Country Name and History

The international name of Lucaria refers to the roots of the people, located in the middle of the modern Switzerland, Lucerne. The ancient roman name of that city and the canton is Luciaria (meaning “swampy place” – a relict of the city being founded by fishers over 800 years ago). In the Swiss German language (Lucerne dialect) it is pronounced Lôzärn (Wisu-Transcription) or Lozärn (simplified Wisu Transcription) – the German name Luzern is not used in Luciaria.

Language

The language spoken in Lucaria is a sub-version of Swiss-German that is related with the German language. Since the land was discovered and inhabited by people from the area near the city of Lucerne in today’s Switzerland, Lucaria’s language is a mix-form of the dialects used in the Canton Lucerne, dominated by the city-dialect. Lucaria-German is more focused on the real language’s core word set and uses way less foreign words than seen in Switzerland.

Script System

As a result of the country’s isolation for centuries, the complex script system is rather unknown in abroad. The Lucarians call their script “Wisu”, which in fact is a slang-term to describe a “not so smart” person. It is believed that more educated people in medieval ages made fun at those that were not able to read and write.

The Wisu-Script is a silibary font that contains many base elements (radicals) and even more consonant characters that can be combined in different ways to create new, meaningful ideographs. The traditional style codifies many vowel sounds to differ the pronouncing of words very exactly. A reduced set of radicals is used also for easier daily business. This style of the script is called simplified Wisu. The ideographs look similar to Chinese and Japanese ones.

Healthcare

There are numerous private insurance companies that offer many types of packages. The state law defines a small and very limited list of services that must be provided in a so-called “basic healthcare”. Additional services maybe purchased. The basic healthcare is regulated by the state, but provided by private insurance companies.

Social Security

Retirement services are provided by private companies and insurances. Employees and companies must fund the insurances.

Medias

The law only allows the state to provide “raw information”, it shall be up to neutral and independent broadcasters to analyze and to comment the contents. The state therefore only operates an information channel that broadcasts public discussions from the national councils. A large bouquet exists in the private sector. These Medias are usually provided by large companies that offer numerous channels in a network, with highly specific contents. Beside that, many smaller companies exists that broadcast one or two channels. The media law is highly liberal to hold the value of free speech dear.

Key Notes of the Media Law in Lucaria

• Newspapers are required to grant room for messages of political parties once per week in turn. These messages must be printed in unchanged, raw form as provided by the parties. • Three months before elections or polls, television advertising of political parties must be broadcasted freely and the time for the spots must be reserved. Advertising for political parties, groups or issues etc. outside election time must not be rejected by the channel operator, but is subject to market conditions.

Traffic

Roads, including highways/freeways are provided by the state and funded via vehicle and gasoline taxing. Expensive constructions such as large tunnels or bridges must be paid directly when used. These constructions are usually provided by private companies and charging is automated to avoid delays.

Railways and local public transportation services are provided by either private companies or societies funded thru companies. The main task of the public transportation providers is to bring employees to their working places and returning them. Therefore busses are usually only available at certain times and in the evening during weekends.

Parking lots are considered a “basic good” and regulated by the state. Every city is organized in circles, where parking fields in the core circle are free but time limited. Parking buildings are subsidized, usually in co-operation with the local shop owners.

Airways, airports as well as seaports are operated by private companies. Ships are either used for industrial purposes (such as transporting goods) or they provide tourist trips.

License Plates

Registering vehicles (motorized, incl. bicycles) is done by every District’s DMV. Note, that also drivers of bicycles are required to register their vehicle with a plate. Lucarian license plates have the format “DF DC XXX XXX SF” DF is the icon of the District’s flag, DC is the two-letter code of the District. X stands for a digit or letter and SF is an icon of the Lucarian flag. Standard plates are a Computer-generated mix of digits and letters, formatted in two blocks of three characters, separated by a space. Personalized plates that may contain any text and numbers maybe requested for an additional fee. For these plates, a space blank is optional, but the allowed text length is still limited to six characters.

Popular (personalized) plates are sold in public auctions by the District’s DMV. A license plate does not belong to a specific car, but a person and is usually transferred when a new car is bought.

Vehicles that are frequently used inside Lucaria (eg. by drivers who reside or work in Lucaria) must be registered with the District’s DMV. The foreign license plate maybe used for these vehicles.

