Lovia

The Kingdom of Lovia or Lovia is a sovereign federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The Kingdom occupies the Lovia Archipelago, an island group off the Californian coast. The capital and most populous city is Noble City. The population (about 23,400 inhabitants) is mostly of North American and European origin. The country ranks amongst the most developed countries and has a small but highly technological economy. Lovia is known as a progressive nation with high education rates, a low religiosity rate and many investments in ecological industries. It finds a good economic partner in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Libertas, though the nation has promoted an isolationist policy for many years.

Geography
Lovia is a small archipelago in the northern Pacific Ocean comprising one major island, Peace Island, and about ten smaller islands. Peace Island lays on the 131st degree of longitude and on the 33rd degree of latitude. It is situated in the Alaska Time Zone, sometimes called the Alaska-Lovian Time Zone.

The smaller islands are mostly flat and fertile. The main island, Peace, and one of the others, Kings Island, have lots of hills and are very green. There are large forests on these islands and agriculture is less easy in the inland.

The country is divided into five states: Clymene, Kings, Oceana, Seven and Sylvania. All of these states have a capital town or city. These towns and cities, listed on alphabet are: Hurbanova, Kinley, Newhaven, Noble City, Sofasi.

Climate
The Lovia archipelago lays between the fresh California stream and the warmer streams in the west. The mediteranian comfortable climate, makes agriculture attractive.

In January the temperatures are mostly in between 8 and 18 °C (48 to 64 °F). In July the temperatures go from 16 to 29 °C (63 to 84 °F). The maximum temperature in summer is about 40 °C (110 °F).

History
The islands are not mentioned until the 1580's. Then, Francis Drake discovered the coasts of Latin America and California. After the San Francisco Bay Area, he went western. In his diary a small and green archipelago is mentioned. Nowhere in his diary he says he visited the islands, but some historians think he and his crew were here for a couple of days.

In 1849 gold was found in California and thousands of Asians came over. Some of these transports passed the Lovia archipelago, although nor the crew, nor the passengers were conscious. In 1852 a Chinese ship was shipwrecked near the Lovia archipelago. Some of the passengers reached the most northern island of the archipelago, now called Asian Island. They were picked up four months later and seemed well fed. After years, one of them went working for a Californian newspaper and published a story of the Pacific Islands, as he called them.

Arthur Nobel, a young Belgian man, moved to San Francisco in 1872. He was a journalist and going through the archives of all the papers, he found some writing material. That same year he found the article on the Pacific Islands. He found an investor and chartered a ship, Francis II, to go to the mysterious archipelago. It didn't take long and after a few days they reached Lovia. Arthur Nobel set up a first settlement and went back to San Francisco in 1875. He published hundreds of advertisements in American and European newspapers and returned in 1876 with more than 150 people. The settlement Noble City was named after their new king, Arthur Nobel. His name was changed to Arthur Francis Noble the First or Arthur I.

The next years King Arthur I reigned over Lovia very well and the population kept growing. In 1876 there were about 200 citizens. In 1886 they increased to 342, in 1900 to 659 and in 1940 to 1.540. Not only the population grew, also the trade and the wealth did. Noble City had become an important port between California and the Far East.

Around 1955 the population growth stagnated. Lovia suffered from famines and did not get any better. Fortunately the harvests became better in 1957 and the problems seemed to be over. Since then the economy of the Kingdom of Lovia has been doing well.

In 2007, King Arthur III had died, and there wasn't an obvious heir to the throne. For months the economy slackened and the population didn't increase no more. In November King Dimitri I, a nephew of the former king was chosen and crowned. Then, everything went well again, economies boomed and the population got a boost. In December 2007 the population reached 8000, an absolute summit. In March 2008 this figure was almost doubled and 13.600 inhabitants inhabited Lovia. Nevertheless, in November 2009 the figures have reached the 23.400.

Economy
Lovia has a strong and stabile economy regarded the fact the country only counts 20,000 inhabitants. Though, the economy in Lovia has never reached the growth level that - for instance - Libertas had. The most important branches of Lovian economy are agriculture, energy and technology, transportation, art production, and several others. The largest holdings own more than 65% of the total companies, that are Calathriner Industries, Young Communications, Inc., Walker Inc, Veprom, Lokixx Comp., and the King's Trust.

