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The Country of Eittland
- The Country of Eittland
The Country of Eittland
Eittlandic Geography
Eittland is an active volcanic island. In its center we can find the most active volcanoes, surrounded by glaciers and some regular mountains. It is surrounded by some taiga, taiga plains covered mainly by ashen pines (pinus fraxinus), and a large cold desert covering most of the center of the island and its northern eastern part. Outside of this largely unpopulated region, Eastern Eittland mainly consists of grasslands with some temperate rainforests on its southern shores as well as some occasional wetland and marshes. On the other hand, Western Eittland has a lot more temperate deciduos forests, temperate rainforests and some more wetlands and marshes still. Three small cold deserts spawn in Western Eittland, including one north east of Đeberget not far from the city. More details can be found in the map below. Overall, the southern and western parts of Eittland can be compared to Scotland in terms of temperatures, or a warmer Iceland.
Biomes of the Eittlandic IslandEastern Eittland is also recognizable by its great amount of flat shorelines, especially in its northern and eastern parts which are part of the more recent paths of lava flows. On the other hand, its few fjords and the numerous fjords found in the western part of the island are characteristic of much older parts of Eittland. The Fjord themselves were formed during the last ice age, while the smoother shore lines formed since. Western Eittland also has two main bays which are two very old caldeira volcanoes. It is not known whether they will be one day active again or not.
Culture
The Eittlandic people share a common basis for their culture which remained rather conservative for much longer than the other nordic people due to its resistance towards Christianity conversion. The number of people adhering to Norse beliefs remained very high through the ages and only recently began declining, going from 93% of Eittlanders declaring themselves follower of the Norse Faith in 1950 to 68% in 2019. This decline is also due to either people converting to a religion or due to the immigration boom from the last seventy years, though the main reason is the decline in people identifying to any faith at all — the number of atheists went from only 2% of Eittlanders in 1940 to 15% in 2019. The evolution of the religious population is shown in the chart below, and a geographical distribution of these in 2019 can be found in the map following the chart — note that only the main religion is shown in a particular area and religions with less people in said area are not shown. You can also see on said map the population repartition of Eittland.
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data u 7:xticlabels(1) axis x1y1 title 'Other'There is also a regional cultural difference between Western, Eastern, and Southern Eittland marked with some differences in traditions and language. There is currently a nationalist movement in Southern Eittland so a new state is created within the Kingdom of Eittland. The repartition of the different eittlandic cultures is shown in the map below.
Cultural Map of EittlandStandard Eittlandic is a relatively young language, created in the 1960s by the government in order to create a standard dialect to facilitate communications between Eittlanders and make learning the language easier. Standard Eittlandic is now enforced as the de facto legal language of the High Kingdom of Eittland, used by its government, schools, and universities, but the local dialects are still widely spoken privately and in business which remains regional. They still have a strong presence in popular media and are still spoken by younger generations, however, a decline has been registered since the 90s among young people living in cities, speaking more and more in Standard Eittlandic instead. Dialects are also rarely used on the internet outside of private conversation. An estimate of 17% of the Eittlandic population younger than 25 in 2017 do not speak any dialectal Eittlandic outside of Standard Eittlandic, although only 2% of them do not understand their family’s dialectal Eittlandic. Standard Eittlandic also became the default dialect for Eittlandic communities living outside of Eittland — in these communities the inability of speaking other dialects rise to 61% while the ability to understand them rises to 25% among Eittlanders younger than 25 in 2018 and who still have Eittlandic as their mother tongue.
It is estimated only 0.05% of people living in Eittland do not speak any Eittlandic dialect, all of them being immigrants or children of immigrants. It is therefore safe to say Eittlandic is still going strong and does not face any risk of disappearing anytime soon, although we might be at the start of the decline of the historical dialects of Eittland in favor of Standard Eittlandic.
In this document, you will see references to both Standard Eittlandic and Modern Eittlandic. Although some people use the terms interchangeably, they are not. Standard Eittlandic refers to the official dialect described above, while Modern Eittlandic refers to all modern dialects of Eittlandic. This document focuses on Modern Eittlandic in general, and when details about specific dialects are given, the name of said dialect will be shared.
Name of the Country
The origins of the name of Eittland are unclear, two main theories exist regarding its etymology.
