Nordland

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Nordland Kingdom of Nordland Königreich Nordland
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Heil! Für den Vaterland!" ("Hail! For the Fatherland!")
Anthem: Sohn der Löwen Son of Lions
Location of Nordland
Capital	Guthoff
Largest largest city	Juliahafen
Ethnic groups	96.4% Nordish 2.4% English 1.2% Other
Government	Unitary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Karl III
• Prime Minister	Lisbeth Künstler
Establishment
• Norse settlement	985
• Swabian settlement	1526
• Independence from Sweden	24 June 1637
• Treaty of London	4 April 1644
Area
• Total	2,166,086 km2 (836,330 sq mi) (12th)
Population
• 2015 estimate	85,982 (206th)
• 2010 census	85,002
GDP (PPP)	2015 estimate
• Total	$2.903 billion (166th)
• Per capita	$33,767 (31st)
GDP (nominal)	2015 estimate
• Total	$3.222 billion (160th)
• Per capita	$37,482 (25th)
Gini	28.1 low
HDI (2015)	0.903 very high · 8th
Currency	Nordish krone (NDK)
Time zone	Time in Nordland (UTC+0 to -4)
Calling code	+299
Internet TLD	.nd

The Kingdom of Nordland, commonly referred to as just Nordland (German: Königreich Nordland, Nordland), is a sovereign island nation located in between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Nordland is the world's largest island, at 2,166,086 square kilometers, also making it the world's 12th largest nation by area. However, with a population of 85,982 people as of 2014, it is one of the smallest nations in the world by population, and its density of 0.039 people per square kilometer is the lowest of anywhere in the world.

Nordland was originally settled by Inuit peoples from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as far back as 4500 years ago. In 982, Erik the Red is believed to have been the first European to discover and explore Nordland, naming it Greenland and settling it in 985. While the settlement flourished, an epidemic brought by Icelandic settlers ravaged the colony in 1002, essentially weakening forever the original colony. By the 15th century, the colony had been completely abandoned by the Norse. In 1526, a large number of Swabian peasants seeking refuge from the persecution following the German Peasants' War settled Greenland with the assistance of the emerging Kingdom of Sweden, believing it to be the northernmost place in the world and naming it Nordland. Sweden used the settlers has grounds against the Danish, hoping to further damage the Danish by taking away significant portions of their kingdom. As the nature of the settlement was not for military purposes, the Danes did not attack it, with many records suggesting that they did not even know that the settlement took place, and as a result, Nordland became a vassal of Sweden. In 1637, Johannes Hohenstaufen petitioned the Swedish monarchy to install him as the duke of Nordland, claiming to be a descendant of older, extinct House of Hohenstaufen. When the Swedish monarch refused, Johannes launched a popular revolt in Nordland, ultimately expelling the entirety of Swedish forces and resisting a Swedish incursion in the Nordish Revolt of 1637. Johannes was proclaimed Johannes I of Nordland by the Church of Nordland, and he was recognized by Denmark-Norway in 1639 as the true king of Nordland. This move would lead to the consequential Nordish War of 1640 and the Treaty of London, in which Sweden recognized the legitimacy of the Nordish sovereign. Nordland would improve itself through trade and domestic development to become a considerable regional power in northern Europe through diplomacy and trade. In the 18th and 19th centuries, conflicts with the native Inuits over expansion of the German-speaking Nordish would lead to the Inuit Wars and the eventual extinction of the Inuit peoples in Nordland by 1823. The development of the Romantic movement in Europe greatly effected Nordland, with Romanticism becoming a leading ideology across the nation. As a result, Nordland strengthened its absolute monarchy, becoming one of the last absolute monarchy in Europe by the end of the First World War. Heavily hit by the Great Depression, and put under international critique because of its German-speaking population after the Second World War, Nordland's monarchy lost a significant amount of power with the Nordish Constitution of 1949, which established the parliament and a democratic system. Though it was neutral in the Cold War, Nordland became an ally of the United States and Western Europe with a developing economy that favoured distributism and the institution of pragmatic laissez faire policies. Nordland favoured the European Free Trade Association over the European Union, and joined the EFTA in 1991 alongside Liechtenstein.

