Icelandic Commonwealth

The Icelandic Commonwealth
Hvítbláinn, the flag of the Commonwealth
General
Official Name	Hið íslenska Þjóðveldi
Legislative Capital	Þingvellir-Lögberg
Judiciary Capital	Þingvellir-Valhöll
Executive Capital	Valþjófsstaðir
Largest City	Jónshöfn
Government
Government Type	Direct parliamentary democracy
Head of State	Ragnar Grímsson
Legislature	Alþingi
Lawspeaker	Guðni Atlason
Judiciary	Fimmtardómur
Economy
GDP (total)	IKR 2,83 billion
GDP (per capita)	IKR 4,508
Currency	Íslensk króna (IKR)
Demographics
Demonym	Commonwealther
Population	636,160
Official Languages (National)	Icelandic, English
Official Languages (Regional)	Icelandic, English, Norse, Greenlandic Inuit, Inuktitut
Spoken Languages	Icelandic, English, French, Norse, Faroese, Greenlandic Inuit, Inuktitut
Ethnic Groups	Icelandic (55%), Faroese (2%), Norse(4%), Newfie(30%), Inuit (9%), Other (>0.5%)
Official Religion	Þjóðkirkjan (Skálholt Lutheran church)
Major Religions	Lutheran (92%), Anglican (3%), Catholic (2%) Ásatrú (2.8%), Other (>0.2%)

The Icelandic Commonwealth is a democratic nation extending across a vast expanse of islands straddling the Arctic circle. Stretching from Helluland (Baffin Island) in the west to Tromsey (Tromsø) in the east, it is one of the largest nations in the world, if not the largest. It was founded in 2058, when the gathering known as the Great Þing of 2058 proclaimed that henceforth, one law should rule on the island of Iceland. Claiming itself a successor state to the old Commonwealth of Iceland, the new Commonwealth is modeled after the old one in nearly every regard, from legislation to political offices to the location of the parliament, in an attempt to give the government legitimacy.

History

The great Exodus

In the year 2055, shortly after the great flood, a collapse in tourism along with a depletion in available fishing stocks, the Republic of Iceland was in a crisis. It had no way to feed its citizens, and no way to try to control the population, due to it having no military. facing this problem, the Icelandic government simply ceased to be, and in the resulting two years of anarchy four-fifths of the population, 280.000 people, simply packed their bags and left, trough planes, gliders, fishing boats and even crude rafts made of driftwood. Of these, only a hundred thousand would survive until 2060, but those who did created settlements everywhere from the Ungava to Spitsbergen, although over half the colonists ended up in Greenland. Avalon was also heavily colonized, with around 40% of colonists settling there, and now over half of the inhabitants claiming ancestry from Icelanders in some way. This great efflux of people was called the Brottförin mikla by Icelanders, but the Newfies know it as the Great Exodus.

The birth of a nation

The rest of the population of Iceland, about 70.000 people at the time, was not content with the state of affairs. The people still left were on average around 40 years old, and knew that they couldn't make it alone in this brave new world. In the things of 2056 and 2057, it was agreed that all the men and women of the land should meet up in Þingvellir in the early spring, and pitch their ideas of a groundwork for a new government to replace the old one. Over 20 thousand people are said to have been at the thing, and it was known as the Stórþing, or Great Þing from that day on. On this þing a young man named Atli Snæþórsson, grandson of the sixth President of the old republic, went up on the Lögberg and pitched the idea of creating an anarcho-capitalist state as had been done at the very same place over 1100 years ago. However, it had two main differences: the state would collect taxes to pay for a small police force and defence; and the Allsherjargoði would now be elected upon the old ones death and would now have the power to veto new laws, when it had been a mere honorary title in the past. The resolution passed, and the very same day he was voted into the office of Allsherjargoði Þjóðveldisins, while Björn Svanhildarson was elected lawspeaker. In the next five years Atli proceeded to become friends with every wealthy family in iceland, and through that managed to build up programs of local private education, infrastructure, and healthcare that would serve as the cornerstone of the Icelandic nation. With his newfound power, he went to the lögberg again in 2067 and made the Three declarations:

1) All men are equal before the law and the Lord, and the Commonwealth should always choose hold democratic and Christian values above all others.

2) All that, which the free market can provide without issue, should be left to the free market. the government should be no larger than it needs to.

3) All Icelandic peoples should live within the boundaries of the Commonwealth, and it is the duty of the Commonwealth to make this a reality.

