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Description
In a different world, there lies a large island slightly to the west of Norway. But in-between that island and Iceland, lies an even smaller island, one known for its strange dialect, abundance of sheep, and clean cities. Niptey, or "Sister Island" was first seen by Swedish Viking explorer Garðar Svavarsson, during his circumnavigation of Iceland in 870. When he stayed in the town of Húsavík over winter, he frequently made expeditions to Niptey, giving it its name as the so-called sister island to Iceland. However, it wasn't settled in-depth until the 920's and 930's, when most arable land in Iceland had been discovered and settled. It was mentioned in multiple Icelandic and Hvíthiminni sagas as either Niptey, Systirey, or Neðarhimminey (Lower Heaven Island; "Heaven Island" referred to Hvíthiminn, whose main island lied northeast of Niptey). It stood as a stepping stone in the colonization of Hvíthiminn, and therefore became almost a neutral ground when the two developed diverging governments in the 1200's. After the Norwegian takeover of the Icelandic commonwealth, Niptey managed to stay independent, thereby aligning it more with the also independent Hvíthiminn, even though Niptey could have been said to be more Icelandic. After both regions were invaded by the Kalmar Union, Niptey was grouped in with their neighbor to the north, and their language developed accordingly. The interesting branch of Norse that was Nipteyan had nearly died out, and is today only present in texts and the peculiar town of Afrigárnsmiðrlsbarg, located on the small isolate island of Gárnsmiðrlsey. Because of the language differences early on, in the modern day Niptey is said to speak a very odd dialect of the Hvíthiminni language. There's no common "j" sound, all "r"s are pronounced as trills, and a vowel shift has taken away a few of the vowel sounds usually spoken aloud in Hvíthiminni. Even with those differences, the government and people of the island are said to be some of the best in the world. Although the north was desecrated by the eruption of the Rjóðreldrfyll Volcano in 2011, the south is visually very clean. Because of all that, Niptey is sometimes called "The White Jewel of Hvíthiminn", a title it's quite deserving of.
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Wouldn't have Niptey and Hvithminn be grouped together with Iceland? Iceland was and is historically already pretty sparse, and I can't imagine Niptey and Hvithminn being much bigger, if bigger at all, so under the Kalmar union wouldn't the island just be grouped as one big Duchy (or whatever rank Iceland historically had at the time), and later Kingdom?