Nordland is a constitutional monarchy with a unicameral parliamentary system. The head of state is the monarch, and the head of government is the prime minister. The parliament in Nordland is the supreme legislature, and as such, enjoys the full responsibilities of governance. As it is not specifically derived from the monarchy, the parliament is not sovereign in its rule, however, and the monarch still holds the power to dissolve the parliament at any time they deem necessary. The members of the parliament are elected from their respective electoral districts based on a party vote, in which the largest party in the parliament then forms the government. Elections in Nordland occur every five years, based entirely on a party percentage of the vote to determine the ruling party or coalition of parties which then make up the government. While parties do not specifically exist to serve as the body for which the government must be formed, they simplify the process of government and are thus required in the creation and maintenance of the nation's democratic government.

The economy of Nordland is heavily based on three industries; fishing, herding, and services. Nordland is a developed, modernised economy which never experienced industrialisation in the respect of the factory system. Instead, the nation's economy has simply adopted the technologies developed over time, and been reliant on its exports of fish, wool, hides, milk, and meat from goats, sheep, and oxen. Potatoes, cabbage, and radishes can also be grown in the far south in the summer's short growing season, but these seasons are too short to form a permanent industry of commercial farming. The government endorses a mixture of distributist and laissez faire economic policies based around the principles of responsible government in terms of providing a series of services to the people. As a result, healthcare, education, roads, power, water, and emergency services are owned and operated by the government through a series of government policies and administrations. Nordland is considered to be a free market, with a large amount of economic freedom and a generally moderate cost of living.

Nordland holds good relations with most other western countries, and generally neutral relations with countries which do not claim themselves to be westernised. Nordland's closest allies are Iceland, Britannia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The nation is a member of the League of Nations, the Nordic Council, the Nordic Passport Union, the EFTA, the EEA, the Council of Europe, the OCED, the IMF and the WTO.

Etymology

The German word Nordland comes from a combination of two different words, those being Nord, meaning north, and Land, meaning land or country. Together, Nordland then means North land. This name was adopted in 1526 by the Swabian immigrants onto the island, who believed it at the time to be the very northern rim of the Earth itself, also believing that the high ice sheet was the gateway into heaven, as the clouds and the white ice would typically converge because of its high altitude. Before the name Nordland was adopted, the island was known as Greenland, or Gronland in Old Norse, and was named by the Norse explorer and outlaw Erik the Red in order to attract immigrants to the island. The name was not known by the peasants at the time of settlement, and as such, the island was henceforth known solely as Nordland. Upon the declaration of the nation's independence from Sweden in the Revolt of 1637, the official name of the country was declared to be Königreich Nordland, meaning the Kingdom of Nordland.

History

Main article: History of Nordland

Inuit and Norse settlement

In prehistoric times, Nordland was home to several successive Paleo-Eskimo cultures known primarily through archaeological finds. The earliest entry of the Paleo-Eskimo into Nordland is thought to have occurred about 2500 BC. From around 2500 BC to 800 BC, southern and western Nordland was inhabited by the Saqqaq culture. Most finds of Saqqaq-period archaeological remains have been around Disko Bay. From 2400 BC to 1300 BC, the Independence I culture existed in northern Nordland. It was a part of the Arctic small tool tradition. Towns, including Deltaterrasserne, started to appear. Around 800 BC, the Saqqaq culture disappeared and the Early Dorset culture emerged in western Nordland and the Independence II culture in northern Nordland. The Dorset culture was the first culture to extend throughout the Nordish coastal areas, both on the west and east coasts, and it lasted until the total onset of the Thule culture in 1500 AD.

One of few Norse ruins in Nordland, an ancient church in the abandoned settlement of Hvalsey.

