Clorlimoa

Flag of Clorlimoa
Motto: We are different
Region	The South Pacific
Capital	none
Official Language(s)	Clorlimoan
Leader	Governor N/A
Population	100-500 million
Currency	Flower
NS Sunset XML

Clorlimoa is located at approximately 29°S, 12°W in the South Atlantic Ridge. With 16,179 km² (6249 sq mi), Clorlimoa has approximately the size of East Timor, Connecticut or Schleswig-Holstein.

Clorlimoa is actually the name of the main island (15,865 km² / 6128 sq mi). The name comes from the Clorlimoan word Klor Limoo or Klor Limou, which means "fire island", referring to the many volcanoes and geysers there.

The Clorlimoan people call themselves Paabi Kriisaak or Paibi Kreisaik (depending on the dialect), meaning "trinity people." That comes from their belief in three gods: the god of the sky, the god of the ocean and the god of earth and fire.

Geography

Climate

Clorlimoa has an oceanic subtropical climate, similar to the one found on the Canary Islands. Due to the north-east trade wind, the south-west of the island is drier and warmer than the north-east. Temperatures vary between 20°C and 30°C year-round.

Regions

Clorlimoa consists of 12 regions, each with its own history:

• Brijolvaa ("the white mountains") is the mountaineous region of the north
• Brilim (actually brijolv limoo = "fire mountains") is the region around the highest mountains in the south
• Hluuhit (actually hluuhii itraab = "river tree") around the delta of a river in the south-west
• Iibrol (actually iibreen rolvilv = "green hills") is a hilly region in the west
• Ludehraav ("the water sands") is a marsh area including a few tiny islands
• Klorlofrulf ("the bird island") is a volcanic island off the east coast
• Klormobroo ("the twin islands") is a pair of islands close to the south-eastern coast
• Klorseedluu ("the mist island") is a small flat island off the west coast
• Luslude (actually eerkoog lusru arde-lude = "the big foot in the water") is a hilly landscape of the south, culturally and historically closer to the mountains of the east than to the flat regions of the west
• Meeprar (actually meepli rargru = "finger peninsula") is a group of peninsulas in the south
• Urfiir (actually urfbruu iirvii = "rock coast") is a region of cliffs protruding into the sea
• Urfnaad ("the lonely coast") is a flat coastal landscape in the far north, separated from the rest of the islands by mountains

Culture

Roles in Society

Children get lessons from all villagers until they are initiated to adulthood and decide for a profession they will most likely pursuit for the rest of their lives.

Family

Clorlimoans know no marriage. Children are usually brought up by nannies. They are educated to consider the whole village their "family."

Names

A Clorlimoan has three names: The characteristic name describes a person's character. It is given when the person becomes an adult. Children have their mother's characteristic name. The spiritual name is given by the priest responsible for them. More about that in the section below. The third name is the origin name, which is simply the name of the village where the person grew up.

Religion

Clorlimoans believe in Kriisaak, the trinity of the three gods Aarkleh (god of the sky), Mluulfaarg (god of the ocean) and Iilvev (god of the earth and fire). Every village has one priest for each god.

Every day is dedicated to one of the three gods. If you are born on Mluulfaarg's day, your spiritual name is related to the ocean, and the ocean god priest is the one you turn to.

Clothing

Traditionally, men and women wear robes that cover shoulders, chest, stomach, back and bottom (but not the genitals). The robe is fixed with a belt.

Modern women's robes cover the vulva. This is done by a piece of cloth that is fixed in the belt on both sides (stomach and back).

Women wearing red robes are often considered whores. White robes are reserved for important festivities.

The belt indicates a person's wealth and status in society, as well as the person's home village.

Time

Clorlimoans have two ways of telling the time. The traditional "day periods" depend on the position of the sun. The modern "beats" provide a way to measure time objectively.

The Clorlimoan calendar system combines observations of moon and sun.

Day Periods

Clorlimoans distinguish 9 day periods:

• "Beginning of the morning" = just after sunrise
• "Mid-morning" = halfway between sunrise and noon
• "End of the morning" = just before noon
• "Beginning of the evening" = just after noon
• "Mid-evening" = halfway between noon and sunset
• "End of the evening" = just before sunset
• "Early night" = just after sunset
• "Midnight" = around midnight
• "Late night" = just before sunrise

Actually evening is a bad translation. But I if used afternoon, people might think the Clorminoan word is a compound of after+noon, which is not true.

The following table shows how different the nine day periods can be, depending on the season. Imagine the sun is up between 4:00 (4 am) and 20:00 (8 pm) in summer, between 8:00 (8 am) and 16:00 (4 pm) in winter, and of course between 6:00 (6 am) and 18:00 (6 pm) at the time of the equinox.

