Commonwealth

The **Commonwealth**, officially the **Northern Commonwealth** (Scandinavian: *Sambandsríki Norðurlands*), is an independent country in Northern Europe. Its territory as claimed consist of the Jylland peninsula, Fennoscandia, the southeastern Baltic, and the various Danish, Baltic, and Norwegian Sea islands. The northernmost of the European author states by latitude, it borders the Imperium of Man to its south, and the Republics of Courland, Pskov, and Novgorod to its southeast.

The Northern Commonwealth emerged as a united state at the ratification of the Scandinavian Constitution (Scandinavian: *Stjórnarskrá*) by the tribal settlements of Sjællandin the winter of AS 0-1. The Commonwealth expanded rapidly over the following years, new settlements becoming a part of the Commonwealth through their ratification of the Scandinavian Constitution, and by AS 12 largely unified the Scandinavian people. A major administrative reform in AS 13 established the devolutionary government structure that the Commonwealth still has at present, which was immediately followed by a devastating war against the Imperium of Man in 13-15 AS saw the loss of its settlements in Holsten.

The Scandinavian Constitution, which with the exception of a few revisions remain unchanged since the foundation of the Commonwealth, establishes a devolutionary and republican commonwealth with a representative parliamentary government. The administration and parliament of the Commonwealth is situated in Roskilde, the capital and main academic centre. The Commonwealth is a member state in the Baltic Free Trade Area, which is also a currency union based on the Northern Crown (Scandinavian: *króna*). It has close cultural ties with the Imperium of Man, with the Scandinavian language having partial mutual intelligibility with the Continental Germanic that is the dominant language of the Imperium.

The Northern Commonwealth is considered to be one of the most liberal regimes in the world. Commonwealth citizens enjoy a high degree of socioeconomic equality and political representation, under an open society with strong protection of its citizens' civil and social liberties. The Northern Commonwealth is, however, also known for its exclusionary nationalism and the relatively poor protection of foreigners' rights.

## History

### Pre-Commonwealth

Because writing was not known in Northern Europe before the arrival of Clara Rose in AS -3, not much is definitively known about the history of the region before the Commonwealth. Knowledge about this era is mostly derived from oral history and folk traditions and as such this period in Northern European history is also often called prehistory or legendary history.

It is generally accepted that the Scandinavians, a branch of the Germanic peoples, migrated to southern Scandinavia in the couple centuries immediately preceding the foundation of the Commonwealth from across the Baltic Sea. While the region was inhabited before, perhaps for a very long time before, not much is known about the people displaced by this migration, although it is generally thought that they would have been a people related to the Sami and the Finns who live in the northern and eastern reaches of Fennoscandia in the present.

The Scandinavians were an agrarian people and by AS 0 had already spread themselves out into hundreds of permanent settlements across southern Scandinavia, with typical settlement sizes ranging from 50 inhabitants to 250.

### Early Commonwealth (AS 0-13)

The Early Commonwealth period, in Northern histography, refers to that period between, on one hand, the formation of the Commonwealth in AS 0 and, on the other hand, the administrative reforms of AS 13 and the Holsten War of AS 13-15.

#### Scandinavian Constitution

The foundation of the Commonwealth is often credited to one author, Clara Axinite Rose, who landed near Roskilde on late spring AS -3. Initially an apprentice to a potter, her successful handling of the smallpox epidemic that swept the region and the technological innovations she introduced, most notably improved agricultural techniques and metalworking, rose her to regional prominence.

Much concerned with the inter-settlement violence that sporadically disrupted life in the region, Clara used her newfound prominence and reputation to bring the settlements of Sjælland to a joint understanding under the belief that binding all the settlements in the region by honour to a common code of conduct would result in regional peace and prosperity. Discussions between the prominent leaders of the settlements in the area, mediated by Clara herself, resulted in the ratification of the document now known as the Scandinavian Constitution by all participating settlements.

Although in its earliest days the polity thus formed had the characteristics of an alliance rather than a unified nation-state, nor did the title "Commonwealth" be appended to the polity's original name, the Northlands (Scandinavian: *Norðurlands*) until much later, this ratification of the Scandinavian Constitution is generally considered to be the foundation of the Northern Commonwealth.

