History Main / Ruritania

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'' actually named its fake countries D Country, with its NerdGlasses-wearing princess simply named Princess D, and U Country, with its... vampire ambassador. No doubt D Country is the original home of [[VideoGame/BionicCommando Master-D.]] In the [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]], there's also the Amethyst Kingdom, where apparently, the concept of money doesn't exist.

* In Franchise/TheDCU:

** For a while after the "ComicBook/OurWorldsAtWar" arc, there was the Soviet breakaway state of Pokolistan, ruled by the human version of General Zod.
** A MythologyGag brought up repeatedly in the four-part Justice League/Avengers intercompany crossover. The JLA members in particular are nonplussed about the absence of many of their universe's Ruritanias and fictional cities.

** ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Ruritanias were very common in both UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks and UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks. The first appearance of Lex Luthor was in a 1940 comic in which he was revealed to be the mastermind behind a war between fascist Toran and peaceful Gallonia.

* Creator/CarlBarks' and Creator/DonRosa's ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' have Brutopia, an obvious name-changed version of the USSR.

* Also appears in several ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse'':
** In Creator/FloydGottfredson's classic "The War Orphans" (1944), Mickey helps two kids from a Ruritanian country threatened by the Nazis.
** Gottfredson's earlier "Monarch of Medioka" (1937) basically repeats the story of the Prisoner of Zenda with Mickey replacing "Prince Michael."
** Romano Scarpa's "Mystery of Tapiocus VI" (1956) finds Mickey helping out the amnesiac king of Mazumia, another Ruritanian country.
** In a more modern story, Mickey and Goofy travel the small country of "Schnitzelstein" to catch a thief, but Mickey forgets that he isn't a well-known detective in Schnitzelstein, and cannot simply walk into a police office and demand their cooperation; he gets Goofy and himself wanted as criminals.
** Casty's recent "The World To Come" finds Mickey and Eega Beeva engaged in intrigue with the country of Illusitania, which is shown on a map as being located near Medioka ''and'' Mazumia.
* The Franchise/MarvelUniverse has several, most notably [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]]'s homeland of Latveria.

** Nightcrawler once rescued a woman named Judith Rassendyll, who turned out to be the queen of Ruritania (ComicBook/UncannyXMen #204).

* ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'': Epel's hometown of Harveston is a vaguely Finnish, vaguely Russian apple farming village, and its strong rural nature is enough to make Epel a complete CountryMouse. The only time we get to see it is in winter, during heavy snowfall.

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' features the fictional European country of Liechtenstamp in it's first season.

* Wallachia as seen in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse''. {{Supervillain}} Lord Paramount took it over and crowned himself Prince of the country. Wallachia is a real place, nowadays a geographic region of Romania. It was formed as a principality in the 14th century, an independent nation ruled by a prince.

* ''[[Series/CarryOnLaughing Carry On Laughing!]]'': Pluritania, from the spoof of ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda''.
* Spoofed in ''Series/{{Castle}}'': A murdered spy was supposed to assassinate someone from a country called the Republic of Lovania, but a quick Internet search reveals that no such country exists. [[spoiler:The murder victim turns out to have been taking part in a [[{{LARP}} "spy vacation."]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' has Baron Werner Ünderbheit, local {{expy}} of Doctor Doom (lampshaded by The Monarch), ruler of the micro-nation of Ünderland. It resembled the generic Eastern Europe country in every way... castles, forests, doomy dooms of gloom... but it is revealed it is smaller than the state of Delaware and actually somehow borders Michigan. At the end of one episode, Ünderbheit is deposed as ruler and is replaced by a democratically elected leader...his own former adviser Girl Hitler.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}'' has two examples: Vlatava, the country ruled by the young Queen Perdita, and its next door neighbor, Markovia, a country ruled by the Markov Royal family which includes the twin Princes, Gregor and Brion (Geo-Force), as well as the youngest child and only daughter, Princess Tara (Terra). Both countries are located in an unspecified part of Eastern Europe, with Markovia also bordering the Middle Eastern country of {{Qurac}}, and having History as a former puppet state of the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]].

* One ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' episode featured two nations called Samadia and Azmir.

* ''You Nazty Spy'' - A Film/TheThreeStooges short has Moronika, which stands in for Germany in the [[CatchPhrase ''Moronika for Morons!'']]

