The Kragholm Free States

Since this site has some serious formatting issues, I suggest you follow the link to a far better formatted and significantly more detailed article on the Kragholm Free States: https://www.nationstates.net/nation=kragholm\_free\_states/detail=factbook/id=790967

The following article contains only the main body of text from the linked piece.

## **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.

## **Demographics:**

### **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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