Kaliva

Kalivese Republic Ljþveldj ƕespəraſj (Kalivese)
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Kʃám ashtjuʃ ca ƕeska kselåkā práha. "Yours is the Earth and everything the light shines upon."
Anthem: Kʃuktaspər"Evening Hymn"
Location of Kaliva (dark green)
Capital	Avesnja
Largest city	Mjonsk
Official languages	Kalivese
Recognised national languages	Syrixian ∙ Xentheridian Ceretian ∙ Mercanti
Ethnic groups (2020)	Whespurashi 45.2% Mishra 27.1% Vraspmi 12.3% Prinzish 9.3% Ceretian 3.1% Prydanian 2.1% Others 0.9%
Religion (2020)	Irreligious 38.1% Śrutism 31.9% Courantism 24.3% Laurennism 1.87% Shaddaism 0.5% Other 4.33%
Demonym(s)	Kalivese
Government	Unitary semi-presidential parliamentary republic
• President	Amrjt Masra
Legislature	National Council
Formation
• Independence from Syrixia	1836
• Republic declared	1952
• Current constitution	1957
Area
• Total land area	46,354 km2 (17,897 sq mi)
Population
• 2020 estimate	27,520,632
• Density	593.7/km2 (1,537.7/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	1.39 billion IBU
• Per capita	50,652 IBU
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	1.48 trillion IBU
• Per capita	53,863 IBU
HDI	0.88 very high
Date format	mm/dd/yyyy
Calling code	+27
Internet TLD	.ws

Kaliva [kælɪˈvæ] (Kalivese: ƕespəraſj [wɛsˈpərˈɑʃiː]), officially from 1952 the Kalivese Republic (Kalivese: Ljþveldj ƕespəraſj [ˈlʊiːˌvɛltɪ wɛsˈpərˈɑʃiː]), is a country located in Collandris, bordering Xentherida to the South and Caselania to the North, with Syrixia and Callise lying across the ocean from the east. Originating as a Syrixian outpost largely dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, it later grew into a major industrial and manufacturing hub after its independence. It has a population of 27.5 million, of which roughly half live in the Mjonsk metropolitan area. Avesnja is the nation's capital while the largest city is Mjonsk. The country's territory spans from the Prinzish Highlands in the West, to the Collandrian Basin in the East; the vast majority of the nation’s population resides within the Collandrian Basin.

The territory of present-day Kaliva was first inhabited by modern humans sometime between the Lower and Middle Paleolithic period, with archaeologists generally agreeing the initial settlers were descended from horse-riding Gotic tribes that crossed in via present-day Xentherida. By the early 900s, seafaring vikings from modern-day Prydania began to sail down the Phoenix Strait, founding settlements along the Kalivese Coast. In the following centuries, Prydanians, and to a lesser extent other Gotics, immigrated to Kaliva, bringing with them their culture and language.

The foundation of the Kalivese state was established in the late 13th century AD with the unification of the Collandrian Basin by Grand Chieftain Arnarfjörður the Great. His son Suðurfirðir I ascended the throne in 1389. By the 14th century, Kaliva became a trading power, engaging in trade missions across the Phoenix Sea. This brought Kaliva into close contact with the nascent Syrixian Empire, which would begin exerting its authority over the region. Following the Concordact of Mjonsk in 1511, the state would pledge suzerainty to the Syrixian Empire. Later, it would be fully incorporated into the Syrixian Empire under the name “The Commonwealth of Kālapahaadon and Windermere Shores.”

Under the Syrixian Empire, the state was governed as an independent commonwealth under the native parliament, one of the world's oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of civil strife in the wake of the Wars of the Callisean Republic, the Althing would be suspended from 1815 to 1825. By 1836, Kaliva would gain its independence from the Syrixian Empire, with Syrixian Prince Narayana declaring the Kingdom of Kaliva. Following the end of the Fascist Wars, Kaliva voted overwhelmingly to become a republic in 1956, thus ending its remaining imperial ties with Syrixia. Although the parliament had been suspended following the Callisean Revolution and during the Fascist Wars, the republic has nevertheless been credited with sustaining one of the world's longest-running legislatures.

Kaliva has played a powerful scientific, commercial, and cultural role in the history of the Craviter and Collandris. Before the Fascist Wars, Kaliva was a center for the socialist, temperance, and transcendentalist movements. It maintains a social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. Kaliva ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, government transparency, and economic freedom.