The first theory says the root of the name of “Eittland” is the accusative of einn (Old Norse one, alone) and land (Old Norse country, land. This is due to how remote it seemed to the people who discovered, before Iceland and Greenland were known. Hence, a possible translation of “Eittland” can be Lonely Land. The term “Eittlandic” is relatively transparent considering the term “Icelandic” for “Iceland” and “Greenlandic” for “Greenland”.
However, the second but least probable theory is the island is named after eitr, a mythical poison from which the first Jøtunn Ymir was created. Eittland’s waters near the volcanoes containing high amounts of sulfur, a poison, could be what named the island. This association with poison, as well as the association to the place where it was found, Ginnungagap, could have acted as a deterrent to prevent people outsiders from coming.
This last theory’s first recorded mention is from the 18th century, while the first theory appears to be much older, and therefore much more likely. It is possible the latter was thought of as a way to re-invigorate Eittland’s identity as a pagan country unlike its other Nordic counterparts, maybe even as a fearsome country.
Although the country is known as Eittland, the island itself bears a few other names. Early records show the island being referred to as Vestrheim by early settlers, meaning West Home, and its inhabitants being referred to as Vestrheiming and Vestrheimingjar (singular and plural respectively). Around the same time, settlers living closer to the mountains would also call the inner lands Fjallheim, meaning Mountain Home, which stuck until now as a name for the Northwestern peninsula of Eittland. Lastly, the name Eldøy, Fire Island, was used to refer both to Eittland and Iceland due to their volcanic activity. Nowadays, the name morphed into Eldfjall to refer to the volcanic cluster at the center of the Island.
History
Early Eittlandic History (7th-12th centuries)
According to historical records, Eittland was first found in 763 by Norwegian explorers. Its first settlement appeared in 782 on its eastern shores with hopes of finding new farmland. The population grew rapidly after the discovery of the southern shores, and in 915 Eittland became self-governing with Ásmundr Úlfsonn declared the first Eittlandic king. However, in order to avoid any unnecessary conflicts, the new king swore allegiance to the Norwegian king Harald I Halfdansson. Eittland thus became a vassal state to the Norwegian crown while retaining autonomy from it, which was granted due to the distance between the two countries.
Shortly after however, the beginning of the christianisation of the nordic countries and especially of Norway created a new immigration boost in Eittland with norsemen seeking a pagan land untouched by christian faith. In 935, a year after Haakon I Haraldsson became king of Norway and began trying to introduce Christianity to its people, the newly crowned king Áleifr I Ásmundson of Eittland adopted a new law forbidding the Christian faith to be imported, promoted, and practiced in Eittland. This decision forever weakened the alliance between the two countries and detariorated their relationship.
As more and more people in Eittland were moving to its western part due to larger opportunities with its farmlands, king Áleifr I chose in 936 to move the capital of Eittland from Hylfjaltr to Đeberget and split in half the country. He appointed his brother Steingrímr, later known as Steingrímr I Áleifsbróðr, as his co-ruler and gave him authority over Eastern Eittland while he kept ruling himself over Western Eittland. This choice is due to the difficulty of going from one side of the island to the other by land — lava flows often forcefully close and destroy paths joining the two parts together. This gave birth to the two states of the Kingdom of Đeberget (also called the Western Eittlandic Kingdom) and the Kingdom of Hylfjaltr (also called the Eastern Eittlandic Kingdom). More on that in #Political-Organization.
Crusades and Independence (13th century - 1400)
As soon as the 13th century, and through the 14th century, the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order, backed by the Holy Roman Empire, proposed crusades against Eittland to get rid of its norse faith. However, these never came to be due to the distance between Eittland and mainland Europe, despite the papal authorisations in 1228, 1257, 1289, 1325, and 1367.
In 1397, the creation of the Kalmar Union kicked a new crusade, this time backed by the Union itself as well as the Teutonic Order — Eric of Pomerania aimed to unify his country both religiously by getting rid of the norse faith in Eittland and politically by getting rid of its established monarchy. A contingent sailed to Eittland to submit the island, however they were met with fierce resistance by the locals on arrival. Estimates show that while some 2.400 Eittlandic people died during this first invasion, most of the 3.000 men sent were either killed or taken prisoners.
In 1398, a new contingent of 12.000 men landed in Eittland. This time, a much more prepared army of 14.000 men faced them on a battlefield east of the eastern capital of Hyfjaltr. This resulted in an Eittlandic victory, however the Monarch of Hylfjaltr Eiríkr IV Ásgeirsbróðr lost his life during the battle. Coincidentally, the High King Ásgeirr I Biœrgson died of unknown causes around the same time. Historians still debate whether it is due to the ongoing conflict, and if it is by who. Theories range from poisoning by spies from the Kalmar Union, to assassination by the next rulers, to a much more simple, unknown health condition which coincided with the ongoing events.
