Salad Land

The Marquisate of Salad Land
Flag
Motto: In the name of de Salad
Status	Independent
Capital	Port Salad
Largest	Oar's End
Recognised national languages	French, English
Religion	Christianity (various denominations)
Demonym(s)	Saladian
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• Marquis	Bastien de Salad
• Prime Minister	Valeré Patenaude
Legislature	The Council of Custodians
Establishment
• Discovery of land/foundation of colony	1641
• Independence from English rule	1642
• Establishment of constitutional monarchy	1675
Population
• 2020 estimate	63,913
GDP (PPP)	2019 estimate
• Total	7.484 billion
• Per capita	117,097
HDI (2021)	0.981 very high
Currency	crouton (CTN)
Time zone	SAT
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left

The Marquisate of Salad Land is a constitutional monarchy located in the International Democratic Union.

History

Discovery and settlement

In the year 1641, an expedition was sent out on behalf of the English crown to find new land to colonize. This expedition was led by Philippe de Salad, a merchant of mixed English and French heritage. The expedition, after getting extremely lost and almost losing all of its ships, eventually ran into a set of islands. (Ran into quite literally, as the Zephyr, the single remaining afloat of the original three ships, ran aground on Lussier Point just north of today's capital of Port Salad and got quite stuck.) As his crew could not free the Zephyr, de Salad shrugged and decided this set of islands he had found was as good as any place to settle. The newly created Colony of Stokerton was then founded, named after the noble sponsor of the expedition, Lord Emmanuel Stokerton.

Breakaway from English crown

The Colony of Stokerton, however, would be short-lived. A year later, the English Civil War kicked off, and Lord Stokerton demanded that his colony support him as he championed the Parliamentarian side. de Salad, thousands of miles away, didn't quite like the sound of that. Like many of his fellow colonists, he also rather liked the fact that they were very far away from the mother country and its ability to interfere with them. Instead of obeying Stokerton's demand, de Salad burned his letter and quietly lowered the English flag, replacing it with his own and declaring himself the Marquis de Salad, ruler of an independent Salad Land.

Upon receiving no response from his colony, Stokerton decided to go himself and find out what was happening. His ship, the Unsinkable, failed to live up to its nickname when it arrived at the newly re-christened Port Salad. The cannons that Stokerton had so kindly supplied the colonists for shore defense proved quite helpful in blowing up his ship. After that, there were no more inquiries from England as the chaos of the civil war caused everyone there to completely forget that Stokerton's colony even existed.

Formation of constitutional monarchy

de Salad would rule as a self-appointed monarch for the next three decades, slowly developing trade and diplomatic relations with other nearby nations as their ships happened to pass by and discovered there was actually a set of islands with people on them there. In 1675, however, de Salad would fall ill with "some illness or other" (as the verbiage on his death certificate would note). On his deathbed, a group of influential colonists known as the Council of Custodians convinced de Salad to sign a new law declaring the country a constitutional monarchy, with their Council as the legislature of sorts. From that time forward, the de Salad monarchs would share power with the Council. The Council itself became an elected body in 1953.

Climate

Salad Land has a tropical and oceanic climate, which remains typically mild during both winters and summers. Temperatures range typically from the low 60s in winter to the high 80s in summer. As the islands have no rivers or lakes, rainfall and underground aquifers are the only sources of water. Local laws require both businesses and residences to maintain systems to collect rainwater to supplement the underground aquifers. Common plant life on the islands include palm trees, cedars and fruit trees.

Government

The Prime Minister of Salad Land is the head of government. The position is elected every four years. The current PM, Valeré Patenaude, has served since 2025 and is the leader of the Unlimited Salad Party.

The Marquis de Salad serves as head of state. The current Marquis is Bastien de Salad, a direct descendent of the first Marquis.

Council of Custodians - green is USP and red is TdS

The Council of Custodians is the legislature of Salad Land. It is a unicameral legislature which holds elections every four years. There are currently 36 members of the Council, although law does allow for the Council to be increased or decreased upon agreement by the Prime Minister and the Marquis. The Council of Custodians is currently divided between the Unlimited Salad Party and its rival, the Toss de Salad Party. The USP is the incumbent party and is generally supportive of the Marquis. The TdS Party was started by former Prime Minister Leighton Taylor as an anti-monarchist party.

Military and security

The Salad Land Police Service is the law enforcement agency of the islands. It is responsible for policing the entire area of the islands, including municipalities and surrounding waters. The force has 468 members. Most police officers are armed only with non-lethal weapons such as batons and pepper spray. For those criminals who require a response with a bit more behind it, the Police Service does maintain a Special Response Team whose officers are quite heavily armed. The current Police Commissioner is Katherine Rudhall.

The Salad Land Defence Force consists of ground, air and naval components.

The Army has a total of 900 personnel in three battalions, whose task is mainly interior security with a secondary mission of national defense. The current commander of the Army is Gen. Valentin Daucourt, who is also the overall commander of the Defence Force.

The Air Patrol is primarily tasked to search and rescue at sea, with a secondary mission of aerial defense. The commander of the Air Patrol is Ltg. Quinn Mitchell.

The Naval Patrol is also primarily tasked to search and rescue at sea, with secondary missions of naval defense and interdiction of illegal vessels. The current commander of the Naval Patrol is Capt. Piper Drummond.

Economy

The three major pillars of the Saladian economy are offshore financial services, outsourcing of services for foreign corporations, and tourism. These three sectors alone account for over 80% of the nation's GDP. Salad Land also maintains an open aircraft register and open ship register, and is a major flag of convenience state.

The country has little in the way of export products or manufacturing, and has to import most of its manufactured goods and food. Efforts by the Taylor government are currently underway to try and alleviate that dependence on foreign imports, particularly in the area of foodstuffs. The Taylor government has also begun exploratory efforts to develop potential oil reserves within Saladian waters, a move sharply opposed by local environmentalists and the tourism industry.