Soigá

Soigá is an island country in Western Europe, off some 272 km of the coast of Galicia, to the West. It has a population of around 1,86 million people, and a surface area of around 25 226,5 km^2. Soigá has an intriguing history, and an unique culture in Europe. They are regarded as a progressive country with many social laws.

Etymology
In the Firrobatist religion, it is stated that when the Firrobatists (the original name of the Soigan people according to the Firrobatists) crossed the sea, to flee from the Híetorians, a people influenced by Sídar (later more about the religion), they saw a massive land raised from the sea. In the Firrobatist mythology, this was done by Omró, the world dreamer, to save the Firrobatists, who are according to the myth the chosen people. To raise in Modern Olfkin (the language of Soigans) means asuigar. This could very well be at the time of the crossing to something similar sounding as soigá. The Firrobatists say this is why Soigá is called Soigá.

Politics
Since 1935 Soigá has been a democracy. Before that, Soigá had always been under a leader like a king.

Soigá is known to be a progressive country. It has many social laws. Especially when it is coming to economy. Soigá has inherited a lot of the Firrobatist culture, which views that humans can only live together.

Soigá is a parlementary democracy, and so, has a parlement and premier. The premier of the country is Warten Benútae, who was the party candidate of the leading Partidoskat Por Kwalígespó mís Demokrátispó, or shortened PPKD (the social democrats) in the national elections of 2014.

The Soigans
Soigá has only been inhabited since 1000 BC. The people who came to Soigá then, are known as the Soigans. This ethnic group is very interesting. Modern scholars agree that this group was a "front leader" of the Indo-European wave to the Middle East from Africa. Because it was a front leader, it didn't have much contact with the other groups. While the Indo-European wave split off to India and to the Caucasus region, the ancestors of the Soigans went to modern day Turkey, and then to the Balkan peninsula. From there, the group slowly but surely went to the Iberian peninsula, in the time frame of several centuries. The Soigans were part of the paleo Iberians, the first habitants of Spain, but were pushed to the east and north by new waves of Indo Europeans immigrants. The Soigans battled with the Celts in modern day Galicia, and around the year 1000 BC the Soigans made the passage to Soigá, which is obviously named after them. With the help of modern day DNA research, scholars have come to know that the number of Soigans that made the passage was not more than a few thousand.

The Romans
There is not much known about the Soigans before the Romans came in 10 BC. We do know however, that they had a clan system, and were very tribal. Even though modern scholars view the Soigans as one etnicity, the Soigans were divided in atleast three tribes: the Merdivozians, Inkians and the Goa. The Merdivozians had the south, the Inkians the north and centre, and the Goa the east. These three tribes were further divided in clans, or derfúlí, about 27 of them have historians found out. The clan leaders elected a new leader of the tribe, each time the previous leader died or resigned. It appeared the Inkians and Merdivozians were one tribe, but split off. Each clan had colourful symbols, unique portrayals.

The Romans came to the island in 10 BC. Before that, not much was known about Soigá. The Greeks mentioned that there was an island beyond the "edge", which was often synonymous of Iberia, but this is vague and could have a mythological interpretation. The Celts however had a name for Soigá, namely Whrygar. However, this was only known of Celtic inscriptions of stones and swords in Galicia, which stated that the "Whrygar" where driven to their destiny by them. Not all historians agree on this hypothesis.

In 10 BC, an expedition led by the rich Roman landlord Aulus Vespius discovered Soigá. Vespius was an influential Roman landlord who was very interested in the world. He paid scholars to find the radius of the world, make maps of Northern Africa, Middle East and Northern Europe, and write about all kinds of cultures. Some say a storm drove the expedition to Soigá when travelling through the Soigan Sea (the sea between Soigá and Spain). The expedition came on the land what would now be Deferná (South Eastern Soigá). The written story was written by someone named Marco, although historians generally do not view this person as directly important and that this person probably was an average Roman that could write and therefore was used for the expedition.

Marco wrote that Soigá appeared as a "Green great forest dooming up alone in the lone sea." The expedition was four ships, each having goods and men. A few soldiers with them to protect from any unexpectable attack. The first mission was to seek contact, as Marco writes. The Romans quickly meeted the Merdivozians, who had, according to Marco, colourful drawn symbols on their plate armour. The Merdivozians gave the men food, and allowed them to do their job, namely making a map of the island and describing the culture. However, northern Soigá could not be visited, as that wasn't under the control of the Merdivozians. Marco also wrote about the language, which he described as "A weird strange language unlike sophisticated languages like Greek and Latin, and more like the Iberian languages but yet in a strange way much different." Because of this passage historians in the 19th century thought Olfkin could be related to paleo Hispanic languages, but modern historians disagree with this, although they agree that those languages have influenced Olfkin. On a sidenote though, there is a theory that Etruscan and Olfkin are related to each other. Some words in Latin that have Etruscan background, are also found in Olfkin. Some historians argue that these words in Olfkin are too different from their Latin counterparts to be borrowed from Latin, as well as a few of these words being mentioned in texts of the Firrobatistic religion written in the first millenium, which would make it weird to change the original word with a new borrowed word. However, there are a few different things with Etruscan compared to Olfkin, like Etruscan is nominative-accusative, and Olfkin absolutive and ergative. We can not do more than speculate.

The Romans left a trade post, named Viridisolis, or Green Sun, on which they traded with the mainland. Soiga is rich in gold, amber and several other goods, and the Romans really liked to have these goods. The Merdivozians used this to trade for weapons and armour, and because of this beneficial relationship with the two people, the Merdivozians could dominate the whole island.

