Valēka

Valēka
Grand City
Flag
Nickname(s):  The City of Islands
Country	Kiravian Federacy
State	Kaviska
Countyship	Imperial
Government
• Provost	Pálur Vitekondév (ACU)
• President	Michael Vick
Population	10,156,838
Climate	Supratemperate subcontinental

Valēka is the largest city of the Kiravian Federacy and the largest city of the state of Kaviska. Founded in 747 AD by Sedhan Coscivian chieftain Kedhur Valēkas, the city quickly assumed a commanding position in oceangoing commerce, cementing its enduring economic clout. Valēka is the economic and cultural capital of the Kiravian Federacy, and a major centre for the fine arts, high finance, higher education, high-tech manufacturing, research, and international trade. A world city, Valēka is one of the major command points of the global economy and is widely regarded as the most modern and consequential city outside of the Occidental world.

The Valēka Metropolitan Area, which encompasses southeastern Kaviska, northern Niyaska, and portions of Etivéra, is home to approximately fifty million people and is the Federacy's most economically productive and prosperous region.

Geography

Island cantons in olive drab, New Cantons in grey-green, West Valēka in light green. All other land in light gray.

Cantons & Islands

Valēka is divided into 10 cantons

Cantons

The Islands

• Ansalon
• Tandhurin
• Strathan
• Sardēmur
• Xamrun

New Cantons

• Canova
• Aspihar
• Kerśodan
• Xarbasar

West Valēka

• West Valēka

Minor Islands

• Foster's Island (part of Ansalon Canton)
• Brékalter Island (part of Tandhurin Canton)
• Ûskarya Island (part of Aspihar Canton)

Cityscape

The built environment of Valēka is quite diverse across its territory. Ansalon Island, home to some of the most densely populated census tracts in the Federacy, is famous for its many skyscrapers, 324 of which exceed 490 feet in height. Tandhurin Island has fewer and shorter true skyscrapers, and is dominated instead by shorter highrise buildings of 10-32 storeys (but normally 15-20), a smaller number of wide, 7-10 storey midrises (mostly institutional or commercial), and its iconic 4-6 storey townhouses, many of which have been augmented with vertical additions or rooftop facilities to take advantage of rising real estate prices in the canton. The New Cantons are mainly residential and characterised by an abundance of neighbourhoods, most populated by a particular ethnic subgroup and centred on a house of worship associated with that community. In Canova, southwest Aspihar, and southern Kerśodan, the typical neighbourhood is made up of 3-5 storey townhouses similar in construction to their taller Tandhurin counterparts, whereas in other parts of the New Cantons, detached Coscivian towerhouses and clusters of vernacular tidor houses predominate. The traditional neighbourhoods are interspersed with pockets of higher-density development, usually either high-rise public housing estates or newer mixed-use areas, often growing up around key intersections or public transit stations. In addition, each of the New Cantons has an established pre-Kirosocialist "downtown" area. Skyscrapers in the New Cantons are confined to waterfront districts of southern Kerśodan, Canova, and Aspihar. West Valēka resembles an edge city in many respects, with areas of high-rise mixed-use development radiating outward from its historic core and along major transport corridors into what is otherwise a markedly more "suburban" area with a streetcar commuter heritage.

Climate

Valēka has a supratemperate subcontinental climate influenced by the Kilikas Sea and Valēkas Bay.

History

Kedhur Valēkas

The Coscivian expedition led by Kedhur Valēkas that discovered Great Kirav made its first landfall on the island of Koskenkorva, then sailed south-west to discover a second island, Ilánova. While circumnavigating the island in order to chart its coasts, the explorers sighted a larger landmass, the island continent of Great Kirav proper. Sailing southest toward and around the Iyaspala Peninsula, Valēkas and his crew entered what is now the Valēka Roadstead, which they noted for its sheltered waters and several natural harbours created by the surrounding islands and peninsulae.

After charting the eastern coast of Great Kirav, the expedition returned to the Valēka Roadstead to lay its ships at anchor for the winter. A fortified cantonment dubbed Port Kaleximur after Coscivian Emperor Kaleximur VI was built on the southern tip of Ansalon Island to shelter the explorers until the spring, at which time expedition returned to Éorsa. Valēkas' subsequent expeditions along the Great Kiravian coast and up the Kyigrava and Coïn rivers used Port Caleximur as a base, and a farming community was established to create a more reliable food supply for the growing number of navigators, tradesmen, and fishermen plying the waters of the Western Aquaric.

