Vonein

Vonein is a small island belonging to the Kingdom of Vithinja in the sea of Nordska. It lies east of Caergwynn and north of Fiannria. It's location and natural resources gives it both strategic and economic importance. It has a population of 280 000 people, with more than half living within the city of Tdrassäl (Entangle-Flowers) more commonly known as Nordresquies (North rest/relax). Usually called Vonein by its natives and the Vithinjan state, most people instead use the exonym for "Heart Island" in a vast number different languages around the world. The island is most famous for two main things: It's wondrous natural beauty and economic prosperity.

History
Although there is very little left of the early islanders history, one of the few relics of the past is a stone temple built over a thousand years ago. Although anthropologists are not completely certain of its purpose it is believed it was used to trace and worship the stars. One of the main reasons for this belief is that other settler tribes from the era were known to worship the stars as it helped them navigate the treacherous seas.

The island was first colonized by a native settler group similar to the two that shaped Vithinjas history. The groups origin being either gothic, north-celtic or south-celtic, today the natives are some mix of all three, clouding the islands origins. This group lived mostly alone on the island for a few centuries, with the exception of a small trade post setup by Ruth and Bergendii raiders, as a jump-off point towards north-eastern Levantia. it also served as a whaling station for Bergendii whalers from the 17th to early 20th century. During the 1870s Burgoignesc whalers brought businessmen to the islands who bought up 20% of the lakes and ponds to turn into ice farms. From the late 1870s through the 1930s, Vonein provided about 30% of the total ice consumed in Burgundie. Special ice clippers where designed to carry the ice quickly so that it wasn't lost in transit. These Clippers Voeinoise were some of the fastest ships of their day.

The island has changed hands a few times through it's history, most often belonging to one of the nations of Vithinja It has also belonged to Faneria, Fiannria and for a very short time Burgundie during the great wars.

During colonial times when Vithinja was near it's pinnacle, they used the island as an important starting point for exploration expeditions.

During the 20th century the island was a source of naval border disputes between Vithinja and Fiannria, almost escalating to warships firing on each other and causing ~5 deaths and ~60 injuries.

Two factors that should've created large difficulties for the island through out it's history would be the islands demographics and it's lack of integration for important institutions like education. The earlier issue was demographics, the natives of the island has been only part of it's population for a long time, with large groups from previous hegemon's and trade powers creating a large mix. Fortunately the island set traditions for these groups to live untouched irrelevant of external rule. This tradition was usually enforced by trade powers, as the islands autonomy was of great value to them, as an important free trade port. The most recent two challenges related to this was the Fanerian conquest... Then, after the Syndicalization there were many who wanted to impose on the islands varied traditions, cultures, religions and nationalities. But as the islands tourism industry sky rocketed, they were once again given more autonomy in exchange for giving up almost all the tourism profits to the nation. Because of this the island is the only area in Vithinja with near-exact democratic rule, with companies rather than unions making up the vast majority of organizations. Today all groups whose language is regionally accepted include: Ruthans, Gvergoles, Caers, Fanerians, Fiannrians, Burgoignesc and Coscivians. With modern times also adding Kloistans.

The second issue would have been difficult to solve, especially today with the islands severe need for high-skill workers in all except the tourist industry: education. If the island was its own nation this issue may have been even worse. The solution has been to almost fully outsource education beyond elementary not just to Vithinja, but to other surrounding nations like Fanerian, Fiannria and Burgundie. This culture connects the island more with the global market economy and capitalistic enterprise, much to the displeasure of the Vithinjan government. Although the most infuriating part to the Syndicalists would be the modern trend for some of the most wealthy capitalists in the world to purchase mansions on the island, going against everything the Union leaders believe in. The various demographics now mainly serve as an advantage, but still cause one major issue, being language barriers. Because of necessity many of the people working on the island have made sure they know at least some of each of the ten different languages that are accepted on the island.

