Grand Duchy of Navārdia

Grand Duchy of Navārdia Grandduklando de Navārdia
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Motto Pluribus unitus en pactum (Latin: Many united under one covenant)
Peachtree City, Georgia, United States
Capital city	Capital Province
Largest city	Pope Island
Official language(s)	English, Esperanto
Short name	Navārdia
Demonym	Navārdian
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
- Grand Duke	Casper von Navārdia
Legislature	Parliament
Established	September 9th, 2019 Fall 2017 (as Chocomarina)
Disestablished	December 31st, 2019
Area claimed	3.238 acres
Population	7 (as of December 2019 census)
Currency	US Dollar (de facto)
Time zone	Central Navārdia Time (UTC-4:22)
National sport	Broomball
National drink	Eggnog
National animal	Whitetail Deer
Patron saint	Blessed Gerard (de facto)
This nation is a member of the LPN and ARU
Government website

Navārdia, officially known as the Grand Duchy of Navārdia, was a territorial entity which claimed to be sovereign state, often classified as a micronation. It was made up of three noncontiguous pieces of land in the deciduous forest region of North America, including two provinces and an honorary district. All of the landlocked territory of Navārdia was surrounded by the United States of America.

Navārdia was founded to establish a government that utilized modern ideals, give every citizen an opportunity to directly affect their nation’s legislative forces and create a tight knit community with hygge on the North American continent. Its culture was mainly inspired by that of North American and European nations; specific examples include the United States, Germany, Denmark and the Baltics.

Navārdia had a notably open foreign policy, and in late October of 2019 the nation began communicating with the greater micronational community. This led to Navārdia joining the League of Professional Nations and founding the Atlanta Regional Union. The organizations hosted some of Navārdia’s most notable allies.

Etymology

The name Navārdia comes from the Latvian term nav vārda, meaning no name in English. This name was picked by Navārdia’s founder himself to reflect the nation’s Baltic roots, and to symbolize coming from nothing; Navārdia was a large project taken on by a grassroots team and this name forever memorializes the dream of the first Navārdians.

There is a French wine company called Navardia. It has no association with Navārdia, and the similarity in name has not discovered until 2020. The government of Navārdia blames the collective creativity phenomenon.

Over the course of history, Navārdia and its predecessor states had two distinct names.

• Fall 2017 to September 9th, 2019 Chocomarina
• September 9th to December 31st, 2019 Grand Duchy of Navārdia

History

Pre-Navārdia

A digital recreation of the flag of Chocomarina.

At some point while he lived North Carolina, likely Fall of 2017, Casper discovered the website of the Republic of Molossia. He became inspired to create a micronation of his own with his friends, and began to write about his nation-in-progress in a journal.

Based on the contents of the journal, which was rediscovered in late March of 2020, the nation was to be called Chocomarina. A flag was designed for the nation, and the cellular network industry was intended to be nationalized by the end of 2018. Not much else was written about the nation; even its government structure appears to be lost to time.

Though it was the subject of many discussions and writings, declarating Chocomarinian independence was delayed several times, as Casper knew that he would soon move to another state - at the time, long distance governance was an impossibility. Despite this delay, it is believed that Chocomarina was established before Casper left North Carolina, and was simply forgotten over time.

Foundation

In early September 2019, Casper (now living in Georgia) read an article on weird historical events. One of the events listed was Leicester Hemingway’s creation of New Atlantis, a 240 square foot raft that he tried to turn into an independent nation. Linked to that article was a second article, detailing the micronation phenomenon. Linked to that article were the websites of several micronational governments.

The learning pathway led to Casper rediscovering micronationalism, and deciding to create the first nation in Peachtree City - a perfect location for such projects due to its varied geography and vast network of golf cart paths. For about a week, Casper researched existing micronations, governing styles, vexillology and family history to inspire the new nation. A flag was designed after several prototypes, with the final draft taking the most inspiration from Akhzivland and Aruba. A royal democracy was found to be the most effective system of governance for the small nation, and a constitution was written following those principles.

Naming the nation, however, was a challenge once again. After failing to come up with a fitting name for about a week, Casper decided to call the nation Navārdia, meaning “no name” in the ancestral language of Latvian. With a name, law and flag decided upon, the Grand Duchy of Navārdia was declared independent on September 9th, 2019.

Grand Duchy

The first two weeks of Navārdia’s existence went as well as one would expect from a one-man nation. More research was done and legislation was proposed; despite population issues and lack of outside communication, all was well. Then, on September 23rd, tragedy stuck as the Grand Duke‘s great grandfather passed. Not only a notable member of the family, the man was a veteran and one of the five inspirational figures of Navārdia.

A funeral was quickly planned in the US state of Kentucky, and nearly the entire Grand Ducal family was soon making its way there. Despite the short duration and unfortunate circumstances of the trip, Casper had the time and opportunity to enjoy the local sights, sounds and cuisine. He fell in love with the state, and eventually decided to annex a patch land there in honor of his late relative. That land is known as Todge, the first honorary district of Navārdia.

Shortly after Casper’s return from his journey to Kentucky, the Grand Duke’s laptop broke. This started a chain of unfortunate technical difficulties referred to internal as the Computer Crises. All technological advances of the nation were limited to the capabilities of an iPhone which, although being a major inconvenience, ended up being of benefit for the nation. Three days after the crises began, the first genuine attempts to gain citizens were made.