#### Seafaring Developments

Due perhaps in part to the region's geography, dominated by seas and with most of the population living along the coast, the Scandinavians already had prior to the foundation of the Northern Commonwealth stronger maritime traditions than other European cultures. This was, in the early years of the Commonwealth, further accelerated by Clara Rose's engineering efforts being focused heavily on shipbuilding and navigation. Within a decade, the traditional hide boats and log canoes were replaced by long-ships and galleys and, even later, dedicated sailboats.

As a result of this burgeoning maritime culture, exploration and trade accelerated tremendously. State-sanctioned missions into the Norwegian Sea and the Eastern European rivers led to the discovery of vast new territories and the establishment of communications with many other author polities, most notably the Kingdom of Hibernia and the Imperium of Man. Trade, not just along the Commonwealth's own coasts and rivers, but also across the North and Baltic Seas, grew.

The results of the Scandinavians' strong seafaring culture, however, was not entirely peaceful. Kaupang's settlement of its trade disputes against an unnamed Baltic tribe by military means in AS 7 led to the widespread realisation that the seafaring traditions of Scandinavia meant that hostile actions could be taken against faraway foreigners without meaningful fear of retaliation. This, combined with the relatively violent culture common among early agrarian societies that also characterised the Commonwealth's first few decades, led to the development of a strong raiding culture. For the next few decades, Scandinavians would take to the seas to sack and plunder, take tribute from, press unequal trade exchanges with, and otherwise militarily intimidate the less organised and less technologically developed peoples all along the Western and Northern European coasts.

#### Expansion

The first decade and a half of the Northern Commonwealth was marked by rapid expansion throughout northern Europe. This came about primarily in two ways.

First, enticed by offers of Clara and Roskilde's technological and economic assistance as well as the enhanced security of being a part of a larger polity, existing settlements across Scandinavia ratified the Scandinavian Constitution and thus became constituent settlements of the Northern Commonwealth. This process was the most rapid in more densely-populated areas with more of both friendly and hostile inter-settlement interaction, with Denmark, West Geatland, Svealand, and Viken being largely dominated by constituent settlements by 7~8 AS, and the less heavily populated Westlands, Oppland, and East Geatland not being fully integrated into the Northern Commonwealth until AS 11~12. Nonetheless, by AS 13 the entire Scandinavian people was united under the Commonwealth largely through this voluntary integration.

Second, enterprising merchant families and settlements established, along vital trade routes, outposts to facilitate trade and communications. New settlements were expanded in the Norwegian Sea islands, the Baltic Coast, and the European mainland, expanding the Commonwealth's frontiers. While it was clear that these settlements were Commonwealth territory governed by Commonwealth law, for some time it was unclear whether such new settlements ought to be considered constituent settlements with all the rights of representation that implies. Some, especially in the Northern Isles, were declared constituent settlements almost immediately, some, especially in Finland and the Baltics, were not declared so until years or even decades later, some, like Rotterdam, remain unrepresented colonial outposts even at present, and some others, such as Konungsborg, even became independent of the Commonwealth to serve as nuclei for new nations.

### Devolutionary Commonwealth (AS 13-present)

The period AS 13-15 saw large diplomatic, military, political, and social changes in the Commonwealth. As such, in Northern histography this period is considered to be the end of the Early Commonwealth period.

#### Administrative Reform

With the growth of the Commonwealth, the limitations of having a single central government to oversee all affairs of state across the nation grew self-evident, while differences in interest and outlook between the southern, Imperium facing Danes, the western North Sea facing Norwegians, and the eastern Baltic facing Swedes started to be stark.

To address these problems, at the 25th Regular Session of the National Assembly several Swedish delegates of the Assembly proposed creating separate and lesser parliaments for Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, so that the issues that may be dealt with at that level can be done so, without straining the administrative resources of the central government. It was implied that they would also do so also without unwelcome interference from the central government.

This proposal passed with broad support from most delegates and included an amendment that the new Republican parliaments would also hold the authority to further sub-delegate local issues to yet smaller regional parliaments. Over the course of the Holsten War, all three would do so, creating the national-Republican-Regional structure of parliamentary states that rules the Commonwealth at present.

As of the present, this reform remains the latest major amendment made to the Scandinavian Constitution.

#### Holsten War

Disputes between the Commonwealth settlements and the non-Commonwealth settlements of Holsten, initiated by the victimisation of the non-Commonwealth settlements by Scandinavian raiders from further north, escalated throughout AS 12 and early 13. To resolve this issue, the Commonwealth resolved to send the National Guard southwards into Holsten to disperse the population of non-Commonwealth settlements in the region and thereby pacify the area.

