Friholm

Friholm is a port town and independent city-state, located in western Sparwood. The city-state also administers the district of Kringal.

Featured Photos
[Old Photos, from July/August of 2021]

=Friholm= The Dogedom is not just known for its beautiful medieval city, but also for the serenity and relaxation its citizens enjoy. Those who live in the city are well-connected, everyone knows everyone, and are open to just enjoying life.

"We live in a very contemporary state of time."

- — Vandoro

"I don't think we do [have any issues]. Pretty stable community"

- — HorudenMC

Etymology
The name Friholm is Swedish, and directly translates to "Free Peninsula".

This is to signify the sovereignty and independence of Friholm. It also describes Friholm's standing as a port due to its geological situation, while emphasizing the focus of Friholm's free market.

Additionally, the name reflects Friholm's in-lore history. as its people moved to the location and established the town as a bid for economic and diplomatic freedom from their original lands.

Pre-History
"Friholmians have tried to sail on land, but have found that it is "Impractical""

- — Prapic1, a 1st Generation Friholmian

There is a reason Friholm has never endured, or ever fought its own war. That is because of the sacrifices it had to make to rich peace in the first place. Our past is that of horrendous suffering, bloody pain, eternal warfare, and grave trauma. All of which paid off in the end to create eternal peace.

The Frivatten Era
[Beginning of the Civil Unrest Period-Into The Period of Peace]

With records from ancient Yimmu-Audal manuscript and what oral tradition could be recorded, we trace its origins to the near end of the Factions Period (Late December, 2020), when the Shattered Sea first was flooded with traders, smugglers, and sea kings. During this golden age of black-market trading, merchants enjoyed great prosperity and material luxury, as this sea was far away from the monitorization of the great empires to the south. Yet, as a catalyst of the thieving and smuggling in the seas reaching its zenith, the great southern power of Vioxdoxa sent their grand armadas all the way north to hunt down criminals and fugitives, thus disrupting the Shattered Sea business and dis-employing dozens of merchants. The greatest casualty was the Harlot of Vattnet, a literal house on a ship, which used to sustain itself off of the illegal trade of blue crystal rum. It’s leader, Captain crimBlood, offered the merchants new opportunities for pirating if they sailed to the Rough Sea with their ships. Many accepted, and thus the Captain brought dozens of sailors to travel across land and sea. During this journey, starving and carrying luggage, ships, and animals became a huge issue. Bandits and pirates would attack them. In these desperate times, crimBlood supposedly choked a goose who let loose a golden egg. When he consumed this golden egg, crimBlood brawled everyone on board, at once, and won. He drowned fighting a giant rock turtle, lost his shit and rage quitted. Another person was elected captain, Jimmyjim12, had to make his crew cross over land into the Astyllean Sea, but drank too much coffee and sped into a Azurian castle. He was then kidnapped by a local Azurian noble, but was rescued by a mate, called RicKAMor. RicKAMor was a prominent, charismatic barter who quickly established herself as a better leader than Jimmyjim, who was voted out by the crew in favor of RicKAMor. The new captain traveled the seas for a day, but was then chased by the Azurian fleet, whose host wanted to forcibly take Jimmyjim as a husband. However, RicKAMor maneuvered into a laggy storm, preventing the Azurian fleet from capturing Jimmyjim, but several mates lost their lives, demoralizing the crew. RicKAMor found the whole ordeal to be too stressful for her, and resigned. The most reasonable of the crew, Flunk, who didn’t want to be leader nevertheless took up the role of captain to save them all. He believed sailing all the way to the Rough Sea was too risky and landed his crew in where Friholm is now on the 8th of May, which is what is now “Friland Day”.

The Era of Struggle
[May 8th- May 25th]

The history of this period is complex and long to go into, but to summarize it:

Flunk ordered the Frilanders to strip the wood from the ships to set up temporary huts to shield themselves from the harsh monsoon rains. The Frilanders ended up being raided constantly by Tortugan pirates, and Flunk had the richest guy, named Userman, find help. Userman hired a mercenary group of “Runes”, skilled viking warriors, to protect the settlement. As Userman built up the village, one of the Runes, named Agent, led a decisive victory in the “Battle of The Free Plains' ' against the last of the Tortugan pirates. Afterwards, Userman was too stressed and had his son, Profilman, to take over while he left the game. Profilman was good friends with Agent and had him lead the Runes to overthrow Flunk for doing nothing. Profil removed the title of captain, borrowed the local Sparewood title of “Doge”, declaring the “City-State of Friholm”, announcing the voyage over and that this would be their permanent “Holm”. No one questioned Profil’s new-found authority since the Frilanders had no issue with Profil and Agent protecting them. The Friholmians were now free from threats, turmoil, and chaos as long as he was in power. Thus, ended the Era of Captains and the Reign of Profilman.

History
Friholm was founded on 23 May 2021 by Profilman and AgentL00.

Initially, it was a member of the United Kingdoms of West Sparwood. However, following The West Sparwood Crisis, Friholm broke from the nation and proclaimed itself an independent city-state, declaring its neutrality in any upcoming conflict. Friholm officially became a free peninsula on the 7th June 2021.

Doge Profilman, The Builder
[May 25th - Present]

Friholm started as a purely oligarchic state, with Profilman, Agent, and Prapic as the 1st triumverate. However, after the initial town was set up and a national assembly was held, a council was formed. This council was comprised of both guild leaders and citizens, representing the people and their economy.

