Dartwall

**Dartwall** (Dartwallian: *Darchtwalle*), officially the **Kingdom of Dartwall** (Dartwallian: *Krondacht de Darchtwalle*), is a sovereign state in Central Eurea, bordered by Helvaria to the north, Kaustria to the east, Frankenland to the southeast, Gorgium and Limurberg to the south, Fargonia to the southwest, and Hartland to the west. Its capital and most-populous city is Hammar, located in the northeast of the country.

The territory of Dartwall first became unified under the Dartwallian Principality in the 13th-century, although it was later conquered by the Helvarian Empire three centuries later. The Dartwallian Principality remained a province of the Helvarian Empire for centuries, until a violent *coup d'état* won its independence and established the Kingdom of Dartwall in 1836. Later in the 19th-century, Dartwall ceded a portion of its southern territory to create the state of Gorgium.

With its independence in the 19th-century, Dartwall established itself as a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Its head of state is the Monarch, who serves as a ceremonial figurehead. The Monarch holds no actual power in Dartwallian politics, and is meant to serve as a symbol of unity for the Dartwallian people; the Monarch's small amount of powers include formally signing bills and hosting foreign dignitaries to Dartwall; while the Monarch can veto legislation, this is not actually practiced. They additionally are the commander-in-chief of the Dartwallian armed forces. Historically, Dartwall practiced male-preference primogeniture, but this was changed in 2002, in order to allow the eldest-born child to inherit the throne regardless of gender. The head of government is the Prime Minister, who holds the most political power. They are typically the leader of the governing coalition in the House of Representatives, and thus can form their own cabinet of ministers. The legislature of Dartwall is the State House, a bicameral body that consists of an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the House of Representatives. Both houses are elected every four years, although Senators are appointed by provincial legislatures and Representatives are elected through open-list proportional representation at-large.

The Senate is seen as much less politically important than the House of Representatives; Senators meet only once a week and are typically either part-time politicians or partially retired elder statesmen, while Representatives meet every weekday and are almost always full-time career politicians. All legislation must originate in the House of Representatives. The Senate only votes on legislation once the bill passes the House of Representatives; after the House of Representatives votes, the Senate's vote is added on top of the previous vote. Because the Senate does not vote independently of the House of Representatives, their votes rarely make any difference except in cases of extremely close votes. The House of Representatives consists of 350 seats, while the Senate consists of 75 seats; the Senate is led by the President of the Senate, who presides over debate, while the House of Representatives is led by the Leader of the House of Representatives, who presides over debate, is a member of the governing coalition, and does not vote.

Dartwall is a large, industrialized nation with a population that is evenly spread throughout the country. It has a population of about 52.7 million, with about 67.5% of the population residing in an urban area. A unitary state, Dartwall is divided into nine provinces. Each province has a Provincial Administrator, whom is appointed by the Prime Minister, and a provincial legislature, which is elected every four-years by open-list proportional representation. While Dartwall is a unitary state, provincial governments have some autonomous power, but also are inferior to the national government. Approximately 85.1% of the population identify as Dartwallian, while 10.1% identify as other Eurean, most often expatriate white-collar workers. A further 2.6% and 2.2% identify as Mursanian and Helonesian, respectively. The national and sole official language of Dartwall is Dartwallian, a Helvaric language. In 2018, approximately 89.5% of the population spoke Dartwallian natively, while 10.1% spoke it as a second or third language. While the Dartwallian constitution allows for the freedom of religion, a majority of Dartwallians adhere to agnosticism or atheism; while Dartwall was historically home to a Eurean Catholic majority with a strong Northern Eurean Christian minority, church attendance has dwindled massively. In 2018, only 10.4% of Dartwallians described themselves as "religious."

## Politics

### Administrative divisions

*Main article: Provinces of Dartwall.*

Dartwall is divided into nine provinces. As a unitary state, the provinces do not hold much individual power and are vastly inferior to the federal government.