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Republic of Soigá
Répúpiliká Zoigae
Flag of
Flag
Motto: Zoigá dobrédigad.

Lit. Soigá will always exceed [anything].

The exact semantic translation is ambigious, as there could be multiple translations, but the most common are:

Soigá will be the best,
We will make Soigá be the best and

Soigá will overcome anything
Location map: Soigá (dark green) / European Union (light green) / Europe (dark grey)
Location map: Soigá (dark green) / European Union (light green) / Europe (dark grey)
Capital
and largest city
Makán
Official languages Olfkin
Other languages Spanish,
Polish,
Romanian,
Ladino,
Maruiqish and others
Ethnic groups Soigans,
Spaniards,
Jews,
Maruiqi,
East Europeans and more
Demonym Soigan (Olfkin: Zoigáná, pl. Zoiganú)
Membership European Union
Government Unitary constitutional parlementary republic
• President
Konṫátíne Biredazilógéx
• Prime Minister
Vard Benúdae
Legislature Parliament (Parlámentí)
Establishment
• Kingdom of Soigá 1st Era
1733
• Spanish rule
1809
• Kingdom of Soigá 2nd Era
1842
• First Socialist Republic
1935
• Fascist Republic
1941
• Second Socialist Republic
1943
• Republic of Soigá
4th of March 1982
Area
• Total
33,819 km2 (13,058 sq mi) (136th)
• Water (%)
1.5%
Population
• 2016 census
3,971,642
• Density
117.4/km2 (304.1/sq mi) (99th)
GDP (PPP) 2016 estimate
• Total
$102.949 billion (79th)
• Per capita
$25,921 (53rd)
GDP (nominal) 2016 estimate
• Total
$69.286 billion (70th)
• Per capita
$17,445 (40th)
Currency Euro
Time zone UTC+0
Drives on the right
ISO 3166 code ZG
Internet TLD .zg

Soigá, officially the Republic of Soigá, is a country consisting of multiple islands in Western Europe, off some 145 km of the coast of Galicia, to the West. Soigá has an intriguing history, and an unique culture in Europe. It has a population of around 4,0 million people on a surface area of around 33,819 km^2. On top of that, millions, if not tens of, people outside of Soigá are descendants of Soigan colonists/emigrants. In the Milatese age, the Soigans settled almost everywhere in the Kingdom: to this day communities of people of Soigan ancestry can be found in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily&Sardinia and Italy, most notably in the Besterira-regio in Spain and Portugal. The Soigans are a proud people, however, it is rash to say they are all the same: many cultural differences and dialects occur between the different regios. A feeling of nationhood started during King Čárösart's reign, before that Soigá was a mix of near irreconcilable tribes/clans and religions.

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 direction of the Star of Birth. 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 hasykar. This could have very well be something similar sounding as soigar or something like that thousands of years ago. The suffix -á (and removing the root suffix, here -ar) changes the meaning of the word to a passive noun. Thus, hasyká means (the) raised one.

The word Soigá used to refer to the country is first used in old Firrobatistic texts. The term became popular in the Kingdom of Soigá era. The Soigans themselves actually refer to their country as Zoigá. The reason the spelling is different stems from the different spelling before 1937, when Olfkin went under a big new spelling process. Other countries still used Soigá as name and so the name Soigá stayed in the English language.

Soigá is also called Olfland or Olfenland sometimes, but this is not common in English. Soiga (without the accute accent) is also a common English name for Soigá. Olfinia and Olfia were both common names for Soigá in the medieval ages, and in the early renaissance Olfland/Olfenland was often used. The demonyn Holfáná is still sometimes used, but now it has often the meaning of ethnical Soigans, Soigans from around the world, not citizenship, "Soigans by blood".

The native language of Soigá is called Olfkin in English, but this is again a misspelling. This stems from the year 1641, when Jan Pieterszoon, a Dutch explorer, wrote about the language. He translated the language name as "Olfkins", probably because he misheard the name. This again stuck to all kind of various languages, like English. The native name for the language is Holfín. The -ín suffix has the archaic meaning of "being related/pertaining to", while the stem Holf traces back to the proto-Olfkin word for "we" (inclusive). Thus, Holfín has the (archaic) meaning of It which is related/pertaining to us.

