Vithinja
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The Syndical Cooperative Kingdom of Vithinja (Ruþí: Viþjinsk) often simply referred to as The Cooperative is a constitutional monarchy located in Kiro-Borealis, but is more politically connected to the Northern Levantian region of Ultmar and it's various nations. It borders Caergwynn in the south among the vithinjan isles. Crossing the Kilikas Sea to the far west lies the island nation of Kiravia, while crossing the sea southwards one can find the lands of Faneria. Vithinja holds the only land crossing from Kiroborea to Levantia via the Vithins-Awraidd Bridge Project, a large set of bridges and underwater tunnels connecting the Kiroborea mainland to most of the Vithinjan isles and ending in northern Caergwynn. The Vithinjan capital is the City of Rolvsvik, despite being only the 7th largest city in the nation. Rolvsvik holds importance as the historical seat of power of the various royal lines of the nation as well as being the religious center for the Church of Rolv. The two largest cities are Tår Bringär and Cärssund, both of which lie within the vithinjan isles. Tår Bringär has long been the economic capital of Vithinja as it holds a large and deep natural harbor well placed for both safety and trading purposes. For most of Ultmar history the city benefited from strategically defensible geography, avoiding devastation from the many wars that plagued the Ultmar mainlanders, but since the great war it has fallen in favor somewhat compared to these mainland harbor cities. Vithinja has a population of ~70 million people. The vast majority of the population lives either in the vithinjan isles, or the more temperate southern coastline, but the northern lakes region still holds small population centers. These northern population centers are important to help extract the large wealth of the northern lands.
Viþinjske Samwärckens Köningsrigge Zyndicatist (Ruþí) Viþjinsk | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
Motto: 'Fhremodt imot himmlvägnen' 'Forwards towards heavens road' | |
Anthem:
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| Capital | Rolvsvik |
| Largest | Tår Bringär |
| Official languages | Ruthi |
| Recognised national languages | Ruthi, Siarvish |
| Recognised regional languages | Caeric |
| Ethnic groups (2025) |
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| Religion |
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| Demonym(s) | Ruthan, Ruthie |
| Government | Unitary Syndicated Constitutional Monarchy |
• King | Rolv XI Sortvit |
| Rolv XI Sortvit | |
| Magnus Tornsson | |
| Rikart Ragnersson | |
| Sten Vikqvist | |
| Ingrid Fridsdotr | |
| Riordan Mayor | |
| Lina Birgitdotr | |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,099,191 km2 (424,400 sq mi) (rank here) |
• Water (%) | 6.83% |
| Population | |
• 2028 estimate | 70,900,000 58,000,000 full citizens |
• 2027 census | 70,442,491 |
• Density | 61.1/km2 (158.2/sq mi) |
| GDP (nominal) | estimate |
• Total | $3,662,103,641,565.74 $3.662 trillion |
• Per capita | $51,987.14 |
| Gini (2027) |  37.9medium |
| HDI (2027) |  0.891very high |
| Currency | Ruthan korunmärck (ʍ) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+0 |
| Date format | yy-mm-dd |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | +61 |
Vithinja is a relative newcomer among the nations of today in it's current state, only existing in it’s current form for the last 200 years. On the other hand the culture and traditions of a united northern nation has existed for almost a millennium. One of that nations largest issues is caused by large variety in cultures, religion, traditions and more recently ideologies, leading to the nation never truly being able to achieve stability. The nations origins is a tale of two very different peoples fighting each other for the reign but almost always united against foreign threats. The first traces of the two groups arriving in the north date back as far as 700 CE. From the evidence they were not the first people to live in the Vithinjan lands but whatever natives came before are long extinct. It is believed that the first group of settlers who would become the Ruthans left their homeland in western Levantia to sail for new lands in the north, while the celtic origins are even less certain. Both peoples started settling many of the islands along the northern coast of Levantia as well as finding the lands of Ruthinja. (Ruþí:Fhres-Ruthirí) While the Ruthan people have generally been the rulers over both peoples the Guerigogled have almost always outnumbered them, to the confusion of many scholars.
The vithinjan population is mainly divided into the Ruthans, the former ruling people as well as the Guerigogled (Ruþí: Gärgöthe, Siarvish: Siargogle) often shortened to Guerigs, who make up the majority of the population. While they once had huge cultural differences the two cultures are well integrated together in the modern era, making religion and ideology the more common cause of cultural differences than ethnicity
While not being a very populous country, thanks to a combination of large quantities of natural resources with a high security for companies to extract them today, as well as good shared control of the northern Levantian maritime trade together with Caergwynn, the Vithinjan people are quite well of. Maritime trade is especially secured thanks to the city of Tår Bringär, which holds the deepest and among the largest harbors in Ultmar trade.
Vithinja is a part of the League of Nations and the Kilikas-Boreal Cooperative Zone.