With these three main principles as a guiding light, the Icelandic commonwealth was ready to take on the world. Atli, for himself, bought the land of Valþjósstaðir in Fljótsdalshérað and built himself a large home from where he would effectively run Iceland. The manor would stay as the home of the Atlungar for three generations, and would forevermore be the home of the allsherjargoðar of the Commonwealth.

Early expansion and the Scottish wars

The First Expansionary period in Icelandic history began in 2068, when Atli led a small force of 50 men to conquer Jan Mayen, to 2096, when the mayor of Moen bent the knee became the last noble in Tromsland to swear fealty to Sæþór allsherjargoði. In 2070, he would further expound his conquest by taking the Faroe Islands, where he ordered the reconstruction of the old city of Tórshavn, and renamed it Þórshöfn. A statue of him was erected in the center of Straumoy in his honor by the Faroese, where it stands to this day. From there, Atli sought to extend the southern frontier by taking advantage of the feuding Scottish tribes, and capturing the Highlands and the Hebrides for himself. In the fall of 2070, work was started on a naval base on the then-uninhabited archipelago of St. Kilda, which now houses the naval base of Hirta. The following spring similar projects were started on Hjaltland and Orkneyjar (the Shetlands and Orkneys), and a lighthouse was built on Friðarey (Fair isle) to claim them for Iceland, and the islands were settled by a few hundred Faroese to buy their loyalty after the conquest.

In the winter of 2071, Atli led 3000 men on an assault on the village of John o' Groats, and from there quickly took the fortresses of Thurso and Wick. In Thurso, he met with the lords of Sutherland, Skye and Cromartyshire, and betrothed his eldest son Sæþór to the second daughter of the Lord of Skye, while marrying the daughter of the Earl of Sutherland himself. This brought him 2000 new men for his army, and with that he proceeded to invade Ross, and invested in sieging Inverness in early 2072. By then, the feuding clans of the highlands had become worried, and after Inverness fell in September of 2072 the Highland clans formed an alliance with the lords of Aberdeen and Nairn to drive out the invader. At the time, Atli had just conquered Lewis For his son's father-in-law with 100 new men from Iceland, and quickly rallied his own forces and a handful of local mercenaries and went straight to Inverness. From there, he led an army of 6500 men to Nairn, where he was met by 8000 Scottish tribesmen on October 17th, 2072. In the battle, he slew the chief of clan Gordon, and the Lord Lochiel fell in the battle as well.

It was a Pyrrhic victory for Atli, for although he managed to win the battle and conquer Nairn, he had lost over 2500 men in the process, and in the South the Earl of Kinross had joined along with a handful of minor clans. He therefore decided to leave 500 men at Nairn, and head straight for Aberdeen to force a peace. The ploy was successful ,and when the Scots returned the invested a siege in Nairn, but Atli's men did not have the numbers to assault Aberdeen and were repelld by a garrison sally. Tn February the Nairn garrison surrendered, and 9000 Scottish men marched towards Atli's 3000 man force. Battle was engaged at Alford on the 22nd of February, and there half of Atli's men were killed, and all of his mercenaries. By March, all his allies had run off, and on March 14th the lord of Skye retacted his 300 men from his force, leaving Atli with only 800 men to defend himself. Reaching inverness in April, he quickly began planning another campaign, but the Scots marched on the city on May 1st, and most of the garrison surrendered of fled. Only 200 men remained loyal, and on May the 3rd the walls were breached and every one of them put to the sword. Atli himself was put to death on May 4th, and Sæþór and his father-in-law sued for peace. Iceland would hold on to Thurso and Wick for another 40 years or so (as the county of Þjórsey and Vík á Katanesi), and Skye would remain loyal to Iceland for another decade, but Iceland would never expand into Scotland again.