The Norse settled the island sometime around 985 under the command of the outlaw Erik the Red and 14 ships, forming the colonies of the Eastern Settlement and the Western Settlement. They shared the island with the late Dorset culture and the early Thule culture. These Norse settlers submitted to Norwegian rule, and Norway entered into a personal union with Denmark in 1380, which eventually led to the Kalmar Union by 1397. These Norse settlements thrived for centuries past their initial settlement, but the Little Ice Age led to their complete abandonment by the 15th century. The combined onset of the Little Ice Age, incursions of Inuits upon their lands, pandemic plague, and subsequent famine brought about an end to the Norse in Nordland, with their settlements completely vanishing by the end of the 15th century. By the year 1500, only the Inuit Thule culture remained as the largest population on the island.

Swabian settlement and Swedish vassalage

Following the German Peasants' War, a large number of Swabian peasants saw themselves under the guise of persecution by nobles after their revolt. In the fear of torture and execution, a large number of peasants fled the country to France, where they were met with animosity. Eventually, over a thousand made their way to Sweden, where they petitioned the monarch to settle free of persecution. Citing their recent independence from the Kalmar Union, Sweden wished to hurt the Danish in any way possible, and as a move against them, gave the Swabians the supplies and ships to take them to Greenland, which had been abandoned by the Norse for as long as 100 years at the time. Assisted by the Swedish, the Swabians eventually established the settlements of Guthoff and Juliahafen in 1530 and 1526 respectively. The two settlements at first experienced hardship under the unusually cold conditions on the island, barely making it by with small farms of musk oxen and sheep. The introduction of goats in 1538 helped to ease the lack of food in the settlements, and extensive efforts at increasing the productivity of fishing were realised with financial assistance from the Swedish throne in 1545. By 1553, the Danish had learned of the Swedish-backed colony, but held no interest in retaking the lands because of the disastrous settlement of the Norse, believing that the same would happen to the Swabians. In 1572, the Swedish declared Nordland a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sweden, to which many Swabians personally objected. As the Swabians felt that they had experienced the immense trouble of settling the land, they did not see themselves as fit subjects to pay tribute to a foreign lord. These feelings were quickly culled however, as the Swedish monarchy began to exert considerable pressure onto the Swabian settlers by sending many regiments of Swedish soldiers.

In 1576, the Kingdom of Sweden declared the establishment of the Duchy of Nordland, and they proclaimed that the Duke of Nordland was forever to be of Swedish birth by right of the allowance of settlement. By virtue of popular support, the people of Nordland responded by attacking a Swedish fort and instilling open rebellion against Swedish rule in the Nordish Revolt of 1576. The Swedish responded by sending even more troops and supplies into Nordland, and many small villages across the countryside were attacked in the name of rooting out the rebellious subjects. By 1579, the country had been pacified, and most Nordish people lived in the small cities, basing their lives off of collective farming of oxen, sheep, and goat, artisan crafts, reindeer hunting, and fishing. In 1583, the Swedish let loose on their control over the Nordish people, and allowed for the formation of small, rural villages once again. Inuit attacks against the settlements became more frequent by 1590, and by the beginning of the year 1600, animosity between the Inuits and the German Nordish peoples was at the point of open attack against one another.

Nordish independence

Johannes I declared the rightful King of Nordland by the Bishop of Guthoff.

The Nordish continued to slowly expand across the non-iced over parts of the island, slowly encompassing the whole of the coastline. Many new villages and hamlets were established along the coast as small farming settlements based around subsistence agriculture and fishing. While the quality of life was improving as a whole, the Nordish were still far from economic and political freedom and self reliance. After a serious Inuit attack against the major port town of Guthoff in 1608, the Swedish decided to implement policies restricting further expansion into native lands, and as a result, many of the settlers began to resent Swedish rule once more. For about 30 years following the tightening of Swedish rule once again, many began to suspect that the Swedish eventually planned to populate Nordland with Swedes and replace the German Nordish. In 1637 a prominent businessman named Johannes Hohenstaufen approached the Swedish monarch, hailing from Nordland. He claimed to be a descendant of the ancient House of Hohenstaufen, and as such, laid claim to fiefdom over the lands of Nordland and its people. When the Swedish monarch refused, Johannes returned to Nordland, rallied a large group of angry citizens, and attacked the Swedish garrison at Guthoff in the Nordish Revolt of 1637. The Church of Nordland then recognized Johannes as the heir to the House of Hohenstaufen, and declared him King Johannes I of the Kingdom of Nordland. The next two years Johannes spent raising large citizen armies and attacking Swedish garrisons across Nordland, where he became immensely popular for his staunch stance of absolute Nordish independence. In 1639, realizing that the Swedish would continue to invade if he did not gain international leverage, Johannes I sent an envoy to Denmark-Norway in order to gain support overseas. Denmark-Norway almost immediately supported him, wishing to undermine the Swedish in any way possible.

