Suderland

The Grand Duchy of Suderland Storhertigdömet Suderland
Flag of Suderland Flag Coat of arms of Suderland Coat of arms
Motto: "Fastet ik sudern!" "The fortress in the south "
Suderland in green Suderland in green
Capital	Suderhamn
Official languages	Imerian
Religion	holy chronicles 85% Christianity 8% Islam 5% Other 2%
Demonym(s)	Suderläning
Government	Absolute Monarchy
• Duke	Duke Engelbrekt auf Silferfrid
Annexation by the absolute royal federation
Area
• Total	172,021 km2 (66,418 sq mi)

Suderland is one of the smaller realms in Scandera but amongst the three minor ones so have Suderland often been considered the more powerful one, while it lacked the fleets of jarnarna and did not hold important trade routes as karmanjaka did. It did however have a massive population compared to both of the other minor realms. Even today so is the realm heavily populated with large factories producing ships, weapons, automobiles, home electronics (The realm is known for the production of the automatic tea maker amongst others) and clothing. While agriculture have historically been important so have the percent of people involved in that trade drastically lowered in recent years.

Geography

Suderland is known for it's flat farmland, the long sandy beaches that constantly shifts as the waves takes and adds more sand constantly and finally for the large massive cities that one can find in the south-eastern part of the realm.

Climate

Suderland has a temperate climate, characterised by mild winters, with mean temperatures in January and February of -5 to -10 °C, and cool summers, with a mean temperature in August of 15.7 °C. Suderland has a very wet climate due to being surrounded by Utanhafet on three sides and on average receiving a total of 712 millimetres (28 in) per year; autumn is the wettest season and spring the driest.

Flora and fauna

While there once was a rather large ecosystem living in Syderland so have that been all but extinct and where there in the past had been large forests so are there now farmland or cities rising up. The large animals as bear, wolves and forest wyverns that once lived there have also been drive out by human expansion as in most of the south and today so is the realm mostly inhabited by badgers, foxes, pheasants and rodents of different kinds.

Culture

While culturally similar to other Scanderans so are there a few more differences in mostly language and cuisine that is remarkable fat even by Scanderan standards while they speak a language of their own called Södermål. However in recent times so have the native language started to dwindle and according to recent surveys so do only 25% of the population speaks södermål as their first language while Imerian is much more common.

History

Era of power

While Suderland have historically lacked the power of the three kingdoms, Imeriata, Vedian, Erathia, so have it however have a substantial power compared to the northern iceplains, Karmanjaka and Jarnarna which resulted that it was ruled by a grand duke rather than a king, jarl or duke as ether the larger political entities, or the minor realms were.

Historically so have Suderland it's origin in the exalted march to the south which resulted in the end of the last of the non-human tribes living there's independence and the total human and chronological dominion over the entire continent. At it's height so did Suderland even control what today is the southern parts of Imeriata proper from which the ruling house, at the time the auf Söderberga house were a worthy rivals to the Stjärnkhronor in the north and a more likely candidates to the unifier of Imeriata.

However while the Stjärnkhrone family in the north grew in power and lands so did the Söderberga house not, their realm fractured due to civil war, pegasi raiders from the mountains challenged them and former vassals broke away over a long period of time until the former mighty realm was divided into two parts with a thick belt of independent minor kingdoms between the two parts.

The end however is universally accepted to have come with the Stjärnkhrone-Söderberga war in 432 where the Stjärnkhrone claimed dominance over the western part of the nation and with support from a lot of the minor kings were they able to invade and the short war that followed ended in the utter destruction of Söderberga army and in the end the victory of the Stjärnkhrone house and their acquisition of the eastern parts. However during the unification of Imeriata in 474 so were the Suderland not included as their dialect had grown into what today is known into "Suder Tungomål" or "Southern tongue" and more importantly, the Stjärnkhrone invasion of 468 ended in a victory of the Suderland grand duke and his realm was able to keep it's independence as the Stjärnkhrone family looked north for more power and influence.

The two hundread year war

As the wars in the north raged so did Suderland managed to maintain neutrality in both Vedian-Imerian wars, however during the two hundred year war proved the end of that policy as well as Suderland independence. The Erathian council of cities managed to negotiate forth a alliance in 1428 and during the large push north by the city states during that time so did Suderland join in by invading southern Imeriata. While the joint attack seemed to be successful at first and large parts of northern Erathia was retaken and a large number of southern Imerian castles were either besieged or taken altogether by Suderland so did this turn when the northern Erathian attack was broken.

With the Erathians either in retreat or once again fortifying their own gains so did Suderland also started to withdraw as northern troops from both Imeriata and Vedian with the support of tribesmen from the northern iceplains started their own campaign in the south. For two year did a quick but brutal war follow which in the end, ended in the occupation of Suderland by the Stjärnkhrone family and the Söderberga grand duke and his entire family was forced to abdicate as the Stjärnkhrone family appointed the Silferfrid family as dukes of Suderland while Leiksten rex Stjärnkhrone I was crowed grand duke of Suderland in 1431.

Federal era

During the later on colonisation period mostly conducted by Imeriata and Vedian so were Sudland only able to provide support to colonisation efforts and no major Sudland colony were established while both Imerian and Vedian groups created their own realms under the protection of the crown.

During Queen Erika's war so were the duke at first planning to use the war as a chance to withdraw out of the federation and while he at first were able to mobalise the army and expel most of his both Erikoliner and Gustavoliner vassals so were his own rein cut short. The strong Gustavolin Nils auf Silferfrid and cousin of the duke used the confusion of the deceleration of independence to stage a coup d'etat and gain control of the realm military. After having executed the entire ducal family for high treason did he crown himself duke and quickly repatroized the realm and joined the gustaviolinerna in the war where he were able to not only tie down large parts of Erikaoliner in the south while the northern Gustavolin troops were able to breath a bit easier but he was also a fairly successful commander that managed to liberate quite a few strongholds in the south.

With the peace treaty and marriage between high queen Erika and high king Gustav so did Nils withdraw back to Suderland which was one of the starting areas of the Imerian industrial revolution and the home of massive factories that were built. This did however have the disadvantage of large syndicalist groups being created and growing as they did in Erathia, and in a very smaller manner, northern Imeriata. When the civil war broke out in 1918 so were Suderland not in total revolt as Erathia nor did it join the commoners confederation of Scandera created in Erathia but it were neither a royalist strongpoint as uprisings were common and the loyalist troops stationed there were forced to fight hardly to maintain the control of the cities.

Conflicts continued into the thirties before the royal inquisition could finally declare the realm free of syndicalist organised resistance and abolish the martial law that had been in effect in the realm for more than a decade.