Caphiria

Caphiria, officially the Imperium of Caphiria, is a caesaropapist constitutional republic on Sarpedon. Caphiria is composed of 17 Provinces, 2 Autonomous Provinces, a Special Administrative Province, and several territorial Possessions. At over 2.3 million square miles and with a population over 764 million, Caphiria is the world's second-largest country by total area and the second-most populous country. The capital of Caphiria is Venceia, which is also the largest city by population in Caphiria and the second-largest in the world with over 50 million people.

The region of Caphiria has been inhabited by many ancient civilizations, most notable being the Adonerii civilization, an ancient thalassocratic civilization that controlled the partial coastlines of what is now Urcea, Caphiria, Cartadania and Burgundie. Caphiria has existed as a state since the 4th century BC and experienced several evolutions throughout its two-millennia long existence. The first recognizable start of Caphirian history began in 480 BC, with the formation of the Kingdom of Caphiria. This monarchical society had 5 kings and only lasted 110 years and was quickly replaced by the Caphirian Republic in 370 BC. The Republic lasted over 700 years and a experienced vigorous expansion of its territory, regional dominance, and would eventually have control over the entire Ecinis Sea and parts of the Kindreds Sea and Great Lakes. Eventually, in the 4th century AD, the Republic faced immense internal conflict and a series of series of civil wars occured, transforming the state into what is known as the Principate. This era lasted 6 centuries and marked the transition of Caphiria from a city-state into a true empire: it had vast territorial holdings, hegemony over Latium, and was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. However, because of Caphiria's immense size and wealth during this time, it suffered sociopolitical collapse amid contention for leadership and political groups vied for control. This culminated in a massive four-decade long civil war that took place during the late-11th and early-12th centuries, which ended with the state splitting into two: a monarchy in the north and a republic in the south. This split did not last long, and by the mid-12th century Caphiria had gone through a significant reformation period which saw to the creation of a new political system and government, as well as the creation of the Constitution of Caphiria and modern Senate.

The transition from the Middle Ages to the modern Caphiria started in the mid 15th century, with the rediscovery of classical Latin philosophy which encouraged a new thinking that became manifested in art, architecture, politics, science and literature. During this period, Caphiria went through cultural and political achievement, becoming the symbol of artistic and cultural influence. The rise of Christianity and what role it should play occured during this period as well, leading to a series of theological and political differences. This led to a religious and political movement against the Catholic Church and against papal authority, which culminated in the Great Schism of 1615, the break of communion between what are now the Levantine Catholic Church and the Caphirian Imperial Church. A critical consequence of this schism was the combination of the secular and religious authorities in Caphiria, which created a caesaropapist form of government. Initially, the Imperator was viewed as ordained by God to lead both church and state but over time the identity of the imperatorship with the papacy became less clear and eventually became recognized more for his legal authority, rather than his religious one. Towards the start of the 19th century, Caphiria's role shifted from regional to global power. It began to grant some of its annexed territory its independence to form sovereign nations, engage in global politics, and contributed more to the global community. Caphiria played a pivotal role in the Great War, joining the Auxilium Alliance in the war and confirmed the country's status as a superpower by being the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the League of Nations.

Today, the Imperium of Caphiria is a highly developed country, with the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP, accounting for approximately a tenth of global GDP. Caphiria is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods. Caphiria is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending and accounts for nearly a quarter of its GDP; this has created an extraordinarily prodigious military–industrial complex that is rivaled by no other country in history. Caphirian proponents have cited this has the primary reason for Caphiria's continued growth and global superiority, while opponents have said that Caphiria is nothing but an "army with a state".

History
While the history of Caphiria spans two millennia, archaeology has revealed the land that it was founded on, has been inhabited for much longer. The area, Latium, covered most of the northern part of Sarpedon and the southern tip of Levantia. The traditional date for the founding of Caphiria is 480 BC by one of the local tribes, the Latinic people, who would eventually be known as the Latins. Because of the amount of consistent preserved information available throughout its existence, Caphirian history is traditionally divided into 9 distinct historical eras although modern historians choose to omit the Prehistory Era from future historiography because of the lack of substantial historical evidence.

Prehistory
The Prehistoric era covers time earlier than the founding of Caphiria. This would include the earliest inhabitants of the region and the establishment of the Latinic people and other associated tribes such as the Adonerii civilization, Cheylians, and Hebreinias. This era traditionally covers the formation of the Adonerii League in the 9th century BC up to the 6th century BC.

Kingdom
The first definitive historical epoch - the Kingdom Era - begins in 480 BC with the formation of Caphiria. The early city-state was characterized by a monarchical form of government in which according to tradition, Lanintius was the first of five Regis (kings). The kings were elected by group of elders called the senex (senate) and people of Caphiria served for life. The Kingdom of Caphiria lasted 110 years, falling after a series of invasions from rival kingdoms.

Republic
In 370 BC, the Republic of Caphiria commenced with the overthrow of its last king Admoneptis, replacing the monarchy with elected individuals representing the citizens, calling themselves the Senate. Through constant conquest and assimilation, the Republic had already conquered rival city-states like Chimoche and Despouso. During this period, which lasted an astonishing 783 years, vast expansion of territory such as Cartadania, and Pelaxia occurred and regional dominance over north Sarpedon would eventually take over the entire Ecinis Sea and parts of the Sea of Canete and Great Lakes. Part of Caphiria's ambition was derived from similarly ambitious leaders, such as Luccino Capontinus and Iscallio Maristo. The Republic would eventually face internal pressure from this, as contention for leadership caused a number of small fights among the ambitious youth and the elder aristocracy. The fighting would culminate with a five year civil war, known now as the War of the Republic, that left 120,000 people dead. The war was in such a frenzy that by the time it had ended, there was no decisive victor and as a consequence, the Republic was on the verge of total collapse.

Principate
In 414 AD, in an effort to establish the political stability desperately needed after the exhausting War of the Republic, an ambitious man called Bacchis Pavo Rahla seized the opportunity to consolidate power. Rahla reorganized the state into a Principate, a form of government characterized by the reign of the princeps, the "first among equals". Because the Caphirian people had a particular historical disdain for monarchy, the preservation of certain Republician instruments such as the Senate and Consul was kept. Although dynastic pretenses crept in from the start, formalizing this in a monarchic style remained politically unthinkable. Rahla's reign was marked by decades of peace and stability; he was was so popular and well-received that he was given the title Augustus (Venerated One) by the people and eventually Rahla would legally change his name to Augustus Rahla. The latter half of the Principate era marks the early stages of the city-state of Caphiria evolving into a proper empire, with vast territorial holdings, hegemony over Latium, and was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. The Principate lasted 656 years, almost as long as the Republic before it, but it would eventually succumb to a similar fate: The Second Civil War, also known as the Great Civil War for its ferocity.

The Civil War
This period of time, from 1070 - 1115 is known as the Civil War Era due to the dozen or so civil wars that took place over a period of four decades as contention for leadership and political groups vied for control over the massive and wealthy state. The most famous of these was between Marius Oratonius and Quinus Sator Alercius and the subsequent war between their successors and die hard loyalists. The Civil War Era began as a series of political and military confrontations between Marius Oratonius and Quinus Sator Alercius, both of whom were looking to shift Caphiria in opposite directions. Oratonius wanted to continue to become an empire and spread Latin culture to the known world where Alercius wanted to bring back the politically conservative and socially traditionalist Republic. This led to the state splitting into two: a monarchy in the north and a republic in the south. To complicate things further, the spread and dominance of Christianity could no longer be shunned; up until this time, the official policy towards Christianity was negative, and at some points, simply being a Christian could be punishable by death. Oratonius used this to his advantage, officially converting to Christianity in 1079. While he isn't recognized as the first Imperator to convert to Christianity due to the circumstances, he is recognized as the first person to give it legitimacy within the Imperium. Oratonius was then seen as a man of God, a man on the right side of the war. This helped him win the minds of many who did not initially support him and ultimately gave him an edge that the elder Alercius did not have on his side, the side of the old guard. The Great Civil War was a fifteen-year-long politico-military struggle that was fought over most of Caphiria, Cartadania, Pelaxia, Dorhaven, and even Audonia. The culmination of the Great Civil War was the Battle of Silanus, where Oratonius' army defeated Alercius'. Oratonius himself sustained heavy injuries in the battle and died shortly before victory but told his general Lucius Legarus Pius to spare Alercius if they were to capture him since he had deserted from battle after surveying the landscape and figuring he was going to lose. Pius assumed command and took over the army and wasted little time in searching for Alercius. After several months of searching, they found him hiding in the Cimisi-Extressio region of Abderia, a city-state bordering the Lacio mountains. Abderia wanted no part in the war, quickly giving Alercius to Pius and true to his word, after bringing him back to Venceia, spared Alercius' life. He did however, strip him of his power, status, and class; an effective neutering if there ever was one. Pius then exiled Alercius in 1110 and spend the next five years putting Caphiria back together after the last several decades of disarray and borderline anarchy. Pius was as intelligent in politics as he was on the battlefield, and knew that the only way to solve the issues once and for all was a compromise. The stresses and strains of those years (chronic usurpations, military insurrections, simultaneous military conflicts across multiple frontiers) exposed the weaknesses in the Caphirian Republic and the Principate, forcing a radically different approach to governance.

The Reformation
{{further|1115 Reformation of Caphiria]]

This marks the start of the Reformation Era in 1115, which is divided into two unequal parts, beginning with the reunification of the state into the Imperium, a hybrid political system that solved the crisis of the civil war. This new government retained Republic era bodies such as the Senate, but separated it into two distinct representative bodies, the Curiate Assembly and the Consular Congress. Conversely, the powers of the Imperator were increased even more from the Principate, but Pius, now Imperator Legarus, introduced the first version of the Constitution of Caphiria. This document was intended to be the solution to every problem past, present, and future. In it, he outlined what he felt were the three most critical ideas of the state: delineating the national frame of government, establishing the social contract between the citizen and state, and protecting its people. There had always been some form of this throughout Caphiria's history, but it was an uncodified set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent; it wasn't formal or even official, largely unwritten and changing at the discretion of whoever had control. The constitution sought to eliminate the constant power struggles as every constitutional proclamation is inviolable. Neither the Senate, nor the people, nor the military, nor the Imperator can break them. The combination of these political reforms ushered in Caphiria's Golden Age.