Just as the island has served as an important trade post it has also long been an important naval base and today especially: an important air base. One of the reasons the island has remained in Vithinjan hands is for a simple reason: none of the greater powers in the area would accept the island belonging to one of the more important powers in the region. When Vithinja syndicalized there was nearly an intervention to take the island away, but a deal was instead made to let the island serve as an autonomous dependence.

Geography
Geographically the island can be divided into four areas: the fjord, the mangroves, the flat greens and the mountains. The vast majority of the population live along the single fjord running down the mountains to the coast. This area is surrounded by flatlands which hold lush growth. The land is ill fit for most crops but local flowers as well as some specifically imported plants used in pharmaceuticals grow fast in the otherwise hostile earth. The islands internals are largely protected by a local swamp-spruce that helps create a shield against tidal waves. This swamp-like biome is however a source of local diseases, leading to most visitors across history avoiding the area and not staying on the island too long. This unique biome once made up the majority of the island but has slowly been cleared away to help regain more land for habitable or agricultural purposes. This effort has however made the island more susceptible to natural disasters like tsunamis but especially earthquakes, both of which are common and worsened by the loose earth making for poor foundations. The island imports a huge amount of construction materials to make up for this issue. The island also holds a relatively huge food reserve relative to many other as they are well aware that their own lands will yield none. Because of these and similar factors the island has a high cost of living compared to even the capital, leading to only longtime inhabitants and the wealthy living on the island.

Unlike most parts of the world where the water level is rising, across most of the island it is actually slowly gaining land. This is mainly because of the "bounce back" from when the island was pushed down by heavy glaciers in the last ice age. This is however at the same time as the remaining glaciers on the island are worn away more and more, predicted to cause a water crisis within the next 100 years. A tsunami contaminating the current water reserves could quicken this to 50 years.

Natural Hazards
The islands most difficult issue is natural hazards. Storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, ice cold winds, extreme snow, tsunamis and flooding all ensure that while the island is a pretty nice place to live for a few months in spring and early autumn, for most of the year living on the island is pretty miserable. Almost a third of the islands population is seasonal inhabitants, spending as little as a third of the year on the island.

The islands culture has thrice faced near extinction. The first was a plague killing nearly the entire population of the island in the 12th-15th century. Next the island was hit by a huge tsunami, destroying almost everything including the harbor. Finally during the 19th-20th century a great epidemic lead to quarantine, this lasted far too long, causing famine and a few cases of cannibalism. Some suspect that this final famine was an intentional genocide to attempt to curb the islands power.


 * Nordska Sea

Economy
The small island also features a modern economy, once mainly based on exporting the flora that now draws in tourists, now they mainly produce pharmaceuticals. The islands energy needs are taken care of by a nuclear power plant, once the second oldest built within Vithinjas borders it's modernization now makes it the highest tech plant in the nation. But the true wealth lies in its tourism industry and real-estates, its amazing natural wonders granting the island a level of esteem that normally would not be allowed to develop within Vithinjas borders. These factors would be enough to make the island successful but the true wealth of the island today lies with it's recently discovered oil reserves, predicted to account for 23% of all of Vithinjas reserves.

Tourism
Vonein amazing experiences are best exemplified by it's "24 hours of beauty" trend, where people will plan out a full days experiences based on the time of day. The strange combination of beautiful flower-gardens only an hour from some nice skiing resorts, daytime beaches and night time stargazing, all leading up to watching the northern lights in the distant north. The most common tourists are honeymoons, most often from Burgundie, Carna, Caergwynn, Fiannria and even Faneria. This beauty mainly comes from flora that are mostly unique to the island, as the climate of the island makes it not very compatible with most foreign flora.

This natural beauty was almost lost during the 19th and 20th centuries as pollution and invasive species started to slowly ruin the islands famous beauty. The only thing that saved the island was ironically enough an epidemic and quarantine. After such a devastating event those who survived on the island made a large effort to ensure that the islands culture and beauty would survive into the future, as they may not in the face of any similar great calamity. This was until the Vithinjan nuclear program tested their first nuke outside the island. This would likely have doomed the islands beauty once more if it was not for the immediate international denunciation of the nuclear build-up, causing the near complete halt of the Vithinjan nuclear program. Today another threat concerns the island, as the recent oil drilling in the surrounding waters worries the inhabitants, as oil spills may harm their sensitive ecosystem.