Angered by the acceptance of the rebels in Nordland by an international body, Sweden declared war against Denmark-Norway in 1640 on the grounds that the Danish were inciting rebellions in Swedish territory. The Swedish then garnered the support of the French in their endeavor, who also declared war against Denmark-Norway. England, not wanting France to gain significant sway in Northern Europe, aligned itself with Nordland and Denmark-Norway. The first half of the war was largely a defense against Swedish and French naval movements throughout Europe, with the Nordish in the North Atlantic, the English in the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, and the Danish in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. After England had restricted French naval movements to support the Swedish, they sent soldiers to fight alongside the Danish in Sweden proper, while the Nordish continued to attack and eliminate Swedish garrisons across the island. By the February of 1644, both Sweden and France had been pacified. The defeat of the Swedish at the Battle of Stockholm that March paved the way to the Treaty of London held in the April of the same year, in which the Swedish were forced to recognize Nordland as a sovereign state and the French were forced to pay a large sum of gold to both England and Denmark-Norway. On 4 April 1644, the treaty was signed between all belligerent parties and the independence of Nordland was finalised.

Expansion and Romantic movement

Following independence from Sweden, Johannes I established an absolute monarchy based on those of the Viking Age, when a single leader was seen as the most legitimate source of power. Using recently established trade connections with England, Johannes I financed expeditions across the island, seeking new sources of wealth and arable land. By 1650, the entirety of the island had been mapped out completely, and it was affirmed that the only regions suitable for settlement were the coastal regions. Johannes I introduced a series of taxation policies with which he used to finance settlements across the entirety of Nordland. By 1660, the profits created from the trade of seal and reindeer products became immense, and the king, in his old age, used this new wealth to build schools and subsidise travel by water. When Johannes died in 1667, the nation held a three month long period of mourning in respect to him. The influence of absolutism on Nordland became final, and Johannes' successors continued his policy of expansion. These policies were not met with friendliness from the native Inuit peoples of the island, however, and constant battles were held between Nordish settlers and Inuit hunter-gatherers. Throughout the late 17th century and the entirety of the 18th century, Nordland would continue to expand at a steady pace across the coastlines, further encroaching upon and pushing back the native Inuits with every new farm settlement. On 18 May 1754, the Inuit natives launched a series of massive raids against the Nordish, declaring that no Nordish person be left alive on the island. It was this open declaration of absolute destruction that would lead to the native's eventual extinction by 1823.

Franz Kapp was the most influential philosopher of Romanticism in Nordland.

Heavily influential across Europe, the Enlightenment brought about the ideals of republicanism, liberty, and equality under the law. As Nordland was never conquered by the French Empire of Napoleon, the Enlightenment did not play as large of a role in Nordish society as did the following Romantic movement. Romanticism became a major factor of Nordish society, by glorifying the past of the early days of settlement and the idealistic lifestyle of feudalism and simplicity. As Nordland never served as a large enough base for which the Industrial Revolution could grow upon, the Romantic movement flourished in Nordland, encouraging the development of a unique Nordish way of life and the idea that Nordland was not just a German-derived nation, but a unique entity in its own. From Romanticism came the roots of contemporary Nordish culture, and the inability of the Industrial Revolution to take hold on Nordish society would see the triumph of the Romantic movement over that of the Enlightenment. It is because of this separation from mainstream European socioeconomic movements that modern Nordland is seen as a product of the Romantic movement, as opposed to a product of the Enlightenment by which most modern Western countries are. The cultural values of natural liberty, equality under the law, and that a king is subject to his people derived from this period in Nordish society by the writings of the philosopher Franz Kapp.