History[]

The Soigans[]

Soigá has only been inhabited since the year ~1000 BC. Only then artifacts and other human presence can be found on the island. The group of people that settled in Soigá are called the Soigans. This ethnic group is very interesting. Scholars call this ethnic group before they settled in Soigá the proto Soigans, and they lived in what is now Marocco and Western Sahara (disputed territory). There can also be spoken of a proto Soigan culture, as cave art and sculptures clearly indicate figures that relate to Soigan culture and art, albeit perhaps in proto form. Deteriorating climate and arrival of new peoples made the proto Soigans leave their homes and cross the Strait of Gibraltar around 4000 to 3000 BC. The Soigans arrived in Iberia, where they stayed for millenia, but around the year 1000 BC they made the passage to Soigá. Why exactly they did that will remain a mistery, but the myth says that the Soigans were followed by the Híetorians who were an evil tribe, influenced by Sídar (Zídarí in modern Olfkin), who wanted to kill the Soigans. The Soigans made the passage from what is now Galicia, the area were the Soigans had probably stayed the most during their time in Iberia.

There is not much known about the Soigans before the Romans came in 110 BC. We do know however, that they had a clan system, and were very tribal. Even though modern scholars view the Soigans as one ethnicity, the Soigans were divided in atleast three tribes (better seen as clan federations): the Merdivozians, the Inkians and the Gao (also spelled Gaodii sometimes, or Gaodians). The Merdivozians had the south, the Inkians the north and centre, and the Gao the east. These three tribes were further divided in clans, or dervulú. 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. Clan men would tattoo themselves, and were sworn to protect their clan village, or land.

The Greeks mentioned that there was an island beyond the "edge", which was often synonymous of Iberia, called Krokósmou (portmanteau of ἄκρον κόσμου, or extreme of the world). According to Greek myths, one could only go to Soigá with flying dolphins, who could stand the extreme weather and boundaries of the "edge". Strabo did not inlcude Soigá in his work of Geographika, probably because he thought Soigá was simply a myth. There is an ongoing debate whether or not Krokósmou is actually Soigá, and not just a myth and that the Old Greeks simply did not know about the real existence of Soigá.

The myths and sagas of the Soigans were only written down in the Merdivozian Era and in the Medieval Ages, and although they are mythical in nature, scholars try to extrapolate historical context from the myths. For example, in the epos of Gegaelarín, which writes about a hero named Gegaelarox. According to the myth, a huge flood happened, which drawned many people, and Gegaelarox challenged Refáréx, God of the Seas, who according to the myth was posessed by Sídar. Gegaelarox defeated him and killed him, and then Gegaelarox took the job of keeping the seas steady. Scholars have found evidence of a flood, for example inscriptions of a giant flood and eroded stones in low areas where it is unexplainable (instead of having a flood) how they would be eroded relatively short time ago.

First contact with the Romans[]

In 110 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 Deverná (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 Merdivozian Era[]

A letter found within a Roman barrack in Galicia states that the Soigan trade post was disbanded in the year 56 BC. 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 Mertak the First (ruled from 54 to 23 BC) called himself the first king of "Merdivozia". Fun little sidenote: in modern day Olfkin, mertak means king. The Merdivozian Era is the era in Soiga that started when King Mertak ascending the throne to the 112 AD, when the Romans came back. This gives the Merdivozian Era a time span of 166 years.

King Mertak 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. Mertak died in the year 23 BC, and he was followed by King Pytos. King Pytos pulled Soigá in a different direction. He wanted Soigá to become it's own sophisticated culture, just like the Romans differed from the Greeks. He ordered the epos of Firrobatism to be written down. These stories had always been oral, but now, they were written down. They were written down in Latin script, but in the Olfkin language. Obviously, the Olfkin language then differed a lot from Modern Olfkin, and scholars generally call Olfkin then Ancient Olfkin.