Culture
Ever since the end of the world war the ruling council of the island has attempted to advertise the island as a 'symbol of peace and cooperation', often leveraging its wealth and growing reputation in attempts to host peace talks on neutral ground and important international events for peacekeeping organizations. This more recent turn is annoying the Vithinjan monarchy and church, as these pacifistic values are incompatible with the traditions of militaristic glory advocated by the national government.

Because of the islands history it celebrates a few unique holidays. It celebrates it's liberation from invaders during the world war, sometimes called independence day much to Vithinjas frustration. On top of that it celebrates "The Flood", a holiday that started after the tsunami that nearly wiped out the island. The holiday mainly features various water-based entertainment and events. Finally the island celebrates 'Kindred of Seafarers', a holiday where various semi-independent islands mostly surrounding Levantia celebrates a solidarity among those who live far from the state who they technically belong to. These islands include (Wintergen?).

Prince Valker Sortvith
The island is the birthplace and previous home of fourth-prince Valkar Sorthand, one of the kings youngest children and famous or infamous depending on who you ask in Vithinja. He has taken to the islands liberal democratic ideals and today funds the news organization 'Handskaren' which advocates some reforms to make the nation less authoritarian. While the island serves as the starting point of his ideas his main inspirations come from his high school and university education in Burgundie.

Marcus Connery
Almost 160 years ago the entrepreneur Marcus Connery. His father was a rich merchant from Faneria. He spent his life as an engineer, mainly designing ships of various kinds. He observed the inefficiency of loading and unloading ships, leading him to design the cargo container and attempt to sell the idea to the wealthy Burgundie shipping industry. Through this he became insanely wealthy as his invention spread wide, mainly from fame as he did not profit directly from the invention, but spent the rest of his life designing some of the largest civilian ships of the time. He died in an accident during the construction of his grandest ship design yet, leading to the projects abandonment.

Petra Vonein
From the far away Sarpedon nation of Cartagena, a very wealthy woman lives, the only child of a successful real-estate giant. Once she inherited her fathers wealth she started planning her efforts towards a futuristic world. She became a famous member of the transhumanist human+ party and invested in futuristic technology like green energy, nuclear power, high-capacity battery advancements and phone technology. But there was one industry she sought more than any other: Spacecraft and research. She dreamed of sending people far into space, exploring the deep unknown. Her complete lack of knowledge and understanding within the area made her dreams difficult however. That was, until she found out about a small space program start-up that was the Vithinjan space program. An organization that by all accounts were far behind their competitors, if one could even call them that and that could barely get satellites into orbit. But most importantly, they were a small poorly funded organizations who needed one thing more than anything else: investment. So, how would she make this work? The 'company' is rather a union under the harsh laws of the Syndical nation. She would have to look elsewhere, until she found out about the island, and the ridiculousness of her dream suddenly fell to the side. For she discovered that perhaps fate had lead her here. At the end of that month, Petra Vonein left her homeland to go to the far north, and realize his dream of space colonization upon an island that by happenstance, or perhaps by fate, shared her name.

Controversy
The island is still technically claimed by Faneria, who after accepting the peace of the war used the Syndicalization to re-instate their claim. While this is a bane on relations it has yet to be any more than an inconvenience for diplomats.

There are some who look at the presentation of Vonein with suspicion. Some think the image they are presented to be too good to be true. There are suspicions of corruption and crimes, perhaps even a genocide of the true natives at some point. This has even developed into the island being the target of more strange superstition and conspiracies, including various occultists spreading the idea that the island hides mystical powers and less extreme conspiracies about the island serving some darker purpose for the elites of the world to lavish in. Some more crazed environmentalists even believe the islands nuclear power plant is poisoning the ocean.