The Dominate
Caphiria's golden age is called the Dominate, derived from the Latin dominus, which translates into English as lord or master. Beginning in the mid-15th century, Caphiria went through a phase of rediscovery of classical Latin philosophy which encouraged a new thinking that became manifested in art, architecture, politics, science and literature. This led to cultural and political achievement, with Caphiria becoming a symbol of artistic and cultural influence as it produced dozens of world-renowned artists whose literature, painting, sculpture, architecture and music have profound impact on the evolution of the arts. This era is usually marked as the transition from the Middle Ages to modern Caphiria as the development of capitalism, banking, mercantilism and accounting began and the Age of discovery was ushered in during the latter half of the era. Another interesting development of this golden age was the succession of ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes between the Levantine "north" and Caphiric "south", which had been gradually building up in the 16th and 17th centuries. The rulers of Caphiria began to look for new ways to explore and expand their power and influence and looked to religion as one of the final destinations. Historically, Caphiria had no official state religion and sought to foster a healthy religious tolerance by using a portion of its tax revenue to fund different types of churches. This would come to a head in the 17th century as the Papacy also sought to increase its influence and showed its disapproval and disdain for Caphiric politics.

The Pontificate
The culmination of theological and political differences between the Christian north and south was the Great Schism of 1615, where a break of communion between what are now the Levantine Catholic Church and the Imperial Church of Caphiria occurred. Over the previous centuries during the Dominate era, the role of religion was under heavy scrutiny and skepticism. Ecclesiastical papers began being published condemning the Catholic Church over a number of issues in the late 16th century, with the Catholic Church producing its own propaganda condemning Caphiria's rise of imperialism and heretical ways. The Latin Christian community was being split along doctrinal, theological, linguistic, political, and geographical lines, with each side sometimes accusing the other of having fallen into heresy and of having initiated the division. In 1615, the formal break occurred when Imperator Pius XII formally announced that the Basilicæ Magni, the cathedral and home of the Caphirian Church would be breaking communion to form the Caphiric Catholic Church. This led to the combination of the secular and religious authorities and a new form of government, the caesaropapacy. The caesaropapacy meant emperors were regarded as greater than other mortals, though not quite as deities in their own right, further playing into the concept of princeps. For many years after, pro-Catholic factions continued to challenge the leadership of the new Caphiric Church. These factions, and the people that supported the Catholic Church still, were known as Traditionalists and were heavily persecuted and executed under heresy laws. This period is known as the Months of Bloody Sundays as it was common practice for the Imperator to simply execute any people who were not coming to church in protest. Traditionalists were executed under legislation that punished anyone judged guilty of heresy against the Caphiric Church. Ultimately, the Caphiric Church went through a series of reformations (The Reformations of 1627) and the church was renamed to the Imperial Catholic Church. There were only a handful of modifications, namely that the Imperator of Caphiria was given a number of ecclesiastical titles: Episcopus Caphiria ("Bishop of Caphiria"), Pius Felix ("Pious and Blessed"), Santissimus Pater ("Most Holy Father"), Vicarius Christi ("Vicar of God") and was named Pontifex Maximus, giving him the ultimate authority of presiding over the Imperial Church. This was codified in the Constitution of Caphiria as well as constitutionally establishing the Imperial Church by the state with the Head of State as its Pope. As time went on, the identity of the marriage of the Imperatorship with the papacy became less clear and eventually the emperor became recognized more for his legal authority, rather than his religious one.

The Mandatum
As Caphiria entered the modern era of the 18th century to present day, its role began to shift from regional hegemon to that of a superpower. Many of its conquered territories gained their independence, it began to foster positive relations with Levantia, and began to pull back its imperialistic tendencies in favor of becoming a global leader. Caphiria played a major role in the Great War, notably as the first nation to develop nuclear weaponry and is still the only sovereign nation to have deployed them on another country. This confirmed and solidified Caphiria's place as a superpower and gave it a global platform. Caphiria would go on to become a founding member of the League of Nations and has permanent status on its Security Council. In more recent times, Caphiria has made great strides to try to improve its international reputation by signing the Assumption Accords with Urcea, settling longstanding disputes with its historic neighbor who has had several centuries of animosity with each other. Additionally, it has been in favor of multiple free trade agreements with nations across the world and there has been speculation that Caphiria may even be exploring the thought of ending the 400-year old schism between the Imperial Church and the Levantine Catholic Church.

Geography
The territory of the Imperium covers approximately 5 million km². All land within the Imperium falls under one of two classifications: Caphiria Maiorem (Greater Caphiria), the mainland itself and Caphiria Coloniam (Possessions of Caphiria), the territories owned by the Imperium. Greater Caphiria goes from northern coast of Sarpedon to south central. Caphiria shares its western border with Cartadania and XXX. The Free State of Veltornia used to share Caphiria's western border until the Annexation of Veltornia occurred and became part of the Imperium. Caphiria has a coastline of 8,651 km and has cultivated a global tourist economy around it.

Caphiria has two mountain ranges that flank its east and western borders, forming a natural protective barrier of sorts that has helped keep itself insulated throughout history. In the southwest lies the larger of the two, the Lacio Mountains and to the southeast lies the Intaris, a smaller range.

The Lacio mountain area is by far the least populated area of the Imperium. Much of the area is utilized by The Legion for training exercises. Besides the military, most of the inhabitants of the region are elderly pensioners, seeking to live out their remaining days away from the chaos of Venceia and other major cities. Despite its sparse population and relative little urban development, the economy of the region is growing quickly, thanks to the strengthening presence of logging companies, and mining corporations seeking to exploit the regions as of yet unexplored mineral resources. The Imperium's highest point is within the Lacio mountains, Patrior Mons at 4,250 meters (13,943 ft) above sea level.

On the opposite side is the Intaris, comparatively smaller with its peak, Sull'Oglia, at 2,753 meters (9,032 ft) above sea level. The Intaris is unique in that the mountains are undulating, creating one of the easiest mountain ranges to climb. It is so easy to climb that there are routine competitions to see who can reach its peak the quickest, with the current record being under 4 hours and 45 minutes. Because of its geographic placement, the Intaris is one of the most fertile places within the Imperium. Vegetation ranges from scrub forests at the foothills, up to ubiquitous expanses of tea and coffee estates, to spice (pepper, cardamom, cinnamon) plantations and finally to the dense evergreen forests at the top. Dellarina, a point near Sull'Oglia, offers a wonderful panoramic view of the entire Intaris complete with its own 5 star resort that boasts an artificial lake and private spice plantations..

Ecology
Due to the diverse range of territory that is under the domain of the Imperium, the diversity of terrain, flora and fauna in the Imperium is astonishing. Regarding plants and animals, there are three areas of interest dispersed across the Imperium. Additionally, unique environmental extremes of geographical significance can be found at three locations.



Of the ecological zones, the first to mention is the Escal Isles, a semi-autonomous archipelago owned by the Imperium in the Okatian Sea both containing thousands of plant and animal species not found anywhere else. Of its flora, 70% are unique to the island chain, a fact which has made it intensely interesting to the science community, who believe it holds a wealth of medical substances. However, the human presence on the island, limited as it may be by provincial laws, has reduced the level of vegetation coverage to only 45% of what it was 300 years ago, and has led to a 70% level of deforestation. Today, the rate at which greenery is being lost is close to zero.

The second region notable for its ecology is the Great Reshai Rainforest in South Ochana. While only 40% of it is under Caphirian control, the forest's diversity is tremendous: One in five bird species, 3,000 species of fish and 2.5 million species of insect live there. The vegetation consists of some 50,000 species of plant, with thousands anticipated for discovery. Unfortunately, the rainforest experienced a great deal of deforestation over the last few centuries of industrial and agricultural expansion. 190,000 km² of forest has been cleared by machines and a total clearance rate of 2400 km² per year persists. The rainforest, as an important source of future wood for the paper and construction industries, has been targeted for extensive collegial replanting programs. Guilds in the lumber industry expect a sustainable exploitation of the rainforest due to renewal efforts.

The third ecologically significant place is Zaclaria, a Crowned Protectorate of the Imperium. It is a hub of unique aquatic and desert life and 80% of the species in the deserts on the mainland are endemic to Zaclaria, including 200 unique species of lizard. The greatest contributor to its biodiversity is the vast coral reef that stretches around 1,000 km of its perimeter. The magnificent Magnus Sidnari Reef is 5000–7000 years old and are largely formed of stony acropora and porites corals. The reefs form platforms and sometimes lagoons along the coast and occasionally other features such as cylinders (such as the Khasvaria Hole). These coastal reefs are also visited by pelagic species of Oduniyye fish, including some of the 44 species of shark. The Agarina Sea also contains many offshore reefs including several true atolls. Many of the unusual offshore reef formations defy classic (i.e., Darwinian) coral reef classification schemes, and are generally attributed to the high levels of tectonic activity that characterize the area. Unlike the aforementioned forest ecosystems, the Sidnari Reef, far from being threatened by human presence, is actually growing in size and splendor due to expansion by Caphirian artists, architects and biologists. The aesthetic beauty of the reef alone has driven many, the Imperator included, to protect and nurture this wonder of the natural world.

Meteorology


Weather manipulation is not uniquely practiced by Caphirian engineers; dozens of other countries can seed clouds to induce rain with various degrees of precision. While the Kiravians use the most effective chemical inducer, the Caphirians deploy the seeding most efficiently using nanotechnology. Missile deployment foregoes the need for aircraft to release the inducer. Cloud seeding is the only technology for manipulating the weather that is available to multiple countries. Caphiria controls the weather with three unique techniques: Solar Energy Collectors, Integrated Climate Control Systems, and High-pressure Ultraviolet Factories.

For manipulating the weather in major cities, integrated climate control systems are built into the city streets. Air can be purified of bacteria by ionizers, heated by radiators in the autumn or winter, and cooled by refrigerators in the spring or summer. Climate control is integrated seamlessly into a city, being almost inconspicuous to the naked eye. Urban temperatures in Valentia, Arzercavalli, Castra Vetera, and 18 other cities are maintained between 0 and 25 °C throughout the year. As an exception to urban regulations, Venceia has its heating systems supplemented by mirror satellites in tundra orbits, keeping its ambient temperature in the upper part of the range.

On a national scale, climate control is strictly regulated by the Senate. Once detected, holes in the ozone layer of the planet are sealed by processing oxygen in aircraft high in the upper atmosphere. High-pressure ultraviolet factories in the bowels of these planes transform dioxygen into trioxygen (ozone) faster than natural atmospheric reactions, sealing local holes. The invention of this technique was necessitated by an international scare in the late 20th century when an antarctic-sized seasonal hole in the ozone was discovered and attributed to chlorofluorocarbons used by international devices. CO2 is regularly fixed into carbon polymers by the Galiran process. This practice not only lowers the global concentration of the gas but also creates oils and plastics. Careful management of global climate will continue for the foreseeable future.

