The Kragholm Free States

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Overview:
The Kragholm Free States are a constitutional monarchy situated on several islands in the Arctic Ocean. As such, the Free States share no land borders with other nations, and are separated from their closest neighbour, Norway, by approximately 1,900 kilometres of open water. The Kragholm Free States cover 61,022 square kilometers and have an estimated population of 56.4 million. The Free States are comprised of four territories, although they are all governed from the capital as a unitary state ruled by the Lord Protector of the Realm.

The Free States are a highly developed and urbanised country, with a very high per capita GDP of ¢39,716. The Kragholmer economy is very powerful, and primarily fueled by the export of machinery and high-quality steel. The standard of living in Kragholm is consistently ranked among the best in the world, and between this, their economic strength, and their extremely capable military, the Free States are internationally considered to be a Great Power.

Etymology:
The word Kragholm is derived from the Old Kragspråk words 'Krag', which translates to both 'Our' - Kragspråk is literally 'our language' - and 'Strength', and 'Holm' meaning 'Island'. Hence, Kragholm has a double meaning thanks to this synonym, and means both 'Our Island' and 'Strong Island'. This was clearly intentional, as the warrior culture of the Old Kragers valued strength greatly, and, as their language plainly shows, saw little distinction between the concept of themselves as a people and the concept of strength.

History:
The area that is now the Free States was entirely uninhabited until 498 AD, when it was settled by the English King Arthur, who founded a colony on the south of the islands, near what is now the city of Stromwall. As the colony began to thrive, several knights remained behind to oversee its upkeep, and built a great castle to aid in the settlement's protection should any enemies settle the islands too. Indeed, in 520 AD, the people known today as the Old Kragers sailed from nearby Greenland and landed only twenty miles from the English colony. A warrior people, they attacked the town and inflicted massive civilian casualties before King Arthur's knights managed to repel the invaders at the gates of their castle and drive them back. Realising that they were unable to successfully conquer the settlement, the Old Kragers retreated to the other side of the island, and established themselves at what is today Valderton. Over the next few years, an uneasy peace was brokered between the Krager raiders and the English settlers, and as the two groups expanded their respective holdings they cooperated more and more until their two cultures and peoples had essentially merged into one.

In 539 AD, when King Arthur died, the single surviving knight in the colony, Sir Perceval, declared himself its ruler, independent of the English crown. With a reputation as both a just leader and a capable warrior, he managed to win the respect and support of the majority of the island's population, Britons and Kragers alike. As Arthur had never actually named this land, Perceval selected the name 'Kragholm', from the language of the people who had once been his enemies but who were now his friends, as a formal gesture of the unity and solidarity that had grown between them.

From then until a number of centuries later, the people of Kragholm expanded to settle the entirety of the archipelago they called home, constructed towns and cities, and organised a strong military that successfully fended off multiple Viking raids and invasion attempts between 786 and 1013 AD. In 1070 AD, emboldened by their success in the conquest of England, a large force of Normans launched an attack on Kragholm, landing first in the town of Isten Bay on the southern coast of the island of Havwick. Unprepared for such an assault, the town's militia were swiftly defeated, although not without killing several Norman knights first. Using Isten Bay as a staging ground, the invaders crossed the sea - suffering a handful of losses in a fierce storm - and attempted to land in Valderton. The soldiers of Valderton, having heard of the earlier loss of Isten Bay, were well prepared for the Normans' arrival. Letting their ships dock, the defenders hid, allowing the Norman soldiers to believe the town was deserted. Then, when they had disembarked from their boats, the Kragholmers emerged, setting the vessels on fire and pouring arrows into the mass of enemies, slaughtering them on the spot. Setting off in their own fleet before word of the Norman defeat could reach Isten Bay, a Kragholmer force arrived near the town the next day, surrounding the settlement and demanding the surrender of the small Norman garrison inside. After several hours of deliberation, the occupying force obliged, and handed themselves over to the Kragholmers - whereupon they were promptly killed and their corpses dumped in the sea. From then on, Kragholm was never troubled by invaders again.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Kragholm became extremely wealthy through extensive trade with England and ventured further south into the Mediterranean, where it supplied various Italian city-states with high quality steel in return for scientific knowledge and luxury goods that were hard to produce in Kragholm itself. Indeed, after the acquisition of the works of great European scientists and scholars, Kragholm met with great success in developing the theories, ideas, and designs they had learned of, and quickly outpaced southern Europe in terms of technological progress, producing their own works that were decades ahead of their time.

Thanks to this level of advancement, along with an established culture among Kragholmer aristocracy of making risky investments in emerging technologies, Kragholm industrialised early, developing steam engines of sufficient power and efficiency to be practical in the 1680s, and almost entirely transitioning from the old hand production methods to the use of steam-powered machinery in manufacturing by 1720. With industrialisation came industrialised warfare, and many Kragholmers became wealthy by selling mass-produced weaponry to various European nations - indeed, in almost every conflict for at least a century, both sides often found themselves using Kragholm-made guns.

