Nordica

**Nordica** is the name of a planet about 19 light years away from Earth. It was colonized beginning in 2071, and currently has a population of over 720 million people, which speak a restored form of the Norse language, highly influenced by Icelandic's conservative linguistic tendencies to construct new words for the language.

## History

With the discovery of extraterrestrial life and the confirmation of Earth-like planets that could support life, a group of Icelanders, Swedish, Norwegians, Finnish, Danish, Faroese, along with a few Americans of Nordic descent decided to explore the planet to see if it would be suitable for colonization.

Once the six month journey ended, the group of 14 people landed on the planet and found it had a rich biosphere full of grasses, trees, and life that resembled that of Earth in the last ice age, strangely enough. The colonists mapped the planet's continents and came up with a list of places which would potentially be good places for starting settlements.

Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, as well as some states in the US and CS banded together to send settlers to the new planet, with 183 people settling in a bay which would become Nývíkborg.

## Language

The people of Nordica speak Norse, restored with linguistic evidence from Icelandic and written records. The script is a normalized version of Norse that is very orthographic, making it easy to pronounce the language. New words are regularly created by the Heimsmálráðið (World Language Council) to express new concepts using existing word stock to keep the language 'pure.'

## Culture

The culture of Nordica comes from the various Scandinavian cultures and is socially very conservative in most respects, including gender roles, though women have a high degree of economic freedom and social mobility. Once women marry they tend to have 3-7 children, raise those children, then work part time after that to ensure they can take care of their children.

Traditional cultural dress is commonly found in planetwide holidays and festivals, while regular clothing is found used in normal situations.

One of several planetary traditional costumesYoung women in traditional clothingWomen with traditional cloak and dress
### Family Names

On Nordica, names are regulated by the Mannanafnanefnd (Personal Naming Committee), which maintain a list of approved names that conform to the grammar of Norse, from ancient names like
Aldwulf, and modern ones like Jón. Under influence of the Icelandic source population, the middle name is patronymic, so that Stéfan's son Jón would be *Jón Stéfansson*, and his daughter Guðrún would be *Guðrún Stéfansdóttir*.

Due to the large number of people on the planet and the need to identify people, last names were introduced in 2110, but none are allowed to end in '-son' so as to avoid confusion with patronymics.

## Government

The planet has a unitary government run from the capital of Nývíkborg, located on the northern continent, with a population of 11 million people. The planetary government has three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. It is described as a parliamentary republican monarchy, as it functions much like an Earth parliamentary monarchy, but much power is held in the provinces, and they elect representatives to the planetary legislature, the Heimsþing. Each province has a governor-general who is elected uniquely by the people of the province, and then the planet's monarch approves of the choice at which time the person assumes office.

The Legislative branch has two branches - the Folkþing and Landþing - the lower and upper houses, respectively. Budgets originate in the Folkþing, while extraplanetary diplomacy is conducted through the Landþing. The monarch can dissolve the Heimsþing and call for new elections in certain occasions.

The Executive is retained in the monarch of Nordica, King Carl IV, but will soon pass to his firstborn daughter, Elisabeth in 2371, as he has expressed his intent to step down by January of 2371. The Executive also has a cabinet headed by a prime minister, which runs the government on behalf of the executive. Unlike Earth parliamentary monarchies, the monarch is not just a symbol, but runs the government, conducts extraplanetary diplomacy, and all the other duties expected of a monarch. The prime minister mainly heads cabinet meetings for the monarch and makes sure the bureaucracy is doing what the monarch wants, not what it wants.

## Finances

The currency is the Krona, divided into 100 øre. There are coins for a 1/2 ør, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50. The first three are copper, the rest are 90% silver. The Krona has coins for the 1 and 2 Krona, and banknotes for the 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000. The first three are silver certificates, with each province keeping a certain number of bars of silver to back the notes, while the rest are gold certificates, with each province holding a number of gold bars mined from one of the asteroid belts to back the notes.