History Main / Ruritania

With the coming of HoleInFlag revolutions, Ruritania has pretty much reverted to what it started with: ludicrous hair, ethnic strife, poverty, and backwardness. The monarchy is(usually) gone, replaced by a mock democracy run by some [[GeneralRipper unsavoury generals;]] the Great Powers are now acting through NATO or the UN. Everyone still seems to hate his neighbours, the anarchists may still be around, or they may have mutated into [[TerroristsWithoutACause terrorists]] or plain old gangsters. 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.

* ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[hottip:*:''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'']] turns Kazakhstan into a Ruritania as a satire on how first-world citizens view foreign, third-world countries. The country is depicted as a cartoonish backwater, with cars drawn by donkeys and absurdly intolerant local customs. The scenes were actually filmed in a Romanian village. The people of the village didn't take it with much humor when they heard what the actual movie was about. The only real Kazakh in the movie appears in the village as Oksana. The Khazak language featured in the film is all other languages, depending on the speaker. Borat speaks mostly Hebrew with some Polish thrown in. Azamat speaks Armenian.

* ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2]]'' is set in what appears to have been at one time a former Soviet state. No word has been given on the place's true location, and judging by the accents of all the [=NPCs=] you meet there, none of them are from there (seeing that many of them were forcibly relocated.) The only true native seems to be Father Grigori.

** Vespania from ''Recap/LupinIIIVsDetectiveConan'', contains expected first-world technology, but remains much less developed and less economically powerful than other countries. A new mineral found only in their country is stolen by Lupin.

[[quoteright:350:[[{{Tintin}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Syldavie.jpg]]]]

* Arztotska 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.''

* ''OperationFlashpoint'''s {{Spiritual Successor}}s, ''{{ARMA}}: Armed Assault'' and ''{{ARMA}} II''. TheKingdom of Sahrani Island from the first ''ARMA'' game played this trope fairly straight, being a stereotypical [[OliveGarden Mediterranean]]-[[TorosYFlamenco esque]] monarchy. It's adversary is the aforementioned PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny in the northern half of the island, which broke away from the kingdom a few years ago. [[spoiler:If you succeed in beating the main campaign, you can defeat the Democratic Republic of Sahrani and help restore the original united kingdom.]]
** [[MeaningfulName Chernarus]] from ''ARMA II'' [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial is totally not Georgia or Chechniya with a dash of Kosovo, we swear!]]
** It's also [[SarcasmMode purely a coincidence]] that the conflict in [[{{Qurac}} Takistan]] seen in ''ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead'' has any resemblance to the First Gulf War for how it started, the Second Gulf War for what happened to the country, or to Afghanistan for how the local people behave. [[CaptainErsatz The dictator of Takistan is also totally not Saddam Hussein]], [[SarcasmMode really.]]

Not to be confused with [[{{Nadesico}} Ruri-]]tania.[[hottip:*:You might be thinking of Peaceland there.]]

* ''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, there's also the Amethyst Kingdom, where apparently, the concept of money doesn't exist. FridgeLogic much?
** What about [[PetShopOfHorrors Count D]]?

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' - The Durmstrang students hailing from an unspecified Ruritania showed up for the Triwizard Tournament in a ship bearing the double-headed eagle of [[OlderThanTheyThink the Byzantine Empire]]. They were all young men in neat crewcuts and presented in a very disciplined and proud manner (like archetypal German students), wearing tsigeika coats and karakul hats (which are Slavic). Meanwhile, their headmaster Igor Karkaroff has a Russian-sounding surname, looks like Grigori Rasputin (who was Siberian), and behaves like a stereotypical Russian. At least some of the Durmstrang students have their nationality exactly specified (as Bulgarian).

A Ruritania is a fictional country located in Central Europe or the Balkans -- in an area encompassing most of the territory east of Germany and west of Russia. This country is characterized by its small size, backward customs, and forests full of [[EverythingIsWorseWithWolves wolves]] and {{bears|AreBadNews}}. It is often the home of the FunnyForeigner.

* ''RepublicTheRevolution'' is set in [[MeaningfulName Novistrania]], a post-Communist {{Ruritania}} complete with lots of concrete and people SpeakingSimlish with a distinctly Slavic cadence.

With the coming of HoleInFlag revolutions, Ruritania has pretty much reverted to what it started with: ludicrous hair, ethnic strife, poverty, and backwardness. The monarchy is(usually) gone, replaced by a mock democracy run by some [[GeneralRipper unsavoury generals;]] the Great Powers are now acting through NATO or the UN. Everyone still seems to hate his neighbours, the anarchists may still be around, or they may have turned into terrorists or plain old gangsters. Currently, Ruritania is probably a part of the EU, and causes more trouble for its finances than Greece, Spain and Ireland taken together.