In 1788, King Gustaf II of Kragholm passed away, leaving the islands to his eldest son, Prince Stefan. Stefan was a rude and brash young man, who knew little of the subtle intricacies of good leadership, and had an unfortunate tendency to openly insult and threaten other monarchs, his advisors barely managing to avert war on a number of occasions. Several noble families plotted his downfall for years, along with some of the king's own knights who had grown tired of their leader's stupidity. Marching on the capital of Port Valtegard in November of 1791, a large army besieged the city, demanding the abdication of King Stefan. Stubbornly refusing, the King held out for months with a small force of loyalist infantry, the two sides exchanging fire at the city walls on a regular basis. Eventually, another of Stefan's knights turned traitor, and shot the king in the head as he gave a speech from his castle, in full view of thousands of citizens. With this, the loyalist forces surrendered, having nothing left to fight for, and the leadership of Kragholm - now called the Kragholm Free States - was passed to the first noble to plot the king's downfall, and commander of the besieging army, Walter Tobias Drake, on whom was bestowed the title of Lord Protector of the Realm. The Drake family still rules to this day, with His Most Noble Majesty General Sir Henryk Sebastian Drake, Fourteenth Duke of Vasswick and Knight of the Royal Order of the Chalice, bearing the title of Lord Protector of the Realm since 2002.

Geography:
Kragholm is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean roughly centered on 78° north latitude and 20° east longitude. The three main islands in the group consist of Storwick (the largest island, divided into the two territories of Vasswick to the north and Sutwick to the south), Iswick and Havwick. There are also a number of smaller islands, either sparsely inhabited or uninhabited, such as Bergard Island (1,288 km²), Kitsberg (682 km²), Prince Otto's Island (615 km²), Kungsgard (191 km²), Gratsholm (178 km²), Svensholm (137 km²), Wilhelm Island (120 km²) and other smaller unnamed islands and sea stacks (621 km²).

There is almost no natural arable land in the island group due to heavy glaciation and the northern latitude. There are no trees native to the archipelago, but there are shrubs such as crowberry and cloudberry. However, both of these problems have been overcome by the extensive use of greenhouses, which have allowed Kragholmers to farm in the cold islands for centuries. The west coast of Storwick remains navigable most of the year, due to favourable winds which keep the area ice-free. When it freezes over, Kragholm naval icebreakers continually cut shipping lanes directly through the ice to allow ocean-going vessels to enter and leave the nation's coastal towns and cities.

The climate of the Kragholm archipelago is arctic, tempered by warm North Atlantic Current along the west and northern coasts. This means cool summers and cold winters along the wild, rugged mountainous islands. The high land of the island interiors is generally ice covered year round, with the west coast entirely clear of ice for about half of the year. There are many fjords along the west and north coasts.

Language:
The primary language spoken by Kragholmers, and the language used in all matters of state, is English, and has been ever since the islands were first settled by King Arthur's knights. English is spoken as a first language by 88% of the population, and the remaining 12% speak it as a second language. Kragspråk, a progression of the language spoken by the Old Kragers with many grammatical and vocabulary similarities to the Nordic languages, is a recognised minority language in Kragholm, and is spoken by around 24% of citizens as either a first or second language. Kragspråk is not used in any official capacity, but is still taught in some schools in the country, primarily in the territory of Sutwick.

Religion:
The majority of Kragholm's population - 58% - does not identify as religious. Of the religions that are adhered to on the islands, Christianity is by far the most popular, with 40% of the population identifying as Christian in the last census. Of these, 82% identified as Protestant, 12% as Catholic, and 6% as various other denominations. The remaining two percent of the population is split primarily between Krag Paganism - which has a following of around 0.8% of the population - and Judaism, at 0.6%. 0.6% of the population are recorded as belonging to various other belief systems, which are too numerous to detail here.

Race:
Through the colonisation of the islands by both English knights and settlers and the Old Krager warriors, the overwhelming majority of the population of the Free States have primarily Anglo-Nordic ancestry and genetics. Several small minority ethnicities exist on the islands, including those of French, Italian, West Slavic, and Sami ancestry, all of these groups resulting from Kragholm's extensive pan-European trade.

Government:
The government of the Kragholm Free States is a constitutional monarchy ruled by the Lord Protector of the Realm, a hereditary title that has been held by the Drake family since their victory in the 1791-92 Civil War. The Lord Protector wields considerable executive power within the government, and can pass, veto, and repeal laws with impunity, limited only by the Kragholm constitution. Generally speaking, however, the monarch will not oppose a law that has met with the overwhelming approval of the Parliament. The two houses of the Kragholm Parliament are the Chamber of Nobles and the Chamber of the Commons, the former traditionally headed by a Prince or Princess of the ruling dynasty and the latter by an elected Overseer. Only the Chamber of Commons - along with the Lord Protector - have the right to propose new laws, although motions passed by the Commons can still be vetoed by the Chamber of Nobles.