Taking advantage of the unique abilities of the iPhone, an informational document was sent to a group of friends and acquaintances at a club of sorts. None of the recipients seemed to acknowledge their invitation to join the nation, although “Bravo Ironglutes”, a friend of Casper’s, applied for citizenship that night over text.

As the population grew, the government became interested in the local community of micronationalists, after learning of the Kingdom of Ruritania. After thorough research, it was discovered that at least two more nations were in the Atlanta area, the Star Kingdom and New Athens. A third was suspected to exist, as some acquaintances of Casper’s had shown interest in creating a nation of their own, and the name Unicornia had been thrown around a lot. This brought the total number of local area nations to four, maybe five. The Grand Duke realized that an organization to unite the locals could very well be of benefit, and asked some friends associated with the nation if he should follow through with his plans. Each and every one said yes, and formal planning of the organization began.

The last days of October brought a flurry of activity. The Internal Services Office, Navārdia’s military and police force, was founded on the 19th. A kind Capitalian resident began allowing Grand Duke Casper to use their laptop a few days later, resuming development of the national website. On the 23rd, the local Pope Island was claimed by the monarch in tandem with a newly accepted citizen and internal services officer, known as Eggs Benedict. The day after that, Unicornia was discovered to be real. A meeting was held between its diarchs and Grand Duke Casper. A treaty was signed, establishing mutual recognition and a defense agreement.

October excitement peaked on Halloween night, with the first ever national gala, held at Capital. Bravo lived too far away to attend, but Eggs was able to. Dinner was made, tricks were treated and movies were watched. The two talked about government business and even visited Unicornia together, but political activity was low at the time and there wasn’t much to talk about. Eggs left Capital later that weekend.

On the afternoon of November 10th, Grand Duke Casper created a Google account for the nation, to begin formal communication with other nations and members of the micronational community. The first successful communications were established with the Kingdom of Phokland. Tsar Charles, the monarch of Phokland, signed a mutual recognition treaty alongside Grand Duke Casper, and invited Navārdia to the League of Professional Nations. This offer was accepted, and followed by treaty signings with Lehmark and Ledilia, both fellow members of the league.

On November 27th, Charles contacted Casper about the newly founded East-Erica, offering to accept Navārdia as a constituent country. The offer was accepted, but later postponed to give the nations more time to plan the union and its functions. However, Navārdia joined a different kind of union on December 1st, when Grand Duke Casper and King Tyler of New Athens finally founded the Atlanta Regional Union. Between joining those unions, Navārdia gained two citizens. Yet another joined on December 3rd.

On December 10th, the national news service issued an announcement that Navārdia would join the Phoklandian Free State on New Year’s day. The announcement outlined several changes to the structure of the nation, mainly emphasizing that it would be a constituent or region rather than a nation state in its own right. Internally, the union members were searching for ministers to fill the national government. General Steelbottom, a friend of Casper’s, became a Navārdian citizen on December 14th to claim the position of Defense Minister.

Grand Duke Casper travelled to Florida on Christmas Day, and new citizen Lucky flew to England on the 29th. Abroad and at home, the citizens of Navārdia not only rung in a new year, but a new era, the Union Era; and a new nation, the Navārdian Free Land.

Foreign Relations

Navārdia’s foreign policy allowed it to recognize all nations and governments that exercise professionalism in their actions. It had unilaterally recognized many, even gaining tacit recognition from the highly respected Republic of Molossia, but only had formal relations with six. Among those were governments which Navārdia had signed treaties with and members of the Atlanta Regional Union.

• Unicornia
• Kingdom of Phokland
• Empire of Lehmark
• Principality of Ledilia
• Free Nation of New Athens
• Republic of Aswington

Unrecognized Governments

Navārdia had decided not to recognize certain nations and governments due to lack of freedoms, suspicious activity or violations of international law.

• Republic of Shrikailasa
• Kingdom of Catan
• State of Samizdat

Military

The closest thing Navārdia had to a military was the Internal Services Office. Officers mainly assumed the role of Navārdia’s police force, but were sometimes be deployed as soldiers. One example of this was the deployments to Unicornia - a treaty signed with the nation mandated that Navārdian troops had to defend the royal residence. Due to lack of staff, Grand Duke Casper usually had to take their place, so de facto state visits between the two nations were uncommon.

Citizenship

Navārdian citizenship was only open to those who have been personally invited into the nation by existing citizens, and whose applications the government accepted. This was not only to prevent criminals and other suspicious persons from associating with Navārdia, but also to ensure the it remained a tight knit community.

Geography

Navārdian policy on geography stated that the nation’s territory was to be divided into provinces and honorary districts. Provinces were either chunks of land inhabited by citizens, or islands not inhabited by noncitizens at the time of claiming.

Provinces were considered truly sovereign territory. Honorary districts were any land, water or virtual claims of the nation that do not fit the definition of a province. They are considered culturally sovereign, which is generally defined as a level of sovereignty similar to that of a tribal government or British West Florida. A list of all claims at time of dissolution is kept below.

Name	Territorial Flag	Citizen Residents	Date of Founding
Provinces
Capital Province		2	September 9th, 2019
Pope Island		0	October 28th, 2019
Honorary Districts
Todge		0	September 29th, 2019