During the same year, the Althing elected Arvid I Geirson as the new High King who nominated his brother Havardr I Arvidbróðr as the Monarch of Hylfjaltr. While the previous monarchs took a more defensive approach, they chose to become much more aggressive, striving for independence. After demands were sent to the Kalmar Union, Eittland began a series of raids on its territories, ranging from Iceland to the Faroese Islands to even two raids in Norway and Denmark. These raids only aimed trade and military ships but severely handicaped the Union’s marine.
On September 17th, 1400 High King Arvid Geirson of Eittland and King Erik of the Kalmar Union met in Reykjavik to sign the Treaty of Reykjavik, during which the Kalmar Union recognized the independence of Eittland and renounced its claims to the island. On the other hand, Eittland ceeded its Greenlandic colonies to the Kalmar Union. Both parties agreed to end the hostilities towards one another.
While the Union no longer launched any crusades against Eittland, the Teutonic Order attempted to land again in 1407 with 4.000 men. Although the Kingdom of Hylfjaltr took a devastating blow during the initial days of the crusade, loosing well over 6.000 men, the invaders were ultimately defeated thanks to reinforcement from the Kingdom of Ðeberget. This marked the end of crusades in Eittland.
The Absolute Monarchy (1400-1852)
Once independent, Eittland quickly became isolated among the European nations due as it was percieved as a pagan nation by the rest of the continent. For over a century, the country had to be almost entirely self-sufficient. This lead to a more in-depth survey of the resources of the land launched in 1421. Large quantities of iron were discovered in 1432 in Western Eittland in the geologically older parts of the island as well as copper and some gold.
Unfortunately for the island, no coal deposit ever got found, the islanders turned to charcoal instead. During the following century, an important deforestation of Eittland took place until the royal decree of 1542 was proclaimed in order to protect the forests. It ruled that for each tree felled in the next hundred years, four shall be planted, and only one once the period ended. The only exceptions were for creating new pastures with the condition of the request being submitted and accepted by the local Jarl and its government.
The discovery of important marble deposits in the geologically more recent parts of the island in 1512 was the event that reopened trades with the continent. England was the first country to openly trade with Eittland, swiftly followed by states from the Holy Roman Empire and other protestant countries. The country became famous for its pure white and green marble, which became its emblem. Walking in the streets of major cities today, we can still see most of the monuments and buildings from during that era made of marble. It is particularly the case in Hylfjaltr, known by the nickname of “The White City” due to the sheer amount of monuments made of ouf this material.
It is around this time religious wars broke out in mainland Europe, and war refugees coming at first from Scandinavia and soon enough from all Northern and Western Europe came to Eittland to seek refuge. They were accepted on the condition never to try and spread their religion on the island with the risk of expulsion back to continental Europe. At the time, the influx of refugees represented around one percent of its total population, with about two thirds of it being protestants and the rest catholics. The local protestant population officially founded in 1587 the Church of Eittland.
You can find in the chart below a breakdown of the various countries and regions religious refugees came from. Although Scandinavia was one of the first regions to take refuge in Eittland, most of refugees came from the Holy Roman Empire and from France where religious wars were particularly violent. It is estimated most of the Protestant population of Eittland are mainly from French descent, while the HRE’s and Scandinavian population came with mixes of Christians and Protestants. On the other hand, most if not all of the English population was Christian.
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plot data u 2:xtic(1)With the beginning of coloniolization of Northern America, Eittland became a naval hotspot. Its position allowed ships to cut in half their journey if necessary and replenish their supplies. England and the Netherlands were the first countries to halt in Eittland for such reasons, participating in an important economic boom in the early 16th century on a national scale. France later joined this trade route starting in 1619 when going to their colonies in modern-day Canada.
