Nanmaunaktuk

Nanmaunaktuk, officially the Chiefdom of Nanmaunaktuk, is a country located in Vidina. All five of its provinces sit partially or fully inside of the arctic circle making it the northernmost nation in the world.

Etymology
Nanmaunaktuk is a compound from ancient Nanmaunakti, translating roughly to "the greater land of those who are moved by dogs", in reference to the early dog-sled migratory habits of the Nanmaun tribes. The name "Nan"(dog), "Maun" (to be carried by), "Ak" (greater), and "Tuk" (Land). This is a composite word of two parts - "Nanmaun" referring to the tribes that settled the majority of the island, and "Aktuk", which was first coined in the 1700s meaning "greater land of" to describe nations - hence, Nanmaunaktuk translates more directly to "Nation of (Greater) Nanmaun".

Other words commonly seen in this article are Nanmaunakti (meaning "Language of the Greater Nanmaun"), Nanmaunaktut (meaning "People of Nanmaunaktuk".

Prehistory
The island of Nanmaunaktuk was colonized on and off for most of the last 10,000 years; mostly with temporary settlements that either starved, froze, or fled the land. Only limited archeological evidence exists of these groups, but records from the nomads of the area indicate their presence. According to spoken history, however, the first permanent settlements were entirely killed off by the invading Nanmaun tribes sometime in the 4th century BCE. Nanmaunaktuk consisted of three tribes, which, according to mythological tradition, stem from the three sons of Qimmeq, “Hound”, who is said to be the mythical tutelary father of the nation. These three tribes owned three portions of the island, leaving boundary s between their land.

Early Auynic contact
Contact with traders from the Auynic Empire sometime around the mid first century BCE led to the introduction of crops such as potatoes, as well as regular access to forged metals like bronze. Trade with Auynic peoples to the south regularly occurred up to the fourth century CE, with the collapse of the Auynic Empire into several smaller kingdoms. Following the collapse of the Auynic Empire, the culture of Nanmaunaktuk entered into a drawn out period of starvation and stagnation known as the Great Decay.

Great Decay
From the end of the 4th century to the beginning of the 12th century, the tribes of Nanmaunaktuk infrastructure partially collapsed as imported tools and equipment from the Auynic empire became scarce or unavailable. While trade still existed between the island and the mainland, the quantity and depth of trade made the establishment of new settlements on the island precarious, and many smaller established settlements disappeared within three generations.

17th century and Myrish colonization
The Myrish discovered the island in 1602, and used the island and its accommodating native culture to survive during the winter months, establishing a trade route with the Nanmaunaktut. Trade mainly consisted of luxury items, primarily pelts, were traded to the Myrish (which gave rise to the form of currency, the pelt-foot) in exchange for tools and most importantly, technology.

20th century
During the Second World War, Nanmaunaktuk initially aided Salia in the transporting of material goods and materials, as well as operating airbases along its southern coasts.

In 1940, it was invaded by Riyata in an attempt to cut off supplies; while Nanmaunaktuk was rather quickly thrown from power after the Battle of Kalkisiknup and the official government capitulated, numerous elements of the Nanmaunaktut Army refused to surrender and began waging a wide - if largely ineffectual - insurgency campaign, establishing a temporary capital in Sirmsiqtik where it would into the 21st century. At the cessation of hostilities, Nanmaunaktuk was granted independence.

During the Third World War, Nanmaunaktuk was again invaded by Riyata, and was again forced to wage a guerrilla war against the Imperial Riyatic Army, and was once again granted independence at the end of the war.

Geography
The island of Nanmaunaktuk is located in Vidina, off the coast of northwestern mainland Vatupaya. Its capital city is Sirmiqtik, with the other large settlements being Kiriktik, Iqaluktik, and Qinnitik in the as-named provinces around them.

Territories
Nanmaunaktuk is divided into five territories:

Sirmiqtak Territory
Sirmiqtak is the capital territory, while also being one of the least populous provinces. Currently hosting a population of 49,000 residents, it is the smallest, and most heavily urbanized, territory, with the city of Sirmiqtik covering 50% of the territory.

Kiriktak Territory
Kiriktak, the western half of the island, is the most populous territory in Nanmaunaktuk at approximately 60,000 residents; of which 45,000 reside within city limits in Kiriktik. It was originally the capital prior to the 1940 Riyatic Invasion where its coastal status lead to it's swift fall.

Iqaluktak Territory
Iqaluktak territory comprises most of the eastern half of the nation, and is noteworthy for its highly productive lake fisheries, which supply much of the rest of Nanmaunaktuk with food during the colder seasons.