Sæþór and the fall of the Atlungar

After his father's defeat in Scotland, Sæþór spent the next decade dealing with the fallout of his father's wars, and strengthening the state and his power. In 2085, he got the Alþing to make him Commander-in-chief of the Commonwealth army, ahttp://postworldwiki.shoutwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Icelandic_Commonwealth&action=edit&section=5#nd increased taxes to pay for a permanent military and an actual navy. In 2092, he decided that another round of expansion was in order, and in 2093 he took over Svalbard with little bloodshed. From there he conquered Tromsø, and vassalized the lands surrounding it, which would later become a buffer between the town and the Norse empire. In 2097, he managed to win a great victory in Scotland, after the Earls of Ross and Sutherland attempted to conquer Caithness. By giving out a few favors, and the title of general to half a dozen magnates, he managed to muster up 7500 men and sail them to the fortress-town of Vík, who was under siege by the Earl of Ross. The Scots had split their forces to siege the two forts faster, and in that had made the most grievous mistake. Despite having 12500 men between them, they didn't have the number advantage in either army, and so at the fields of Vík all 6000 men of the Earl of Ross and his allies were slaughtered, save the Earl himself, who was taken prisoner. Sæþór then met lord Sutherland near Castletown, and there he inflicted another crushing defeat upon the 7000 Scots who had left the siege of Þjórsey. With over 5000 men lost in the battle, lord Sutherland surrendered, and in the treaty made in Tunga (Tounge) on February 1st, 2098, each man had to pay half a million crowns for their ransom, as well as confirm Iceland in its holding of Katanes. For a moment, it seemed Sæþór might grow to eclipse his father. In 2098, however, he suffered a great illness, and for the next three years he would rule the land from his bed. The oversight of taxation and infrastructure was lost to locals, and corruption festered in the military.

In 2101, Sæþór finally passed away, leaving behind four sons, Guðjón, Hannes, Grímur and Skarphéðinn, all seeking to replace their father. Grímur, the second youngest, was the most skilled in intrigue of the four, and convinced the army generals that he would not curtail their power as his brothers would. With that, he got the army's support and won the election by only 13 votes out of 34 thousand, and many believed it was an ill omen. This proved to be true when Admiral Hafsteinn of the Icelandic Navy absconded with the entire fleet to become a pirate king in the Caribbean, only a year into Grímur's reign. This led to a marked increase in piracy, isolating Iceland from the rest of the world, and to the overseas territories declaring independence, and in 2105 Grímur's failed attempts to use wooden ships to bring the army, now in a pitiful state, to the rebels, he announced the reforms of 2108, which gave Tromsø and the Faroes their own things, along with considerable autonomy. Even this did not sate the territories, and in 2109 they rebelled again, and Grímur thought it was prudent to surrender. Only, nobody in the government would accept such a proposal, or put their names on it, and having given much of his power away to others for their support, Grímur found his hands tied.

It was at this point when Ólafur Björnsson, the newly elected 17th lögsögumaðr of Iceland, spoke up. He had been a tax collector in Neskaupstaðr, a town who was only one metre below sea level, and seeing how his bosses starved the port and road authorities of money while getting rich themselves decided to attempt to reform the corrupt state. He demanded that Grímur rebuild the navy and clean up the central government first and then begin tackling the problems of the rebellion and piracy after that. Grímur refused, as this might topple the careful balance his position now rested on. With that, Ólafur swore to raise the Alþing against him and declare him unfit for office unless he entrusted Ólafur with the command of the military. Grímur gave in, and with that the rule of the Atlungar reached its nadir, as General Sæmundr Kollason revolted and invaded the Westfjords, and in January of 2110, Grímur marched up the Þröskuldar with 5000 men with the goal to put down the rebellion, and Sæmundr marched to meet him. A blizzard struck during his march, however, and he and his army disappeared in the winter snows, and only half of it had returned as stragglers by May. That's when Gríms frozen corpse was found in the hills above Hólmavík, his hand peeking out of the snow towards the town only an hour's walk away. He had thrown away his sword and armor before he landed in the blizzard, implying a gesture of surrender, while half his army lay frozen in Þröskuldar. For this and the rest of his reign he was named "Grímur gunga", or Grímur the craven. And there, in a small snow bank in a quiet fjord, the reign of the Atlungar came to an end. And in Þingvellir, a new house was ascending to power.