History
Main Article: History of Vithinja
Noborean Settlers
Noborea was once settled by some native culture that there are little remnants of, with so little evidence of their existence leaving room for people to consider that they may have been celts, geats or even coscovians. They were practically extinct by the year 1000, with their numbers never having exceeded fifty thousand at their largest expanse by most estimate. The modern people living in Noborea and most of the Vithinjan Isles came sometime in the 8th century from two separate origins. These origins are surrounded by myths and legends, but thanks in part to a few more reliable records made by the group some suspect to be the origin group for the Caerics. What is known for certain is that the Nogeaths who settled western Noborea came from the north western coast of Ultmar, somewhere west of Faneria. Meanwhile, the origins of the Gogauls who settled eastern Noborea is more uncertain, but are believed to have emigrated from settlements along one of the major rivers of modern Fiannria or the lands to it’s east. These settlements are also a possible origin point for the Caerics, explaining the cultures great similarities. It is believed that the Gogauls arrived at least 25 years earlier, and were the dominant culture group in most of Noborea for at least 100 years, thanks in part to their ability to settle the best lands. This was especially true for the Vithinjan Isles, which remained almost exclusively celtic for 300 years, only starting to gain a proper Nogeath minority after The Viking Contentment Period really got going.
Thanks to the mixing of the seafaring culture of these two migrant groups after many decades of tribal conflicts, the consolidation of smaller tribes into larger ones and general population growth the peoples of the north, especially those living on the Noborea mainland started to run into a simple but motivating scarcity: A near total lack of a stable food source. While some agriculture could be maintained and the both fresh-and saltwater fish were plentiful, the fish was not nearly enough to survive on alone and the harvests were incredibly variable depending on how harsh the harsh the years winter ended up being. These factors would all lead to a region-defining cultural shift that would spread from the west-most Nogeaths all the way to the east-most Gogaul: The raiding of far away, wealthier lands. Although most early raiding was done internally, the harsh resistance that was often met combined with lacking resources worth stealing lead raiders to start sailing further and further. By the early 800’s they idea of sailing south, to lands inhabited by much weaker and richer peoples started spreading like wildfire, in part thanks to the seafaring leading to a strong interconnectivity among the northern tribes. Based on the Nogeath title for one of these seafarers a new threat started to menace far beyond their Noborean homes: The Vikings.
The Viking Age
The Viking Age commonly refers to a time between 800-1300 and is generally broken up into five periods, The Reaver Period, The Invasion Period, The Consolidation Period, The Viking Golden Age and finally The Viking Contentment Period. While each of these hold a massive amount of history within them, we will only shortly discuss the most imporant aspects of each here.
The Reaver Period (~810-950) is named after the main term used for the viking raiders by the northern successor kingdoms of the Holy Levantine Empire. This period is mainly defined by the fast and vast expansion of raided areas. Throughout mid to late 800’s the vikings went from raiding along the nearby modern Fanerian north coast and among the island of modern Sorhaithe to targetting the entire North Ultmar coast, and travelling far along the rivers into the Ultmar mainland. While raiding a number of raiders set up conquered viking realms, with the largest of these period being the first of the Reaver kingdoms, settling along the coast running eastward from Noborea. Despite the vikings of this period remaining relatively decentralized it still saw a slow centralization of power. This took it’s final shape in between the 910’s and 950’s when a number of so-called viking lords rose to power, maintaining the fealty of vast numbers of tribes among large territories. The nature of these tribal federations were however still very decentralized, leading to modern historians usually not referring to these realms as tribal kingdoms. In the end, what finally ended up causing the next large-scale change among the viking cultures was, ironically, the exact same issue that started their marauding ways: All the new resources that they had successfully plundered and brought back lead to prosperity in their homelands, which caused a population boom that tripled their population over the course of the century. A great tribal chieftain who had united most of the western Ruthan tribes caused this next great change, by announcing, preparing and leaving their homelands at a massive scale, in a huge migration to conquer and settle the more prosperous lands their raiding peoples already dominated.
The Invasion Period (890-1220) is empathized by the many migrations and new realms the Vikings created and maintained across large sections of Ultmar, even if most by the 17th century would be some combination of integrated into the local cultures, slowly fade in comparison to larger local cultures or simply be subjugated and expelled. These migrations would however lead to a strong bond between the Noboreans and North Levantines, both economically and politically. Even in the modern day viking descended cultures outnumber the entire modern Vithinjan population. The main cause of viking migrations fading was a mixture of improvements to defensive engineering in Ultmar as well as simply having less free lands to target and many Viking realms that were already well settled and fiercely aggressive against competitors. This also caused the slow start of the Contentment Period, which would start to vastly change the cultural idea of what a Viking was among the Noborean cultures.