Kalivese culture is founded upon the nation's mixed Gothic and Syrixian heritage. Most citizens are irreligious (37.9%), with Srutism being the second-largest group (34.9%). Courantism is the third-largest religious identification (21.4%), concentrated primarily among ethnic Prinzish and Ceretians. Kalivese, a para-Gothic language, is related to several now-deceased Gothic languages, employing loan words from both Prydanian and Suchari. Kaliva is a member of the Prydanian Cultural Community. Currently, Kaliva possesses no standing army, only fielding a lightly armed coast guard.

Etymology

The name for Kaliva in Kalivese is Whespurashi (ƕespəraſj). Before Whespurashi was adopted in the early 10th century, the region was known by the Gothics as Hálvæðir (ᚻᚪᛚᚠᛇᚦᛁᚱ), which translates as "night hills". Whespurashi is typically used by the general population in everyday speech. The term means "People of the Evening Song", which is the source of the popular Craviterean epithet "Land of the Evening Hymns". The true origin of the moniker “People of the Evening Song” is currently unknown, but the most widely-accepted hypothesis by historians is that this term was utilized by Prydanian vikings who interpreted the cries of cicadas, which tend to occur during the evening, as a hymn.

Kaliva, a Syrixian-derived exonym, is favored for official uses, such as on contracts, passports, and banknotes. The name "Kaliva" is a corruption of the Syrixian name Kālapahaadon (कालेपहाड़), meaning "black mountains." Following the Syrixian conquest of Kaliva during the 14th Century, the name was introduced to other countries through trade.

History

Prehistory and antiquity

Settlement by anatomically modern humans of what was to become the United Kingdom occurred in waves beginning about 20,000 years ago. By the end of the region's prehistoric period, the population is thought to have mainly belonged to a culture termed the Brachiogotics, who were related to the neighboring Xentheridians to the South. The Ostrur Cave in the Province of Kasmina shows lively pink, brown, and red cave paintings (dated to 20,000 years ago) of mammoths, lynx, aurochs, and sloths. The carvings of Kosria (21,000 years ago) signify the high level of Upper Paleolithic art in the Collandrian Basin. Neolithic agricultural settlements (c. 5500–3500 BC), such as those in present-day Mydia and Vindermer, predated the introduction of horse-riding nomadism, a pivotal event in the history of Kaliva which became the dominant culture prior to the Viking Era.

Horse-riding nomadism had been documented by archeological evidence in present-day Kaliva during the Copper and Bronze Age Oynhos culture (3500–2500 BC); this culture was active in the Kasmina Mountains of Central Kaliva. The wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Oynhoseans have been dated to before 2200 BC. Pastoral nomadism and metalworking became more developed with the later Dweynev culture (2nd millennium BC), Troiklan culture (2300–1000 BC) and Kuartem culture (1500–300 BC), culminating with the Iron Age Kasmawḗy Empire in 209 BC. Monuments of the pre-Kasmawḗy Bronze Age include deer stones, grave candles, leatherworking, and rock paintings.

Although cultivation of crops has continued since the Neolithic, agriculture had remained small in scale compared to pastoral nomadism. Agriculture may have first been introduced from the west or arose independently in the region. As equine nomadism was introduced into Kaliva, the political center of the horse cultures also shifted into Kaliva.

Vikings and the Middle Ages

The collapse of the Whespurashi Empire left Kaliva open to invasion by seafaring warriors from northern Craviter, chiefly the Prydanians who had long raided the coasts of the Phoenix Straight. These groups then began to settle in increasing numbers over the course of the ninth and tenth centuries, initially in the eastern shores of the country. The southeastern shore, which had become a political center for the invading Prydanians, became known by the settlers as Windermere (ᚢᛁᚿᛐᛁᚱᛙᛁᚱᛁ). The nature and progression of the Prydanian settlement of Kaliva is consequently subject to considerable disagreement; the emerging consensus is that it occurred on a large scale in the eastern coasts but was less substantial to the west, where the Prinzish languages continue to be spoken even in modern day.

During the settlement period the lands ruled by the vikings seem to have been fragmented into numerous tribal territories, but by the 11th century, they had coalesced into roughly a dozen kingdoms including Mjonsk, Hálvæðir, Windermere, and Predonni. Over the following centuries, this process of political consolidation continued. The 12th century saw a struggle for hegemony between Mjonsk and Windermere, which in the 13th century gave way to Windermere preeminence.

