The Kingdom of Lytera (German: Königreich Lytera; Russian: Королевство Литера / Korolevstvo Litera; Japanese: 王国 いえてら / Ōkoku Ietera) is a self-declared sovereign state, commonly referred to as a micronation by external observes. Founded de jure in 2010, the micronation was largely inactive and was considered by its citizens to be little more than a joke until the 2017 Lyteran revolution. It is a constitutional monarchy headed by King Alexander I, with the Royal Council of Lytera serving as the nation's legislature. It is a member of the Grand Unified Micronational, Cupertino Alliance and a former member of NADU and the Organisation of Active Micronations.[2]

Etymology

The name Lytera was made in 2010, a mix of the word lyric (for Duke Matthew's love of music) and terra (meaning earth).

History

The Founding Years + Great Ruislip War (2008-2017)

In 2010, the Kingdom of Lytera was founded by Duke Alexander as a client state of the Republic of Clubhausia, made by him and his friends a few years before. It was made for increased trade, and to prove that micronations could work together in the area. It remained in a personal union with Clubhausia until it's civil war in late 2013. Due to this, Lytera broke away from Clubhausia, and remained neutral in the conflict that shook the region. This neutrality, which involved trade deals with both sides of the civil war, was enforced until July 2014, where the StonePark Telegram was intercepted, calling for war on Lytera to stop the trading to the other side. Lytera promptly joined the war, though as it was a demilitarised nation, Duke Alexander enlisted in the Lorentian army to combat Fizona.

However, changing views over the course of the summer and closer contact with Fizona led Lorentia to switch sides and support Fizona. When the seize fire occurred a year later, Lytera backed Fizona's claims. In the end, a white peace was declared, and everyone relinquished their claims on the Clubhaus area. At the next meeting at the ruins of Clubhausia, Lorentia kickstarted the war again, with a Lyteran victory. This minor skirmish was not considered a Lyteran military involvement, even though only Lytera and Lorentia were involved. Fizona and Lorentia, and the other warlords who broke away from Clubhausia all collapsed in 2016 or beforehand, not long after the skirmish. Until 2017, Lytera was in a state of relative dormancy. During this dormant period, the Kingdom was run by Grand Duke Alexander and Grand Duke Matthew, with HRM HR Marion as the figurehead ruler.

True Independence and the Reign of King Matthew (2017)

On August 19, 2017, Duke Matthew proclaimed himself to be the leader of Lytera officially after seeing videos on micronations online. However, the young ruler, while at first backed by his siblings and cousins, was unreliable. Duke Alexander contested his authority and reckless decisions, citing that under the law drafted, as the elder sibling, he had more right to the throne. After a attempted arrest of the Duke by the King himself on 21 August, Alex escaped and rounded up his cousins, who were staying round at the royal palace, and orchestrated a counter-coup. This one day war was known as the bloody revolution, as Alex received a cut to his knee charging into battle, and how Duke Owen was hit in the eye.[3] By the end of the day, the War of the Crown was over, and Matthew surrendered. The King accepted, and allowed him to live, in exchange for losing the right of succession.

The reign of King Alexander (2017-Present)

Lytera's first year and a half under King Alexander was a quiet one, focused on keeping the Kingdom stable and strong, while also keeping watch on the failing health of Marion. In November, the Lyteran people were devastated to hear of her passing, and a full state funeral was organised.

On the anniversary of the Lyteran Civil War one year later, the Lyteran Airforce and Navy were created, and Matthew was reinstated as a Duke of Lytera, having lost his titles at the end of the war.

2019 saw major changes, including the full annexation of Alieway [4] and Clubhausia [5] and the release of the Ruislip Tetrarchy document to name a few. Lytera also joined the Organisation of Active Micronations (2019) and the Grand Unified Micronational. Under the King's rule, more diplomatic trips then ever occurred, and Duke Matthew was reinstated onto the Council. During the argument between the Grand Unified Micronational and Organisation of Active Micronations (2019), Lytera voted to leave the OAM on 26 July 2019 and officially left on 4 August. [6]

On 10 August, the Lyteran Lyira officially came into circulation. On Lytera's third anniversary of true establishment, 19 August 2019, the Duchies of St. Cavendish were dissolved aside from Shedland to make voting fairer, and Mooreshire was admitted as a Barony inside Greater Cavendish, becoming the largest city by population in Lytera overnight. On October 15th, Duke Matthew was deposed from his spot [7] and Shedland annexed back into St. Cavendish after allegedly plotting a military coup. On 20 October at the court trial, R. V Banks, Matthew was revealed to be innocent, having been framed and blackmailed by a British citizen known as 'Nathan'.[8] His title was restored, along with his seat on the council, but Shedland, which was revoked of it's autonomous status, remained apart of St. Cavendish.

