Kartika

Kartika
Federal Capital
Country	Kiravian Federacy
Federal District	Ksoīnvra
Countyship	None (free city) Extends into: Ksoīnvra Pentékostea Tyderian
Population	1,254,926

Kartika is the capital city of the Kiravian Federacy and of the District of Ksoīnvra. Established for the express purpose of housing the federal government in 210XX, Kartika is the seat of the Federal Stanora and the Consistorial Court, and Executive College, as well as the official residence of the Prime Executive and administrative headquarters of most Federal agencies. Its metropolitan area, referred to as the "Federal Capital Region" includes the remainder of the District of Ksoīnvra and extends far into southern Hanoram and northern Ventarya. The presence of the Federal government has turned the Federal Capital Region into a hub for the defence, aerospace, biomedical, consulting, information technology, legal, and governmental-relations industries. While the Kartika Metro Area is not Kiravia's largest, it is consistently ranked as its wealthiest and best-educated.

History

Prior to Coscivian colonisation, the lower Ksoīn River valley was inhabited by the Yàpi (Gàdamyàpi) tribe. The Gàdamyàpi were violently displaced from the area during the Template:H:title by Coscivians, who established large manorial estates on either side of the river, which formed the boundary between the Imperial provinces of Venterya on the right bank and Hanoram on the left. [Main plantations and names]. As with the rest of the Míhanska Bay region during the colonial period, commerce was mainly conducted by merchant ships sailing to ports on the bay and up its many inlets, estuaries, and navigable rivers to trade directly with the manorial villages. Market towns were slow to appear, and were rather few and far between. The first reasonably urban settlement in the area, and indeed, the first incarnation of Kartika, was a fort established in Template:H:title to secure the river confluence and serve as a military and administrative base for control of the Ventarya-Hanoram backcountry. Dedicated to Emperor Kartik IV, the fort began as a series of wooden palisades and earthworks, which in Template:H:title began to be improved with masonry. However, the improvements were still unfinished in 20291 when catastrophic flooding destroyed most of Fort Kartik. The fort would proceed to be destroyed and rebuilt at least six times over the course of its history by flood, fire, and powder magazine mishaps.

A small trading town called Éamonsar was founded on more stable ground just northwest of Fort Kartik in 20355 (1175 AD), and the fortified town of Arþodun was built on the Ventaryan right bank of the Koīn in [YEAR].

At the time of the establishment of the Confederal Republics of Kiravia Kartika was a mere hamlet of 22 houses scattered among and around the half-ruined fortifications. The Founding Fathers of the Confederal Republics agreed that while West Valēka would be the seat of the Confederal Stanora (standing legislative body), Executive College, military command, and judiciary, the Ɣaramduv, a legislative body assembled at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes chiefly for the purpose of passing a budget, would meet somewhere in the Míhanska Bay region. By agreement between Ventarya and Hanoram, one of the two sessions each year would be held in Arþodun and the other in Éamonsar. The Ɣaramduv began holding its Hanoram-side sessions in Kartika in [YEAR] after being run out of the much nicer nearby town of Éamonsar for bad behaviour. It budgeted itself funds for the construction of a proper meeting hall there, and Kartika would go on to accrete further government-related facilities and attendant shops and taverns over the course of the Confederal Period, though it remained an otherwise unremarkable Baylands small town.

When the new Fundamental Statute was adopted, ushering in the Kiravian Federal Republic and the Federal Era of Kiravian history, Valēka had emerged as the unchallenged economic and cultural capital of Kiravia, and it was agreed that the country was in need of a new political capital to prevent centralisation of power in a single city and state. As part of this process, Kartika, Éamonsar, and Arþodun, along with a pentagonal area of the surrounding countryside, were (consensually) excised from their respective states to form the federally-administered District of Ksoīnvra. It was at this point that Kartika was first formally chartered as a municipal entity. An intensive effort in civil engineering and urban planning followed, involving riverbank reinforcement, swamp drainage, and the construction of grand(ish) edifices to house the precious organs of the federal government.

Layout & Urban Planning

Kartika is more or less a planned city, having lain largely abandoned between 2XXXX and its selection as the federal capital in 2XXXX. Its original planners hoped to emulate the majesty and elegance of Era, the historic capital of Imperial Coscivia, while avoiding the sanitary problems, overcrowding, and periodic urban decay that came along with the ancient city's centuries of poorly-managed growth. In the words of Ergastur Ænórvinden, who oversaw the construction of the Federal Quadrangle, "It was important that the physical form of this city embody and legitimise the government that would rule from it. Continuity with the Empire was a necessity, but so too was the idea that in Kiravia the Coscivian race could and would begin anew, applying and improving upon their inheritance on the shores of a virgin land."

As such, Kartika has always been a comparatively open city: Large swathes of its area are reserved as public parks, arboreta, sculpture gardens, and courtyards. Wide avenues and public walkways decrease congestion in the city's highest-traffic areas. Unusually for a major Kiravian city, Kartika's skyline is devoid of skyscrapers (no buildings exceed 12 stories), and sunlight (however obscured it normally is by the wet weather) is reaches the streets and windows with little obstruction. These conditions, combined with the lack of heavy industry and the large number of iconic and architecturally impressive monuments, statues, and government edifices populating the cityscape have resulted in Kartika being widely considered the most beautiful of the Federacy's large cities.

Government

From its refounding, Kartika has been an independent city within the District of Ksoīnvra, and is administratively separate from the surrounding Ksoīnvra Countyship and the adjacent City of Éamonsar. The municipal legislature is the City Council (Kiravic: Saarkovar), which comprises six seats for each electoral ward and two at-large seats. The entire council is subject to biennial reëlection. The city's chief executive is the Provost, elected triennially. Political parties are banned in the District of Ksoīnvra, and all candidates must stand as independents.

