Leifia (The Kalmar Union)

Leifia is the third largest continent. In the North it is dominated by ice-cap, tundra and taiga forest. Further south the endless great plains take over before deserts take hold in central Mexica. To the far south great dense jungles form the barrier between Leifia and Tawantinland. Long a barrier to trade and people it is currently the most heavily militarised border in the world.

It is divided into 91 sovereign countries, alongside 5 dependent territories.

To the East of Mexica lie the Carib and Taino islands. Besides the two sovereign countries of Coabana and Quisqueyanos are numerous smaller islands administered by various European powers.

In the present day the nations of Leifia can be roughly split into three groups.
 * The North and East - roughly those either under the influence of Vinland or Aniyunwiya. These are mostly republics or constitutional monarchies.
 * The South and Centre - roughly those either directly controlled or heavily in the orbit of Mexica and tend to be military dictatorships.
 * The West - a mix of republics and heavily autocratic monarchies generally aligned to the Chinese Empire.

Historical Overview
It is believed the first Leifians appeared after migrating across the Bering land bridge from Siberia between 40,000 and 17,000 years ago following the great herds of now extinct mega-fauna. They spread throughout the continent and further south into Tawantinland.

Settled, they adapted to their surroundings and formed distinct tribal groups. In the north they practised hunter-gathering alongside fishing. In the south the Meso-Leifian tribes perfected intense farming of maize, tomatoes and squash and formed great civilisations. Bison were hunted by those tribes on the great plains. The Ishak Bird (OTL turkey) was domesticated somewhere inbetween. No large fauna remained to be domesticated and Llamas had yet to be exported North from Tawantinsuyu.

The Norse explorer Leif Ericsson discovered the island known as Vinland. His family would later settle alongside growing numbers of migrants from Iceland and Scandinavia. Their presence led to European foodstuffs and domesticated animals being spread throughout Leifia. Cattle, goats and pigs were widely adopted, sheep less so. By the time the Vinlanders reached the growing empire of Mexica in the 1120s it found it had received the wheel but had no horses or cattle to pull it.

As iron weapons spread out from Vinland and in time were developed locally, the most powerful tribes could begin to turn their domains into kingdoms and shifted their ways of life from nomadic to sedentary. Vinland attempted to control the supply of horses, to keep its military advantage, however they became powerful diplomatic tools; a herd of horses being worth their weight in gold. Cavalry soon formed the backbone of many nations' armies.

Another Norse introduction was less welcome. Disease, specifically smallpox and measles, spread like wildfire amongst the Leifian tribes who had no natural resistance. The initial wave is thought to have killed 70% of the population, wiping out numerous tribes altogether. Norse and native Leifians alike were hit equally by the spread of the Black Death in the mid-1300s. Meanwhile the devastating syphilis was introduced back to Europe. It cut a huge swathe through the European population before it settled into a less fatal strain.

The rapid expansion of the Aniyunwiya during the 13th century caused a chain reaction of tribal movement. The Lakota, Isanyathi and Nakota were pushed westwards onto the plains meanwhile the Nahuatl were pushed into Mexica. The Nahuatl would eventually turn Mexica from a collection of warring city-states into a vast military machine and the largest single nation in the Western hemisphere.

News of Leifia was slow to feed back to the Old World. Whilst Scandinavia, the Empire and the Papacy were certainly aware of the Norse colonies by the mid-1050s they had little inkling of the lands beyond. It was only as Vinland and Álengiamark began sending back precious items like furs, that interest was stoked and maps, both real and fanciful proliferated. Denmark guarded the northern crossing via Greenland jealously however. Eventually Portugal found a southern crossing by 1345 and most ocean-faring nations of Europe had some kind of trading presence by 1600. China had first made the crossing of the Roasjoinn (OTL Pacific Ocean) to the west of Leifia in 1420. Likewise, the Leifian nations eagerly exported items like tobacco, coffee, sugar and Mexic silver back to the burgeoning European and Chinese markets.

Háflaeykir
Háflaeykir is a team sport extremely popular in the Leifian North-East.