Oldham Road

Oldham Road

Flag of Oldham Road
Motto: "We will continue to prove that Oldham Road is, without question, the greatest dynasty ever created." -First Ruler Lei Chaolan 1996
National Anthem: White Train Showdown - Tito and Tatantula
Coming soon.
Region	The Spectrum
Capital	Two Eighty
Official Language(s)	English
Leader	First Ruler Lei Chaolan
Population	1.445 billion (as of 1/3/07)
Currency	Pac
NS Sunset XML

The New Age Dynasty of Oldham Road is a massive, safe nation, remarkable for its punitive income tax rates and noticeable for its compulsery military service. Its hard-nosed, cynical population of 2.137 billion are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources." It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Religion & Spirituality. The average income tax rate is 62%. A powerhouse of a private sector is dominated by the Uranium Mining industry.
Oldham Road is currently loosley allied with eight other nations in The Great Guys and is a member of the New Age Alliance.

History

Oldham Road is a second generation member of The Spectrum having joined a long while after its creation. It is known to most nations for the controversy of invading the then Former Free Lands Of Ediroth and declaring war on The Spectrum whilst being a nation of The Wentzland. Despite this, Oldham Road would become the fifth UN Delegate of The Spectrum replacing the former UN Delegate of Buttery Boonswoggles. The highlights of Oldham Road's first term as UN Delegate include; contributing to the large number of fourth and fifth generation nations joining The Spectrum and successfully helping to prevent a war between the nations of Mushy Pea and O Re Sa Ma. Oldham Road is a founding father of the original Good Guys, along with Sherylannia. However, Oldham Road left The Good Guys in March 2007 to become an independent nation and later becoming an offical member of S.A.T.O on the 23/4/07. A mere two days later, Oldham Road formed the Good Guys Elite with fellow Good Guy founder Sherylannia, UN Delegate Mushy Pea and Spectrum Security Council member White-Rose. O-Road stated this to be: "In retrospect, all part of the masterplan." However, the alliance was eventually disbanded and its members merged with some 2nd Version members of The Good Guys to form The Great Guys. Oldham Road would become UN Delegate again for a second time although this term as Delegate would not be as long as the last. Oldham Road resigned from the UN when it was revelealed they were increasing the tax rate of the nation. After a brief period of being out of 'The Spectrum News', Oldham Road formed the New Age Alliance and a Cold War begin between them and the Republic. This issue was later resolved after a series of negotiations.

The Early Years
When The Spectrum was first founded, Oldham Road was a deserted area of land with only one significant feature. This was the Merchant Road running through it that was used by nations of The Spectrum to transport supply's from the western nations to the eastern nations and vice-versa. As time went by, people would begin to settle on the road because of the easy accessabily of nearby nations and the marketing opportunities due to the large amount of people travelling through. However, it would not be long before bandits began to inhabit the area and steal goods from the locals, the merchants and the soldiers travelling through the land.

Saruwatari Kaito
Saruwatari Kaito was a man who once belonged to military forces of Sherylannia, a nation that had recently been founded near the road of The Spectrum. He and his followers were thrown out of Sherylannia for supposedly going AWOL. Kaito believed this to be a conspiracy as he was not supporting the current political party in control of Sherylannia. Determined to prove himself, Kaito and his followers used Merchant Road in an attempt to join IKBTY. Along the way, Kaito was met by bandits who tried to kill him and his men. Kaito was able to fight off the bandits and saw an opportunity to elimnate them and take control of the immediate land around the Merchant Road. Reinforced by supply's from Calumnius, IKBTY and Sherylannnia, who all sought to destory the bandit forces, Kaito was able to kill many bandits and drive the others off the road and out of the area. He was rewarded with the land around the Merchant Road and within a decade, he expanded his land to the surrounding areas. The land was named Oldham originally, but before his death, Saruwatari Kaito renamed his lands Oldham Road in honour of its heritage.

The Emperors
Saruwatari, was succeeded by Andyama Kaito, an arrogant man with great amibition. After his fathers death, Andyama awarded himself the title of Emperor and saught to expand Oldham Road's lands even further. At first Andyama experienced great success but struggled to expand Oldham Road's lands when Sabrateur was founded to the west of Oldham Road. IKBTY and Sharylannia also became cautious about the Kaito army nearing their lands. Andyma was eventually succeeded by many generations of the Kaito family. Each new Emperor changing the political stance of the region, having a negative effect on the economy, and damaging the moral of its people. In the 1990's, it became evident that Emperor Yamada Kaito (Saruwatari Kaito's great-great-great-great grandchild) began to use the nations wealth for his own personal needs and ignored those of the people.