A Northern military intervention in this region alarmed the Imperium, which declared all affected settlements to be subjects of the Imperium and, thus, protected by the same. Imperial forces clashed with the Northern, beginning an undeclared period of war known as the Holsten War or, in later histography, the First Commonwealth-Imperial War.

The Northern Commonwealth, being a relatively peaceful and demilitarised state at this point in time, was caught by surprise at the decisive Imperial response. With a strong numerical disadvantage and an inferiority in ranged armaments and personal armour, the Northern forces were unable to sustain a meaningful resistance as Imperial depredations moved northwards from Holsten into Slesvig.

Domestic political pressure, arising from the Commonwealth administration being unable to meaningfully defend its settlements against Imperial depredations, eventually forced the National Guard into a decisive battle, in which it was largely shattered. Some time later, the Commonwealth agreed to negotiate terms of peace.

The resulting peace treaty established all territory south of the Eider as being administered by the Imperium, with Commonwealth settlements in Holsten having to move northwards or be considered Imperial subjects. Additional terms further clarified the relationship between the two polities and specified what constitutes for each polity an actionable *casus belli* against the other.

#### Baltic Policy

Following the conclusion of the Holsten War, the Commonwealth administration was heavily concerned with what they perceived to be an increasing isolation of the Commonwealth in international affairs. With the Imperium having demonstrated itself as an interventionist and hostile power and the Hibernians actively pressing territorial disputes on the Northern Isles, the nation appeared to be surrounded by enemies.

The response of the Commonwealth administration was to foster the formation of like-minded states along the southern Baltic coast. Starting AS 15~16, the administration announced the Baltic Policy (Scandinavian: *austurpólitík*) and began to reach out to friendly commercial partners throughout the Baltic coast and the Eastern European rivers.

It was discovered that due to international pressure, the target regions already had a strong impetus to centralise into tribal confederations, not unlike those found at present throughout neutral Continental Europe. The Commonwealth thus decided to provide legal advisers, to ensure that the laws and customs of these new states would resemble the Commonwealth's own and not follow along with the authoritarian tendencies of the Imperium, as well as military support to help these new states consolidate power in their stated territories, to the largest and friendliest commercial settlements in the region that were the natural focal points for regional consolidation.

Over the next couple of years, the Commonwealth would sponsor the creation of seven states: Prussia, Courland, Samogitia, Vilnius, Polotsk, Pskov, and Novgorod. Due to this heavy Commonwealth intervention in their foundation, development, and early politics, these states remain heavily tied to the Commonwealth economically, socially, culturally, diplomatically, and militarily, and are along with the Commonwealth itself collectively referred to as the Baltic Free Trade Area.

#### Political Polarisation

The period following the Holsten War was characterised by increasing polarisation in the Commonwealth between the "Blue" and "Red" factions of its politics.

Although political factionalism existed in the Commonwealth before the Holsten War, several factors have led to the intensification of disputes between these factions during and following the war. First, the increasing political maturity of the Commonwealth's leadership and strengthened inter-settlement ties led to a greater tendency towards collective movements on broad ideological outlooks over ad-hoc blocs on individual issues and the consolidation of unaligned settlements into existing political factions. Second, the devastating conclusion of the Holsten War resulted in considerable social and political upheaval as the military vulnerability of the Commonwealth was exposed, radicalising the existing political factions towards more drastic action. Finally, the administrative reforms of AS 13 created many new institutions, most notably the Republican and Regional parliaments, with few ingrained traditions and established expectations, opening new arenas of political conflict.

These factors led to not only greater political strife between the Blue and Red factions, generally recognised as the more nationalistic and the more egalitarian factions in Commonwealth politics respectively, but also the growth of extraparliamentary politics, the institution of public elections in many settlements especially in Denmark, and the expansion and militarisation of civil society.

#### Second Commonwealth-Imperial War

The increasing political polarisation in the Commonwealth and strong anti-Imperial public sentiments arising from the Holsten War resulted in the passage of several measures aimed at protecting the Northern Commonwealth's culture, society, and sovereignty from Imperial interference.

These measures outraged the Imperium, which considered the isolation of Imperial citizens from Commonwealth society to be an unreasonable violation of the rights of their citizens. Escalating tensions between the Northern Commonwealth, which saw Imperial demands that it revise its laws in line with Imperial preferences as an attempt to suppress its sovereignty, and the Imperium of Man, which saw Northern refusals as a violation of peremptory norms in international relations, resulted in another Imperial invasion of the Northern Commonwealth in the early weeks of AS 18.