In 2020, both Leamsburg [9] and Baknsburg [10] became towns as part of the First Five Year Plan. Both were former crown dependencies, who wanted more open involvement in Lytera. Lytera had it's first election to the Lyteran Parliament on 4 April 2020 with the monarchist party winning, though it was very inactive, prompting the King to call for a second election on 1 July 2020. [11]On June 27th, an argument between Alexander and Matthew escalated over the Armed Forces loyalty to the state and monarch, with arguments over their perceived loyalty to the LDA instead. When the argument wasn't solved, an emergency proclamation was passed, suspending the LDA and Armed Forces until an investigation could be conducted. After the election resulted in a Royalist majority, the town of Amorbahia was annexed, the first overseas possession of Lytera.

Government and politics

Lytera is governed by the King's Council, made up of elected and un-elected officials from all across Lytera. The council convene when then King calls it, and as such, sometimes all the members are not present at meetings. The King is advised to listen to the council and generally will agree, but the King has the final say on what laws pass and what laws do not. No political parties exist formally, with each council member having their own agenda. If the king feels they are abusing their position, he can remove them from their seat, elected or not. [12]

The Kingdom's lands are classified differently depending on properties. Uninhabited areas are called territories. These areas have no seat on the council, but are de facto represented by the Monarch. The King's job as head of each territory is to maintain the natural beauty there, by organising cleanups, and also preserving what is currently there. Inhabited areas are classified as Towns, if they have five citizens or less, or cities if they have six citizens or more. These lands hold elections to decide who their Mayor is, who then also receives a seat on the council. Mayors can be voted in as many times as they want, with no set term limit, and elections can be held as often or as little as they desire, within reason, with four years being the longest time allowed with no elections.

There are also three special divisional statuses in Lytera. The first are Baronies. Baronies are the towns and cities within a one and a half mile radius of the capital, St. Cavendish. Baronies function identically to the Towns and Cities, though are named regardless of size. They have a non-elected official called a Baron, who, aside from the fancy title, functions the same as a Mayor. The last status is Crown Dependency, which is a land claim inhabited by the royal family that is not officially apart of the Kingdom.[13] This special division was designed for the next in line to the throne, as it gives them a say on the council. Until the 19th of August, 2019, the Capital was split into five duchies, plus the king's seat, which gave the capital six votes. This system was revoked in order to allow new lands joining Lytera more say. From 19/09/19 - 15/10/19, Shedland became an autonomous region, as headquarters of the military and Duke Matthew's seat. This was revoked after the Octoberist Plot was discovered.

Below you can see a simple table which outlines this simply:

Note - ✝️ Indicates Land Classification no longer in use.





The Lyteran Council

Until 2020, the Council was the main governing body of Lytera, but as of the Political Parties Act, the Lyteran Parliament will act as the main lawmaking body, with the Council as the executive.

Law

The laws of the kingdom are similar to those of the United Kingdom. This is for easier punishments for people who are a threat to the kingdom, who commit crimes outside the boundaries of the nation. Inside the nation, corporal punishment is prohibited to be distributed. Common punishments, as they have to be voluntary due to Lytera's status as an unrecognised nation diplomatically, are environmental work, such as cleaning up parts of Lytera.

The major laws:

Age of Governance - 10

Age of Consent - 16

LGBT Rights - Equal

Woman's Rights - Equal

Religious Rights - Freedom of Religion

Incest - Illegal

Free Votes - Yes



Military

The Military is made up of three branches, the Airforce, Navy and Army.

The Army was first founded officially by King Matthew on his coronation date, though lacked any members. The army was unofficially made of Duke Alex, Owen and Duchess Megan during the War of the Crown. This is the only major conflict the army has fought in, and has seen no further military conflicts. Alexander I still leads the army, and still has a duty to fight on the battlefield. His cousins, Owen, Megan and Ayra, are also in the army. The nation lacks any tanks, but has cars and a motorbike to fight with, and artillery in the form of fireworks. The military sometimes recruits mercenaries from the UK when needed.

The Airforce was set up on August 21, 2018, a year after the civil war. The event was marked by the launching of fireworks into the sky, and the unveiling of two stomp rockets brought by Duke Matthew. These rockets have seen constant use, and have plans to be in service at bare minimum to the next anniversary of the war.

The Navy was founded on the same day as the Airforce, and is the pride of the nation. A Small wooden warship, HMS Bayliss, was formerly the only naval vessel, being scrapped after being damaged. The King himself leads a underwater naval commando unit, after he took up scuba diving in 2017. In an effort to improve diplomacy and learn more about the ocean and discipline, the King joined the Royal Sea Cadet Corps of the UK in 2018, though left in 2019.

