Argévia
Argévia, officially the State of Argévia (Kiravic: Ārka Argévia) is the southernmost Kiravian state on the west coast of Great Kirav. It borders Metrea to the north and Korlēdan to the east, facing the Sound of Æonara, an arm of the Sea of Odoneru in the West.
Geography
Argévia has a north-south orientation, spanning the southernmost extent of the Atrassic coast of Great Kirav. Its eastern border follows the ridgeline of the [Name] Mountains, the southernmost spur of the Western Highlands.
The climate of Argévia is temperate oceanic in the northern coastal extremes, but mostly temperate oceanic submediterranean transitioning to mediterranean pluviseasonal oceanic as one goes south. Some drier inland regions are mediterranean pluviseasonal continental. From south to north, the state spans from the mesomediterranean to thermotemperate/thermo-submediterranean to mesotemperate thermal belts.
Government
Argévia is a semi-presidential republic in which the government is responsible both to the Legislature and First Executive (governor). The State Legislature of Argévia is bicameral, comprising an upper house known as the Auditorium, which exercises most actual legislative power, and a lower, primarily deliberative house known as the Argévian Assembly. The 80 members of the Auditorium are elected every four years by alternative vote from geographically mutable constituencies redrawn every 16 years according to population. The 100 members of the Argévian Assembly are elected biennially at-large by mixt-member proportional representation. The First Executive is elected every six years by alternative vote, and is limited to two consecutive terms plus a third non-consecutive term. The First Executive is recallable beginning in the fourth year of his first term or the third year of his second or third term. Members of the Auditorium who have served more than four terms may be recalled in the third year of any subsequent term. While Auditorial recalls are rare (nine recall elections in history, two of which succeeded in removing the Auditorian from office), proposals to recall the First Executive are mounted fairly frequently. Six Argévian First Executives have faced recall elections, and three of these were voted out of office.
Like the other states of Western Great Kirav, Argévia has a long tradition of direct popular input in the political process. Argévians may participate directly in the legislative process by proposing laws to the Auditorium (either by petition or ballot initiative) and by voting in the numerous referenda authorised by the legislature every session.
Though the Institute for Republican Health ranks Argévia favourably as a "Competitive" state, praising its term limits, vigorous use of direct democracy, frequent elections, and poorly entrenched partisan interests, it notes concerningly low levels of voter information and voter turnout. Argévians are known for having a culture that does not take politics very seriously, frequently electing fringe and joke parties or independents with extreme, incoherent, or parodical platforms to the Argévian Assembly. An IRH study found that only about half of the Auditorium had any meaningful prior experience in politics, law, local government, or management/administration, and that those that did had (on average) significantly fewer years of experience than legislators in other West Coast states and Korlēdan.
Major political challenges in the state include the Auditorium's failure to balance the budget and the government's failure to spend within the limits of that budget, leading to a gradually mounting public debt despite impressive economic growth. Argévian authorities have been subject to severe criticism nationally for their poor enforcement of federal and state drug laws and for its (in the words of Prime Executive Mérovin) "half-arsed attempt at prison and sentencing reform: Decrowding jails by avoiding jail sentences even for dangerous offenders, and failing to follow up on promises of a 'rehabilitation-focused' justice system by implementing all of the lenient parole and release terms but not actually providing any rehabilitative programmes."
Economy
From the 21160s to 21190s, Argévia rapidly transitioned from an economy based primarily on agriculture to a diversified, service-based economy supported by strong media, entertainment, tourism, foreign exchange, food processing, and alcohol sectors. Proximity to the major Kiravian trading partners of Paulastra and North Amerigo across the Æonara Sound has allowed Pontevedra to surpass Escarda as Great Kirav's third-largest cargo port by annual volume (behind Saar-Silverda and Valēka). Pontevedra houses a bottling and distribution facility for Paulastrani-owned Imperial Cola, as well as an aircraft component plant owned by an Amerigan firm.
Tourism
Argévia's long coastline and agreeable climate (warmer, sunnier, and drier than most of Great Kirav, though still temperate) have long made the state a popular destination for vacationers from the colder, darker, and rainier states, particularly the populous Northeast and North Coast. With the emergence of the West Coast club scene, the establishment of Pontevedra as a film and media production hub, and the commercialisation of golf (historically a club-oriented and relatively exclusive sport in Kiravia), Argévia rapidly gained even more to offer visitors from Eastern and Northern Kirav empowered by the falling prices of domestic air travel.
Golf resorts. Seaside resorts. Marinas. Ski resorts in the northeast. Spas and country/natural retreats. Luxury hôtels.
Argévia welcomes an estimated XX million non-business visitors from other states and an estimated X00,000 from foreign countries annually. According to the Argévian Business & Market Executive, the tourism industry and tourist spending accounted for about 28% of the state's GDP in 21205.
Entertainment Industry
Pontevedra is the heartland of the Kiravian club scene. Building on the vibrant electronic music culture of the west coast, heavy tourist traffic, and good repute among foreign travellers, Pontevedra has more nightclubs, dancehalls, licenced urban raves, and concert venues per capita than any other Kiravian state. These clubs range in character from exclusive and morally questionable "bass skyscrapers" catering to the Hekuvian élite to upscale urban dancebars to beachside party spots, to barely converted warehouses pumping out only the grungiest "tech-tonic acidcore", "garage nightmare-step", and "military-industrial complextro".