Nordish golden age

Nordland experienced a golden age following the zenith of the Romantic movement around the year 1830 which would last for nearly a hundred years after the time of the greatest Romantic poets and artists. Within this time period would develop the beginnings of an independent Nordish culture, for most of the time up until then had been heavily based off of the popular cultures of Northern Europe and the German states. It was during this period that the country also experienced an economic boom following the end of the Little Ice Age and the opening of many new areas of subsistence agriculture. As a result, the wool trade exploded and became a hugely popular industry for many farmers throughout the country. The demands of European nations for textiles also further drove the demand of wool, greatly increasing the worth of the Nordish economy at the time. As the economy was in a massive growth period, the ability of the nation to afford cultural embellishments and more advanced technologies became greater. Urbanisation was also spurred on by new methods of selling goods, and a service-based segment of the economy began to develop at the turn of the century. Around the same time, electricity and electric heating began to allow for even larger populations and more productive working periods, essentially bringing about the post-industrial economy around the 1910s, before many countries had even developed such a concept. The period from about 1830 to 1915 is considered to be one of the most prosperous and economically successful times in Nordish history.

Interwar and Cold War

Although it was neutral in the war, the Nordish government actively recruited volunteers to prepare for a foreign invasion in the Second World War.

The First World War began to cause strain on the Nordish economy by heavily effecting trade with many countries, as trade destined to either Allied or Central powers was heavily disrupted by the opposing side, despite the fact that Nordland was neutral in the conflict. These strains on the economy brought about the ruination of many rural, small farmers who eventually would move inland and contribute to the rise of several large wool mills in one of two towns with such mills throughout the country. While the economy slightly recovered after the First World War, the Great Depression hit the nation hard by an almost entire drop in demand of Nordish products. When the economy began to recover around the year 1935, international trade with Nordland itself was scarce, and the nation became heavily reliant upon itself in operation. The bankruptcy of one of the two wool mills in 1936 led to a banking crisis in the country, and nearly 5,000 Nordish citizens left the country to settle in the prosperous Nazi Germany. Upon the eve of the Second World War, however, many of these peoples returned, not willing to join the Nazi Party and fight for a foreign ruler. With the outbreak of the Second World War, many Allied nations began to heavily scrutinise Nordland, as it was an entirely German-speaking country which held moderately warm relations with Adolf Hitler's Germany. The economy was once again heavily struck when Hitler ordered a part of his navy to patrol the coast of Nordland and insure that all exports of the nation went to Germany at lower-than-market prices. Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, Nordland was struggling to maintain positive relations with many Western countries as an absolute monarchy. In 1949, in order to improve its relations with Western nations, the monarch put into law the Nordish Constitution of 1949, which established a parliament and the current democratic system of the nation. With a newly democratic, constitutional monarchy, a more transparent government, and accession into the United Nations, Nordland greatly improved Western nations' views of itself.

Nordland was officially neutral during the Cold War, although the policies implemented by the parliament aligned the country more heavily with the United States and the capitalist west. Nordland began to embrace the ideas of Adam Smith through a practical and socially responsible system of laissez faire economics which endorses the state sponsoring of certain industries which would otherwise be seen as losses in profit if supported privately. The balance between state and private industry was technically not socialism, as the government only lightly regulated the economy by simply imposing legislation which would only provide for a free, fair, clean, and happy market. The extreme success of these policies brought about the countries quick opening to the world economy once more, and paved the way for further European economic integration in the later half of the 20th century.