The Consolidation Period (980-1330) coincides quite substantially with the invasion period, in part because it was a result of the response to these invasion in different parts of the world. This period can be separated between The Christian Consolidation, The Ruthinjan Unification and the Ultmar Viking Wars. The Christian Consolidation started with the arrival and success of Caergwynn, one of the most vital rival powers in Vithinjan history. Through the use of a powerful navy and a well centralized highly militarized realm so close to the viking homeland the Caerics successfully pressured many concessions and treaties from the various viking tribes north of them. Although some attempts were made at both subjugation and devastation the Caric knights quickly found that the best relations they could hope for were tributes and allies, as the northern Viking cultures could not easily be quelled or destroyed. This forced the viking raiders to travel farther and target new regions, which helped to find new targets for the Viking migratory invasion as well. This consolidation was further worsened thanks to a combination of the successfully revitalized realm of Cuhlfros in addition to a number of stronger tribal federations forming along the western side of Northern Ultmar. The Ruthinjan Unification describes the rise of The first unified kingdom in Noborea. It also saw the real first step for christianity spreading into Noborea, with the new Ruthinjan kingdom being formed by the first Viking Lord to ever baptise himself. He could howevernever put an end to the marauding traditions of his people. Ultmar Viking Wars includes a number of wars among the various ultmari Viking realms as well as many bordering realms which lead to the destruction or consolidation of most of these regions into new kingdoms. Through the combination of these factors almost all the lands that were once the prime targets for their raids now became mostly inaccessible. This would lead to two great changes that once more redirected Viking history: More advanced seafaring techniques that allowed the raiders to venture far beyon the local region together with the and a shift in the power balance in the Noborean region away from the Vithinjan heartlands towards the north Ultmar riverlands. These two changes along with many other factors would birth the Viking Golden Age.
The Viking Golden Age (1100-1275) would see almost all the greatest achievements among the Viking cultures in exploration, architecture, art, science and dominance. These Would include the first Levantine discovery of Koskovina and great Kirav as well as an expedition that is thought to have reached Soirwind. It would also see the first Vikings reaching the southern city of Urceopolis. It would be the start of standardized raiding in the Vandarch as one of the main targets of Viking raids. The Vikings would also settle numerous islands including Insul Weiss, Vonein, Eryksisle and numerous others. In the end however, these longer distance expeditions together with most other civilisations greatly improving at defending against their raids would lead to the death of the old Viking profession, replaced by a new Viking: One who was well known and respected not just among the Noborea cultures but among most of Ultmar and parts of Levantia... As far-going tradesman. Some believe that the ideas for the highly interconnected trade empire That Burgundie successfully achieved took their founding ideas from these trading Vikings and perfected it.
The Contentment Period (1220-1505) represents the slowly progressing change among Vikings away from large-scale conquest, raiding of large settlements and migratory invasions. They would instead turn to in some part smaller scale piracy but mainly they would become the largest part of the merchant class in north Ultmar, never truly being replaced even though they were later to a large degree implemented into the Burgundine merchant empire.
The Noborea-Ultmar Templar Wars
The Noborea-Ultmar Templar Wars, also known as the Noborea Irae, covers a period between 1200-1500, where a combination of factors lead to large scale conflicts between the northern pagans and Christians, which later turned to a series of conflicts between the old traditional regimes and the new divinely guided holy orders. The final results of these wars was a partial shift towards more absolutist ideas, the large-scale conversion of most pagans, the establishment of Vithinja and Caergwynn as the two main powers north of the Empire and the rejection of the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith in the region.
Ultmar Crusade was started in the 12th century by the kingdom of Cuhlfros, supported by a number of more southern holy orders. However it did not truly reach Noborea until the start of the 13th. This first Noborean crusade was a massive failure, as the Crusaders could not make up for the superiority of pagan seafaring in a region defined by land barriers and islands. It was not helped that the strange threat from the south proved that the Viking realms were not as divided as thought, as many of them, especially those from the Borea mainland, would ally together against the southern incursion. Most of the Latin crusaders chose to focus on fighting along the rivers of the Vandarch after this failure. The few that didn't mainly turned to the more local northern christian elements of Caergwynn and Cuhlfros, hoping to learn how to fight a foe whose tactics were foreign to them.
For the remainder of the first half of the 13th century there would only be a few smaller conflicts in the region, but this would all change in the 1260's. After the emergence of the Caergwynn republic, there was a huge upheaval when one of the largest Viking realms converted to Christianity and allied with the Caeric knights. This alliance suddenly dramatically changed the power balance of the region, and not soon after Caergwynn attacked the last remnant of those Vikings who would claim half his realm. This escalated into a series of wars now known as the Caeric-Viking Holy Wars.
Caeric-Viking Holy Wars
These wars started with the war for Hogripmar in 1267, which was the remains of the kingdom that ones held almost all of Caergwynns territories. This declaration of war was responded to by the kings of Ruthalvrigar and Clipprigar, the two most powerful pagan viking realms at the time, who both declared war on Caergwynn. Their new ally, the former viking realm of Havengem, would support the Caerics against their fellow Nogeaths. This war would last into the first months of 1270, leading to a clear Caeric victory on the mainland, annexing Hogripmar. There were a few other smaller secession but with few border changes. This would be known as the First Caeric-Viking War, and would serve as a meager taste of the bloodshed to come.