Climate and environment
The Caphirian climate is extremely diverse. In most of the inland Western and central regions, the climate ranges from humid subtropical to humid continental and oceanic. In particular, the climate of the East is mostly continental, with harsh winters and hot summers. The coastal regions have mild winters and warm and generally dry summers, although lowland valleys can be quite hot in summer. Average winter temperatures vary from 0 °C (32 °F) on the Fitili Mountains to 12 °C (54 °F) in Venceia, like so the average summer temperatures range from 20 °C (68 °F) to over 30 °C (86 °F).

Caphiria is known for it's lush and beautiful environment, having been ranked in the top 10% of the most beautiful nations in the world, and in the top 5% in Ixnay. National parks cover about ten percent of the country, which attracts millions of tourists annually. In the last few years, Caphiria has moved away from being solely dependent on fossil fuels and begun investing in clean and renewable energy sources, primarily in the way of nuclear and solar energy, which make up about a third of national energy usage, and plan to raise that to over half by the end of the decade. Deforestation is illegal and punishable by prison time.

Government & politics
In theory, the Imperium of Caphiria operates as a unitary constitutional republic, with ultimate authority in every judicial, executive, and legislative matter being derived from its constitution. In practice however, Caphiria is functionally autocratic (and for all intents and purposes would be an autocratic-caesaropapist constitutional republic), with immense power is vested in a single leader - the Imperator of Caphiria - who serves as head of state and chief executive. Historically, the Imperator ruled by divine right but recently most of the powers of the Imperator have been set forth in Proclamation 9 of the Constitution. This leads to a highly complex system of de jure and de facto authority within the government as powers and duties are not clearly delineated.

Because of this unique system, the Imperator is the de jure head of each of the branches of government. However, the Senate of Caphiria wields significant power over the fiscal responsibilities of the Imperium, as well as possessing the ability to solely bring new laws to vote, and the Supreme Court system has gradually gained a tremendous amount of oversight and control over the application of the law, having the power to declare legislation or executive action made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. There have been many amendments to the Constitution to further delineate authority and organize the government further, but because of historical significance of the Imperator, it will always be the single point in which the government of Caphiria stems from.

Government
The Government of Caphiria is organized into three branches (ramis imperium), which are Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Power is vested by the Constitution of Caphiria in the Imperator, Corcillum, and Supreme Court, respectively.

The executive power in the government is vested in its entirety through the Imperator of Caphiria. The Imperator governs by way of his imperium maius (supreme executive power), his auctoritas principis (primary legislative authority), and his jure divis (divine mandate as Pope). As chief executive, the Imperator is head of state and thus head of the Ministries of Caphiria, the trans-parliamentary bodies that administer the functions of the federal government on behalf of the Imperator. He has the ability to appoint and fire ministers, create and dissolve ministries, as well as the responsibility to appoint diplomatic and provincial officials.

The Imperator relies on the Office of the Imperium, the principal executive organ through which his Prime Minister leads. This Office consists of the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the Imperator after consultations and is confirmed by a vote of both houses of the Senate, and all of the Ministers, according to the request of the Prime Minister. These ministries are the de facto administers of the government of Caphiria, serving the functions of the federal government on behalf of the Imperator. Ultimately though, the powers of the Office of the Imperium rest in the hands of the Imperator until the ministers assume their offices. While the Imperator maintains executive power at the highest level, he delegates power and authority to a Praetor (governor) to administer the Imperium's 21 provincial-level divisions. The Imperator also serves as military commander-in-chief and chief diplomat, directly presiding over the 13 million active-duty military personnel, 7 million employees within the executive branch, and 4 ministries. While the Imperator possess near limitless executive power, the Senate has the ability to legally oppose most of the Imperator's actions by a super-majority.

The legislative branch of Caphiria is called The Corcillum, a tetracameral legislature consisting of four chambers: the National Assembly, Military Assembly, Tribune Assembly, and the Senate. A combination of mais maiorum and statute determines the roles of each chamber. Many measures must be considered by more than one chamber, and these measures are known as "final decrees" (consultum ultimum) as their decisions cannot be overridden due to their acceptance by more than one chamber. The four chambers are divided into two categories; those which are said to be "representative", which are the Senate and National Assembly, and those which are said to be "meritorious", which are the Military and Tribunal Assemblies. The representative assemblies are viewed as a direct voice of the people of Caphiria within the nation's decision-making, whereas the meritorious chambers are the voice of those who are viewed to have sacrificed on behalf of the nation as a consequence of their service. Each chamber functions semi-autonomously from one another and as a result, the National Assembly has nominal authority over the entire Corcillum which means the National Assembly is functionally the national legislature. The Military Assembly is composed of every Commander in the Imperial Armed Forces and are responsible of the conduct of wars as well as the prosecution of war and peace. The Tribune Assembly is composed of non-parliamentary magistrates such as Aediles, Proaediles, Censores, and more. The Tribune Assembly is responsible for nationwide administrative tasks, and the organizing and reorganization of provinces and regions. The fourth chamber, the Senate, deals with national economic policy and treaties relating to trade, succession, grants of nobility, and more. Members of the National Assembly and Senate are chosen through direct election and every member of the Corcillum is elected to a five-year term.The judicial branch for the Imperium is administered by the Ministry of Justice which oversees the overall judicial system. At the apex of the judicial hierarchy is the Supreme Court (Tribunalis Ultima) which operates independently from the Ministry of Justice. As the highest court within Caphiria, the Supreme Court ensures the correct application of law in the inferior and appeal courts and resolves disputes as to which lower court (penal, civil, administrative, military) has jurisdiction to hear a given case. The Supreme Court can reject, or confirm, a sentence from a lower court. If it rejects the sentence, it can order the lower court to amend the trial and sentencing, or it can annul the previous sentence altogether. A sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court is final and definitive, and cannot be further appealed for the same reasons. Although the Supreme Court cannot overrule the trial court's interpretation of the evidence, it can correct a lower court's interpretation or application of the law connected to a specific case. The Supreme Court itself is composed of 15 judges that are collectively known as the Council of Supreme Judges (Consilio Judicatis Magnus) for the term of service of five lustra (25 years total): 5 appointed by the Imperator, 5 elected by the Senate, and 5 elected by the ordinary and administrative courts. Candidates need to be either lawyers with twenty years or more experience, full professors of law, or (former) members of the Ministry of Justice.

According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court shall pass judgement on: controversies on the constitutional legitimacy of laws issued by the State and Provinces; conflicts arising from allocation of powers of the State and those powers allocated to State and Provinces, and between Provinces; and charges brought against the Imperator.

The Ministry of Justice handles the administration of courts and judiciary, including paying salaries and constructing new courthouses. The Ministry of Justice also administer the prison system. Lastly, the Ministry of Justice receives and processes applications for national pardons and proposes legislation dealing with matters of civil or criminal justice. The Ministry of Justice arranges the album judicum - a list of every licensed jurist eligible for judging cases in a lawful court - and decides on the time and place of sessions in every Caphirian court of law. It also serves as the backbone for all of the Imperium's provincial and municipal court systems. Each provincial government possesses its own provinciarum judex, or provincial judge, who is subservient to the Ministry of Justice. While provincial judges have some leniency with their rulings and interpretations of the law, they are bound to the interpretation of law from the Ministry of Justice as a whole, meaning any ruling in one province will immediately affect the others. Excluding the Supreme Court, every judge and member of the Ministry of Justice is elected alongside every other member of the government each lustrum.

Magistrates
Elected officials in government are known as magistrates (magistrati) which can be divided into two main categories: parliamentary and non-parliamentary. Parliamentary magistrates are directly involved with the government of Caphiria whereas non-parliamentary are not. Most offices are allowed to appoint a vicarius (deputy magistrate) who assists in their duties and replaces them in the event of incapacitation or death. Since vicariiare not elected, their abilities to perform the duties of a real magistrate are severely limited by the law, kept only to essential functions.

Examples of non-parliamentary magistrates include Quaestores - individuals charged with collecting taxes from praetors for the imperial government, calling out financial corruption, and serving as right-hand men and messengers of the treasury, and Aedilis who supervise spending of money from the treasury, giving them the reverse role of the quaestores.

Some of the most powerful magistrates in Caphiria are the Censores - 18 members of the Censorial Assembly (Comitia Censoria) responsible for upholding public morality, protecting the Constitution and administering the official Public Census every Lustrum. Their duty and power to issue a public inquiry into literally any military, civil, or private activity supersedes every institution in the empire. In practice, there is no office higher than the Censorial Assembly, leading some foreigners to speculate that they are the true power behind the Imperium.

Another major magistrate is the Plebeian Tribune, a position with extensive oversight of legislative activity in the Corcillum and the Palace. The duty of the Tribunus is to safeguard the well-being of the common people, the plebeian order, from the greed and corruption of magistrates, aristocrats, and collegiates. He is the sole magistrate from a non-patrician background and is immune to reproach from any office other than the Censors.

There are hundreds of other miscellaneous non-parliamentary magistrates across the Imperium. Some unique to the Office of the Imperium are the numerarius, who keeps records of national finances; the adjutores, assistants to the Imperator; and the magister equitum, organizer of the Imperator's transportation, to name a few.

Political Parties
Political parties in Caphiria are dominated by the de facto single-party system, which is the Party of the Imperium (Pars ex Imperatoria). It is intrinsically linked to the constitution of Caphiria and is considered the embodiment of the office of the Imperator, serving as the guiding political light of the empire. The Constitution does not explicitly outlaw or ban political parties from forming, though they do have to meet a set of prerequisites before the Imperium will formally allow it to form.

During the First Civil War, Caesar Marius successfully argued that the existence of separate parties runs counter to the national unity that was desperately needed at the time and this ideology as remained ingrained in Caphirian politics and society since. In the modern era, the Imperium allows (at least nominally) democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices and balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning any elections outside of the local level.

A few of the most popular political parties are:


 * Pars Ex Imperatoria (PEI) (Party of the Imperium) – The de facto single-party of Caphiria. Its sole purpose is to reinforce the constitution and the power of the Imperator, though it may have secondary goals and motives that reflect the incumbent Imperator’s personal political ideology and agenda.


 * Unus Societum Popularis (USP) (One Democratic Society) – Left wing social-democratic party that advocates for the abolishment of the traditional social stratification in Caphiria, the abolishment and emancipation of the practice of slavery, and severe restrictions placed on the power of the Imperator. It supports social equality, trade unions, environmentalism, and anti-war.