Ólafur and Ólafingar

With Grímur dead, Ólafur resigned as lögsögumaður at the Alþingi of 2110, and Árni Skúlason, his friend, was sworn in for the next two years, while he was elected allsherjargoði. On this day, the 22nd of June 2110, Icelandic history is split, into the Atlungaöld (age of the descendants of Atli) to the Ólafingaöld (age of the descendants of Ólafur). Ólafur got immediately to work with his reforms, and within a month half of all the thirty generals in the army had been arrested, another third fired, and the last sixth given proper education on tactics, as all generals were by then politicians who sought power for themselves. With the army having been made loyal, although too small to wage war effectively, Ólafur turned to the navy, ordering the dockyards in Bolungavík, Þingvellir and Hallormsstaðir to be made up-to-date, and after that laid down groundwork for the new navy, selecting fifty men to make officers of the new navy and them, in turn ,selecting two hundred capable crewmates. He had a thousand copies of the constitution and the lawbook printed, distributing them across the country to make sure that every man in the realm knew their rights, and so they could enforce the Second directive. Reforms were drawn up for administration, national taxation, trade, public education and fishing quotas, and a slew of regulations were drafted to make sure industry, commerce, banking, international trade, and private suppliers of basic goods (schools, hospitals etc.) were not conducting unethical or illegal business. The proposed reforms would sweep away the old corrupt state that the Atlungar had resided over.

Sadly, Ólafur would not see but the dearth of his reformation through. A plague spread across the land in the fall of 2111, killing over 8000 people, over 10% of the populace at that point, and despite Ólafur's quarantine efforts he too fell sick. Ólafur was 68 at this point, and the stress that his office put upon him, his age and the sickness combined was too much. Within two weeks he had gone into a deep sleep, and on October 26th, he woke up one last time, and said to his wife at the bedside: "How fares the realm?" She answered: "It fares fine, my love. Your son Grímur has taken charge of it while you were asleep." "Good, bright young lad. Tell him I'm proud of him". And with that , Ólafur died. And he had reason to be proud in his son, for his reign would be the most renowned and glorious of all.

Grímur mikli and the Golden age

Although Grímur was not officially made Allsherjargoði until the summer of 2112, with the Alþingi electing him by a margin of 32000 votes (33500 to 1500 according to the election ledger), he had been tending to the duties of the position for night a year. After his father died, he had lawspeaker Árni, who was as true a friend to him as he was to his father, announce him as the Umboðsmaður (regent) of the realm, the first of many reforms he would instigate. Although it is now known from Ólafur's journals that Grímur mostly just took his father's planned reforms and fleshed them out, his contributions to creating the Commonwealth as we know it today are nevertheless considerable. The date of his election into his father's position, on July 17th, 2112, is by many historians believed to be the start of the so-called Golden age of the Commonwealth. In three years, he had reformed the national and local governments to such a degree that he could afford paying for the construction of his father's navy, as well as the foundation for the Hringvegur (Ring road), the large road that would connect all the nation's farthings to each other, through a one-time levy voted in at the Alþingi. In the year 2119, he had not only finished the building of his navy, the road and the institutional reforms, but he had also created a new regulatory agency, the Fjármálaeftirlit (Financial Supervisory), to make sure the regulations he would soon put in place were enforced, and to root out criminal practices in business. In 2120, after passing his new regulations (many of which were written by his father), he sailed with his new army and navy to the Faroes, Tromsø and Svalbard, and within a year had reincorporated the territories into Iceland. The 16th of August 2120, when his fleet first set sail, is therefore known as the beginning of the second expansionary period.

In 2123, Grímur got news of a major attack by pirates on an American cargo fleet in the Greenland Sound, believed to be led by the Pirate lord of the Gunnbjarnarlendur in Eastern Greenland. This was exactly what Grímur had been waiting for. With Katanes having been lost during his father's illness, and the idea of a third Scottish war not having formed in his head yet, he craved to expand the borders of Iceland, and Greenland, with its vast wealth and 2/3rds Icelandic population, was the perfect target. The same summer at the Alþingi, he demanded every ninth man in the country join him in his war, as the Goðar of old did, and go invade the realm threatening the nation's security. This would be made into law in 2135, and was the zenith of the Allshejargoði's consolidation of power. Needless to say, the Pirate King was killed along with his pitiful army of barely a thousand men in a naval battle on the seas east of Gunnbjörnsfjall, and within the year Grímur had made his lands into a part of Iceland. From there, He sailed south with his host and fought with the Jarl of Eystribyggð in hólmgang, the staked being each man's realm and his life. With his triumph and a mass of new lands under his control, he marched north, conquering all before him, before stopping at the fjord of Lýsufjörðr. His fleet warned his that the icebergs still floating around the ocean to the north would prevent them from sailing further this winter. There he took the decision to build a large harbor in the fjord for his fleet to dock, and to set up a small village to service the sailors. The village quickly became a town, and by the end of the year Grímur announced that it would be the capital of the Greenland territories, founding the Grímshús building, now the seat of the Greenlandic parliament, in the middle of the town in the summer of 2125.

