Emerstari

Kingdom of the Emerstarians Kongeriken dera Emerska
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Ævig Rettvis ok Tro" "Ever Just and True"
Anthem: Frå Folla Fjellar Royal anthem: Kongssången
– in Emerstari proper (dark green) – in the Emerstarian Empire (green) – in Arda en' Estel (green & dark grey)
Duchies of Emerstari
Capital	Hrenshallå
Largest	Erk
Official languages	Emerstarian
Ethnic groups	Emerstarians Canarians Colanians
Religion	Christianity
Demonym(s)	Emerstarian
Government	Federal parliamentary semi-constituional monarchy
• Monarch of Emerstari	Erik XII Georg
• Lord Regent	Georges Maria af Malmå
• Speaker of the Burgesses	Klas Lylborg
• Speaker of the Commons	Sœren Lambert
• Chief Justice	Mikæl Birger
Legislature	Storting
• Upper house	House of Lords House of Burgesses
• Lower house	House of Commons
History  Timeline
• Civilization	2000s BC
• Christianization	AD 200s – 537
• Unification	1047
• Emerstarian Empire	AD 1504
Area
•	644,050 km2 (248,670 sq mi) Emerstari proper
• Water (%)	9.87
Population
• 2035 census	38,206,918
• Density	69.32/km2 (179.5/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	2035 estimate
• Total	2.16 trillion NSD
• Per capita	52,442.65 NSD
HDI (2034)	0.887 very high
Currency	Skille (S) (ESK)
Time zone	Eastern Seaboard Standard Time (EST+0)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern Seaboard Summer Timr (WST+1)
Date format	AD dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	right
Internet TLD	.em

Emerstari (Emerstarian: Emerige, pronounced [ɛmerˈjɛ]), officially the Kingdom of the Emerstarians, is a country and semi-constitutional monarchy situated primarily on the Molavan Peninsula in Arda en Estel. It also includes numerous overseas territories, notably in Markion. Emerstari proper consists of its mainland and 416 named islands, the largest of which are the Isle of Haller and Långehold, which lie north of the mainland. The country is the northernmost and easternmost on the peninsula, sharing a border with Canaria in the south and Colane in the west. Its climate is generally temperate with four distinct seasons, hot summers, and cold winters. Maritime influence chills the north while it warms the south. The geography of Emerstari is characterized by many rivers and lakes, forests, and regions of mountains and plains. Emerstari's total area amounts to 644,050 km² (248,669 sq mi). Of that, water accounts for 62,928 km² (24,297 sq mi) or nearly ten percent.

Emerstari has been inhabited by humans since the end of the last Ice Age, but the beginning of history in Emerstari coincides with the advent of urbanization along the Hrenshall River three thousand years ago. In the second century BC, the land of the Emerstarians was unified under a single political entity for the first time following its subjugation by the Marsine Republic. Christianity spread from in the country from the first to fifth centuries AD, during which time various petty kingdoms emerged as Marsia receded. In 1047, Erik Segersæl united these pretty kingdoms into a powerful yet decentralized feudal state. Dynastic conflict and land disputes plunged Emerstari into near continuous conflict from the mid-14th to mid-15th centuries, after which Emerstarian culture flourished, and the Emerstarian Empire arose as a colonial and mercantile power.

Since the 16th century, the history of Markion has played an integral role in the history of Emerstari. Wars of succession at home and in neighboring countries marked the 18th century, and their closure commenced a second era of flourishing for Emerstarian culture during the first half of the 19th century. Colonial wars and the Ten Years' War, again, weakened Emerstari. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Erik X Gustaf made a decisive turn away from imperialism and towards diplomacy and non-interventionalism. His reign marked political renewal and liberalization in Emerstari with a view to Christian democracy.

Today, Emerstari remains a center of art, science, and philosophy. It is a developed country with a robust economy and high quality of life. Emerstari is a principle member of the Hrenshallå Commonwealth, alongside Ashuraya and Kophavien, a political, military, and economic union between it and former client states of the Emerstarian Empire.

