Dal Riata

Dal Riata is an independent region-enclave of Virgohronie on the continent of Norigin with a population of only 92,464 citizens. Due to being an enclave within Virgohronie, Dal Riata has the status of a Double-Landlocked country. It has in recent years been campaigning for independence from its Virgohronian administrators, citing an ancient treaty with Virgohronie concerning Dal Riata's constitutional status. Dal Riata recieved recognition as an independent country on the 1st November 2011.

The Capital of Dal Riata is Mallaig, which has a population of 797 and has been the seat of Dal Riata's legislature since ancient times. The official language of Dal Riata is Scottish Gaelic, though English is spoken fluently by almost 100% of the population and is mandatory in Dal Riatian schools. Its national currency is the Dal Riatian Pound (£), which is pegged in value to the Virgohronian Roobl.

History
Dal Riata has had a bloody history due to its heavily tribal-based nature. Almost every Dal Riatian is descended from one of the ancient tribes, of which around 84 remain, with an average of ~1100 members each. However, membership between the individual tribes can vary greatly, with the smallest having as little as 57, while the largest has over 2000. Conflicts between the tribes were numerous, and there was a state of almost constant warfare between them, though there relativly small size has kept this from spilling over into neighbouring countries. It has been suggested that this constant warfare has been the reason for Dal Riata's small population and growth rate, as despite this warrior culture, the stereotypical 'willingness to die in battle' view is not common among Dal Riatians and many Dal Riatian mothers have only a few children to avoid repeated pain at losing her children in war.

Treaty of Činžilli
After a particularly violent conflict which pitted two main groupings of the tribes against each other over the issue of succession to the Dal Riatian throne, it was agreed among the tribes to sign a treaty with Virgohronie, in which they voluntarily became an autonomous region of Virgohronie, in return for their help in isolating Dal Riata and preventing external interference in the tribal wars until a conclusion was reached internally by the tribes.

Modern Day
In recent times, conflict between the tribes has died off substantially, with a lawful and relativly stable government implemented. As such, the economy of Dal Riata has begun to improve considerably, and for the first time a national television broadcaster has been formed, DRTV, which has applied to join the NSC.

Many tribes have died off in this long struggle, and so Archeological digs are commonplace throughout Dal Riata as Archeologists attempt to find information on these lost tribes as contemporary records of the time are (understandably) rare.

Geography


Dal Riata is a very hilly country, though not mountainous. It's highest mountain is around 1,000ft above sealevel, and its various mountain ranges are popular spots for hikers and rock climbers. There are few significant lochs in Dal Riata, though there are legends of a prehistoric monster living in the larger ones, which locals have dubbed 'Agnes'.

Dal Riata has a mild climate, with winters dropping to around -20 degrees Celsius and heat reaching around 22 degrees in summer.

DRTV


Dal Riatan Telebhision (DRTV) is a state-run and the only native television broadcasting corporation in Dal Riata. The vast majority of DRTV's schedule is made up of foreign imports dubbed over in Scottish Gaelic though there is increasing availability of home-produced programmes. Dal Riatan viewers in search of alternative viewing can pick up most national and a few close regional Virgohronian stations.

Television:

 * DRTV 1 - Main channel, broadcast 24-hours. Shows NSC-related shows.
 * DRTV 2 - Secondary channel, focuses on home-produced content, broadcast 1pm - 10pm.

Radio:

 * DRTV Radio 1 - Main channel, plays contemporary hit music.
 * DRTV Radio 2 - Secondary channel, plays classic hits.
 * DRTV Radio Home - Tertiary channel, plays Dal Riatan music.

NSC Participation
On a whole, Dal Riata has not been particularly successful in the Nation Song Contest, only qualifying to the final twice in their first ten attempts, and is the longest participating coutnry without a top-ten placing, their highest being a 12th place in NSC 80. DRTV normally hosts a public selection to choose its representative, in which the Dal Riatan populace decide on an act by televote. However, DRTV has occasionally hosted internation selections, permitting foreign juries to vote in Dal Riata's National Final.

The Voice of Dal Riata is the most viewed programme in Dal Riata and is hosted by DRTV-1 every year. It is normally used to select DRTV's representative with the exceptions being WLSC 4 and NSC 76, which used a different format, and all NSC Spinoff entries, which are internally selected by a jury.