Economy

Affectionately referred to as "Kiravia's oldest, biggest company town", Kartika's economy revolves almost entirely around governance. The federal government is the largest employer in the city, with the District of Ksoīnvra government a distant second. Thousands of interest groups, think-tanks, public advocacy groups, media outlets, NGOs, public relations and political management groups, consulting firms, and law and accounting practices intimately involved with politics and policy are based in the Kartika, as are a large number of defence, engineering, insurance, general services, and other corporations that rely heavily on federal contracts.

High-end shops, restaurants, hôtels, and drinking establishments cater to the tastes of the Kiravian political and business élite, as well as to that of the city's many foreign visitors. Due to the large annual traffic of business and other travellers to the city, the Kartika metropolitan area has the third-largest hospitality industry in the Federacy, behind the vastly more populous conurbations of Valēka and Escarda.

After Valēka and Saar-Silverda, Kartika has the highest cost of living of any Kiravian city. Real estate prices are some of the highest in the country, especially in neighborhoods on the upper banks of the Ksoīnvra River. The high volume of daily commuters into the city puts a premium on housing in the city centre and has driven the growth of transit-oriented developments in the city's outer districts and even more so in the suburbs.

Although the wider metropolitan area produces aerospace and defence equipment, scientific and medical instruments, and other products, there is very little manufacturing in Kartika proper. Brewing accounts for most of the city's meagre industrial output, with most of the remainder made up by the manufacture of high value-added specialty products, such as dental equipment, upmarket recreational telescopes, and jewellery.

Iyerpalan Square in late winter. Parkland covers a large part of the city.

Kelvatroa metro station

Points of Interest

Political

• The Stanora Hall which has been the seat of the Federal legislature since 20731. In keeping with a tradition established during the Early Republic in the spirit of participatory and accountable government, the Stanora Hall is open to the public whenever the Stanora is in session, and visitors are allowed to observe plenary sessions, committee meetings, and hearings.

• Kroveniren Hall - the official residence of the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy and home to the executive branch bureaux organisationally closest to the Prime Executure.

• Confederation Hall - (known internationally as the Tholos) Official meeting place of the Federal Council as well as offices of the General Operations Service, Stanoral Audit Bureau, and Bureau of Measures.

• Federal Consistory - Houses the Federacy's constitutional court and ultimate court of appeal, as well as the Federal Sector Court for Ksoīnvra. The Court of Admiralty Appeals and the District of Ksoīnvra Courthouse are located nearby, giving rise to "Judiciary Square" as a name for the surrounding neighbourhood.

• Táurilavnuv Gate - Seat of the Cabinet Secretariat and nerve centre of the federal bureaucracy.

• Erexlivon and Agláreon Buildings - Seat of the Presidential Commission and Presidential Administration, also known as the "Inner Cabinet".

• Xētulix Ibykia - (English: The Dreaded Ibykia) More formally known as Ibykia Square, this complex houses the headquarters of the Kiravian Security Executive. The Dreaded Ibykia is not accessible to the public, but the National Security Memorial outside of it, featuring a fountain and an engraved memorial to agents of the Security Executive agencies killed in the line of duty, is. The exterior of the building is frequently filmed for use in news montages and spy films.

• General Post Office - Building at 1701 Avenue of the Republic that serves as the national headquarters of the Kiravian Post and is also used for receiving and processing mail addressed to the central organs of the federal government. Although they have their own mailing addresses, mail sent to Kroveniren Hall, the Stanora, the Executive College, the Federal Consistory, the Federal Council, and cabinet-level agency headquarters is routed through the General Post Office to undergo sorting and intensive security screening before being delivered to its final destination. The building also houses important servers and other network infrastructure serving major government offices in the city. It is adjacent to the Kiravian Postal Museum. For the purpose of civil procedure, 1701 Avenue of the Republic is considered the formal mailing address of the federal government as a whole and is the location where process is served for court cases involving the government.

• CUDA Headquarters - Headquarters of the Cronan Unified Defence Agreement military alliance, located in Arþodun, near the Kartika Citadel.

Kartika Tholos

Musea

• Federal War Museum - A quasi-private museum focused on Kiravian military history. While a significant portion of its artifacts are Kiravian military equipment, uniforms, war photographs and film, and related articles, most of its collection comprises "war trophies" captured from enemy nations, which have often been a point of controversy.
• Gallery of Portraiture of the Realm - A government-sponsored museum of portraiture, including permanent collections of portraits of the Prime Executives and Founding Fathers as well as rotating exhibitions of portraits of other political, scientific, cultural, and historical notabilia of national importance.
• National Research Aquarium - An aquarium maintained for both research and publicity purposes by the Federal Oceanographic Agency featuring marine life from the Federacy's diverse aquatic biomes.
• National Ethnographic Museum - A member institution of the Corcoran Consortium, the National Ethnographic Museum documents the folkways, art, lifestyles, history, and music of the various ethnic and regional communities found in the Federacy. It as first established in the opening decades of Kiravian overseas expansion to exhibit artifacts sent back to Great Kirav by Kiravian explorers and colonists, but later expanded to include material relevant to Urom, regional and immigrant Coscivian cultures, and others.
• Kiravian Postal Museum Government-sponsored museum dedicated to the postal history of the Kiravian Federacy and to educating the public about the contemporary operations of the Kiravian Post. Located adjacent to the General Post Office (see above), the Postal Museum is a major destination for philatelists, particularly because it is the only location where the general public can purchase and send mail using the special "Postmaster's Stamps" otherwise reserved for internal government mail.

Other

• Stony Brook Deerpark - An enclosed federal game reserve known as the site of many suspicious deaths and disappearances.