The perceived aggression after this war would cause support from some of the less involved Viking realms, such as Anenmarigar and Sudabruda. The following war, the Second Caeric-Viking War, was declared by Clipprigar in 1279 to take back the lands formerly held by Hogripmar, which were seen as important pagan lands. This war would escalate to include in practice the entire north excluding the Nordskans. For the first two years the war was a vicious defensive grind for the Caerics and their allies, facing a substantially more numerous and wealthier foe. In 1281 things would change however, as the former pagan kingdom of Aurdicania would Christianize mid war, and declare on Ruthalvrigar, causing the first major war on the Borea mainland in history. This would start to change the tide of war, but it was not until 1283 when the king in Cuhlfros joined to assist their fellow Christians that the pagans would be driven back. Not only did they join the war, but a second northern crusade was declared. With the arrivals of the Latin support through out 1280 they would reverse most of the occupations of the Vikings. In mid 1284 a treaty was made, one that would change the region dramatically. While there were a few territories handed to some of the Viking realms, for the most part the war saw large regions of pagan lands, especially among their fortified islands, handed over to the victors. Although most of these were technically vassals of either Caergwynn or Cuhlfros, most of them were granted to the holy orders who had fought for them, who turned out to be quite loose vassals.
The Third Caeric-Viking War would serve to show what the new status qua of the regions should be. In 1295 Clipprigar would declare war on Caergwynn to take back their lost island territories. This time Cuhlfros would end up not taking part, as their own holy order vassals disobedience strained relations. The war only lasted until 1298, but ended up being vastly more destructive than the second war, especially for the Viking island territories. This time there would be no mercy for the Viking realms, who were beaten badly. The holy orders would take for themselves substantial territories, even demanding any and all territories that may have been given to Caergwynn. While the war was the greatest Christian success so far it would also serve as the start of a rift between the Caerics and the Latin holy orders.
Templar Consolidation
At the start of the 14th century the newly arisen templar lead nations in the Noborean region started acting much more independently of their sponsor nations. A series of smaller border wars ended up being fought between them and their neighbors allowing them to expand further. By 1320 they would make a monumental decision: they attacked Caergwynns old ally Havengem. This caused a war between the Caerics and the templar, which ended with the templars taking Havengems island holdings. This war served mainly to sour the relations between the various Christians in the region and the foreign templar orders. The following 20 years saw much fewer conflicts, with much of the region trying to recover from the many years of war.
At the same time the Noborean realms were busy fighting internally, with the Ruthinjan region weakened by the previous 50 years of holy wars and the Nordskan decedent kingdoms of Anenmarigar and Havengem under attack, power started to shift towards the Borean Nordskan kingdom, which unified for the first time. They would fight a war against the Ruthinjan lords and win, allowing them to get a footing in the Vithinjan islands for the first time.
With the arrival of 1350 the Great Plague ended up hitting Levantia hard. One of the most important effects of this was the reduction in reinforcements for the templar orders, forcing them to become more aristocratic and levy troops from local populations. These troops mainly came from the local celts, although those with close connections toward the Caerics were often found to be almost as reluctant as the viking descendants. Meanwhile, the pagans of Nordska saw a monumental change, in part because of the rumors of the distant plague striking the Christians. They would reject the Christian feudal institutions that had helped elevate Ruthinja 200 years earlier, and instead look to the ideas of holy warriors fighting for the divine. This would lead to the Judgement of Lords, where a group of tribal leaders would declare war on their own ruling class, overthrowing them and instituting a militaristic holy order, who would become known as the Valkeer.
Templar-Valkeer Wars
Geography
Vithinjas varied geography is both a blessing and a curse. Although large portions of the lands are difficult to impossible to inhabit, they hold some of the most beautiful landmarks to be found in the world. Between the innumerable fjords covering the coast to the northern villages surrounded by the sights of huge tall mountain ranges, large glaciers that glimmer in the sunlight and if any visitor is lucky, the wondrous northern lights. This would make it a better tourist location if the temperature didn't drive most foreigners away.
Climate
The climate in Vithinja is defined by the separation between the warmer coastal regions including the Vithinjan isles, the fjord covered northern coastlines the northern mountainous regions and the subarctic lake regions. The nations economic centers have always been tied to the coastal regions, with very little agricultural lands excluding the Vithinjan islands. A few local grains being hardy enough to survive the boreal summers thanks to the north-blowing winds. The coastlines nearest joining the two landmasses of Vithinja together however are constantly a target of the cold arctic winds from the north.
Politics
Governing System
The Vithinjan syndicalist way of governing has been classified by experts as Hierarchical Top-Down Syndicalism, with some extra complications from the Monarchical Exception and it's institutionally-enforced anti-liberal Neotribalism. This definition can be broken down as thus: Syndicalism as in the establishing of a system where people may freely form organizations that hold political influence to affect the legislative and executive powers and process of the state. Hierarchical as in these organizations being expected to form smaller joint organizations with representatives from each, who work together to help take care of matters that is in each of their interests, continuing upward as is necessary to join all organizations together at the highest point. Top-down as in these organizations were first created with a set of leading organizations above, whose powers where then divided into smaller portions for which new organizations attempted to be established, creating a starting point for the Syndicated systems powers that were then handed down a ladder of smaller organizations until it reached the local level.