Kilikas Enlightenment and the Republican Revolution

[Kilikas Enlightenment] [Republican Revolution]

After a fierce and confusion period of political jockeying over the location of the confederal capital, the framers of the Fundamental Statute arrived at a compromise whereunder the seat of the Marble Emperor and the executive organs of the new government would be in [old name for West Valēka], while the [old upper house], confederal judiciary, treasury, and mint would be based in Eriadun and the [old legislature word] would convene in what is now Kartika. [old name for West Valēka] would not be incorporated into Valēka until [much later]. The principal base and command centre for the Navy was located in [sea fort], off [part of Valēka].

Port of Empire

During the Age of the Sail and the expansion of Kiravian commercial and colonial interests worldwide, Valēka stood at the centre of the growing trans-oceanic web of trade and migration routes, cash flows, and political-military chains of command.

For most of this period, the Kiravian colonial empire was overseen not from Kartika, but from Valēka, where the professional administrative corps of the Colonial College cared for the far-flung outposts in its charge with rather limited oversight from the Vizier of the Sea, and over time became an increasingly self-perpetuating, self-financed, and self-directed institution, often described as a state within a state.

Kirosocialism

Valēka was by no means spared from the domestic unrest that led up to Kirosocialism. The conflicting interests of the city's proletarian and merctantile-professional classes engendered social tensions that stoked strikes and riots met with suppression and retaliation by the propertied class and the authorities. However, in contrast to other Kiravian industrial centres like Escarda and Vondor, the political expression of Valēka's labour movement was oriented less toward the social-nationalist and Kiro-Marxist currents that would merge to form the orthodox Kirosocialist Party, and more toward the [Party1] and [Party2]. Nonetheless, by [YEAR] Kirsok had come to dominate the Valēka Workers' Soviet by soliciting the support of key labour sectors such as longshoremen and meatpackers, and through intimidation of rival factions.

Under the Kiravian Union, Valēka was detached from the Kyigrava Region which had succeeded Kaviska State, and was established as a first-level administrative division unto itself, the Valēka Union Municipality.

Valēka as a World City

Valēka benefitted immensely from the economic liberalisation process exiting from Kirosocialism, quickly emerging as the prime point of entry for international trade and investment and reëstablishing itself as the nation's dominant financial centre. The city's population boomed during this period, swollen by a mass influx of migrants from other parts of Kiravia, most of which experienced the post-Kirosocialist economic transition with much greater difficulty than Valēka. Although the city's industrial base grew and modernised on the whole, the main driver of growth in post-Kirsok Valēka was the service sector, with "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, finance, and law leading the surge.

As the market economy of First Kirav matured in the 21190s-21200s, the character of the city began to change due to suburbanisation, losing many of its established middle-class residents to commuter suburbs and satellite cities in County Astorin, County Tapanin, and North Niyaska.

Politics and Governance

City Hall, Ansalon Island

Offices of the Provost and Municipal Administration, Ansalon Island

Because Valēka carries out on a municipal level many public services and functions ordinarily carried out by state governments and governs a population comparable to many states, the Provost of Valēka has acquired an informal status on par with state governors, with a correspondingly similar national profile. A survey of nationwide news networks found that between 21195 and 21202, Valēka provosts have received more television news coverage than the governors of all but twelve states. Two provosts have gone on to become Prime Executives of the Kiravian Federacy without serving in any other office in the interim, and Valēka provosts are often included in public speculation about future candidates for the office.

The Sarkovar or "City Commission" operates under a two-party system in which power rotates between the Azure Civic Union Party and the Emerald Civic Alliance Party, which draw their electoral support from the fanbases of the city's two Federated Fieldball League teams: the Valēka Emperors and Valēka Metropolitans, respectively. ACUP supporters are more concentrated on Ansalon, Tandhurin, and Strathan Islands and have slightly higher incomes on average; while ECAP supporters tend to live in the mainland cantons and Imyara Island and have slightly lower incomes on average. Both parties are non-ideological and their platforms are nearly identical, comprised mostly of broad, pragmatic, and inoffensive policy statements. The two parties court votes mainly by dispensing patronage and appealing to team loyalty, rather than by promoting comprehensive political programmes. Which party wins a majority of City Commission seats in a given election is largely a matter of turnout, though long-term trends have shown a correlation with the athletic performance of the two teams, as people who move to the city from outside the Valēka metropolitan area are more likely to become fans of whichever team is doing better on the field at that time and then go on to vote for that team's party.

While Valēkan political culture is diverse, owing to immigration from other parts of the Federacy and abroad, the city's residents are known for having generally pro-business (but also pro-labour) attitudes, positive views about the role and efficacy of the federal government, and a fiercely protective stance towards public institutions and self-expression values. Consumer protection and interstate and international commerce regulations are major issues for Valēkans, and as such the city tends to support the Federalist Republican Alliance on the federal level. On the state level, Valēkans are more diverse in their partisan leanings, giving substantial support to most Kaviskan state parties but showing a strong preference for (and producing a great many) independent candidates.