Etymology

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History

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Economy

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Culture

Music

The fedel, or fiddle, is a traditional Emerstarian instrument.

A strong folk music tradition prevails in Emerstari, with the use of fiddles, flutes, frame drums, and pipes. A sort of Emerstarian folk music known as feldsmusik also features the use of guitars as well as some other less traditionally Emerstarian instruments. Emerstarian folk songs are prevalently ballads, often based upon poems from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

The Emerstarian Golden Age of the ninteenth century was the first time that many Emerstarian composers began to gain international renown, as opposed to Rhenlanders or Marseilians. Villem Karl Stenhammer, Frederik Lars Alfssen, and Håkon Per Ljunden are some of the most influential Emerstarians, all of them finding royal patronage at some point or another. Ultimately, the popularity of classical music declined after the Scanian Ten Years' War, with the deaths and retirements of many of the Golden Age composers, but swing music arose from it. Emerstarian folk music and swing music hold the majority of the Emerstarian music market today. Most pop, rock, and other genres of music aside from folk and swing come from foreign markets, first arriving in Emerstari in the late-1970s and early-1980s. There is generally a poor attitude among many Emerstarians towards genres such as rap and metal, which are sometimes seen as culturally invasive.

Literature

The history of literature in Emerstari begins sometime after the Christianization of Emerstari, during which the Old West Scanian Script was introduced. The oldest still-surviving texts from before the AD 600s are often religious texts and short markings on stone tablets, but these are scare in number. By the AD 600s, however, the first written sagas began to appear across North Scania, likely originating from previously oral traditions. Kveld's Saga, an alliterative verse epic poem written sometime between 600 and 700, is often cited as being the greatest early piece of Emerstarian literature; although, it was originally written in the northern dialect of Proto-Rhenish spoken in present-day Coelans, Emerstari, and Saurland which would become Old North Scanian. In the following centuries, up until the end of the Middle Ages, many other Emerstarian sagas were written, most famously Kung Eirikr Segersællas Saga, Vilhjalmr Silfurtonnas Saga, and Aleifr Rauðas Saga.

The next great era of Emerstarian literature commenced sometime after the establishment of the Emerstarian Empire. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, even into the late-nineteenth century, many Emerstarian books were written on the adventures of various individuals to various lands. An early example of this genre, known as travel literature, in Emerstari is Frederik Kierke, whereas a later example of it is Han's Besøging til der Valdes Underjord. Beginning in the early-twentieth century, the mystery genre replaced travel literature for some time as the dominant genre of fiction in Emerstari; however, by the mid-twentieth century, the publishing industry experienced a surge in activity and grew much larger than it had been in previous centuries.

Philosophy

Gustaf Karl Geijer in 1818. He is sometimes called the "National Philospher of Emerstari."

Up until the Scanian Reformation and the establishment of the Emerstarian Empire, much of the philosphy coming out of the Scanian Peninsula had originated in Rhenland, Marseile, and Itrisia to some extent as well. However, by the sixteenth century, and especially by the eighteenth century, numerous philosphers of note had come out of Emerstari, including Ingmar Henrik Riksborg, Lars Villem Mann, and Jakob Martin Gjordessen. Perhaps the most famous Emerstarian philosopher is Gustaf Karl Geijer, who was active during the Emerstarian Golden Age, and was an advocate of Christianity, evangelism, and monarchism. A historian of Emerstarian history as well as an author, poet, and composer, his had great influence on the Emerstarian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. Geijer is known to have had influence on the court of Erik X Gustaf, from which many modern Emerstarian processes of governance come, including Engeherdtism. He was, moreover, a mentor to another famed Emerstarian philoshoper, Olaf Anders Hogstrom, who wrote extensively on theology as well as life, folklore, and the afterlife.

Art and photography

På der Vernijsflod by Karl Johann Dal, 1847.