The First Council
[July 20th- August 22nd]

Shortly after Friholm purchased the rest of the peninsula from the Free States of Tortuga (Thanks to Prapic's immense wealth), Friholm joined them in the Allium-Coalition War to honor their new alliance. In the aftermath of this war, large amounts of land were purchased from once-enemy Bardonia, at the expense of Prapic, Landsmin, and Wassel's pockets. This deal effectively quadrupled (or even quintupled) the size of Friholm's domain.

After the second national assembly — during which the first district was officially declared finished, and Friholm's first constitution was created — TMaterial finished the construction of a temporary hippodrome and hosted the first horse race in Friholm's history; drawing in nobles from Uldarash, Tortuga, and many other nations to race/watch.

During this time, Kringal collapsed; the city's remaining leadership agreed to join Friholm, becoming the nation's 2nd city.

With the first council bringing Friholm out of the turmoil that was the hot summer, they resigned and second elections for a new council was held.

The Second Council
[August 22nd- September 17th]

A good portion of Friholm's leadership and citizenship went inactive due to rl schooling returning to many people's lives. Among the casualties was Profil, Agent, and some council members. As such, Profil decided to hand Wassel, a very active member in Friholm, the role of acting-Doge/Viceroy to manage Friholm.

The rest of this councilship oversaw no noticable changes both domestically and externally.

The Third Council
[September 26th- October 31st]

Wassel, overseeing the continued construction of the next (rich) district, announced a building day to resume progress.

This Council ended as Friholm emerged victorious from the Halloween Event, in which our lands became a great battleground against the demons of both hell and night.

The Fourth Council
[October 31st- November 21st]

Friholm saw the creation of a defensive pact with Aldovir, the second alliance next to Tortuga.

Many in Friholm got married; most notably the Viceroy, Wassel, married the Chancellor/Princess of Tulipia, Sami. Whilst not a political marriage, it incidentally brought the two great nations closer together.

A third national assembly was held in efforts to reform Friholm's constitution. The constitution was then amended in order to expand and reconstruct the legal system.

The Fifth Council
[November 28th-]

The Doge announced the construction of a grand new keep in the highlands east of Friholm.

This is the story of the grand city state of Friholm, so far...

Founding
"Our fore-fathers were merchants who settled down in what is now Friholm in an attempt to avoid a fear that trade regulations might grow in Rathnir. Their flotillas of trading ships were disassembled, and the timber was used to found the first settlement in Friholm."

- — Profilman

Initially the town was set up with each family as equals, the autocracy was abolished as the founding of a new settlement acted as an equalizer, and a rudimentary parliamentary system was set up. Profilman's ancestors quickly rose to power in parliament, gaining a fast majority, allowing the family to pursue a military coup. The family consolidated power quickly and established themselves as the new monarchy. It is the system they created that presides in Friholm to this day.

Friholm was established on the basic values of keeping the peace, and giving opportunity to everyone to pursue what they love freely, whilst being protected and uninterrupted from outside threats. Such focuses that people love to do are building, writing, and roleplaying.

Politics
Friholm's Government is a Constitutional Autocracy, with Profilman acting as the current monarch or "Doge", and Wassel acting as the current Viceroy. Much of Friholm's politics is inspired by, and is in part based on, Renaissance-era Venice.

Most decisions are made by an elected council. Originally, there were 6 seats on the council; three for guild leaders, and three for representatives democratically elected by citizens. However, guilds eventually became inactive and so the positions granted to guilds were removed. On the 23rd of July 2021, the prospective candidates took part in an official debate concerning Friholm's future. The debate was mainly focused on foreign policy and taxation. Voting for the first council election began at 18:00 CET on the 24th of July 2021, with voting ending at 11:00 CET the next day.

The results of the first election determined that Draco Furno, Wassel, and Vandoro would be the new council members. The guild members would be AdamSmith, TMaterial, and later down the line, Micted. The second election determined Wassel and DracoFurno to be reoccuring members, whilst introducing Illegal, and Starwars as new council members. AdamSmith and TMaterial would be guild leaders. The third election had Starwars, Trix, and Ryowan be the new council members, whilst AdamSmith and TMaterial returned as guild leaders. The fourth election found Trix, Ryowan, Starwars, and TMaterial to be the new council members. The fifth election saw Trix, starwars, and TMaterial as council members.

Culture
To be continued!

Religion
Friholm maintains freedom of religion. Currently, there is no one religion followed by the majority of the citizens of Friholm.

Geography
A flat cityscape, with a slight hill and incline to the west, surrounded by water. There it a small tributary that divides the city in-two; with the port on one side, and the wealthier market on the other.

Location
The City of Friholm is located in southeastern Rathnir, in the western portion of the continent of Sparwood. The nation is bordered by Tortuga to the south and west, Tulipia and Tovarisha to the north, and Kingdom of Avaria to the east. Since 11th August 2021, the annexed nation of Kringal has been directly administered as a district of Friholm.

Alliances
Currently, Friholm is allied with the Free States of Tortuga, Aldovir, and is in a non-aggression pact with Xemalatau.

The military alliance with Tortuga was signed by Ezlioth, the Captain of Blackrock; and Profilman, the Doge of Friholm. The military alliance saw both sovereignties pledging military aid in times of need, and promising not to attack or betray the other, upon a condition of a one time delivery of bread to Tortuga from Friholm.

Fri-Patrons
Profilman [For being our first Doge], Agent [For being Profil's right-hand, for arranging to purchase the Peninsula], Prapic and Landsmin [for financing said purchase, and for basically paying for all the land Friholm owns], DracoFurno [For caretaking this wiki], Wassel [For mad diplomacy skills],

Wiki Patrons
Profilman [Creator]

DracoFurno [1st Writer May-November]

Vandoro [2nd Writer November-Present]

Wassel [Aid]

Girv [Aid]

This page was last updated: December 1st, 2021