Svenskt

Svenskt, officially known as the Republic of Svenskt(: Republikken Svenskt), is a landlocked country located in central Artemia that borders Gardarike to its north, Samotkhe to its east, Seratof to its south, and Borgosesia to its west. The nation claims disputed territories of Vekspre with Seratof and the Grænudalir Republic with Gardarike.

The modern state of Svenskt was birthed in the late-19th century, when a coalition of Republicans and Communists in the region declared the Free Svenskt Republic, winning their independence in the Second Svenskti War of Independence against Gardarike. In 1905, the Communists were able to take complete control over the Republic, declaring the Central Artemian People's State later in the year, forming the first communist state. The State would join on the Republican side of the Grand Campaigns, expanding to include northern Seratof, Samot lands, and Borgosesia, establishing itself as a strong regional Artemian power.

Despite the power of the Central Artemian People's State, it would lose the Central Artemian War and as a result Svenskti anti-communists came to power with Central State support. Caspar Qvist would establish himself as the leader of the anti-communist regime and ruled the country as Rigsmarsk(Anglic: Marshal of the Realm) over the next two decades. He would be ousted by Aleksander Jepsen following the military failure of the Veksprë-Börgum Confrontation. After consolidating power, Jepsen proclaimed the start of a Long Trek Towards Democracy and founded the Republic of Svenskt. Svenskt is a member state of the North-South Concordant, having held membership since 1968, the North-South Defence Consortium, having joined at the same time.

Name
Svenskt is named after Sven of Kaasøe, the first king of Svenskt, and a leader in the First Svenskti War of Independence. When first founding the Kingdom, Sven Kaasøe decided that instead of using the previous Gardic name for the territory, Grænudalir, he would name the Kingdom after himself.

After being annexed by Gardarike, the region was renamed back to Grænudalir in order to assert the Empire's rule over the region, although the local administration still used the Old Svedic regional names.

Upon gaining sovereignty after the Second Svenskti War of Independence, the state was known as the Free Republic of Svenskt, but this was amended on the 6th of April, 1900 to the Svenskti Federal Republic. The Federal Republic was later dissolved and replaced by the Central Artemian People's State.

The Unitary State of Svenskt was declared by Casper Qvist at the beginning of the Red-Grey War, and after the transfer of power to Aleksander Jepsen was renamed to the Republic of Svenskt as the governmental systems were established to set up the current government.

The Marshal's Regime
On 25 July 1964, Seratofian troops marched into the Svenskti territory of West Börgum to uphold the results of a local referendum to join the country, beginning the Veksprë-Börgum Confrontation. Despite the state of Svenskt being militarised under the Qvist regime, the military had several flaws. Modern analysis shows the facts that most of the state's equipment was outdated and that there was an inefficient bureaucracy behind the assignment of officers being core to the failure of the state's offenses. By 1967, the Veksprë-Börgum Confrontation had become a stalemate, with both Svenskt and Seratof controlling pieces of each other's land, but being unable to advance any offensives further. The aging Caspar Qvist, who had solidified his rule on military power and jingoism, had lost the trust of not only the Svenskti people with his staff's poor performance in the war, but also of some of his command staff. Aleksander Jepsen, the commander who had lead the offensive on Brytijord which was one of the only successful Svenskti offensives of the war, delivered an ultimatum to Qvist on 14 May to step down and hand the position of First Chairman over to Jepsen. Qvist accepted, and Jepsen sued for peace with Seratof, ending the Veksprë-Börgum Confrontation and the Qvist Era.

Multiple high-ranking members of the Qvist government were later tried under counts of crimes against humanity against the Svenskti people, over Qvist Era policies, but Qvist himself was never tried, being allowed to retire in home-arrest in his birthplace of Brytijord.

Government and Politics
The Svenskti political system has its modern roots in the 1970 Constitution. The country is primarily ruled as a Presidential Republic, with a unicameral legislative body, known as the National Assembly. The system has often been critisised as undemocratic and giving strong favourtism to the military, as all elected positions require reaching the rank of Officer in the Svenskti Armed Forces.

Jepsen's Long Trek Towards Democracy and the 1970 Constitution laid the core groundwork for the current Svenskti political system. One of the key elements of it was to bring true democracy back to Svenskt for the first time in half a century. This was accomplished, in part, by the formation of the National Assembly, a unicameral body comprising of 143 members who are elected for 4 year terms.

Rigsmarsk
The Rigsmarsk is, as defined in the 1970 Constitution, the person responsible for guiding Svenskt along the Long Trek Towards Democracy. The constitution grants the Rigsmarsk unlimited powers to do this. He can supercede the National Assembly and Prime Minister on all issues of state and can pass decrees only revokable by the National Salvation Council and himself. All matters of national importance, as decided by the National Salvation Council and commonly matters such as national budgets and foreign policy, are required to have the approval of the Rigsmarsk before the National Assembly can put them into action. The Constitution also names the Rigsmarsk as the Supreme Commander of the Svenskti National Armed Forces. The current Rigsmarsk, Frans Skov, has been in power since Per Jern's resignation in 2003. In his reign, Skov has primarily kept his decrees and decisions limited to foreign policy, leaving the democratic systems mostly autonomous in their rule, with the notable exception of the Svenskti national response to the 2021 Central Artemian snowstorm. The Rigsmarsk additionally and hypothetically has the power to dissolve the National Assembly, although it has not been used.

When taking office, the Rigsmarsk decides their successor, writing the name down on a paper slip which is stored in a secured vault at an unknown location for safekeeping. At any point the Rigsmarsk can decide to choose a new successor, and the record of the previous one being chosen is destroyed. It is unknown how many successors may be chosen by a single Rigsmarsk. The Rigsmarsk additionally has total authority to resign whenever they feel that their successor is better suited than they are.