Communication

Infrastructure for land and mobile phones, television cabling etc. is provided a shared fund. Every operator must pay for these technical services. Many providers offer different kinds of services. Usually Lucaria is a highly innovative country. Television and radio standards have recently been changed to digital standards and the GSM network was replaced by UMTS technology. WLAN is available at many public locations such as beaches, parks and city core zones.

Political System

Lucaria is a democratic republican state. It is ruled by a council of seven equal members, each responsible for one department with specific ministries. The legislative is a two-camber parliament counting 300 representatives and 45 senators. The country is highly federal and de-central organized and offers extensive direct democratic rights to its citizens. The districts are sovereign in many areas. The judicial branch operates independently from the government. Complete renewal elections are held every four years.

Justice

The highest court in Lucaria is the Supreme Court. Every district has its own courts. Death penalty is occasionally utilized against heavy sex crimes. The Supreme Judicial Court must confirm death penalties. Working Camps are a usual form of punishment.

The Supreme Court also validates proposals for their constitutional compatibility. If a proposal does not comply with the current law, the constitution would be required to change, which is a difficult process. (Stability Act)

Domestic Affairs

No information available.

Immigration & Asylum

It is considered difficult, to enter Lucaria legally due to strict asylum and foreigner laws. Tourists from direct neighbor countries do not need a visa if their stay in Lucaria is not longer than 30 days once and not more than 90 days in total per year. Citizens of all other countries are required to obtain a tourist visa from the embassy responsible to their home country. Permanent Migration to Lucaria is possible if the individual was hired by a company. Refuges are subject to strict laws and are not allowed to move freely inside Lucaria but must reside in camps which are usually located outside populated places. Naturalization of foreigners is not possible by request, rather it is granted as a special form of acknowledgement by the communities.

Foreign Affairs

Lucaria declares itself as a neutral country. It keeps itself out of conflicts as long as possible, as long Lucarian interests are not questioned. Although being neutral, Lucaria usually support UN-sanctions and sometimes imposes sanctions against countries, which do not respect fundamental human rights or international (UN) law. In past, sanctions have been imposed on numerous communist regime countries. The constitution prohibits selling weapons or other military goods to countries that are in a state of war or such that do not respect the human rights.

Education

No information available.

Military

No information available.

Religion

Lucaria does not have an official state religion. Religious freedom is partially limited, since only religions are acknowledged as such, which do not violate the constitution, the law or common traditional values. In fact, Islam is not an acknowledged religion. The construction of religious buildings other than Christian churches is prohibited and the public wearing of religious signs other than Christian symbols is not legal.

Taxing

Everyone residing inside Lucaria is required to pay Community, District and Federal Taxes. People however receive only one bill.

Traveling

Citizens of Lucaria’s neighbor states only require a valid personal ID card to enter Lucaria. Citizens of other countries are required to apply for a visa at the embassy responsible for their state. The applicant must attain in personal and own a passport that is valid for at least 6 months from the date, the visa was granted.

Economy

The Lucarian law allows very tight protection of financial privacy. This sometimes brings the country into problems, since many leaders of autocratic regimes deposit their money on accounts in Lucaria. Lucaria is also faced with reproaches of money laundering and vague financial transactions of foreign terrorist groups or related parties and governments.

Energy

About 40 % of Lucaria’s electrical power needs are supplied by nuclear plants. Alternative sources are water- and solar power plants; a small piece is imported from neighbor countries. Lucaria is a member if the IAEA and grants full access to its nuclear installations and labs, even if the inspections are unscheduled.

Miscellaneous

Lucaria grants its citizens extensive political rights. People can call referendums to change, create or even remove law at any time. They can also request adoptions of the constitution. Same applies to district level laws. Except of large cities, communities usually don’t have a parliament, but it’s the citizens that meet in public halls to discuss and decide local matters.

The federal republican order of the country allows the districts to create their own tax law. This results in some kind of “tax competition” where districts and even communities try to provide low tax rates. That special system made Lucaria to a country with the lowest tax rates in the world. In general, the administration of the state is quite small, which is another reason for the low tax duties inside Lucaria.

The constitution prohibits the exposition of foreign flags in public. Only the exposition of the Lucaria national flag and the flags of the districts and communities may be exposed outside the privacy of home. These laws do not apply to foreign embassies.

Holders of any state positions must be citizens of Lucaria; this is required for all levels of the state.

Although Lucaria is a strongly federal country, the constitution demands that numerous common tasks and institutions shall be managed centralized between communities and districts where possible and useful.