Qinnitak Territory
Qinnitak is located along the southern coast of Nanmaunaktuk, and maintains year-round fisheries, although it does not yet have ports large enough for major transport vessels to dock in.

Laqtak Territory
Laqtak quite literally translates to "cold place", which befits the frozen wasteland that it encompasses. Covering approximately one third of Nanmaunaktuk's land and water surface areas, it has recently been a focus of large amounts of mineral exploitation expeditions.

Landscape and climate
Nanmaunaktuk is geographically broken into several separate regions listed below.

Sirmiq valley
The Sirmiq valley is a small glacial valley formed approximately 3,000 years ago. With shelter on all sides by mountain ranges and relatively shallow geothermal energy, the area has turned into a near paradise among the surrounding tundras, with it representing some of the furthest-north habitable terrain. It is host to a variety of unique species due to its isolation.

Kirik Shield
The Kirik Shield refers to the rocky, uneven terrain that covers most of the western half of Nanmaunaktuk. Formed by the erosion of the Aklaqnat mountain ranges over thousands of years of glacial retreat, the Kirik Shield has only a layer of soil rarely more than five meters deep above the largely igneous and metamorphic formations that carry the island. The Kirik Shield, while largely unfavorable to large-scale farming, cultivation, and industry, has proven more than adequate for small scale lifestyles and was the earliest area settled by humans.

Iqaluk Lake
Iqaluk Lake is a large freshwater body of water along the southern coast of Nanmaunaktuk. Thanks to the formation of the Aklaqnat range, Iqaluk Lake is able to stay both fresh and unfrozen for a large portion of the year, and is host to a wide variety of unique species due to its isolation and unique ecological pressures.

Qinnit beach
Along the eastern coast lies the Qinnit beach geographical area. Notable for its steep shores and deep inlets, Qinnit beach is host to a large number of small fishing settlements.

Aklaqnat mountains
The Aklaqnat mountain range stretches from the northern tip of the island to the southern, and ridges continue under the straights and into Vatupaya

Laqtak
Laqtak is the Nanmaunakti term for "cold place," but in this case refers to the cold, unlivable tundra covering the northern half of the island, all the way along the northern coast of the island.

Biodiversity
The uniquely isolated location and weather systems of Nanmaunaktuk have made the area home to a number of uniquely endemic species of plants and animals, though the actual internal biodiversity is rather limited due to the cold, nearly inhospitable winters in most of the nation.

Five Rights
Within Nanmaunaktuk's constitution, the foremost guarantee to every inhabitant of the island are the Five Rights. These are the Rights to Food, Health, Security, Education, and Housing. No government policy, regardless of intent, may ever be enforced so as to deny these basic rights to a resident of the island, and the government is beholden to provide a minimum level of each right to all inhabitants, although all are free to seek to supplement or supplant their government assistance with outside resources; the definitions of supplementation and supplantation are subject to a good deal of debate.

Education
The Right to Education is the most frequently used government-provided assistance, with approximately 99% of all Nanmaunaktuk citizens attending and graduating the basic 10-year curriculum, with all but a very select few achieving supplantary home education. The Nanmaunaktuk educational standard differs quite drastically from other nations, with a much lighter focus on fields of mathematics and additional courses on wilderness survival, cooking, and first aid. While this curriculum is often assessed to be academically lacking in comparison to foreign education systems, many graduates go on to supplementary Secondary education comparable to most foreign counterparts.

The Kirik University is the only post-secondary education available in Nanmaunaktuk, and only 6 major towns and cities have full secondary schools. While Nanmaunaktuk largely remains less educated, with only 10% of adults having attended post-secondary education, nearly all that attend post-secondary succeed with the graduation rate exceeding 90%.

Food
Food, being a guaranteed right, is often served at dining halls scattered across the nation; meals served here are often in the forms of large stews or soups, alongside bread and water and tea or, during dinner, a light form of mead. Food is served by the Nanmaunak Army, who also provide security to ensure that theft is kept at a minimum, and during times of rationing, food is distributed equally. Dining halls also maintain a stockpile of military rations and clean, potable water, as well as limited medical supplies.

During national, provincial, and local crises, military rations are also pushed out in order to keep a constant circulating stockpile and prevent buildup of expired rations and alleviate any issues stemming from supply chain faults.

Healthcare
The provision of healthcare to all residents of Nanmaunaktuk is a policy which predates the current constitution, with historical records indicating that even the first Salish explorers to land were provided with primitive medicine during the winter months, when hypothermia and frostbite became rampant. Healthcare options are often limited, however; and the guaranteed level of medicine typically only takes the form of basic trauma care in smaller towns. Larger towns and cities often provide longer term care, but all hospitals within Nanmaunaktuk are classified as Role 2 medical treatment facilities or lower, with the only exception being the Laqlanak-Simsisak Hospital in Kiriktik having recently been reclassified as a Role 3.

