had its origins in the Heaven Ships which has been noted to be how the Taineans made it to Vallos after being forced out of Crona by the North Songun civilisation. Much like Arona, the name may be in reference to the favourable sea and weather conditions enjoyed by the people living there.

History
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Early Vallosi settlements and 'shark culture'
The first human settlements on the Vallosi subcontinent has been dated to the year 12,000 BC based on archaeological evidence. This makes Vallos one of the last parts of the Occident to have been initially settled. suggests that these settlers may have migrated from what is now Pelaxia. Society for the early Vallosi who have become sedentary was primarily agricultural, reaching to about forty percent by the year 2000 BC. As indigenous Vallosi society developed, they have reached their apex with the shark pottery culture, so-called due to the use of shark teeth and bones as a crafting material while at the same time depicting shark-related motifs on pottery. The shark pottery culture reached its peak at around 1800 BC, not long before the arrival of the Polynesians and later arrival of the first Heaven Ships from Crona. However, shark pottery culture, at this point classified as 'late shark pottery' due to foreign innovations, co-existed with these groups for centuries to come.

Archaeological evidence aside, virtually nothing is known about the indigenous Vallosi. Thanks to the lack of technological development and the lack of a proper writing system, the indigenous Vallosi culture was eventually lost through assimilation, intermarriage, and colonisation, thus leading to a near-total displacement. The average Rumahokian may have as much as less than ten percent DNA from the indigenous Vallosi according to genetic studies made in the year 1997.

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Delepasian Kingdom and the end of Pelaxian rule
When the Pelaxian monarchy was toppled in 1852, much of the nobility have fled to the colonies which still pledged loyalty to the Girojón monarchy wherein they united the colonies into a monarchy serving as the pro-Girojón in opposition to the Pelaxian republic. However, tensions soon arose as three major factions were formed. There was the Royalists who hoped to overthrow the republican regime in Pelaxia with the help of the colonies and in return establish a dual monarchy in which the Delepasians would be of equal status to the Pelaxians. In opposition to the dual monarchy idea was the National Constitutionalists who, while they remained loyal to the crown, would rather that the kingdom drop the pretense of being a government-in-exile and instead become an independent Delepasian monarchy under the Girojóns. Lastly, there was the National Republicans who wanted nothing to do with the deposed Pelaxian monarchy nor with Pelaxia in general.

Because these three factions were unable to find a suitable compromise, the Delepasian Kingdom was racked with instability and chaos as the inland-coastal divide led to a few of the states within the kingdom to outright declare war on one another. Within three months, the kingdom was dissolved and each state was free to do as they please. Some of the same nobility who have came up with the dual monarchy idea in the first place decided to attempt to strong-arm the state governments into becoming monarchies with themselves as the monarch. These were only successful in Bahia and Rios Gemelos with the rest settling for various flavours of republican governance.

Pact of Eighteen and Delepasian Commonwealth
The newly-unified nation was a continuation of the Estado Social regime that was installed in 1938 in Rosaria and governed by Fernando Pascual who subsequently became the first Delepasian prime minister from its formation in 1976 until 1988 when he was succeeded by Nicolás Torres after a stroke. The Estado Social also made the institutional system of racial segregation known as the Navidadian System nationwide, barring non-Delepasians from participating in politics as well as closing down immigration to all but a select amount of Pelaxians.

The Estado Social regime in Delepasia was characterised by a gradually-liberalising economy,, prime ministerial supremacy, pelaxianisation policies, and National Catholicism. Pelaxian was the sole official language during this era, and all minorities were put through brutal cultural suppression and measures. Even during the Torres reforms of the early 1990s, pelaxianisation remained as official government policy, and public opposition rose sharply as an increasingly significant element of the population grew with no memory of the anarchy that preceded Pascual and most especially when the reform experiment was put to an end by hardliners in the Armed Forces.

