Floviania

Flag of Floviania

Coat of Arms of the Empire of Floviania

**The Empire of Floviania** (Dutch: *Keizerrijk Flovianië*, German: *Flovianisches Kaiserreich*), commonly known as **Floviania** (Dutch: *Flovianië*, German: *Flovianien*) is a country located in the continent of Iapetus. The country consists of 12 provinces. Its mainland, on Iapetus, borders Orléanie to the east, the Tamberian Federation to the south, Ersetia and Lasowska to the west and the Sea to the north, with maritime borders in the Sea with Nova Britannica and Péniston. The country's official language is Dutch, while German is a secondary official language.

The four largest cities in Floviania are Nieuw-Amsterdam, Müntchen, Doezelheide and Koningsberg. Nieuw-Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and its capital. It holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court as well as one of the three main residences of the Imperial Family.

Floviania has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1870. The country has a large tradition and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. Floviania abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1988. Floviania allowed women's suffrage in 1919, before legalising same-sex marriage in 2005 and a Universal Basic Income for all residents after a referendum in 2012.

### Colonial History

Around 1590 the first discovery expeditions set off from Nieuw-Amsterdam, Koningsberg and Gravesande. Both states, Eswauland and Flovius, had a different approach. Eswauland had sent their ships from Koningsberg to Osameira and ordered them to go westwards. Flovius meanwhile, did two things: the Nieuw-Amsterdam ships went to Osameira and were ordered to cross the ocean in a northern direction. The Gravesande ships meanwhile, had been told to just sail on straight out of the sea into a Northeastern direction, since they thought there might be land there. The ships from Koningsberg had followed the coastline and, after encountering a mainly uninhabitable environment and some hostile local tribes, they found a nice place on the western side of the continent: Kärnan. The ships from Nieuw-Amsterdam had found an archipelago with some nice spice islands: Baruna.

Meanwhile the ships from Gravesande were never to be seen again, so they presume they died in a storm of got eaten by some evil sea monster. 2 years after departure, the ships from Nieuw-Amsterdam had returned and following this discovery Flovius started setting up trading posts on the Baruna islands. The ships from Koningsberg had covered a way larger distance, and it took them longer to return. Unlike the ships from Gravesande, they did return 7 years after their departure and spoke about a beautiful place. Eswauland wanted to explore more of that place, so they set up two expeditions to get there: one over land and one over the sea.

This time a record number of 25 ships sailed to Kärnan to establish a dependency of Eswauland. Gravesande had learned from their grave mistake and sent out another expedition, but this time to the west and with strict orders to follow the coastline, to avoid another tragic loss of their ships. They returned after 10 years, having met the people from Eswauland in Kärnan.

The Flovius trading posts in Baruna were a great succes and ships started to sail frequently between Nieuw-Amsterdam and Baruna. To accomodate this intensification of traffic, a city was built in Baruna. Then they set up an expedition from Baruna towards the east, across the ocean in the direction of nowadays Pohjonen and Great Tsoghetia. The Flovius ships, far away from home, discovered several islands: Schesnau, Bahé and the mainland near Merceni. The mainland seemed pretty desolate, with uninhabited mountains, and they started exploring around the eastern coast and found a very developed society along the river between Arasov and Petribia. They began trading with the society and settled on the uninhabited mountainous area in the south-east part of Great-Tsoghetia.

In the 1650s, Seemark had heard enough of the lucrative expeditions of its neighbours Flovius and Eswauland and Seemark found themselves desiring more trade and with someone else than Péniston, Orléanie or Nova Britannica. So they made a plan for a fleet, built the fleet in ‘s Schepenhuize and then set off with a crew and supplies from nearby Huntemuiden to explore the world. Seemark had heard of the wonderful stories from Flovius and Eswauland, so it deemed it desirable to do something similar. The ships from Huntemuiden sailed along the coast of Orléanie and found some new land, Kapas, and started trading with it. After another 100 years Seemark decided to take it to the next level: doing it again, but better. So around 1750 there were 15 ships that left Huntemuiden and sailed along the coast of Orléanie and Kapas to the east. Eventually they crossed the Grand Ocean between Haumea and Iapetus. Once they arrived at the other side, after dodging an uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean, they set foot on Mizuho's land. They desired to trade with them, so they went to the capital of Mizuho. There it was told to them that they were allowed to trade, but only from a town near the place where they landed. That town was called Mandeong, and was the only trading place between Mizuho and Seemark.

## Geography

Floviania is a country with great geographical variety. In the south there are Flovorlean Alps and in the southwest and west is a nice big forest along the border with the Ersetia. It also has a large coastline, with some flatter areas in the north and east. Unique is the sequence of lakes and the *Willemsbaai* .

## Government

Modern day Floviania is a constitutional monarchy with unitary structure. It is an empire, which means Floviania's ruler is an emperor. Its parliament consists of a bicameral system.

Since it originally started out as a union between 9 states, each province has a monarch as well. This may seem complicated, but they have a mainly ceremonial role. Colonies however, made additions to the system necessary. For those specific cases, the role of Governor was introduced. The large size of Floviania's former colonies Kärnan and Baruna, which were so big they consisted of multiple provinces ruled by governors. As a direct representative of the Empire and emperor, a Governor-General was appointed. Since the independence of both nations, this role is defunct.

In the table below are the 12 provinces of Floviania, with their ruler and administrative number.

## Transport

### Air Transport

The national airline of Floviania is KLF. Their main base of operations is in Nieuw-Amsterdam and they operate all domestic flights in Floviania and a lot of flights to international destinies. Other major KLF bases are in Müntchen, Kerpsel and Mandeong, while frequent stopovers are made by KLF planes in Meerland, Samarendah, Nexum, Baja de Uro and (capital of Biwassa). Kerspel and Mandeong serve as the hubs to connect Sairana and Haumea with Floviania. This allows KLF to have a regular dervice between Flovianian soil and many foreign capitals. It is also one few airlines that flies to a destination on every continent.

## Demographics

The country is inhabited by people, in total 75 million of them.

## Culture

### Languages

The languages spoken in Floviania are Dutch and German, with a few French speakers near the border with Orléanie. The German language is mostly spoken in the provinces of Seemark, Steinmark and Birgia, with a few in de border regions with the Ersetia and the Tamberian Federation. Dutch is mostly spoken in the other parts of the nation.

### Sports

Sports are seen as an essential element of life in Flovian culture, and the Flovish inhabitants do like a great variety of sports. The sports with the most participators are: fencing, skiing, football (soccer), field hockey, handball, volleyball, ice skating, athletics, motorsport and cycling.