Kingdom of Gilboa

The Kingdom of Gilboa is a fictional country in the NBC drama series Kings. Technologically and culturally, the country resembles an alternate present-day United States, but with an absolute monarch.

Overview
Gilboa is a leading destination for international immigration. The country's capital, Shiloh, and its eight suburban counties have a combined population of 13,209,006 people, or 70.23% of the country's population. The estimated population of the entire kingdom is 25,306,183. The top ten cities of Gilboa by population are Shiloh (8,323,847), Gideon (1,279,912), Kardos (811,836), Selah (787,425), Mount Concord (341,696), Calvary (193,523), New Carmel (72,967), Abilene (67,924), Dathan (61,280), and New Hope (59,336).

Government
Gilboa has been under a monarchial system since the Unification Wars united Carmel, Selah and Gilboa. King Silas exercises absolute power to rule his country and its citizens. The Ministry is a collective body of government ministers that participate in cabinet meetings. Gilboa operates on a common law legal system. The court system is headed by the King's Court, which only addresses cases brought through the Court of Appeals.

Background
King Silas Benjamin has ruled over a time of unequalled prosperity and growth in Gilboa. He focused his efforts on uniting the people from the three original countries, building infrastructure and developing industry. Port Prosperity became the center for Gilboa's import and export, responsible for billions of the country's annual GNP. The city of Shiloh was rebuilt after the siege and rededicated as the capital of Gilboa, growing into one of the most modernized and wealthy cities in the world.

Settlers first crossed into the valley of Gilboa from the southern regions, and initially had good relations with the indigenous Gath tribes. However, disputes soon arose over water and herding rights, causing tensions between the communities. As Gilboan settlers worked to develop the land, the Gath Union began to rely upon its military power to keep their rivals at bay.

King Silas instituted a monarchy with a system of ministries appointed to advise him on the many areas of the country under his charge.

After more than two decades of uneasy armistice between Gilboa and its northern neighbor Gath, the countries re-entered conflict, with Gilboa counter-attacking Gath after a skirmish at the border left 36 soldiers wounded, another eight killed. Gath introduced the Goliath tank to the battlefield, shifting the balance of power, forcing Gilboa to enact conscription and double the number of infantry on the border. The two sides were locked in a war of attrition, until a Gilboan private named David Shepherd performed a remarkable act of heroism on the battlefield, an act that finally brought Gath and Gilboa together for peace talks. King Silas negotiated an end to the conflict, but it is unknown whether the peace will hold.

Economy
Based on today's market exchange rates, Gilboa is the seventh largest economy in the world. The economy of Gilboa can be divided into three different sectors: heavy industries, with emphasis on motor industry, mining, and steel and textile production; the service sector, dominated by financial services such as banking and insurance; and agriculture, farming and livestock.

Gilboa's currency is the Laurel. The Royal Treasury is the central bank, responsible for issuing currency. The Laurel is backed by gold reserves held by the Royal Treasury.

The world's third largest pharmaceutical firm (PharmaCross) based in Gilboa. The kingdom is also a leader in the global automotive industry. The Gilboan Monarch is the best selling hybrid vehicle worldwide, manufactured by Pella Industries. Civil and defense aircraft production is led by Gilboa's largest aerospace firm, CrossGen. CrossGen also holds a major share of the global aerospace engines market.

Banking and insurance make up over 50% of Gilboa's GDP and Shiloh is the region's largest financial center. Shiloh also has one of the largest concentrations of foreign bank branches in the world. Rural areas specialize in grains, corn and wheat, as well as livestock. Farming makes up 5% of the kingdom's GDP.

Foreign relations and Military
Gilboa exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It hosts embassies from almost all other developed countries in its capital Shiloh, as well as maintaining diplomatic missions abroad. Gath only recently established formal diplomatic relations with Gilboa, coinciding with the end of the Gath War.

The armed forces of Gilboa is composed of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and King's Own (the elite squad of fighters trained in infiltration and recovery). Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime. King Silas is the commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appointee of leaders in the Ministry of Defense. General Linus Abner is the head of the Defense Ministry and top national security advisor to the King. The Ministry of Defense employs nearly 500,000 civilians, excluding private contractors.