The investments made by the Northern Commonwealth into its own defence, including a system of fortifications on its southern border known as the Danevirke and a major expansion of the Guards system, meant that this was a much harder-fought war than the Holsten War, with relatively harsh casualties on both sides.

## Geography

The Northern Commonwealth covers a territory of roughly 1.6 million square kilometres. It maintains as its territory Fennoscandia and the southeastern Baltics mostly defined by bodies of water such as the Baltic and White Seas, the Daugava and Svir Rivers, and Lakes Peipus, Ladoga, and Onega, in addition to the islands off the coasts of this region, the Danish Islands, Jylland north of the Eider River, the Northern Isles, and Iceland.

### International Borders

Of the territory claimed by the Commonwealth as its own, the Northern Isles are disputed by the Kingdom of Hibernia while the Commonwealth's actual control of the northern and eastern reaches of Fennoscandia can be at times extremely tenuous. While the Commonwealth still maintains some interest in Holsten, lost to the Imperium in the First Commonwealth-Imperial War, the official foreign policy position of the Northern Commonwealth is that it has no claim to this territory.

This territory borders the Imperium of Man across the Eider River, the Republic of Courland across the Daugava River, the Republic of Pskov across Lake Peipus, the Republic of Novgorod across a mostly forested border to its southeast, and *de facto* the Kingdom of Hibernia in the Northern Isles.

### Terrain

The terrain of the Northern Commonwealth is extremely varied. A large mountain range with no agreed-upon name, often simply called *Scandesryggen* or *Nordryggen*, separate the rest of mainland Fennoscandia from the western coast of Norway, which are characterised by sheer cliffs facing the sea known as fjords. The Northern Isles and Iceland mostly have lightly-forested, hilly terrain, capped with glaciers in the case of Iceland. The very far north of mainland Fennoscandia is mostly tundras. The rest of the Commonwealth consist of relatively flat, heavily-wooded terrain with the occasional bogs along the coasts, but the forests of eastern Finland, South Jylland, and the Danish Islands are also characterised by extensive wetlands under the trees.

### Climate

The climate of the Northern Commonwealth varies heavily between regions. The climate of the heavily populated areas of southwestern Scandinavia are significantly influenced by the relatively warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and thus have a temperate climate, while on the other extreme the Scandinavian mountains and the far north have subarctic, tundra climates.

The high altitudes of the Scandinavian mountains result in heavy rainfall on the western side of these mountains, along the Norwegian western coast, and in a relatively dry climate with cold winters on the eastern side, along northern Sweden and Finland.

The southeast of the country, away from both the Scandinavian mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, have continental climates with relatively heavy rainfall.

### Administrative Divisions

The Northern Commonwealth is divided into five Republics, which are then further sub-divided into seventeen Regions.

They are presented in the table below. The English name is presented first, then the Scandinavian name in italics if applicable, then the local language in parenthesis and italics if the local language is not Scandinavian and the local name differs from the English. For each Republic the Region that contains the capital of the Republic is listed first.

## Politics

### Administration

The political structure of the Commonwealth is defined by the Scandinavian Constitution, which remains the highest and fundamental document in Commonwealth law.

The country has four levels of government - national/Commonwealth, Republican, Regional, and settlement. Governments at the three higher levels, national, Republican, and Regional, are considered parliamentary states, while settlements are considered inherent states.

The Scandinavian Constitution is explicit on the principle of legislative superiority and as such each parliamentary state is led by a legislative assembly (the Scandinavian term for the assembly of the nation is *Stórþing*, for an assembly of a Republic, *Landsþing*, and for an assembly of a Region, *Fólksþing*), in which the full sovereignty of that state is invested. At least in theory, the government, led by an Administrator appointed by parliament, and the Civil Service of a state serve at the pleasure of the state's parliament.

Due to the communal nature of Nordic society and economy, however, the distinction between a private institution and a state institution can often be unclear, and even for institutions that are clearly state institutions it is not always clear which state it is an institution of.

A recent example of this legal fuzziness can be found in the Danish Academy of the Sciences, which is led by Clara Rose, the Chief Parliamentarian of the National Assembly, but in her powers as a private citizen, funded by the Danish Republic, under a charter approved by Roskilde. It is not certain which state, if any, controls this Academy.

Institutions that are clearly associated with a state can generally be classified, with one exception, between the Civil Service and the Guards System.

