Norse Fylkirate (TUE)

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"Hail the Aesir,*

*hail Asynjur,*

*hail to the all-giving earth.*

*Fair speech and wisdom*

*to us famous ones*

*and healing hands as long as we live.*"

-"Hail Day", an Old Norse song still popular to this day in the Fylkirate
The **Norse Fylkirate** is a major faction of the Concordiatverse within "The Universal Emergency" multiverse.Based on an alternate history where the Norse unified under a reformed sort of paganism that managed to spread itself into Slavic Eastern Europe before expanding outwards into the world. Rulers of a vast colonial empire with a large number of dependable and powerful allies, the Fylkirate has battled the Directorate, the alien menace, and more in its quest for the sacred freedoms promised by the all-powerful gods to humanity. With its empire including Southern Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, northern half of Nirth America, all of Scandinavia and the Guianas, the Fylkirate's influence stretches across the world, as does its mission to spread the Forn Sidir faith and defend its gains from those who would seek to destroy what has been accomplished by generations of labor.

Rasmussen - woman

## At a Glance

 **Basic Look** | Modernized Vikings with bits of later parts of Scandinavian history with mild sci-fi touches.

## Background

### Uppruni eða inn Norðri

The story of the Norse Fylkirate begins in the 700s after the fall of pagan Saxony to Charlemagne. Fleeing Saxon refugees brought with them tales of how the unified and dogmatic faith of the Christians helped Charlemagne and his paladins defeated the Saxons in their own homeland, and how their own lack of a formal hierarchy and doctrine made defending their faith from Christian missionaries so very difficult. A Danish petty king known to history as Bjarke Jute the Grim took these tales seriously, and concocted a scheme with which to unite the Norse people and to not only protect; but to spread their beliefs, and so engaged in a conquest, unification,of Scandinavia no less worthy of the epics than Charlemagne's own conquest of much of the western half of the long dead Roman Empire. And unlike Karl Magnus, Bjarke had a dangerous skill; he could read, he was well self-educated thanks to his father owning a number of scholarly Byzantine, Catholic monks, and even Arab thralls and Buddhist visitors from Southern Asia, and he wasn't above adopting the ideas of others.

Reforming and restructuring his faith to have the same degree of organization, of universal appeal, of theological strength, and to have the same power for bringing unity to the disparate Viking clans and tribes as Christianity, Bjarke's achievements in aiding the Norsemen's spiritual matters were only rivaled in his reorganization of Viking society in temporal affairs, creating an imperial administration modeled on what he had read of Rome, Greece, and Carthage. He crafted a parliament known as the "Althing" and a bureaucracy based on his vision of the Roman Empire to placate the nobles and to get them to buy into his scheme with an offer of power and a say in governance, and he created for himself the crown of Har Konungur of Scandinavia, Keisjar of the Nordarikki, and Fylkirate of Asatruar while setting his capital in what in the main universe is now called Stockholm. He had saved the Norse from Christianization and helped set the world for a very strange course.

Following his death, the Vikings continued to be a dominant force in Europe, converting many of the other European pagans to Forn Siðr faith and reformed at roughly the same time that the followers of the prophet Mazdak brought Zoroastrianism back to Persia with the crumbling of the Abbasid dynasty, and the Tengri beliefs of the Turks, Hungarians, and Mongols were reformed while the Norse spread across the world The Finnic lands of far northern Russia and modern Finland were conquered. Fiefdoms throughout Russia were carved, the British Isles were repeatedly invaded and sacked, and the Americas were discovered and settled. A war-loving culture that engaged in raiding and pillaging as a respected profession flourished alongside more peaceful means of acquiring wealth such as trade or more conventional warrior work in the few standing military formations of the time.

The Mongol Invasions came as a rude surprise not only to the Vikings, but to essentially the entire western world as the sons and grandsons of Temujin showed the west what the east had just gone through. While the Mongols were fair if firm rulers after their conquests were finished, this did little to alleviate the trauma of their initial invasions. The Mongols only turned back from conquering all of Europe due to the untimely death of Ogedai Khan that required the Mongol Tumens to turn back and select the next Khan. Hulegu Khan proved more interested in the Middle East and Southern Asia, perhaps to the fortune of Europe, and the Mongols soon largely converted either to Forn Sidir, Buddhism, or to Mazdakist Zoroastrianism, impressed with the benefits offered by the civilizations they conquered and syncretizing them to their own native Tengriist beliefs.

