Vodeo

Dominion of Vodeo Ancorine ut Vodeo
Flag Coat of arms
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Motto: "Nemine contradicente" "Without opposition"
Anthem: Consolidation Anthem God Save the King (royal)
Capital and largest city	Saviso
Official languages	Ingerish
• Regional languages	Beha, Etallic, Sandrin, Torian
Ethnic Groups (2017)	73.9% Uletarephian 12.7% Indigenous 6.3 Antarephian 3.7% Archantan 2.3% Kartumian 0.7% Oranian 0.4% Pelanesian
Demonym	Vodean
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Geoffrey VII
• Governor-General	Rebecca Sellars
• Prime Minister	Sam Baker
Legislature	Parliament of Vodeo
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	House of Commons
Area
• Total	545,178 km2 210,494 sq mi
Population
• Census (2017)	33,835,912
• Density	62/km2 160.7/sq mi
HDI (2019)	0.945 very high
Timezone	WUT+2
Currency	Vodean pound (VDP)
Drives on the	left

Vodeo (VO-dee-oh), officially the Dominion of Vodeo (Beha: Ancorine ut Vodeo), is a country in central Tarephia. The nation consists of nine provinces while the capital and largest city is Saviso. Other major metropolitan areas include Holme, Gerrise, Avington, Silverton, and Welson. It is bordered by Lydia to the north, Tarrumarca to the north-west, Tarephia Equatorial to the west, Tempeira to the south-west, Dania to the south, Aztlán to the south-east and the island nations of Promissão, Bonilla and San Fernando, and Ncadézaz to the east. The country's population of 33.8 million is mostly urbanised, with a majority of people living in the coastal cities.

Various native tribes had inhabited equatorial Tarephia for thousands of years prior to Ulethan colonisation. Castellan was the first to colonise the area around the turn of the 16th century, followed by Rhysiogan settlers in 1594. In 1616, Ingerland took possession of New Cambria; over the following decades it and its sister colony, St Austell became major producers of sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, fruit, and cocoa. The advent of industrialisation from the late 18th century onward saw the two become important industrial producers within Tarephia. In 1849 the unification of the two colonies took place, with Vodeo forming as a federal dominion within the Ingerish Empire. The following half-century saw increasing autonomy from Ingerland, which culminated in Vodeo gaining its full independence in 1907.

Vodeo is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Winburgh tradition, with a monarch and a prime minister, the latter of whom serves as the chair of the Cabinet and head of government. The country is a Commonwealth realm and shares its monarch with several other Commonwealth nations. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. It is a highly multicultural nation as the result of large-scale immigration from many other countries, chiefly from within Tarephia and Uletha.

Vodeo is a member of the Assembly of Nations, Tarephia Cooperation Council, Ingerish Commonwealth and the World Organization of Tourism.

Etymology

Vodeo's name is derived from the Beha vo deo, meaning "land of the peace flower". The "peace flower" in the name refers to the hibiscus, which has sacred meaning to the indigenous tribes of Vodeo, and was used as a peace offering at the end of wartime. The term originally referred to the coastal areas of Avalon and Cambria, but by the 18th century was in common usage for the entirety of Ingerish Equatorial Tarephia. With the consolidation of Cambria and St Austell into a single colony in 1849, Vodeo was officially adopted as the colony's name.

History

See also: Timeline of Vodean history

Early Ulethan colonisation (1490–1616)

Timeline of Vodean history
Name		Years
File:Flag of Castellan.png Nuevo Taredo	File:Flag of Castellan.png Castellan	1498-1505
None		1505-1594
File:Cambru-newydd-flag.png New Cambria	File:State flag rhysiog.png Rhysiog	1594-1616
File:Cambria Colony Flag.png Cambria Colony	Ingerland	1616-1849
File:Blank-ing-col-flag-nocrown.png St Austell		1651-1849
File:Blank-ing-col-flag-nocrown.png Avalon Colony		1654-1662
Vodeo		1849-present