In the following three years, the host was disbanded and the army and navy put back to their regular tasks. With piracy almost gone and a large new market being added to Iceland, the nation flourished, and wealth started to build in what was once one of, if not the poorest nation in Europe. In the next five years, Grímur would travel along the northern lands of America, founding small settlements and making trade deals with local Inuit and ethnic Icelandic chiefs. In Devon island, he is known as something of a legend, and the current chief of the Eastern Devon tribe has adopted the nickname "Grímar", as a reference to the strength and wisdom of the traveler. In 2130, his journey came to an end in Avalón (Avalon), where he found a large Icelandic community within the city of Jónshöfn (known as St. John to the Newfies). In an amazing display of diplomacy, he had the lord of the land renounce his title and declare the land part of the Commonwealth of Iceland. He stayed in the city for one more year, learning English and some French in the progress, and after that he was known to be one of the Commonwealth's greatest scholars.

Returning home in 2131, Grímur announced a new reform of the Commonwealth's central government. In a departure from the old nationalist, agrarian model of government, Grímur created a model based on intercontinental trade and a pan-commonwealth identity, renaming the Commonwealth of Iceland to the Icelandic Commonwealth, emphasizing the Icelandic people instead of the country, and calling the nation the Commonwealth instead of Iceland. This made the government much more inviting to the foreigners who by now made up a majority of the Commonwealth's population, and with the new trade laws a decade of rapid growth came about, creating a new upper class of noveau-riche merchants from scratch, and quadrupling the size of the middle classes. In 2134, Grímur sought to continue the Commonwealth's expansion to its logical conclusion, and conquered Helluland and Davíðsnes, who lay between the Arctic and Hudson Bay, in 2134, and in 2135-6, he took over what we now know as Markland. In 2137, he successfully established a colony on Vínland proper, and fought the local Newfies and occasional Icelandic settler until he was injured in the invasion of the Trinity territories on September 11th, 2138, and couldn't walk for two years afterwards. September 11th would be remembered forever as a sad day in the Americas after that, and is now considered to be the end of the Second age of Expansion.

Grímur would remain in Iceland until 2141, where he brought in people from all corners of the realm to listen to them and hear how their lives, their people and and their cultures are. Having gathered all this knowledge, he founded the Þjóðveldismenningarsafn (Commonwealth Heritage Museum) in Hallormsstaðir in 2140, where he held magnificent exhibitions detailing the plethora of cultures, history and societies within his new nation. Next to Faroese manuscripts were Greenlandic Inuit skins with their language written on them in blood, and models of Newfie skyscrapers and Faroese turfhouses stood side by side in the architectural exhibits. In 2141 the Héraðstungulög (Regional Tounge Act) were passed on the Alþing, now having as many foreigners as Icelanders making their trip to the thing, which allowed regional governments to decide their official language, although they would have to make files and reports intended for the central government in Icelandic or English. The introduction of English as a federal language was also an important law, as it now meant that the language barrier between Iceland and its British and American neighbours was now a thing of the past (no pun intended), and another commerce boom, though noticeably smaller, rocked the economy for the next five years. On March 25th, Grímur became 80, and the octogenarian's heath was rapidly dwindling. He had contracted cancer, and on June 25th, the day after Jónsmessa, he gathered his wife, his children, his friends and all of his relatives, and bid them, each in turn, goodbye. That evening, a great feast was held in Valþjófsstaður, and Grímur named his second son, Ragnar, his favourite boy, as the owner of the land and manor. The next day, he walked out into the field in front of the house, and down to the grassy bank of the Lögurá river, where he laid down, muttered "This is nice", swallowed a thimble of liquid and went to sleep. Only an hour later, he had passed. His funeral was the most famous event in Commonwealth history, with over 225.000 making their way to the country to see him buried in the local cemetary. In his honor, Dómkirkja Heilags Gríms (Holy Grímur's Cathedral) was built near Vaþjófsstaðir, and became the third episcopal seat in Iceland proper.

