Nordal

Nordal (pronounced ), officially the United Republic of Nordal, is a sovereign country located off the western coast of mainland Vestea. Nordal occupies the entire island of Dellea as well as some minor outlying islands to the west. Separated by the Amica Sea to the east and the ?-sea to the west, Nordal has no land borders but has extensive maritime borders with Lindenholt and Umbrellya. With a population of (2020), Nordal has one of the highest populations in Western Vestea.

Burton is the capital and largest city with a population of 7,921,043 and a metro area population of 13,842,104 making it one of the highest developed cities in Vestea. Since the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing was the largest driving force for the expansion of urbanised cities in Nordal such as Ryeham and Lowemouth, however since the 1930s, banking and financial services have taken over as the biggest driving force for the expansion of cities.

Since 1895, Nordal has been a parliamentary republic with an unwritten constitution as a result of the Silent Revolution. Therefore, the legislative and executive share a close bond with both the de facto head of state and the head of government being participating members of parliament. While there has been officially no head of state of Nordal for over a century, in practice the role of head of state falls to the President of the Upper Council - Nordal's upper house.

A founding member of the UN-type org and the Association of Rewish-speaking Nations, and member of the Vestean Union, Nordal is deeply interconnected and boasts extensive diplomatic relations with numerous states around the world.

In 1998 the minor outlying islands of Saint Bartholemew, James' Islands, and Saint Martin's Islands we're officially incorporated into Nordal proper and stopped being dependencies thus officially ending the last modern presence of Nordal's colonial history.

Etymology
The first know usage of Nordal is found in the 400 AD Malbury Chronicles referring to the north of Dellea, literally meaning North Dellea. Before this Nordal as a conceptual name did not exist and instead the area was referred to as Dellea, a name inherited by the not!Romans used to refer to the entire island.

Nordal started to become a widespread name for the collection of Rewish Kingdoms along the Rye river plain - particularly the medieval Kingdom of Midland and Kingdom of Rye. Once the many Rewish Kingdoms consolidated into the Kingdom of Rewland, Nordal became synonymous with Rewland as a means of referring to the Kingdom of Rewland. With the coronation of King John II as king of Welwyn, Rewland and Verland in 1347 AD, the public opted to use Nordal as an official term for King John II's new domain.

This left Dellea as the official name for the geographic region Nordal inhabits and Nordal as the political entity that encompasses Welwyn, Kurnlan, Rewland, Corbourne, and Verland