In the years afterwards, the Vikings rebuilt, and as the times changed; so did their army. Mail gave way to plate armor, gunpowder became increasingly widespread. Pikes, shots and professional armies would replace the highly mixed levies of before as the medieval era gave way to the renaissance. Other European nations would follow suit in the quest for colonies; though they found that the natives were capable of a far more vicious fight than in the timeline from which most other factions hailed from. Games for the control of Europe were interspersed with wars over influence in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The Norse people gave a hearty snort when Christianity engaged in devastating intersectional wars, but found themselves unable to keep out of such good scraps and having to intervene in conflicts between the Slavic and Baltic converts to the Norse faith.

### Thor's Hammer Comes Down

The conflict between the East, West, North and South was continual and bloody. The Norse allies of the Empire of Carpathia, Russia, and the Empire of Wend were in near continual conflict with the Christian Holy Roman Empire which spanned over most of Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire and continual conflict with the Islamic nations of Northern and Eastern Africa & Arabia. Devastating wars such as the Northern Crusades fertilized the fields of Europe and Central Asia with the blood of millions; with the absolutely devastating Great Crusade for Pommerania leading to nearly a century of almost nonstop war from 1337 to 1453 that would rage from Africa to India and from Central Europe to the British Isles. Over the course of a hundred years; some seventy million people died in the mud and blood of warfare across the entire Indo-European world until the titanic battle of Ratzguard where a vast Christian Army under Hochmeister Mannfred von Gottschalck of the Teutonic Order had made an alliance with the Muslim army of Faarid Al-Hazred and the Byzantine Army of Basileus Nikolous Makedon to try and break the stalemate in Europe that had developed; met with Fylkja Drahomira the Dragon; born to a union with a Czech High Princess of the Wendish Empire and the crown High Prince of the Nordarikki, who lead an army containing contingents from the Shahanshah of Persia, the Khagans of the Golden Horde and Carpathia, the Mansa of Ghana, the Tsar of Russia, the High Queen of Wend, and even warriors from Norse settlements in the far-off continent of Eriksonia. In the largest and final battle of the Middle Ages.

From the east came an army of two hundred thousand and fifty thousand men and women; from the Abrahamic world came some four hundred thousand soldiers, many of them faith crazed peasants. In the space of a day; some four hundred and fifty thousand people died, were wounded, or captured, one hundred thousand on the Norse side, three hundred and fifty thousand on the Christian and Islamic side; shattering the Christian army and causing the death of so many feudal nobles that the battle is widely agreed to have ended the Medieval Era as the casualties forced all sides to reform towards more centralized states and a renaissance began as the armies that came together for the battle shared ideas and immigration between the countries allowed for the spread of new and innovative ideas and technologies.

### The Norse with Hawk Tattoos

The Age of Enlightenment brought about great changes to the world as empirical mindsets became the vogue for intellectuals and standardized methods of science were formalized. The Vikings, though a spiritual people, were not blind to the benefits of secular science and did much to be patrons for those minds who could bring advancements for the Fylkirate and the Nordarikki. In spite of all that had changed, America still formed as the United States of Eriksonia, and France still crumbled under the sheer inefficiency of its own system to birth a republican revolution that would shake Europe to its core as General, then Consul, then Emperor Napoleon brought war to the world in the bloody Napoleonic Wars; some of the most destructive conflicts that Europe had ever seen up until that point.

Joining with the various coalitions against France, the Norse were crucial in helping bring about Napoleon's defeat. Following his defeat, the Scandinavians continued to play the colonial game, claiming all of Antarctica for themselves and doing something nobody seriously expected anyone would try; establish permanent colonies on the floor of the world, just as they had manage to establish large and healthy settlements in northern Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and their great colony of "Riki Vinland". Further territorial expansions included settlement of the place we know as "Tierra del Feugo" after negotiating with the Incans, as well as claiming South Africa and New Zealand and the growing United States of Eriksonia would soon find itself an ally in the Norse who had helped to free it from Britain when they had revolted.

But what they couldn't foresee was Europe deciding that instead of crushing France during its moment of weakness; they would instead form a united Europe, with former enemies becoming allies in the aftermath as France, Britain, Austria, Spain, Prussia, the Italian states, and the Byzantine Empire came together to form the Directorate of Seven Nations. All of these nations committed themselves to the goal of conquering the world and crushing those who would oppose their Christ-God. Once again, war had become about faith for the Norse. The Norse would not allow the absolutism of the Directorate and its rapidly growing ally in Japan threaten their faith and their cherished freedoms. Freedoms that only grew more cherished as the Norse and their allies adopted economic systems inspired by the writings of the Persian heretic Mazdak; which had spread outwards from Iran.