Ragnar goði and contemporary history

The early reign

After his father had died under suspicious circumstances, Ragnar was devastated, and the rumors that persisted that the old and ailing head of state had poisoned himself did his mind no favors. His father had, with what was almost too good timing, called for the Alþing to be initiated at the day of his funeral. There Ragnar steeled himself, and announced a string of reforms aiming at defending the first directive. They were: Freedom of religion, freedom of armament, and the right against cruel and unusual punishments. After that, Ragnar was content to run the government, attempting to bring the bureaucracy and military up to date. In 2131, he had observed the flight of military aircraft in Katanes, where he was making trade deals with the locals for his father, and went straight to Þjórsey, where a new Mayor had just been elected, to try to get some of these fabulous machines into his army. There he arranged a marriage with the Mayor's daughter, Aldís, who was of Icelandic descent on both sides. He imported some local knowledge from around Scotland, started making specific factories and designs for Commonwealth planes, and by 2145, he had created an Icelandic airforce that proved suitable to defend the nation's skies. In 2148, he passed the first Equality reform, dictating that all land-owning women over the age of 40 would have the vote. Since that restricted voting to only 2.5% of women, though, it did little at the time, but was nevertheless instrumental in changing public attitude to women's suffrage, and indeed, women's rights. In 2150, he revealed probably the most drastic decree in his reign, the Vesturforsjón (Western destiny or Western pivot), decreeing that the old lands of Baffin Island and the Sverdrup islands were the Commonwealth's natural western border, and that the natives of the land were Commonwealth citizens, and should be treated as such by their fellow citizens. This decree, not only creating a concrete border policy for the west and guaranteeing equal rights for the natives, but laying the foundation for a new age of expansion planned entirely by the Allsherjargoði, was to be the zenith of Ragnar's reign, and has been dubbed "The Fifth Declaration" by many scholars.

Contemporary reign

In January of 2152, Allsherjargoði Ragnar signed the New York Agreement, making the commonwealth of Iceland an official signatory to NATA, with the provision that the Commonwealth was guaranteed an opt-out of the currency union that would've forced it to use the US dollar, who was not considered trustworthy by Commonwealth merchants. Thus the opt-out was quickly used, although the Króna and US dollar are now both legal tender in Iceland. In February of the same year another similar union was joined, this time on the other side of the Atlantic. Iceland's entry into the Scandinavian Pact secured the East as NATA secured the South, and with peace looking to be a certainty and the the markets of two continents open for business, trade boomed and prosperity increased across the North Atlantic.

Family

Ragnar is the son of Grímur II Allsherjargoði Þjóðveldisins ok lögsögumaðr yfir Íslandi, and Aldís Snorradóttir, daughter of the current mayor of Þjórsey. They have five children between them, who are in order of birth: Freyr [20], Helga [19], Ólafur Ragnar (named after the fifth president of the old Republic, which the family draws its name from) [17], Svanhildur [13] and Anna [9]. On April 17th, Aldíg gave birth to a healthy baby boy, who has been baptized and named Grímur after his grandfather.

Economy

The economy of the Commonwealth, originally almost entirely reliant on pastoral agriculture, is now based primarily on commerce, and in the last 30 years industry has become a large part of the economy as well, as Greenlandic and to a lesser extent Svalbardic mineral resources are linked with Icelandic and Newfie hydroelectric power to create cheap production, leading to an array of factories springing up in Lýsufjörður, Raufarhöfn and Jónshöfn. Tromsø has also seen some small factories crop up as the unification of the Norse empire allows goods from Northern Scandinavia to make their way to the city to be refined.

With its favorable position between the old world and the New, Iceland has profited massively off of intercontinental trade. Just 25 years ago Greenland was a backwater whose primary resource was cheap manpower for the army, and now two cities, Brattahlíð and Lýsufjörðr, lie upon its western coast. the city of Kúlusúkk, although still nominally independent, has become quite large too, with over 8000 inhabitants, thanks to the large amounts of trade moving through the Góðravonahöfði (Cape of good hopes).

Plus, a flat 10% tax rate uis a pretty good deal if you're wealthy.

Iceland and Jan Mayen

Iceland is the heartland of the Commonwealth, and the ancestral home of the people who give the Icelandic Commonwealth its name. With its large stretches of untouched landscape and small coastal towns hugging the mountains that seem as though they're striving to reach into the azure sea, it is one of the few places in the world where tourism creates jobs in any noticeable amount, although it makes up only 3% of GDP. The main city of Úlfljótsfjörðr, only 10 km away from Þingvallavatn, and the towns of Mosfellsbær and Ísafjörðr all have size<able industrial centers, as well as bustling harbours who seem to be constantly full of ships. Over 60% of all trade between Europe and the Americas makes its way through here, and with Iceland's entries into NATA and the Scandinavian pact, international trading will only increase in volume. With so many resources flowing in from every corner of the known world, and cheap electricity coming from cement behemoths from the Saga ages resting upon the Highland valleys, these towns have also built up significant industrial centres, producing everything from pure steel and aluminum to gold and jewels for artisan and fine textiles renowned the world over. Thanks to significant contributions from local merchants, local governments have spared no expense in infrastructure, making Iceland's ports and roads second-to-none, which in turn has created a great boon in intraregional trade, and allows workers to move from town to town easily, making unemployment unheard of in Iceland, although few ares in the Commonwealth have unemployment higher than 2%.