On the 30th of March 1775, England demanded from Eittland a port to be used as a military port as part of their war effort during the American revolution. Eittland refused these demands, invoking a neutrality concerning the ongoing conflict. In response, England sent an ultimatum, asking the port of Vátrsteinn to be their military base. On Eittland’s second refusal, England declared war and launched a land invasion of the island. The general in charge of the invasion, Sir Andrew Sapping, decided to avoid landing in fjords, judging it too risky and prone to ambushes. Instead, English troops landed in the flatlands west of Vátrsteinn. While eittlandic troops were massing in the nearby town of Vestrfjoðarkjapt, a volcano erupted into a pyroclastic flow. The English landing site being on its path, half of the invading English forces were immediately wiped out, and two thirds of their vessels were badly dammaged or destroyed. Immediately after this, Sir Sapping surrendered to the Eittlandic troops which were captured as prisonners of war. Due to this defeat and the sudden reduction in available men and ships in the English army, the Treaty of Hylfjaltr was signed on the 25 of May of the same year. While England recognized its defeat, Eittland promised not to intervene on any side in the current rebellion of the American colonies (which was not the intent of Eittland in the first place).
After the independence of the United States of America, Eittland retained its status as a maritime hotspot between Northern America and Europe. Its ports of Kóparvall and Tvinnár, near Ðeberget and Hylfjaltr respectively, became the two major ports in Eittland, with Tvinnár generally favoured by ships coming from Europe and Kóparvall favoured by ships coming from Northern America.
Political Organization
Kingdoms and Monarchy
While Eittland is a single country, it is host to two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Đeberget in the western part of the country, and the Kingdom of Hylfjaltr in its eastern part. This is due to a separation of the country in two halves during the reign of Eittlands second king Áleifr I when he realized the difficulties he and the following monarchs of the island would face trying to rule the country alone while the latter is almost always split in two by active volcanoes. Thus, while the two kingdoms operate very independently from each other — each have their own policies on economics, education, industry, and so on — they also operate in cooperation as the Eittlandic High Kingdom with the king of Đeberget at its head when it comes to common policies, such as military decision and internrational affairs.
The Two Eittlandic StatesThis means that while both governments are independent from each other and are legally equals to each other, the western monarch is the one with the authority to decide on national actions after negotiations between them and the eastern monarch. This is reflected by the throne rooms found in official buildings such as the royal palaces where three thrones can be found: a central, very large throne surrounded by two other identical thrones, the right one for the monarch of Hylfjaltr and the left one for the king of Đeberget. Most of the time, both monarchs sit on their side throne, including when they meet each other as the monarchs of Hylfjaltr and Đeberget. However, when the monarch of Đeberget is meant to act as the High Monarch of Eittland, they step up to the central throne and then represent the country as a whole.
At the end of the reign of the High King, either through abdication or their death, his successor is enthroned within a month. Then, within a year, the new High King has to appoint a new monarch for Hylfjaltr. Traditionally, the new co-ruler is a brother of the current High Monarch, however history showed it could be sometimes an uncle, a son, a sister or even sometimes a daughter. When the eastern monarch either abdicates or dies, the High Monarch has a month to designate a new one.
Up until the 14th century, the monarch of Hylfjaltr was rarely the successor of the High Monarch. However, High King Ólafr I changed this tradition and created a new one. He named his brother and co-ruler King of Eittland and his son Prince of Eittland. From here on, the King (or occasionally the Queen) of Eastern Eittland was meant to become the new High Monarch of Eittland and make the Prince (or occasional Princess) the ruler of Hylfjaltr. Then, once the reign of the King ends, the Prince becomes the new High King and nominates a new King and a new Prince. This was done to ensure the upcoming High Monarch would be prepared in ruling the whole country by first ruling the state. If anything were to happen to the Prince or Princess of Eittland while the King or Queen of Hylfjaltr is on the throne, they would have to nominate a new heir among the other possible heirs possible for the late High Monarch.
When the High Monarchs steps up to the central throne, they may designate someone to fill in the role of the monarch of Đeberget for the time being. They can also authorize the monarch of Hylfjaltr to do so in case they are unavailable and someone need to represent the country in front of foreign representatives. The last example was during the two last years of Eríkr IX’s reign from 1987 to 1989 when he could not act as High King due to his illness. While he did not abdicate, he authorized king Harald III to act as High King while he appointed his daughter and present-day High Queen Njall III as the acting monarch of Đeberget.
Regions and Jarldoms
While each kingdom is ruled by a monarch and the country is ruled by the High Monarch, the kingdoms are divided into several kinds of subdivisions. The most common one is the jarldom, historically ruled by and still represented by a jarl during ceremonies. “Jarl” translates as “Earl” in English, and they were the nobles in charge of managing parts of the land in the name of the ruler.
Eittlandic ProvincesSome parts of the land are directly under the control of the crown, such as the districts of Đeberget and Hylfjaltr, which the ruler ruled without intermediaries. They are the private possessions of the family of the rulers.