 * Illustratum Respublica (IRP) (Enlightened Republic Party) – Right wing social-conservative party that maintains the belief that social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural products of life and that they must be preserved. It supports the social stratification in Caphiria, moral absolutism, free trade, free markets, and upholding tradition within Caphiria.


 * Cœtus Libertas (CLP) (Freedom for Assembly Party) – Center wing socialist-libertarian party that advocates for a decentralized government and believes in abolishing all institutions that control the means of production. It supports direct democracy, trade unions, assemblies. It believes in the identification, criticism and practical dismantling of all illegitimate authority in all aspects of life.


 * Kiro-Caphirian Party (KCP) - Single-issue party advocating a strong alliance between the Kiravian Federacy and the Imperium of Caphiria. It presents itself as an alternative to the Levantian Union Party, opposing supranationalism and continental integration while still supporting extensive international commerce, international military cooperation, and a more open attitude toward Latin-speaking immigrants and expatriates.

Administrative divisions
According to the Constitution of Caphiria, there are three major administrative divisions: the provincial (province, autonomous region, possession, and special administrative region), the region, and the township. The Imperium of Caphiria is organized into 17 Imperial Provinces (Banlieueregio), two autonomous regions, and one special administrative region. These 20 provincial-level divisions can be collectively referred to as "Greater Caphiria", a term which excludes its numerous overseas possessions.

Caphiria controls several international territories that function semi-autonomously and is collectively referred to as the "Possessions of Caphiria". Each province is subdivided into regions (lieueregias) which are further subdivided into townships (municipia).



As of 2030, Caphiria administers 20 provincial-level divisions, 177 regional-level divisions, XXX township-level divisions, and 6 possession-level divisions.

Provinces serve as the highest level of the administrative structure, headed by an elected official called a praetor who serves as its chief executive. The government of the province is called the provinciarum, holding legal and administrative jurisdiction within its bounds. Each provincial government is free to organize its executive departments and agencies in any way it likes. This has resulted in substantial diversity among provinces with regard to every aspect of how their governments are organized, though the Imperium does mandate certain things for the sake of continuity across the Imperium. In theory, the the praetor is subservient to the Imperator, effectively acting as his representative. In practice however, Praetors have de facto authority over their province and the Imperator seldom interferes at the provincial level.

Provinces are divided into Regions, making up the the second level of the administrative structure. Regions are unique in that they do not have their own governmental system like provinces or townships, yet they are responsible for the maintenance of local law enforcement, public education, public health, regulating intrastate commerce, and local transportation and infrastructure. This is mainly so provinces are able to focus on macro scale issues and administration without spreading resources too thin.

The lowest political division is the Township (municipia), administered according to a system distinct from higher strata. City Prefects (Praefecti Urborum) are elected every other year by popular assembly of the inhabitants (not just citizens) of the township. This is the only titled government position, other than Tribune, that can be held by someone outside the patrician order. However, unlike the Tribune, city prefects are not magistrates.

Foreign relations
The foreign relations of Caphiria guides the way in which Caphiria interacts with foreign nations and expresses its political, economic and cultural strengths, weaknesses and values. As one of the two global superpowers, Caphiria's foreign policy and strategic thinking are highly influential. Caphiria officially claims it "unnervingly pursues an independent foreign policy of peace. The fundamental goals of this policy are to preserve Caphiria's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, create a favorable international environment for Caphiria's reform and modernization, and to maintain world peace and propel common development."

Caphiria is a member of many international organizations, holding key positions such as a permanent membership on the League of Nations Security Council. Caphiria's foreign policy today is summarized as strategic relations with neighboring countries and the continental powers to strive for Caphiria's national interest, and to create a favorable environment for Caphiria's international development for perpetual competition in the world.

Law of the Imperium
The Constitution of Caphiria is the ultimate authority in every judicial, executive, and legislative matter. Every constitutional proclamation is inviolable. Neither the Senate, nor the people, nor the military, nor the Imperator can break them. For this reason, its tenets must be protected by the highest government office, the Censores, who have the power to conduct an inquiry into literally any activity within the Imperium. In any censorial investigation, evidence against the accused is brought before the eighteen person Comitia Censoria (Censorial Assembly). A double majority for a guilty verdict is needed before the appropriate punishment for the crime - consistent with the Constitution - is administered.The document's purpose is to guarantee citizens certain inalienable rights against imperial, senatorial, collegial, or cultural oppression and establish republican laws which institute a fair government of the people, by the people, and exclusively for the people.The power of Caphirian citizens (demos) is exercised through their right of assembly. Choices that must be made by the people are settled in mass public votes. Anyone with Citizenship in a voting region gets one vote. A conglomeration of voting citizens making a legally potent action is a Popular Assembly (Comitia Popula). Caphirians are proud of this extreme direct democracy, comparable to ancient polities, since it embodies their highly popular and direct style of self-government. Nowhere is this connection between a citizen and the state more present than in the signing of the social contract that formally grants an adult his or her citizenship.

The Constitution of Caphiria has three main objectives: delineates the national frame of government, establish the social contract between the citizen and state, and protect its people. The powers of an imperator exist by virtue of his legal standing. The two most significant components to an imperator's power are his supreme executive power and highest legislative authority, creating his role and power as chief legislative and chief executive. It also creates and delineates his fiscal, judicial, military, and social roles.

The imperial judicial system emphasizes honor (dignitas). Citizens brought in as witnesses are always believed unless evidence directly contradicts their statements. Lying in a public court would be a fatal blow to a citizen's dignitas, a permanent scar on their reputation and could have a direct effect of their social standing. A trial for a citizen is presided over by a judge of the defendant's social order; evidence is interpreted by a random jury of four plebeians, four equites and four patricians. Every citizen also bears the right to take an accusation before their province's Praetor, though whether the Praetor hears the case depends on his mood and the persistence of the citizen making a request.

There is a unique degree of egalitarian and cautionary principles used in Caphirian law. The natural rights of everyone, regardless of age, race, or gender, are preserved in its procedures and the same legal treatment is guaranteed to any citizen regardless of social class. Classism is nullified by drawing members of a jury from everywhere in Caphirian society and by only permitting judges of the social order of a defendant. Furthermore, judicial process is under the oversight of a Tribune and a committee of Censors, both of which have an eye for honesty and fairness.

Outside the courtroom, citizens are afforded a base level of medical care and receive free education until adulthood. Every citizen has an equal share of national representation in the Senate and the cultural values of citizens are enforced in Caphiria by Consuls for culture.

Citizenship
The concept of citizenship (civitatulas) is an incredibly important political and legal status that is ingrained in Caphirian society since its origin. Citizenship is the individual possession of every man and woman recognized by the Imperium. For a person to be a cives (citizen) they must be 16 years of age or older and satisfy one of the following conditions:


 * Born to two Caphirian citizens OR possess at least 51% Latin ethnicity (Birthright citizenship)
 * Born to one Caphirian citizen within the borders of the Imperium and served a set term in the Caphirian military (Naturalized citizenship)
 * Recognized as a citizen by a parliamentary magistrate. (proclamative citizenship)

Citizenship is the most coveted possession of a resident of the Imperium. Once held, it is irrevocable without extreme violations of national law - demonstrable guilt in treason, perjury, barratry, or desertion. Citizens are exempt from the painful death penalties and are guaranteed the protection of the Legion when traveling outside the limits of the empire.

Since 1955, female citizenship has been identical to male citizenship. Any citizen today can run for office, vote, or own property. Non-citizens, however, are excluded from serving in the Legion, political offices, embassies, free health care, free education. Neither marriage to a citizen nor birth from one Caphirian parent can guarantee automatic citizenship but it is possible for a son or daughter of a lone Caphirian to seek citizenship through military service and an eventual request to a provincial Praetor.

By the age of 16, a candidate for civitatulas is allowed to visit the local Praetorian Palace to begin to become a citizen. First, a presentation of credentials is required, after which the candidate is to return once the secretaries have completed a background check. On return to the Praetor, an interview is conducted to determine whether the individual is fit to make decisions on his or her own behalf - an easy test to pass for anyone over 15. Finally, the candidate must read and sign the social contract (pactum socialis) and declare to the reigning Praetor, "Civis Caphiriavum sum" (I am a Caphirian citizen), before being given a small token, proving his or her citizenship. Every new citizen's name is entered into official records.

Security
Caphiria utilizes the Imperial Police Force as its principal law enforcement agency and domestic security service. Operating under the jurisdiction of the military and receiving oversight from the Office of Judiciary Enforcement within the Ministry of Justice, the IPF's main goal is to protect and defend Caphiria, uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the Judiciary, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to central, provincial, regional, and international agencies and partners.

The IPF maintains field offices across the entirety of the Imperium and utilizes its main field agents (vigiles) at the provincial and local levels to conduct both major and minor criminal investigations, and hold arrest authority. The fluidity of officer jurisdictions is such that any police group can be quickly assigned elsewhere in the empire or make arrests outside their usual patrol routes. Vigilum is a relatively unreliable job for a citizen as they are hired and fired to meet present needs, with only the most natural vigiles retaining their posts.

Magistrates are afforded personal Lictors (imperial bodyguards) from a special department of the IPF according to the degree of political power possessed by their office. For example, an Imperator has 24 lictors and a Censor has 18 but a city prefect has 2. Wielding the fasces to indicate their civil authority, lictors have the power to arrest suspected criminals and kill anyone they deem a threat to their assigned magistrate.

The Military


The Imperial Armed Forces has three main branches:


 * The Legion (Army)
 * Imperial Naval Fleet (Navy)
 * Imperial Aerial Defense Force (Air Force)

In addition to the three main service branches, the Imperial Armed Forces contains three additional sub-branches: the National Guard (itself a function of the Department of Civilian Defense), which is the primary military reserve force, the Imperial Police Force tasked with being the principal law enforcement agency and domestic security service, and the Praetorian Guard which has two distinct and critical national security missions: protecting the nation's leaders and safeguarding the financial and critical infrastructure of the Imperium. The Praetorian Guard is also unique in that it maintains a division that reports directly to the Imperator with no oversight.

With a budget of over $5 trillion, military expenditure consumes approximately a quarter of Caphiria's GDP, more than any other nation on earth. Approximately 29% of military spending goes to the army, with the navy having 23%, and the air force receiving 19%. 11% is allocated for the Imperial Police Force and 9% to the Praetorian Guard, with the remaining 3% to miscellaneous expenditures like private jets for military leaders and public Triumphs.

The total active military force of Caphiria is well over 12 million with an additional 11 million in reserves, which brings Caphiria's total military strength to over 27 million. This makes the military of Caphiria the largest by active and reserve duty, the largest combined military force, and the largest by military spending and funding.