Jan Mayen is a small place, and the island has only 2500 people on two villages between it. These people all work in one of two sector: oil drilling on the North sea and services for the oil drillers, who are all middle-class or higher. Although most of the oil wealth goes to the mainland or the Faroes, the wealth that is brought to Arctic island is enough to sustain a dozen high-end shops, a ski resort on Bjarnarberg (Norse: Beerenberg), and a surprising amount of yachts. There are 38 millionaires on Jan Mayen, and with the highest per-capita GDP in Iceland at KR 13.560, it has gained a reputation as an oasis for the rich, and a welcome break from the sweltering heat of the Caribbean.

The Eastern territories

Despite being mostly composed of barren islands, the Eastern territories are actually some of the most developed regions of Iceland. On the Faroes and the vast array of islands in the seas to their south, lie some of the most prestigious and important cultural centers in all of Europe, with the Þórshöfn University being leading the way for modern archaeology and North European history. The university of Hjaltland specializes in ancient languages and trade routes, and the town of Leirvík where the university is located boasts the world's third-biggest library of linguistics-related literature. In the outermost islands, formerly the bone of contention between Iceland and the Celtic Kings and great lords who rose up every now and then, the building of large naval bases under Allsherjargoði Atli have led to a blooming shipyard, although the population of the archipelagos combined is less than 5000.

In Svalbard, the old seed bank has proved a boon for greenhouse agriculture, with over 500 km^2 of greenhouses on the island. It has also given the Agricultural University of Langársborg the resources to become the foremost authority in the world on agriculture, horticulture, botany, biology and ecology. Over 2,000 students are enrolled in the university, making up 1/3rd of the population of Langársborg and 1/10th of the population of Svalbarð. In the south, in Bjarnarey, traders often arrive from the Inland Sea, and the large forests allow for a small lumber industry to thrive there. The University has a branch there, with 216 students as of January 2152.

In Tromsø, trade with the Sami and more recently the Norse empire has proved a boon not only for the city, but for the municipalities at the border who routinely send their livestock into Norse lands and vice versa, allowing for a large amount of meat to be produced for the inhabitants of the city. The local army group stationed there also brings quite a bit of cash with it, and thanks to low bureaucracy and large amounts of funds flowing throught the city almost everyone has a decently paying job, with less than 7% of the population living on less than 5KR a day.

Politics

The Icelandic Commonwealth is governed by the principle of Neo-traditionalism, which in its purest form is the idea that the New Commonwealth should try its hardest to be like the old one, and that the people should do like their forefathers would've done. While there are lots of disputes about how this should be accomplished, what exactly the forefathers stood for, and how much of their principles only existed because the times forced them to adopt them is a large dividing force within the faction, but none challenge its status as the main ideology of the Commonwealth. The second largest faction is the Frjálslyndir (libertarians), who are in many ways similar to the Neo-traditionalists but more liberal, who make up ca. 5% of the populace; and the óháðir bændur (Agrarians), a farmer's movement wanting a return to the old ways of sedentary pastoralism, who have 3% of the populace supporting them.

The Allsherjargoði

The Allsherjargoði is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Icelandic Commonwealth. He serves for life, unless he is deemed physically or mentally unfit for office by the Surgeon-general and three independent doctors, or if a motion to remove him from office gets 60% of the vote or more on the Alþingi. Originally a mostly formal title, being first among equals on the Alþingi, the Allsherjargoðar of Iceland have continuously consolidated power over the military, bureaucracy and the legal system of the Commonwealth. The Allsherjargoði has the right to veto any law passed y the Alþing, unless the veto is vetoed by the Alþingi by a 3/4 majority, or if 30 or more judges of the Fimmtardómur vote for the veto to be overturned. All military matters are handled by the Allsherjargoði, although the army enjoys considerably less autonomy than the other two branches. While the only requirements for being Allshejargoði is to be above the age of 21, to be male, and to be a Commonwealth citizen (being ethnically Icelandic used to be a requirement, but was dropped by Allsherjargoði Grímur II in the 2131 Commonwealth reforms), but usually the title has passed from father to son, excluding the succession of Grímur I. The children of the Allsherjargoði get the titles of Goði (masc.) of Gyðjur (fem.), and if the come into public office the gain the title of Jarl, with Jarl Ásmundr Sæþórsson, Mayor of Mosfellsbær being the first to carry the title.