On top of this the center of the island is divided in territories, one administered by the government of Đeberget and two by the government of Hylfjaltr. These territories are supposedly not inhabited by anyone and are currently natural parks. This is mostly where you can find the mountains and volcanoes of Eittland as well as its cold deserts.
Due to the Last Royal Decree of 1826, jarls no longer rule their jarldom themselves anymore. Instead, a local elected government takes care of this role now.
Governments
Monarchy and Things
The first form of government created in Eittland revolved around Things (þing in Eittlandic), assemblies of varying size occasionally created at various levels of the state to decide on important matters, with the Althing being the highest Thing to exist in Eittland. The Things allow at first any adult man to participate, but as the population grew some restrictions were put in place in order to limit the amount of participants. Only one man could represent a household starting from 982. Then, starting from 998, only jarls were allowed to the ruler’s Thing, and only ten jarls from each kingdom, elected among all the jarls from the same kingdom, would be allowed to attend the High Monarch’s Thing. These jarls would then act as representatives of the kingdom to the High King and his counsellors.
In 1278, the first formal ministry (or department) was created in the Ðeberget Kingdom, called a Ráðuneyt (litt. “fellowship of counsellors”) with a Ráðunautr at its head, to aid the King Hallþórr V Gunhildson’s in administering agriculture. The Hylfjaltr Kingdom soon followed, creating its own in 1283 by order of Eyvindor III Steingrímson. From then, ráðuneyts were created as needed with a growing number.
Constitutional Monarchy
In 1826, fearing the revolutionary climate in mainland Europe, Ólafr V passed the appropriately named “Last Royal Decree” in 1826. This act put in place a new form of government based on the British monarchy.
The king transfers all the royal power from the rulers of Đeberget and Hylfjaltr to the House of the People and the House of the Land (the equivalent of the lower and upper Houses respectively). The House of the People is composed of men elected during general elections every eight years. It was decided for each jarldom and district, one representative would be elected plus another one for each percentage of the population of the kingdom the jarldom represents.
A similar system was created for jarldoms in order to replace jarls with locally elected governments, as well as the organisation of municipalities.
At first only male land owner of the Nordic Faith could vote and could be elected. In 1886, all men of the Nordic Faith got the right to vote and be elected in the general elections. In 1902, women gained the right to vote and they gained the right to be elected in 1915. The law that allowed women to vote also made the authorities stop enforcing the restriction on the faith of the participants — while the original texts of 1826 and 1886 were clear on the fact only men of the Nordic Faith were allowed to vote and be elected, women had no such restriction making it unclear if it only applied to women or if this restriction was revoked for everyone. Organizers of the next elections in 1914 chose not to enforce this religious restriction and ever since then. In 1998, Queen Siv I exceptionally used her powers of High Queen to pass a law to clarify this issue and formally make Eittland a non-religious country. This also removed the long unenforced ban on other religions in Eittland.
Note that while the rulers of Đeberget and Hylfjaltr have lost all their power with the “Last Royal Decree”, the High Monarch remained unaffected by the text though they act and are expected to act as if it were the case. To replace them, the eastern and western governments elect a single national representative meant to act as the head of both states instead of the High Monarch who now holds only a ceremonial position. However, it happens from time to time the High Monarch passes a law, although they only write down in the law already well established traditions, such as the ban on the religious restrictions for voters which had not been enforced for almost a century by that point.
Today, Ráðuneyts still exist, but their head is no longer designated by the monarch but by the head of the House of the People. Here is the list of Ministries that exist in Eittland in 2022:
- Bærráðuneyt
- Agriculture Ministry
- Dæmaráðuneyt
- Justice Ministry
- Erlendslandsráðuneyt
- Foreign Affair Ministry
- Fræðiráðuneyt
- Education Ministry
- Heilsráðuneyt
- Health Ministry
- Konungdómráðuneyt
- Kingdom’s Ministry (State Affairs)
- Náttúrráðuneyt
- Nature Ministry (including ecology)
- Rógráðuneyt
- War Ministry
- Teknikráðuneyt
- Technology Ministry
- Kaupráðuneyt
- Economy Ministry
- Vinnaráðuneyt
- Employment Ministry
With the separation of the State with its religious departments following the law of 1998, the Heiðniráðuneyt (the Heathendom Department) became an entity separate from the Government. Its Ráðunautr used to be exceptionally appointed by the House of the Land, unlike the rest of Ráðunautrs.