Kava

This article is mostly about the historical kingdom. For the present day Kava, see Nama#Kava.

Kava is the name of a kingdom in the far southeast of Nama. Pavbwa is the name of a city settled by Subumpamese and Andanese-type people during a time in which Nama did not have control of the area. Its etymology is similar to "Baeba Swamp" and indeed it is a mostly a swamp. But it was the capital of a very powerful nation, Kava, during its time. Its people called it "Lun" rather than Pavbwa; their descendants embraced Naman culture when they were eventually overhwlemed, and then later on, Poswob cutlure when Poswobs began taking over Nama. They existed as Kava for a short time, roughly 3125 to 3348.

History

From the time of its founding in c 3125, the nation of Kava stood out from its neighbors. They were far more militaristic and their soldiers were individually far more brutal than those of other nations. After arriving in densely packed boats, they soon launched a genocidal war against the defenseless aboriginal Repilian people, who had been their traditional allies for over a thousand years. Then they began importing slaves from southeastern Rilola so they could have most of their work done for them and leave the day free for the ruling class. However, even for those who did not work, military service was mandatory and began in early childhood.

As they massacred the natives, they promised protection for anyone of either the Andanese or the Subumpamese tribes, and held true to that promise: they conquered vast territories of land in the far north, killing entire populations as they replaced them with themselves, but they never harmed any of the smaller, weaker nations on their way that were of the same races as the Kavans. They encouraged all Andanese and Subumpamese to simply join forces and call themselves Kavans, which many did. Andanese people tended to live within other nations at this time, and those living in Subumpam were seen as "belonging to" the Subumpamese, but they also encouraged Andanese people living in nations outside Subumpam to join them. Thus, they hoped, even if the Andanese did not move to Kava, they could create angry "Kavan" minorities in nations all across the south coast. The Kavan army won many battles against incredible odds.

Language

Most Kavans spoke Andanese out of necessity to communicate with Andanese people living in other nations. However, it was never the official language of the Empire. There was a native Kava language, grown from a branch of the Gold language near to Subumpamese and strongly influenced by Babakiam. Thus, their language was "soft" and not very intimidating, unlike their very violent society.

Government

Kava uses a plutocratic system of government, which means that money is the basis of power. All citizens with money thus have governmental power, proportional to the amount they have. Voting rights begin very early: upon reaching the age of five, all Kavan citizens are allotted a bank account with 100 dét in it, which they are allowed to spend however they wish. For comparison, a meal in a restaurant often costs about 5 to 10 dét and a one-night stay in a hotel might cost about 50 dét. On the other hand, items which people might want much of have government-enforced inflated prices: a piece of candy might cost 100 dét and a visit to the park may be in the thousands.

Voting

Voting is an everyday activity in Kava; Kavan citizens are expected to put politics first and the rest of their lives second. For children, voting is done in school. Adults may go to any of many polling places at whatever time of day is convenient for them; Kavans tend to work short hours, so they may spend as much time in a polling building as at work. More than 60% of Kava consisted of slaves (who could neither vote nor own money), so the short work hours of Kavans did not put a strain on the economy.

Kavans exercise their power by voting for propositions, not candidates. Each vote costs 1 dét to cast, but any person may put as many votes on a particular bill as he wishes. Thus a citizen who feels very strongly about an issue may choose to divert most of his personal fortune toward it while mostly or entirely ignoring issues that don't matter. This ensures that the outcome of bills will not be swayed by apathetic and uneducated voters voting simply and arbitrarily.

Citizens do also vote for candidates for various governmental positions, but the "offices" held by these people are merely administrative in nature, and do not give them any more power over the voting process. Nor are they paid positions. Incumbents in office can only be replaced by a younger candidate or one over the age of 50.

Money

Kava's national currency is the dét. The economy is entirely centrally planned, with no private business at all. This allows the government to set prices on every item, lowering the prices of necessary items to zero or near zero and making luxury items extremely expensive.

Upon reaching the age of 45, or when their eldest child reaches the age of 15, citizens are required to give up all their money to their children. If they have no children, they must choose some other citizen to give their money to. Afterward, they are allowed to earn money and vote again, but they must start from zero. Often, a parent will start giving large sums of money to their children even earlier than this, since if the child starts getting money earlier he can multiply it and therefore earn more money even faster (false). Any citizen can give up any amount of his money to any other citizen at any time. The most common form of voluntary transfer is from a parent to their child. Thus much power is in the hands of the young, and Kava tends to be forever on the brink of a radical revolution led by inexperienced but powerful minds.

Abuses

The Kavan system lent itself to some early abuses. Even though the Kavan system encouraged people to be independent, organizations of people with similar political ideals formed and pooled their money, and then required all of the members of the organization to vote the same way on all issues. The members would then all vote for each other for various offices, forming a solid political entity that could not easily be outvoted. If anyone decided to take action against the organization, members could simply hide themselves and have one person volunteer to give up all his money to the other members and then take all of the blame, leaving the organization as rich as it was before.

Often, these organizations would create schools, and invite parents of like mind to send their children into the school to be educated in the political ideals of the organization. This lent a small additional benefit due to the fact that it was legally harder to take money from a child than from an adult; thus money grew slightly faster when it was in the hands of the extremely young, even if they were not allowed by their parents to actually spend it.

Children and the disabled were often robbed of their money by others who, although they could not spend the money they stole (because it was marked), sought to reduce the political power of their opponents. Eventually multiple banks had to be set up where people could keep their money and carry only small amounts with them, but this prevented people from voting as often as they would desire.

Defeat of the Empire

When they finally went down, they were defeated by a power several hundred times what they themselves had been 200 years earlier. This set off a wave of militarism in the area that lasted another 1400 years. Kava remained a fairly militaristic culture during this 1400 years, but they had submitted to their conqueror, Nama, and were thus on the opposite side of their ancestors. However, Nama was in a state of rapid decline as a world power now, because the population density had shifted further northward, and Nama was walled off from the north by the world's tallest mountain range. Instead Nama remained essentially a regional power, controlling at best only itself and the trade that went through its sea from the two empires on either side of Nama. Surrounding empires began biting off pieces of Nama, eventually leaving only a rump state comprised of the most inaccessible parts. They retained more than half of their coastline, however, so even Nama at its worst was still in a fairly advantageous location.

Today Kava considers itself to be just another Poswob district, though with a traditional Naman type of government, and its people are just as pacifistic as other Poswobs. It has a multiparty government, with minority parties being given extra power to oppose the majority.

Other information

It should be noted that even at the height of its power, Kava was not universally seen as evil. Even its enemies admired the fact that children in Kava voluntarily went to school, rather than having to be held there by the cooperation of their teachers and their parents. One incident recalled thousands of years later commemorates a group of children about 5 years old who walked to their school, found it closed, and walked three miles downhill through the woods to a school in another town so that they could complete their schoolwork. All of this happened with pre-modern technology which was primitive even compared to the other nations around them. Kava today strives to still be a place where children go to such lengths when necessary to get their education, and wholesome enough that children can walk through deep woods without fear of being adbucted.

Kavan soldiers could not vote; neither could Wamian and Vasabadian guest laborers. The only way a child could give money to an older person is by assassination (money goes to parents or godparents). Even murder is legal, because there are no crimes; punishment is decided on by votes instead of by jury.

More than half of the population consists of slaves; the slaves work much harder than other Kavans and are not paid for it. They are generally, but not always, people imported from the southeast of Rilola. Kavans tell their slaves that they should be proud to be part of such a powerful nation and that being a slave in Kava is better than being a free man anywhere else.