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 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.
Eastern 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 fewer people in said area are not shown. You can also see on said map the population repartition of Eittland.
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 to create a new state within the Kingdom of Eittland. The repartition of the different eittlandic cultures is shown in the map below.
Standard 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 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 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 (late 8th century - 14th century)
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 often flows from volcanoes to the shores 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 whom. 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 Reykjavík to sign the Treaty of Reykjavík, 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 - late 1700s)
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 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.
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 not only retained its status as a maritime hotspot but also boomed as one 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.
Industrial Revolution and Constitutional Monarchy (18th century)
By the beginning of the 18th century, Eittland begins to heavily industrialize out of a need for larger and more effective ports, requiring themselves lots of various machinery and base materials. Mines in Western Eittland became much more active, extracting primary resources such as iron, aluminum and other precious metals.
Due to a lack of coal in the Eittlandic island, the country had to buy it from other countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States or modern-day Canada. Coal stayed the primary source of power in Eittland for most of the century up to around the 1880s when Eittland found deposits off its Eastern coast. Oil extraction remains to this day a significant part of the Eittlandic economy, although in decline due to the deposits progressively drying up.
Industrial development mostly happen in Eastern Eittland due to its flatter terrain compared to Western Eittland. Primary resources extracted from Western Eittland were primarily brought to factories by boat; although the country pushed towards building train tracks, the eastern and western parts of the country remained separated due to the frequent eruptions of the volcanoes in the central part of the island cutting off any attempt to link the two regions.
Fishing also developped as a significant activity in Eittland, most of its products was sold within Eittland for its people and only a small portion became available for international market. Nonetheless, Eittlandic fish slowly built a reputation of quality and became sought after by Northern American and Western European elites. In 1895, fish and seafood exports represented 35.3% of Eittland’s exports.
In 1826, the country underwent a change in its government, going from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. More details in Constitutional Monarchy.
20th Century, World Wars, and Europe
At the turn of the century, Eittland became an important hub of commerce between Europe and Northern America with its two major ports, Kóparvall and Tvinnár.
Women’s right to vote
On August 22nd 1902, a billed written by the House of the People led by the Labourer’s Party is ratified by the High King. It gives women the right to vote in any election open to the Eittlandic people. On March 15th 1915, a second law written by the Labourer’s Party is ratified by the High King, giving women the right to be elected at the House of the People while noblewomen got the right to inherit the title of Jarl, making them eligible to the House of the Land. Quickly after, Kari Niallsdóttr became the first woman ever elected to the House of the People during the general election of September 1905, while Ása Sigríðsdóttr became the first woman to enter the House of the Land in 1934.
World War One
When World War I started, Eittland stated their neutrality regarding the matter and continued business with any country willing to do so. The only Eittlandic deaths recorded were three voluntary men of German descent who went to mainland Europe in order to fight on Germany’s side. Two of them died during the battle of the Somme while one died of an unspecified illness.
1920s and 1930s
As it was largely unaffected by the Great War, Eittland became an important economic partner of the European countries affected by the war, especially in terms of reconstruction. This further cemented Eittland’s place in European economics. However, the country became affected by the Great Depression too. Some twenty thousand Eittlanders left Eittland at the time, fifteen thousand of them went to the United States while five thousands left for European countries such as Norway, Germany, the UK, or France. To this day, Chicago (Michigan, USA) is known for hosting the only significant Eittlandic population outside Eittland, and second-generation Eittlandic immigrants retained their Eittlandic nationality despite most of them never going to Eittland.
World War Two (1940-1944)
In the years leading up to World War Two, Nazi Germany spent great efforts to develop a positive relationship with Eittland, mostly due to their fascination for ancient Nordic culture and Eittland being the only still pagan Nordic country. Eittland’s location would be also of great strategic importance in the Atlantic with such a central place, with the ability of acting as a relay between Northern America and Europe, or as a base of operations allowing for a much greater range of action. However, Eittland reaffirmed several times their will to remain neutral in any conflict. After war broke out in mainland Europe, the United Kindom, fearing Eittland joining the Axis, offered Eittland on January 23rd 1940 to join the Allies in order to not only benefit themselves from Eittland’s geographical advantages, but also avoid Germany to benefit from it. This proposal was once again refused, yet again due to Eittland’s will of staying neutral.
However, on April 3rd 1940, Germany launched a surprise naval invasion of Eittland, landing South of Hylfjaltr. This triggered an immediate military response from Eittland, fighting back as they could the German army. On the same day, Eittland called for help and joined almost immediately the Allies. Three days after the beginning of the invasion, British troops and ships arrived in Eittland, attacking the German army from the sea while Eittlanders attacked from land. The last German soldier surrendered on April 14th, eleven days after the beginning of the invasion. Eittland became then a base of operations of the Allies in the Atlandic, strengthening their position against German U-boats and other warships.
Fearing a similar fate awaited Iceland, Eittland suggested to the United Kingdom a preemptive occupation of the country by themselves. Thus, on May 10th 1940, the British and Eittlandic navies invaded Iceland, violating their neutrality. However, aside from diplomacy, this went without any incident, and while the British army left Iceland a year later, the Eittlandic army stayed for protection of the country.
