Skjoldrbrodir

The lands of Skjoldrbrodir are based off of Norse/Kievan Rus culture as this is apparent in it's buildings, politics, and social gatherings (aka. "Things"). The nation of Skjoldrbrodir may be small and insignificant in it's far reaches to the North-East, but do not be fooled by the size of this nation. The Skjoldrbróðirs burn with a passion that harkens back to the age of Vikings, looking for glory and land to secure for their posterity.

Motto: "Fear not death, for the hour of your doom is set and none may escape it."

Royalty Structure:
High Jarl: The Founder or Leader of the Nation The High Jarl is their Leader and or Founder this status is not to be held with low regard and is the head of the nation, The High Jarl's powers can overrule most if not all things within Skjoldrbrodir.

Jarl: Full Lordship under High Jarl The Jarl control their city and their land within the control of the wider nation of Skjoldrbrodir under the High Jarl. They act as lesser kings and may the time come some may be chosen to be Jarls by the High Jarl.

Earl: Lower than Jarl but higher than Thane. An Earl owns a nation currently vassalized/in fealty to Skjoldrbrodir.

High Thane: Nations Advisor, Head Diplomat and Second in command to the High Jarl Not of the Noble Clans, Outranks everyone apart from the Jarls and the High Jarl although the jarls do not outrank him

Thane: Royal Advisor, Keeps an eye on the Military side and discusses nation/city matters with the royalties based on how the nation or city is progressing.

Magnat: Mayor and governor of towns. Each Magnat serves a Jarldom and Jarl.

Military Structure:
Hersir: Only Chosen by The High Jarl; Leading General of military out ranks everyone but Jarls and High Jarl.

Varyags: Strong Elite Soldiers; Their purpose is only known by the High Jarl this rank does not fall under command of the Hersir but is commanded by the High Jarl.

Aesir: Strong Elite members used by Jarls and the Hersir as the personal guards or as elite raiding forces.

Huskarl: Veteran Warrior; has proven his/her loyalty and skills and is considered a trusted member.

Proved Himthiki: Trusted member, in training and has progressed but is not ready to become Huskarl yet.

Himthiki: Basic recruit or Private the normal rank for little to no experience.

Other titles or status:
Karls: Common free folk they are the builders the farmers the miners and make up the bulk of the nation they may partake in raids and wars but in limited fashion.

Common Law:
Every free man is entitled to their natural rights such as the right to live, the right to own something, the right to an opinion, the right to bear arms, etc. Every man is to bear responsibility for their actions no matter the consequence. No man is to attack or seize something from another without proper reason. Every free man may attend a Thing to voice their opinions and legal cases.

Common Disputes:
Both parties will have to settle on one outcome of the dispute, be it an agreement or a Holmgang, or even a different way of settling it that is not written here. An agreement is self explanatory, you agree on terms that both parties will follow through negotiating and talk. Every agreement should have a middleman to witness the agreement being made. The middleman can be anyone but usually should be someone of a higher class.

A Holmgang is a duel between the representatives of the two parties where the victor is declared correct and in favor of the gods. The first one to fall to the ground is usually the loser.

Cities
Ustokol - Capital City ruled by AC0N (Rathnir)

Feneyjar - City ruled by BalloonDwarf718 (Rathnir)

Veneto - City ruled by CosmicElephants (Rathnir)

Narva - City ruled by Eazy8 (Rathnir)

Steinborg - City ruled by PipoH1PP0 (Eldham)

Fjordvik - City ruled by Eazy8 (Eldham)

Ruddersdam - City ruled by BalloonDwarf718 (Eldham)

Rotspring - City ruled by Deathpope (Eldham)

Uricil - City governed by Kai999, Ruled by PipoH1PP0 (Eldham)

Papari - Town governed by wefse, ruled by LoggyLag (Eldham)

Fubbarvik - Town governed by N8thegr8, ruled by AC0N (Eldham)

Niedshall - Town governed by KempenCommie, ruled by AC0N (Eldham)

Varcheg - City ruled by AC0N (Eldham)

Everfrost - Town governed by Hiro, ruled by inferno_alex (Eldham)

Shergorod - Town governed by GunterTheGamer, ruled by AC0N (Eldham)

New Yoake - City ruled by Soul74800 (Eldham)

Founding:
(Open for edit)

The Question of Nova Roma
Skjoldrbróðir looked to it's south at the prospect of creating alliances and sewing new land into the stitch work of it's nation. All eyes turned to Nova Roma, a nation which was known to Skjoldrbrodir to be lacking active citizens. Skjoldrbróðir's leader, AC0N, heard the anxiousness in his people's voices and decided to claim Nova Roma as his own. He could do this in one of two ways.