The Roman Empire
The trade post was disbanded around the year 40 AD, although a letter found within a Roman barrack in Galicia states that it was disbanded in the year 44 AD. They probably left because the trade wasn't profitable enough. You have to know that Rome is thousands of kilometers away from Soigá. Even though it was a relatively short period, the Romans introduced writing and "civilized" ways of living. The Merdivozians had the power, and Mertag the First (ruled from 46 to 75 AD) called himself the first king of "Merdivozia". Fun little sidenote: in modern day Olfkin, mertag means king. Mertag wished that Soigá became more like Rome and Greece, and he builded a lot of Roman like buildings. People where sent to Rome, Athens and Alexandria. The world was opened to Soigá.

The Romans came back to Soigá, now to conquer it, under Emperor Traianus in the year 114 AD. 5 000 men attacked Soigá, and again the Merdivozians helped the Romans, under the prequisite that they would remain in power. A Roman governor was put in place, but the real power remained with the Merdivozians.

The Romans stayed in Soigá till 384 AD. In that year, the Romans had basically abandoned all their leaderships over the island, and the Merdivozians took the power again. The time under the Romans is generally regarded as a good part of Soigá, even though the Inkians and Gao were seen as less sophisticated and were treated as less. Stone streets, big buildings, arenas, theaters, etc. were build. Statues of Governors, generals and Emperors can be found. The cities of nowadays Vitkas (Vindicas) and Tázaní (Tasanium) were Roman settled cities. The province was a wealthy one, and it was called Aurealis, after the gold that was plenty of it in Soigá. Much of the gold in Rome is gold from Soigá. Although some traders, government officials and soldiers stayed in Soigá, the province still remained largely inhabited by the natives. Nevertheless, it is estimated that 27% of all Soigans have atleast one ancestor that was Roman. The Roman religion, and Christianity in the later phase of the Empire, never really got off in Soigá. Around 5% of all the words in Olfkin have a Latin background. Many Roman coins in Soigá were still used even after the Romans left, albeit sometimes with the face of a Merdivozian king or General. That was the legacy of the Romans in Soigá.

Merdivozian Time Period
After the Romans, the Merdivozians took control of the island. The Merdivozians were a proud people, making a lot of buildings, statues, coins, roads etc. in their style. The Merdivozian Style is known for its great grotesque art drawings, sometimes even with gold. They often reflected certain mythical figures of the Firrobatist religion, or clan symbols. Not only with art, also literature flavoured. For the first time, stories (mostly Firrobatist mythical stories that were previously only oral) were written down. The Merdivozians borrowed the Latin Script, and started writing down the myths. Under King Olferik (ruled from 688 to 735) the tribes were united, and were all called Merdivozians, although scholars think this didn't erase the tribal frictions between the former tribes. The Gao particularly stayed behind. The Merdivozians also made contact with the European mainland, and the British isles. Trade started to occur. Because Spain was under control of the Moors, Soigá met for the first time the Islamic world.

In 889, a monk named Arteus came to Soigá. Scholars are not sure from what country he came from, but expected is that he is from France. Arteus introduced Christianity. The Merdivozian King Fetómír was converted to Christianity, and quickly fellow Merdivozians followed. The Inkians and Gao kept behind.



Geography
Soigá is a country in South Western Europe. It is about 25 226,5 square kilometers in size. It has a hilly landscape, with the rugged Merkádorblis area in the northwestern part of the country. The Ópádisíkai is the highest point in Soigá, with 2 106 meters. The river Mímai is the longest river in Soigá, with 131,2 km. The largest lake is the Birboipílai, with 17,8 square km.

Soigá, like said, is generally hilly. Soigá is also known to be quite forested. Almost half of the island is forested!



Growth
Soigá has, according to the latest census in 2016, 1,859,378 citizens. This is an increase of 2.9% from the latest census in 2011, which means the average growth the last years annually is around 0.57%. The total fertility rate is 1.6, which is below 2.1, the TFR needed to have natural growth. However, the last years the growth rate has been gone up, indicating the TFR is on the rise again. The first census in 1895 gave a population of 659 thousand people. This means the average annual growth rate is 0.9% between the years 1895-2016. However, the growth rate curve is more of a "up and down" curve. Soigá grew the fastest in the fourties and fifties, at one point even with a growth of 1.9%. In the eighties and nineties, the growth rate went down quickly. In the year 1948, Soigá got its one millionth inhabitant, and expected is that in 2035 or around that year, Soigá will count two million citizens.

Ethnicity
Soigá is a rather homogene country, but it does have a variety of ethnicities. The largest ethnicity is without a suprise the Soigans, with around 95.0%. You are regarded a Soigan in the census if you have atleast one parent, or two grandparents, born in Soigá and if you identify primarily with the Soigan language, culture and ethnicity. Eastern European countries are following, with 1.2% (mainly from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania). Spain and Portugal have combined around 1.1%. Around 0.5% of the country says they identify primarily as a Maruiqi, of whom you can find in the history section more information. 2.2% of the country has a different ethnicity or nationality, or hasn't given (or doesn't want to give) one.

Religion
Soigá has always been divided in religion. Religion plays a strong role in creating the identity of a region. The Catholics are mainly everywhere, but most notably in the South. The Protestants mainly have the regions Ertúmóper and Tópesmai. The Firrobatists are strong in the rural areas of Inkíá, but also to a lesser extent in Ťonmíá and Hɵngewí.