Housing
National provision of housing is the subject of moderate debate in Nanmaunaktuk, resulting in the national policy seeing little change since 1957. In this form, the Basic Rights to Housing consists of a single-person tent, made of a heavy canvas material suitable for protection in cold weather; this is issued to every individual once upon completion of their Standard Wilderness Survival Course.

In the current interpretation of the law, no person can be evicted from their current residence, be it a house or lean-to, without provision of an alternate housing solution. This has resulted in many urban areas creating shelters for those who would otherwise be squatting on others' land. Even so, it remains a major political issue to address.

Recent pushes from urban areas have called for revision of the law to require hard shelters for all residents, one popular activist arguing that living out of a tent is "indignified for any citizen of an industrial nation". More rural areas have polled more actively towards adjusting the law to not preclude eviction from private property, stating that it is a clear infringement on the rights to their own security.

Security
Every citizen of Nanmaunaktuk is guaranteed their right to personal security. As such, self-defense is currently interpreted to be held above one's right to property-defense, though the exact definitions and boundaries of these remains a topic of debate.

All citizens, upon graduating their Standard Hunting course and maintaining annual safety and security verifications, are entitled to a single mauknupek, or "small hunting rifle", the most common being military-surplus rifles. Citizens holding an up-to-date Basic Military Rifle Certificate are allowed to draw their issued rifle or  handgun to be held in their own shelter or on their person. This is often impractical due to storage requirements, and so most are held at central armories with users signing out firearms for daily training.

Military
The Nanmaunaktut constitution currently enshrines four branches of their defense forces - the Nanmaunaktut Guard, the Nanmaunak Army, the Nanmaunak Navy, and the Nanmaunak Air Force. The roles of these four are similar but distinct with the Nanmaunak People's Guard forming the primary expeditionary capability of the nation, whereas the other three branches are more involved in civil order and support.

The Nanmaunak People's Guard (NPG) is the smallest of the four armed services branches, but is also the most heavily armed. Entry into the Guard is considered to be only for the most elite soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Being a force in multiple domains, the NPG operates equipment in all fields, including a battery of locally produced Nuvakmaun Laqnanaksin Mk 3 artillery systems, a combat team of, a squadron of Airtram Hikuai, and 4 Riyatic !Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

The Nanmaunak Army is the largest branch, by far, of the Nanmaunak Defense Forces, comprised almost entirely of reservists. As the requirements to be considered a reservist in the Nanmaunak Defense Forces are far different from other nations, it tends not to compare well with near-peer forces in regards to training or size. However, the primary role of the Nanmaunak Army is for civil support, and as such the majority of emergency response personnel - fire, medical, and police - are all members of the Nanmaunak Army while fulfilling their duties. Primarily, the Nanmaunak Army provides recruits with free baseline training in numerous fields including driving, shooting, survival, and medicine, under the expectation that their training will both benefit their community on its own, as well as provide a defense-in-depth for the nation should it be invaded. This principle was proven during the Second Riyatic Occupation of Nanmaunaktuk, when the conventional army proved woefully insufficient for matching a foreign invasion, but guerrilla combat provided a method of retaining and eventually regaining independence.

The Nanmaunak Army operates no conventionally armoured vehicles, but has a wide fleet of logistics vehicles. For conventional armaments, they rely primarily on light or manportable equipment, such as the Ventoran O-20 howitzer, or the local Nuvaktit Miktis Mk 3 "Nananaksin" gun-launcher.

The Nanmaunak Navy primarily operates within Nanmaunak national waters; although they also service and patrol the ice pack. Operating a fleet of 4 icebreakers and 8 medium at-sea replenishment vessels, the Nanmaunak Navy is most often tasked with ensuring the open status of both the Upper and Lower Northwest Passages. As of 2020, all icebreakers have been upgraded to (PC) 4 or better, with the namesake of the fleet, the Kikpiukmik, has seen further retrofits and is expected to be put back to sea as a PC 3 by 2023.

The Nanmaunak Air Force oversees most daily operations at all airports within Nanmaunaktuk, as well as operating a fleet of 12 !Sea King helicopters, 16 !Twin Otter transport aircraft and 3 !C-130 aircraft. The Nanmaunak Air Force is almost entirely dedicated to the emergency coverage of many remote settlements for medical and sustainment needs. As of 2014, the Nanmaunak Air Force is looking to replace its helicopters, and plans to continue upgrading and refitting the fixed wing fleets.