Public Education

The Valēka Integrated School District is the largest public school system in the Federacy by expenditure and number of students. Its number of schools is surpassed only by the County Dannen School District covering Escarda. The VISD struggles with challenges to its mission posed by the unique conditions of the Federacy's largest city. Providing mother-tongue primary education and instruction in Kiravic as a second-language to students from multifarious linguistic backgrounds is costly and often falls short of expected standards. The urban poverty in which many of the VISD's pupils live leads to issues with attendence, discipline, in-school criminal activity, and self-motivation.

Law & Order

Valēka Police Administrative Building, Ansalon Island

Valēka police on a routine patrol, Imyara Island

The main law enforcement and public security agency in Valēka is the Valēka Police Force. With 75,000 uniformed personnel, it is the largest municipal police force in the Kiravian Federacy, and surpasses most federal subject police forces in terms of personnel and operating budget. The VPF is highly experienced in and equipped for mission profiles such as crowd and riot control, counterterrorism, and counternarcotics, and maintains significant aviation and maritime divisions in order to operate effectively across the city's many islands.

Other law enforcement agencies in Valēka include the bi-state Kaviska-Niyaska Port Police (responsible for patrolling port facilities, intercity rail stations, and other infrastructure in and around Valēka Harbour), the Valēka Municipal Investigative Service (responsible for investigating corruption, civil law violations, tax infractions, and other white-collar crimes), and divisions of federal law enforcement agencies such as the Migration Authority, Counternarcotics Agency, Anti-Bioterror Agency, and Federal Police. Valēka is within the jurisdiction of the Kaviska State Police, but in practice the KSP only perform investigative and highway patrol duties inside the city limits, in accordance with an agreement reached between the city government and upstate legislators in the Template:H:title.

Crime and public security challenges facing the city include its large number of potential terrorist targets, deeply entrenched organised crime syndicates, ethnic/communal and sporting rivalry violence, gang violence in the city's poorer neighbourhoods, drug and other smuggling activities and black market trade, and the presence of many political extremist groups. Valēka's organised criminal enterprises have a long history of infiltrating the city's labour unions, public services, transport and construction industries, and even political parties, making them praticularly difficult for the city government to combat effectively. The ethnically Paisonic Coscivian Íntudóntræ ("Seven Families") and the Gaelic Mob have been the dominant organised crime groups since the late Template:H:title, but are now facing competition from the Stelanovian Mob, the Hardbass Mafia, the Black 47s, and the ЖЖ-10s. Valēka is a major nexus for the transnational Kiravian Mafia.

Valēka's main correctional facilities are located on Rikross Island, between Kerśodan and Strathan.

Demographics

Residential high-rises on Strathan. Strathan and Ansalon are the highest-density census tracts in the Federacy.

Tandhurin Island

The city proper is home to over nine million people. The population of Valēka has shown growth on every census taken in the past century, and continues to grow from natural births (mostly in the mainland cantons, Sardēmur, and Strathan), domestic migration, and immigration from outside the Federacy, offsetting the outflow of residents the city's suburbs and exurbs. Roughly 45% of Valēkans were born in the city, and an additional 12% were born elsewhere in the Valēka Metro area. 26% were born elsewhere in the Kiravian Federacy and 17% were born abroad or at sea. The actual foreign-born population is assumed to be larger than this figure, as foreign expatriates and irregular immigrants are undercounted.

The social profile of the city has changed significantly from the 21190s onward, reflecting the post-industrial trajectory of its economy and greater regional connectivity. Most significantly, the city has shed most of its established middle class population, who have relocated to more outlying communities in the metropolitan area. In the wake of this attrition of middle-income, multi-generational Valēkan families, other social sectors such as affluent elites and white-collar professionals, more recent (post-Kirosocialist) domestic migrants, immigrants, students and young professionals, the creative class, and the multi-generational Valēkan working class.

Ethnicity

Valēka is the most ethnically diverse city in the Federacy and among the most ethnically diverse in the world, being home to members of virtually all Coscivian ethnosocial groups, most other Cosco-Adratic peoples, and representatives of all other singificant groups in the Federacy, such as Celts, Kiravite Urom, Azikorians, Kópistonians, Érhuans, Aınarovans, Echoese, and Levantines. The largest ethnosocial groups in the city are those that undertook large-scale migration to the city during Valēka's industrial boom, namely the Æran Coscivians, Paisonic Coscivians and their various subgroups, Kaśuvan Coscivians, and East Costratic Coscivians. The human geography of Valēka is a patchwork of ethnic neighbourhoods centred around ethnically specific houses of worship, punctuated by smaller areas of mixed-use development with higher-income, ethnically-mixed populations.