In effect the syndicalist government functions as a hierarchy of unions each of which may function as either an executive or legislative, but usually both branches for part of the nations laws. The powers of each union is based on what has previously been agreed to be delegated to that level of the hierarchy from above. These powers include both serving as the executive branch for any issues the representatives bring from the legislative decisions of their own unions, one step down in the hierarchy, as well as serving as part of the legislative branch for any higher unions they send representatives to. One of the main purposes of this division of power was to ensure the each part of the government could take care of their issues swiftly and effectively. The national council refers to the members of the highest point in the hierarchy and they hold only executive powers, including the first level of delegation of all state power towards the lower branches. While some may worry that this would simply lead to the national council holding full authoritarian power, they are limited by the constitution to some degree, most importantly as they do not control the length of their terms. As each representative must be chosen by a union at the lowest level before they are able to start climbing the hierarchy, any representative who is seen as failing in their duty to the lower unions may simply be replaced, no need to even wait for an election as the folkmoot held to determine the representative may be called at any time by those making the decision. This representative election is generally not referred to as an election as it is not a choice of the majority, as this is considered democratic republicanism, something that the state specifically attempts to distance itself from. Instead it is rather an agreement that is not protested by any member.
Current Ruling Body
Despite attempting to generally distance themselves from party-like organizations as to not appear too democratic the current Vithinjan government can generally be split into certain factions. While each of the members of Naþionelförsamligyn (the National Assembly) is and individual and may choose to not follow the lead of others in the same faction, these factions give a general idea of the power balance among those leading the nation.
The largest faction is the Syndical Cooperatist [Pink], usually shortened to The Cooperatists. They are lead by Chancellor Magnus Tornssen, who is famous for being the creator of the Cooperatist movement and helped move Vithinja away from their previous isolationist direction after the 1983 Vithinjan Nuclear Test. Since 2019 he has been the single longest leading chancellor, leading the reds since 2007 continuously while also leading them between 1991 and 1999. He is nearing 40 years since he first achieved a position in the national council at the young age of 28. Among his achievements he has successfully pushed Vithinja from mostly domestic economy to a vibrant export based economy, while also helping improve relations with foreign partners nearly universally. His critics points out that he has continuously promised to cut down Vithinjan military spending for over 25 years with little success, although more significantly he is often a target of both internal and external environmentalists who point out how he is the main reason for Vithinjan environmental policy being by modern standards especially abysmal considering it is a mainly train-based economy. The Cooperatists as a whole hold 67 seats in the national assembly, mainly from the reds and the blues, but has supporters from every collar-union except the blacks. Currently the Cooperatists are alone in controlling more than one of the Chancellor seats, as both blue-chancellor Rikart Ragnersson and new-chancellor Lina Birgittdotr are important figures in the faction. Thanks to this near majority in the national council they maintain great executive powers as long as they can convince a single other faction to work with them on whatever issue may be in question. This is helped by most other factions having greater disagreements with each other than they do with the Cooperatists.
Representing the older original Syndicalist ways, the Boreal Syndicalists [Red] often just called Syndicalists as many believe they represent the ideals of the ideology. Out of all the factions in the National Assembly they are the most critical of the monarchy in addition to finding entanglement with the global market to be damaging to the rights of the people. They maintain a good 48 seats, although this often holds little power as the only other faction that commonly works with them on policies is the Environmentalists. Today they are lead by green-chancellor Sten Vikqvist, who has been trying to modernize and strengthen the faction in a number of ways. These include shifting their stance from full economic isolationism towards a more moderate total ban on foreign investments or the new stance of tolerance of the Church rather than opposition. In the end their most important shift has been towards more green efforts, creating an ally in the Environmentalists.
The Traditional Monarchists [Dark Blue], or conservatives, is a conservative faction mainly built around the ideals and values of the Church of Rolv. Ever since the Cooperatist counter-coup of 1984 they have been a close ally to the Cooperatists. Although they were once one of the two dominant factions together with the Syndicalists they now only hold 43 seats. By tradition the black-chancellor have always been lead by the King, who thus always becomes the leader of the conservatives as well, leaving Rolv XI Sortvit as their leader today. He has been working hard to maintain his alliance with the Cooperatists and working to ensure their policies would align more often. The conservatives as a whole have mainly focused on preventing the errosion of more traditional values and ideals, very rarely implementing more reactionary changes instead focusing on denying certain kinds of change.
National Syndicalists [Brown]... 42 seat... lead by white-chancellor Riordan Mayor.
Syndical Environmentalists [Green]... 21 seats... lead by pink-chancellor Ingrid Fridsdotr.
Liberal Monarchists [Light Blue]... 8 seats... lead by white-representative Aron Watch... He is most famous for being the first representative to get into a brawl with his own chancellor, Riordan Mayor, over an attempt to pressure white-representatives into supporting the national syndicalists.