Politics
The political system of Lovia was reformed after King Arthur III died in 2007 Under King Dimitri I the new Constitution was officially accepted and the Congress was formed. At the beginning of 2008 the Federal Elections were held, in which Yuri Medvedev was elected Prime Minister and he and the monarch formed the Medvedev I Government. The State Elections started in the same period and are still running in some states.

In May 2008, Mid-term Elections were held, electing five more Congressmen.

Government
Lovia is ruled by several governments. First of all there is the Federal Government, or Congress. Members of the Congress are citizens who have been elected by the people. The Congress proposes and votes proposals for both the Constitution and the Federal Law. The person with most of the votes during the elections becomes Prime Minister. He or she and the ruling monarch appoint Secretaries.

States are governed by a Governor, elected in the State Elections.

Royal family
The royal family of Lovia isn't privileged, except the ruling monarch and his or her partner. They are both automatically Member of the Congress. The ruling monarch is also one of the two Heads of the State, together with the Prime Minister. The King has an important role in Lovian politics, but isn't a dictator at all and has only executive power, and some legislative power. The new Lovian king is crowned at last. His name is King Dimitri I of Lovia, and he was the closest relative to the former king, Arthur III.

There is no further nobility in Lovia. Under Arthur III, the beautiful Castle Donia was build in the Emerald Highlands and the Donia Clan rose to prominence under August Magnus Donia, who has declared himself Baron of Donia but the baronage is not accepted by the King.

International relations
Lovia has a really good relationship with the United States of America, especially with the state of California. The Kingdom has a very well relation with Canada, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan as well, but also less rich regions such as Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Lovia used to be a member of the United Wiki Nations until April 11, 2008. It quit the UWN after a conflict with Adlibita and other members. Relations with Adlibita and the Limburgish nation Mäöres have worsened a lot after the crisis in March and April 2008. Lovia still has some relationships with wiki nations such as Libertas, a Dutch speaking island nation in the Atlantic. Lately, the isolationism movement in Lovia has gain weight and more and more politicians prefer not having bounds with the other wiki nations. Though, in Libertas and Lovia a successor for the United Wiki Nations has been proposed, probably the International Wiki Organization. The reactions are mostly positive in Lovia, although negative comments from Adlibita have a bad influence on the popularity of the new IWO.

Lovia would like to join the United Nations and the NATO. Lovia recognized the Republic of Kosovo on March 1, 2008, and wanted to show that it was tolerant towards new nations and all people.



Culture
The Lovian culture is very rich, and may differ from region to region. In Oceana, the culture is rather East European, while the four other states are more Western (American, West European). Many artists and writers are known as true Lovians, such as poets Oscar O'Neill and Yuri Medvedev, or writer George Smith and singer-songwriter Joe Lecoeur. The Lovian art history as well is of great international importance, as Lovia is a great art-producing nation and exposes some of the world's greatest artworks, in several museums like the Lovian Museum for Modern Art, the Royal Art Gallery or the Starovlah Institute.

Lovia is also well-known abroad for the fact that many companies, schools, towns and others have their own seal.

Religion
Religion in Lovia is remarkable both in its low adherence level compared to the neighboring United States as well as its unbalanced spread across the country. The most common religious viewpoints in Lovia are of Christian and irreligious nature. Most Christians are Mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic. There are some small Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish communities.

Education
Lovia has had a long history of higher education, thanks to the Nobel University. This university, founded in 1887, fused into the new Blackburn University. Blackburn, based in both Noble City and Newhaven, is the greatest educational institution in the country and also offers a wide range of research projects. Beside Blackburn, there is another higher education institution, the International College of Lovia. This college also has two campuses, one in the rural town Kinley and another in Citizen Corner, Noble City.

Etymology
The origin of the name 'Lovia' is not well-known. It's mostly thought of as Lovia is derived from 'love'. Though both Lovia (IPA: /'loʊvi.ə/) and love (IPA: /lʌv/) are pronounced in a very different way, this is the most logical option. The name was probably given by King Arthur I and the Founding Fathers, but no written sources confirm this.