Takatta Loa

The Loa Republic, officially known as the Union of the Loa Republic, is a nation approximately 254,350 miles in area and located in southern Vallos. The term Loa Republic is considered overtly formal, and the word Makono Tapa, literally "Garden Temple" in Archaic Dusuamaba, is used by the general populace to refer to their homeland. The Loa Republic is predominantly wet, tropical rainforest, with a seasonal monsoon. The environment makes for an exceptionally biodiverse region, with many of the indigenous plants and animals being found only elsewhere on Vallos and nowhere else in the world.

The modern day Loa Republic is functionally a federated absolute monarchy, with two of its client nations being tribal confederacies and one being the domain of a warlord.

Government and Politics
The Loa Republic is a loose federation of five client nations; the Kingdoms of Nisoma and Kui'ikopa; the tribal confederacies of Akanatoa and Luitaoaka; and the State of Totowa. These nations form a council, commonly called the Fivefold Covenant, which regulates all federal and foreign matters. Although the Loa Republic is de jure structured like a confederacy, in practice the two Kingdoms hold such significant sway over the Union that most matters tend to be decided by Isahotainao, leader of the Fivefold Covenant. However, all the client nations are allowed to regulate matters inside of their nation as they see fit. Accordingly, the state is functionally an despite its name.

Governmental Structure
The Loa Republic's provincial and administrative network has been called 'monstrously complex' and 'byzantine' at times by scholars due to the highly decentralized and interflowing pathways of administration. Many experts believe the inefficient administration has been a significant hurtle to the nations advancement, with critics pointing out how due to the immeasurably varied provinces of the nation leading to its general inefficiency.

The highest governmental body is the Fivefold Covenant, which regulates all foreign matters and administrative matters between client nations, called Damo Itisi (meaning 'Grand Kingdom', which is applied to all nations regardless of if they are actually a monarchy). The damo itisi typically cannot interact with foreign powers unless sanctioned by the Fivefold Covenant (see Akanatoa War), but otherwise the council cannot regulate much other than the national budget and infrastructure that exists between the damo itisi. The client nations receieve the budget and are free to distribute it between all their provinces, which are called itisi. They also regulate all infrastructure and travel between itisis as well as the food supply, with the government seizing and distributing food. The itisis further regulate the layout of towns and are required to maintain all infrastructure, even if they have no control over it, receiving a budget to do so. This is all overlayed with a bureaucratic legislation process based upon census, petition and a constant interdependence between itisi and damo itisi. This process is uniform across the Republic, even if it is not mandated by the central council. However, the legal, medical and educational systems are regulated by the Kapuhenasa, which exists beyond the government. The Henasa also has significant influence on the bureaucratic process, lending further to the claims that the Republic is a theocracy.

Legislative process
Policy and the like are dealt with at various levels depending on who exactly it impacts. At the most basic level, a person may submit a petition to a local bureaucratic office, which usually concerns local matters such as a request for house repairs or maintenance on a village road. This request is then formally edited and drafted by an official, who puts it, along with any other petition, and the village votes on it alongside the census. If the petition receives 60% approval, then it is enacted. On inter-village matters and tax collecting, then a similar process is employed and put through the entire itisi. A village can submit a petition, and then if 60% of villages approve, it is either enacted or submitted to the monarch if applicable. Said monarch almost always approves it, though they are not necessarily obligated to. This process again applies to the damo itisi, with the petitioner being an itisi. This usually involves infrastructure through out the client state or involves nationwide taxes. There are other avenues to getting legislation passed however. A sovereign can draft a proposal and put it through the network (the process the Fivefold Covenant uses), and hope it gets passed. Alternatively, one can receive a divine sanction for or against a petition through shrine complexes. These are finicky, for if a shrine approves, they will look towards divination or divine signs, which reduces the possibility of a sanction down to random chance. The shrines could also approve it based entirely on politics, such as certain shrines approving and others not, which reduces the possibility even further. Note that the petition cannot be changed once submitted, and as such there is constant drafting and collaboration on crafting a widely appealing petition.