Government and Politics

Kaliva’s legislative organ is the National Assembly, a bicameral parliament. It consists of a lower House of Representatives with 450 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and an upper House of Councillors with 225 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 18 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elected offices.

The President of Kaliva, currently Amrjt Masra, is the head of state and invested primarily with symbolic responsibilities and powers. The president is elected by a popular vote every six years, coterminous with regularly-scheduled Councillor elections. The second-highest official in the Kalivese order of precedence is the President of the Councillors, who is elected by the House of Councillors and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body.

The third-highest official and the head of government is the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President after being elected by the party or coalition with the most seats in the House. The prime minister, as the head of government, has the power to appoint and dismiss Cabinet Ministers, and is appointed by the President after being designated from among the members of the Diet. Initially founded as a political vehicle for opponents of the Kalivese monarchy, the center-left to right-wing big tent Republican Party has been the dominant party in the country since the 1950s.

Kaliva is divided into 9 provinces, each overseen by an elected governor and legislature. The province of Mjonsk is the most recently-created province, having been partitioned from the provinces of Predonni and Siandesha in the 1970s.

Demographics

At the 2020 census, Kaliva had a population of roughly 27,520,632 million, with a continuing decline of the working age population and total fertility rate. In a further indication of Kaliva’s dramatic decline in fertility, in 2020 the country recorded more deaths than births, resulting in a population decline for the first time since modern records began. In 2021, the fertility rate stood at just 1.2 children per woman. The country is noted for its high population density, which is estimated at 593.7 people per square kilometer. In practice, the population density in much of Kaliva is higher than the national one, as certain swaths of the country’s land area are devoted to farming and mining. Most Kalivese citizens live in urban areas, because of rapid migration from the countryside during the country's massive economic expansion in the 1980s.

Kaliva is one of Eras’s fastest aging countries and has one of the highest proportion of elderly citizens of any country, comprising nearly a quarter of its total population. Demographers attribute this situation as the result of a post-war baby boom, which was soon followed by an increase in life expectancy and a decrease in birth rates. Kaliva has a total fertility rate of 1.2, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1, and is among the world's lowest. The median age in Kaliva is 45, also one of the highest in the world. As of 2020, over 28.7 percent of the population is over 65, or one in four out of the Kalivese population.

The changes in demographic structure have created several social issues, particularly a decline in the workforce population and a decrease in the levels of social security benefits. Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation's aging population. The Department of Posterity was created in 2018 to promote the country’s birth rates and to manage the expansion of fertility-related tax credits. In 2020, a revised immigration law was enacted, protecting the rights of foreign workers to help reduce labor shortages in certain sectors.

The percentage of foreign nationals has been growing since the late 1980s. As of 2016, Kaliva had 1,403,552 foreign-born residents, or 5.1% of the population. There are about 13,000 Mercanti teachers who reside temporarily in Kaliva. Currently, Kaliva has one of the highest rates of growth of foreign born population, with about 30,000 foreign born residents obtaining Kalivese citizenship every year since 2010. However, many of them are ethnic Kalivese (Whespurashi/Mishra) with a foreign citizenship. For example, migrants from Syrixia comprise roughly 36.5 percent of foreign nationals, but approximately 70 percent of the Syrixian citizens in Kaliva are Whespamiya, or Syrixian citizens of Kalivese ethnicity. In 2010, Prydanians made up the largest non-Whespamiya population of immigrants, with Severogotians coming in second.

The capital city of Mjonsk is the country's largest city and chief economic center. Most Kalivese residents live within the Mjonsk metropolitan area, also known as Greater Mjonsk, which includes Mjonsk and its proximate areas. The Avesnja metropolitan area, also known as Greater Avesnja, is also a major center of population.

According to the Kalivese 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 20,507 homeless people in Kaliva.

Race and ethnicity

Kaliva’s population is highly diverse, but research on Kalivese ethnicity has felt the impact of nationalist discourses on identity. Since the 1960s, the Kalivese government has promoted the view that all Kalivese are part of the Whespurashi community, within which they are distinguished only by degree of fluency in a non-Whespurashi language, and degree of adherence to religious customs. It was not until very recently that the Kalivese government began conducting surveys that considered the Mishras as a separate ethnicity from the Whespurashi and Vraspmi. Less numerous groups in Kaliva such as Ceretians and Prydanians are also accounted for, with numbers of around three and two percent each.