The Civil Service refers to all state institutions involved in non-military tasks, including foreign relations, the propagation of agricultural and industrial techniques, education, et cetera. The Guards System refers to the military structure of the Northern Commonwealth. Between these lie the Committee of Public Safety, an agency that is responsible for the paramilitary functions of government.

### Ideology

With a government structure more representative than any other on the Continent except perhaps Crimea, the Northern Commonwealth is influenced to a degree almost unheard of in other major author states by mass politics and mass movements. Public sentiment across the Commonwealth is broadly in agreement that the Scandinavians are lucky to live under such an open and liberal society, with the more authoritarian governments of neighbouring foreign states seen with some degree of disdain. Some even believe that the Northern peoples, being a free-willed people of the open oceans and the open forests, are naturally more inclined towards a form of government that respects the will and interest of the individual citizen more.

This forms the core of Nordic nationalism, which is prevalent. There exists a very strong sense of unity with the nation needing the participation of every citizen to keep foreign tyrants away.

The ideals of the Northern Commonwealth's founder, of a liberal, equal, and fraternal society, have infused every aspect of Northern public discourse.

Of course, within this broad agreement differences in ideology or interest exist. Although the Commonwealth does not have formally defined political parties, politics at the national level are nonetheless defined by the conflict between three, or more recently two, distinct factions with relatively consistent ideological stances. Being informal factions, they do not possess official names, but are commonly and colloquially referred to by colours: the Reds, the Blues, and the Yellows.

#### Reds

The faction commonly known as the Reds holds as its highest value a free community, holding as its ideal an almost romanticised vision of the citizen-warrior.

While the philosophical underpinnings of the Red movement is, quite possibly, the most complex of the three movements, in terms of major policy differences that separate them from the Blues and the Yellows, the Reds are characterised by a couple of key beliefs. The first is their hostility to hierarchical arrangements of any sort and the second is their acceptance of violence as a valid expression of human capabilities.

The Reds thus tend to support an ideological foreign policy, with strong dislike for the authoritarian structures of power that characterise the Icedonian and Imperial governments. They are also very accepting of cultural and ethnic differences and were the spearhead that promotes the rights and privileges of citizens who are cultural minorities. On the other hand, they are very resistant to any attempts to restrain their raiding customs, insisting on the rights of the people to prove themselves in the field of battle against the disorganised natives of neutral Europe.

They have the strongest presence on Norway and, since the Holsten War, in much of Denmark except for South Jylland. Since the Yellows were made almost politically irrelevant by the ongoing hostilities between the Commonwealth and the Imperium since AS 13, the Reds have been contesting national leadership with the Blues on relatively even standing.

#### Blues

The faction commonly known as the Blues holds as its highest values order and security, holding as its ideal a romanticised vision of the disciplined soldier.

The Blues are defined primarily by their perception of growing foreign states as a threat, an almost paranoid outlook on life that was strongly invigorated as a result of the First and Second Commonwealth-Imperial Wars. The Blues thus tend to be highly interested in further centralisation of the Commonwealth, believing that their survival depends on a unified, well-organised, and disciplined Northern nation. They also tend to be quite skeptical of anything they regard as foreign, whether that be the foreign culture of the Celtic minority, the foreign religion of Christian proselytisers, or foreign entanglements like raiding or international treaties.

In terms of foreign policy they're fiercely protective of the Baltic Free Trade Area and seeks its expansion, with the belief that the Commonwealth will only ever be secure if it is surrounded by states with an outlook utterly and completely aligned to the Commonwealth's own, and generally pursue a defensive policy against any foreign state that isn't in the Commonwealth's bloc.

Sweden is traditionally the stronghold of the Blue movement. As a consequence of the Swedes being the dominant force behind Finnish and Baltic colonisation and the establishment of the Baltic Free Trade Area, politics in the new Republic of Finland and the Republic of the Baltics tend to lean somewhat Blue, while politics in non-Commonwealth Republics of the Baltic Free Trade Area tend to be heavily dominated by Blue-inspired nationalist-militarist interests. The Blues also have a strong presence in South Jylland, supported by the strong hatred of the Imperium the inhabitants of that Region have, although the Blues are otherwise weak in both Denmark and Norway.

#### Yellows

The faction commonly known as the Yellows holds as its highest value individual freedom, holding as its ideal the successful explorer and merchant.