Pontevedra is locked in competition with Valēka for the title of Kiravia's music capital. Since the 21180s, the decentralisation of the Kiravian recording industry and the emergence of the Club Coast as the residence of choice for the rich, autotuned, and famous led many Kiravian independent labels and a large number of subsidiaries and imprints to relocate to Pontevedra, where a thriving DIY production culture was already generating vinyl libraries worth of unsigned content.
The Pontevedra metropolitan area is also the hub of the Kiravian film industry. All but one of the companies classified as "major studios" by industry analysts are headquartered in the area, which also hosts most of the country's sound stages. Urom gambling.
Along with the libertarian overseas colony of Daridia, Pontevedra is one of two locations for Kiravia's small domestic pornography sector. Like all other Kiravian states, Argévia classifies any exchange of money or readily liquidated assets for sexual services as prostitution, and prostitution remains illegal in the state. However, the state has selectively decriminalised such transactions, provided that 1) payments are made by a third party who does not personally receive sexual services, 2) the services are cinematically or videographically recorded with the intent to distribute commercially, and 3) there is no violation of the state's general film studio regulations. Producers are routinely assessed civil fines for violating the prostitution law, but in a manner that functionally amounts to a licensing fee.
Drugs & Black Market
Most economists agree that a considerable portion of Argévian economic activity and earnings are not documented in official statistics due to their illegal or extralegal nature. Argévia's booming club scene, tourist traffic, and extensive trading contacts with Pelaxia and Heku have combined with lax law enforcement to make the state the capital of the Kiravian recreational drug industry. Smuggling of other goods, both illegal products and simply untaxed ones, is believed to occur on a large scale at the state's sea- and airports, despite Federal promises to ratchet up customs enforcement.
Society & Culture
Argévia constitutes the southern spur of the wider Farravonian cultural region, which extends along the west coast of Great Kirav from Cape Cedar, Argévia as far north as Venèra. As with other parts of the region, Argévian culture is generally described as casual, innovative, creative, inclusive, and comparatively optimistic.
Ethnosocial Groups
The single-largest ethnosocial group in the state are the Serradans, though their share of the population is smaller than in the other Farravonian states. The Azurians, descended from an early group of Southern Coscivian settlers, have played an important role in Argévian history and culture, along with other Southern Coscivian groups who arrived afterward, including Korúnans, Lusans, Ardónians, Purgónians, Paisonic Coscivians, and Eskean Coscivians. Argévia hosts large transplanted communities of various small Coscivian groups native to the Western Highlands, such as Tebnans, Ayembrem, Ilkhans, and Cyptovians.
Significant numbers of Kir Coscivians from Mid-Oceanic and Mid-Continental Kirav began moving to the state after the end of Kirosocialism, attracted by Argévia's rapid economic growth while many industrial areas in Etivéra, Váuadra, and elsewhere struggled to adjust during the liberalisation process. Kir people can be found throughout the state, but are mainly concentrated in the suburbs of its major cities.
Æonaran Coscivians and Umcarans have long-established communities in Argévia's port cities, reflecting centuries of trade and travel between Argévia and Æonara.
Argévia has the largest ethnic Tryhstian population by percentage after the Tryhstian Littoral, and the second-largest by raw numbers after Cascada. Tryhstians played a major role in the exploration and settlement of Argévia, and their language, cuisine, and customs continue to influence general Argévian culture.
The nations with the largest number of citizens living in Argévia as expatriates are (in order): Caphiria, Paulastra, the Cape, Cartadania, and Aciria.
Religion
Despite its reputation for cultural liberalism, Argévia is not significantly less religious than the rest of the Kiravian Federacy. This has contributed to the state's nickname Hekuvia Baldarê ("Caphiria on the [Æonara] Sound"), as Argévians somewhat resemble Caphirians in combining a strong religious identity with more liberal attitudes towards certain activities. Argévians do, nonetheless, tend to have a universalistic and often syncretic approach to religion. The vìutiaskrálin ("independent congregation") and emerging church movements are strong and growing, especially in urban areas of the state.
Although the Rosary Belt that stretches across much of the West Coast does not extend into Argévia by most definitions, Catholicism is still the largest religion in the state, and there are several rural and micropolitan areas of Argévia that strongly resemble the Rosary Belt in terms of the role that orthodox Catholicism plays in everyday life.
Coscivian Orthodoxy is the second-largest religious denomination, followed by Ruricanism, Komarism, Independent Orthodoxy, Reformed Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Mormonism, the Bahá'í Faith, Islam, and Sikhism. Metrea is an important centre of vìutiaslrálin ("independent congregation") activity, even in rural areas, despite the fact that the vìutiascrálin have traditionally been an Eastern and urban phenomenon.
The Church of Dodd, which believes that the Daxian leader Prib Dodd is a divine being, is headquartered in Pontevedra.