While Mishras are a prominent ethnic group in contemporary Kaliva, the subjective and ever-changing definition of this category have led to its estimations being imprecise, having been observed that many Kalivese do not identify as Mishras, favoring instead labels such as Whespurashi or Vraspmi due to having more consistent and "static" definitions. The total percentage of Kaliva’s Gotic Whespurashi peoples tends to vary depending on the criteria used by the government in its censuses: if single-selection racial self-identification is used, it is 45.2% and if people who consider themselves part Whespurashi are also included, it amounts to 73.2%. Nonetheless, all the censuses conclude that the majority of Kaliva’s Whespurashi population is concentrated in the center and southeastern areas of the country, with the highest percentages being found in Windermere (59% of the population), Mydia (48%), Kasamina (43%), Kosaria (39%), and Prinzland (37%).

Similarly to Mishra and Wespurashi peoples, estimates of the percentage of Syrixian-descended Kalivese (Vraspmi) vary considerably depending on the criteria used: if single-selection racial self-identification is used, it is 12.3% and if people who consider themselves part Vraspmi are also included, it amounts to 38.2%. Kaliva’s northeastern regions have the highest percentages of Vraspmi populations, with the majority of the people having either partial or predominant Syrixian ancestry.

With a population of 2,560,000, the Prinzish are the third largest ethnic minority in Kaliva, concentrated predominantly in western Prinzland and representing 9.3% of the country's population (41% in the Prinzland Region). The ethnicity of the Prinzish and the correct linguistic classification of their language remain somewhat sensitive and controversial. The Prinzish may be considered either ethnic Xentheridians or Xentheridian-speaking Whespurashics, but Prinzish nationalists maintain that Prinzish culture is distinctly different from both Xentheridia and Kaliva.

Smaller ethnic groups in Kaliva include Ceretians and Prydanians. Modern Nordic immigration began in the late 19th century, with Prydanians being the second-largest immigrant group. After the Prydanian Civil War broke out, Prydanian immigration would see a massive surge, as many Prydanians took refuge in Kaliva. The first Prydanians to come to Kaliva during the Civil War were often from Prydania’s educated upper and middle classes centered in Prydania’s capital, Beaconsfield. This has led to the city of Suravesta gaining the nickname, “Beacon’s Beach.” Between December 2006 and October 2007 more than 14,000 Prydanian children arrived alone in the U.S. Their parents were afraid that their children would lack any opportunities under the Syndicalist Regime, leading them to decide to send them to the States as soon as possible. Outside of Saintonge and Goyanese, Kaliva became the largest recipient of Prydanian refugees on Eras.

Religion

Kaliva’s constitution guarantees full religious freedom, with the recognition or establishment of a state religion being prohibited. According to the results of the 2020 census, nearly four-tenths of the Kalivese population (38.1%) declared themselves not affiliated with any religious organizations. In a 2018 survey, 28% declared themselves “strongly religious,” 11% declared themselves “somewhat religious,” 18% declared themselves “partially religious,” 20% said they were not religious, and 15% identified themselves as atheists. Of the people who are affiliated with a religious organization, most are either Srutists or Messianists. According to the 2020 census, 31.9% of the population were Srutists and 27.1% of the population were Christians (24.3% identified themselves as Courantists, 1.9% as Laurentists.) Other religions include Shaddaism (0.5% of the population), and a variety of indigenous religions, including Kalivese Messianism. Overall, between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, there has been a slight decline of Srutism (down from 34.2% to 31.9%), and a rise of the Messianist population (from 24.2% to 27.1%) and unaffiliated population (from 37.8% to 38.1%).

Among Messianist denominations, Courantism is the largest, and fastest-growing. The growth of Courantism has been furthered by the fact that Kaliva has become one of the largest missionary-receiving nations on Eras. Courantism initially arrived in Kaliva during the 12th century, being primarily spread by Ceretian missionaries who hoped to Messianize the Phoenix Strait.

Languages

The Kalivese language (Whespurashi) is Kaliva’s de facto national language and the primary written and spoken language of most people in the country. Kalivese writing employs the Umbrial script. Mercanti and Suchari have taken a major role in Kaliva as a business and international link language. As a result, the prevalence of both languages in the educational system has increased, with classes for both languages becoming ubiquitous. Kalivese Standardized Sign Language is the primary sign language used in Kaliva and gained official recognition in 2017.