The Yellows tend to maintain a more laissez-faire approach to government, believing that the Commonwealth should remain decentralised with the parliamentary states only handling matters of defence and public order. Yellows are dissatisfied by aid provided to struggling settlements or assistance with the infrastructural and technological development of the Commonwealth's frontier settlements, believing that such measures amount to nothing more than sapping the potential of the most productive, outwards-looking settlements.

Abroad, the Yellows tend to support an isolationist foreign policy. Although they are of the belief that the Commonwealth ought to maintain amicable relations with foreign states and keep foreign trade open, they are otherwise incredibly averse to any sort of foreign entanglements, whether friendly or hostile.

Although formally influential in Denmark perhaps due in part to the Republic's central location in Northern Europe and the large commercial enterprises it hosted, the strong rise of nationalist sentiments in the Northern Commonwealth and the curtailment of commercial interests due to the tense relations between the Commonwealth and the Imperium have largely eliminated the Yellows as a coherent political force, with only a handful of National Assembly delegates, most of them from the Capital Region, being considered as leaning Yellow.

### Law and the Judiciary

The devolutionary nature of the Commonwealth's governance extends to its legal system. Commonwealth law for any given individual citizen of the Commonwealth nominally arises from six sources, which in descending order of precedence are: the Scandinavian Constitution, Acts of the National Assembly, code of the Republic in which the citizen is located, code of the Region in which the citizen is located, the law of the settlement in which the citizen is located, and the law of the settlement for which the citizen is a permanent resident.

Commonwealth law is nominally based on a civil law system. Judicial decisions are made based on the exact text of the laws involved, without consideration of the original intent of the law or judicial precedents. However, all but the largest settlements and many less populated Regions do not maintain written codes of law or, in some other cases, maintain that the code of law is incomplete as written. The Scandinavian Constitution makes provisions for these exceptions and in these cases customary law apply; citizens cannot be persecuted under unwritten law for practices that are customary, while judiciary authorities may create law on an ad-hoc basis for practices that are not customary.

The Scandinavian Constitution does not allow for an independent judiciary and in all cases, the final judiciary authority for the interpretation of all law, written and written, is the National Assembly. In practice, however, it is infeasible for the National Assembly to preside over all cases across the country and the interpretation of law is often delegated to lower states or to administrative institutions. Approval by the legislature of a parliamentary state, however, is required before the death penalty can be levied against a Commonwealth citizen.

#### Committee of Public Safety

The Committee of Public Safety (Scandinavian: *Almannavarnanefnd*) is the state agency responsible directly to the National Assembly for the enforcement of law in the Northern Commonwealth.

The powers and responsibilities of the Committee of Public Safety is defined both broadly and imprecisely, which has been a subject of criticism both domestic and foreign in recent years. In practice, the Committee investigates potentially illegal practices upon request, represents the judicial authority of the National Assembly except in matters involving the death penalty against a Commonwealth citizen, suppresses any armed resistance against the rule of law, conducts espionage against foreign states and defends against espionage by foreign states, and is responsible for the execution of sentences levied by itself or by the legislature of a parliamentary state.

Due to the relatively small size of the Committee of Public Safety, with 60 armed officers, compared to the broad responsibilities assigned to the Committee, the Committee of Public Safety often operates in tangent with other Commonwealth institutions and local authorities. While there is criticism that this interdependence undermines the Committee's ability to properly and autonomously enforce the rule of law, this is not a very widespread view.

### Foreign Relations

The relations between the Northern Commonwealth and the other author states of northern Europe range from lukewarm to actively hostile. Repeated belligerence by the Imperium of Man and the snubbing of early efforts to establish cordial Commonwealth-Imperial relations by the National Assembly left relations in complete tatters, with only minimal diplomatic communication mostly mediated by the Kingdom of Hibernia remaining between the two states.

Brush wars between the Republic of Prussia, one of the states established with assistance from the Commonwealth under the Baltic Policy, and the Vistulan Confederacy have similarly chilled relations between the Northern Commonwealth, which maintains a protective policy towards the Baltic States, and the Confederacy.

The Northern Commonwealth also maintains an active territorial conflict against the Kingdom of Hibernia over the Northern Isles. While official statements from both sides maintain that the polities are working towards a peaceful and mutually beneficial compromise to this dispute, negotiations have remained stalled for years while both sides have militarised their position on the islands.

