Laveska

Laveskan Electorate Лавесканский Электорат Laveskanskiy Elektorat
Sigil of the Asimovtsy (a two-headed phoenix) over a blue field above the orange-white ribbon of the medal "For six decades' service in the Civil War"
Motto		Ex Unitate Vires "From Unity, Strength"
Common Name		Laveska The Reciprocity Vzaimnostovya
Anthem		Дороги Dorogi Roads
Demonym		Laveskan
Official languages		Aesori (official) Reciprocian Zeroan
Currency		Imperial nenarus
Politics
Capital		Lavesk
Government		State within the United Imperial Federation
Foundation		2157
Elector		Isabella Vikus-Ward
Preceded by		State Union of Laveska, Zeroa, Nautilus, and Fortmil
Demography
Ethnicities		Laveskan (42.3%) Reciprocian (30.5%) Amberite (11.4%) Aeserian (8.5%) Zeroan (5.3%) Strelkan (0.4%) Zokesian (0.1%) Other (1.6%)
Population		27,947,040
Area		46,139 km²

Laveska, officially the Laveskan Electorate and also rendered as the Reciprocity or Vzaimnostovya, is a federal subject of the United Imperial Federation. It lies on the Wakirian coast and is the easternmost continental Imperial territory. It borders Zeroa to the west, an international border with Belaeseria to the north, and international borders with the Combined Provinces of Doren as well as the Republic of Taiala to the south. As a national subject of the Imperial Federation, the head of state of Laveska is also an Imperial elector in addition to domestic duties.

Prior to Aeserian colonization, the area of Laveska was the central point of a historical region known today as the Reciprocity, a culturally and linguistically diverse area plagued with conflict. The arrival of mercenaries at the end of the first millennium led to the collapse of the old order and the region's reorganization as a unified polity called the Freehold of the Eastern Laveskan Host, before being formally annexed into the Arcadian Tsardom as a governorate and later transformed into a Socialist Republic under the UASR. Following the UASR's collapse, the region came under the control of several successive Reciprocian states before the Shattering of 2081 set off a chain of events that led to the creation of the State Union of Laveska and Zeroa. This state soon merged with the Commonwealth of Nautilus to form the Nautilane-Laveskan Commonwealth, and was a member state of the Imperial United Front that resurrected the United Imperial Federation. Upon the Reconstitution of 2157 the Laveskan government formally ceded all foreign policy sovereignty to the central government of the UIF.

Laveska is the most-populated constituent state of the United Imperial Federation, with a total population of 27.9 million. Laveska’s economy is moderately developed, with a focus on industry that has yet to be overtaken by the steadily growing service sector, in part due to the devastation of the previous century. Unlike most Imperial electorates, the Laveskan constitution vests its elector with real power. The Laveskan government has often been labeled as “authoritarian” by some.

Etymology

The name Laveska originates from the Ancient Tauride word Lavesk'ani, meaning "Eternal Fountain." For most of its history, present-day Laveska was known as “the Reciprocity” (Laveskan: Взаимностовя; Vzaimnostovya). Upon the Union of Arcadian Socialist Republics’ annexation of the region. the Reciprocity was renamed to the Laveskan Soviet Socialist Republic, after the Laveskan people, perceived as a “reliable ethnicity” by the central government over the Reciprocians. Following the reunification of the country in 2134 a national conference was called to determine the name of Laveska and its cities. A compromise was struck whereby the name of the country would remain that of its victorious ethnicities (“Laveska-Zeroa”) but that Reciprocian cities renamed during the rule of the UASR (and not prior) would be reverted back to their original names. Since then Laveska proper has been known as the Laveskan Freehold (2134-2149) and the Laveskan Electorate (2149-present).