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Among the unions the seven highest level unions that all under unions are subdivisions of are all based on the concept of collar colors that was a pretty popular concept as the syndicalization took place. At first there were only four collar-unions that represented the nation, but today that number has risen to seven. They are as follows: the blue-collar union, the white-collar union, the red-collar union, the black-collar union, the green-collar union, the pink-collar union and the new-collar union.
Among these the reds and blacks are considered special. The reds generally represent those who should directly support the syndicalists who created the current nation. Because of this there are many additional rules to high level members of these unions. Similarly the blacks represent the powers and interests of the royal family, having all higher level representatives among the black-collars being determined by the king directly. It is not law but tradition that no member of the royal family should take the position as union representative.
The strangest and probably most important two unions below the high seven is the Union of the Lower Courts and the Higher Justice Union. These both represent the courts, one representing the higher courts and the other the lower courts. Despite their obvious connection they belong to different higher unions. The lower courts belong to the red-collars and the higher courts belong to the black-collars. This is because of one of the compromises in the constitution, where the syndicalists received control of the sub-regional courts while the king remained in control of regional and national courts.
Constitution
The Vithinjan constitution is an unorthodox work as it is a product of three origins. The constitution borrows a few things from the constitution of the Vithinjan republic, however this is the smallest component in the text. Secondly and thirdly it is sourced from the compromise between the government of the royal Sortvit family and their supporters as well as the national syndicalists that make up the nations labor unions. This has caused the constitution to have proved over the years to be a convoluted mess that contradicts itself in more than a few places. Because of the constitutions contradictory nature most of the time the national council and the king both simply use the powers that previous rulers have used, avoiding actions that may cause a constitutional crisis.
Anti-liberal Neotribalism
National Syndicalism
Ever since the syndicalization the movement has been splintered into a few main factions. One of the strongest of these factions have always been the national syndicalists. Their beliefs differ from most other syndicalists substantially, with one of the main differences being embracing a lot of the nations traditions, to many members even including the monarchy. Most controversial among their beliefs is the idea of ruthan superiority, causing substantial tensions with the gergole population.
Citizenship and Residents
Because of a lack of democratic institutions the idea of citizenship doesn't quite exist in Vithinja. However there is still a way to affect the political makeup of the nations leadership. This comes in one of two ways: members of a union or members of the military. To be an official member of the military a Vithinjan needs to be a full time serviceman. Reservists who want the power to elect need to join a union. The difficulty of joining a union varies greatly by profession and region. All of this effectively means that if only members of the military or members of a union are considered citizens about 82% of all Vithinjans above the age of 16 are citizens, leaving 18% to simply be residents.
Because of the mostly professional requirements for effective citizenship Vithinja is often considered to be a great place to immigrate too for people who have the right skills. It can take as little as a month to go from seeking a temporary residency visa to becoming a union member.
As there are quite a few who believe that either joining a union is too difficult or simply that there should be a union for those who could be classified as residents, there is a modern civil rights movement in the nation that in part advocates for these changes.
Military
The Vithinjan military can be divided into three distinct organizations: The Royal Army of Vithinja, The Union of the National Reserve and the Guards of the Revolution. Some would only consider the first two as actual members of the military and the third as a paramilitary organization, especially since the constitution contradicts itself when describing them.
Economy
The economy of Vithinja has in modern times been pushed to switch from an export-oriented market economy during the Boreal Republc, to a totally mobilized arms economy for the duration of the Second Great War, to a partially isolationist decentralized planned economy until the Counter Coup of 1984, to the modern mixed-export-oriented economy with some elements of the previous planned economy remaining. This apparent instability would likely have lead to the nation having further issues if it wasn't for three helpful factors: extensive resource wealth, a continues and successfully maintained legal institution dating back over 200 years and finally a strong working culture where the populations identities, social communities, political movements as well as very often large parts of their families are all organized around their professions. It is these factors that are often pointed towards when investigating the Vithinjan 1990 economic miracle, where the nominal per capita GDP of the nation jumped over $15 000 in a decade, while still growing at a good rate to this day.
Today the Vithinjan economy is commonly divided into the three primary sectors: Energy, Mining and Transportation. These are often joined by the three secondary sectors: Timber, Medicine and Defense.
Primary
Energy
For domestic production Vithinjan electricity is largely comes from hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. As these have for a very long time produced a surplus Vithinja always looks to export whatever energy it can. Their main energy trading partner is Caergwynn, who has a well functioning grid connection with Vithinja, allowing easy access to Vithinjan power production.
When it comes to transportation, Vithinja is a heavily train based economy, with nearly ten times the train travelers compared to cars and more than fifty times as much of goods transportation using trains over trucks. Most of this rail network is electrified, with the exception of the most remote and unpopulated regions.