Foreign Relations and Military:
The Kragholm Free States take an active role on the international stage, generally hold good relations with most of the Western world, and maintain a centuries-old alliance with the United Kingdom. The Free States, due to their highly militaristic culture, have been involved in almost every major conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War to Korea, Chechnya, and Iraq. They have fought alongside their British allies in both World Wars - almost single-handedly massacring the armies of the Ottoman Empire in the First - made extensive preparations for a war against the USSR during the latter half of the 20th century, and are currently involved in conflicts in the Middle East.

The Lord Protector of the Realm serves as the highest ranking commander of the Kragholmer military - although, being a former officer who earned the rank of General before he became the monarch, very few would argue that the current Lord Protector is not qualified to take on this role. The armed forces of the Free States are made up of three main branches: the Royal Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Sky Navy. The army provides the bulk of Kragholm's ground forces, and makes heavy use of powered armour and landships in combat. The navy is the smallest branch of the armed forces, and primarily patrols the waters around the islands, transports troops short distances, and conducts interceptions of hostile naval craft. The Sky Navy is Kragholm's formidable force of heavily-armed flying warships, and is the nation's main force in large-scale combat, backed up by large numbers of capable escort fighters.

There are also several orders of knights who work alongside the Kragholm armed forces as special operatives and commandos. Of these, the largest two are the Royal Order of the Silver Lance and the Royal Order of the Chalice, although there are around ten smaller orders in existence. All of these groups field extremely capable warriors - perhaps the best in the world - armed with cutting edge equipment, and all members are held to an exceptionally high standard of ability - including the current Lord Protector, who is a member of the Royal Order of the Chalice.

Economy:
Kragholm operates primarily on a free-market capitalist economic system, with a private sector made up of both large and small businesses comprising 92.7% of the nation's economy and a highly skilled and educated labour force. Because of this, the Free States are extremely wealthy, and boast one of the highest standards of living in the world. Kragholm's main exports consist of steel, minerals, machinery, and arms, and its imports mostly consist of food and luxury goods. Kragholm is renowned for its innovative and world-leading industrial sector, which has been at the forefront of global industry since the beginning of the 18th century. The nation is a significant exporter, and hence operates at a trade surplus of ¢38 billion. The United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Italy are the Free States' main trading partners.

Culture:
The Free States have, like their closest allies and neighbours, a western culture, with the same principles of individual liberty and progress that are the basis for civilisation across much of Europe and America. Kragholmers also highly value technological and industrial strength and advancement, resulting in a highly innovative and extremely well-educated society. Inkeeping with their nation's origins, Kragholmers have a strong martial tradition, and the military is well respected and viewed as a symbol of the Free States' significant global power. Whilst the people of Kragholm tend to value science over the arts, the latter are still a well-developed form of culture in the islands, with many celebrated painters, composers, and writers hailing from the Free States, and many famous works being produced all over the country. Some may view Kragholmer art as somewhat old-fashioned - typically idealised Victorian painting, opera, dramatic stage plays, and jazz music are the most common forms of their respective arts in the Free States, and remain popular to this day.

Cuisine:
The cuisine of the Kragholm Free States primarily features hearty, warming dishes, often fish-based, although today this is more out of tradition and meat of all kinds is readily available. Thick stews, pies, roast dinners, and hot baked goods are all common Kragholmer fare, and chefs in the Free States tend to value simplicity and high quality ingredients over elaborate presentation. Since the late middle ages, Kragholm cuisine has also taken on influences from the Mediterranean, and, through it, the East. This assimilation of international cooking methods and ingredients brought various new kinds of dish to the islands, and normalised the use of exotic spices both in entirely new foreign dishes and as modifications to traditional Kragholm food. In terms of drinks, the Free States are known for their high quality whisky, and, thanks to their extensive greenhouses, the islands also have a widespread coffee culture.

Infrastructure:
While the majority of Kragholmers use personal automobiles or carriages to get around - those making short, intra-city trips or journeying to more remote settlements, at least - the islands are well served with a high-speed railway network that connects all cities and major towns in the Free States. There is also a zeppelin service which serves much the same purpose, although takes a more direct route between settlements separated by sea, and a ferry route along the western coast. Airports in all cities process large volumes of aircraft each day, and have facilities to receive and dispatch the aeroplanes and helicopters used in most nations, along with the zeppelins and flying boats preferred in the Free States.

Energy:
The vast majority of Kragholm's electricity requirements are fulfilled by coal-fired power stations, and a large proportion of Kragholm-built machinery uses coal or diesel directly. There are a few power stations across the islands that utilise the large deposits of natural gas discovered beneath the surface, but these are fairly uncommon. Green energy generation is commonly considered to be useless in the harsh environment of Kragholm, as both solar panels and wind turbines would very quickly be damaged by regular blizzards.

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