NSC 75
Dal Riata debutted in the 75th edition of the NSC, which was hosted in Lambert, Roseland after their win in NSC 74. Antti Tuisku won a close contest in this years edition of The Voice of Dal Riata and won the chance to represent Dal Riata in its debut with his song Hyökyaalto sung in Finnish, a popular musical language in Dal Riata. Despite widespread commercial success and reaching No. 1 in the Dal Riatan charts, Tuisku failed to perform well in the contest, placing 20th in his semi with just 48 points. Hyökyaalto went on to enjoy moderate success in the Cydoni-Gibberian charts, before Tuisku faded into obscurity and was dropped by his label.

NSC 76
DRTV took a different approach to selecting its second entry. Intending to promote the native Dal Riatan language, Scottish Gaelic, on an international scale, DRTV invited established band Capercaillie, who regularly perform Gaelic songs, to compose and perform 5 songs in an international National Final. As well as the Dal Riatan televote, juries from 9 other countries were invited to vote on teh submitted songs, the result being a runaway win for the upbeat Rann Na Móna. Capercaillie went on to set a record in the Dal Riatan charts by having 5 songs in the top 10 at any one time, with Rann Na Móna staying No. 1 for 7 weeks. Unfortunatly, Capercaillie went on to place low in the 76th edition of the NSC, managing to equal the previous years 20th place in the semi's, with a slightly lower 40 points. After their performance on the NSC, Rann Na Móna managed to place just within the top-100 in the Reym-L-Dneurb and Anselmsmumonian charts.

NSC 77
Chris De Burgh won the 3rd edition of The Voice of Dal Riata with his biblically-inspired song A Spaceman Came Travelling which became the first ever English language song to represent Dal Riata in the NSC. In the 77th Nation Song Contest, Dal Riata again failed to qualify to the final. However, De Burgh was able to substantially improve on both previous Dal Riatan attempts and placed 15th with 55 points. A Spaceman Came Travelling charted well and reached No. 3 and became a popular christmas song within Dal Riata and regularly charts every year around this time. A Spaceman Came Travelling was particularly successful in Doire after it performance on the NSC.

NSC & WLSC National Finals
{C}{C DRTV has hosted a National Final to decide the Dal Riatan represent to the WLSC or NSC twice, when the entrant for WLSC 4 and NSC 76 was decided, plus an abandoned plan to use an NF to dicide the choice of representative of the Minority Language Spinoff.

WLSC 4
DRTV invited artists to submit songs to a national final to decide the 4th Dal Riatan representatvie to the WLSC. DRTV mandated that all songs be submitted and sung in Esperanto, a widely spoken second language in Dal Riata, with the aim being to raise awareness of the language among other WLSC participants. An internal jury selected 5 songs from all those submitted to progress to the televised final, where after a close race, Anjo Amika's Bela Revo won by a margin of 2 points, despite not receiving top points from any jury.

NSC 76
DRTV invited the band Capercaillie to submit a selection of songs to a national final to decide the second Dal Riatan representative to the NSC, after a disappointing debut from Antti Tuisku who finished 20th in the semi-final. An internal jury picked 5 songs from those submitted by Capercaillie to participate in a televised selection, where several international juries, combined with the Dal Riatan televote resulted in the runaway winner Rann Na Móna.

Minority Language Spinoff
For the Minority language Spinoff, DRTV had plans to decide their entry using a National Final of similar format to its previous two shows. DRTV invited Mànran, one-time WLSC entrant and winner and one-time NSC entrant under Anselmsmumonia's banner, to enter three songs to a selction show and appealed for votes from international juries. Due to lack of international interest, DRTV called off the show and entered Glaodh an Iar after recommendation by the only international voter - Zechonia.

Haxball
The National Dal Riata Haxball Team is one of the least successful national teams, losing 18 of its 22 official international tournament games with a combined goal difference of -71. Dal Riata's first international win was a pre-tournament friendly in which it managed to best Doire 4-2. Dal Riata's most successful tournament was the 12th NSC Cup, where it reached the Quarter Finals beore being knocked out by Rumia, losing 10-1. As off the 16th Cup, Dal Riata was ranked the 15th best team world-wide.

NSC 5th Cup
Dal Riata first participated in the 5th NSC Cup. Dal Riata was placed in Group B, which also housed one of the most successful NSC Haxball teams - Calypso, and the teams from Seranate & Clair and Zechonia. Dal Riata placed bottom of their group, losing all their games and failing to progress to the next round. Dal Riata did manage, however, to place 15th overall, beating Doire by goal difference.

NSC 7th Cup
After a break from the 6th Cup due to funding problems, Dal Riata returned for the 7th Cup, being placed into Group D from pot 4, along with Horehronieland, the Kingdom of Eras and Nukuland. Dal Riata once again failed to progress from the group stages, losing everyone of its matches, and finishing with a goal difference of -11, ranked 16th and last. During the festivities before official tournament play, Dal Riata won its first ever international match against Doire, with a score of 4-2.

