Ave Maria
Ave Maria, Illuminatia
Ave Maria is a regionally dominant city, situated within an expansive coastal plain on the northern coast in northeastern Illuminatia.
As of the 250 AI Census, Ave Maria had a population of 623,851 residents, making it Illuminatia's 23rd-largest city. Ave Maria has experienced stable growth since then and it is estimated the city will have a population over 990,000 by the 300 AI Census, an increase of nearly 160% over 50 AU.
Ave Maria is the predominant center for the financial sector in Illuminatia's northeastern region to the west of the Lucidian Range. The city is also a regional player in industry and engineering and has a significant agricultural sector. The largest newspaper publishing from Ave Maria is the Ave Maria Bulletin. The city's dominant institution of higher education is the University of Necessary Knowledge. Ave Maria is represented in the National Sportsball League by the Ave Maria Fecal Matter.
A primary settlement city, Ave Maria is home to three landings of modules from the Third Multiversal Duplication of survivors from the Lucidus III ship, whose survivors were some of the most widely disbursed of all the original settlers from any given Lucidus ship. The seeding of a region this large with survivors of the same multiversal duplication of the same ship is believed to be the latent force behind a sociological phenomenon relating to the relative homogeneity of some commonly-held cultural values here in relation to the rest of Illuminatia.
Ave Maria was named in recognition of a musical work by an ancient Earthly composer of classical music.