Contemporary period

Nordland joined the European Free Trade Association in 1991, alongside Liechtenstein, as an alternative to the heavily integrative European Union, which many Nordish citizens opposed joining. Fierce opposition to the European Union was not met with discouraging relationships with other European nations, however, as fellow Nordic countries such as Iceland and Norway soon became much closer economic partners of Nordland through the EFTA. The institution of the European Economic Area greatly assisted in the development of Nordland's economy, as it brought about less protective trade measures from both the domestic and international fronts. Subsequently, Nordland developed to become a much more active and respected member of the European geopolitical scheme despite its small population. Unlike many other countries of Northern Europe, Nordland does not follow the Nordic Model, preferring to retain a much more liberal economic policy than most other European countries. The recent Great Recession did not heavily effect the Nordish economy, as trade was more tied to Europe than it was to the United States, and as a result, only a considerably small segment of the economy was majorly effected.

Geography

The southern coast of Nordland is the most inhabitable place in the country.

Nordland is the world's largest non-continental island, and one of the largest countries in both North America and Europe. It lies between latitudes 59° and 83°N, and longitudes 11° and 74°W. The Atlantic Ocean borders Nordland's southeast; the Nordland Sea is to the east; the Arctic Ocean is to the north; and Baffin Bay is to the west. The nearest countries are Canada, to the west across Baffin Bay, and Iceland, east of Nordland in the Atlantic Ocean. Nordland also contains the world's largest national park, and it is the 12th largest country by area in the world.

The total area of Nordland is 2,166,086 km2 (836,330 sq mi) (including other offshore minor islands), of which the Nordland ice sheet covers 1,755,637 km2 (677,855 sq mi) (81%) and has a volume of approximately 2,850,000 km3 (680,000 cu mi). The highest point on Nordland is Weltrachen at 3,700 m (12,139 ft). The majority of Nordland, however, is less than 1,500 m (4,921 ft) in elevation.

The average daily temperature of Guthoff, Nordland, varies over the seasons from −8 to 7 °C (18 to 45 °F).

The few land mammals in Nordland include polar bear, reindeer, musk ox, arctic fox, wolf, stoat, and arctic hare. Sheep and goats have been introduced for agricultural purposes. There are dozens of species of seals and whales along the coast. Over 100 species of birds have been seen, and around 50 breed in Nordland. There are very occasionally low forest of birch or willow and, in all, around 500 plant species.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Nordland

Karl III has been the monarch of Nordland since 1995.

Nordland is officially a unitary state with a constitutional monarchy and a democratic parliamentary system which is employed through universal suffrage. The House of Hohenstaufen is the only recognised house with the power to inherit the throne to Nordland and the Nordish people, as declared in the Nordish Constitution of 1637. Together with the Nordish Constitution of 1949, the two separate constitutions make up the basis of the Constitution of Nordland, which, although not codified as a whole, is made up of clauses taken from both which do not contradict one another. Essentially, the monarchy is subject to the parliament, however the monarchy still holds the power to dissolve the parliament, and as such, the allowance of the parliament to form government and administration is considered to be a voluntary action. The existence of parliament has been upheld by every monarch of the country since the institution of the Constitution of 1949, and is based heavily upon the uniquely Nordish idea that a king is subject to his people and the people subject to their king. In more explicit terms, the Nordish government is based on a share of power between the monarchy and the people, in which the people recognise the absolute authority of the monarch as a symbol of the ability to govern and the purpose of authority in society, and the monarch recognises the authority of people to live naturally in freedom and respects their right to think freely and live in a state of self-determination. The harmony made between absolutism and democracy is a product of the idea that Nordland is the only state to have been a pure child of Romanticism, whereas most modern nations are children of the Enlightenment.

Government

Main article: Government of Nordland

The government of Nordland itself is derived from the parliament, which exists in the respect of the monarch. As per the constitution, the parliament only exists because of the respect of the monarch in allowing the democratic system to exist in autonomy of the direct influence of the monarch. As the parliament is not sovereign, the government does not have to come from the parliament, and only does so in the allowance of the monarch of democratic systems and the self determination of the people. The parliament itself, from which the government has been derived since 1949, is a unicameral legislature with control, as defined by the constitution, over what the monarch assigns the parliament specifically to control within the area of governance. Ever since the implementation of the parliament with the Constitution of 1949, each successive monarch of Nordland has allowed for it to operate under no constraint, with the full power of governance and administration over the nation. The parliament system of Nordland is similar to most European parliaments, within which the ruling party or coalition of parties forms the government with a majority of seats in parliament. The current ruling party is the Christian-Socialist Party of Nordland, whose leader is Lisbeth Künstler as of the 2010 elections.