The Legion fields approx. 5,000,000 legionaries and 3,000,000 national guardsmen with an astonishing 10,000,000 in military reserves. Their engines of war are maintained by teams of thousands of military engineers. The most potent of these machines are its tanks (Testudos).

The Imperial Fleet employs 2.7 million crewmen and thousands of commanders and engineers. The Imperial Navy is the smallest of the three branches in terms of manpower and in size though it is still one of the largest navies with 5 aircraft carriers, 9 amphibious warfare ships, and a dozen or so cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 1,700 operational aircraft

The Aerial Defense Legion boasts an impressive 4.8 million active airmen and 450,000 pilots in reserves. Another 750,000 engineers and IT specialists run the operations and logistics of the air force. Employment of the Aerial Legion reaches approx. 5.1 million people.

Caphiria's military is backed by a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. About 2,500 ICBMs are stored in facilities across the empire, either underwater, underground and on battleships. The majority of atomic warheads use a single-stage fusion design, while the rest are neutron bombs or dual-stage H-bombs. A great deal of these rockets will open in the atmosphere releasing multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs) for a maximum spread of destruction. Each of the rest detonate as a single massive explosion.

Intelligence Community
Caphiria maintains an internal military intelligence agency, the Ministry of Intelligence. The Ministry of Intelligence consists of several departments and agencies that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities to support the foreign policy and national security of Caphiria. This serves as the foundation of the Caphirian Intelligence Community (CIC), a collection of intelligence agencies that operate within and external to the military. The Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) contains agencies such as the Office of Naval Intelligence, Office of Reconnaissance, Office of Geospatial Intelligence, Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Office of Analysis, Research, and Intelligence, and the Intelligence and Security Command. The DMI also includes the Imperial Police Force, Praetorian Guard, and the Office of Security Affairs.

Running counter to the DMI is the Department of Civilian Intelligence (DCI), the collection of intelligence agencies that operate outside of the military of and report directly to the Imperator and the Caetus Legati. The two principal agencies of the DCI are the Advenarum Administratio (AA) and the Internum Notitia Securitatis (INS).

The AA, commonly known as the Advenarum, is tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the Imperator. The Advenarum has no law enforcement function and is mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering. Unique to the Advenarum is that it is the only agency within the government authorized by law to carry out and oversee covert action at the behest of the Imperator with carte blanche discretionary power. It exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as Task Force VII and Division DCCLXXVII. On the other side, the INS is responsible for domestic intelligence and security within the Imperium and serves as the principal federal law enforcement agency. The INS is the leading counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization and has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes. Unlike the AA, the INS operates exclusively within the borders of the Imperium and employs about 66,200 uniformed staff, including about 4,000 special forces troops.

The Senate makes no secret of its military intentions to the national and foreign press. Statements to the public freely admit: restraining foreign powers, overthrowing threatening regimes, and destabilizing national foes. The central strategic goals of the Legion and Navy are defense of the Imperium at all costs and pursuance of Caphiria's policies by non-political means. These constitute the heart of Caphiria's armed forces.

National Guard
Supplementing the national defense of the Legion and Navy is the National Guard of the Imperium (Castellanae Imperiae). Its primary instrument is the web of forts (castrum) dotting the Imperium. At least one operates in each province, supplying between 1,000 and 5,000 castellanara to its protection. A single castrum is administered by a base commander (Praefectus Castrorum) of the same rank as centurions. His authority over his assigned base is typically respected by higher rank officers (like Duces) but can be overridden if necessary.

Besides the guardsmen based in a castrum, new legionary recruits (tirones) and reserve legionaries (adscripticii) reside there to prepare for deployment to replace fallen legionaries. Legionaries themselves are based in special castra specific to each legion. One particular base, the Castrum Arzercavalli, is tucked away in the mountains of the Xalen Province administered jointly by the Generalissimus of the Legion and the Rector Indicius of Caphirian Intelligence.

Economy
The financial district, downtown Venceia

Caphiria has had one of the largest economies in the world for the last several centuries, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. The Imperium has a mixed capitalist economy fueled by abundant natural resources and high productivity. From 1943 to 1994, the Imperium's compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.1% weighted average for the rest of the world during the same period. Caphiria's economy is unique in that it exhibits hyper-deregulation and minimal subsidization of a laissez-faire capitalist country, however, the extreme intervention of the government in certain markets - like public transit or national defense - is characteristic of state capitalism. On a national level, Caphiria's markets are dominated by monopolies in sparse competition while, locally, small businesses flourish on their social advantage in retail.

As of 2038, Caphiria has the world's third-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP behind Kiravia and Urcea, and the largest economy on Sarpedon, totaling approximately $52,518,626,569,717 according to the International Monetary Fund. Its diverse industries of manufacturing, technology, management, and agriculture proudly maintain a Consumer Confidence Rate of 100%, and a Worker Enthusiasm Rate of over 92%. A major factor in Caphiria's economic success has been its foreign investment portfolio, having vested controlling interests in dozens of markets such as real estate, setting up manufacturing plants, welcoming foreign business and having low corporate tax rates.

Economic policy as well as currency is regulated through the central bank, the Imperial Bank of Caphiria (though it does not maintain power over the financial sector, which has its own regulatory body). Caphiria's fiat currency is the Aureus Dollar (₳). It also maintains a legacy currency, the copper Uncia (₡). The legacy currency tends to be used by the less affluent, in rural areas and less developed regions of the Imperium. Backed by precious metals gives the government yet another avenue in which to expand and diversify their interests further, maintaining strong relationships with foreign traders. The imperial government's financial office, the Fiscus, is the highest credit rated organized body or person. It has not reneged on a debt for over 1000 years. Even in times of turmoil such as civil war, someone has claimed and payed the federal debt.

The modern economy is 38.5% private activity, 41.2% federal government, and 20.3% provincial government. Meanwhile, a postindustrial economy is indicated by the country's small manufacturing and labor sectors (14%), and large (86%) service sector. The reason for this is that labor intensive jobs can be replaced by automated workers needing one technician where a thousand workers were once necessary. This also creates a high demand for skilled workers and creates a competitive workforce. Sectors like agriculture account for a mere 0.01% of the labor force, as farming is nearly totally automated. The state's agricultural output is still $14.1 billion. However, Caphiria has a balanced economy where no single type of job accounts for a disproportionate amount of economic activity. This protects the economy from long-term shortfalls in particular sectors that can result from changes in the structure of the economy.

A recession of sorts was entered in 1998 but unemployment has yet to exceed 4%. Subtract cyclical unemployment to see that Caphiria's natural rate of unemployment fluctuates around 1-3.90%. However, unemployment protection is almost non-existent. The federal government only assists in the search for new jobs, by facilitating communication. General unemployment benefits have never been offered in the modern history of the Imperium. Also, unlike former platonic socialist countries, workers unions are absolutely illegal. There are federal regulations that force guilds to provide a high minimum wage and a safe, non abusive work environment for their workers, but there is nothing in the way of health benefits or of allowances for worker strikes. However, severance pay is very large by government law and every Caphirian worker can expect no less than 35 days of paid vacation. Certain institutions such as federal buildings and schools are not allowed to offer so many holidays but still offer about 20 days. With low regulation, no unions, high minimum wage, and no unemployment benefits, Caphirian voluntary unemployment rate is almost the lowest in the world.

Income, poverty and wealth
Data collected by the Imperial Census Bureau has calculated a per capita GDP of $67,109, which makes it the second highest in the world. A more meaningful quantity, the median pre-tax income of a Caphirian citizen, is equal to $63,435. However, Caphirian society suffers from an income inequality deeply ingrained into its history and class system. The top 6% of the population control almost 75% of the empire's wealth - the top 1% alone control more than a third. Still, a Caphirian citizen has an incredibly high standard of living compared with residents of other states. Every one of them has access to liberal amounts of food, water, electricity, living space and can afford telescreens, cars, computers, books, entertainment, and vacations in the plural. Non-citizens are not so fortunate.

It is estimated that a quarter of citizens live below the imperial poverty line. The minimum hourly wage for a citizen is ₳22 ($20 USD), which works out to an annual income of approximately ₳35,200, meager for a Caphirian but is well beyond what non-citizens are afforded. Many of the latter do not even live on an income, sustaining themselves on subsistence farming, while those who are part of the urban society can expect ₳15,550 a year if they are fortunate to even hold a steady profession.

Accounting for roughly 7.5% of the global population, Caphirians collectively possess near half of the world's total wealth, and Caphirians make up more than half of the world's population of millionaires and a quarter of the world's billionaires. Caphiria is also ranked number one for food affordability and overall food security in March 2035, as well as on average having over twice as much living space per dwelling and per person as Levantine residents.

After years of stagnant growth, in 2030, according to the Census, median household income reached a record high after two consecutive years of record growth, although income inequality remains at record highs with top fifth of earners taking home more than half of all overall income. There has been a widening gap between productivity and median incomes since the 1970s, however, the gap between total compensation and productivity is not as wide because of increased employee benefits such as health insurance. The rise in the share of total annual income received by the top 1 percent, which has more than doubled from 9 percent in 1956 to 50 percent in 2025, has significantly affected income inequality, leaving Caphiria with one of the widest income distributions among developed nations.

Wealth, like income and taxes, is highly concentrated; the richest 6% of the adult population possess 73% of the country's household wealth, while the poorest collectively claim less than 10%. According to a 2030 study, the Imperium has has much higher income inequality and a larger percentage of low-income workers than almost any other developed nation. This is largely because at-risk workers get almost no government support and are further set back by a very weak collective bargaining system. The top 2 percent of income-earners accounted for 65 percent of the income gains from 2020 to 2030, where income is defined as market income excluding government transfers. The extent and relevance of income inequality is a matter of debate.

Unsurprisingly, the empire's gender gap is enormous. 75% of women who reported working in the year of the last census earned less than a third of what a male would have earned that year. Women are subject to the same minimum hourly wage as men so their lower income comes from a lack of work hours - a social disparity rather than legal inequality. Regularly working females tend to hold jobs for which men are less suited, e.g. designing women's clothes or men consider degrading to their gender, e.g. prostitution. Other jobs typically held only by females will place them underneath men, like the position of secretary, or keep them by the side of a businessman or politician. This reflects the perception Caphirians possess of distinct gender roles in society. However, there have been notable examples of women achieving coveted high ranking positions, but this greatly varies upon how progressive the company is; Quicksilver Industries is a prime example, as many women are in high ranking positions.