** In "Gentlemen, the King!" a group of Philadelphia gangsters are hired to go to a Ruritania and assassinate the king.

[[folder:Audio Dramas]]
* In the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story ''Death and the Queen'', Donna is wooed by Prince Rudolph of Goritania, while the Doctor gets increasingly annoyed by the fact he's never ''heard'' of Goritania. It turns out that [[spoiler:it's a HiddenElfVillage which is PoweredByAForsakenChild ... and Donna's the forsaken child]].
[[/folder]]

* ''Creator/YoshikiTanaka'''s novel ''Apfelland Monogatari'', adapted into manga and an anime ''OVA'', was explicitly written as a Ruritanian story and features numerous appropriate tropes such as an Edwardian setting and Great Powers rivalry. Apfelland itself is stated to be located at the crossroads of the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires. However, as the name suggests, Apfelland is clearly a German-speaking country which is borne out by most of the characters having German names.

[[folder: Audio Drama]]
* In the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story ''Death and the Queen'', Donna is wooed by Prince Rudolph of Goritania, while the Doctor gets increasingly annoyed by the fact he's never ''heard'' of Goritania. It turns out [[spoiler: it's a HiddenElfVillage which is PoweredByAForsakenChild ... and Donna's the forsaken child]].

* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' has the Republic of Borginia, which is vaguely eastern European and has what are probably Romani and its language, Borginian, is written in dingbat characters.
** In ''Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth'' there is Cohdopia, a European nation that was split into two smaller countries (Babahl and Allebahst) as well.
* ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'''s {{Spiritual Successor}}s, ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}: Armed Assault'', is full of those as their main settings. Mostly to prevent controversies but still provide an accurate foreign conflict zone.
** ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}: Armed Assault'' has The Kingdom of Sahrani Island played this trope fairly straight, being a stereotypical [[SpaghettiAndGondolas Mediterranean]]-[[TorosYFlamenco esque]] monarchy based on Cyprus. Its adversary is the aforementioned PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny in the northern half of the island, which broke away from the kingdom a few years ago. There's even a city, called ''Corazól'' located in the border between the North and South where there's a walled demilitarized zone diving the city in two, filled with ruined buildings. [[spoiler:If you succeed in beating the main campaign, you can defeat the Democratic Republic of Sahrani and help restore the original united kingdom.]]
** In ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}} II'', you get the Republic of Chernarus, a Czech-speaking country bordering on Russia that gets entangled in bloody civil war with Russophone Communist extremists (and later with Nationalist militias), sparking first a NATO, then a Russian intervention. It takes its name from Belarus, its geography from the Czech Republic, the conflict from the UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and its general aesthetics from Ukraine.

** The Republic of Altis and Stratis in ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}} III'' is an interesting example. The maps are based on real-life Greek islands 'Lemnos' and 'Agios Efstratios' (Although the game [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield makes clear it's NOT the islands with a different name in the future but an entire separate location]]), the general theme of the islands is very similar to the countries of UsefulNotes/{{Malta}} and UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}} - independent Mediterranean island republic - with the history begin mostly similar to UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}} than Malta, both Altis and Cyprus were colonized by various nations, such as the Phoenicians, Greeks and Arabs, both nations are mostly famous for their tourist attractions, both nations became independent recently from the British, both suffered at the hands of a bloody civil war (Although Cyprus' case was mostly ethnic), both became overseen by foreign peacekeepers and were invaded by a Near Eastern power. The AAF is also very similar to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_Malta Armed forces of Malta]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypriot_National_Guard Cypriot National Guard]] and the [[UsefulNotes/ThisIsHellas Hellenic Armed Forces]].

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' - Outer Heaven, although various supplementary materials state that it is located within the Republic of South Africa. The Galzburg region of the Republic of South Africa, however, does qualify as a Ruritania.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' - Zanzibar Land. It straddles the line between Ruritania and {{Qurac}}.
* Act 3 of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' simply takes place in "Eastern Europe". Although the specific country you're in is never named, it is certainly Prague within the Czech Republic. Notably, though, it's not portrayed as rural at all; the entire mission takes place in a reasonably modern city.

* Arstotzka of ''[[VideoGame/PapersPlease Papers, Please]]'' is a Soviet-era Ruritania set among a cluster of other Ruritanias. It has all the features of a Soviet Bloc country of the era, including bureaucracy, constant rule changes, and rampant corruption -- but given the constant flood of people trying to sneak in, it's entirely possible the surrounding nations are even ''worse.''