Like philosophy, art in Emerstari was dominated by foreign influences, including Canaria, Marseile, and Rhenland in the case of art, for some time. The first memorable wave of Emerstarian artists came after the end of the Carolinian Wars in the early-eighteenth century, with an era of patriotism. The Emerstarian artists of this era, to the likes of Jakob David Engfeld and Lorens Olaf Erikssen, were noted for their portrait work, especially for their portraits of the Emerstarian gentry, peerage, and royalty. A second wave of Emerstarian artists came after the Scanian Wars of the Coalitions, during the Emerstarian Golden Age. Artists from this era in Emerstari, such as Osvald Ragnvald Strom and Karl Johann Dal, were prominently landscape artists, who painted the many fjords, rivers, mountains, and forests of Emerstari. With the end of the Emerstarian Golden Age, however, the second era of Emerstarian art is said to have ended. In present-day, Jakob Valdemar Karlssen is often recognized as Emerstari's predominent artist through his work as the royal portraitmaker beginning in the 1990s.

Photography has existed in Emerstari since the 1830s, and in the mid- to late-ninteenth century, there was a significant importance to photography with the rise of nationally-read newspapers. During the Scanian Ten Years' War, Ulrik Lorens Sjomann gained prominence as a wartime photography; he is oftened remembered for his pictures of pilots during the war, many of whom were members of the lower nobility. In 1959, Ingmar Ludvig Njelssen become the first royal photographer in Emerstari under Erik X Gustaf. Modern Emerstarian photographers Jakob Bjorn Ljundburg and Astrid Klasa Johannssen actively participate in principal exhibitions through Arda en' Estel.

Architecture

Olaf Georg Meijer the Younger was the architect behind numerous Emerstarian palaces and churches.

As a result of Emerstari's many expansive forests, especially of spruce and pine, the earliest surviving structures and ruins in Emerstari are often woodwork. These include motte and bailey castles as well as stave churches, the oldest of which are suggested to have been built during the beginning of the Christianization of Emerstari. By the Middle Ages, though, stone became an increasingly common material for the construction of important structures. Some buildings of this era which still stand are Olskrone Castle, the Old Castle in Rensulier, Hjemgren Fortress, and Koppingburg Cathedral. The base for Koppingburg Cathedral was originally set in 1227 in limestone; however, the building took until 1466 to finish. It is was building in Emerstari until Duke of Ekkesburg's University was founded in 1502. Both were later surpassed by Arhus Cathedral which was finished in 1603 and is 119 m (389 ft). Arhus Cathedral remained the tallest building in Emerstari until the rise of the skyscraper in the mid-twentieth century.

After the era of the stave church, variations of the Itric architectural style dominated Emerstarian buildings of note in the Middle Ages until the early modern era, in which baroque and rococo architecture prevailed. Both Midtenland Palace and Rensulier Palace, two residences of the Emerstarian royal family are built in the baroque style. After the Scanian Wars of the Coalitions, with the Emerstarian Golden Age, the national romantic style came to prevalence in Emerstari. By the twentieth century, it came to evolve into the northern classicism style, which is still implemented in Emerstarian construction in modern-day.

Construction for Rensulier Palace (right), the state residence of the Emerstarian royal family, began in 1715 and concluded in 1721.

Cuisine

An inn, as seen here, is typical of the Emerstarian countryside, where local men traditionally came together to drink and talk about regional news.

The culinary traditions of Emerstar originate in the local produce and resources of the country, featuring many dishes with seafood, vegetables, berries, and bread. Several dishes may be considered the national dishes of Emerstari, including: underbrod (an open rye bread sandwich with salmon and a variety of vegetables on top), which is typical of Emerstarian light midday meals as a result of Church-endorsed midday fasting; potatensskål (baked potatoes with meatballs, pickled cucumber, and lingonberry jam), which is typical of Emerstarian diners; and gravleks (salmon cured with salt, sugar, and dill), another dinner meal. Commonplace ingredients in Emerstari include venison, rabbit, and poultry for meats in the north, whereas in the south beef and pork are more prevalent. While fruits, excluding apples and pears, are not traditionally consumed in Emerstari, berries, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, cucumbers, and (since the eighteenth-century) tomatoes are all prevalent. Dairies such as cheese, yogurt, and milk form part of the Emerstarian diet as well; milk provides another north-south divide, where goat's milk is more common in the north and cow's milk in the south. Alcohol has a special place in the culture of Emerstari, and the nation is known for some of its beers which are brewed around Malmø and in the Halleran Isles.