The Powerstruggle
By 1994, the hatred for the Kaito family had grown strong. Regional Lords united together, forming a coallition. Their aim was to overthrow the Emperor and restore peace to the land. The Lords were enforced by the local people and together they marched to the capital in an attempt to overthrow Emperor Yamada Kaito. However, they underestimated Yamada's resolve and military cabablities. The Lords were soundly defeated in several struggles outside the nations capital of Twoeighty by Grand General Lei Chaolan. With Kaito and Chaolan running the capital, the Lords didn't stand a chance. It became clear to the rebel Lords that the only enemy that could challenge Yamada Kaito's reign was from the inside.
At this time Emeror Yamada Kaito became more erratic in his decisions but also became more complacent. The Grand General of Yamada Kaito's army, Lei Chaolan, grew weary of his Emperor's decisions. Military powerplays caused dissention between the Emperor and the Grand General. This would prompt Chaolan to seek control for himself and so set a plan in motion in which he would perform a military coup. He sent a message to the Emperor, delivered by his closest friend and advisor Kaza Masato, that the rebel forces had surrendered and were awaiting Kaito's punishment. Chaolan advised Kaito to come in person and deliver the punishment to the rebels himself. This would force Kaito to leave his thrown room and his personal guards. It is believed that a various number of omens occured warning Kaito not to go, but they were all dismissed by Masato. When Kaito arrived he was ambushed and killed by Chaolan himself. The Grand General then took to the thrown announcing himself as First Ruler, ending the long line of Emperors of Oldham Road, although the title of Dynasty was kept. All those left of the rebel forces surrendered and were fogiven for their betrayal as it was deemed just.

The First Ruler's Rule
Although political freedoms are still rare, the civil rights and economic status of Oldham Road have since improved and taxes reduced, making the First Ruler popular amogst the people. Lei Chaolan has also worked hard to dismiss some of the traditional habits of Oldham Road, including changing the national anthem and spaypainting the Oldham Road flag. The First Ruler has recently unveiled plans to form an Entreprenaire's Club in which a group of millionaire entrepreneur's will help stabalise the economy of Oldham Road.

Geography

Oldham Road is located in the central area of The Spectrum, sharing a boarder with Calumnius to the north-west, I Know Better Than You to the north-east, Sherylannia to the south and Sabrateur to the west. Oldham Road also shares a border with the now barren wasteland formally known as Ediroth.

Physically, the north and north west of Oldham Road is dominated by a rugged mountainous region whereas the rest of the land is characterised by low altitudes, fertile river valleys and has a fairly flat landscape. The eastern lowlands receive summer rain, whereas it gets increasingly drier towards the west. Socially and economically, the north western regions remain underdeveloped while the the rest of the Oldham Road regions are more developed. This has resulted in a divide of the country and hostile attitudes by citizens from the north western regions of Oldham Road to the rest of the nation. The core's of Oldham Road are considered to be the central plains and Ducca's Valley (south east). Today, the capital of Oldham Road is Two Eighty which is located in the southern area of the central plains.

Politics

Over several hundred years of its existance, the nation of Oldham Road has taken on a total of four different political stances. This is largely due to each new Emperor of the nation applying their own personal views to government proceedings. These four politcal stances, catagorised by the UN, include; Democratic Socialist, Inoffensive Centrist Democracy, Corrupt Dictatorship and Father Knows Best State. Recently, however, under the rule of Lei Chaolan, Oldham Road has been catagorised as Iron Fist Consumerists.

Oldham Road has a reputation of not getting involved with political matters of The Spectrum and often taking situations too lightly. However, O-Road recently helped cause amendment to the Representative Democracy Act 2007 by objecting to clause 2. This is largely believed to be because it involved alterations to the position of the UN Delegate. The politics of Oldham Road itself revolve around a rarely used political system, whilst keeping civil rights high. Oldham Road has always had a suffering economy larely due to the changing of political stances and corrupt government officials, although the First Ruler of Oldham Road is looking to change this.

The main aim of Lei Chaolan's New Age Dynasty is to lower tax rates to 49%. Recently however, First Ruler Lei Chaolan was asked to report on recent government activities by the media. To this he replied: "Son, if you want me to take some kind of political stance you haven't been watching much of my career."
Lei Chaolan also has stated his 'absolute distain' for The Spectrum Security Council and added to the Oldham Road motto list; F.U.S.S.C.