Education
In Gilboa, education is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education. State schools that are allowed to select pupils according to intelligence and academic ability can achieve comparable results to the most selective private schools. The academic curriculum in Gilboa focuses on communication, languages, sciences, and the arts.

Education is mandatory from ages five to sixteen. The majority of children are educated in state-sector schools, with private school making up the remainder. Over 75% of students at the leading universities in Shiloh attended state schools.

Healthcare
In Gilboa, healthcare is overseen by the Ministry of Health, which exists to improve the health and well being of the citizens of Gilboa. Life expectancy in the kingdom is 75 years at birth. Infant mortality rate is 5.35 per thousand, making Gilboa among the first ranked globally for infant survival. Gilboan cancer survival rates are, likewise, among the highest in the world. Recent legislation has been presented to the King to universalize healthcare, with an emphasis on children's health and preventative care.

Transport
In Gilboa, transport is overseen by the Transportation Ministry, which maintains the roads and motorways of Gilboa, as well as managing air, train and public transport.

Shiloh International Airport is the country's main hub of air travel. Air Shiloh connects outer airports such as Pella, Prosperity, and Calsays to the main hub at Shiloh.

The GTA (Gilboa Transport Authority) manages bus and train lines connecting far-flung areas across the country. The Shiloh subway system is a rapid subterranean transit system, connecting all 350 of Shiloh's subway stations. The Shiloh Subway closes between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Gilboa has over 50,000 kilometers of connected public roadway. There are 200,000 kilometers of paved roads. The national rail network carries over 180,000 passengers annually.

Arts and entertainment
The Royal Gilboan Football League includes two teams that compete internationally: the Lorem United and the South End Storm. The national rugby team, the Gilboan Premiere, is based in Bethany. There is an international tennis tournament annually at Unity Stadium, in East Shiloh.

Gilboans are among the top five heaviest television viewers in the world and the kingdom's most successful network is Unity News Network (UNN). Time spent on radio programming is typically two-and-a-half hours a day. The most popular website is the gossip site 200 Meters. There are an estimated 12 million bloggers in Gilboa.

The music of Gilboa is rhythmic and lyrical. It is the style of the indigenous music of Carmel. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and big band were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. The popularity of jazz, country music, rhythm and blues still rivals more recent creations including rock and roll, hip hop and house music.

Gilboa's primary grain is wheat. The indigenous foods include turkey, white-tailed deer venison, potatoes, corn, and squash. In terms of cuisine, metropolitan cites such as Shiloh offer up a taste of everything. Tourists in the capital might even be surprised to find some Gath favorites readily available.

Geography and climate
The land expanse of Gilboa is 141,299 square kilometers. The kingdom's borders (clockwise from the west) are the Elysium Bay; Austeria, which shares a water border with Gilboa, Gath, and the Provinces of Simeon.

The great Prosperity River Valley dominates northern Gilboa, while the Port at Pella is the chief western feature of the valley, which also includes River Prosperity flowing southwest to the Elysium Bay. The rugged Gideon Mountains, with vast tracts of wilderness, lie west of the valley. Most of the southern part of the country is on the Plains of Dan, which stretch from the southeast to the Abilene Mountains.

The majority of the country is dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. Gideon Park is the largest in Gilboa. It is larger than the Lydia National Park and Unity River Valley combined. The Arcadian River begins with Lake Orli, which flows south through the eastern part of the country.

Gilboa generally has a humid continental climate. Weather in Gilboa is heavily influenced by two continental air masses: a warm, humid body from the southwest and a cold, dry one from the northwest. A cool, humid airflow from the North Elysium also has an effect on weather, albeit to a lesser extent than the continental ones. Many continental frontal boundaries move across Gilboa, and storm systems moving north along the coast often affect the southern areas of the country. Winter temperature is -25 °C or lower in the northern mountains; -15 °C or colder in the southwestern and east-central plains. Summer temperature is from 25 to 30 °C over much of the state.