The periods only indicate an approximate time of the day. Due to the seasons, their lengths vary a lot. That's why the official beat system was introduced.

Beats

A day is divided into 8³ = 512 (big) beats, which are in turn divided into 8³ = 512 (small) beats. Thus a big beat is almost 3 minutes, and a small beat is a third of a second.

To indicate a time of the day, you say "It is 142 beats." That's approximately 10:40 (am), because beat 0 is the time of sunrise on summer solstice at the center of the country. To the west and east of the center, sunrise on summer solstice day is a little before or after 0 beats. On all other days of the year, 0 beats is during the period called "late night," sometimes hours before sunrise.

Calendar

Clorlimoans divide a year into a "rising" and a "falling" half. The rising half starts at winter solstice (21 June), the falling half starts at summer solstice (21/22 December). Each half consists of 6 months as well as additional days at the beginning and end of the half. So the year consists of 6 phases:

1. Beginning of the rising year: from winter solstice to the first new moon
2. 6 months of the rising year: 28+27+27+28+27+27 = 164 days
3. End of the rising year: from the 7th new moon to summer solstice
4. Beginning of the falling year: from summer solstice to the first full moon
5. 6 months of the falling year: 28+27+27+28+27+27 = 164 days
6. End of the falling year: from the 7th full moon to winter solstice

On average, each of the four transition periods has 9.3 days.

Full moon, new moon and half moon are always holidays. They correspond to the Sundays of christian societies.

The days of the months are counted, but these numbers are not used to celebrate anniversaries. Birthdays are not remembered as specific dates (like "26 January"), but only as moon phases (like "shortly before new moon in the 2nd month of the rising year").

Semesters are counted with ordinal numbers from 1 to 8 for one election period (see section "Elections"). So, instead of talking about "(the first half of) the year 42," you say "the 5th semester of the 11th election period." Counting begins with the first democratic election period in Clorlimoa.

n.b.: The Clorlimoan calendar starts with the first election period of the Clorlimoan Federal Republic, which was around the year 1400 CE. An election period is 4 years. Dates before that are stated in semesters. There are 2 semesters in 1 year.

At the time of the first historical records, about 400 semesters before the liberation (thus in the 12th century CE), the regions of Clorlimoa were more or less independent. The only significant exception was the south-east, where Klorlofrulf, Klormobroo, Urfiir and Luslude formed the Holy Alliance. This was Clorlimoa's long-lived political entity, a theocracy ruled by the high priests of Klormobroo.

Klorlofrulf was ruled by its own high priests, though. The high priests on the island encouraged trade with regions inside and outside the Holy Alliance. Hence Klorlofrulf became a trade hub between the north and the east of Clorlimoa. 363 semesters before the liberation (SBL), the political and economic autonomy was considered a weakness of the central government of the Holy Alliance. That is how another faction gained power: the high priests of Urfiir.

Between 344 and 327 SBL, the regions of southern Clorlimoa cooperated more and more closely. Even the priests cooperated to create a common religion people could believe in, thus eliminating resistance.

In northern Clorlimoa, a free-trade area was founded 271 SBL. The Northern Economic Zone consisted of Brijolvaa, Klorseedluu, Urfnaad and Klorlofrulf. The villages flying the flag of the free-trade area committed themselves to securing the roads between them (an important measure against highwaymen, to exchange each other's currencies, and to host trading strangers.

The foundation of the Northern Economic Zone created a conflict with the Holy Alliance, as Klorlofrulf was a member of both. At that time, the alliance tightened the economic relations among its members. After even most villages in Luslude were forced to accept the traders of other alliance regions 265 SBL, the high priests of Klorlofrulf were forbidden to continue trade with the north. A few years later, Klorlofrulf lost its autonomy in favor of a strong central government.

In the north, the free-trade area was upgraded to a political union: the Northern Federation, founded 238 SBL. The individual villages and regions kept most of their political autonomy, but a federal government was added to coordinate the different regional interests, as well as to defend the federation against aggressors.

In western Clorlimoa, another power emerged at that time. Between 244 SBL and 228 SBL, the princes of Iibrol managed to conquer Hluuhit, Meeprar, Brilim and finally Ludehraav, too. The new Southern Realm was a less stable entity than the federation or the alliance, as it did not provide a free-trade area. Moreover, relations with the alliance were difficult, as both states fought for the control of Brilim, the home of some sacred mountains.

Politics

Terminology

On the village level, the village council (which comprises all adult villagers) discusses current affairs, and the chief makes decisions based on the discussions.
On the city level, the city council (comprising all village chiefs) discusses, the city chief decides.
On the region level, the council of chiefs (comprising the chiefs of cities and free villages) discusses, the regional representative decides. The regions have little political power, though.
On the national level, the council of regions (comprising the regional representatives) discusses, the governor decides.