Agustín de Betanzos, conquistador and governor of Nuevo Taredo, 1498–1503

The discovery of the Vodean coast is generally attributed to the Castellanese, who circumnavigated Tarephia between 1489 and 1490. News of the discovery was relayed to Castellan, and in 1498 the small Castellan settlement of Nuevo Taredo was established by Agustín de Betanzos on what is today Guthrie Island, close to the modern town of Santa Rosita in southern Avalon. Efforts at administering the colony from Castellan proved difficult, and in 1502 the colony of Latina became responsible for its administration. The colony struggled to grow due to a combination of distance, climate, disease, and relative disinterest on the part of both Castellan and Latina to expand. The colonial experiment ended in November 1505 when, following the abduction and marriage to a Castellanese settler of a prominent chieftain's daughter, a number of native tribes attacked Nuevo Taredo and other outlying villages. Vastly outnumbered, the settlers were evacuated and sailed for Latina. Marking the colony a failure, Castellan opted not to pursue its imperial ambitions in equatorial Tarephia; no further Ulethan attempts at colonisation were made for the next 90 years.

Religious tensions in Rhysiog led a number of settlers to sail to Tarephia to build a new colony in 1593. On 14 June 1594, the settlers arrived in Port Adelaide and the following day established the colony of Cambru Newydd (New Cambria), centred on the settlement of Brynderwyn, the following day. Rhysiog's relatively low population at the time meant that the population of the colonies grew slowly at first, however this changed in the 1600s and 1610s as settlers arrived from Morionys and Cadwynwg. By 1616, the extent of Cambrian settlement had expanded as far as the Streigh River in the north, Coior in the south, and as far inland as modern-day Caharan.

Ingerish colonial rule (1616–1849)

See also: Piracy in Vodeo

By the early 1610s, New Cambria was facing an economic crisis. The Rhysiogan government had invested large sums into the settlement of the colony, yet its attempts to grow profitable crops, such as sugar and tobacco, had failed due to limited manpower and knowledge of the crops, resulting in far lower crop yields than had been expected. As a result, the colony was running at a heavy loss, and was adding economic pressure to an already volatile Rhysiog. In 1614, Rhysiog entered into negotiations with Ingerland to sell the colony. Following the agreement of the colony's sale for 40,000 thalers in 1615, Ingerland took formal possession of New Cambria on 3 April 1616.

Despite facing many of the problems the Castellanese settlers had a century before, the Cambria colony grew as a result of larger Ingerish investment in the area, partly due to it being a major port along its colonial trade routes. Despite initial unease with the local Beha and Sandrin tribes (who had preferred the Rhysiogans), a peace accord was soon reached and the two worlds were able to live in relative harmony, despite the occasional clash between settlers and tribes. Colonial expansion to the south followed in the 1620s with the establishment of the settlements of Cockleford in 1623, Enfield in 1624, and Saviso in 1627. The growth of the Cambria colony led to the creation of the colonies of St Austell in 1651 and Avalon in 1654, although Avalon would be merged back into Cambria after a financial crisis in 1662.

Initially, Cambria and St Austell were little more than trading and resupply colonies. This changed with the intensification of the sugar industry from the 1630s onward - although early sugar plantations had been established by the Rhysiogan colonists, it was not until the construction of export-based mills that the industry was able to generate a profit for the colonies. By 1660 there were more than 130 sugar mills across the colonies, and by 1700 over 400 were in operation; this would increase to around 600 by 1725. The scale of the industry allowed towns like Holme, Avington and Saviso to flourish, and at the turn of the 18th century were some of the busiest ports in the Sea of Uthyra. Tea, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, and fruit plantations, while not as plentiful as their sugar-growing counterparts, also contributed a significant portion to the colonial economies and helped to popularise the beverages in Ingerland and, in turn, western Uletha; a 1708 letter from a Brynderwynian merchant claimed that "there is no other Colony to be found in all the World that is as wealthy as Cambria and Saint Austell, for our Sugars, Coffees, Teas, and other Good Crops are desired all over Uletha and are to be found in many Places."

Prior to the Ingerish Civil War, Brynderwyn was one of the wealthiest ports on the Sea of Uthyra

Piracy, while present in the Sea of Uthyra as early as the 1580s, reached its zenith between the 1670s and 1730s. Home to the largest and wealthiest ports on the Uthyran coast, Cambria and St Austell became the principal bases for a number of pirate crews. While most of the port towns experienced at least some level of interaction with pirates, the ports that were favoured by pirates were generally located along the modern-day Hibiscus and Colony Coasts, between Avington and Holme; of these, Brynderwyn and Port Elizabeth were the most significant, with the towns' economies almost entirely geared towards catering for sailors and pirates.

