Fourth Skogsmarkian Reich

**Skogsmark**, officially the **Fourth Skogsmarkian Reich** (Viertes Skogsmarkisches Reich), is a nation encompassing most of western Europe as well as the inclusion of various island chains both in the Atlantic and the Juniper Strait. It shares direct land borders with Lorraine, Slovenia and Benerre, with the northern, western and southern coastlines connecting to the Armestisian Channel, Atlantic Ocean and Juniper Strait respectively. It is the most populous nation in Europe with over 85 million inhabitants and considered a superpower.

The first proto-Skogsmarkian states were settled by Scandinavian travellers who, travelling to and from Greenland, were caught in the Atlantic and ended up on the coasts of western Europe. Skogsmark was named for the Nordish word for woodland, to describe the heavily forested area that covered the first landing point, which would later become the capital, Kranvdert. They were one of the first European entities to resist the ever-expanding borders of the Podin Empire, successfully defeating the legions in battle several times.

Skogsmark was not the only nation in Western Europe however, competing with various states, most majorly Terillo in the north and various Franco-Lorrainian kingdoms to the east as well as the Slovenian and Benerrean states to the south-east. Much of its medieval period was plagued with constant warfare with its surrounding states, which resulted in many genocides that eventually distilled the ethnicities in western Europe to just three; Skogsmarkian, Terillo and Lorrainian.

The first Skogsmarkian Reich was formed after much of south-western Europe was united under Kranvdert's banner but this was short-lived as it soon died out during the Great Continental War of the early 19th century, wherein Lorraine crippled Skogsmark several times before being defeated during the War of the Seventh Coalition. Skogsmark was able to recover and later was able to strike back during the Skogsmarkian-Lorraine War before the turn of the century.

As tensions grew over the region of Terillo and the first ever arms race following the Industrial Revolution (especially the development of dreadnoughts by Armestis), Skogsmark and Armestis both built up their militaries. Assuming the Triple Entente to have merely been a bluff by Armestis, the Second Skogsmarkian Reich invaded Slovenia to acquire its natural resources, beginning the First Great War, which Skogsmark lost disastrously. Having been humiliated, a popular militarist totalitarian movement known as the Greater Liberation Party took hold, launching the Third Skogsmarkian Reich into the Second Great War, which Skogsmark would again lose. As the Allied powers wished to have a mainstay force in Europe without committing too many of their own resources to hold against communist expansion in Europe, the Nuremkamp Armed Forces, or NAF, was established, mostly formed of the old Greater Liberation core of the Second Great War as well as other Skogsmarkian states.

However, in the winter of 1960, the NAF rebelled against ITO, leading to the Winter War where the NAF managed to secure Skogsmarkian territory for the Greater Liberation ideology. After their victory, they announced the establishment of the Fourth Skogsmarkian Reich, which continues to this day. After an extended period of building up their influence in Europe, Skogsmark announced a so-called European Crusade in 2021 against eastern communism, starting the Bellum Adest period in Europe, leading to war until 2028.

Skogsmark is considered a superpower with a global economy; leading especially in infrastructural science, energy production, robotics and a streamlined industrial powerbase. It has currently the world's second most powerful economy by GDP, surpassed by Lorraine, which it is a close economic ally of. The Greater Liberation party offers a universal free health care, government-paid tuition universities and sponsors various humanitarian and environmental programs. As the head mandate of the Europäische Pakt, Skogsmark arguably has the most powerful influence in the world politically and militarily.