History

Antiquity and classical period

The first permanent Kerbal settlements in the territory of present-day Laveska were established 2,000 years ago by Feguanesians sailing west from Huturoa and proto-Crytilian tribes sailing west from the southern Crytilian peninsula. Around the same period, Tauride tribes migrating northeast from the Vocavian land bridge domesticated livestock and began to settle the coast of what is today known as Sweetwater Lake. Encounters between the three groups occurred frequently, and archaeological evidence indicates a high level of cultural and material exchange between all groups in the region. As centuries passed these three protocultures would evolve into the fourteen major ethnicities of the Reciprocity, inheriting dialects of the Tauride languages, a syncretic religious practice, and the maritime tradition of the Feguanesians. Such common cultural foundations, as well as not only the safety of Sweetwater and Bitterwater Lakes as seaborne trade routes but also the richness of coastal and riverine soil ensured the region’s status in antiquity as an abundant and prosperous center of commerce. Fishing towns appeared in great frequency all along the coasts of both lakes. The city-states of Meridonalis, Barcomm, Elista, Hakine, Nonomiya, and Littoral were all founded during this period out of burgeoning fishing settlements. Interethnic and multinational military or trade alliances during this period came to be called “reciprocities.” The need to maintain a motivated corps of rowers for any maritime endeavor facilitated the rapid growth of democracy, albeit with a heavily oligarchic and militarist bent. Influence in Reciprocian political spheres was highly sought after and many states within the region became embroiled in proxy wars on behalf of neighboring money-rich but resource-poor powers. The prevalence of power politics and democratic corruption frequently undermined the early reciprocities, and left the whole area unprepared for the mass Dorvic raids and societal collapse of the early 1000s.

Ravnine Dark Ages

The peoples of the Reciprocity found themselves unable to withstand the Dorvic hordes from the south and east and hopelessly watched as their armies were defeated in the field at Zilo in 1104, again at Ainak in early 1105 and Laveska later that year. By 1112 the entire Reciprocity had fallen under Dorvic control. Most major cities were sacked and several were razed to the ground.

While some Dorvic tribes settled in the region and assimilated into local Reciprocian cultures, most did not, and when most of the resources in the region were depleted, the Dorvics, finding the grassland needed to feed their capals increasingly barren and rare, began to migrate north and east starting in the 1300s. The Dorvic withdrawal allowed the peoples of the Reciprocity to rebuild their societies, but it permanently altered the character of Reciprocian diplomacy. The warlord states and tribal confederations that arose from the ashes were highly xenophobic and militaristic. Trade with neighboring nations during this period was almost exclusively to secure military funding.

Raising a professional army from citizen volunteers, an easy task four hundred years prior, became nearly impossible with the erosion of democratic representation and the sheer attrition of constant fighting as the years went on, and levied soldiers were of poor quality. To alleviate these manpower issues, local rulers set to hiring Aeserian, Amberite, and Belaeserian mercenaries looking for employment, which they were able to find in spades across the Ravnine mountains.

Origins of the Naemniki

Flag of the Feniks-Laveskan Kingdom

For three centuries ethnic Aeserian and Belasrian mercenaries (naemnik, plural: naemniki) formed companies and would be paid to fight each other at the whim of rich Reciprocan kings with lacking native militaries. Since the various Reciprocan ethnicities and states were extremely xenophobic, the Aeserians and Belarsians were forbidden from marrying local Reciprocan woman, leading many prospective mercenaries who made the trek to marry before departure, bringing their wives to the frontier. Such policies had the adverse effect of creating a large ethnic Aesero-Belasrian minority within these lands, of whose main employment was in the soldiery of the warring states. Interethnic tensions rose as these settlers began to find more connections with each other as opposed to their lieges.

Within the confines Aesero-Belasrian fort towns idle and retired soldiers brought to birth a cultural revolution. Most Reciprocian leaders cared not to interfere in the internal and idle affairs of the mercenaries, wishing to absolve themselves of as much bureaucracy and management as possible. However, many Reciprocian states began to run dangerously short of bullion in the mid-15th century. Most Aesero-Belasrian mercenary companies accepted payment exclusively in gold bullion, many fortified settlements along coasts having taken to engaging in trade not only with each other and nearby Reciprocian cities but also with cities and states outside of the region itself. The "bullion famine" resulted in the inability for some local rulers to continue paying their mercenaries, and as a result, they were forced to either grant their mercenaries sovereignty, or in some cases, mobilize their levies and attempt to enslave the naemniks.

Annexation

Flag of the Laveskan Seafarer's Republic

Union of Arcadian Socialist Republics

Flag of the Republic of Zeroa

Flag of the Grand Duchy of Tryos-Salis

A decade prior to the collapse of the UASR in 1984, a progressive cultural revival known as the Reciprocian Awakening swept the Laveskan SSR and ensured its reformation post-collapse into the Lake Periphery States of the Spice Reciprocity. The new government sought to tear down vestiges of its Ravnine past, elevating Reciprocian cultures and delineating interstate borders along ancient ethnic lines. The Reciprocity reformed the internal troops units they inherited into a new military-civil organization devoted to the furtherance of the cultural revolution: the Blue Coats.

