History During its history, Al Amarja has been colonized and conquered in succession by Greeks, Romans, North African Muslims, Catalans, Castilians, various Italian states and eventually the newly unified Italy. The official history of the island states that on October 7, 1940, Her Exaltedness Monique D'Aubainne, the Current Shepherdess of Al Amarja and president-for-life, drove out the fascists with the aid of her bodyguards, the Loyal Defenders. In reality, she just bought the island from her lover, Benito Mussolini. She founded the new state and legislation after the war using the newly ascendant United States as a model. Politics Al Amarja is an independent state. It is not a member of the United Nations or any other international body. It does not maintain embassies anywhere in the world. Al Amarja is also a center of just about every kind of global conspiracy imaginable and all of them have their own operatives on the island. The nation is ruled by Her Exaltedness Monique D'Aubainne, Historic Liberator and Current Shepherdess of Al Amarja (utmost respect is due Her Exaltedness). She is like the Queen of England in that she's a pleasant-seeming elderly woman who technically rules the country and occasionally appears on TV to make speeches. Like the Queen, she has several middle-aged heirs who await her death so they can take over. Her son Jean-Christophe D'Aubainne, the eldest, is an eclectic architect who designed the D'Aubainne International Airport. Overseeing the constant obsessive cleaning, maintenance, and modification (or "perfecting") of the facility takes up all his time. He has been known to agonize for hours over the proper placement of a lightswitch. Her elder daughter Constance D'Aubainne lives in Golden Barrio, the business district of The Edge. She owns SWAPS, the largest office building in the barrio, where anything can be bought or sold. Her younger daughter Cheryl D'Aubainne lives in Flowers Barrio, the artistic district. She holds court in the Temple of the Divine Experience in Sunken Barrio and has strong ties with the Mystic Shit and Fringe communities. Language Al Amarja's official language is American English adopted following Her Exaltedness' wholesale embracing of American culture and enforced by the shadowy Language Police. Fearful of being considered disloyal, many 'Marjians translated their names into English or randomly selected English words from the dictionary as first or last names. Al Amarjan patois (called Marjan) has numerous loan words from just about any