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' is a bizarre example. The game takes place in an unnamed European country where [[{{Spexico}} the people speak Spanish with Mexican accents]] and have Spanish names, an ingame map places the village in the center of the Iberian Peninsula next to Madrid, and the currency is Peseta, which was Spain's currency before switching to Euro, WordOfGod have outright claimed that the country ''isn't'' Spain. The fact that the actual in-game environment is a mix of this trope and {{Uberwald}} otherwise just makes it even more confounding.

* ''VideoGame/{{WinBack}}'''s terrorist organization hails from the Balkan-esque country of Sarcozia.
* ''Videogame/Psychonauts2'' has Grulovia, a third-world Eastern-European country that Raz's family hail from that was ruled by a despotic "Gzar" until a Hydrokineticist known as Maligula arose and killed countless innocent people before being defeated by the original Psychonauts. Afterwards, the Gzar and his family were forced into exile, [[spoiler:with the main villain being the son of the Gzar seeking to reclaim Grulovia for himself]].
* All of the Eastern Merkopan countries is ''Videogame/{{Suzerain}}'' fits, especially Sordland, which has semi-functioning democracy, is plagued with political violence, separatism, political interference of the Army, and was field of a Revolution who deposed the King and installed a democracy, a coup of that deposed the President and placed in charge a General, and second coup that started a civil war between the Nationalist and the Communists.

Tourists who venture into Ruritania who have their wallets or luggage stolen will find that the [[PoliceAreUseless police are ineffective]] and have out-of-date gear and uniforms. Even after the [[CluelessDeputy clueless junior officer]] types the report with a [[TheSixties 1960s]] typewriter, the police will be mostly [[ObstructiveBureaucrat focused on the pointless filling in and stamping of additional forms]]. In a nod to their former Soviet bloc history, police and border guards may wear surplus greatcoats and carry old AK-style assault rifles.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': The show had Boris and Natasha's home country of Pottsylvania, an imaginary Soviet satellite where literally ''everyone'' is a spy.

* In ''Series/That70sShow'' Fes' home country is never identified. Teasers are given that he's anything from Central American to Eastern European. There are multiple times he refers to it as "whatever the hell country I am from."

** Vorozheika, a former Soviet republic currently ruled by rogue Eternal Druig.

* In ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'', White Goodman mentions that team [[OpposingSportsTeam Purple Cobras]]' resident DarkChick Fran Stalinovskovichdavidovitchsky hails from the country of Romanovia, where Dodgeball is the national sport.

Tourists who venture into Ruritania who have their wallets or luggage stolen will find that the [[PoliceAreUseless police are ineffective]] and have out-of-date gear and uniforms. Even after the [[CluelessDeputy clueless junior officer]] types the report with a TheSixties typewriter, the police will be mostly [[ObstructiveBureaucrat focused on the pointless filling in and stamping of additional forms]]. In a nod to their former Soviet bloc history, police and border guards may wear surplus greatcoats and carry old AK-style assault rifles.

If a place shows some of the characteristics of Ruritania, but is also full of [[{{Dracula}} vampires]] in old castles, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], {{Mad Scientist}}s in crumbling mansions, and [[Film/HammerHorror other]] {{Fantasy}} or {{Horror}} genre tropes, you've strayed over the border into [[{{Uberwald}} Überwald]]. We hope you brought some garlic and don't leave the hotel room at night. Tourists who venture into Ruritania who have their wallets or luggage stolen will find that the [[PoliceAreUseless police are ineffective]] and have out-of-date gear and uniforms. Even after the [[UselessDeputy clueless junior officer]] types the report with a TheSixties typewriter, the police will be mostly [[ObstructiveBureaucrat focused on the pointless filling in and stamping of additional forms]].

If a place shows some of the characteristics of Ruritania, but is also full of [[{{Dracula}} vampires]] in old castles, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], {{Mad Scientist}}s in crumbling mansions, and [[Film/HammerHorror other]] {{Fantasy}} or {{Horror}} genre tropes, you've strayed over the border into [[{{Uberwald}} Überwald]]. We hope you brought some garlic and don't leave the hotel room at night. Tourists who venture into Ruritania who have their wallets or luggage stolen will find that the police are ineffective and mostly [[ObstructiveBureaucrat focused on the pointless filling in and stamping of countless forms]].

If a place shows some of the characteristics of Ruritania, but is also full of [[{{Dracula}} vampires]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], {{Mad Scientist}}s, and [[Film/HammerHorror other]] {{Fantasy}} or {{Horror}} genre tropes, you've strayed over the border into [[{{Uberwald}} Überwald]]. We hope you brought some garlic and don't leave the hotel room at night.