The collapse of state institutions, mass catastrophe, and the presence of the Wovians brought to birth a nationwide armed rebellion against both the occupying power and each other. For the next sixty years warlords fought in the Laveskan Civil War, either attempting to secure an independent future for their land or a reunification of the country. The country as a whole remained severely impoverished and at war's conclusion over 80% of the country lived below the poverty line. Early on, Laveskan and Reciprocian warlords fought each other alike, but by 2190 the Ravnine factions had completely allied, whereas the Reciprocian states never would. When the UIF collapsed in 2119, Aeserian exiles crossing the Larkuno corridor joined the war in droves, on the side of the Laveskan warlords. Just as a millennia prior, the alliance between the Aeserians and Laveskans under Generals Asimov, Zhuravlev, and Senyavin and the Zeroans under Generals Petrayev, Aslambek, Arsanov, Maskhadov, and Gelayev emerged unquestionably victorious, forming the State Union of Laveska and Zeroa.

Reciprocity Reborn

The Blue Coats governed the Spice Reciprocity as a confederation of ethnostates, limiting federal power and ensuring state primacy throughout their rule. The Laveskan, Amberite, and Arcadian populations would be marginalized for the next century. Rife with corruption, the Coatists frequently ran afoul of scandal and was wholly unprepared for war when the Red Horde appeared on the Reciprocity's southern border. The ensuing conflict ended in victory for the Reciprocian side, but the destruction caused by the conflict combined with preexisting corruption led to the collapse of the government and the First Reciprocian Civil War. between loyalists and Dust Harvest, a rebel faction.

Dust Harvest prevailed in the conflict and reformed the country into the Dust Harvest States Upon the Lake’s Periphery. Almost immediately following the cessation of hostilities, the leader of the Northern Mercantile Collective, an omnicidal artificial intelligence called the Overlord, began covertly assassinating Dust Harvest's leadership and replacing them with robot impostors subordinate to it. The NMC also similarly compromised the leadership of the legitimist organization "Underground Reciprocity Liberation Organization." The discovery of the Overlord's subterfuge set off a chain of events that culminated in the Second Reciprocian Civil War.

The compromised leadership of the Underground Reciprocity Liberation Organization gained control of the States' ballistic missile systems and turned them on Dust Harvest-controlled cities, causing widespread destruction. A prominent member of Dust Harvest's leadership, Housen, saw the writing on the wall and broke off from Dust Harvest to form his own organization, the Reciprocian Reclamation Army, which through popular support and Zokesian arms supply prevailed over DH and URLO, bringing the conflict to an end and reforming the country yet again into the Lake Periphery States of the Phosphorous Reciprocity. In addition to the ballistic missile strikes, a biological warfare campaign conducted by Dust Harvest rendered vast swathes of Reciprocian farmland infertile.

In response to the dire situation the country faced, Housen enacted a series of policies known as the Economic Reconstruction Plan. The discovery of Phosphorous, a material that could be turned into a light source when diluted in water and agitated, ignited the Clockwork Revolution, a nationwide transition from electrical to clockwork-based infrastructure. Phosphorous mining operations were heavily funded by the central government as part of the Economic Reconstruction Plan. The surplus material mined would be turned into concrete and used to rebuild cities all over the broken country.

Also included in the Economic Reconstruction Plan were the funds and orders to create a massive underwater complex housing the central clockwork computer, which controlled the national Reciprocian grid. Such a system was impervious to cyberattack, but its vulnerability to physical attack convinced the government to weaponize asteroids and place them in orbit of Kerbin. These weaponized asteroids were tasked with destroying the Submachine in the event of an invasion of the country, while also causing enough destruction that no reasonable world power would risk war with the Reciprocity.

Following the Kroman Crusade, Housen secured a spot for the Reciprocity in the recently-formed international organization "New Extranational Organized Council Of Nations," a mutual defense pact. Unfortunately for Housen's calculus, the Combined Provinces of Doren were not a reasonable world power and their invasion of Konig triggered NEOCON's mutual defense clause. Military failures during the ensuing conflict led to the Shattering, the Wovian betrayal, and the downfall of the Reciprocian state in 2081.