Grocery stores generally don't exist in Emerstari outside of some of its larger cities; although, still in its cities, there is a tradition of regional farmers coming to market squares and selling their goods. As opposed to grocery stores, Emerstarians often will either produce their own food (especially, milk and eggs if not other things) or buy their food from local specialized tradesmen, such as a dairy farmer or a butcher. There is a farm culture in Emerstari, and foreign countries are sometimes looked down upon for their processed foods.

Large feasts in Emerstari typically take place during Christian holidays to the likes of Christmas and Easter. The Christmas dinner is generally larger than the Easter dinner, but both are generally several-course meals with meat, vegetables, and breads. The Easter in Emerstari is sometimes distinguished for the consumption of alcohol that traditionally occurs during it.

Dress and fashion

The Duke of Osterland wearing his clan maud in an 1892 portrait by Johann Gustaf Armundssen.

The traditional dress of Emerstari is marked for the importance placed on representing your clan and familial associations. Mådkladder, or maud clothing, is the most formal level of traditional Emerstarian dress. For both men and women, it consists of wearing a maud with their clan patterns; for men, around the shoulders and the non-dominant arm, and for women, around the neck, clipped by a brooch. Both men and women also wear hats with mådkladder, men wearing Sallian bonnets and women wearing Elsian bonnets. High-cut tweed jackets and vests atop of white dress shirts are common wear for men. For legwear, men will wear slektentrys, or clan trousers, which are high-waisted trousers with one's clan patterns on them. Additionally, they will wear belts with a sporran on it. On men's left hands will be their wedding and signet rings. Women often will wear red, blue, or white calf-length or ankle-length dresses with mådkladder. Both Emerstarian men and women will wear brogues, but whereas men's are flat-heeled and closed, women's may be high-heeled and open. Less formal than mådkladder is flatsjakke kladder, or flat coat clothing. Under that is degskladder, or day's clothing, gångskladder, or walking clothing, and lettskladder, or light clothing.

Emerstarian clothing, similar to the food of Emerstari, is locally-made. Oftentimes, more simple items of clothing, such as socks, underwear, sleepwear, and informal shirts, trousers, and skirts or dresses will be made within the family of the person who will be wearing it. More complicated, formal, and/or decorative items of clothing will be made by a local seamstress or tailor. Emerstarian clothing is generally made out of natural materials that are native to Emerstari like wool, linen, and tweed as opposed to polyester. Although non-native, cotton has become more common in in Emerstarian clothing.

Facial hair is somewhat prevalent among Emerstarian men, who often wear either a beard or a mustache. Traditionally, and still to some extent in the modern-day, sideburns were also a prevalent style of facial hair. Emerstarian men often keep their hair somewhat short. Among women, hair is worn long, often generally simple styles, whereas elaborate styles, often where the hair is put up, are reserved for formal occasions.

Holidays

In Emerstarian depictions of Santa Claus, or Sankta Nikolas, he is shown as wearing a mitre and elves, who watch if children have been good or bad.

Aside from traditional Christian and Protestant holidays, which are widely celebrated in Emerstari, there are number of national and cultural holidays which are celebrated in Emerstari. Among these, there is Walpurgis Night, or Valborgas Nigte, on 30 April and 1 May, which celebrates Saint Walburga, a missionary who came to North Scania, continuing the work of Saint Sigebert, and Midsummer, or Midsommer, which celebrates the summer solstice, coming from a pre-Christian tradition. Eirik's Day, which celebrates the life of Eirikr Segersælla, the first King of Emerstari, is a uniquely Emerstarian holiday. It is celebrated on the date of his death, 21 July, and often consists of families coming together. The second of November is another unique Emerstarian holiday, Elgsdeg, or Deer's Day, in which the deer, the national animal of Emerstari is celebrated; it is a crime to hunt deer on this day. Name days are also prevalently celebrated in Emerstari, as are birthdays.