If the place shows some of the characteristics of Ruritania, but is also full of [[{{Dracula}} vampires]], [[WolfMan werewolves]], {{Mad Scientist}}s, and [[HammerHorror other]] {{Fantasy}} or {{Horror}} genre tropes, you've strayed over the border into [[{{Uberwald}} Überwald]]. We hope you brought some garlic.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' - The Durmstrang students hailing from an unspecified Ruritania showed up for the Triwizard Tournament in a ship bearing the double-headed eagle of [[OlderThanTheyThink the Byzantine Empire]]. They were all young men in neat crewcuts and presented in a very disciplined and proud manner (like archetypal German students), wearing tsigeika coats and karakul hats (which are Slavic). Meanwhile, their headmaster Igor Karkaroff has a Russian-sounding surname, looks like Grigori Rasputin (who was Siberian), and behaves like a stereotypical Russian.

With the coming of HoleInFlag revolutions, Ruritania has pretty much reverted to what it started with: ludicrous hair, ethnic strife, poverty, and backwardness. The monarchy is(usually) gone, replaced by a mock democracy run by some [[GeneralRipper unsavoury generals;]] the Great Powers are now acting through NATO or the UN. Everyone still seems to hate his neighbours, the anarchists may still be around, or they may have turned into terrorists or plain old gangsters.

* ''HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' - The Durmstrang students hailing from an unspecified Ruritania showed up for the Triwizard Tournament in a ship bearing the double-headed eagle of [[OlderThanTheyThink the Byzantine Empire]]. They were all young men in neat crewcuts and presented in a very disciplined and proud manner (like archetypal German students), wearing tsigeika coats and karakul hats (which are Slavic). Meanwhile, their headmaster Igor Karkaroff has a Russian-sounding surname, looks like Grigori Rasputin (who was Siberian), and behaves like a stereotypical Russian.

* ''HarryPotter'' - The Durmstrang Institute of Magic possibly exists in a Ruritania with Eastern European and Germanic overtones. It's never stated exactly where it's located. Some students explicitly hail from Bulgaria or Russia, while former student Gellert Grindelwald has a Hungarian first name and German surname. The name "Durmstrang" is a fairly obvious play on the German phrase "''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturm_und_Drang Sturm und Drang]]''."

* Genovia in ''ThePrincessDiaries'' book series is a fictitious European Principality, however it is more Mediterranean than Easten European. It's a teeny place (1 mile long, with a population of 50,000) which is supposed to be between France and Italy (reminiscent of Monaco, or, maybe, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Seborga Seborga]]) or between France and Spain (like Andorra) in the movies where it's a Kingdom. It's pretty nice, if a bit dull.

* ''ThePrincessDiaries'': The tiny European kingdom of Genovia (a stand-in for Monaco).
* In {{Eurotrip}}, Bratislava is presented as such, with bleak, [[RedsWithRustingRockets post-Soviet]] urban decay and overblown stereotypes of [[HoleInFlag post-collapse]] Eastern European poverty.

* ''OperationFlashpoint'''s {{Spiritual Successor}}s, ''{{ARMA}} : Armed Assault'' and ''{{ARMA}} II'' have the Kingdom of Sahrani Island and the former Soviet republic of Chernarus, respectively.
** Chernaus doesn't quite count as it turned out to be Bohemia Interactive's home nation of the Czech Republic and/or Slovakia with [[SerialNumbersFiledOff some very minor alterations and the towns renamed to bad Czech-language puns]], which was made hilariously obvious by the ''Czech Armed Forces'' DLC.

* The long-running soap opera ''DaysOfOurLives'' had an often villainous family, the Alamains, who were royalty from a small European country named Alamania. In an aversion, it's actually implied to be somewhere around France, Germany, and/or Switzerland, but the country is often depicted as so impoverished, autocratic, and corrupt that it might as well be a former Soviet Bloc country.

* The TropeNamer is the fictional country from Anthony Hope's novel ''ThePrisonerOfZenda'', which was published in 1894 and inspired a whole genre of "Ruritanian Romances", so this is OlderThanRadio. Ironically, there's some evidence that Hope intended Ruritania to be a NoCommunitiesWereHarmed version of {{UsefulNotes/Romania}} rather than a generic East European country, having done [[ShownTheirWork rather a lot of research]], but it was hard to tell [[GeniusBonus unless one happened to have done as much research as he did.]]

* The Duchy of Cagliostro from ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''. LupinIII states that the country is 'Ruritanian' when they first enter it, along with it being the smallest UN nation (population: 3500). A few other miscellaneous Ruritanias were featured on the various ''Lupin'' TV series as well.

* ''TheWestWing'' largely avoided this with the exception of two countries - Qumar (a Mideast nation that was often the center of terrorism-related plots) and Equatorial Kundu (an AIDS-ravaged African nation that falls into civil war and Rwandan-style genocide).
** In the episode "Freedonia", Congressman Santos remarks about an incident where a Congressman was asked how they would change U.S. policy towards Freedonia (see Real Life) as an example of politicians moving away from substantive debate into "gotcha" questions and attempts to embarrass your opponent without getting tagged for it.