For both genders, work can only begin at the age of 16, when boys receive their toga virilis (toga of manhood), and children can acquire citizenship. There is no legal or customary end to a Caphirian's work life. Retirement is as rare an occurrence in modern as it was in ancient society. Only those who are debilitated by a condition, as most of the elderly were before medicine caught up to life expectancy, retire from their careers. The Latin language does not even have a term which exclusively means retirement.

Statistics on poverty in the Imperium are not publicly available through LoN resources because the Caphirian government does not issue any. The Caphirian state discourages calling attention to or complaining about poverty. The Internal Office of the Ministry of Diplomacy arrested three reporters and held them for almost two weeks for questioning after they uploaded a video on the topic to YouTube. Authors of the video claim that 22 percent of Caphirians may be considered poor and observers researching the issue prefer to stay anonymous because of the risk of being arrested.

That being said, historically when citizens or corporations lacked the means to support themselves the Senate's first action for centuries has been to offer low-interest loans. This policy of micro-financing poverty is the government's attempt to reduce public dependence on hand-outs and bail-outs while still mitigating the short-term damage from widespread private bankruptcies.

Infrastructure
The Imperium benefits from rapid infrastructural development that has not been marked by periods of decay or destruction. Roads built in the 8th century are still used today while protocols that have served for centuries continue to council policy-makers facing modern problems. The Senate is deeply involved in most large scale construction projects, providing commodities such as transportation and sewer access by directly paying large construction guilds (curatores) for their development.

Federal expenditure is largely allocated toward developing infrastructure that supports Caphirian citizens. Structures with which the Senate and Imperator are involved include viae (roads), aquae (aqueducts), cloacae (sewers), vehiculae (public transport), teleloquum (communications), and basilicae (public buildings). Caphirian highways are known for providing thousands of years of use with little maintenance. The empire's communication network is supported by 1,289 satellites and hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables.

Technology
Caphiria has been a leader in technological innovation throughout its history, particularly since the late 18th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Technology and science in Caphiria has a long history, producing many important figures and developments in the field. The Great War had a profound impact on the development of science and technology in Caphiria, leading to one of the most spectacular – and controversial – accomplishments of Caphirian technology: the harnessing of nuclear energy. The concepts that led to the splitting of the atom were developed by the scientists of many countries, but the conversion of these ideas into the reality of nuclear fission was accomplished in Caphiria and used to end the war.

Today, science and technology are seen as vital for achieving Caphiria's economic and political goals, and are held as a source of national pride to a degree sometimes described as "techno-nationalism". Caphiria has made great strides in nanotechnology, allowing them to accomplish incredible feats in medical, military, and material technologies. The Imperium's most powerful supercomputer, named Gabriel, is hidden deep within the Castrum Rynalia complex in the Lacio Mountains. Completed in 2020, Gabriel was designated the first self-aware inorganic machine only 4 years later. After being programmed to follow Latin vocabulary and syntax, as well as being given rudimentary mathematics tasks, Gabriel became the hardware for the simulation of intelligence - the culmination of decades of progress in learning algorithms and knowledge representation. The success of these projects was verified by a battery of intelligence tests for reasoning and conversation skills. The "brain" of Gabriel is an array of quantum processors with 1,375 TB of RAM spread across millions of units for short-term memory. The primary hardware is stored in an 7.9 million cubic centimeter container but the intelligence itself is sustained by the interconnection of 19,000 billion programs running together, each simulating one neuron. Gabriel's purpose is to push the limits of artificial intelligence and advise Caphiria's military high command in strategic calculations in the same capacity as human military advisers.

For the past 80 years, Caphiria has been integral in fundamental advances in telecommunications and technology; it developed the first practical light emitted diode (LED), the transistor, the C programming language, and the Unix computer operating system.

As in physics and chemistry, Caphirians have dominated the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine since the Great War. The private sector has been the focal point for biomedical research in Caphiria, and has played a key role in this achievement.

Internet
The development of the Internet in Caphiria happened in parallel across the world and while Caphiria does not claim to have developed it first, it does claim to have possessed the first fully-connected country. Early computers were limited to direct channels for communication, where data flowed continuously between connected computers, primarily for military application. In the late 1940's, a supercomputer in the Petramori Region in Xalen and a small terminal in Venceia were linked over existing telecommunication networks by exchanging data in packets. This connection became permanent was critical in coordinating the development of the first nuclear bomb. This was eventually supplemented by a similar inter-networking of hundreds of magisterial and military computers across the Caphiric world.

Engineers operating this early network of networks offered the protocols for linking computer networks to academic institutes such as the Imperial Academy of Science and the University of Caphiria. From there, academics started connecting their private computers. In 1959, the University administration instituted universal protocols for all networks of academic computer networks. Access to this single network of networks was offered to students attending all connected universities and academies. Once this inter-network had reached tens of millions of users, some senators caught on to the idea and started along the path to globalizing this system. Ultimately, the result was the Cratis Network, popularly called the Cratis, a global network of networks using the same data relay protocol for communication. During the development of the Cratis, the research and knowledge was shared among colleagues across the world and protocols became standardized and the Internet evolved into a global resource.

Today, the Cratis is indistinguishable from the rest of the global Internet aside from a few layers of Imperial interference, though this does not extend into content restrictions or censorship. Accessing the modern Cratis requires registry onto a computer using one's ID code at an online route of access. Anonymity is impossible on the Cratis since every action is done under an ID code registered to the system and easily verifiable by crativigiles (online police). The first thing that will greet most people accessing the Cratis is a simple page with an input bar accepting text and hypertext linking to specific domains. Any specific domain is represented online by a name in Latin. For example, the most impressive domain is the state run Apotheca, a vast repository of knowledge covering billions of subjects. This can be accessed by simply writing "Apotheca" into the input or search bar, or - since this particular domain is deemed important - by activating its hyperlink on the front page of the Cratis. Specific pages within a domain have their own names in a form such as "Apotheca|Latin", which would be the entry in that database on "Latin". Most domains are less simple than the Apotheca but every page is similarly representable by a combination of Latin letters, numerals and other symbols.

Unclaimed domain names can be created after purchasing the domain directly from the government for ₳10. Once purchased, the domain is owned by its buyer who may sell it as his own property. Such transactions are made through the Ministry of Communication.

Power production
Every watt of power generated in the public sector of the Imperium comes from either renewable or nuclear resources. The Census of 2030 calculated that the Imperium uses an annual total of 57,000 TW-h in electricity consumption, which translates to 51,803 kW per household. This is broken down as:

Residential usage is 35% (19,950 TW-h). Commercial usage is 42% (23,940 TW-h) Industrial usage is 21% (11,970 TW-h) Transportation usage is 2% (1,140 TW-h) Electricity wasted as heat is reduced by restricting medium or long distance transport to superconductor power lines and by not using thermal engine power plants.

In terms of power generation, 47% comes from nuclear fusion, 31% from hydroelectric dams, 18% comes from orbital solar satellites and the last 4% from other renewable sources (wind, geothermal, wave, etc.). These numbers do not reflect anything other than energy production in publicly available power generators on Earth, ignoring private generators, military-industrial installations, research projects, and extraterrestrial facilities.

A major industrial energy cost is urban climate control, which has existed in major cities for the past twenty years. Cities with a population above 10 million make use of an extensive climate control system to regulate temperature, precipitation and air quality. Meanwhile, animal life is restricted by natural and artificial means to permit eagles, falcons and domesticated mammals and eliminate rodents, insects and unwanted birds. Urban temperature is kept from 0 to 25 degrees Celsius by powerful heating and cooling stations built seamlessly into the city and below its streets. The city of Venceia receives special treatment in this regard as there are satellites in tundra orbits above Sarpedon that reflect additional sunlight onto the city during the day, giving it warm Spring temperatures all year round. Weather control by cloud seeding keeps rainfall in the countryside and softens disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes to more manageable scales.

Transportation
Cars (Autokinetici), or autoki, are class-oriented possessions, with specific designs common to certain strata of society. Most lower class Plebeians do not own a personal vehicle, using the empire's extensive public transit system. On the opposite end of the spectrum, patricians may own multiple luxury vehicles powered by autonomy. Cars are powered almost exclusively by onboard batteries that last days. Since vehicles larger than a bicycle are not allowed in city limits from 7 am to 9 pm, the state has always had a way to store cars while their owners visit a city. Recently, the government built massive storage towers a few kilometers from major cities to replace the public parking lots that were used in centuries past that themselves replaced massive public stables. These parking towers are reachable by public transit from nearby cities and can usually hold between 10,000 to a million cars at 10,000 per tower. The towers are very efficient in regards to space, extending several hundred meters underground (or above-ground) and using lifts to arrange the cars in racks.

Metropolitan areas with over 250,000 people have underground rail lines stretching beneath city streets. In many cases, tracks cross in a mesh network of 1 km sided squares, a station at each vertex. Between most cities short distance bullet trains run underneath or alongside the highways. For longer distances high-speed maglev trains transport passengers several times a day in time periods that are impossible by other methods of travel. Several examples of these are the Metro Express Rail (MER) and Caphiria Express Lionized Electric Rail (CELER), that travel at 1,000 (621 mph) and 5,000 (3,107 mph) km/h respectively. Furthermore, every province has at least one major airport to satisfy long-distance and intercontinental travel.

Costs for public transport are extremely low in the Caphiria. Any Caphirian citizen can buy a monthly transit pass for themselves, a programmable chip that can be located in an object of their choice, at the cost of ₳100 for the year. This provides unlimited travel on underground and light rails in cities and buses in towns and villages. High-speed train tickets cost between ₳2 and ₳15. Ships are rarely used for transit except as part of a short-distance ferry service. These are usually very low cost (10-25 As) and require upfront payment in order to use. However, thousands of Caphirians cruise ships travel the world offering high price vacations for the leisure of wealthy and average citizens.

The Imperial Roadway Network (IRN) is the national network of highways and roads linking the entire Imperium together. The network itself is comprised of two sub-networks: the Provincial Highway System (PHS) and the Inter-Pago Roadway (IPR). The PHS is the central network of controlled-access highways that stretch across provinces and connect major airports, ports, rail or truck terminals, railway stations, pipeline terminals and other strategic transport facilities. The IPR on the other hand consists of paved roads, asphalt and concrete streets collectively called viae that run through rural and urban areas which provide access between an arterial and a major port, airport, public transportation facility, or other intermodal transportation facility. Viae link together major cities and townships and feed into the larger PHS system. The IRN also has a "Network of Strategic Transportation (NoST)" that the Imperium deems vital to its strategic defense policy and which provide defense access, continuity, and emergency capabilities for defense purposes, as well as provide access between major military installations and routes.

The entire system, over the centuries, has an estimated cumulative construction cost over $700 billion and has needed minimal maintenance making it one of the largest construction projects in human history before the mega-projects of modern Caphiria.