The prime minister, upon their election as the leader of the majority party in the parliament, is then appointed by the monarch as the nation's head of government. The prime minister then appoints cabinet members to form the Government, which appointments the monarch usually respects. The government has the power to administrate the country under the policies applied by the parliament to the government. Policies implemented by older parliaments are reviewed by the current parliament and passed in accordance with the current composition of the parliament in a two week process known as post-parliament respective review. Upon the implementation of the government after appointment and review, the government then operates as the sole governing power throughout the country.

There are three major parties in Nordland, those being the Christian-Socialists, the Democrats, and the Conservatives. While there are several minor parties throughout the country, only four are represented in parliament; the Greens, the Traditionalists, the Pirates, and the Reformists. Throughout the democratic history of the nation, only the three major parties have ever been elected as the majority party. Furthermore, there are three major coalitions within the parliament: the Christian-Socialists with the Greens and Pirates, the Conservatives with the Traditionalists, and the Democrats with the Reformists. The parliament has 85 seats, meaning that one member of parliament represents 1,000 people. As of 2010, the seats by party are 35 for the Christian-Socialists (41.17%), 15 for the Democrats (17.65%), 13 for the Conservatives (15.29%), 7 for the Traditionalists (8.24%), 3 for the Greens (3.53%), 3 for the Reformists (3.53%), and 2 for the Pirates (2.36%).

Law and justice

Nordland uses its own unique legal system based upon a combination of Natural law, Early Germanic law, and Roman law known as Nordish law which concludes that laws exist to protect the natural rights of citizens, base enforcement of laws under the presumption that each case is unique in its nature, and that there should always be a minimum penalty employed upon the subject of a case in their disrespect of the nature of the state and its right to govern. In such case, the purpose of Nordish law is to seek justice through compensation rather than through revenge. This ultimately stems from the development of the Nordish rejection of the death penalty under the rule of King Johannes I, and as such, inflicting equal damage upon the person of another is considered to be redundant in the nature of justice itself, as through reparation can only one attempt to restore what had been lost. As such, Nordish law implements a series of indenture requirements upon persons properly tried and incarcerated under the auspices of a judgement and through the legitimacy of that judgement as approved by the state.

While Nordish law implements in its core tenants that the purpose of justice is to offer reparations to what is lost by another, the actual process of a court are still largely considered to be archaic in their nature. Nordish courts are considered to be subjective in the manner of application of law, as they are only bound to a minimum of reparation for one side or the other on the convention that an action is found unjustifiable. While extremely controversial methods of punishment for exceptionally heinous crimes are employed in the country, the idea is that if the citizen follows the law, they have nothing to be take in offence from such punishments. The death penalty is technically legal in Nordland, but is only used in exceptional cases and has only been used two times since 1949. More controversially, rape is considered to be extremely heinous, and as such, is punished by chemical castration should a suspect be found guilty. As this punishment is considered to be extremely draconian, rape in the country is nearly non-existent, and there has only been one reported rape since the year 1900.

Administrative divisions

Nordland is divided into five administrative regions called provinces, of which only four are permanently inhabited. As Nordland is a unitary state, there are no special powers associated with the provinces, and all are ruled jointly by the national government from Guthoff. The provinces simply exist for ease political, economic, historic, and social interactions. Each province has its own area code for postal and telephone formats, as well as serving as the basis for the electoral bodies in the election of parties to parliament.

