Department of Lurk

	Lurk Department
	Department of Slin
	Motto: Aurora Nova, Nova Victoria
	; Prague, Czech Republic
Capital	Redwood City
Founded	25th June 2011 Independent; 25th June 2013 Part of Slin
Area	~ 5 km2
Government	Department, Semi-Direct democracy
Vyceroy	Karl Friedrich
	lurkdepartment.weebly.com

This article is about the claim of Slin. For the independent nation, see Noble Republic of Lurk.

Lurk, formerly Noble Republic of Lurk, is a claim of the Empyre of Slin. It became a claim on 25 June 2013, which also was the second anniversary of the nation. Its current leader is Karl Friedrich. Departmentship was granted on 3 July, making it the second department of Slin. It is currently the largest department in area, and the only department which does not feature Slin's national insignia on its flag. Lurk's goal is to establish a fun micronational experiment, with culture, industry and "research" projects being the main focus.

Etymology

Lurk, as in all its previous incarnations, is located in the nearby Lurk Hills area of which the nation takes its name from. The Lurk hills seemed to be a perfect claim for a new nation, since they had infrastructure (mud "field" roads), natural resources such as wood, a river to supply water and power and are a relatively quiet area in beautiful nature with no permanent citizens.

History

Redwood City

The micronational roots of Redwood City trace back to 2005, when the city was party of an informal one day nation established by the father of the current leader of Lurk, Karl Friedrich. He proclaimed himself as the President, and appointed other family members as ministers (for example, Karl Friedrich was the Minister of Defence). However, this nation was very short-lived and it became inactive a day later. The nation was never disestablished, and its name is sometimes referenced as the name of the property where Redwood City is located.

Pre-micronational history

In 2008, Karl Friedrich, the founder of Lurk, participated in Radim Dresler's geo-fictional world. His renaming of local (and distant) geographical features, own language (although similar to Czech) were the pillars of the early Lurkish culture. Dresler's nation, so called "Psíkov-Kost Plyšákov" was a very developed geo-fictional nation in the Lurkish Area (but also claimed several Western and Central European nations), having its own language, plush citizens, names for geographical features and politics. When Dresler joined Karl Friedrich's school, they immediately became friends and Karl Friedrich was inspired by Dresler's geofictional world so much he joined it and created his own nation, called "Yugoslavia", due to its most important territory and capital being located in the former Yugoslavia. Karl Friedrich created a political system, chose territory with Dresler and created territorial divisions, drew maps of the capital and the nation itself, created some of its history, etc.. However, when Dresler left the school after a half a year of studying there, Yugoslavia fell into inactivity and was considered disestablished.

Lurk

Lurk, as itself, was established on 25 June 2011 under the name LurkSAR as a socialist (or rather Soviet Autonomous Republic, as is the SAR suffix usually explained today). It established contact with Flatland and established informal relations, and formal relations several months afterwards. A day later, LurkSAR was reformed into Lurk Republic. Lurk Republic participated mostly in the YouTube Community's many disputes, however it stayed as a neutral observer and tried to solve the conflicts diplomatically. During these months Lurk started its traditional friendship with Monovia, Flatland and Grunkia. In early September 2011, Lurk, influenced by its friends, joined United Provinces of Utopia, a federal union of Lurk, Pashema, Monovia and later Baconia. Lurk, along with Monovia, was the leading nation of the union and enjoyed great respect there. The union fell shortly due to disagreements between Pashema and Monovia. Later, Pashema proposed new unions between itself and Lurk, but all plans were refused.

Lurk Federation

After the collapse of the First Utopia and YouTube community with it, Lurk reformed into the Lurk Federation, a federation of Lurk and the newly created Acrest. The union itself was inspired by Russian Federation and Prussia, adopting both Prussian-like and Russian-like symbols. In December 2012, Lurk joined the Second Utopia (later renamed to Navassian Union). After the union's collapse due to same reason as the previous one collapsed, Lurk Federation was sovereign nation once again. Lurk adopted new symbols, constitution (today referred as January Constitution, however its contents were lost) and anthem. Since then, Lurk was only inspired by Prussia, and new language, similar to German was starting to be developed, called Aerian. After a short period of very high activity, Lurk fell into a long period of inactivity and more unions, which all were failures.

Archduchy of Lurk

Archduchy of Lurk was formed in late Spring of 2012, and Alex White crowned himself as the Archduke of Lurk known as Karl Friedrich I. and released Acrest as a sovereign state under his rule. This entity was short-lived and existed only due to requirements of the last United Provinces of Utopia, a loose union similar to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Due to merits of Axel Nielson in the union, Axel was made a hero of Lurk.

Noble Republic of Lurk

The Noble Republic was formed according to the Action Plan of the Archduchy of Lurk, which stated major constitutional changes and few other necessary points which had to be fulfilled. One of the first needed changes was change back to the Republic, since the Monarchy was not working well, was not very approved and existed only due to the inactive United Provinces of Utopia. Informally the Noble Republic was founded on 2 October 2012, formally in December of 2012 when the constitution was signed. Lurk reverted to old republican symbols and decided to rather adopt Czech culture instead of trying to create its completely own or to imitate Prussian culture.

Government

Lurk, as a department of Slin, has its own governmental structure, which according to the Slinnysh constitution, is very similar to the Empyre's. Head of the state is a Viceroy, which is elected yearly in January if the number of citizens is more than three. Early elections can be instituted by the Electorate no more than one month before the proper elections or no less than three months after the last ones. Viceroy can proclaim and revoke laws (excluding the constitution of Lurk department). Electorate is made up of all the citizens of the department and can proclaim and revoke laws (including the constitution) with a majority vote, keeping the similar system to the one of the Noble Republic of Lurk.