Finally, while the Northern Commonwealth have not seen any disputes with Icedonia, bitterness from past Scandinavian raids on those tribes that are at present a part of Icedonia still remain while the Northern Commonwealth remains distrustful of Icedonia's radical and authoritarian government.

International cooperation between the Commonwealth and other states, therefore, occur mostly through the Baltic Free Trade Area, which refers to the Northern Commonwealth and the seven Baltic states whose consolidation and establishment was assisted by the Commonwealth. While the Baltic Free Trade Area is, officially, merely those signatory states that have agreed not to enact tariffs or import restrictions on goods produced in other signatories, in practice there is strong diplomatic and military cooperation between the signatory states of the Free Trade Area, while the Commonwealth continues to exert large economic, social, and ideological influence on the other signatory states.

### Military

Each state in the Northern Commonwealth, regardless of which level it is in, maintains its own armed forces. In times of crisis, a state can mobilise the armed forces of all the states that have pledged allegiance to it. Due to the Commonwealth's custom of referring to its armies as Guards, this decentralised military structure is collectively known as the Guards System.

The Guards are largely drawn from regional conscription, with parliamentary states often mandating a certain number of physically fit soldiers from their constituent settlements, with the constituent settlements having the freedom to select which individuals to volunteer to the Guards.

Because the expansion of the Guards in the years following the Holsten War was heavily inspired by the devastating military defeat in the same, the Guards are heavily focused on territorial defence from aggressive neighbours. This is further reinforced by the decentralised nature of the Guards System, as a result of which mobilising forces for an aggressive measure during nominal peace extremely difficult. Nonetheless, some components of the Guards System, most notably the Danish Republican Guards and the Swedish Republican Guards, have occasionally been involved in peacekeeping missions abroad.

## Economy

The Northern Commonwealth maintains a communal economy that is reasonably productive by international standards. Agriculture and fishery are the largest sectors by both persons employed and by output produced, as is the case in the vast majority of countries.

### Economic System

The economy of the Northern Commonwealth is highly communal and *de facto* syndicalist. Notions of private property are weak and most factors of production as well the output from the same are held by settlements as a whole rather than by any set of individual citizens. Consequently, hard currency is very rarely used for transactions within a settlement, nor are most citizens formally paid for their work. Most citizens, rather, do the work the settlement as a whole needs them to do and draws the resources the settlement believes it can spare them.

Due to this nature of the Commonwealth's economy, it is very difficult to clearly delineate between the private and public sectors, nor is there any formal need for taxation to generate state revenue.

Between settlements, however, and increasingly in the largest settlements where the communal bonds of familiarity that bind smaller settlements tightly together are weaker, there is a vibrant market economy.

#### Currency

The main currency of the Northern Commonwealth and other independent states of the Baltic Free Trade Area is the Commonwealth Crown, subdivided into twenty shillings (Scandinavian: *skilling*) per crown and twelve pennies per shilling. Although the currency is theoretically backed by naval repair services from settlements in the Northern Isles and by the output of the Copper Mountain, in practice it is rarely traded in for those items and the value of the currency is held up more by the trade Commonwealth merchants conduct in this currency.

The Northern Commonwealth does not issue paper script, and all denominations are minted in coins of copper or a precious metal.

### Industries

Although the Northern Commonwealth possesses reasonably developed and sophisticated manufacturing industries, due to the dispersed nature of the Commonwealth's population there is no productive industrial centre comparable to Dublin or central Bohemia. It is typical for larger settlements in the Commonwealth to have one or two major export industries for which it is notable and engage in other industries only for local consumption.

Several industries in the Commonwealth are developed enough to be internationally notable. The most notable is copper and bronze-working. The Copper Mountain (Scandinavian: *Koparfjell*), a mining settlement established during the early Commonwealth, is the most productive copper mine in Europe. A thriving metalworking industry based on the copper output of this mine and imported tin from Western Europe has as a result developed in Stockholm and Sigtuna.

Other industrial sites of international interest include the paper mills of Roskilde and the shipyards of Kaupmannahafn.

#### Seafaring

Maritime transportation is by far the largest industry in the service sector of the Commonwealth's economy. Because the Commonwealth's territory is internally divided by seas and because the vast majority of the Commonwealth's population both settled and nomadic live along coasts and rivers, internal communication and trade in the Commonwealth is conducted almost exclusively through waterways.

As a result, the Commonwealth possesses a seafaring industry that is productive, large, sophisticated, and experienced. In addition to dedicated sailors and merchants, this industry also draws large seasonal workers during the summer, when the Commonwealth's waters are free of sea ice and agriculture demands fewer workers.