The eruption of the Ingerish Civil War in the mid-1710s dragged many of Ingerland's colonies into the conflict. With the Ingerish government's attention focused on the conflict, its colonial focus was halted; most of the colonial militias in Cambria and St Austell were withdrawn, and trade became scarce. The loss of trade with Ingerland caused severe economic difficulties within the colonies, with the colonial administrations forced to issue letters of marque and trade outside the Empire to provide sources of income. With Ingerish military protection greatly reduced, Castellanese and Florescentan interest in the colonies grew, and in 1721, both attempted a joint invasion of the colonies. An attack on Avington in August 1721 was repulsed by the town's defences, while a sea battle on New Year's Eve that year off the coast of the Welcome Islands saw an informal alliance of the Ingerish navy and pirate crews successfully defend against a numerically superior Castellanese-Florescentan force.

A linen market in St Austell, circa 1780

The latter half of the 18th century saw the emergence of new economic and social forces. An economic boom brought significant investments in commerce; this was embodied in the construction of Vodeo's first industrial operations, including the country's first cotton mill at Caterham in 1785, and the application of steam power to the sugar industry for the first time in 1799. In the following decades, almost every sector of the colonial economies were transformed by the implementation of industrial processes. Mining, which had previously taken place only to a limited degree, grew rapidly in the interior to become a major sector of the economy by the 1820s, while the construction of canals and railways helped develop the main centres into major economic hubs.

The role of slavery, which had taken place in Vodeo since 1617, began to be questioned in the late 18th century. In 1791, a group of citizens in Saviso formed the Committee for Effecting the Freedom of the Negroes, which campaigned for the ending of slavery in both St Austell and Vodeo as a whole, and for the granting of citizenship to those slaves extant in the country; in 1818, St Austell became one of the first places in the Ingerish Empire to abandon slavery. Cambria, which was dominated by the interest of plantation owners, resisted the abolition movement until it was forced by the Ingerish parliament to end the practice in 1828, partly as a result of several large-scale slave rebellions that had taken place in the early to mid-1820s.

Consolidation (1849–1907)

The 1830s had seen significant political reforms in Ingerland, but these reforms were not extended to the colonies, which still had little if any practical representation in the Ingerish parliament. Agitation for greater representation and self-government, as well as anger against increasing corruption in the colonial authorities, led to the outbreak of a series of rebellions across Cambria and St Austell in 1835 and 1836. An investigation by the Ingerish parliament in 1837 recommended the unification of the two colonies and the granting of responsible government. While the latter was granted to both in 1839, unification of the colonies was initially dismissed as unnecessary. The granting of responsible government only increased support for unification, which by the mid-1840s was widely believed to be inevitable. A series of constitutional conferences held between 1846 and 1848 led to a formal proposal to Ingerland for the unification of the colonies. The proposal received royal assent in December 1848, with unification taking place on 21 April 1849, an event known as Consolidation.

The remainder of the 19th century saw significant political reforms and advances across Vodeo. Informal political groups, common both before and after Consolidation, coalesced into formal political parties by the late 1840s. Of these, the Progressive and Federal parties, established in 1866 and 1870, respectively, were the most successful; the Progressives would remain the most powerful party from the 1870s through to the 1910s, while the Federals, having gained significant political power in 1889, would become the largest and most significant party in Vodean politics through the 20th century, spending around 53 years in power between 1901 and 2001.

The latter half of the nineteenth century saw significant social changes across Vodeo. In Cambria, suffrage was extended to all men over 21 years of age in 1857 (rather than those over 21 with property worth at least £10), and in 1888 Gerrise became the first province to extend suffrage to women; by 1894 had become national law, making Vodeo one of the first places in the Ingerish Empire to grant full suffrage to women. Native tribes, which had become marginalised in the industrial developments of the century, saw the first government programs begin in an attempt to assist them and arrest the decline in their populations, which had reached an all-time low in the 1892 census.