Second Warlord Era

The collapse of state institutions, mass catastrophe, and the presence of the Wovians brought to birth a nationwide armed rebellion against both the occupying power and each other. For the next sixty years warlords fought in the Laveskan Civil War, either attempting to secure an independent future for their land or a reunification of the country. The country as a whole remained severely impoverished and at war's conclusion over 80% of the country lived below the poverty line. Early on, Laveskan and Reciprocian warlords fought each other alike, but by 2109 the Ravnine factions had completely allied, whereas the Reciprocian states never would. When the UIF collapsed in 2119, Aeserian exiles crossing the Larkuno corridor joined the war in droves, on the side of the Laveskan warlords.

Imperial United Front

Initially, the victorious generals ruled as a junta, reconstruction being the primary priority of the state. In 2142, General Asimov embarked on a diplomatic mission to Nautilus with a formal request to unify the two countries. First Minister Cromwell and his government accepted the request, and thus brought to birth the Nautilane-Laveskan-Zeroan Commonwealth. A colonial expedition the same year exploiting the weakness of Surnish overseas holdings amidst the Burr War brought the island of Fortmil, a former UIF territory, under Commonwealth control, as well as two puppet states in southern Kafrica which soon fell to local Stahl Sieg units.

Asimov declared his adventures in Kafrica a failure, and shifted national resources not already invested in the reconstruction of the Laveskan mainland to his and Cromwell's ultimate project: the restoration of the United Imperial Federation on the Aeserian half of the continent. With the Amberite Civil War drawing to a close, and the Imperial Continuity Army victorious, Asimov and Cromwell sent envoys to the new government to plan the Imperial Reclamation.

In 2148, Nautilus-Laveska, the Systems Commonwealth, Amber, Konig, Union, and Arkeria signed acts of union and as members of the Imperial United Front transferred governmental and military power to Starmarshal Jordock before issuing a joint declaration of war on Ultranationalist Arcadia. Amassing a coalition amounting to most of the countries on the planet, the military campaign to liberate Aeseria was concluded victoriously in less than a year. Aeseria was ruled as a joint reconstruction authority by the Imperial United Front until the official Reconstitution of the United Imperial Federation in 2157.

Reconstitution of 2157

The Reconstitution

As part of the Reconstitution, institutions across the Imperial Federation were reformed and restored, as were internal borders and governance hierarchies. Initially Laveska formed part of the temporary State Union of Laveska, Zeroa, Nautilus, and Fortmil. The Reconstitution partitioned Nautilus and Zeroa from the union and Fortmil was conferred the status of free imperial city. Laveska was given an Imperial Elector and became the Laveskan Electorate, a sub-national state within the United Imperial Federation.

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Demographics

Ethnic composition, in percent, of the Reciprocity and Laveska
(census data, with Reciprocian ethnicities counted as one)

Nationality	1984	2040	2080	2134	2157	2167	2177	2187	2197	2207	2217
Reciprocian	55	64	60	40	39	36.4	32.7	30.3	30	30.4	30.5
Laveskan	30	28	24	39	40	41	41.6	42	42	42.2	42.3
Amberite	3	2	2	6	7	9	10	11	12	11.8	11.4
Arcadian	7	3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Aeserian	N/A	N/A	1	5	6	6	7	8	8	8.1	8.5
Zeroan	3	3	5	3	4	4	5	5	5	5.2	5.3
Strelkan	0	0	1	2	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.4
Zokesian	0	0	3	1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.3	0.1
Other	2	2	2	4	3.3	3	3	2	2	1.6	1.6

Languages

First language spoken, in percent
(census data, 2157-)

Language	2157	2167	2177	2187	2197	2207	2217
Aesori	53	54	55	62	68	70	72
Reciprocian	40	39	38	31	25	22.5	20
Zeroan	4	4	5	5	5	6	7
Other	3	3	2	2	2	1.5	1

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Religion

Religion, in percent
(census data, 2157-)

Religion	2157	2167	2177	2187	2197
Integralism	80	79	76	74	72
Eubudism	6	6	5	5	5
Other or none	14	15	19	21	23

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