History Main / Ruritania

* Rolf of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' seems to come from one of these, though we never learn what "the Old World" is actually called. We do learn of its wacky customs in one episode, however, which include Folk Songs rife with violence between the singers ("That's my horse!" *SLAP*), "bartering poles", upon which the seller and consumer must balance by their abdomens while conducting business with produce and livestock, and idiots falling into holes being sufficient grounds for a celebration. His culture seems to respect shepherds, as Rolf often boasts of being the son of one and is quick to defend the honor of this heritage, yet he also claims that barbers are the masculine ideal in the Old Country.

** A background detail in Half-Life 2: Episode One practically confirms City 17 as Riga, Latvia. There is a map showing City 17 with a river called the Daugava flowing through it. This is the name of a real river that flows through... you guessed it, Riga. There are also other bits of evidence. The skyline of Riga resembles City 17's, City 17 is coastal and borders a sea (Riga is the only coastal city that the Daugava flows through), the lettering on most signs is Russian suggesting an ex-Soviet country, and there's also occasionally Swedish lettering, suggesting that City 17 is not too far away from Sweden (Latvia is a stone's throw away from Sweden, and hosts many Swedish businesses). Finally, there's numerous restaurants with signs that translate to "Café Baltic", which would match Riga's location in one of the Baltic States.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has Ustinkistan where Vlad and Gladys, Timmy's maternal grandparents, hail from. Their economy is based around turnips and the fairy godparents who live there can only grant turnip-based wishes.

Oftentimes, TheOldCountry is a Ruritania or an Uberwald.

** Markovia, ruled by Prince Brion Markov, who is also the superhero Geo-Force.

** 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. Incidentally, since the outbreak of the Ukrainian Civil War in 2014, it has become [[LifeImitatesArt surprisingly prophetic]] [[FunnyAneurysmMoment in its subject matter]].

* ''Space:1889'' places an actual Ruritania in the Balkans, in ''Conklin's Atlas of the Worlds''.

* The long-running soap opera ''Series/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 (and Alemannia is a RealLife alternate name of Germany), but the country is often depicted as so impoverished, autocratic, and corrupt that it might as well be a former Soviet Bloc country.

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 democracy]] run by some [[TheGeneralissimo unsavoury generals]], [[FormerRegimePersonnel ex-communist strongmen]], or [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt bajillionaires]], while 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 - 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 Ruritanian guest workers abroad.

* The largely forgotten W.C. Fields classic ''Million Dollar Legs'' (1932) takes place in Klopstockia (chief exports: goats and nuts: chief imports: goats and nuts: chief inhabitants: goats and nuts). The country's out of money and the President's (Creator/WCFields) own cabinet are plotting against him. American salesman Migg Tweeney (Jack Oakie), who's fallen in love with the President's daughter Angela (Susan Fleming, later Mrs. Arthur (Harpo) Marx), notices a lot of champion-level athletes among the general population. Since his boss (George Barbier) plans to give huge financial grants to Olympic gold medal winners, Tweeney arranges to have Klopstockia entered in the 1932 Games. In the opening scene we see that Klopstockia is 56km from Haustpeff. Both this film and ''Duck Soup'' were produced for Paramount by Herman Manckiewicz.

* The ''ComicBook/GIJoe'' comics has Borovia. Interestingly, as the Marvel series ran from the early eighties to mid-nineties and there were several years between stories set in Borovia, its political development ran pretty much [[RippedFromTheHeadlines lock step with what was happening in the real world]], starting as a Soviet bloc country, then gaining independence, followed by very unstable internal conditions.

* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' - [[https://images.pottermore.com/bxd3o8b291gf/wZTGiO65mCK6Ws0YCsCsC/f844b7b171ee4ebd20f29564b3e7295c/WB_F4_ViktorKrumIgorKarkaroff_KrumEntersHogwarts_HP4D-09800.jpg?w=1200 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]]. The name Durmstrang comes from ''Sturm und Drang'' ("Storm and Stress"), a German literary movement. The students are 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 (the -off ending actually means he may be a Bulgarian), 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).

* ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[note]]''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan''[[/note]] turns UsefulNotes/{{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. It diverges from the stereotypical DirtyCommunist atheism or fanatical [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] or UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity, though: UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} being Kazakhstan's majority faith, the religious attitudes among Borat's people are more in line with what you'd find in a more secularly run {{Qurac}}, and Borat himself is a pagan who claims to "follow the hawk." The scenes were actually filmed in a UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} village in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}. 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 Kazakh 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. The villagers speak Romanian. All "Kazakh" signs and captions are in Polish.

* ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[note]]''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan''[[/note]] turns UsefulNotes/{{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. It diverges from the stereotypical DirtyCommunist atheism or fanatical [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] or UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity, though: UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} being Kazakhstan's majority faith, the religious attitudes among Borat's people are more in line with what you'd find in a more secularly run {{Qurac}}, and Borat himself is a pagan who "follows the hawk." The scenes were actually filmed in a UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} village in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}. 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 Kazakh 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. The villagers speak Romanian. All "Kazakh" signs and captions are in Polish.

* ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[note]]''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan''[[/note]] turns UsefulNotes/{{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. It diverges from the stereotypical DirtyCommunist atheism or fanatical [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] or UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity, though: UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} being Kazakhstan's majority faith, Borat's religious attitudes are more in line with what you'd find in {{Qurac}}. The scenes were actually filmed in a UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} village in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}. 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 Kazakh 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. The villagers speak Romanian. All "Kazakh" signs and captions are in Polish.

* ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[note]]''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan''[[/note]] 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. It diverges from the stereotypical DirtyCommunist atheism or fanatical [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] or UsefulNotes/{{Eastern Christianity}}, though: since UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} is Kazakhstan's majority faith, Borat's religious attitudes are more in line with what you'd find in {{Qurac}}. The scenes were actually filmed in a UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} village in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}. 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 Kazakh 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. The villagers speak Romanian. All "Kazakh" signs and captions are in Polish.

* ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[note]]''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan''[[/note]] 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 UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} village in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}. 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 Kazakh 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. The villagers speak Romanian. All "Kazakh" signs and captions are in Polish.

BananaRepublic, {{Bulungi}}, {{Qurac}}, {{Countrystan}}, and TropicalIslandAdventure are similar Latin American, sub-Saharan African, North African/Middle Eastern, Central and South Asian, and Caribbean/Oceanian/Southeast Asian settings, respectively.

BananaRepublic, {{Bulungi}}, {{Qurac}}, {{Countrystan}}, and TropicalIslandAdventure are similar Latin American, sub-Saharan African, North African/Middle Eastern, South and Central Asian, and Caribbean/Oceanian/Southeast Asian settings, respectively.

* The TropeNamer is the fictional country from Anthony Hope's novel ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda'', which was [[OlderThanTelevision published in 1894]] and inspired a whole genre of "Ruritanian Romances." 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]] and overlooks that he placed Ruritania not in Eastern Europe, but smack in between Saxony and Bohemia, two of what then were some of the most advanced industrial regions in Central Europe[[note]] The capital of Ruritania seems to be roughly where Prague is in the real world, and Prague is further west than Vienna[[/note]].

Compare with TorosYFlamenco, SpaghettiAndGondolas, CommieLand, {{Oktoberfest}}, {{Kaiserreich}}, YodelLand, {{Uberwald}} and GloriousMotherRussia, which are [[TheThemeParkVersion theme-park versions]] of other parts of Europe.