King Pytos died in the year 3 AD, on the relatively old age of 71 years.

<MORE>

The Roman Empire[]

<FIGHTING ROMANS VS SOIGANS + mercenaries in war>

The Romans stayed in Soigá till 384 AD. In that year, the Romans had basically abandoned all their leaderships over the island. Stone streets, big buildings, arenas, theaters, etc. were build. Statues of Governors, generals and Emperors can be found. The cities of nowadays Vidigas (Vindicas) and Tásaní (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 half 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 10% of all the words in Olfkin have a Latin background, mainly words related to government, military, religion etc. Many Roman coins in Soigá were still used even after the Romans left. That was the legacy of the Romans in Soigá.

Suevian Rule and War[]

Suevian war[]

During the fall of the Roman Empire, the Great Migration happened. Several Germanic tribes fled from the Huns that came from Asia. The Suevians went into Spain. They conquered large parts of western Spain. An expedition to Soigá was made. After fierce clashes with the local tribes and Merdivozians, the Suevians could control Soigá. The Suevian king Olferic made himself King of Soigá in the year 431 AD. This angered the Suevian King Hermeric, who was King of Gallaecia. King Hermeric sended a large convoy, of around 20,000 men, to Soigá. Olferic, who didn't posses such a large army, quickly turned to the local population. In change for more autonomy and say in the Suevian Kingdom of Soigá, many Soigans were attracted to joining Olferic's faction. Quickly, Olferic had an army rivaling that of Hermeric, consisting mainly of Soigan clan men, with a strong "elite" of Germanic soldiers.

King Hermeric's army embanked on the shores of the Korisefan peninsula, a peninsula in western-central Mišömerá (which is in the south of Soigá). Plundering and looting, his army captured the city Véríjaex. It was utterly demolished and put to the ground by his army. The local clans of the Tresilanii and Feiulii (giving their Latin names), Merdivozian clans, armed their clan men and attacked Hermeric in what is now known as the Battle near Véríjaex. Because a large part of Hermeric's army was still looting, a significantly less part of his army was able to repent the attack. The clans, under the clan leader Bertöx, made a swift attack using pefetetikú, a typical Soigan missile launcher (a modification of a normal sling, made to throw armor piercing disks). The Germanic soldiers of Hermeric, who wore heavy armor, could not prepare themselves. Many casualties were inflicted on their side. However, the clans, when making a run for it after the suprise attack, were chased by cavalry. Because the clan men knew the terrain perfectly, they split up and went to forests, where horses could not follow them.

Wanting revenge, Hermeric rallied up his troops and destroyed every village, farm and town of the clans. The clans, who could not bare seeing this (hence the tactic of Hermeric), armed all their men again and attacked Hermeric. But now, Hermeric had the advantage: he had ordered his troops to set the woods nearby on fire, and to build portable bridges and ladders, so any hindernis could be overwon. The clan men were decimated, and had no chance against Hermeric's troops. To warn other clans to not fight him, Hermeric had Bertöx, the clan leader, executed.

Hermeric's army, still large enough to battle any force, except maybe Olferic's army, went rampaging and plundering through the Soigan land. Large parts of Southern Soigá where in the hands of Hermeric, but then the confrontation happened between the two large armies: that of Hermeric and that of Olferic. Modern archeologists are pretty sure the battle happened at the north western bank of the Mímé river, and that's why they call the battle The Battle near the Mímé.

Olferic army started the fighing, by manoeuvring his cavalry around the river and have the archers on horse provoke Hermeric's men, in the hope that gaps would appear in Hermeric's army, because of Germanic soldiers charging at the rapidly withdrawing-able cavalry of Olferic. However, this didn't happen. Hermeric, an experienced war leader, held his men at bay, but at the mean time, he moved his spear men secretly to a place where they could attack the cavalry from behind. Obviously, Olferic was aware of any like-minded trick of Hermeric to do so, so the cavalry always needed to have one clear way out. This he did by having a small part of the cavalry split off and scout the nearby areas, so they could warn the main squad if anyone would try to block them, while a strong unit of heavy cavalry safe-guarded the way out. A scout cavalrist spotted the spear men and warned the others. Quickly the cavalry dissapeared. Exactly how Hermeric wanted it...