Diplomatically, the regime was a member of LOTA, Rosaria having been a member since 1945, two years after the Second Great War had ended, to the detriment of whatever relations the new country may have had with Caphiria. Membership would end in 1991 as a part of the Torres reforms, aiming to move the nation torwards a more neutral stance after the end of the Occidental Cold War.

Velvet Revolution and democratisation
The Delepasian government and army resisted any attempts at dismantling the Estado Social regime until April 1994, when a left-wing military in Santa Maria, known as the Velvet Revolution, led the way for the establishment of a multi-party democracy after two years of a transitional period known as PTeC (Proceso de Transición en Curso). This period was marked by constant social turmoil and a power struggle between left- and right-wing political forces. By July of 1995, the tension between these was so high, that international observers were predicting that a civil war was imminent. Forces connected to the far-left launched a further coup d'état on 3 December, but the Group of Nine, a moderate military faction led by Emperor Maximilian himself, immediately initiated a counter-coup. The main episode of this confrontation was the successful assault on the barracks of the far-left dominated Santa Maria Lancers Regiment by the moderate forces of the Commando Regiment, resulting in three soldiers.

The Group of Nine emerged victorious, thus preventing the establishment of a socialist state in Delepasia and ending the period of political instability in the country. The Junta para la Salvación de la Civilidad governed Delepasia until the Rumahokian legislative election of 1996. During that time, the junta drafted a new constitution, formally naming the new state the Most Serene Sovereignty of Rumahoki, it established a, it abolished Catholicism as the state religion, it empowered the Emperor in recognition of his role in the counter-coup, it established Pelaxian, Latin, and Reform Tainean as the state's three official languages, and it forbade any systems of racial segregation, thus putting a permanent end to the Navidadian System.

The 1996 elections resulted in a between the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Christian National Party (PNC) with Fernando Carvalho, PDP's leader, becoming Prime Minister of the first post-Delepasia government on 21 January 1997. In this capacity Carvalho had initiated the process of accession to the Vallosian Economic Association (VEA) by starting accession negotiations as early as February that same year.

After the transition to democracy, Rumahoki quickly embraced and  as the nation's primary economic policies, fostering in a. and were enforced; the constitution (approved in 1996) includes accomodations to socialist principles, complete with numerous references to socialism, the rights of workers, and the desirability of a.

Diplomatically, Rumahoki has pursued the thawing and eventual warming of relations with Caphiria as a means to further distance the nation from the Estado Social's warm relations with Urcea, though relations with the Urcean protectorate of Arona have remained warm and cordial nonetheless.

Geography
Rumahoki is situated with the Tainean Sea to its east, with a small bit of coastline in the southeast nearing the Kindreds Sea, and is bordered by a few freshwater lakes, most notably Lake Remenau, which since the 1970s is shared between Rumahoki and its neighbour Almadaria. Rumahoki's neighbours by land are the before-mentioned Almadaria, Takatta Loa, and the Caphiric exclave of Vespera, with maritime borders being shared with Cartadania's Porta Bianca, Puertego, and Vespera. The Niscamanta Range is located to the nation's west, enclosing both sides of the Remenau River Valley. The smaller Lake Astolia is located up north and is also shared with Almadaria.

Geographical Divisions of Rumahoki.svg, in cooperation with the Rumahokian Environmental Agency, have classified the nation as having seven in 1998: Those being Los Rumas, Lago Delepas (a continuation of the Remenau region in Almadaria), Tierra Loa, New Rumas, Trillizos del Sur (a continuation of the Niscamanta region in Almadaria), Gemelos del Norte (arguably a continuation of the Astol Plains in Almadaria), and Norte Maritimo.

Gemelos del Norte is a tropical grassland much like Astol, and is surrounded by the Astol Mountain Range in the north and east, and the Old Astol River in the south. Trillizos del Sur is the largest geographical area in Rumahoki, and is bordered by Old Astol in the north, and the Sierra Guerrero mountain range, which boasts the highest point in Rumahoki, Mount Sebastian, at 3,623 metres (11,886.48 ft) above sea level.

