Lavana Free City

Known by most as the home of the Central Financial Authority, Lavana Free City is a remarkable cooperative city-state, and one of the few places on Earth visited routinely by the leaders of every major city-state. It is often compared to the open online communities of the Net, where anyone is welcome, so long as they respect the rules of the community. Lavana is located in the heart of former Spain - just south of Madrid - and is surrounded by remarkably untouched wilderness and breathtaking landscapes, from mountain peaks to gentle plains.

Lavana has become an extremely wealthy city. Its citizens are among the best educated and most sought-after consultants in the world, attracting huge salaries. Lavana’s academic community has also become a large exporter of valuable intellectual property, bringing back billions in Trust, which have been reinvested in the community. Thanks to the “gainfully employed” clause of its citizenship agreement, there are no vagrants or homeless people, though the lower-class staffs a significant service economy that attends to the well-being of wealthier citizens. However, through the city-states devotion to education, the rate of social mobility is extraordinary, and poor people with intellectual gifts can find themselves among the elite in less than a decade.

Lavana is often compared to Divinus for its open and wealthy society. It has become a hub for the world’s business and political elite. The city’s social circles are a who’s who of global powerbrokers. Garnering status within these circles, even for non-residents, is a mark of significant importance.

History
Lavana Free City began life as the Lavana Trade and Education Commune in 2130, an experiment in open community design organised by numerous academic leaders from around the world. The community was designed to be a self-sufficient commune, based on the principle that education was the foundation of a truly civilised and open society. The commune grew rapidly, attracting attention as an exporter of industrial designs, software, and other by-products of the commune’s centre for higher education. The commune quickly formed relationships with numerous corporations, academic institutions and government bodies - many of which contributed some measure of funding - and became a meeting place for discussion on everything from political philosophy to chemical engineering.

In 2200, the commune proclaimed itself a formal city-state, establishing a constitution and formal governing body. Lavana also solidified its role on the world stage as an open, neutral, and free city-state that would welcome any healthy person willing to take the city’s civic oath. The city’s oath commits its citizens to respect all other citizens as equals, to remain gainfully employed within the city, and to welcome all others to the city as they have been welcomed. The punishment for breaking the oath is banishment.

The pact formally known as the Inter City-state Alliance along with its terms and a list of its signatories are held in Lavana Free City. The pact has recently been expanded to include a clause regarding extradition of criminals between states and includes the proposed foundation for the creation of an international investigative body.

Lavana Free City has become the de facto home of numerous global initiatives. In addition to the CFA central offices, the Gravux Power Collective is now headquartered in Lavana Free City. Furthermore, The New World Wielding Commission maintains a massive library developed by its members and donated by independent researchers and Wielders from around the world. This library has become the world’s central repository for information on Wielding and the single most important source of tools for practicing Arcane Wielders.

People
Lavana Free City is home to nearly 12 million people of every description imaginable, including Remnants, AI, and those of an Evolutionary bloodline.

Government and Travel Controls
The city is controlled by a democratically elected governing council. The council has 100 members and any citizen is free to run for a seat on the council. Elections for ten seats are held each year, so that every ten years, every seat on the council has been up for election. A council chairman is randomly selected each year to be responsible for managing the day-to-day business of the council itself. Another council member is randomly selected to oversee the operation of the city’s security force. Like most city-states, the governing council is responsible for decision making in all areas of city life.

Whenever a citizen is charged by the security force with violation of their civic oath, nine members of the governing council are randomly selected to oversee a security trial to decide whether the accused will be stripped of citizenship and banished from the city.

Lavana is an open city, and people can enter or leave as they like. All visitors are issued a Visitor’s T Pass, either as an encrypted software addition to their PID which is removed upon leaving the city, or as a locking wristband with a tracking mechanism, enabling the city’s security detail to locate them at any time. In some cases, visitors can be required to both wear the wristband and carry a T Pass on their PID, especially if the issuing officer suspects the visitor might be a security risk or attempt to remain in the city after his/her T Pass expires. The T Pass allows visitors to remain in the city for 30 days. When the T Pass expires, it can be renewed on a month-to-month basis, provided the holder can pay the renewal fee - which is currently 2,000T - or provide proof of gainful employment in the city. Visitors choosing not to pay the renewal fee must remain outside the city for 30 days before returning, at which time they are issued a new Visitor T Pass.

Military
The city’s large scale defence force is comprised of rotating contributions from every major city-state, each lending to the defence of the city in return for their right to vote for members of the Central Financial Authority Board of Directors every two years and to maintain their status as respected members of the international community. Lavana’s constitution prevents the city and its citizenry from forming any sort of armed forces other than a small security force to maintain order, enforce banishment orders, and to coordinate the large scale defence force.

Contributing to the defence of Lavana Free City has become something of a badge of honour for other city-states, and a mark of a city’s global importance.