Elections

Decision-making posts are elected every 4 years (8 semesters, 1 political period).

The village council elects a chief, the city councils a city chief, the council of chiefs a regional representative, and the council of regions elects a governor.

Once every semester, the chiefs of all villages in a region come together to get to know each other, talk about political issues and make decisions. The meeting is held from the last half moon of the second month to the end of that month (7 days).
In an election year, the meeting lasts for the whole second half of the second month (13 or 14 days). Then the chiefs vote for one of them to become the regional representative.

In the first half of the first month of every falling year, there is a meeting of all regional representatives. This meeting, too, lasts either 7 or 13/14 days, depending on whether a governor is elected, which happens every 4 years.

Deputy chiefs, city chiefs, regional representatives and governor are appointed by the elected chiefs, city chiefs, regional representatives or governor, respectively.

Separation of powers

There is no distinction between judiciary, legislature and executive.

Chiefs, city chiefs, regional representatives and governors are bound to the laws of the entity they govern. Every council member has the right to propose a motion of no confidence. Then the person must explain why s/he thinks the leader broke a law, and the council must discuss the issue. At the end, the council votes whether or not to remove the leader from office. If the majority in the council is in favor, a new leader must be elected within 512 beats.

Federalism

On the national level, there is a tax authority that collects taxes and distributes them among the regions. A fourth of the tax money is reserved for the national level, a fourth for the regions, a fourth for the cities, a fourth for the individual villages. The distribution is always proportional to the population figures of the most recent census.
The police and army are also national matters.

The regions are responsible for most of the education matters, though some curriculum standards are defined on the national level, and the villages or cities have the final responsibilities for what is taught in their schools. Besides, every region issues its own currency.

The village level (Note that a "village" can be a part of a city) is responsible for social benefits, hospitals.

Matters of infrastructure are in the hands of the appropriate entity. That means interregional telephone lines are maintained by the nation, village streets by the villages etc.

Economy

Currency

Every region of Clorlimoa has its own currency. The currencies are named after rare flowers of the regions, as these were the means of payment before printed banknotes were invented.

The Flower is a pure unit of account (similar to the ECU of 20th century RL-Europe). The exchange rates between the Flower and the regional currencies are fixed once a semester, based on economic data from the regions.

Privatization

Most of the infrastructure is privatized. The rest - all cases where no private company wants to invest - is owned by state-run companies.

History

In ancient times, Clorlimoans were organized in tribes. Each tribe was independent in its village, but there was some travelling and trading between the tribes.

When the travelling and trading intensified, Amtool Aareem ("trade communities") were founded. AAs are organizations of traders, fixing exchange rates for the different flowers used to pay in different villages, organizing and protecting public markets, and providing a decent infrastructure.

Further communities followed:

• Amtool Paamlii (Knowledge Community) = An organization of preachers to establish common religious beliefs. The more people leave their villages, the more important it is to bind them to an organized religion.
• Amtool Ilmlii (Rights Community) = An organization of village elders to establish common criminal law, judicature, and police.
• Amtool Uuljiil (Peace Community) = An organization of warriors to assist each other in case of an attack, and to maintain peace among the member villages.

As time went by, some villages became richer than others. This attracted people from other villages, so the rich village soon became a town with more inhabitants than a tribal chief can know personally. That was a challenge to the harmony in the village as well as to the social net. In the old times, the villagers provided for sick fellows. With increasing urbanization, this was no longer possible.

As a consequence, towns introduced a "citizen tax." Every inhabitant of the town paid the same amount of this tax. The tax money was used to finance hospitals and nursing homes.

Language

see Clorlimoan language

Numbers

Clorlimoan uses an octal system. They have names for the numbers 1-8. The word for 5 is similar to the word for 1, the word for 6 is similar to the word for 2 and so on. For numbers between 9 and 16, they say something like "8 and 1/2/3", for higher numbers you say something like "3 times 8 and 2" (26). There are separate words for 9*8 and powers of it, but they are often confused in everyday life, as people are not used to playing with big numbers. These high numbers are 72 / 5184 / 26,873,856. Some scientists even have words for 722,204,136,308,736 (722 trillion) and 521,578,814,501,447,328,359,509,917,696 (521 octillions).

Finger Counting

The numbers from 1 to 8 are counted with the fingers of one hand:

1. - only the little finger
2. - index and ring finger
3. - index, ring and middle finger
4. - all four fingers
5. - little finger and thumb
6. - index finger, ring finger, thumb
7. - all but the index finger
8. - the whole hand