Because of its commercial importance, Valēka is home to a large number of expatriates from nations with which the Federacy has strong economic ties. At the 21205 census, the nations with the largest number of expatriates residing in Valēka were Caphiria, Urcea, Faneria, Fiannria, Burgundie, Paulastra, the Cape, and Cartadania.

Religion

Valēka's religious diversity mirrors its ethnic diversity. Its religious demography mainly reflects the prevailing faiths of the wider region and nation, but the burgeoning global city also hosts a colourful array of smaller, newer, and imported religious traditions less common elsewhere in Kiravia.

Catholicism is the largest religion in the city, with Jesuit and Franciscan missions in Valēka having been the Catholic Church's first inroad into northern Great Kirav. Catholicism is the traditional religion of the Levantine, Tryhstian, Stelanovian, Cervonian, Alòxinan, Serradan, Beryllian, and Limoncellese ethnic groups, and has a minority following among many other groups. It is the largest religion among the ethnic Kir population. Catholicism continues to attract many converts in Valēka through the influence of numerous schools, colleges, and charities operated by religious orders and the Archdioceses of Valēka. Most Catholics in Valēka worship according to the Coscivian Rite. However, Valēka has 46 Latin Rite Parishes and the second-largest Latin Catholic population on the mainland after Bérasar. In contrast to Bérasar, where the Latin Catholic population is predominantly of Levantine extraction, the Latin Rite congregations of Bérasar are majority Coscivian on the whole. The Coscivian Rite Archdiocese covers the city itself, neighbouring County Astorin, and Holden Island, and is the oldest Great Kiravian archdiocese in continuous operation outside Great Kirav#South Kirav after the Archdiocese of Primóra. The Archbishop of Valēka is nearly always named a Cardinal and is regarded as the most senior Catholic leader in the Federacy. The Latin Archdiocese of Valēka covers all of Lower Kaviska. The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Tandhurin Island is the national shrine of the Kiravian Federacy.

Coscivian Orthodoxy, the traditional faith of many of the city's largest ethnic groups, such as Paisonic and Kaśuvan Coscivians, is the second-largest religion in the city. Most Coscivian Orthodox parishes in the city minister to one particular ethnic group, usually the dominant ethnic group of the neighbourhood where they are located. Valēka is divided into six Coscivian Orthodox dioceses: Valēka (covering the island cantons, except Strathan), Canova (covering Canova and Aspihar), and Xarbasar (Xarbasar, West Valēka, Kerśodan, and Strathan).

Other religions with a visible presence in Valēka include Islam (mainly Rumeli, Alawite, and Ibadhi, but with other sects represented as well), Kulukusi selenolatry, Sikhism, the Bahá'í Faith, Melian Pythagoreanism, Neoplatonism, Mandaeanism, Manichaeanism, Welsh nationalism, and Pribyterianism.

Economy

Valēka Stock Exchange, Ansalon Island

Reserve Bank of Kirav, West Valēka

Valēka is the foremost city in the Kiravian economy and a prominent city in the regional economy of Ixnay. Forty-two of the 100 largest Kiravian corporations by market capitalisation are based in Valēka, and the city houses the corporate offices and flagship operations of numerous major multinationals. Valēka is regarded as the leading city of the Kiravian financial, international shipping, telecommunications, publishing, advertising, and insurance industries. Although Valēka was the first city in the Coscivian world to industrialise and retains a strong industrial heritage, most manufacturing operations have long since relocated to its satellite cities and suburbs, leaving an economy based primarily on services and commerce. Nonetheless, high-technology and specialty manufacturing enterprises have proliferated in the city since the 21180s economic reforms under Governor Candrin, with many taking root in the borough of Canova.

Valēka dominates the Kiravian financial sector, and is home to its three largest stock exchanges, several major nationwide and international banks and credit union federations, and innumerable investment groups, mutual funds, hedge funds, and other financial institutions. The Federacy's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Kirav, has its de facto headquarters in West Valēka, although its deposits are (at least notionally) held and managed at the RBK offices in Kartika, which remains the Bank's formal address for postal and legal purposes.

More written material is published in Valēka than any other Kiravian city, with it being home to over one thousand publishing houses of varying sizes, several university presses, and five major national newspapers: The Valēka Post (considered Kiravia's newspaper of record), the Kiravian Times, the Economic Post, the Financial Post, the Republican Messenger, and the City Isles Report. TThe leading Kiravian wirse service Agśensuv Kirav-Press is based in Ansalon. Despite the emergence of Pontevedra as an entertainment industry hub during the 21190s, Valēka remains the leading city in Kiravian music publishing and film distribution (especially film imports), and web content development.

