A Brief History of RURITANIA

Ruritania is a country of approximately 4 million people located in Scandinavia. While its neighbors became representative democracies over a century ago, Ruritania retained its monarchy until last year. King David III (latest in a continuous line of monarchs from the van der Rike family) was deposed in a non-violent coup d'etat, known as the "Revolution of the Roses". The Roses are a reference to the traditional flag of Ruritania, four roses -- red, yellow, white and purple (representing labor, agriculture, the Ruritanian church, and the monarchy, respectively) -- on a field of green (representing tradition).

While the rest of Scandinavia was prospering during the last century, Ruritania was stagnating. Discontent had grown among all of the various groups with most of the discontent directed towards the monarchy. Popular army general Sven Nordlander eventually confronted the King and forced him to abdicate. Unfortunately, General Nordlander and his supporters had no clear plan for the country other than the removal of King David III. As a result, the period after the revolution was essentially one of drift, with General Nordlander and a few other generals unsuccessfully trying to run the country. Some of the animosity and violence which arose prior to the revolution began again. Thus, less than a year after the revolution, Ruritania was spiraling into chaos. Eventually, in an attempt to bring stability back to the region, the governments of the Scandinavian countries got the United Nations Secretary General to offer solutions. She set up a National Council of Reconciliation (NCR) and appointed an obscure member of the royal family--Prince Brian--to lead the tribunal. Prince Brian had the reputation of being an affable, yet directionless, young man-- part of the European aristocratic class more interested in themselves than their countries. Surprisingly, Prince Brian proved to be a man committed to his country's advancement. He threw himself into the work of the NCR and became a driving force in the creation of the first Ruritanian Constitution. Prince Brian was so successful at getting the various sides to agree on a constitution which formed a parliamentary democracy that the NCR decided to retain a symbolic monarchy and make him the new Republic of Ruritania's first symbolic head of state. Prince Brian's chief responsibilities are ceremonial although he does have the power to call for new elections and then ask the party with the most seats in the National Constituent Assembly to form a coalition government. Although tensions still persist and great animus exists among the various groups in Ruritanian society, Prince Brian has called for the first-ever Ruritanian parliamentary elections to be held this year!

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