So Herrenbucht and Balticum share many similarities, including the German language and culture (although both differ in that regard somewhat, Balticum ebing more liberal and vice versa). Relations could be stretched far back as into the Herrenbucht's status as a colony, especially during their revolution against their oppressive colonial overlord; Balticum would have supported the revolutionaries somehow, and after Herrenbucht's independence relations grew even warmer between the two nations, so much as that in 1816 future Baltic King Harald VI, son of Christian VI and one of the Herrenbuchto princesses married each other, thus intertwining both houses and til this day are related with one another...This thread will function as a way to work upon Baltic and Herrenbuchto relations and connections.

UPDATE: Now includes other Germanic-based nations!

Marriages:
Werman Prince (1428-1503) & Baltic Margareta II (1410-1495) in 1454
Herrenbuchto Princess (1798-1875) & Harald VI (1792-1879) in 1816
Balen/German Princess (1843-1918) & Oscar I (1817-1900) in 1879

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On October 4th, Balts celebrate National Cinnamon Bun Day in honour of their favourite sweet treat, but why have a special day dedicated to a sugary snack? BT has got its teeth into six scrumptious facts about the nation's most popular pastry.

1. The bun has been around since the 1920s...

The modern cinnamon bun ('kanelbulle') was created after the First World War. During the four-year conflict, heavy restrictions were put on the import of several goods such as sugar, egg and butter as the country prepared for potential combat. In the 1920s these products eventually returned to shelves and cinnamon buns began to appear in cafés and bakeries across the country. But the spicy ingredients – cinnamon and cardamom – were expensive and not everyone could afford to munch on the sweet rolls.

2. … but did not become popular until the 1950s

In the mid-20th century more cash was trickling into the Balts's pockets, mattresses and bank accounts, as a result of the country's booming economy, and the average Scandinavian household suddenly found itself able to splurge on the pricey cinnamon bun ingredients. While Scandinavia today may be at the forefront of breaking down gender walls and crushing glass ceilings, in the 1950s the housewife trend was still alive and well and the popularity of homebake goods rose. Though these days most can afford them, the buns are getting pricier: according to stats from Statistics Balticum (SCB) the cost of buying one from a cafe or patisserie increased by 74 percent between 1990 and 2015. Baking them at home isn't as cheap as it once was either – homemade buns cost around 52 percent more than they did in 1990 thanks to the increasing cost of flour. Even the price of supermarket buns increased by 21 percent in the same period.

3. It's an essential part of Baltic 'fika'

The cinnamon bun is a staple diet of the Baltic 'fika' tradition. If you've lived in Balticum for more than five minutes you are hereby given permission to skip this bit of the article – we bet you are well aware of this social institution. While the Nemerians have their wine and the Morelanders their tea, in Balticum people stop what they're doing to have a 'fika' at least once a day, often twice. Pronounced fee-ka, this almost sacred tradition designates a moment to savour a cup of coffee and eat something sweet (usually a cinnamon bun), and it is factored into everyone's daily schedules whether they are at home, at work or running errands. Thanks to a separate obsession with exercise, most Scandinavians avoid piling on the kilos at the same time.

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Sources: The Local

Archbishop Folco Marchione, Apostolic Nuncio/Ambassador to Sobek - "Yes totally understood your holiness, let's just get this over with as soon as possible, to think a statement such as yours could trigger many butthurt socialists yes...Talk to you later then. *Ends Call* Sigh, why does this need to happen to me and why was I assigned to this nation in the first place?". Marchione riding the diplomatic limousine in Holn, on his way to discuss with the Margrave with Sobek, to sort of clear up the situation and try to create a reconciliation process considering how impossible it would be at this point in time during their ongoing election featuring the ideals of socialism, which apparently got attacked by the Pope's controversial statement which has mainly gained support from the home nation.

It wasn't before long the limousine arrived by the palace itself, which looked magnificent in Marchione's opinion. He stepped out of the vehicle with his Guardians of St. Peter's Throne as body guards, one of the best available, designated to protect the cardinals and primarily the Pope from any hostilities whatsoever. At that point he stood still, wondering if he would wait for someone to escort the entourage to the Margrave himself or vice versa?

Company Name:
Estimated Percentage of Ecclesiastical citizens Employed:
Company Industry:
Company Home Nation:
Average Employee Salary:

On behalf of his holiness, Pope Peter II, I Cardinal Barthélemy Houdin, Secretary for the Economy, would like for all companies currently in ES to register themselves for easier supervision and bureacracy, let me thus tell you why you should consider investing in ES:

ES is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing markets in Mundus due to the increasing number of new investment projects. It offers entrepreneurs the opportunity of an easy access to one of Mundus's biggest free market area. Furthermore, it provides foreign investors with competitive labor costs, a considerable size of the market, industrial diversity and real possibilities for the development of new economic entities.

An extended market

As the second most populated country in Albion, ES provides investors with a 375 million consumers market, one of the biggest in Albion. It is also placed in the center of Albion which not only facilitates the import and export activities but also lowers transportation costs of the goods.  Due to its privileged position on the continent, investors who choose ES can easily reach over 1 billion consumers. Moreover, the corporate tax rate in ES is 0%, among the lowest in Albion; the country vritually has no taxation whatsoever! Finally ES has one of the laxed labour institutions you can find anywhere in Mundus; investors and entrepreneurs can set up their own salary, minimum wage and even maternity leave systems.

