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 Umbrellia. 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 (2020) 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 major cities across the country.

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 a 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 were officially incorporated into Nordal 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 Malbury Chronicles, published in 400AD, 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 Sertorians 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, Nordal, as an official term for King John II's new domain, became commonplace.

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.

Sertorian Nordal
Until the coronation of John II, the island of Dellea remained broadly divided among many duchies, principalities, and clans. These separate states were mainly split along linguistic and cultural boundaries; there were few examples of multicultural states surviving for long periods without instability.

The establishment of a Sertorian trading outpost and fort at the mouth of the river Rye marked an abrupt end to the relative isolation the island saw in the past centuries.

The "Five Nations" & Administrative Divisions
Nordal is a unitary nation with most political power situated in the capital, Burton. The term "Five Nations" is a political term referring to the five "nations" that make up Nordal - Kurnlan, Welwyn, Courbourn, Verland, and Rewland. Rewland is the largest of the five and hosts the capital.

The five "nations" hold no legally binding individual legislative power themselves; they are represented in parliament in the form of advisory committees. For example, the Rewland Committee is compromised of 15 Rewish MPs that make suggestions and advise the government on policy regarding Rewland. The system has been in place since 1957.

Political Parties
Since the late 1700s, Nordal has always been dominated by two dominant political factions with varying ideologies throughout its history.

Currently the Conservative Union Party (CUP) and Social Labour Party (SLP) are the largest two parties and have been since 1953, with Alliance in a strong third position.

In terms of membership, the SLP is the largest with nearly 150,000 members as of 2020 with Alliance coming second with just under 67,000 members in 2020.

Throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries the liberal and conservative factions of parliament wrestled back and forth to control the House. That was until the 1940s when the Social Labour Party was founded and quickly rose to power in the 50s and 60s in an economically declining Nordal.

Also prevalent in Nordalan politics are the multiple nationalist political parties who, in 2017, obtained a combined 1,971,665 votes (5.4% of total votes cast). The oldest of these nationalist parties is the Welwyn National Party, founded in 1871 and seen as Nordal's first independently functioning socialist political party. The WNP has maintained a presence in the House of Commons since the 40s and is the leader of the National Bloc, a loose alliance of nationalist parties and organisations in Nordal.

Changes Since Last Election
As of January 2020, 1 CUP MP has died and 3 others have been suspended from the party making them independents. The MP for Hiddleton died in late 2018 triggering a byelection in which Alliance MP, Andrew Jackfield, won increasing Alliance's MPs by 1 to 61 in total.

Energy
Nordal is one of Ardin's largest producers and importers of energy. 48.5% of the energy produced in Nordal in 2020 was from fossil fuels, mostly from natural gas which, alone, accounts for 45% of Nordal's total energy production. Nordal is also one of the largest consumers of natural gas in the VU, comparable to neighbouring Lindenholt.

From the opening of the first power station in the late 19th century to 1977, coal accounted for over 80% of Nordal's energy production. From 1977 onwards coal would lose its favourability with 1987 being the first-time coal reached below 50% of domestic production. The biggest alternative of coal that the governments of Nordal have employed is natural gas, quickly outpacing coal-fired powerplants in Nordal and now accounts for over 45% of domestic energy production.

Current plans for the phasing out of coal would see Nordal be coal-free by 2025, with projections suggesting that this could be achieved as early as 2022 with the right investment.

The fastest growing industry in the energy sector is wind, growing from 6.5% of national production in 2000 to 15.5% in 2020 with further plans to become the co-dominant energy source in the 2030s and 40s.

Nuclear energy has seen stagnation in recent decades, due to the politicisation of the building of nuclear plants around the country. The latest nuclear plant, Bromstone Harbour Site A, saw massive pushback from the local community and party activists. Nationally, only a few political parties outright reject the use of nuclear power, however, many of the main active political parties in Nordal remain largely silent on the issue. It was only during the 2017 Nordal General Election that any party announced they were in favour of nuclear power and pledged to expand nuclear power.