Finland (Nordic Empire)

## Finland

* **Immigrant:** Russian, Estonian, Arabic, Somali, Kurdish, Albanian, Persian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Tagalog, Turkish, Spanish
* **Foreign:** English, German, French
* **Signed:** Finnish Sign Language, Finnish-Swedish Sign Language

### Tallest Building

Hotel Torni Tampere* **Location:**
* **Total Height:** 88 m

### Largest Mall

Mall of *Tripla** **Location:** Helsinki
* **Total Area:** 85,000 m2

### Largest Stadium

Helsinki Olympic Stadium* **Location:** Helsinki
* **Total Capacity:** 36,200

### Tallest Statue

Equestrian Statue of Marshal Mannerheim* **Location:** Helsinki
* **Total Height:** 11.7 meters

**Finland** (Finnish: Suomi), officially the **Republic of Finland** (Finnish: Suomen Tasavalta) is a ~~Scandinavian~~ Nordic country. In TSIGPIGS, they're both male in the mapping and object style, and compete in the team of Kalmar Union.

During the selection process, Finland was selected as an individual candidate, however, due to the "lower cast mandate for MS", they merged with Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland to form the **Nordic Empire**.

## Geography

### Political Geography[1]

Finland is a country in Northern Europe, lying on the Gulf of *Bothnia*, east of all the Scandinavian countries. To the West, they border Sweden on the *Torne* River, or the *Tornionjoki*, until it reaches the tripoint border with Norway at The 3-Country Cairn Stone. Meanwhile, Finland also borders Russia to the East, with another tripoint with Norway.

The country is divided into 19 regions, or *maakunta*, along with the autonomous region of Åland. The capital, Helsinki, is located South, near the Finnish coast in Gulf of Finland. The country is known to possess around 180,000 islands, most of which are concentrated in the gateway of Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf Finland, the Åland Archipelago. It used to belong to Sweden historically, then it was ceded to Russia with Finland as a whole, and then it opted to stay with Finland when Finland broke away from The Russian Empire during the Russian Revolution. However, despite being in Finnish hands (as of now), the people tend to speak Swedish. Sweden could take back Åland from Finland after they broke away, but when the Soviets attacked Finland, they fought relentlessly and Sweden opted out to stay neutral, and didn't really do much take them back for themselves. Regardless of how much Sweden wants Åland back, Åland has decided to stay with Finland as they were doing literally nothing, while Finland was holding their backs and defending them from the Soviets taking over.

With Russia, on the contrary, there are numerous amounts of split-islands and pene-enclaves, like for example:

* Äikkääniemi
* *Suursaaari*
* *Tarassiinsaari*
* *Koitajoki* River Islands

Most of their borders with Sweden, meanwhile, run along general rivers that eventually flow along the Tornionjoki River. Following the course, there is a strange golf course situated that is split-half between the 2 countries, in the town of *Tornio*, Sweden. Not only that, but then, there is the Märket Island, next to Åland in the Gulf of Bothnia. It has an inverted S-shaped border. To summarise, Sweden and Finland were in a dispute with this island, and then Sweden decided to negotiate by slicing the island in a border into 2 equal pieces. However, apparently, Finland most likely didn't opt out and decided to construct a lighthouse in the Swedish-half. The negotiation as previously concluded were being torn apart, but Sweden cleverly decided to create that inverted S-shaped border, so that the the lighthouse remains in Finnish hand, both countries will have exactly half of the landmass of the island, along with exactly half of the coast.

Now, before the invasion by the Soviets, Finland used to operate the regions of *Karelia*, *Salla*, *Kuusamo*, *Petsamo*, and some other extra island in the gulf. After the wars with the Soviets, the regions were all ceded to the USSR (specifically the Russian SFSR), affectively cutting off their access to the Arctic Ocean.

### Landmarks

Some notable sites and landmarks in Finland would have to be their old castles, like:

* *Savonlinna*
* *Hämeenlinna*
* *Olavinlinna*
* *Suomenlinna* (The Most Renowned)
* *Rovaniemi* (Otherwise Known as "Home of Santa Claus")
* *Inari* (With a Real *Saami* Traditional Cultural Experience)
* *Ivalo* (Same as Before)

The capital, Helsinki, has notable landmarks as well, like:

* *Temppeliaukio* Church, excavated into a rock,
* *Mannerheim* Street, the busiest road with all the shops and austere post-Soviet influenced blocky colonnaded buildings, or the iconic...
* ...Helsinki Cathedral.

### Physical Geography

To put it simple enough, some would argue that Finland is the best winter wonderland in the world. Other winter-land rivals like Canada, Russia, and Iceland are cool, but Canada have many unfriendly bears, Iceland has lot of active volcanoes, and Russia is a lot more unbearably colder. The land is generally flat, except to the North near their border with Norway, in which the highest mountain, Mt. *Halti*, can be found.

Finland is just wonderfully crisp and refreshing, as it usually ranks in the Top 3 for having one of the best fresh and cleanest air quality. Partially, this is because Finland is also the most forest-covered country in Europe, at around 80% of their landmass per km2 occupied by forestry. When taken globally, they are just behind Gabon and Suriname. Due to their highest forest coverage, Finland is actually the largest wood producer in the European Union, and one of the top in the world.

Apart from that, but Finland actually has 188,000 lakes, most heavily concentrated in Lakeland. In addition to lakes, about 10% of the country is comprised of water bodies like rivers, ponds, and streams. When mixed with the land, this makes up about 1/3rd of the country home to swamps and bogs, making it the highest wetland proportioned country in Europe, and disputably with the world. The Finnish people, on the other hand, indigenously love these swamps; one Finnish pastime is to jump in the mud, and either playing soccer or wrestling.

The landscape of Finland is shaped that way, because it was crushed by something in a heavy glacier for a geographically long time. After it melted away, Finland's landscape of pockety erosion and mineral residue (all over the place) is born. Also, Finland is experiencing a post-glacial rebound, in which the land steadily rises along their coast in the Gulf of Bothnia. Every year, Finland gains about 7 km2, and is technically rising out of the sea.

The longest river in Finland is the *Kemijoki* River, that passes through Lapland and ends at the Gulf of Bothnia. Also, the largest lake (4th largest in Europe), Lake *Saimaa* is located in the South-East.

Because Finland is so far North, they're known for being the "Land of the Midnight Sun", as also, during summers, the Sun can be seen for 24 hours a day in the northern parts of the Arctic Circle. And of course, during winter times, literally no sunlight is received. If one's lucky enough, they can experience an Aurora Borealis, especially in the Northern parts.

## Transportation

### Via Air

The 3 busiest airports are Helsinki International [IATA: HEL], *Oulu* [IATA: OUL], and *Rovaniemi* [IATA: RVN].

## Trivia

* Both Norway and Finland only border Sweden and Russia, apart from themselves.
* The Finnish capital of Helsinki is the 2nd most Northern capital, after the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík.
* Finland has threated Sweden that if Åland is being ceded back to them, they'd demand the Tornio Valley.
* Most of the castles and landmarks have "-linna" as a (Finnish) suffix ending at their names, which basically means a castle or a fortress in Finnish.
* Helsinki is, without a doubt, the epicentre of Finnish architecture and culture.
* Mt. Halti actually used to be administered by Norway, until it was given to Finland in 2017 to commemorate their 100th anniversary from their independence from the Russian Empire.
* Fittingly, the name for swamps is "Suo" in Finnish, and the word for Finland in Finnish is "**Suo**mi".