Valēka Harbour is the Federacy's busiest port for both imports and exports, and the second-largest domestic cargo port by volume (following Saar-Silverda). It comprises port facilities and supporting infrastructure in all of the city's cantons, as well as the cities of Śervinaxt, Cantrasar, Saar-Niyaska, and Kartaret in northern Niyaska. It is the main port of departure for goods manufactured in Valēka itself, Niyaska, Róvidrea, and major industrial cities further up the Kyigrava River such as Trár and Evira, as well as northeastern Etivéra. Goods produced in the central Eastern Highlands, Kastera, Hiterna, and Central Kirav bound for South Levantia or Heku are usually shipped out from Valēka as well.

Culture

Valēkans regard their city as the spiritual successor to Era, the capital of the Coscivian Empire, and Rovisa, the capital of the Akuvaric Empire. As such, they see Valēka as not only the foremost city of Kiravia, but of the entire civilised world. Valēkans are known for their élitist attitude towards the wider world beyond their city limits. In the words of the Kiravian travel author and humourist Lavran Katin:

If you get a bunch of Valēkans drunk together on any given day, eventually one will brag that he's never left the city in his life. Then another will brag that he's never been to Imyara or further inland than Canova, and another will brag that he's never left Ansalon Island. This continues until you find someone who stands in the middle of the pub with a straight face and claims to have never left his 3rd Street condo. He knows he's lying as much as anyone else, but deep inside him is a sincere belief that the five-acre plot of dirt his building stands on at the southern tip of Ansalon is the best damn five acres on the planet and he himself is a better man simply by virtue of sleeping thirty stories atop it.

Language

Over eight thousand languages are spoken in the city^{[yes this is canon, get fucked]}, reflecting its incredibly diverse Kiravian population and large numbers of immigrants and expatriates. Kiravic Coscivian is the most widely spoken language in the city, spoken fluently by 46% of the population, competently by an additional 28% of the population, and poorly or not at all by the remaining 26%. Life in such a multilingual city has caused the majority of Valēkans to be accomplished polyglots: Most can speak at least their native or ethnic language and Kiravic, while others speak multiple ethnic languages common in their parts of the city along with Kiravic and their own language. Still others are natively trilingual as a result of interethnic marriage. Monolingual Kiravic-speakers (speaking "radio Kiravic" or a more polished register of the Valēka dialect) are a rather small minority in the city, and tend to live in higher-income, multi-ethnic, mixed-use neighbourhoods on the home islands.

Living in a major city for international business, Valēkans far surpass their countrymen in their proficiency with foreign languages. Among the native-born Coscivian population, Valēka boasts more English and Latin speakers in absolute numbers than any other Kiravian city (though immigrant-heavy Bérasar exceeds it in both by percentage). Sorrentian and Hekuvian Latin are both widely understood, and most secondary school graduates have at least a rudimentary command of them.

Road signs in Valēka are mostly printed in Kiravic and Kiravic only. However, individual ethnic neighbourhoods have successfully petitioned to have supplemental street signs posted in their vernacular or have added such signs unilaterally. Other public informational signage is usually multilingual, with the most common languages being Paisonic Coscivian, Antaric Coscivian, Melote, Vilaman Coscivian, Ibaran Coscivian, Latin, and Lebhan.

Valēka Kiravic

Valēka is home to a distinctive dialect of Kiravic Coscivian. Like the other dialects spoken in the Kaviska, Valēka Kiravic belongs to the Northern Kiravic dialect group. The foundations of the dialect owe more to the Kiravic varieties spoken upriver in [City], County X, and County Y, from whence the first settlers of the city came, than to the traditional rural dialect of the lower Iyaspala Peninsula, which is now extinct.

The modern Valēkan dialect developed during the 21XXXs as the native speech of the city absorbed influences brought by mass migration from elsewhere, including other dialects of Kiravic, other Coscivian languages, minority languages, and from foreign contact. Today, the characteristic phonological and lexical features of the dialect are most pronounced among working- and middle-class people of Coscivian descent living on the outer islands and the mainland boroughs of the city. A few long-established aristocratic Valēkan families and a handful of exurban communities far outside the city proper continue to speak in a manner resembling the earlier, pre-mass migration Valēka dialect, which is of great interest to historical linguists.

Sports

Valēka is the only city that is home to two teams competing in the Federal Fieldball League, the Valēka Emperors and Valēka Metropolitans. Team allegiance is a strongly-held social identifier and a deeply divisive issue among Valēkans, with pubs and other facilities having adopted a policy of segregation to prevent fighting between fans of opposing teams.

The city is also home to the Valēka Cutlasses of the transnational Levantian Hockey League and the Valēka Ospreys of the Kiravian Gridiron Football League.