Contemporary Vodeo (since 1907)

File:VodeoImmigrantChildren.jpg

Immigrant children in Gerrise, 1954

Through the latter half of the nineteenth century, Vodeo was granted increased autonomy from Ingerland in response to the emerging opinion that the dominion was sufficiently developed to manage its own affairs. While full independence had been mooted as early as the 1870s, uncertainty about whether Vodeo was actually ready for independence saw the dominion resist Ingerish attempts to grant full sovereignty. By the early 1900s, a new generation of political leadership had come to the conclusion that independence was inevitable, and accepted Ingerland's proposal, which was granted on 1 October 1907 alongside the fellow dominions of Karvaland and New Ingerland.

The first half of the 20th century saw Vodeo continue with its political and social reforms. The election of a Liberal government under Ollie King in 1934 saw the nascent welfare system established thirty years prior expanded dramatically, with Vodeo having one of the world's most comprehensive welfare systems by the end of the decade. Vodeo was a combatant alongside Ingerland during the Great War, with some two million Vodeans serving in the armed forces in total. Vodeo's economy boomed during the war as its industries manufactured vital materiel for the war effort, and it ended the war as one of Tarephia's largest economies..

The Federal government of Guy Bradford, elected in 1950 and governing through to 1965, oversaw a period of major economic and demographic growth. The protectionist economy instituted in the 1930s was partially liberalised, although not to the extent of the 1980s. Growing economic prosperity prompted a Vodean trading boom, with many companies expanding to international markets not previously traded with. The Bradford government also played a major role in the evolution of the Ingerish Commonwealth from an association of nations and informal military pact (the latter formed during the Great War) to a formal military alliance and trading pact with the signing of the Winburgh Agreement in 1955. In 1966, Vodeo became a founding member of the Assembly of Nations, and in 1978, joined the World Organization of Tourism, with former foreign minister Duncan Waverley serving as the WOT's first chief secretary. During this time, Vodeo hosted the tenth and sixteenth Ingerish Games (in Holme in 1950 and Avington in 1974, respectively), and the inaugural Pax Nova Games in Saviso in 1960.

The mid-century economic boom prompted a number of societal changes in Vodeo; women began entering the workforce in greater numbers than before and in a larger number of industries, while native tribespeople began moving to the metropolitan areas and interacting with urban society in greater numbers than at any point in the country's history. Homosexuality, while still officially illegal, began to publicly emerge with the release of studies, films, and literature focusing on gay and lesbian people; these developments would ultimately lead to homosexuality being gradually decriminalised at a provincial level from 1969, and nationally in 1978.

Vodeo's economy suffered as the economic boom ended in the early 1970s, and by the mid- to late 1970s, a severe recession had gripped the country, exacerbated by the increasingly interventionist Liberal government of Martin Breen. The crisis prompted large-scale protests and industrial action, and eventually led to a currency crisis and Breen's replacement by his deputy, Gary Hays, in 1980. That year's election saw Federal win government under Otto van Helsing, and over the course of the 1980s introduced a programme of deregulation and free-market reforms. While successful, the reforms became increasingly unpopular toward the end of the 1980s, and at the 1989 election, Federal narrowly lost to the Liberals under Eric Gardiner. Vodeo faced another sharp recession between mid-1990 and early 1991, which in turn led to Federal regaining power in 1992 under the leadership of Howard Stevens.

Geography and environment

Saviso
Climate chart
J F M A M J J A S O N D     26     32 25     19     35 27     29     33 24     51     29 22     100     27 22     284     25 20     320     24 18     190     24 19     94     25 20     72     27 22     46     28 23     35     30 24 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation totals in mm
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     1     90 77     0.8     95 81     1.1     91 75     2     84 72     3.9     81 72     11     77 68     13     75 64     7.5     75 66     3.7     77 68     2.8     81 72     1.8     82 73     1.4     86 75 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation totals in inches

General characteristics

Vodeo is located on the east coast of central Tarephia on the Sea of Uthyra. At more than 545,000 square kilometres (210,000 square miles), it is one of the continent's moderately-sized countries. Vodeo lies between latitudes 4°N and 10°S, and longitudes 26°E and 35°E.

The Vodean macaw is a national icon, and is one of Vodeo's three national birds, alongside the Tarephian kingfisher and the Tarephian flamingo.

