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worldbuilding·WorldbuildingbyDMCMNFIBFFF

I've been trying to make a fictional country at least a little more realistic. Mainly, should it be an island, landlocked, or be on the mainland with a coast?

One rule of mine I'm sticking to:

at least to a point, smaller is more realistic, and is thus better.

A fictional country that's, say, over 1 million sq km in size and has over 50 million people will be harder to put into the real world than a country that's 1% of each (i.e. 10 000 sq km and 500 000 people)

​

This country has a unique name (kinda expected).

I don't want it to make people think of countries of a particular language, such as El Salvador (Spanish), Cape Verde (Portuguese), Austria (German), or New Zealand (English), with the attendant "I know [a notable world language] and such a country would stick out." Thus I created the name of a fictional language that they speak. It has fewer than 1 million speakers and is unlike other languages.

The country is not only independent, but almost thumbs its nose at big powers (perhaps if Trump gave its president a call, the latter might reply with a "Not now, I'm busy. I'll call you back when I have time.").

For this reason it probably spends disproportionately more on defense and maybe 10% of the male population is in the country's armed forces.

They are mostly a liberal democracy, and a republic, though can be socially conservative.

While the country can feed itself and has small industries, it's not resource rich, and became prosperous relatively recently— perhaps starting in the 1980s.

​

Getting back to the question: Should it be an island, landlocked, or be on the mainland with a coast?

It seems to me that island nations are more noticeable. Perhaps more English-speakers have heard of Jamaica than Burundi, even though the later has 2.5x the area, 5x the population (though, to be fair, a fraction of Jamaica's GDP).

Also it seems a lot of island nations tended to be former British colonies, and as such are probably beholden a bit to the United Kingdom, and its cousin, the US. If my character ran afoul with the US government (though he's not a terrorist), he might be extradited with relative ease.

If the country was landlocked and either in, or near, the interior of the continent, it could be bigger with less notice, but it would be beholden to the country that surrounds it.

The problem of being sealed off is that when it develops its tertiary sector, the big neighbours might hinder it. One can't have much of a tax haven, secret bank accounts, and/or mixed casinos and brothels where one can smoke marijuana legally, if the countries surrounding it restricts people from accessing the country, or block trade.

A compromise might be a mainline country with a coast, even if it accounted for a fraction of its border. It might have a corridor to the bulk of the country, though I'm not sure if the neighbours would have allowed such during its formation. I've also thought of air corridors, but aside of the wp:West Berlin Air Corridor, I know of no others, and I don't know how such a corridor could be maintained without big power help.

​

Suggestions and thoughts?

Thank you. 🙂

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asklemmy·Ask LemmybyDMCMNFIBFFF

How would I make my fictional country's currency viable?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51657137

I've come up with an idea, but I'll appreciate comments and ideas. (ty)

​

The country is small.

It's between 1000 sq km to 50 000 sq km in size.

It's has between 100 000 and 1 million people.

Its GDP is over US$10 billion (2026).

FWIW, it's multicultural with several official languages (most are officially secondary).

It got its independence between WWI and WWII.

There might have been a "Great Leader" in the past who lead at most a semi-authoritarian government (but little, if any, blood was spilled), but for the past few decades it's been a liberal democracy, though a little socially conservative (e.g. LGBTQ are legal, but can be discriminated against in the private sector; medicinal marijuana is allowed; prostitution is allowed in certain areas; feminism exist, but in the same way it exist in, say, Utah, Texas, Alabama, or (the State of) Mississippi).

​

rules, if you will:

  1. The currency was and is completely fiat—never backed by anything, such as gold or silver.

  2. Since the country's creation it hasn't excessively inflated the currency.

  3. There have been series of currency bills/notes, and I suppose some coins too, that have been de-monetized, though mostly to deal with counterfeiters in the early days.

  4. The currency is (I think the term is "free floating"). There is an official government exchange rate in the banks, but you can now, as you could for most, or perhaps all, of the country's history, buy it at free market prices even in the country.

  5. As the UK pound (£1), euro (€1), and now the Swiss franc (1 CHF) are each worth more than the USD (in 1971 it was US$1 ≈ 4 CHF, in the 1980s, US$1 ≈ 3 CHF, now it's almost US$1 ≈ 0.8 CHF) so has, in the past few years, this country's currency base unit become greater than US$1.

​

Thank you.

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worldbuilding·WorldbuildingbyDMCMNFIBFFF

How would I make my fictional country's currency viable? I've come up with an idea, but I'll appreciate comments and ideas. (ty)

The country is small.

It's between 1000 sq km to 50 000 sq km in size.

It's has between 100 000 and 1 million people.

Its GDP is over US$10 billion (2026).

FWIW, it's multicultural with several official languages (most are officially secondary).

It got its independence between WWI and WWII.

There might have been a "Great Leader" in the past who lead at most a semi-authoritarian government (but little, if any, blood was spilled), but for the past few decades it's been a liberal democracy, though a little socially conservative (e.g. LGBTQ are legal, but can be discriminated against in the private sector; medicinal marijuana is allowed; prostitution is allowed in certain areas; feminism exist, but in the same way it exist in, say, Utah, Texas, Alabama, or (the State of) Mississippi).

​

rules, if you will:

  1. The currency was and is completely fiat—never backed by anything, such as gold or silver.

  2. Since the country's creation it hasn't excessively inflated the currency.

  3. There have been series of currency bills/notes, and I suppose some coins too, that have been de-monetized, though mostly to deal with counterfeiters in the early days.

  4. The currency is (I think the term is "free floating"). There is an official government exchange rate in the banks, but you can now, as you could for most, or perhaps all, of the country's history, buy it at free market prices even in the country.

  5. As the UK pound (£1), euro (€1), and now the Swiss franc (1 CHF) are each worth more than the USD (in 1971 it was US$1 ≈ 4 CHF, in the 1980s, US$1 ≈ 3 CHF, now it's almost US$1 ≈ 0.8 CHF) so has, in the past few years, this country's currency base unit become greater than US$1.

​

Thank you.

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anything_goes·Anything GoesbyDMCMNFIBFFF

According to WP, Ontario has over 250 000 lakes, which I'm sure a few already have "America" in their names, and then I see there's a "American Cabin Lake" (which is 26 hectares in size).

wp:List of lakes of Ontario

wp:List of lakes of Ontario: A

ceb:wp:American Cabin Lake

America Lake (Q141214733)

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q141214733

Lake America (Q141217945)

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q141217945

Lake America (Q114635511)

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q114635511

بحيره اميريكان كابين

https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%87_%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%86_%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86

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