Transportation

The Port of Valēka is the Federacy's largest passenger port, largest international port by volume, and second-largest port by overall cargo volume following the Port of Saar-Silverda. More foreign goods enter Kiravia at Valēka than anywhere else.

The Valēka is served by four international airports. Two, Valēka International and Maðurin Memorial, lie within the city limits, located on Engram's Bars and in West Valēka, respectively. Ĥarova-Tapanin International Airport is located in nearby County Tapanin, Kaviska, while Iselin Ærodrome is located in Iselin, Niyaska.

Federal Route I, which traverses the Eastern Seaboard from Silmarin, Mariava to Dróvedra, Trinatria, crosses into Valēka through [island 2], and provides access to the city via a number of exits and service roads located in x, y, z, and northern Niyaska. Federal Route IV, which runs east-to-west across Great Kirav, has its eastern terminus at Exit 1 on [island 3]. Because of the city's age and inundated geography, it is the only major Kiravian city lacking a full or partial beltway.

The city has a robust, efficient public transit system including the ValTram bus service, the Valēka Subway, and a monorail route that serves the Home Islands and is slated for expansion to other parts of the city. Unlike its counterparts centred in Escarda and Kartika, the Valēka transit system does not extend into the city's wider metro area, and instead provides transfer points for interchange with the Niyaska Transit Authority and private- or semiprivate- bus and streetcar lines serving the commuter suburbs. Valēka has the second-lowest car ownership rate among major Kiravian cities (behind Saar-Silverda) and is home to more taxicabs than anywhere else in the country.

Housing

Alternative Housing

Valēka is an expensive city with high housing costs and a high cost of living, but relies on large numbers of low-wage workers, irregular workers, interns, and starving artists to drive its important tourism, hospitality, intracity transport, culture industry, and panhandling sectors. Many Valēkans, especially those newly established, such as youth, immigrants, or domestic migrants, cannot afford conventional housing and may be unable or unwilling to commute from more affordable suburbs and satellite cities (e.g. Kantrasar) and instead seek out alternative accommodations, often while on the lengthy waitlist for public housing units.

'Upscale' shelf apartments in Ansalon

Single-room occupancy buildings are common across the city, and are often rented by migrants, remittance workers, and students. Forms of SRO progressively limited in their amenities include the kitchenette, bedsit, microapartment, and finally the shelf apartment. Valēka microapartments are often vertically-oriented to take advantage of overhead space, and make extensive use of shelving, ladders, hammockry, and suspended storage systems to extract maximal utility from limited floorspace, often in converted facilities not originally intended for human habitation. Although microapartments are built and leased commercially, the city is also home to thousands of private microapartments improvised in the closets, substair spaces, attics, and sheds of single-family residences, usually leased off the books for cash. Whereas microapartments make extensive use of shelving, shelf apartments, as their name suggests are industrial-scale metal shelving intended for warehouse or poultry use and partitioned into rentable units using chicken wire or other barriers. Some higher-end shelf apartments use wooden or brushed-metal shelving intended for archival or office purposes. Bans on this mode of housing have been proposed numerous times, but ultimately city authorities would rather weather the health and safety hazards posed thereby than deal with homeless people in the street.

Candwelling (dośpahartrebar) is the art and science of sleeping inside trash cans and similar receptacles. Though the truly down bad candweller may opportunistically shelter in unsuspecting trashcans, most candwellers prefer to maintain their own dedicated can, often wheeled, to ensure cleanliness and allow its use for storing personal items during waking hours. Cans can be parked in most areas without arousing suspicion, and most candwellers will stay overnight and leave before sanitation workers arrive in the morning, or (as is common with night-shift workers and other nocturnal people) park in residential neighbourhoods during daylight hours after sanitation workers have come through and householders have left for work. Even with such precautions, having additional trash dumped on one's head or ending up in the back of a garbage truck remains an occupational hazard.

Cardwelling, on the other hand, is virtually impossible in Valēka due to the scarcity and expense of parking.