A majority of Rumahoki's population is concentrated within the regions of Los Rumas (where the nation's largest city of Adouka is located at), and Trillizos del Sur, mostly due to the two regions being among the largest in the country, and the existence of commercially-important rivers which ensures the economic livelihood of many of the states within them via trade with Almadaria.

Climate and environment
Rumahoki's climate is broadly tropical throughout much of the year, though the existence of geographical nuances has allowed for a variety of biomes and climate zones to crop up. Trillizos del Sur and Gemelos del Norte, surrounded by the mountain ranges of Astol and Guerrero, have a more temperate climate in the interior before gradually transitioning towards an alpine climate as one gets closer to one of the mountain ranges, or towards a tropical rainforest climate as one gets closer to the river up north. Near the coast, the regions of Los Rumas and New Rumas have a warmer and more humid climate, often with tropical rainforests. Lago Delepas is a tropical savannah near Lake Remenau, but soon transitions towards temperate grassy plains as one gets closer to Junu'urinia Ba'andasi-Navidadia before transitioning towards a cooler climate in Tierra Loa.

Being just south of the equator and within one of the tropics, average temperatures remain mostly constant throughout the year, with average highs going up to 30 degrees Celsius, and average lows going down to 15 degrees Celsius. The big distinguishing feature between Rumahoki's geographical areas is the amount of rainfall a given area gets rather than temperatures.

There is no such thing as a vernal or autumnal season in Rumahoki; there is only a dry season, or cosecha (harvesting), and a wet season, or floración (flowering). Typhoons are most common in the wet season, bringing forth heavy amounts of precipitation of up to 350 mm; the dry season sees as little as 10 mm on average. Los Rumas and the interior of Trizillos del Sur and Gemelos del Norte each receive the highest amounts of rainfall on average.

Government and Politics
Rumahoki is a.

Executive
The executive branch is headed by the Emperor and the Prime Minister. The Emperor, currently Maximilian I, is the, elected indirectly by a group of 41 electors who in turn are elected through complicated electoral machinery alternating between and miniature internal elections. The Prime Minister, currently Francisco Carvalho, is the, appointed by the Emperor to lead the privy council. The Emperor may dissolve the National Assembly or circumvent it by submitting referendums directly to the populace; the Emperor also has the power to appoint justices and other civil servants, is in charge of foreign affairs, as well as serving as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Prime Minister is in charge of domestic affairs in terms of public policy and providing oversight over the civil service. In the 2028 Commons elections, prime minister Carvalho, who first became Prime Minister in 1997 won another parliamentary majority.

Legislative
The legislature comprises of the National Assembly which in turn comprises of the Congress of the Peerage and Congress of the Commons.

The Congress of the Peerage is the, consisting of 143 members split between the 133 Peers Temporal and the 10 Peers Spiritual. The former group is even split among the nineteen states of Rumahoki, and are elected usually from amongst the nation's peerage by the regional upper houses through a. The latter group is chosen from the amongst the nation's clergy on the basis of. Unlike the Peers Temporal, the Peers Spiritual are an entirely ceremonial group with little power unlike their secular counterparts.

The Congress of the Commons is the, consisting of 400 members split between the states on the basis of population in an attempt to prevent urban overrepresentation. The members, known as Representatives, are elected by the citizens through a party-list proportional representation voting system. Of the two legislative houses, this is the more powerful of the two. Indeed, the Prime Minister needs to command a majority of the Commons whether through or  in order to not have a.