Eittlandic ports played an important part in bringing US warships and war material to Europe, especially in the months leading up to D-Day and the different landings in the Mediteranean Sea.
Eittland-Iceland Alliance
When the war ended in Europe and Iceland gained its independence, a referendum was held in both Eittland and Iceland regarding the potential unification of the two countries, as both were already close to one another both geographically and culturally. This however never came to pass, as it failed both in Iceland with 54% of the voters answering “no”, while 64% of Eittlandic voters also answered “no”.
The two countries still entered a close alliance, Iceland relying on Eittland for military protection while an economic alliance was made between both of them, inspiring the Schengen Area some decades later. It was thus possible for citizens of both countries to move freely between Iceland and Eittland and live in either country as any of its citizens would while goods could also be freely exchanged. Thus, in 1965, Páll Jónsson became the firts Icelandic citizen elected to public office as the Town Master of Eldheim in Western Eittland.
Computer Sciences Pioneering
Out of personal interest, the then Co-King of Ðeberget Ragnarr Sigurðsbróðr asked the Dean of the Royal University of Eittland to open as quickly as possible a lab focused on the development of computers and computer sciences. This accompanied a new law raising the annual budget allocated to universities in Eittland to 9% of the nation’s GDP. As the first lab grew in size and became more and more proeminent internationally, even becoming one of the leading laboratories along with MIT, Bell Labs and CERN, numerous other laboratories both public and private appeared in Eittland.
What is now known as the Internet is born of a mix of ARPANET, the American standard, and Skruggmál, the Eittlandic standard. Eittland also became the first country off the coast of the United States to become connected to the American continent. It also became the main relay between mainland Europe and Northern America with one third of internet connections between the continent going through Eittlandic servers in 2015, although this number is slowly getting lower, as new direct lines between Northern America and Europe are being laid.
Eittland became one of the first countries to pledge on a national level in 1989 to conform to the Unicode standard when it would be ready, which came in effect on the publication of the first version of its standard on October 1992. The Teknikráðuneyt, the Eittlandic Technology Ministry, remained a full voting member of the Unicode Consortium from 1991 to 2006 and from 2015 until today. It is through its lobby that the first version of the Unicode standard integrated runes, Eittland’s official alphabet, and compatibility with the ISO-EI-1a through ISO-EI-5c encoding systems as well as various non-standard encoding systems used by minor Eittlandic operating systems.
21st century
Eittland and the European Union (1994-present)
Although it never applied for membership in the European Union, Eittland is still part of the European Economic Area as well as the Schengen Area, making it easy for European citizen as well as Eittlandic citizens to move freely in Europe. It joined these two organisations on their creation, in 1994 and in 1995 respectively, after signing both in 1992 and 1985 respectively.
In 2008, due to the economic crisis and instability of the Eittlandic Krúna (EIK), discussions opened with the European Parliament to adopt the Euro. Brussels accepted the application in 2013 and the Euro became the official Eittlandic currency in 2015. Eittlanders have a ten years window to convert their Eittlandic Krúna in Euros, which will become the sole currency accepted in Eittland starting January 1st 2026.
EU membership became an important debate topic in politics after the 2013 in the Eurozone, however the government sent no official membership application to the European Union. Poll estimates paint mixed feelings from the Eittlandic people with only a thin margin putting either “yes” or “no” in front of the other when asked if people would like Eittland to join the EU, as seen below.
| Yes | No | Do not know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 40.6 | 34.2 | 25.2 |
| 1998 | 41.2 | 36.3 | 22.5 |
| 2001 | 42.3 | 38.9 | 18.8 |
| 2005 | 43.0 | 40.1 | 16.9 |
| 2009 | 39.5 | 41.3 | 19.2 |
| 2010 | 43.4 | 44.3 | 12.3 |
| 2013 | 45.6 | 44.7 | 9.7 |
| 2015 | 46.4 | 45.9 | 7.7 |
| 2020 | 41.5 | 41.7 | 16.8 |
Internet and Computer Boom
Eittland is home to some of the largest websites in the world, considered the European counterpart to the United States’ Sillicon Valley. Some of its best known websites are Raustr, a podcast and blogging platform often compared to a Facebook or VK alternative, as well as Sønmek, a video streaming and sharing platform compared to YouTube and Twitch.
An entire governmental department of the Teknikráðuneyt got assigned to developping and auditing the Linux kernel in 2011. Although it has no official name, it is often referred to as the pengvinsstyrsamhald, or Penguins’ Batallion in English. It was later integrated in a larger department dedicated to open source software in general.
In 2014, the Eittlandic government announced fully switching to free and open-source software on all levels of government. This became fully effective in 2016, with all software developed for the government changing their license to the GPL-3.0 or AGPL-3.0 licenses and their source code available on the Teknikráðuneyt’s website.
Political Organisation
Kingdoms and Monarchy
While Eittland is a single country, it hosts 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 of 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.
This means that while both governments are independent of 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 needs 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.
Some 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 landowner 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 1905 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.