Plan 1) Raise a levy of Karls and have them fight as Himthiki in order to conquer the land by force. This would appease his people, as they were ready to die for Skjoldrbróðir at any given time, but this would also decrease international opinion of Skjoldrbróðir. They could not be seen just as savages who fought for more land every chance they got. So he turned to his second plan.

Plan 2) Through diplomacy and the one true power of the land (money) he would buy the whole nation of Nova Roma. With this plan, he would preserve his public image and negotiate a peaceful solution to the Question of Nova Roma.

AC0N ended up paying 30,000 for Nova Roma and remarked on the trade, saying quote, "All of Nova Roma has been sold to Skjoldrbrodir for 30k, this is a legitimate purchase and has been documented in a book signed by both leaders (AC0N [High Jarl of Skjoldrbrodir] and CosmicElephant [Leader of Nova Roma]). All land of Nova Roma is now a part of Skjoldrbrodir."

The integration of Nova Roma is still ongoing to this day as the purchase was negotiated on May 9th, 2021. CosmicElephant became the first Jarl, as he was the past leader of Nova Roma, set as overseer of the Jarldom of Veneto

The Jarldom's of Villhorn and Narva would also be established with BalloonDwarf718 and Ezee8 as the Jarls of each.

Colonization of Eldham
After the discovery of land east of Skjoldrbrodir, settlers were sent out to claim land for the high Jarl. After a few years Skjolrbrodir would more than double its total size with the newly acquired colonial possessions. Skjoldrbrodir's Eldham holdings are right in the middle of the map, near Lumuria and Regnum Drakaes in the continent of Phoros. After months of searching, the location for modern day Steinborg had been chosen. Steinborg got it's name from it's rocky, mountainous terrain. this grand citadel was to be handed to Jarl Pipo of Alfuna (PipoH1PP0), who chose Sir Breadstic of the Pot (tasty_breadstic) to be Thane of Steinborg. Steinborg has constantly been under construction, although it cam to a swift halt when Grassel, head architect and High Thane of Skjoldrbrodir, died.

The Skjol-Limurian Wars
The Battles of Limuria

Skjoldrbrodir, now settled heavily in Eldham, started a period of diplomacy trying to reach nations across our water and land borders making Non aggressions pacts, making trade routes with different nations...etc, the people of Skjold discovered an unusual neighbours, these neighbours were covered in fur, with long tails coming out of their column and long arms that reached for the nearby branches, this 'people' had a massive claim over our area and including Regnum Drakaes, Terrather, and more (although this claim was finally turn down as new and powerful nations appeared). Skjoldrbrodir in its search of friends and treaties, came across two nations, Urakiend and Regnum Drakaes, this two nations will be the foot for the start of the conflict. AC0N the High jarl contacted regnum while Grassioso the High Thane contacted urakiend, the two relations prospered, in the case of urakiend we signed an alliance with them making the two nations official friends, with regnum relations went well too, even giving us information about Limuria cutting their trade route and their possible interest of taking them out (this sparked the flame) Some time passed and the horror begun, Limurian forces atacked our urakiend ally without Skjold noticing threatening them to the point of having to give away land, after that skjold just saw Limuria as a threat and war preparations were starting.

The time came, diplomats from Skjold reached the Limurian capital handing a declaration of war, the conflict started and peace or surrender wasnt an option. This declaration caused a national repercusion mostly for the Skjold side, as secret pacts from other nations with Limuria came to light making them stronger and our supposed ally Regnum Drakaes left us alone in this conflict.

The First Skjold-Limurian Battle
Drums could be heard in the nearby dense jungles of the Limurian capital, Skjoldrbrodir forces with the help of some mercenaires and allies rushed to the gates and started to fight, even holding the capital for some time until they got pushed back. The final result of the battle was a draw, as both sides were unable to push each other and tired after a long fight, Skjold seeing this result decided to do whatever it took to win the next battle and be stronger than the enemy.

The Second Skjold-Limurian Battle
Skjold refused to lose or surrender, in the time pre second battle, Grassioso and other Jarls made diplomatic relations and friends across the world, making us able to gather a great army of friends and allies, and we also received a great population boost wich was vital for the next conflict This task turned out to be rather easy since for some reason a lot of nations didnt like Limuria and decided to help us while others prefered to simply fight with us.