CoA	Province	Capital	Population
File:Coat of arms of the Province of Freiland.png	Freiland	Neustuttgart	8,765
File:Coat of arms of the Province of Gutland.png	Gutland	Juliahafen	52,340
File:Coat of arms of the Province of Neuschwaben.png	Neuschwaben	Guthoff	20,614
File:Coat of arms of the Province of Nordküste.png	Nordküste	Jakobsburg	3,283
File:Coat of arms of the Nordost Nordland Nationalpark.png	Nordost Nordland Nationalpark	None	0

Military and foreign relations

Main article: Ministry of Defense of Nordland, Office of Security, Intelligence, and Special Operations of Nordland, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nordland

Nordland has only a small permanently active military force of 1,645 armed service men and women in the Nordish Self-Defense Forces. An all encompassing body under the Ministry of Defense, the Self-Defense Forces are charged with protecting the territorial sovereignty and integrity of Nordland from foreign threat and invasion. The Self-Defense Forces are made up of three infantry brigades, two armoured brigades, two coast guard brigades, and two air brigades. Collectively, the brigades are commanded under the Joint Chiefs of the Self-Defense Forces, who are the General of the Ground Forces, High Admiral of the Maritime Forces, and High Commander of the Air Forces respectively. While maritime and ground forces are limited only to operations done in defense of the nation, the air forces are not restricted by this policy, and can actively attack enemy forces should it so be deemed necessary by a high ranking officer of the state. As the Self-Defense Forces are rather small, there are no branch-specific divisions made within the structure of the organisation, and as such, the Self-Defense Forces are commanded as a whole and operate as a whole, as opposed to most other larger armed forces in which they operate as separate parts working together. As the small size of the armed forces could endanger the nation in times of war, the Nordish Civil-Defense Forces are the reserve partisans of the country who have registered as able and willing to fight for the country should the need arise. Collectively, there are 20,172 actively registered partisans in Nordland as of 2015 who have claimed ability to arm and defend themselves are others in times of invasion or other intense threat to domestic peace. Membership to the Self-Defense Forces, the Civil-Defense Forces, and the National Police Force is required in Nordland to purchase non-recreational classified firearms. Arms are bought internationally from suppliers in the European Union and the United States, alongside the small domestic suppliers of Südenmann Arms.

The Nordish secret intelligence services, the Office of Security, Intelligence, and Special Operations (BSIS), is the primary body for Nordish intervention in foreign affairs, as it is one of the most vital organisations in securing the nation's security and independence in matters abroad. As Nordland has a very small population, a much more compact and focused organisation of national security serves the nation more effectively, and as such, a large amount of the defense budget is put into the training, operations, and maintenance of the BSIS. Nordland maintains active intelligence sharing operations with Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, and the active number of agents is classified.

Nordland is a neutral country which has renounced the right to declare war, only waging defensive measures so long as they are considered required by the government. The Nordish government maintains a positive and objective worldview, and as such, has many partners abroad. The closest allies of Nordland are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Britannia, and well relations are also maintained with Westland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Nordland is a founding member of the Nordic Council and the Nordic Passport Union, a member of the League of Nations, the EFTA, the EEA, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the IMF, the OCED, the WTO, and a special partner of NATO. Nordland maintains generally neutral relations with countries it does not consider its closest partners.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Nordland

Nordland is a free market economy with an emphasis on the mittelstand and the idea of distributism. The result is a rich economy with a high standard of living and moderate cost of living, the cost being mostly attributed to the hostile Arctic environment of the country. Nordland has an export oriented economy which focuses on artisan automobiles, clothing, and raw minerals. While these export markets make Nordland a profitable and prosperous country, the domestic economy is heavily based upon fishing, farming, and services, which keeps unemployment low and economic activity relatively high. The balance between large and small organizations of economic activity make Nordland a largely polarized society in terms of wealth distribution, with lowest wealth inequality existing in the more rural parts of the country. Overall, however, because of the small-scale nature of even the relatively largest companies in Nordland, wealth distribution as a whole is low. In terms of contribution to the GDP, the largest industries in Nordland are fishing, farming, automobile manufacturing, telecommunications, mining, clothes manufacturing, retail, utilities, transportation, and food and beverage services.