Points of Interest

Governmental

• Valēka Municipal Towers - Houses the office of the Provost and the central offices of the city's executive agencies.
• City Hall and Council Chambers - Houses the Valēka City Council assembly hall and offices, open to the public on all business days.
• State Chronometric Observatory - Houses one of the two strontium-87 optical lattice clocks that keep the nation's official time, the other being held at the Federal Mathematical & Astronomical Institute in Kartika .
• Immigration Processing Centre - Foster Island - Federal facility occupying an island in Valēka Harbour, which has been used to accommodate and process immigrants seeking entry into the Kiravian Federacy since 21053. Despite falling into disuse during the period of halted immigration under Kirosocialism, Foster Island has taken on a new purpose as a processing facility for temporary economic and refugee/asylee migrants arriving through Valēka area airports, as a detention centre for persons appearing in migration court or awaiting deportation, and a quarantine facility for travellers presenting with infectious diseases.
• Arsenal Island and Armoury Island - Two islands in Valēka Harbour fortified since the 1420s and jointly garrisoned by the Federal Army and the Kaviska State Forces. Tactically, the islands were (and still are) meant to serve as artillery batteries to defend the harbour from attack, but are mainly used to house troops, surplus matériel, and administrative offices supporting Federal Army and Naval operations in the Gateway Region.
• Municipal Parking Authority Headquarters- Reviled as the home of the most hated city agency (after the Revenue Directorate, of course) and used by Valēkans as a byword for bureaucratic inefficiency and ineptitude, this building on Y-island is where residents must go to apply for and pick up street parking permits, track down towed cars, and contest parking citations. According to a Valēka Audit Court report, the MPA headquarters was closed for almost half of the city government's working days in 21204, has a daily average staff absence rate of 28%, and is working through 10- and 15-year backlogs for certain filings. Initiatives to digitise and streamline the Authority's operations have been thwarted year after year by public sector unions, much to the ire of Valēkan motorists.
• Wintergen House - Rowhouse on Tandhurin Island from which the government-in-exile of Wintergen has operated since the island was occupied by Burgundie. The building and its grounds are extraterritorial to Kaviska and exempt from state and city laws and taxes.

Religious

The Maritime Sailors' Cathedral

• Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help - Roman Catholic national shrine of the Kiravian Federacy and seat of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Valēka. Located in Tandhurin, it is the largest Catholic church in the city. It was built in 211XX in an Urcean-inspired Neo-Byzantine and Neo-Romanesque style, and is known for its elaborate mosaīcs, statuary, and impedimenta. Coscivian Rite, Latin Rite, and Greek Rite services are all held regularly in the Basilica and its numerous side chapels, and its breathtaking Vespers service draws attendees from all religious backgrounds.
• Maritime Sailors' Cathedral - An interdenominational, multilingual Christian church in the Seaport West district, serving sailors and travellers of diverse nationalities. Services are offered in Kiravic, High Coscivian, Latin, Lebhan, Burgundine, English, Gaelic, Portuguese, Lornish, Gothic, Italian, Slavonic, Punic, Welsh, and Greek.
• Cathedral of St. Adomnán - Seat of the Insular Apostolic Archbishop of Valēka, located in the Perlitren district on Tandhurin.

Economic

• Valēka Stock Exchange - The nation's largest stock exchange, based in the Financial District.
• National Securities Market - The nation's second-largest stock exchange, also located in the Financial District.
• SNOWPEC Towers - Headquarters of the SNOWPEC economic alliance, the SNOWPEC Towers complex houses over 400,000 square metres of office, accommodation, and commercial space, as well as an indoor ski slope.
• Interbank Financial Messaging System Central Nexus - Interbank transfer system, network infrastructure located in West Valēka.
• Kevretin & Company - High-end department store located in Uptown.
• Port of Valēka - A vast network of port facilities dominating the Valēka shoreline and extending into neighbouring cities in Kaviska and Niyaska, the Port of Valēka is the second-largest cargo port in the Federacy by volume (after the Port of Saar-Silverda, and its largest international passenger port. The port is regulated by the Port Authority of Valēka and North Niyaska, an interstate organisation accountable to both the Kaviskan and Niyaskan state governments.
• Empire Brewery - Flagship brewery of Empire Brewing SAK, the largest independent brewery in Kiravia, most notable for its stouts and porters. The brewery offers tours and tastings to visitors, and ranks among the city's top tourist attractions.
• Global Business Park - Office complex constructed in the early 21190s as a joint Federal-Kaviskan-Valēkan project to attract foreign trade and capital to the city. Today the complex's tenants include a wide variety of Kiravian and foreign (particularly Levantine and Caphirian) firms, most of which are involved in international commerce and high finance.
• Stólvikēkivon - (English: "Antennapolis") District of Sandēmur home to numerous broadcasting companies and transmission facilities, including KDŌ-KBS, Vísomer Cable, CBC, Kiravia Today, and the Federal Public Radio Consortium.