The Norse turned to what allies they could, the multi-denominational and cosmopolitan Russian Empire had Tengrists, Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Confucianists, Daoists, and its state faith of Forn Siðr all present and accounted for; all of whom were in no hurry to see the Catholics, Orthodoxists, and Protestants of the Directorate try to conquer them for the vast riches of the Motherland. The Yuan Chinese, saved from potentially ailing into obscurity by the arrival of green crystals from the heavens offered their hand in alliance, offering them the united efforts of the Manchu, the Mongols, the Han, the Uyghur, the Tibetans and all the peoples of China. The Incans were the final part of the alliance, and would help hold South America and ensure that the Directorate would face a war on at least two fronts in the Americas.

The first major clash between the two world power blocs would come in the 1850s as the Norse, Russians, Persians and Mongols entered into a three year long war with the Directorate to determine who would be master of the black sea; a conflict that ultimately ended utterly indecisively and resulted in a peace nobody was particularly satisfied with. Sentiments that would boil over into the Eriksonian Civil War; with the Norse heathen bloc throwing its lot with the Union and the Directorate and Japanese deciding to aid the Confederates; which resulted in year after year of gruelling warfare that would eventually lead to intervention by the Directorate and Japanese when the North's superior technology, industry, and manpower seemed like it would inevitably crush the Confederates; resulting in constant setbacks for the North as European and Asian troops flooded into the south; and was met with a counter-intervention that prevented a Confederate government dominating Eriksonia.

## Generals

### War Chief Astrid Halvarsson the Zealous

*"Look deep into my,*

*Eyes so blue,*

*You must understand,*

*And remember that all,*

*Shall pass in time,*

*As the night comes.*

*I will share with you our land,*

*If you desire it,*

*It shall not pass us.*

*Heavy it weighs,*

*Remember to take not more,*

*Than you can bear.*

-A quote from the Norse holy book turned into a religious hymn; indirectly translated; a favourite of Astrid's.

 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Hersir
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Fjalarr Team
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Volva Sisterhood
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Einherjar Brotherhood
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Valkyrie Sisterhood

## Norse Warhosts

*"Through the strength of our arm and the faith in our gods, the Norse people have remained ever strong. From farthest Vinland to nearest Danemark our lands spread. And now to other worlds too shall our lands spread. We love war, we are not afraid of war. But we also love peace, our families, and our homes. Thus we must take what we must from those who cannot stop us so that our homes may be strong. And if they would seek to raise their arm against us we shall strike them down like all others who have opposed us in the centuries. We will strike them at sea, at land, and in the air, we will strike them in the very stars too if need be. Make no mistake, we return to the course of the Viking not because we are ruthless, but because it has to be this way. But I feel that new life shall be born beneath the bloodstained sands."*

- Testimony of Sigurd Larson

### Airforce

 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Thor Gunship
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Sif Fighter
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Tyr Ground Attack Plane
 File:IconTUEFylkirate.png | Nidhoggr Bomber

### Navy

Currently the most powerful navy in the world, the Norse Fleet is huge and well armed but is widely spread between the oceans of the world. While no one navy could hope to challenge it in its totality; many can hope to win a victory in their local waters to free their shores from the threat of the Norse fleet. With the devastation of the British Royal Navy and the incorporation of the American Union into the Nordarikki only the Japanese navy can be said to match the Fylkirate in terms of seamanship and the fleet waits for the day the cold war with the fascist Concordiat and tensions with the Shogunate, the remnants of the Directorate, and the Confederates devolve into war; ready to cast a blockading noose around the necks of the Fylkirate's enemies once again.

## Behind the Scenes

* The Norse Fylkirate is based on The Red Star Rising's fascination with pre-christian european religions and culture, blatant Scandinavophilia, love of alternate history, and one too many Crusader Kings 2 playthroughs.
* Aesthetically they draw influence from the Vikings, Incorrect depictions of Vikings, Post-Pagan/Cold War Scandinavia, and just a bit of the Chaos Warriors and Space Wolves Space Marines chapters from Warhammer (fantasy + 40,000) and The Elder Scrolls' Nords.