Since Olferic's cavalry manoeuvred around the river, and Hermeric's men guarded the few crossings, Hermeric won time. Valuable time. Quickly heavy infantery was sent over the crossings, these could push the suprised yet-unhelped Olferic's soldiers who were guarding there. Since these soldiers were pushed away, Hermeric's cavalry had a way through, without getting smashed between infantery lines. The cavalry could quickly get behind the enemy infantery lines and attack the Soigan clan men skirmishers and slingers, who were helpless. To defend the back of the infantery, Olferic ordered his spear men to form a defensive pike line towards the cavalry, who were now behind Olferic's main army. Hermeric splitted his cavalry in one significant strong unit, and one insignificant much weaker unit. The task of the much weaker unit was to provoke the spear men, act like the cavalry could charge at any moment, and giving an intimidating impression, as if all of the cavalry was still there. Meanwhile, the stronger unit went to the end of the river, to suprise Olferic's cavalry, who were now close to the actual battlefront. Since they were suprised, the horse archers, who formed the bulk of Olferic's cavalry, were of little use, and rather quickly, Olferic's cavalry routed. Back to the battlefront, Hermeric's soldiers had the upper front, because Olferic's spear men were kept busy by Hermeric's cavalry. Eventually, because of his larger force fighting, Hermeric could slowly but surely surround Olferic's troops. Olferic's spear men attacked the mass of soldiers in the last hope, but this enabled Hermeric's cavalry to decimate the last remaining flanks of Olferic's army. A domino effect happened, and mass routing occured with Olferic's troops. Olferic himself was killed in the battle. Nothing now could stop Hermeric from conquering Soigá.

Suevian rule[]

King Hermeric died in the year 441. His son Rechila then became king of the kingdom, and thus as well of Soigá. Rechila wished to expand the kingdom, and thus he invaded Southern Iberia. This meant the Suevians were at war with the Romans. For this, Rechila made a vast army, of which nearly 15,000 men were Soigans. In the course of aorund seven years (from 441 to 448 AD) Rechila conquered nearly the whole of Iberia, with the help of Soigan troops, that were now in his army. Till his death in 448 Rechila was in a near constant war with the Romans, who were quickly losing their power in Europe.

With the death of Rechila a new king arose to power, this time it was Rechiar. He is most known in Soigan history as the one who introduced Christianity, namely Catholicism. He did this by force, and when the Firrobatists organised a revolt, Firrobatistic cities and villages were sacked. Sanctuaries of the Firrobatists were destroyed, and this angered the Merdivozians. A lot of Merdivozians, who were in Rechila's army, rebelled and sieged important cities of the Suevians in Iberia. It took Rechila quite an effort to form a peace treaty with the Merdivozians, something he wanted as the Merdivozians were an important asset in his army. Rechila came to an agreement: Christian missionaires could do their missionary job while protected by the Merdivozians in Soigá, and the Merdivozians would get money and weapons.

Under the Merdivozian King Díregaex, who baptised himself so he became a Christian in 450 AD, Christianity finally became strong in Soigá, although still a majority was Firrobatistic. Rechiar, who wanted to complete the conquest of Iberia, made a campaign in 455 AD to do that. However, the Merdivozians and the allied Soigan tribes of the Inkians and Gaodians, refused to fight. This caused war between the two factions. However, Díregaex was not there for peace: he was out there for power.

Although Rechiar had a much larger army, Díregaex had the local people revolt and exploit local tensions between the Suevians. With a mustered army of atleast 30,000 men, Díregaex made his passage over the Soigan Sea. He got the trust of the local people, and quickly his force nearly took a number of 80,000 to 100,000 men. This he could do, because people were tired of being controlled by power-hungry (the irony, as Díregaex himself was looking for power) and wanted the Germanic tribes gone. By creating fear of the Huns, Díregaex could conquer nearly the whole of north western Iberia. At this point, he named his realm The Milatese Kingdom, after Milatia, a name often used by the Romans for Soigá and its islands, as a geographical name. The name is still used in Soigá, but now merely to denote citizens/areas in the south of the main island of Soigá.