#### International Trade

The robust seafaring industry of the Commonwealth supports long-distance commerce. Because political factors inhibit south-bound trade into the Vistulan Confederacy or the Imperium of Man, most international commercial activity conducted by Commonwealth merchants occur in Northwestern Europe or along the Eastern European rivers. The Commonwealth is a major exporter of amber, forestry products including tar and furs, copper, and manufactured goods and a major importer of steel, tin, and agricultural products.

## Demographics

The Northern Commonwealth having never conducted a comprehensive census of its population, no precise statistics about the demographics of the Commonwealth is available. Nonetheless, based on figures that do exist for those Commonwealth settlements that do keep rigorous track of its citizens, some scholarly estimates for the nomadic populations who are *de jure* subjects of the Commonwealth and *de facto* only loosely associated with the same, and extrapolations from both, it is possible to obtain a reasonably accurate picture of the overall state of Northern demographics.

### Ethnicity

The ethnic composition of the Northern Commonwealth is estimated roughly at seven-tenth Scandinavian, one-tenth Finnic, one-tenth Celtic, one-twentieth Baltic, and one-twentieth Continental Germanic.

The Scandinavian and Finnic population represent the native populations of the southwest and northeast of the Commonwealth respectively. The Celtic population represents almost exclusively captives from raiding and their descendants. The Baltic population represents, on one hand, the native population of the southeast and, on the other hand, captives from raiding and their descendants from Swedish raids along what is at present the Imperial Baltic coast, the Vistulan Confederation, and the fellow members of the Baltic Free Trade Area. The Continental Germanic population represents, on one hand, captives from raiding and their descendants and, on the other hand, the displaced refugees from Commonwealth settlements in Holsten.

It can thus be surmised from the origins of these respective ethnic groups that prior to the Holsten War and the development of a raiding custom in the Commonwealth, the inhabitants of the territory that is at present the Northern Commonwealth would have had fewer Balts and almost no Celts or Continental Germanics at all.

#### Cultural

Because migration into the Northern Commonwealth is a relatively recent phenomenon, the linguistic and religious composition of the Northern Commonwealth still resembles to some degree the ethnic composition. Close to three-quarters of the Commonwealth's population holds the Scandinavian dialect of Germanic as their primary language and about the same number believe in some form of Germanic polytheism.

The differences between the linguistic, religious, and ethnic composition of the Commonwealth has primarily been caused by the upbringing of descendants of raiding captives in and their assimilation into predominantly Scandinavian settlements, which has resulted in a relatively large population that is Celtic, Baltic, or partially so whose first language is Scandinavian Germanic and who practice the Germanic faith.

In recent years, proselytisation by citizens of the Imperium of Man has also created a small Christian community, predominantly in the older, Celtic-speaking populations.

### Standards of Living

#### Education

The standards of education in the Northern Commonwealth is increasing rapidly, with well-funded state efforts towards public education.

The Northern Commonwealth maintains a standard 4-year curriculum of basic education, divided into three subjects. The first is abstract science, which covers primarily language, logic, rhetoric, and the philosophy of knowledge. The second is natural science, which covers primarily mathematics, engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, and craftsmanship. Finally, the third subject, social science, covers primarily civics, philosophy, legal and political theory, economics, and sociology. An individual who demonstrates a satisfactory understanding of these subjects is certified a an educated person (Scandinavian: *skáld*). As of AS 22, approximately 350 people have been so certified.

Basic literacy and numeracy, however, have spread considerably further than formal education. By the standards of minimal functional literacy, which involves the knowledge of the alphabet and the ability to apply it in parsing writing into speech, the Northern Commonwealth has an adult literacy rate of perhaps 5 to 10%.

## Culture

### Northern Calendar

The Northern Commonwealth maintains a unique calendar in popular use only within the Baltic Free Trade Area.

The Northern calendar divides the year into four seasons with 13 seven-day weeks each. To this, one festival day is appended to the end of autumn and, for leap years, one more is appended to the end of spring, resulting in years of 365~366 days each. Leap years occur when the year is divisible by 4, unless the year divided by 400 results in a remainder of 100, 200, or 300. The average length of the Northern year, therefore, is 365 and 97/400 solar days.

Under the Northern calendar, the year begins on the 1st Monday of Spring, which in the author reckoning will lie between the 28th of February and the 1st of March, inclusive.