The lineages of the Allsherjargoðar and Jarlar of the Commonwealth. Light blue indicates an Allsherjargoði, light green a Jarl. Pink is a president of the old Republic.

The Alþingi and the Lögsögumaðr

The Alþingi (Alt. spelling Althing or Alþing) is the supreme legislative body of the Icelandic Commonwealth. It consists of every free man who is a citizen of the Commonwealth and bothers to make the journey to Þingvellir, or their representatives who may speak on heir behalf. On average the Alþingi has 15 thousand men in congregation since the Second age, with the numbers fluctuating between 8 thousand and 34 thousand. Women are not allowed to sit upon the thing, with two exceptions: If they are a representative of a male, or, since 2148, are over 40 and own land in their own right.

The Alþingi puts forward, approves and rejects every law in the Commonwealth, with every law needing a majority of voters' support to pass. Excluded from this are the constitutuion, whose laws can only be changed by a share of 80% or higher of votes, and tax laws, which need 60% of votes or more. Fjórðungsþing laws can additionally be contested in the Alþingi, and the Alþingi's decision will then be the final verdict on the law's implementation. The Alþingi can also, if it demands so, put changes in the budget to a vote, to prevent the Allsherjargoði from making graft. Such votes follow the same rule as votes for new laws, except for the fact that the Allsherjargoði and his family (co-in-laws and closer) cannot vote or try to influence votes on the change.

There are two main factions in the Alþingi: The Traditionalists and the Reformists. The traditionalist believe fiercely that the Sagas are truth, and that society should be modeled on the society described therein. Although not believing society should be just like in the sagas, they believe the role of government and the social hierarchy and structure should be as it was in the olden days. They are fiercely protective of Icelandic culture and want every society within the Commonwealth the adopt the Icelandic language and cultural values. On the other side are the reformists, who believe that we are not the founding fathers, and the the land should be governed by the rough values of the forefathers, i.e. small government, laissez-faire capitalism and social and political freedom, but that it must be acknowlegdes that the forefathers are gone, and we must adapt their values to the new world. That means mandatory education, taxes, and obedience to the law, and a more multicultural approach to governance.

The Lögsögumaður is the Speaker of the Alþingi, elected every three years by the Alþingi to represent it. Out of the 17 lögsögumenn that have been elected, 11 have been reformists and 5 Traditionalists. The last one, the newest lögsögumaður Guðni Atlason, is considered neither, as he is a fervent supporter of the Allsherjargoði above all else. Some people have taken to calling his faction "the Loyalists", which has stirred much controversy over the balance of power.

The Fifth court

the Fifth court, or Fimmtardómur, is the supreme court of the Icelandic Commonwealth, and the nation's highest judicial authority. Before 2131, the Alþingi could reverse its judgements with a 2/3rds majority, but after the Commonwealth reforms that right was lost. The Fimmtardómr has 36 men sitting on its council, with 7 of them, one from each farthing, being voters, who vote for the Forseti (President) of the Fimmtardómur, while everyone votes for the Varaforseti (Vice President). Every ten years, 48 people are nominated to the Fimmtardómur via elections in the Alþingi, the last one being in 2149. Then, the Alþingi votes 12 of the people out, and the remaining 36 then congregate to cast their vote for the Vice-president. The President is elected two weeks later.

The 35 judges serve a position akin to the position of a jury on the mainland, while the President is the one with the final word. Every plaintiff has the right to demand six judges leave due their known or speculated bias, and the defendant has the right to the same. The judges will announce their opinions, and then consult the other judges and temper their wishes until a verdict that a majority of judges agree with is created, and a majority of judges approve of the verdict. For a judgement to be passed, either 18 judges and the Forseti must agree with it or only 24 judges. If a majority of more than 2/3rds of the judges find the plaintiff's demands just, the President will have to accept that as the final verdict, and the case is deemed in favour of the plaintiff.

Demographics

TBD

Military

TBD