Universities

• University of Valēka - The second-oldest university in Kiravia and one of the most prestigious in the country. UV's main campus is located on the north end of Ansalon, but the university owns sattelite campuses, freestanding buildings, and rental properties throughout the city.
• Agnālion University - Nonsectarian private university located on Tandhurin Island.
• Fāstervon Ignatian University - Roman Catholic university operated by the Jesuit Order located in Xarbasar.
• Universitas Codicis - (Kiravic: Wordforuniversity Wordforcodex) Literary and scientific academy established by the Oligarchia Grammaticorum (Kiravic: Lektriguv Saxdarurskya), with links to similarly affiliated institutions in Burgundie, Heku, and Paulastra. Located on Tandhurin Island.
• Kirav Methodist University - The oldest and best-known Protestant university in Kiravia, located in West Valēka.
• Valēka Economic Institute - Graduate institution dedicated to high-level economics research and instruction, located in the Vansaten district of Ansalon.
• St. Anselm University - Roman Catholic university located in southern Aspihar.
• St. Serapion University - Coscivian Orthodox university located in Canova.
• First National University - Formed as an abortive effort at founding a national university under the X administration, the college was later privatised and is now operated by an ecumenical Christian trust.
• New Retua University - Closely adhering to the educational models of the earliest Coscivian universities, NRU serves a primarily Paisonic Coscivian student body and uses a traditional register of High Coscivian as its medium of instruction. It is noted for its large collection of ancient Coscivian texts, art, and artifacts.
• Ûverna Pedagogical Formatory - One of the nation's leading normal schools and centres of education research.
• Kaviska State University - Operates two campuses in the city, one in Canova, and another in Xarbasar.
• Valēka State University - Located on Sardēmur Island
• Valēka City College System - Operates the city's network of community colleges, with one campus in each canton.

Cultural

• Metropolitan Museum of Coscivian Art - The largest single art museum in the Coscivian World by collection size and annual attendence, the MMCA curates and showcases over 20,000 years of Coscivian and Cosco-Adratic art, from Ancient ʔptovi funerary urns to 21170s Synæsthetic Realist tryptychs. In addition to a few items of extreme significance on permanent display, the MMCA has standing exhbitions dedicated to the First Imperial, Inter-Imperial, Second Imperial, Third Imperial, and early Post-Imperial artistic periods with a regularly rotating inventory. Temporary and visiting exhibitions draw on the collections of other institutions across the Coscivian world, documenting more recent and regionally- or ethnically-specific contributions to Coscivian art.
• St. Aidan Museum & Scriptorium - A museum dedicated to illuminated manuscripts, calligraphy, rare books, antique maps and woodcuts, and other beautiful manifestations of the written word. While the bulk of the collection if of early Coscivian Christian (mainly Apostolic, owing to the museum's affiliation) origin, the institution has taken care to diversify its collection to include the products of Coscivian Monotheist monasteries, articles from the Second Imperial and later periods, as well as some Celtic, Levantine, and other writings from non-Coscivian cultures. The museum is owned and operated by a community of Insular Apostolic monks, who also operate and active scriptorium on the premises and offer calligraphy lessons to seminarians and the public.
• Æran Open Theatrical Garden - Membership society that hosts theatrical productions selected trimonthly from some 200 submissions. Admission to the theatrical performances is generally free, and the society finances itself through the sale of balcony seats, admission fees for musical, dance, and lecture events, and rental of the space for events. The IOTG tends to attract the best new and independent playwrights, and is regarded as being a major portal for underground writers and actors entering the mainstream. Because of its comparatively limited backstage infrastructure and 360-degree stage setup, the Garden hosted many works by pioneers of dramatic monologue and one-man theatre, subgenres which have since become a distinctive presence in Kiravian theatre.
• Great Library of Valēka - The largest extant library in the Coscivian world, containing over 540,000,000 physical items, including books, periodicals, film, sound recordings, and other materials in an estimated 970 languages. Though it is neither a legal deposit library nor a national library (both titles belong to the Federal Library in Kartika), it is the Federacy's leading research library and is used extensively by historians, philologists, jurists, linguists, and other scholars from across the Federacy and beyond.
• Institute for the Cultivation of Classical Adraïan - A linguistic, philological, and epigraphic institution devoted to the study of the Classical Adraïan language, the oldest language of Coscivian civilisation. The institute houses a corpus of some eight-thousand documents, epigraphs, inscriptions, engravings, and pottery shards, and publishes the Authoritative Dictionary of Classical Adraïan and the Journal of Adratic Philology.
• Valēkas Statue at Kilometre Zero - A cast bronze statue of Kedhur Valēkas, erected upon a rocky islet in Valēka Harbour. It is used as a control point for navigation around the harbour.

Notable Valēkans

• Andrus Candrin - Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy; lifelong resident of Tandhurin's Perlitren neighbourhood.
• Bruce Candrin - Businessman, pundit, and former politician; second cousin of Andrus Candrin; resides on Tandhurin.
• Téodar Konsaháken - Footballer; native of Kerśodan.
• Mujamydick McDickus - Born at the Foster's Island immigration detention facility.
• E.H. Ikeśben - Kiravian Army field general; born in Canova.