Federal subdivisions
Rumahoki is a federal state with nineteen estados, including the Federal District containing the nation's capital of Santa Maria. The primary purpose behind these entities is to be the primary-level divisions, complete with their own constitution and form of government. These entities are delegated some autonomy and self-governance, thus allowing them to pass their own laws and policies, provided that it doesn't violate the constitution. The states are further divided into provincias, parroquias, and municipios. These divisions are responsible for certain functions, but most notably not the educational functions due to the highly centralised nature of the education system. The comarcas serve a dual-purpose, totaling to 400, not only do they serve as a common local government over multiple municipalities they also serve as a means for the apportionment of seats in the Congress of the Commons as a means to prevent the National Assembly from being dominated by the cities.

The government of Rumahoki also provides maps of the extent of the nation's four main cultures as well as the nation's regions. Three states are Tainean, three states are Loa, two states are Cartadanian, and twelve states are Delepasian. The state of Junu'urinia Ba'andasi-Navidadia is the only state to have two major cultures, those being Loa and Delepasian. The largest state by area is Rosaria at 137,664.89 square kilometers (53,152.71 sq mi), while the Federal District is the smallest state by area at 1127.24 square kilometers (435.23 sq mi).

Five out of nineteen states are, those being Bahia, Rios Gemelos, Portas Gemeas, Kalanatoa, and Na'aturie; the latter two being theocracies, and Portas Gemeas is an example of a more traditional elective monarchy. The rest of the states are republics. The states of Tescolinia, New Isuria, and Valio are also known as autonomous islands; islands on equal status to the rest of the states despite their small area.

Politics
The nation's is the  People's Democratic Party which has had government since 1997 with Francisco Carvalho, who also has the honour of being the first Rumahokian prime minister of Cartadanian ancestry.

As Rumahoki is still a parliamentary democracy, opposition parties are allowed to openly run in elections without fear of reprisal. The nation's largest opposition party is the Christian National Party, followed by the  Democratic Reform Party, the  Rumahokian Citizens' Party, the  Ecological Renewal Party, the  Democratic Farmers' Union, and the  Yes We Can!.

Law
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Demographics
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Ethnicity
Rumahoki's population is highly diverse, but research on Rumahokian ethnicity has felt the impact on nationalist discourses on identity. Ever since their independence from Pelaxia, the former Pelaxian colonies have all promoted the view that all Pelaxian-descended people in eastern Vallos are part of the Delepasian community, within which they were all considered indistinguishable from one another regardless of genealogy. This is the state of affairs that surrounds the Delepasians to this day.

The second-largest ethnic group is the Taineans, people who have descended from passengers of the Heaven Ships and have intermarried with the indigenous Vallosi people. In what's now Rumahoki, the Taineans have enjoyed more rights than the Taineans of Almadaria. Indeed, Rumahoki is one of the only two countries that actively preserves Tainean culture with the other being the Tainean-majority Arona.

In southwest Rumahoki, the Loa people constitute as the predominant minority group. The Loa of Rumahoki have fallen under Delepasian rule ever since the first settlements of Navidadia after the collapse of the Loa Empire. Historically, the Loa were actively discriminated by the Delepasians, most especially in Navididia from which the Navidadian System was first created in. It wasn't until after the Velvet Revolution in 1994 when the Loa were finally granted equal rights under the law.

Cartadanians in Rumahoki have always been a presence ever since the establishment of the Pirate Republic of Portas Gemeas in 1498. As a fellow Romance culture, the Cartadanians were largely treated as near-equals by the Delepasians with the only demerit being that they spoke Cartadanian instead of Pelaxian.

Race relations between the Delepasians and the non-Delepasians wouldn't start to slowly improve until after the Velvet Revolution. Even to this day, a worryingly high amount of Delepasians still hold exceptionalistic views with varying degrees of Delepasian supremacy.