Milatese Kingdom[]

MilateseKingdom-0

Red: Milatese. Yellow: Visigothic. Purple: Western Roman Empire. Blue: Vascones.

The Suevians, who lost all their power in Iberia by the year 470 AD, fled back to their homeland. Now, more and more land became Milatese. King Díregaex gave land to the Soigans in what is now known as Besteríra. Besteríra is a regio in southern Galicia and northern Spain where nowadays there are still people talking in a very ancient form of Olfkin!

However, there was a big threat to the Milatese. The Visigoths, another Germanic tribe, had conquered vast parts of Iberia. Tensions grew high between the two, and a war was coming. Euric, king of the Visigoths, attacked the Milatese in the year 475. The reason for the war was because Euric forced the Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to recognize his full indepence, in exchange for the return of the Provence region of Gaul. The Milatese King Meltek, who inherited the kingdom after King Díregaex died in the year 471, knew he could gain the power and trust of the predominately Romano-Hispanic population. By using Roman tactics, gear and weapons he made himself to be the defender of Rome's integrity. The population, who didn't want to lose their Latin background, welcomed the possible chance Meltek was a defender of Rome. There is an ongoing scholarly debate wheter Meltek really was, or just a propagandist.

The occuring events are collectively known as the Milatese-Visigothic war. Tens of thousands of troops were gathered by both factions, and several battles played a role in the war. Meltek could get the upper hand, as the Visigoths did not get a powerful grip on the population. Meltek, on the other hand, reinstated the Roman provinces, made Latin the official language and proclaimed himself to be the Revenger of Rome after Odoacer defeated the Roman Empire. The cities were administrated well, and the population was happy corruption was nearly non existent. Meltek also appeared to be an outstanding general. At the Battle of Moillerres (at which nearly 100,000 men took place) he conclusively defeated King Euric of the Visigoths. Meltek knew how to exploit the instability created after Euric was dead, and in the short time frame main posts of the Visigoths were destroyed and important trade routes closed. While a relatively strong army of Meltek was there to guard the closed area of the Visigoths (still large and occupying a large portion of Iberia), Meltek used the remaining force to conquer quickly the other parts of Iberia.

In 490 the remainder of the Visigothic Kingdom collapsed, and the Milatese came to own nearly all of Iberia. However, to call that Iberia was under control of the Soigans is perhaps an exaggeration, as a vast part of the army existed out of Iberian peasants, and in the coming centeries the elite was largely absorbed into the Romano-Hispanic culture. Meltek proclaimed that his kingdom was the true succesor of the Western Roman Empire. In his years to his death in 502 Meltek conquered the Balearic Islands and parts of Mauretania (nowadays Marocco and Algeria). Meltek was followed by his son Petras. Petras wanted revenge on the Vandals, as they had sacked Rome in 455, and the Milatese Kingdom was supposedly the succesor of the Western Roman Empire. Historians noticed that Petras had a deep fascination with ancient Rome, as Roman like statues of him can be found in several locations, and the codex and laws were based on the Roman Empire.

Tensions grew high between the Milatese Empire and the Vandalic Kingdom of Thrasamund. The Milatese invaded parts of the Vandalic Kingdom, and the Berber tribes were purposefully set up against the Vandalic administration. The Milatese Kingdom was ready for war, since the Kingdom was one of the strongest at the Mediterrean Sea. Attacks were made first by the Milatese. With the help of the Berber tribes (Petras promised the Berbers power about their territories) the Milatese could overrun the Vandalic Kingdom. However, this event turned the eye of the Byzantine Empire on the Milatese Kingdom. Petras, who wanted good relations with the Byzantines, made the first move by sending a fleet containing several tons of gold, amber, ivore and precious metals/arts from the Milatese, to the Byzantines. A top meeting was planned at Crete, Byzantine controlled, about a possible alliance between the two power houses. Both had the goal of reinstating the Roman Empire, so an alliance could be possible.