These facts should by easily make Vithinja one of the most green nations in the world. But this is not the case. They are above average thanks to these factors but two simple parts of the nations energy concerns cover more than 80% of pollution. These are the large mining sector as well as heating. Vithinja needs a lot of fuel to run the machinery in the mining sector, causing pollution in the more resource wealthy regions. But the heating issue is by far the worst part for any environmental efforts. With the average citizen having to deal with on average three months of -15 degrees Celsius, Vithinja is one of the most energy hungry nations in the world every winter. For this heating more than 90% of households and workplaces utilize natural gas for this heating.
With this in mind, Vithinja is one of very few nations in the world who still in the 2020's have not only not accepted any attempts to push them towards greener efforts, but their leading party actively advocates against it, as a threat to national interests. The other side of the Energy sector is the extractions of carbohydrates. Vithinja features some of the largest proven natural gas reserves in the world, as well as a few good petroleum sources. These are heavily exploited, for a nation of it's size, but with more hands and investments there is still substantial room for expansion. These natural gas reserves are an important part of North Levantine energy economics.
Transportation
Vithinja has one of the most heavily train based economies in the world. This is based in their previous isolationist period, where they avoided implementation of roadways as it was protested against by the average worker, mainly either for economic considerations or because they feared cars would ruin the layout of their cities. Because of this isolationism the transportation sector had to be entirely domestic. Today it this has resulted in a large export sector surrounding trains, maritime vessels and smaller airplanes. This includes not only the production of machinery and other components for these vehicles but also research and economic theory developing new and improved methods for these industries.
Mining
While Vithinja has large manufacturing and service sectors, but since the time of their economic isolation the nation has built their industries mainly on resources extracted at home. These includes large mineral wealth, mainly iron, copper and tungsten. Even though there are other reserves for metals important in the industry these three are impactful as they make up the vast majority of domestically produced materials for the large manufacturing sector. The main missing material for this is aluminum, which now makes up one of the most important imports in the entire economy. Vithinja has spent an obscene amount surveying for the light metal, but with little success.
Secondary
Timber
Medicine
Defense
Infrastructure
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While large parts of the world started moving over towards building roads for cars, the Syndicalists of Vithinja stubbornly leaned away from car travel and towards trains. Because of this Vithinja is one of the worst places in the world to bring a car, but has some of the best railway connectivity of any nation. It also has one of the lowest per capita carbon emissions thanks to the lack of fossil fuel use both in transportation and power generation.
Taxes
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Taxes in Vithinja are collected from the unions by the unions with the exception of the military tax, which is collected from everyone. Because of a convoluted taxing system when it comes to income tax Vithinjans pay a very sizeable tax rate which looks way less to the majority who is uninformed of the details of the taxing system. Vithinja has a pretty standard tax rate on inheritance and a huge tax rate on land ownership that is not owned by a union.
Military Industrial Complex
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Because of the remnants of a strong warrior culture Vithinja has always had a loose view of weapon ownership. Since the Syndicalization this idea of privately owning a firearm has continued to be encouraged, with the exception of those who could be seen as residents, for whom owning a firearm is illegal. Vithinja has one of the highest rates of firearm ownership, with over 125 firearms for every 100 people.
Demographics
Population
The Vithinjan population is officially broken up into three main demographics with a secondary break up based on languages. These three demographics are: the Ruthans, who make up just over 22% of the population; the Gvergoles, who make up almost 42% of the population; lastly the Ruth-Gvärs, who make up about 32% of the population. The numbers for these demographics are exact as it is a component of every persons recorded information at birth for the governments identification data.
Language
The official and most spoken language in Vithinja is Ruthi, a gothic language very unlike most other gothic languages. This is the expected language to use for any official work like research. Almost as common but not always allowed officially is Siarvish, a celtic language with a lot of similarities to Caeric. While in some regions one can easily live only ever speaking Siarvish it is difficult to achieve great success without also learning Ruthi. Both of these languages may be taught at schools but most schools either teach Ruthi or both.
On the Vithinjan isles, especially in the south there are many who still speak Caeric. While recognized as a regional language it is often discouraged, usually by the higher levels of unions, to use the language outside of private matters.
Religion
Vithinja is a religiously divided nation, caught between the royal Church of Rolv, the many who still follow the catholic church as well as the idea of abandoning the old beliefs often pushed by important members of the unions.
Church of Rolv
The church of Rolv is a branch of protestantism with some quite radical differences. It has added clauses for means by which one can enter into heaven that include military service and sacrifices for the good of ones people.
Education
Education in Vithinja is completely controlled by the government, as private schools have been made illegal by the union of education. While the government attempts to specifically encourage certain education paths, these efforts have generally lead to educating way more members than needed into a narrow field. Recently new efforts have been made to address these issues.
Health
Vithinja features a very extensive public healthcare system. The union of healthcare holds a lot of influence and has at numerous occasions pressured other industries towards decisions that would assist public health. One of these choices is a complete ban on smoking and huge efforts toward reducing drinking. Despite these efforts both smoking and drinking are still publicly practiced in many communities. Tobacco smuggling is an extremely profitable black market in Vithinja because of these efforts.
