Prologue

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Entry posted by Chappington · December 13, 2020

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Welcome to Skrælige! Skrælige is a collection of islands off the coast of New England that is currently independent of both the US and Canada. It is also the site of the lone surviving Norse settlement in North America - in this timeline, some Norse colonists end up further south down the coast of North America. The settlement on Skrælige grew a little, but remained fairly small and isolated for a few more centuries. Its rediscovery in the early 16th century was huge news in Europe, but it truly rose to importance in the early 17th century as European colonisation began in earnest.

The island of Skrælige is located in North America, just east of New England. This puts it within the Gulf of Maine, home to a diverse marine habitat. Its closest neighbors are the modern US states of New Hampshire and Maine.

The name Skrælige can usually refer to both the main island or the larger chain of four islands that it is a part of. The main island may also be referred to as "Storreyn", literally translating to "big island" in Skræligen.

The heartland of Skrælige is the Siguan River, cutting a fertile valley through the middle of the island. To the north and west of the Siguan is Fjallvænn, which directly translates to Mountain of Hope. To the northeast of the Siguan River Valley is Mount Skræling, the tallest peak in the country. Finally to the south of the river is Mount Þorr, named after the old Norse god of thunder.

To the north of Storreyn is the island of Norþney, the smallest of the four. Norþney is mostly flat, and just under 10 km away from the US state of Maine.

South of Storreyn is Miðrsun, and the peak of Suðfjall is in its centre. South of Miðrsun is Suðreyn, the flat-ish island that marks the southernmost part of Skrælige.

(Map of Algonquian-speaking peoples at the time of first contact.)

The Abenaki are the indigenous people of Skrælige and the surrounding mainland. At their peak in the 17th century CE, they could be found throughout the present day region of northern New England, the Maritime provinces in Canada, and some of Québec. At first contact they relied on a subsistence economy, mostly growing corn, beans, and squash. This was also supplemented by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Pre-contact, the Abenaki were a decentralized cultural group with no central authority, and the tribe on Skrælige was fairly isolated. The main tribal settlement was on the shores of Lake Asærban (the lake within the Siguan River Valley), though a few smaller settlements could be found in both directions along the river valley.