MilateseKingdomHighestExtent-0

The three dominant powers in Southern Europe around 525 AD.

The Ostrogoths had already clashed with the Milatese in southern France, where, to avoid a war, a boundary had been placed at the Rhône. Corsica and Sardinia, islands which were under control of the Vandalic Kingdom, were taken by the Ostrogoths, but the Milatese were quick to send a convoy to Sardinia; here as well a boundary was placed: half of Sardinia would go to the Ostrogoths and the other to the Milatese. The Byzantines had collided with the Ostrogoths in Illyria. Both the Milatese and the Byzantines had reasons to go at war with the Ostrogoths.

In the mean time, Petras was mainly focusing on strenghtening the Milatese Kingdom. The Kingdom had a semi federal structure, and local tribe leaders could remain to control land if they only agreed to certain demands, which often were pay a small tribute or fight in the Milatese army. The only real land the Milatese directly controlled were often important cities and nearby land. Governing these cities made sure the Milatese still had an upper edge in power over the local tribe leaders, as these cities were often vital for local economies. Petras knew it was important to have the thrust of the local people, so, an extra administrative division was created. People could vote for local leaders who could look after the demands of the people, and were ordered for the food, infrastructure etc. for the people. About these local leaders: Petras made sure there was a steady flow of Milatese to these cities, to make sure the "local" leaders would nearly always be Milatese, as these Milates were often made to be the elite. The economy was heavily centralized, and corruption was fought with the help of the local leaders as they had to look after the people and were relient of them. The economy was centralized in order to make the cities relient on the main economy, but as well as that this made managing the economy more helpful. A selected part of the money would go to the local leaders who had as task to manage the cities. This structure proved to be a succes. Above this, Petras used often divide-tricks to make sure the tribe leaders would not form one big block to the Milatese. The Milatese had now a strong flow of money, and men. The divide in administrative divisions made it easier for the king to focus on military and national economy. The centralized economy also allowed to have the King decide where extra money would be put. Petras used this option to build giant ship ports in Moroccan/Algerian port cities.

The Milatese Kingdom continued to absorb tribe lands and city states. In 550 AD (Petras died in the year 530 AD, and was followed by his son Haolos, an Olfkinized form of Aulus) the Milatese Kingdom encompassed most of western Northern Africa (plus Libya), Iberia and parts of Southern France, plus some locations in the Mediterrean Sea and Italy. Haolos focused more on the cultural side of the Kingdom. War with the Ostrogoths had been prevented, while the tensions continued, as more and more events came to exist about border disputes and others. Haolos focused on making the economy strong and have the Milatese Kingdom have a remaining legacy. Most of the Milatese architecture, which has become famous over the years and straddles from Soigá to Libya, has been built in his era. Olfkin was again introduced as the official language in Government, and tribes which were deemed to be too much of a threat were attacked and destroyed, while Milatese settlers would settle in the eras. Haolos pursued an active policy of creating a strong political dominance of the Milatese people (mostly southern Soigans) in his vast Kingdom. The semi federated structure (semi because the important cities were not federated) was remained and even strenghtened. More land became directly owned of the King. Rebellions grew in number, and to combat this Haolos made sure clans/tribes/people who supported the Kingdom were given higher status and power. Haolos made strong allies with strong clans and tribes, while still issueing missions to further bolstering the Milatese legacy. Haolos also played into the international affairs, and made sure he was viewed as "essential" to other leaders, by becoming a trade nation (as national money was used to built large agricultural farms for products to sell) and made sure he was more essential for other countries to rely on than the other way around. Large sums of money were made profit of this, which was used for the cultural projects of Haolos.