Between the wars, the typical Ruritania became slightly less primitive. Wolves, bears, and superstitious peasants still abounded, but automobiles had been introduced and the army now had tanks and planes, with which it prepared a bloody revenge on its neighbours. The royals were still around, if a bit less powerful and wealthy than before, their robes a bit threadbare, but are now being schemed against by even more dastardly [[ThoseWackyNazis fascists]] and [[DirtyCommunists communists]]. When WWII rolled around, Ruritania was likely occupied by the Germans or was possibly itself an Axis power. In either case, [[LaResistance brave Ruritanian partisans]] equipped with [[ManlyFacialHair formidable beards]] [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece old WWI-era guns]] and {{Improvised Weapon}}s kept up a heroic struggle against tyranny without forgetting their true enemy -- the treacherous village on the other side of the valley. After the war, many Ruritanias became CommieLand and continued to be a lurking place for DirtyCommunists, either Soviet-backed parts of the Iron Curtain or home-grown.

Between the wars, the typical Ruritania became slightly less primitive. Wolves, bears, and superstitious peasants still abounded, but automobiles had been introduced and the army now had tanks and planes, with which it prepared a bloody revenge on its neighbours. The royals were still around, if a bit less powerful and wealthy than before, their robes a bit threadbare, but are now being schemed against by even more dastardly [[ThoseWackyNazis fascists]] and [[DirtyCommunists communists]]. When WWII rolled around, Ruritania was likely occupied by the Germans or was possibly itself an Axis power. In either case, [[LaResistance brave Ruritanian partisans]] equipped with [[ManlyFacialHair formidable beards]] [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece old WWI-era guns]] and ImprovisedWeapons kept up a heroic struggle against tyranny without forgetting their true enemy -- the treacherous village on the other side of the valley. After the war, many Ruritanias became CommieLand and continued to be a lurking place for DirtyCommunists, either Soviet-backed parts of the Iron Curtain or home-grown.

Between the wars, the typical Ruritania became slightly less primitive. Wolves, bears, and superstitious peasants still abounded, but automobiles had been introduced and the army now had tanks and planes, with which it prepared bloody revenge on its neighbours. The royals were still around, if a bit less powerful than before, but are now being schemed against by even more dastardly [[ThoseWackyNazis fascists]] and [[DirtyCommunists communists]]. When WWII rolled around, Ruritania was likely occupied by the Germans or was possibly itself an Axis power. In either case, brave partisans equipped with [[ManlyFacialHair formidable beards]] kept up a heroic struggle against tyranny without forgetting their true enemy -- the village on the other side of the valley. After the war, many Ruritanias became CommieLand and continued to be a lurking place for DirtyCommunists, either Soviet-backed or home-grown.

With the coming of UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag revolutions, Ruritania has pretty much reverted to what it started with; ludicrous hair, ethnic strife, poverty, and backwardness. The most noticeable changes are that the monarchy is (usually) gone, replaced by a [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny mock democratic republic]] run by some [[TheGeneralissimo unsavoury generals]], [[FormerRegimePersonnel ex-communist strongmen]], or [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt bajillionaires who made a profit off the privatization waves that came with re-establishing a market economy]], while the Great Powers are now acting through NATO or the UN. Everyone still seems to hate their neighbours, the anarchists may still be around, or they may have mutated into [[TerroristsWithoutACause terrorists]] or [[BalkanBastard plain old gangsters]]. In recent years, they would have to deal with refugees from Syria or a {{Qurac}} substitute, and the citizens will either welcome them with open arms or close their borders. Nonetheless, nationalists will spring up causing ruckus all over the country, with fears of a {{Eurabia}} not felt since the Ottoman days. With any luck, contemporary Ruritania might be a part of the EU, causing more trouble for its finances than Greece, Spain, and Ireland taken together -- and in any case, the only international attention Ruritania seems to get occurs during the Series/EurovisionSongContest, which it wins frequently and handily thanks to votes from the Ruritanian guest workers omnipresent in rich Western European countries.

* Russian animator Lazy Square posted a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1u7XZ9c8fI reimagining]] of {{WesternAnimation/the Simpsons}} set in a [[RussianGuySuffersMost particularly grim]] 21st century version of this trope, with the family transformed into bitter, violent {{Lower Class Lout}}s[[note]]save for Lisa, who was [[UncertainDoom possibly]] killed by [[PoliceBrutality corrupt police]] for [[DisproportionateRetribution busking]][[/note]] living in a post-Soviet industrial slum.