Megaprojects
In the last century, Caphiria has proved its prowess as a civilization by engaging in monumental, even astronomical scale construction projects that dwarf anything else in its history. Without even including Caphiria's renovations of the skyline of Venceia or of the Athenaeum, a large list of costly programs can be made:

Demographics
The total population of the Imperium is 776,828,782 in 2038. Of these residents, 723 million are cives, citizens of the Imperium. Citizenship is vital for living in the empire, exempting one from the poll tax, allowing one to join the army as a legionary rather than a guard, conferring inalienable rights like health care and welfare, and permitting appeals to a Praetor during litigation. It also grants voting rights at the age of 16 and allows someone to run for political posts according to their social class.

The empire had rapid population growth over the last two centuries. However, immigration is severely limited by the Constitution. Numerous bureaucratic hoops stand between a peregrini (foreigner) and entry into the Imperium to live. Citizenship is even more difficult and costly to acquire. Therefore, most of the country's growth is natural, with 26 million new births per yer. The distribution of the population is widely uneven. The most densely populated areas are the metropolitan areas of Venceia and Augsustanis, while vast regions such as the Lacio Mountains are very sparsely populated.

Languages
Caphiria has two official languages: Latin and English. With regards to Latin, the Imperium recognizes two distinct versions, Classical Latin and Caphiric Latin. The former referrers to the classical and outdated language of antiquity; Caphiric Latin is a modern adaptation of the classical language, infusing it with an updated vocabulary. It's estimated that close to 96% of the population speaks Caphiric Latin as their primary language, followed by English as their strong backup. Caphiria has numerous regional dialects, however, the establishment of a national education system has led to decrease in variation in the languages spoken across the country during the 20th century. Standardization was further expanded in the 1950s and 1960s thanks to economic growth and the rise of mass media and television.

Several minority languages are legally recognized: Cartadanian, Kiravic Coscivian, Istroyan, Cronan, Julian Ænglish, and Lebhan.

Religion
Christianity is by far the largest religion in the country, making up a total 88% of practiced religion. Prior to the formal mending of the Great Schism of 1615, the de facto state religion of Caphiria had been Imperial Catholicism. However, since the Great Schism was officially mended in 2037, this has skewed current religious demographics since in theory, all Imperial Catholics were back in communion with the Levantine Church.

Current estimates have Levantine Catholicism making up 83% of practiced religion, with other Christian faiths like Protestantism taking a total of 5%. The next largest practiced religion in Caphiria is Islam, which makes up 3%, followed by Judaism at 1.5%.

The irreligious make up a sizeable 7.5%; 3% of whom believe in secular humanism, 2% practice agnosticism, 1.5% practice atheism, and the remaining 1% are apatheist.

The final 1% of practiced religion in Caphiria is comprised of minor religions, such as Arzalism, Shapirism, and other fringe faiths. A polytheistic movement that revolves around the traditional faith has emerged recently, called the Aruuhin faith. Although figures are obscure, it is speculated that roughly 0.2% are members of the Aruuhin faith.

As a measure to protect religious freedom, the Caphirian government devolves shares of income tax to recognized religious communities and taxpayers who do not wish to fund a religion contribute their share to the state welfare system. Despite Christianity's prevalence and unity with the state, freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution. In particular, the Jews are highly regarded in Caphirian society, possessing a significant portion of the banking and investment industries due to a historic monopoly on charging interest.

In modern times, Caphirians take great pride in their religious faith, openly discussing it in casual conversation. There is no stigma in professing one's belief or - in today's culture - non-belief at leisure. The majority of the irreligious are wealthy intellectuals who have personal qualms with the Church or who became disillusioned with the rigidity of religious faith. Despite their intelligent base and success at organizing, atheists have failed to challenge the two thousand years of theological hypotheses put forward by the Church. As well, silence in the face of their occasional attacks against religious institutions has dominated ecclesiastical policy for centuries.

Education
The Ministry of Education sets overall educational standards, though private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies, with mandatory accreditation and regulation from the Ministry. This allows for more "creative" and "third wave" educational systems to have the chance to develop on top of the already established educational standards. By law, education is compulsory over the age of 3 and ends at 16. The public education system in Caphiria is highly complex and segmented, operated jointly by provincial and local governments. The educational stages are: Children's School (discatorium), Core Education (regulatorium), University (universalis), and Academy (Academiae).A curriculum is arranged in 6-9 week terms separated by three week vacations. A term is closed by testing students' knowledge of the compulsory material learned that term. Tests for the advanced courses can be taken anytime during the last two years of the core curriculum. The results of any tests taken by a student are merely used to show the school which area of higher education, if any, they should encourage for the particular student. Marks for compulsory courses are also used to distribute students evenly by aptitude across the different higher schools. There are no strict entry criteria and most students get into places of their choice.

Higher education is done in either academies (academiae) or universities (universales), whether one wants to receive an Academy Degree and become a Doctor (PhD) or not respectively. While attending a grammaticus is compulsory for all citizens, higher education can be avoided in order to take an apprenticeship in manual work. At this level, courses are distinguished into the classical branches of philosophy. Graduating as a doctor in one's field is not only prestigious but beneficial for one's career as well. Modern lawyers, senators, medical doctors, scientists, generals and economists are almost unanimously doctores. There's no distinct school system for medicine or law as these already have academies like other subjects.

Health
Caphiria has a (virtually) completely private healthcare system, with the only state-sponsored healthcare system in place for those who would otherwise have no access to it and are in severe need of it, as well as children of citizens before they acquire their citizenship and elder citizens above 70 years of age. In 2030, private insurance paid for 65.4% of personal health expenditures, followed by 34.6% by private out-of-pocket payments. All hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers are entirely private. Because of political and social pressure on employers to provide at least minimal private health insurance, only 13% of the public is uninsured.Even without medicine, Caphirians are part of a healthy society. Food is naturally grown - with no artificial additives, preservatives, drugs or pesticides at any stage of its production - in a manner that used to come at great cost to potential productivity. Nowadays, genetically modified crops and animals confer the same advantages as drugs and chemicals could offer to the agricultural industry but without side effects to consumers. A contributing factor to the health of Caphirians is that the Senate offers free healthcare to children of citizens before they acquire their citizenship and elder citizens above 70 years of age. Literally any medical demands, from dentist check-ups to eye exams are paid from the Imperial treasury. On a per-capita level, this costs the Senate about $1,100 for children and $11,400 for seniors, though wealthier seniors usually opt out of free healthcare out of social pressure or moral obligation. Outside these demographics, anyone can request a low interest loan from the government to afford medical treatment as has been done for the entire existence of the Constitution which guarantees the availability of necessary medicine for citizens.

In spite of Caphiria's monumental healthcare system, indigenous people and foreigners are not covered. Therefore, certain communities inside of the Imperium that experience shocking levels of poverty that give them health averages far below the rest of the Imperium. Since they are non-citizens, the federal government cares very little about helping them and even less sympathy is given by citizens.

While Caphirian views on sexuality are incredibly liberal, having resisted the oncoming of Christian values, there is nothing in the empire recognizable as a (legal) strip club or (legal) pornography. Abortion is illegal in the Imperium and is a major crime equivalent to first-degree murder, for a Caphirian doctor to terminate a pregnancy once a neural tube is recognizable in the foetus (usually in the 2nd month of pregnancy). Still, contraception is readily available as a pill or physical countermeasure, contributing to the facility of prostitution, a completely legal, if disreputable, profession.

The average national life expectancy in Caphiria is 81.3 years. By gender, the average is higher for women at 83.6 compared to 78.9 for men. This can be explored further by going into detail based off of social class: Obviously the Patrician class has the highest life expectancy at 86 years, the Equestrians at 81, Upper-Plebs at 78, Lower-Plebs at 76, and the Indigeni at 68 years on average.

Social order
Caphirian society has a strict national stratification dating to its ancient Republican era called the ordones.

Patricians are the apogee of Caphirian citizenship. Accounting for 0.57% of the total population, they are typically wealthy and influential and they have the most freedom to engage themselves in politics and bureaucratic affairs. Thus they have the most control in the Imperium, often portrayed - if somewhat unjustly - as subjugating the other orders of society. The greatest of patricians are members of the imperial family. The current imperial family counts 177 members.

Next down the social ladder are the Equites (Equestrians), a rich mercantile class whose members manage a great part of Caphiria's economy. They account for 14.26% of Caphirian society and make up the "upper class" for those not born in the aristocracy. Members of the Equite class are typically knowledgeable and have been educated in "elite" settings and control and own significant portions of corporate Caphiria and may exercise indirect power through the investment of capital.

Below the Equite class are the Plebeians or, simply Plebs, who can be split into two orders according to their wealth: the Upper-Plebeian order and Lower-Plebeian order. Upper Plebs are the empire's middle class, earning a decent living but lacking the privileges of the upper classes. They represent your average citizens, making up the majority of the population. Lower Plebs are the work force, laborers who do jobs no one wants but everyone needs. Plebeians receive good benefits from the government to compensate for their reduced privileges and are more well-off than the lower classes citizens of other countries. Altogether, the Plebeians make up 55.9% of Caphirian society, with the Upper-Plebs consisting of 18.85% and the Lower-Plebs 37.15%.

Unofficially, there are also Peregrini (foreigners), non-citizens like expatriates or visitors. Making up 5.4% of the population, they have no legal rights under Caphirian law, as their home countries are expected to care for them even if they have no home. Nevertheless, they often remain in Caphiria with the hopes of one day gaining citizenship.

The final stratum is the lowest order who, in addition to receiving almost no government benefits, is heavily looked down upon by the rest of society. Making up 23.73% of the population, they are the Indigeni, who are the native population who have been conquered by Caphiria. Most citizens view them as inferior to Latin races and, consequently, most of the country's racism is directed at them.

Culture
The culture of the Imperium reflects the diversity of its population. Regarded as a melting pot of ethnicity and identities, Caphiria is tolerant and respectful of the majority of cultures within its empire, encouraging some of their activities through socioeconomic measures. Even the bureaucracy and local elites reflect the regional distinctiveness of the population, allowing a degree of cultural independence that goes beyond mere appearances into religious and political recognition.

Caphiric culture is complex, as the government (or rather Venceia itself) tends to dictate and set the standards across the country, leading and representing Caphirian society at it's peak. Each city though holds onto its own local customs and traditions, infusing national ideals to create unique pockets of local culture that don't exist elsewhere in the country. For example, the architecture and overall design philosophy of the west is modern and almost futurist with bold colors and shapes (as noted by the Government District) meanwhile in stark contrast in the North, where the design philosophy is minimalist and practical above all else, from architecture to the music.