NSC 8th Cup
In the 8th NSC Haxball Cup, Dal Riata was again placed in group D, this time alongside Pigeon Island, Rumia and Genext. Dal Riata was up first, against Genext where they managed to achieve their best result yet in the NSC Haxball Cup, a 2-2 draw, giving them their first ever point in a NSC Haxball tournament. Dal Riata retuned to familier territory, after a dissapointing 1-6 defeat at the hands of Rumia. For Dal Riata's last game, they were pitted against Pigeon Island, the strongest team in group D, being ranked 5th overall. Much to their surprise, Dal Riata was able to avoid a humiliating defeat, and pulled a much more respectable 3-5 loss, thus cementing the 8th Cup as Dal Riata's most successful foray into NSC Haxball up to this point. Dal Riata was ranked 12th of 16th and moved up to the 22nd place on the overall ranking.

NSC 9th Cup
For the third time in a row, Dal Riata was placed in Group D upon entering the 8th NSC Haxball Cup. Having faced an identical group two cups ago, hope were not high to qualify, despite a new ruling mandating the top three would qualify from Group D. True to form, Dal Riata lost all three matches by similar margins, finishing with a goal difference of -10.

NSC 12th Cup
After further funding problems leading to Dal Riata's withdrawl from the 10th and 11th NSC Cups, the Dal Riatan team made a comeback for the 12th Cup. Dal Riata was placed in Group B, along with Adamsburg, Horehronieland and Prasia and was drawn for a difficult first match against Adamsburg, where they managed to pull off a better than average performance and score to scores, finishing with a score of 5-2 to Adamsburg. Next up, Dal Riata was drawn agaisnt Prasia, a team they had never played. To the subject of much celebration in Dal Riata, they pulled off their first ever official NSC Haxball win, beating Prasia 5-nil. Dal Riata's last game was a predicted loss at the hands of Horehronieland, a familier and unbeaten opponent to Dal Riata. 3rd place in their group allowed Dal Riata to advance to the 3rd placers Round, where they were paired with Pigeon Island, who soundly defeated them 8-1. Dal Riata's final game in the 3rd Placers round was against Xorientia, who were surpisingly defeated by Dal Riata 3-2 allowing Dal Riata to advance for the first ever time to the Quarter-finals. Rumia was Dal Riata Quarter-final opponent, and handed a 10-1 loss to Dal Riata, to the surpise of no-one. the 12th NSC Haxball Cup became Dal Riata best ever showing and rose in the overall rankings to be ranked 20th overall.

NSC 15th Cup
Dal Riata returned after missing the 13th and 14th cups and was placed in Group D along with Rumia, Mooseland, Marrakechia and Cydoni-Gibberia. Dal Riata was able to pull and early win 3-5 win against Cydoni-Gibberia, before losing their final two Group D matchs 2-5 to Mooseland and 2-9 to Rumia. Third-place in the Group stages allowed Dal Riata to advance to the 1/8 Playoffs, where they were paired against the Kingdom of Eras, who promptly defeated them 5-0, knocking Dal Riata out of the 15th NSC Haxball Cup.

Demographics
Due to its history, the population of Dal Riata is relatively pure, with about 98% of the population being indigenous. Virgohronians make up the only other significant Ethnic Group, with the remaining 2% mainly because of Dal Riata's legal status as a region of Virgohronie.

Government


Traditionally, each tribe was for all intents and purposes, an independant entity, answerable only to the Dal Riatian King, though the monarchy was abolished as part of the Treaty of Činžilli. However, as the internal disputes died down, the tribes have become much more interdependent. Current government is based upon a unicameral democratic tribal council system, in which each tribe elects one representative to the 84-member 'Tribal Council' each year which constitutes both the legislature and judiciary. The position of executive, 'First Chief' is elected from among these 84 members before the formation of the party organisations using an exhaustive ballot system, though has only limited powers himself.

In Dal Riata, a tribe is officially recognised when allocated a seat on the Tribal Council, thus the Tribal Council has varied in overall size at many points in its life, though has recently stabililized at 84 members. The method of election for their representative is decided by each individual tribe, though a simple Fast-Past-the-Post system is by far the most common. Non-Dal Riatans are not enfranchised due to their status as not being members of the Dal Riatan tribes.

The Tribal Council is a non-partisan chamber. However, most representatives tend to 'group' with other like-minded individuals into organisations resembling parties, though these are only at the forefront when council is in session. Members of these groups are still essentially independent representatives, and so it is not uncommon for Councillors to vote outwith that of their groups favoured position.