Lyteran Armed Forces Ranks

Lytera uses the Lyira as an official currency inside it's borders, with the British Pound being legal tender as well.

Current Notes:

1/2ȴ

1ȴ

2ȴ

5ȴ,

10ȴ,

15ȴ

20ȴ,

50ȴ,

100ȴ



Geography

Administrative Divisions

Weather in Lytera (Overall) Graph

Average Weather in Kingdom of Lytera Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average maximum temperature

°C (°F) 6.4

(43.5) 6.6

(43.9) 9.1

(48.4) 11.8

(53.2) 15.6

(60.1) 18.6

(65.5) 20.4

(68.7) 20.1

(68.2) 17.5

(63.5) 14.0

(57.2) 9.4

(48.9) 7.3

(45.1) 13.1

(55.6) Average minimum temperature

°C (°F) 1.2

(34.2) 0.9

(33.6) 2.0

(35.6) 3.9

(39.0) 6.8

(44.2) 9.7

(49.5) 11.7

(53.1) 11.5

(52.7) 9.6

(49.3) 7.2

(44.5) 3.6

(38.5) 2.0

(35.6) 5.9

(42.6) Sunshine

hours 54.2 74.3 107.6 155.2 190.6 182.6 193.5 182.5 137.2 103.1 64.5 47.3 1492.7 Rainfall

mm (inches) 82.9

(3.3) 60.3

(2.4) 64.0

(2.5) 58.7

(2.3) 58.4

(2.3) 61.8

(2.4) 62.6

(2.5) 69.3

(2.7) 69.7

(2.7) 91.7

(3.6) 88.2

(3.5) 87.2

(3.4) 854.8

(33.7) Rainfall ≥ 1 mm

days 13.2 10.4 11.5 10.4 9.9 9.6 9.5 9.9 9.9 12.6 13.1 12.7 132.8 Source: United Kingdom Met Office[18] (1981–2010 averages), via Wikipedia

Culture

The main language of the nation is English, though German and Russian are used in law. The largest religion is Christianity, specifically Anglican, with Atheism being the second largest. Religion is free with no censorship, though due to current world events, Islam is held in a more negative view. Music wise, the nation is rather diverse, though by far metal music is the most popular, with rock and roll and classical close seconds and thirds. The most popular bands are Sabaton, Battle Beast and Beast in Black. The manner of dress-code varies, it's relaxed for everyday use, but for important events, it's very strict, similar to the attire of the 1910s. The culture is very English, though some German and Russian traditions are also common.

Under the government "Rising Sun" Initiative, Japanese language and culture has become an official language, in preparation for a proposed capital move in the 20's to Japan.

Religion

Lytera is largely Atheist, with Anglican Christianity making up the remaining percent. There is, however, a small Hellenism sect that worships there. Freedom of Religion was guaranteed in 2020, with no state mandated religion.

Media

The government newspaper is The Royal Lyteran News(German: Die Königlich Lyteran Nachrichten (Russian: Королевские Литера новости Korolevskiye Litera Novosti) (Japanese: 王室 いえてら ニュース Ōshitsu Ietera Nyūsu) is the only newspaper of the kingdom, and is run by the government. It reports on the first day of each month the events that have happened that year.

National Holidays

Name Date Remarks New Year's Day 1 January The beginning of the year in the Georgian Calendar. Public holiday. Emperor Norton I Day 8 January Date of death of Norton I, An inspiration to all micronations. Duke Michael's Birthday 25 Feburary Former member of the regency council. Current King's council member Dementia Awareness Week 3–9 April Dedicated to all people who have dementia. Sabaton Day 1 May A celebration of the nation's favourite metal band. Celebration of the Council 6 May Celebrating all who work to improve the nation. Founding Day 19 August Foundation of the Kingdom. Revolution Day 21 August Public holiday on celebrating the coup against King Matthew. Duke Matthew's Day 29 August Abolished after the revolution. Reinstated one year later as a holiday as a show of goodwill, though the official date was moved, as the Duke was born on the same date as the founding. King's Day 3 October The King's Birthday. Duchess Karen's Birthday 8 October Celebrating the King's mother's birthday. Marion's Memorial Day 1 November The day of the remembrance for High Regent Marion, The King's Great Grandmother, who died on what was her 98th birthday. Remembrance Day 11 November The day of the remembrance of those who fell in combat. Drill Day 12 November Official Parade round Lake Koi to showcase the nations military discipline. Christmas Day 25 December Presents are given out, family appreciate each other.

See Also