A principle which underlies Caphiria's cultural achievements is Libertas (Freedom). Freedom of movement within the country, freedom to share ideas and customs and freedom to seek wealth. The Senate hardly limits these liberties of the people with law, force, or even propaganda. Furthermore, inside the Imperium's borders for the last 300 years has been a stability unseen at any other time or place, a true Pax Caphiria. Safety and liberty are no less immanent as factors today, driving Caphiria ever more into the future.

Architecture
Examples of Caphiric architecture

Caphiric architecture is one of the cultural pinnacles of its society, as noted by many historians and cultural professors. Centuries of cultural and political fragmentation has led to widespread vernacular architecture. This made for a heterogeneous and diverse architectural style, with architecture differing from town to town. While this diversity may still be witnessed in small towns, the devastation of architectural heritage in the larger cities during various civil wars and conflicts resulted in extensive rebuilding characterized by simple modernist architecture.

Traditional Caphiric architecture places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts. It often used visual and theatrical effects, designed to surprise and awe the viewer and to portray a sense of power, majesty and virility. The architecture of modern Caphiria is best described as "New Classical-Parametric Brutalism" in that it continues the practice of classical and traditional architecture (new classical) but also mixes in simple, block-like structures that often feature bare building materials and exposed concrete (brutalism) while subscribing to an overall design philosophy that rejects both homogenization (serial repetition) and pure difference (agglomeration of unrelated elements) in favor of differentiation and correlation as key compositional values (Parametricism).

Cuisine
Caphirian cuisine developed through centuries of social and political changes and is diverse, varying with location and associated agricultural conditions. Traditionally, meals in Caphiria are served at three times throughout the day: at dawn, the middle and lower classes eat a quick breakfast called an ientaculum while the upper class typically eat Caphiria's equivalent of brunch called a prandium. Both kinds of breakfast feature some kind of wheat bread dipped in olive oil or served with cheese and crackers. Prandium is interesting because it usually features meat of some kind, like pork or beef and animal products such as eggs. The most popular meat for this time of the day is lucanica, a short, smoked pork sausage.

The mid-day meal, the vesperna, is informal and is typically only consumed by the lower class to sustain themselves until cena (dinner). Some favorites are: fava beans, lentils, peas, shrub leaves for seasoning, boletus, truffles, snails, clams, oysters, thrushes, dormice, sea urchins, and mulsum, a mixture of wine and honey. Honey tends to be generously added to servings.

The cena represents the fusion of the enjoyment of food with socializing and is known to last several hours across several courses; a modern cenae is synonymous with a dinner party and is one of the unifying cultural rituals done by all of society. A cena typically opens with a gustatio (appetizer), a non-filing course featuring delectable treats to get people's taste buds ready for the prima mensa (main course) which can last several servings depending on the ambition of the host. In the last few hours, out comes the secunda mensae (dessert). A main course consists of rich, heavy meats like duck, chicken, lamb, turkey, beef or roasted pig stuffed with sausages and seasoning. Hares, laurices (rabbit fetuses), peacocks, swans and especially mullus (goatfish) are considered fine delicacies, even today.

The so-called Caphiric diet forms the basis of Caphirian cuisine, rich in pasta, fish, fruits and vegetables and characterised by its extreme simplicity and variety, with many dishes having only four to eight ingredients. Traditional Caphirian ingredients cover a wide gamut as they are highly regional, for example the provinces of Luria and Auvia are regarded for their dishes that center around seafood, unique cheeses, and dishes derived from Urcean influences. By contrast, the province of Leonia is renowned for its variety and richness due to the heterogeneity of the land; pasta and meat based dishes such as spaghetti alla chitarra, Gnocchi carrati, Scrippelle, and pizza variations are common in Leonia.

Alcohol, specifically wine, is the 3rd-most consumed beverage by volume behind water and coffee, and is commonly consumed (alongside water) in meals, which are rarely served without it, though it is extremely uncommon for meals to be served with any other drink, alcoholic, or otherwise. Caphiria consumed 25 billion liters of wine in 2035 alone. The second-most consumed alcoholic beverage is whiskey at 19 billion liters.

Fine arts
In the 600's, painting became the dominant mode of artistic expression in the Imperium, superseding (but not replacing) the earlier art of mosaics. Within a few centuries, the Aenean style, which sought to create art that looked as realistic as possible, emerged as the popular form of painting. Even with today's photography, the art of painting realistic images is far from dying out. Emperors are especially patrons of this art. For instance, for over a thousand years it has been customary for an Imperator to commission great works of art depicting major events of his reign, such as scenes of battle or their coronation ceremony. Some emperors, and even members of the nobility, will pay an artist to live with them and occasionally paint scenes either on location or by memory.

Nearly every major city in the Imperium has at least one art museum, and it is customary for a city to offer another city paintings that depict scenes set in its municipality. This was an idea pioneered by Caesar Magnus II and it has ultimately resulted in most major cities being able to display works of art featuring other major cities. The Imperial Museum of Art in fact has a series of rooms called the Orbis Urbum, which has skyline shots of all Banlieueregi capitals. On the opposite side of the building is the 200 meter long Hall of History, which features the finest works of art that depict scenes from Caphiria's history, including the Sacking of Adamentium and the Detonation of Michael. Meanwhile, the halls of the Palace of Imperials are lined with the imperial portrait of every Caesar from Imperator Galba to Cicero Magnus.

Art museums are very popular destinations within Caphirian cities. The three largest museums of art receive 18 million, 9 million and 4 million visitors each year respectively. Also featured in the art museums are the ever popular Caphirian sculptures. The art of sculpting is perhaps the greatest product of the Western arts, and definitely one which the Imperium made full use of. The grandest statue in the Imperium, however, is the Statue of Victory (depicting an Angel) in the Castra Veteraian Bay. Standing on a 60 meter pedestal, the Statue itself is 240 meters tall. The Statue of Victory is a widely recognized national symbol representing the indomitable spirit and power of the Imperium.

Media
The immensity of Caphiria and the security that its citizens enjoy necessitates a great deal of effort in both entertaining and informing the public. Until recently, the primary means by which news was spread was the praeconis (heralds). These public-wage scribes stood in major plazas within the cities every day to declare recent news to people walking in the streets, in the manner of giving a speech. Amazingly, this form of reporting was so popular with the public that not even personal telescreens could supersede heralds in getting government funding to relay news. It is only in modern times, in the larger cities, that live heralds were replaced with holographic recordings. These holograms look realistic enough that the change is irrelevant to the public. The rich, as always, use personal secretaries to bring them the news. Except in Venceia and Adamentium, the news given by heralds is relevant only to the city itself, with the exception of major national news. While news of a murder or disaster in Osctatellia will be spread by heralds there, no one elsewhere in the country will hear about it. An interesting case regarding dissemination of the news is Cadro whose heralds proclaim global economic updates on top of local news.

National and international news is relayed publicly by the Nuntia Imperia, the state-run newspaper. Its main sections are: Ludonus (public events/sports), Artanus (the arts), Peregranus (foreign news), Forum (business), Otianus (leisure/vacation), Mortianus (obituaries), a front page for the daily top story and a dozen other pages for other recent major news. Some cities have newspapers that are published and circulated by wealthy business owners, but these differ greatly from the government paper and tend to include the political bias or desired focus of their patron (say on sports). Next to the newspapers and the heralds, the only other sources for news are public announcements by city officials, gossip and, formerly, the radio (a kind of virtual herald).

Mass advertising has had an interesting life, never developing traditionally in the Caphiric world, leading to a commercial dynamic unseen anywhere in the world. Advertisements of any kind are banned in newspapers. The only permitted and publicly accepted form of advertising is within designated movies and telescreens street signs, though some businesses shrewdly bribe heralds to mention their product in a good light. Nearly all shops abide in distinct market districts in the cities and villages, so business owners rely on signs and their own charisma to attract customers to their stall or shop. Nearly every product is sold by a regional monopoly, or by two or three large businesses, therefore advertising for products is wasteful anyway. Certain kinds of street adverts like electric signs or excessive lighting are outlawed in large cities since people find them to be disruptive and bothersome - especially neon signs. That aside, the advertising industry has seen an explosive growth over the last decade or so. The laws have become less rigid and enforced, which as led to innovative marketing that sits in between the legal and illegal realm, though this appeals mainly to smaller businesses looking for a competitive edge against much larger companies.

National reputation
Society within the Imperium is regarded as a model for the rest of the world in terms of art and culture. Global polls by by an international institution which queried 10,000 people from each country, found that 65% saw Caphirians positive light while an opposing 32% saw it in a negative one. From these results, it seems that few lack a strong opinion of the empire. An internal census of the empire in 1977, polling its entire body of citizens, showed a 95% approval of their country. 3% were completely neutral on the subject and only 2% believed Caphiria was harmful to or had a negative impact on humanity.

Fascisma (Nationalism), or the fervent support of the Imperium is common among citizens. The name is derived from the magisterial fasces, a symbol of reciprocal strength through unity and unity in strength. The concept of Fascisma is different from the modern fascism, though the latter of which derives its name from this. Caphirians view their society as a beacon of civilization in a barbaric world. A majority of Caphirians take this farther. Many citizens and politicians believe all human activity is the business of the Imperium and their state has a duty, as protector of the human race, to intervene as it deems appropriate.

As bigoted as Caphiric society may appear, the empire has historic ties to human rights and protecting the interests of humanity. As a whole, Caphirians profess to believe that every person was entitled to specific things: the right to his or her own body, the right to reproduce, the right to equality among their peers, etc, and that these natural rights are equally held by everyone - regardless of nationality or race - and cannot ever be revoked.

Penning the first Constitution in 1145, Caphirians also pioneered the practice of laying down inalienable rights into an unbreakable code of law. From its inception, Caphiria's Constitution ensured every citizen: two thirds of his or her income, fair trial by members of his or her own social order, equal representation in the Senate, free education, the ability to afford medical care, the legal right to their citizenship unless justly revocable and the right to the use of one's genetic information. Furthermore, the empire offers absolutely free healthcare to the more vulnerable members of its society.

Internationally speaking, the reputation of Caphiria is complex. There has historically been overwhelming negative sentiments about Caphiria, citing Caphiria's hyper-imperialism and military power and influence as a ‘major threat’ to their country. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Caphiria has been the subject of numerous reports with headlines such as "Caphiria Seen as Among the Greatest Nations, But Not Superior to All Others" and has been subject to numerous reports and papers with titles like "The Problem of Caphirian Exceptionalism".

=See also=