Vodeo is generally comprised of rolling hill country and plains in the centre, hemmed in by the mountainous areas of the south and west. Vodeo is crossed by a number of rivers, the longest of which are (in order) the Rabe, Tarrack, Corm, Grable, and Pralack. Vodeo's largest lake is Lake Indigo in Queensborough, followed by [Lake Razorback on the Havilland-St Austell-Rabe border, Lake Vadiorare in Vadiorare, and Lake Cornotorina in Cambria.

Vodeo's coastline contains a large number of islands, most of which form part of the Vodean Barrier Reef between Holme and Empire's End. Vodeo's largest islands are (in descending order) the Isle of Scona, Cobalt Island, Hopesmarch Island, Welcome Island, William Island, and Rodney Island.

Vodeo formerly had large rainforests spreading across large parts of the country, however today rainforests are generally found in mountainous or otherwise rugged areas, such as those in Avalon, Gerrise, Queensborough, and Vadiorare. Much of the interior and coastal areas of the country has been turned over to agricultural and horticultural production.

• Landscapes of Vodeo
• SugarPlains.jpg

  Sugar cane fields in Gerrise

• 

  Charlie's Rock, Trago, Avalon

• 

  Voces Mountains, St Austell

• 

  Mangroves on Providence Island, Cambria

• 

  The Sea of Uthyra from the Parrie Mountains, Avalon

File:VodeoRoadFlood.jpg

Vodeo's wet winters can often lead to flooding

Climate

Vodeo has an equatorial climate with two distinct seasons: a hot, dry summer; and a cooler, wet winter. The summer heat is often cooled by sea breezes that blow far inland over the plains country, while winter rains fall in association with the equatorial monsoon (known as the mahr in Beha). Vodeo's climate classification is typified as Af (tropical rainforest climate with at least 60 mm of rain each month) in the winter and Aw (tropical monsoon with less than 60 mm of rain in the dry months) in the summer. The colder mid-year months and the warmer months at the end and start of the year means that Vodeo officially follows the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere, despite Avalon and parts of Cambria and Prihor lying within the Northern Hemisphere. Temperatures in Vodeo generally range between 20 and 35 °C (68-95 °F), with temperatures generally being slightly cooler in the southern highlands. Vodeo's location on the equator positions it within the Intertropical Convergence Zone, meaning that winds are seldom stronger than breezes, and although rainy season thunderstorms are common, tropical cyclones are extremely rare (although Vodeo has been hit by rare equatorial cyclones in 1669, 1721, 1783, 1900, and 1991).

Government

Geoffrey VII, King of Vodeo

File:VHouseofCommons.png

Political groups in the House of Commons following the 2019 general election:
HM Government:
   Federal: 97 seats
Confidence and Supply:
   Reform: 8 seats
HM Loyal Opposition:
   Liberal: 86 seats
Other parties:
   Social Democratic: 7 seats
   Green: 5 seats
   Independent: 3 seats

Vodeo is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Geoffrey VII is the King of Vodeo and head of state, and is represented by the Governor-General at the national level. The King's powers are limited by both tradition and constitutional constraints, and are not normally used without the advice of ministers or the prime minister.

The Parliament of Vodeo holds legislative power and consists of the King, the House of Commons (lower house), and the Legislative Council (upper house). The Legislative Council consists of 90 members, with each province allocated ten members regardless of population. The House of Commons consists of 203 members elected from single-member electorates, allocated to provinces on the basis of population (each seat represents on average around 160,000-170,000 people), with each province guaranteed at least three seats. Electorate distribution is reviewed after every census, with seats added, removed, or adjusted based on demographic changes.

The Vodean parliament consists of a number of political parties, the two largest of which, Federal and Liberal, have alternated in holding government since 1919 (Federal also alternated with the Progressives between 1885 and 1919). Within Vodean politics, the Federal Party is considered centre-right, while the Liberal Party is considered centre-left. When faced with a minority government, both Federal and Liberal will usually turn to similar parties for either a coalition or confidence and supply; the Reform Party usually assists Federal, while the Social Democrats and Green Party usually assist the Liberals.

Both houses of Vodeo's parliament are elected using the first-past-the-post system. Elections have been held on a regular triennial basis since 1873, although interruptions to this three-year cycle have occurred in 1887, 1889, 1897, 1902, 1904, and 1941. Unlike some other countries, Vodeo does not have set election dates, although by law an election must be held at most 39 months from the beginning of the parliamentary term. The most recent election, held on 2 December 2019, could legally have been held as late as 18 January 2020; however, elections are traditionally held between mid-October and late November, and since 1897 have been held on Saturdays. The next general election is expected to be held in late 2022.