The Emerstarian Christmas season traditionally begins with Saint Nicholas Day on 6 December, and it lasts until Ephiphany on 6 January. Between, alongside Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, the day in which Emerstarian families usually gather to celebrate, there are several days for various saints, patriarchs, and other Christian figures which are recognized by Emerstarians.

Media

Mass media in Emerstari goes back to a tradition of local men gathering at an inn to drink and discuss regional news. Sometimes innkeepers had apprentices who would write down recent happenings and post them outside of the inn. The Emerstarian constitution, ratified in 1756, guaranteed free press to Emerstarians, and in the following century, by the mid-ninteenth century, certain newspapers, especially those of major cities, had become nationally-read. Within towns and cities, there would often be printing apprentices calling the news and selling newspapers on the streets to businessmen and farmers who came in to sell their produce. In the following decades, some newspapers began to associate themselves with certain coalitions in government, certain guilds, and certain trade unions. Newspapers are still widely-read in Emerstari, especially local ones; though, the largest newspapers in the country are der Rontseljeres Kronikke, der Kuingsblad, der Ljunds Post, and der Erks Tider. Since the rise of radio and the rise of television throughout the twentieth century, several large broadcasting companies have arose in Emerstari. They typically operate under different stations and different names by region, but they are, by order of viewership, der Rikes Utsendingting, Emeriges Folks Utsendingting, der Osterlig Utsendingting, and der Bjorn Ingmar Karlssen Utsendingting.

Sports

Emerstarian tennis player Einar Villem Holm, regarded as the best tennis player in Scania.

Sports and sporting events have been a core part of Emerstarian culture for thousands of years. Oftentimes, dukes and other noblemen will host regional fairs for several weeks during the summer in Emerstari, during which there are traditional Emerstarian games like repskraft (rope's strength), trabaring (tree carrying), and bolkasting (ball throwing) are played. Other competitions such as for archery and running, both long-distance and sprinting, are held. In general, handball, rugby, and bandy are popular team sports in Emerstari. Golf is considered the national sport, and badminton and tennis are important traditions as well. Derbies are seen as one of the sports of the Emerstarian upper class; many of the horses participating are owned by the peerage or gentry. Erik XII Georg, the current Emerstarian monarch, is a proponent of activity among the Emerstarian population, and during his time as crown prince, he was on the Hastiludia Committee as the Emerstarian representative and went on an expedition to northern Fyrland. He has hosted and run in several long-distance races during his kingship.

The Emerstarian men's national bandy team, sometimes called the Tred Kroner for their logo, which is based off the arms of the House of Leijonhuvud, is regarded as the best in Scania. It was won in the winter Hastiludia twelve times. Einar Villem Holm is an Emerstarian tennis player, who has won gold at the summer Hastiludia several times and is regarded as the best tennis player in Scania. Other Emerstarian athletes of note include Mikael Per Strandberg, Andrea Sonja Erikssen, and Olaf Thomes Frederikssen. Emerstari has participated in the Hastiludia since its conception and has hosted the 1915, 1931, 1936, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2011, 2017, and 2029 Hastiludias.

Tourism

According to the Venson Union Council on Tourism, Emerstari is the fifth most visited country in the Scanian Peninsula, after Marseile, Canaria, Soumeland, and Itrisia. Tourism to Emerstari's many historical sites, palaces, castles, and cathedrals is seasonal due to the Emerstarian climate; as a result of this, more than half of all tourists coming between the months of May and August. In contrast, though, tourism to Emerstari, especially its north, to see the natural landscape of Emerstari is often year-round. Ski resorts in Marland are also a major attraction for some international visitors to Emerstari.