In 551 AD the Ostrogothian War happened. Border disputes led an eventual demise in talks and thus war. Haolos had actively worked on a strong navy, as he saw that wars in the Mediterrean Sea would largely be narrowed down to trade embargoes, port blockaddes and possible sea battles and much less traditional land warfare. The Ostrogoths had a larger land army, but the Milatese blocked the ports of the Ostrogoths, and as Haolos had mostly transformed the economy to a more international oriented one instead of a more local one, and the Ostrogoths not, he could effectively make sure the Ostrogoths had no power to trade and control the seas. The only chance for the Ostrogoths was to leave the Italian Peninsula and go to Spain by foot. In the mean time, the Milatese had armies on stand by to be shipped by boat to the Italian Peninsula. The Ostrogoths were essentially blocked.

Moorish Rule[]

<MORE TO COME>

The Kingdom of Soigá 1st Era[]

Rofájel's rule ended when he died in 1733. The people called the local landlord Čárösart Zódenaix as leader, as he had formed a resistance against Rofájel's hard rule in the mountains north. Although he came from a firrobatistic family, he had himself baptised to Catholicism. Knowing that a power vacuum would arise, and thus possibly a civil war could happen, Čárösart rushed with his army of loyal citizens to the capital of Monéjá. After small fights with Christian fundamentalists (loyal to Rofájel), he had himself crowned by the Bishop of Soigá to King of Soigá. This was the first time the term "Soigá" was used to refer to the country, possibly because Čárösart used it as a form of propaganda (at that time "Soigá" was how people locally referred to the island). Čárösart made himself as "Protector of the People of Soigá", and used propaganda to gain the benefit of the doubt of the citizens. In his cabinet and officers he formed he purposefully assigned protestant, catholic and firrobatistic people. He secularized the state. According to him, the Soigans were one people, and they were undividable.

Carosart

King Čárösart. Čárösart often depicted himself as a soldier, to show that he was ready to fight to defend, and that he was proud and patriotic.

Under Čárösart's rule nationalism rose, arts & literature prospered, economy flourished and trade with other countries finally was back. Of the economy, the ship building industry growed immensely. The port of Ṫámíras grew immensely, being before it just an insignificant sea shore village. At one point it had even 200,000 citizens. When King Čárösart died in 1759, Soigá was prospering. Mígrad, son of Čárösart, continued the succes of his father. However, he had more ambitions: he wanted to make of Soigá a power house. For this he allied with the British Empire, and Soigá became exporter of ships for the British Empire. Mígrad also set up large expeditions to the West African, Caribean and Indian coast. Trade posts were set up, and with the permission the Dutch Kingdom, the Soigans could also get land inwards in Indonesia. With this new trade Mígrad could build a relatively large navy, which he could use to deter any enemy invasion from oversea. Mígrad died in the year 1788, and he was followed by his nephew (as he had only daughters, and the inheritance was only on the patrilineal line) Jósefes.

Jósefes, Napoleon and Spanish campaign[]

When Jósefes came to power, Soigá was in a strong state, however, there were new challenges. France got soon after he became king a revolution, and this had also affected Soigá a bit. To maintain his position, Jósefes increased the military, and brought huge investments in poor slums of cities, to gain back the trust of the lower citizens. Jósefes decreased however the foreign operations, and mostly redirected the money to building projects and the homeland military. He restructured the government, especially the foreign one, to make it more efficient and less corrupt. While he did this, in France, a young general by the name of Napoleon came to power in France after campaigns in Italy and Egypt, and crowned himself to Emperor. This doing so, he eventually came into war with the British. The Soigans, still allied with the British Empire, supported the British Navy. As Soigá had a relative large navy, Napoleon had to find a way to stop them. This he did by convincing his ally Spain to invade Soigá. Spain, eager to gain Soigá's large gold and other mineral reserves as the Spanish Empire was crumbling, accepted. Under the Spanish general José Salvador Mengeluez the Spanish invaded Soigá in 1809 with nearly 50,000 men and a large number of ships. The French backed them up in the naval fights. The Soigan army fought with the Spanish in a number of battles, but eventually it had to give up, as the Spanish won them and had a larger army. King Jósefes went with his family into exile to England.