Vodeo's 34th and current Prime Minister is Sam Baker of the Federal Party, who succeeded Victoria Stobie as leader of the Federal Party on 20 November 2021.

Provinces

Vodeo is a federation of nine provinces, each with a certain degree of autonomy from the central government in Saviso. Unlike many other nations, Vodeo does not have a capital territory - Saviso is both the capital of Vodeo and the capital of St Austell province.

Each province has its own parliament: unicameral in Gerrise, Havilland, Prihor, Queensborough, and Vadiorare; bicameral in the other provinces. The provinces are sovereign entities, although subject to certain powers of the national government under the terms of the Constitution.

Provinces of Vodeo

Flag	Name	Code	Capital	Population	Area (km²)	Created
File:Avalon Prov Flag.png	Avalon	AV	Avington	3,897,414	43,817	21 April 1849
File:Cambria Flag.png	Cambria	CA	Holme		41,665	21 April 1849
File:Gerrise Flag.png	Gerrise	GR	Gerrise	2,142,816	111,776	1 November 1859
File:Havilland Flag.png	Havilland	HA	Greville		47,353
File:Prihor Flag.png	Prihor	PR	Endorie		57,660
File:Queensborough Flag.png	Queensborough	QB	Silverton	2,889,207	83,252	21 April 1849
File:Rabe Flag.png	Rabe	RA	Welson		47,985
File:St Austell Flag.png	St Austell	SA	Saviso	6,841,313	81,433	21 April 1849
File:Vadiorare Flag.png	Vadiorare	VR	Radern		69,898

Economy

A tobacco field near Culwawa, Cambria. Crop-growing has been one of the main sectors of Vodeo's economy since colonial times.

Vodeo has a high-income economy, generating income from a number of sectors including horticulture exports, manufacturing, banking, and mining. Among its largest exports are sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, motor vehicles, chemicals, and electronics. Until the rise of industrial manufacturing in the second half of the 19th century, the sugar, tea, coffee, and tobacco industries were considered the "four pillars" of the economies of Cambria and St Austell; industrialisation gradually lessened the role of crop exports as cities grew and industries expanded. Today, both remain major parts of the Vodean economy, supplemented by the rise of the financial sector in the first half of the 20th century and the development of high-tech industry and growth of tourism in the second half.

Mining, which has taken place as a minor industry since the early 1600s, became a major player in the Vodean economy in the 19th century, initially centred around coal, iron ore, silver, and gold; while coal and iron ore are still mainstays of the mining industry today, since the late 1940s uranium mining has played an increasingly significant role in the sector.

The manufacturing sector in Vodeo covers a number of industries. Vodeo is one of the world's major automotive export nations, with Cobalt and Tace producing over 60% of the nation's total vehicle output; other manufacturers include Quick (electronics), Main (computers), and Bow Rubber (rubber products).

Finance and banking

Vodeo operates a large financial system, first established in the mid-18th century but growing to international standing by the late 19th century. Vodeo's largest banks are the Bank of Tarephia, Bank of Cambria, RD Bank, Great Northern Bank, and the Bank of Queensborough; together the five control up to 80% of Vodeo's banking industry.

Communications

Vodeo has a high rate of telecommunications usage. Vodeo's first Internet Service Providers (ISPs) appeared in the late 1980s, and by 2000 Vodeo had one of the highest rates of internet usage in Tarephia. 99.6% of Vodean households have access to the internet, with around 98% able to access broadband services. As of November 2016, more than 97% of all connections were made through the broadband network. Vodeo's internet TLD is .vd.

Vodeo's largest telecommunications provider is Vodean Telecom, which operates landline, mobile, and internet connections across the country. Formerly a department of the Post Office, the changing economic and political climate of the 1980s saw the Post Office divest its telecommunications arm in 1985 to form Vodean Telecom. Telecom's main competitors are Arc and Sirion, which operate similar services nationwide. While the three had near total dominance of the Vodean internet market in the 1990s and 2000s, today a number of smaller ISPs, such as Bounce and Supernet, also operate around the country; regional ISPs serving smaller areas also appeared from the late 2000s onward.