Language
Rumahokian Pelaxian is the majority language in Rumahoki, having been introduced to mainland Vallos with the arrival of Captain Mauricio José Delepas on Bahía de Los Ruma in the year 1497. Reform Tainean, an Occidental-influenced standarisation of the Tainean langauge, is the language of the Taineans ever since it start being taught in northern Rumahokian schools in 1911. The native Tainean dialects are still spoken in increasingly smaller numbers in northern Rumahoki, usually by older Taineans and isolated Tainean villages. Classical Latin has historically been used as a by the Taineans when communicating with the Latinic peoples, the Bergendii, and the Delepasians. The Cartadanian language is almost exclusively spoken by the people of Portas Gêmeas and Trêscolinia as is Insuo Loa by the Loa people in Kalanatoa, Na'aturie, and Junu'úrinia Ba'andasi-Navidadía. Almadarian Pelaxian, Caphiric Latin, and Burgoignesc are other known minority languages in Rumahoki.

Religion
Catholicism is the predominant faith in Rumahoki with nearly all of its practitoners being ethnic Delepasians or Cartadanians. The second-largest religion, predominant amongst the Taineans of Rumahoki, is Mercantile Reform Protestantism, and thus is most common in the Tainean-majority states. Historically, this denomination has enjoyed greater tolerance in Delepasia mostly due to the Delepasian's hatred of the Loa. Marian Kapuhenasa, a combining elements of Loa Kapuhenasa with Delepasian Catholicism, is the third-largest religion, and is only practiced by the Loa people in Kalanatoa, Na'aturie, and Junu'urinia Ba'andasi-Navidadia. Assorted Christian denominations not specifically listed above and other religions are the two smallest religious groups in the country, mostly practiced by minority groups.

Education
State education in Rumahoki is free, secular, and compulsory from the age of three until the age of sixteen. The current education system is regulated by the 1994 educational law, LOE (Ley Orgánica de Educación) or Fundamental Law for the Education, which permanently decoupled the Catholic Church from the public school system as well as establishing the school-leaving age at sixteen, something which was illegal under previous educational laws.

Rumahokian education is centralised and divided into three stages: Primary, secondary, and higher education. Government assessment has determined that school children perceive very low levels of support and feedback from their teachers, with many of them reporting great concern about the disciplinary climate and behaviour in classrooms.

Higher education is divided between public universities and the prestigious and selective Academias Coronadas, such as Ciencias Gu for political studies, ANR for economics, Politécnico, UMD for social studies, Escuela de Minería Santa María for high-profile engineers, or Academia Administrativa Burocrática for careers in the Gran Cuerpo of the state. The Academias Coronadas have come under criticism for their alleged elitism as many of Rumahoki's high-ranking civil servants, CEOs, and politicians were graduates of these institutes of higher learning.

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Economy and Infrastructure
The economy of Rumahoki is a with elements of  and  under the name Velvetine Socialism. In laymen's terms this means that the Rumahokian economy makes heavy used of economic planning with market forces in the name of guiding production in an economy, this also includes the existence of public and private enterprise. Firms in Rumahoki are under public ownership and are attached to certain state ministries that may opt to merge, dissolve, and reorganise these firms while determining which sector a firm may operate in. The acquisition of inputs and the selling of outputs are to be done in markets, ultimately meaning that the nation's economy is one of, making it very much unlike certain forms of socialist-style.

The basic idea behind Velvetine Socialism, named after the Velvet Revolution, is based around the idea of earlier forms of, that being a workers' revolution can be achieved through reformist measures, with armed revolts being an absolute last resort. That last resort being the Velvet Revolution of 1994, and that the victory of the left-wing reformists in the subsequent transition to democracy and the electoral victory of the People's Democratic Party in the nation's first truly democratic elections has given the idea of a workers' revolution by reform a mandate. Through the heavy use of state planning and intervention in a market economy while still ensuring the rights and dignity of the worker is maintained, socialism will be achieved.

As a result, the government of Rumahoki exerts a strong directive influence through the use of to supplement market forces for guiding the economy. Enterprises such as mass public transportation, energy, and the basic infrastructure for telecommunications are under state control, and private corporations are given various incentives from the state to merge or engage in certain projects as needed.

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