Crime
For being a nation in modern times Vithinja features a large indirect punishment for pretty much any crime: increased difficulty to join a union, which makes everything from getting a job to finding a partner more difficult and may lock one out of the political process. Despite this the number of people convicted for a crime has been hovering around 2.5% up until the last two years, where it has slowly increased to 3%. It is often noted that 95% of convictions are against those considered residents.
Culture
The Church of Rolv
The Church of Rolv is the largest religion in Vithinja. While it is often classified as a Lutheran protestant branch together with most others, there are many who disagree with this classification as it has little in common with any other branch. While it was created in the same period of reformation as most other early branches it differs in it's originator and purpose. These difference also greatly expand over time, as the directions of the branches are incomparable.
The Church of Rolv is a unifying faith based in the idea that the old Paganism of the Vithinjan natives is not incompatible with the Christian faith. Instead the old pagan ideas are simply a failure to communicate some of the many ideas behind christiandom. As gods full teachings have been in part corrupted or forgotten, the old pagan beliefs can be used to help guide and understand what parts of the old and new testament is true and what the true expectations upon the rulers, representatives and followers of the divine are.
One of the most important differences as thus is the distinctions, comparisons, separations and representations of rulers chosen by god and angels serving as his messengers mean. One of the distinctive beliefs is that the christian idea of angels generally being male is incorrect, that there is a separation between the two kinds of representatives for god. Those who spread gods name to foreign lands serve as the traveling messengers on missions in gods name. As those angels are male, so is the priests who now represent them. Meanwhile, for those who stay in the various communities, maintaining gods connection to his followers, those angels and their representatives must be women.
Within the ruling family there was two things made very clear: The rulers are representatives of god, just like the kings of old, no divine representative is needed to grant this right of rule if once family has been given this role. Thus the royal family of Vithinja as seen as holding the right of rule within their blood. This means the whole family, there is no room to waste the royal blood of children just because they are women. The idea and roles of the royal rulers family is in parted separated by sex but mainly by what must be maintained. The Kings task is to rule all. He must not be specialized, and any faults he has must be accounted for. But only the royals may rule. Thus he must ensure his family can make up for any fault. As such the remaining siblings and children must all be made to serve the role of ensuring all the tasks of the king have a skilled expert ready to serve as the kings hand. While the exact nature of what these expert roles are has varied greatly over time, a few specific roles have been maintained almost since the faiths establishing. The first of these is the kings heir. The heir is the oldest son who has not been defeated at a fair trial of the heirs choosing. As the king rules all, one can not be king if they cannot ensure their own win when choosing their field of battle. Second is the Valkyran and Valkyrian. The Valkyran is the royal most capable of leading offensive warfare. He ensure that the capabilities necessary to defeat an enemy completely is always available to the king. The Valkyrian represent the defensive understanding that any army attempting to march on their capital will find itself against an impenetrable wall while withering away from skirmishers devastating their supply lines. She ensures that the king may feel safe sending most of his armies to invade their foes, as outnumbered 40-1 his Valkyrian will still ensure there will be no victory for any invader.
Arts
Literature
Vithinja features a lot of literature of various kinds from the time before the Syndicalization. However, with the new form of government most kinds of artistic literature are now discouraged
Music
Traditional North-Gothic and North-Celtic music are still an important part of the modern nations culture. Most musical productions in Vithinja today is either sourced from one of these two traditions or a more modern and partially controversial mix of the two.
Media
News and stuff
Early Cinema
Current Cinema
Sports
Hockey
While many other nations take the most interest in football the household sport in Vithinja has been hockey ever since the commercialization of the radio. This applies to both field hockey, which is more common to be played by youths and in private, as well as ice hockey, which is more popular professionally and gets more media attention. Vithinjan hockey referees are often less strict with more violent acts than what is common internationally, leading to Vithinja having by far the most penalty time assigned to them, to the point that they almost double the runner up nation. This has however not prevented Vithinja from becoming one of the most successful nations in international hockey.
Tourism
Veterans
Vithinjan Tourist centers are often especially targeted at veterans. This is in large part because of support from the church of Rolv, who spends some of their income on efforts to attract and convert veterans.
Cuisine
Much of Vithinjan cuisine has been based around a mix of fish, hardy vegetables and grain mixed with rare meat from hunting. Because of the relative lack of farmlands there was never much room to raise cattle, leading to a near complete lack of cattle based food for a large portion of their history. By the time these products became more common they generally imported the way to cook meals together with the meat.
Holidays
Despite celebrating holidays like Christmas and Easter unlike most catholic nations vithinjans have incorporated their old pagan traditions into these holidays.
On top of that vithinjans also celebrate some of their own holidays. First of these holidays is Midsummer, which takes place during solstice. Earlier in the year, about a month before Easter, the Farewell takes place. At the start of fall the Union is celebrated.
For non-religious holidays vithinjans celebrate their national day on December the 14th. Although some consider this day to be religious, being a celebration of Rolv I ascension into Sainthood. Additionally the Syndicalization is celebrated on May the 3rd.
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