Landline and cellular telephone numbers in Vodeo have ten digits. The country's international calling code is 0402. Area codes consist of three parts - the province (02 through 08, shared by more than one province), the region (areas within the provincial codes), and the local area code. Provincial and regional codes are only used when calling from one province or region to another; dialling within a local area only requires the local area code. For example, a person calling from Holme to Saviso would need to dial 057 500 followed by the individual number; that is, 05 (provincial code for Havilland and St Austell), 7 (regional code for Saviso), and 500 (Saviso local dialling code); dialling from Pontefract to Saviso would only require dialling "500" followed by the number. Cellular phones use the 09 series (such as 091 for Sirion and 095 for Tangent). The emergency telephone number is 555; prior to 1998 it was 001, as this was easier to dial on rotary phones.

Currency

Vodeo's currency is the Vodean pound (£). One pound is made up of twenty shillings, which are in turn divided into twelve pence. Despite the prevalence of decimal currencies around the world, Vodeo has not decimalised its currency, having refused to do so in the 1960s; in 1989 the Federal government announced its intention to alter the structure of the pound by making ten pence equal to one shilling and ten shillings equal to one pound, however the government lost that year's election and so the plan, which had been unpopular, was abandoned.

Coins come in denominations of 1d, 3d, 6d, 1s, 2s, 2/6, and 5s; notes are issued in 10s, £1, £2, £5, and £10 denominations. Coinage features Geoffrey VII on the obverse and Vodean wildlife on the reverse, while banknotes feature prominent figures and events in Vodean history.

Demographics

At the 2017 census, Vodeo recorded a population of 33,835,912. As of July 2021, the total population has risen to an estimated 35,751,260. The population is primarily concentrated along the coast, with around two-fifths of the population living inland. Vodeo has an average population density of 62 persons per square kilometre of total land area.

Life expectancy for Vodeans in 2020 was 85 years for females, and 81.4 years for males, a total average of 83.2 years. Life expectancy at birth is forecast to increase to 85 years in 2050.

Language

Ingerish is the most widely-spoken language in Vodeo, spoken by more than 95% of the population. There are a number of indigenous languages spoken primarily among members of Vodeo's numerous indigenous tribes, the most-spoken including Beha, Sandrin, Etallic, and Torian. Despite efforts to increase the number of indigenous language speakers, less than 3% of the population is able to speak one or more of the languages.

As recorded in the 2017 census, Castellanese is the most widely-spoken unofficial language (7.3%), followed by Florescentan (4.5%), Franquese (1.9%), Baiyu (1.4%) and Maurit (1.2%). Vodean Sign Language, a dialect of Ingerish Sign, is understood by around 0.6% of the population.

Culture

Media

Newspapers

Vodeans are some of the largest readers of newspapers in Tarephia; this is in part due to the large number of newspapers available. There are three national newspapers - The St Austell Telegraph and The Advocate, both published in Saviso, and The Holme Gazette, published in Holme. Each of Vodeo's provinces has a provincial newspaper, with more populous provinces such as St Austell, Cambria, and Avalon having two or more. Local newspapers, such as those found in suburban or rural areas, generally cater to local affairs and are published once or twice a week. Some of the more notable newspapers include The Avalon Herald in Avington, The Standard in Gerrise, and The Sun-Times in Silverton.

Historically, Vodean newspapers generally maintained neutral reporting, with the exception of some newspapers such as the socialist The Worker. Since the 1960s, however, political divides have appeared based primarily on the style of the newspaper, with tabloids generally leaning to the right and broadsheets either leaning to the left or maintaining neutrality. This political divide does not extend to all newspapers - The St Austell Telegraph, while having endorsed either Federal or the Liberals at elections since the late 1910s, maintains journalistic neutrality, and is considered the most neutral newspaper in Vodeo; this neutrality has led to the Telegraph's endorsement being considered the most important to win in an election cycle.

Broadcasting

Broadcast media have been present in Vodeo since the early 1920s, with television broadcasting beginning in 1951. The largest broadcaster is the state-owned Vodean Broadcasting Corporation, which oversees a number of radio and television stations (including its flagship channel, VBC1); commercial broadcasters include National Media, the Standard Broadcasting Company, Revolution Satellite, and Telstar.