Workforce

The estimated work force in ES is 214 million people and almost half are employed in the services sector. The country provides investors with a well-educated and highly skilled employment market, especially economists, engineers, IT specialists and scientists. ES has more than 500 academic centers and counting. ES’s student population is massive and they account for 10% and counting of all Albionite students, as well as the fact that approximately more than half of the country’s youth go on to higher education. Finally, most of ES’s graduates can speak four languages, usually Latin, English, one of their own national languages and one other.
 
Economic sectors

The highest economic growth can be seen especially in the automotive, R&D, electronic and chemical sectors. Also, ES tourism is a well-developed sector because this country manages to attract numerous tourists due to its landscape, history and cultural heritage.
 
According to a report from Némérie Matin, ES might become the manufacturing hub of Albion because:

• The labor cost is 4 to 10 times cheaper than in other countries and there is little chance for this difference to be diminished in the next few years
• Manufacturing in ES is cheaper by about 30%
• The quality of ES goods is far superior to the ones produced in other, similar countries, making them much more competitive. This applies mainly to such sectors as: electric house appliances, metal products, automotive, furniture.

I think my dear investors and business moguls that this information has more than enough convinced you...so what are you waiting for? Step up your gears and register your companies!

OOC: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SUBMIT REALISTIC SALARIES, MEANING NOT SUPER-HIGH!
Average gross salary: $14,500/₤95,924 month
₤1 = $0.15 / $1 = ₤6.62

To (OOC) ES (Me), Quintelia, Nexon, Nemerie, Solónya and all other Catholic majory nations. I propose that we shall create an association for catholic majority countries, sorta based on the Commonwealth of Nations where the head will be the current pope along with a Secretary-General (high-ranking politician, ambassador etc) and Chair-in-Office (a Head of State/Gov.); the latter two are for elections (correct me if I'm wrong naturally).

Goals could be to support the the Church in all member states, culturally, politically, socially...and not to say the least economically (namely each government will receive Church donations, yearly naturally, a few billions hehe). Perhaps we could also restrict the membership to only those who've declared it as a State-Religion etc?

Feel free to offer suggestions, feedback etc! If this would be successful, think of a new revolution all of us would have created...

      

The Association of the Immaculate Heart (Latin: Immaculati Cordis Consociatione) is a Catholic religious order and Charity that aims to improve the well being of peoples across the world, it is also used as a humanitarian aid foundation in conflicts and the aftermath of natural disasters. The AIH is staffed nearly entirely by Nuns of various covenants and orders in ES and across the world. It is one of the world's largest humanitarian organisations in the world, with the purpose of providing vaccinations, medical care, social care, education and distribution of humanitarian aid, along with a budget of $1.2 billion (secured through funding by the Church and public donations) and having over 335,000 volunteers. The AIH also campaigns to change the rules and systems that keep people poor, speaking out on issues such as tax justice, trade justice, climate change, and denial of worker's rights. The current Mother General Superior and Mother Lieutenant are Mother Arilda and Weronika Wisowaty respectively.

The AIH has a strong presence in ES, in poverty stricken rural areas, the AIH is known to provide free healthcare to peasants and their children. Between 2000 and 2010, the AIH vaccinated over 65.3 million children from polio, measles, smallpox, chickenpox and tetanus, they inoculated over 22.65 million girls for Ovarian cancer. The AIH has been at the forefront of medical care in various deadly outbreaks of disease in ES itself. In 2002, the AIH launched a subsidiary, the Children of the Holy Mother of Christ with the aim of providing care for orphans in the Ecclesiastical State, in 2010 the CHMC was expanded to run adoption services in some poor countries, ensuring the children were adopted by foreign parents according to the nation in question's laws, following numerous counts of bribery, where the children were adopted by "unsatisfactory couples with little to no talent in parenthood."

AIH is also a major player in dealing with homelessness in ES, however AIH's activities in this area have provoked heavy criticism over reports that the AIH press-gangs homeless men into the Ecclesiastical Army of Christ or took them to work in Church Workshops, which are found to be nothing more than sweatshops, the AIH defends its actions, by detailing statistics on the number of homeless finding stable lives after they had acted.

*Credit to Iceheart-Omnis on DeviantArt

The Ecclesiastical State is a Theocratic absolute elective monarchy. The country is located in southern Albion by the Sea of Antalin At 1,943,945km2 and with about 226 million people, it is among the largest nations in Albion by area and population. Its capital is Celestis while the largest city is Lumiére. The Ecclesiastical State came into existence in 754 AD. ES is thus one of the oldest nations in Mundus still in existence.

As a theocratic absolute monarchy, the Pope is the absolute leader of state, being the supreme political and spiritual authority. The government is formed out of the Ecclesiastical Magisterium, which is seated in Celestis. The people are represented by Papal appointed members of the Ecclesiastical Consultative Assembly, which has very limited powers and influence over government policy or direction.

Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1979, ES's economy has been one of the world's fastest-growing. As of 2017, it is one of Mundus' largest economies by nominal GDP and one of the largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). ES is also one of the largest exporters and importers of goods. ES is a great power and a major regional power within Mundus, and has been characterized as a potential superpower.






National Anthem: The Reapers
Royal Anthem (Pope): Pontificial March and Anthem
Royal Anthem (Empress): Imperial March and Anthem
National March: Fatherland March

Capital cities: Celestis 1 & 2

Official languages: Latin
Regional languages: English, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian etc
Other common languages: Chinese, Arabic, Malayalam, Hebrew, Aramaic

Ethnic groups
- By race: 77.1% White, 13.3% Black, 2.6% Other/multiracial, 5.6% Asian, 1.4% Pacific Islander

Religion: 74.6% Catholic, 1.8% Other Christian, 18.2% None/Atheist/Agnostic, 2.1% Jewish, 0.8% Muslim, 2.5% Other non-Christian religion

Demonym: Ecclesiastical

Government: Federal theocratic absolute elective monarchy
•  Pope: Peter II
•  Secretary of State: Adalberto Giancola
•  Under-Secretary of State: Jean-Pierre Lavaud

Legislature: Ecclesiastical Consultative Assembly
 
Formation
• Ecclesiastical State:

Area
• Total land area: 1,943,945 km2

Population
• 2017 estimate:  226,680,784
• Density: 116.57/km2

GDP (PPP) 2017 estimate
• Total: $11.612 trillion
• Per capita: $51,226

GDP (nominal) 2017 estimate
• Total: $11.380 trillion
• Per capita: $50,202

GDP by sector: Agriculture 1.1%, industry 19.4%, services 79.5%

Population below poverty line: 1.2%

Labor force: 111,666,338 (5,706,149 unemployed)

Labor force by occupation: Farming, forestry, and fishing 0.7%, manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts 20.3%, managerial, professional, and technical 37.3%, sales and office 24.2%, other services 17.6%

Main industries: Highly diversified, world leading, high-technology innovator, major industrial output in the world; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining

Export goods: Agricultural products 10.7%, Fuels and mining products 9.4%, Manufacturers 74.8%, Others 5.1%

Import goods: Agricultural products 6.8%, Fuels and mining products 10.7%, Manufacturers 78.4%, Others 4.2%

Natural resources: Coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, rare earth elements, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber, arable land

Agricultural products: Wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products

Gini (2017): 19.5 (low)

Unemployment (%): 4.88%

Average gross salary: $52,980/₤435,190 yearly

Tax as % of GDP: 55%
• Corporate tax: 15% (net income up to $1,000,000) - 28% (on the balance)
• Individual (min): 0%
• Individual (max): 45%
• VAT or GST or Sales tax: 15% (average rate), 0% (Fruits and vegetables, medicines, and some groceries) or 8% (Books)

GDP allowed to the military (%): 5%

Currency: Ecclesiastical State Lira (₤, Ł or L) 
• Value of Lira when converted to USD: ₤1 = $0.12
• Value of US Dollar when converted to Lira: $1 = ₤8

Literacy rate (%): 99%

Life Expectancy at Birth: 81.55 yrs
• Female life expectancy: 83.9 yrs
• Male life expectancy: 79.2 yrs

Age Structure:
• 0-14 years: 18.73%
• 15-24 years: 13.27%
• 25-54 years: 39.45%
• 55-64 years: 12.91%
• 65 years and over: 15.63%

Mean Years of Schooling: 12.45 yrs

Expected Years of Schooling: 16.75 yrs

HDI (2017): 0.923 (very high)

Date format: dd.mm.yy (AD)

Drives on the: right

Calling code: +379

ISO 3166 code: ES

Internet TLD: .es

National Animal: The Paschal Lamb

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I, Sophia Underwood, First Daughter of President Frank Underwood and Vice-President Claire Underwood, was sitting in the Concert hall in the Opera House, admiring the tunes of the known, wacky composer Rhodesian-born Percy Grainger. It was at the final stage of this concert, and my absolute favorite part; The Lost Lady Found. The only SS-agent I had with me was the already veteranized Agent Frank Horrigan, funningly enough...I still don't get it why everyone's called Frank, the most generic name ever devised: Besides my dad's name, we got President Francis E. Urquhart, who's best buddies btw with dad and mom, and then we got this old agent beside me who should go in retirement as I don't think he's that fit anymore but dad ensured me that he's the best available...we'll see about that. To be honest, I didn't expect anything exciting to happen while I was in Rhodesia, just one of my regular week-end trips; there was something about this place that I really liked compared to Orania, which I haven't set my finger on yet...is it the cooler climate, the people, the culture? In any case the Percy Grainger piece was about to end pretty soon and I had no other plans for now..."Is there anyone else excpet you?" I whispered to Frank. "On my word as your faithful servant my princess, I swear that it's only myself and no one else watching you...". Frank liked to call me Princess, even though I wasn't techincally one; he said I had the personality and looks to be one though...if only that would ever occur in my life time I thought...