This time Skjoldrbrodir forces were defending in Steinborg the biggest city at that time, in the colonies. The battle started, and the Limurians along with their allies came from the East. Time passed and Limurian forces had entered into the city, what followed could only be described as a masacre of the Limurian's. After many deaths the Limurian's were routed out of Steinborg and a final push was made by Skjoldrbrodir and her allies. The frontlines were pushed right back to the Limurian capital, in which the slaughter continued. This led to a decisive end to the war.

Upon the End of the battle the Limurians attempted to sell off their land to the Imperial Archonate of Viodoxa who in the end would simply gift the land back to Skjoldrbrodir.

Before abandoning their homeland the Limurian's destroyed their ancient capital lest it fall into the hands of the Valdic peoples of Skjoldrbrodir. Having found the ruins of the city Jarl BalloonDwarf718 founded the resort City of Ruddersdam as a modern state of the art settlement where one can indulge in their deepest desires.

From the Ruins of Limuria the Jarldom of Alfuna was Expanded and the Jarldom of Nyr VIllhorn was founded.

Further Expansion
After The Limurian War's many new moments of expansion were set into motion.

Regnum Drakaes
Relations between Skjolderbrodir and The Regnum Drakaes would collapse in the wake of the war after the Drakaes betrayal to their supposed allies Skjolderbrodir. A few weeks later the Regnum Drakaes would collapse and a sliver of their norther territory would be taken by Skjoldrbrodir, and by many it was seen as a Devine retribution.

Terrather
Upon the fall of Valeso fallowing the Limurian wars the nation of Teratherr stood alone. Not wishing to meet a terrible fate it joined Skjoldrbrodir as its own Jarldom.

Plagatean collapse
As the Empire of Plagatéa began to collapse from war with the Skittles Alliance the Province of Eden became an independent state, however its king, Aepollonier Wished not to be dragged into the brutality of the war. instead it opted to join Skjolderbrodir as a Jarldom. Though it could have rejoined the Second Empire of Plagatéa upon its founding it instead opted to stay; having more a cultural connection to Skjoldrbrodir.

The war with Zamotz
After the Limurian war the Lemurfolk of the nation fled to the Island of Zamotz and along with the other nations on the island would form the Zamotz Union.

However, the Limurians never forgot the war they had lost and the shame and hat they felt transformed into a rage against Skjolderbrodir. Thus on the 8th of October 2021 17:22 GMT  the Zamotz Union declared war on SKjoldrbrodir and her allies. The Limurians hoped to steal the western lands of SKjoldrbrodir in order to create a new rump state that one of their puppets would rule.

A battle would follow suit at the fortress of Hefnaheim in which the Zamotz union would win (Though it was won through unscrupulous tactics that broke many a war rule)

Finally after a month long peace negotiation it was agreed that Skjoldrbrodir would pay a large sum to Zamotz and in return the Entente wouls sign NAP's with Skjoldrbrodir.

(For a more in depth of this war go to its dedicated wiki Zamotz - Skjoldrbrodir War)

Joining The Sapphire Commonwealth
As a direct result of the war with Zemots Skjoldrbrodir joined the Sapphire Commonwealth in order to be closer to her greatest allies.

The New Yoake Purchase
In mid November VonObby Vampire Queen of the Republic of New Yoake declared she was bored with the nation and decided to leave. This led to most of the upper class and government of New Yoake abandoning the nation. Seeing the opportunity New Yoake was purchased by Skjoldrbrodir and became a Jarldom with Soul Leyla-Earcala as its Jarl.

Culture
The Valdic People of Skjoldrbrodir have a long and rich culture and religion.

State Religion
After the colonization of Eldham a newer religion was needed for the Northern Valdic people of Skjoldrbrodir, this task was given to BalloonDwarf718 the Grand Shaman of Skjoldrbrodir. Felling that the existence of Eldham directly contradicted theology of The Nostíkur Faith Practiced by most Valdic People until this point. This led to a complete spit with theology of old and the creation of a new faith named Nýr Nostíkur (New Nostikur).

Holiday's
The Fungal Feast : A holiday to the god Rotna celebrating the cycle of life and death. People dress in black robes or costumes of skeletons and ride door to door on skeletal horses asking for scraps of rotten food and mushrooms. The procession then leads their way to the City of Rotspring where the rotten offering is left.

Trivia

 * Skjoldrbrodir translates to "Shield Brother's" in the Valdic language
 * Skjoldrbrodir's capital Ustokol is the location from which Athaz set sail on his trip to discover Eldham
 * The Shamans of Skjoldrbrodir use a unique calendar known as The Gustavic Calendar