Economy
The Nanmaunaktut economy is primarily one of self-sufficiency, as much by cultural design as by necessity, with much of her history being marked by frequent and prolonged periods of inaccessibility.

A large portion of employment in Nanmaunaktuk revolves around primary industry - fishing, logging, and mining, with the latter also being the primary export.

Imports, due to their unpredictable nature, tend to be hard, non-perishable goods - tooling, luxuries, and shelf stable goods.

Fishing
Fishing in Nanmaunaktuk is a largely seasonal trade. Historically, early populations would rely on !Salmon migrations in the fall, along with drying or pickling techniques, to provide food for over winters. As technology progressed and the population boomed in the 1950s, overfishing quickly became threatening to the way of life of many smaller communities, and various policies were put in place regulating the catching and consumption of salmon. There regulations are largely unenforceable due to the Five Rights, although industrial and corporate fishermen do still see fines.

As river fishing became less lucrative, deep water fishing began to climb. While regulations are still being passed to limit overfishing, some environmentalist groups still point to the slow passage of laws and light-handed punishments doled out to those caught breaking them as a major threat to the biodiversity and ecological safety of the Laq'kanan Ocean.

Logging
As most industries in Nanmaunaktuk, the logging industry has seen a rather sharp decline in recent years due to regulation and taxation. Despite this, logging still remains a relatively constant and profitable business, both state-run and private operations.

Approximately 40% of all processed lumber in Nanmaunaktuk is utilized within the nation itself, with the remainder finding use abroad. Of the 40% processed domestically, 15% is sold after further processing into end goods.

Mining
Nanmaunaktuk mines many minerals, but not many rare earth metals. This makes it a steady but not exceptionally lucrative business.

Language
Within Nanmaunaktuk, many citizens can still speak or understand modified or adapted variants of Nanmaunik, though the primary language, both spoken and written, is Salish. This can be seen in the use of Nanmaunik naming on many signs for streets, buildings, and landmarks. Preservation of the Nanmaunik language has been considered a critical task for the Nanmaunaktut Government.

Religion
Nanmaunaktuk has a very strong representation of Nanmaunaktut Paganism, though it is most often indistinguishable from the irreligious population due to the prevalence of Nanmaunaktut Pagan rituals in popular culture. Only 15% of the population as of 2020 identified as other religions, mostly split between Ayekism and Auynic Sun Religion.

Architecture
Nanmaunaktut architecture tends to draw from many other international technologies and techniques, combined to help life as much as possible in the brutal winters of the arctic. Even so, some more conventional, historical building techniques are still used - due to the Five Rights, 's and even small huts are not an uncommon sight in the wilderness. Some of these huts can be home to multiple people through the span of a year, as tearing down a potential shelter is legally condemned in most cases.

Historically, many Nanmaunaktut homes were built partially or fully below-grade to preserve heat and ensure that the structure could withstand the heavy snows that may fall during the worst months. In the modern era, little has changed, with many houses having their main floor at a half-below grade, using the dirt around the building as structural reinforcement.

Other facets, of course, have changed drastically. While log-constructed houses were prevalent up until the early 20th century, concrete and brick have been the primary construction material by weight since the 1980s.

Cairns
Much of Nanmaunaktuks history can be traced through cairns placed across the land. Some taller markers were used to mark borders and paths; whereas flatter ones would be used as memorials or tombs. Memorial cairns vary widely in size with the smallest being less than half of a meter in height, and holding little more than the bones of a respected animal. The largest cairn is thought to be for the Battle of Kirik, a multi-chamber memorial containing the memorabilia and skulls of 121 soldiers who died during the fighting.

Cuisine
Nanmaunaktuk has a diverse cultural cuisine; many of their recipes derive from the foods available from the land. Plants like choke berries, licorice, large plantain, and others naturally grow in large areas across the southern edge of the island, and are incorporated into most dishes, both professionally for tourists, and in household food preparation and substitution.

For protein, most households rely on fish such as arctic char and salmon, though many holiday and occasional meals involve polar wolf, elk, or grouse. Salmon has found an odd niche as a traditional birthday meal due to its religious significance.

Fashion
Due in part to the Welfare-Defense policies supplying clothing to the public, much of everyday wear would appear to be almost military in nature, albeit often worn in much more relaxed manner. For example, in winter months the government-supplied can be seen worn by all but some of the wealthiest. In summer months, however, many folks can be seen wearing kilts or skirts to make the most of the fresh air and lack of venomous animals in the few months of summer.