Spanish Rule[]

Under the Spanish Crown Spanish immigrants settled in Soigá (which led to hostile encounters between the Soigans and the Spanish), as a way to "Hispanize" the country, and thus, belittle possible future Soigan rebellions. The Soigans had to mine under terrible situations for gold, amber and other minerals. Soigans were also sometimes forced to fight for the Spanish. Olfkin was replaced with Spanish as government language. However, on the positive side huge building projects were announced, and cities were largely restructured and organised. Eventually, because tensions grew too high Ferdinand the Seventh agreed to give the Soigans a say in the government in 1830. Olfkin again was allowed to be spoken on governmental level.

But because of Spanish colonies in the Americas declaring independence, Soigan nationalism rose again. Organised protests happened in the largest cities, These were stopped by the Spanish, but this only made the moral of the rebelling Soigans higher. Fierce clashes between rebels and the Spanish army ensued. André, descendant of the family of Zódenaix, saw a perfect chance to come back, and with a large army of mercenaries he landed on the shores of Soigá, to help the rebels. Quickly, the Spanish outposts in Soigá were defeated. And once again, the Soigan monarchy was back. In 1842 Soigá made itself official independent from Spain in the Treaty of Léon. The people made feast and danced all day long, because of happiness the Kingdom was back.

Kingdom of Soigá 2nd Era[]

The rule of King André however (1842 to 1864), even though a new wave of nationalism had happened, was not a lucky one for the monarchy. A lot of famines happened, and because the Spanish were so rapidly gone, the country was quite unstable. Soigan trade posts dissapeared due to lack of funds and fierce competition with bigger countries, and due to structural poverty and loss of jobs (dissapearing trade e.g.) thousands upon thousands had leaved the city to work in the agriculture, so they could atleast feed their families. Ṫámíras, once the largest city in Soigá, is a prime example of this: only 12,000 citizens remained in the city around 1850. 1848 was a difficult year for the monarchy especially, as revolutions happened all across Europe and the new book of Karl Marx appeared: Das Kapital. Poor citizens formed workers unions, and strikes became common. The economy of Soigá reached a low level, quite contrastedly compared to a century before.

In 1856 nearly 10 thousand Maruiqi, a tribe living in what is now Senegal, arrived as refugees in Soigá. In Senegal they were seen as collabarateurs with the Soigans, who had a trade post there but disbanded it around 1845. The Maruiqi were unsafe there, and thus the local Soigan officer Hífard Pešilek, who couldn't bare to see a genocide, arranged ships to ship them over to Soigá. Hífard became a national hero later on, but in that time that was mainly because people thought the Maruiqi were descendants of the same tribe of which the Soigans split off, and thus, were "worthy enough" to rescue. However, this isn't true, but the myth was widespread and still today some people believe in it. The Maruiqi were Muslims, but it didn't cause much friction, and they settled mainly in the big cities.

King Halamír[]

KingHalamir-0

King Halamír in 1899.

King André died in 1864 to tuberculosis, but on the old age of 80 years. Verdídölax, his son, became king, but died in an accident on the age of 65 years in 1877. His young son Halamír (also known as Alarmir, born in 1847) became king. Halamír was an extremely conservative catholic. He believed it was shame that Soigá was full of protestants and "heretic" firrobatists. He wanted to make of Soigá a strong catholic country, like Italy and Spain. This he did by strengthening the army and place catholics on high positions. Thugs were sent to protestant areas, and violent clashes between protestants and catholics were the norm. However, Halamír used a vile trick: he provoked protestants by sending thugs, and when a strike was organised by protestants Halamír sended his army ("for security and stabilisation") to the place, and ravaged the whole area. By enabling a tax on other religions except catholicism Halamír further made life difficult for other religions. It is suspected that Halamír was behind the Fire of Tásaní, which killed thousands, nearly only protestants, in 1894. Hundreds of thousands protestants, firrobatists but also catholics emigrated out of Soigá under his rule, mostly because of his oppression. These people mainly settled in Brazil, the United States and Argentina. Tickets to these areas were made cheaper by Halamír, especially in protestant areas, "to ship the problems away".

Halamír knew he had to gain the trust and support of the catholics. Under King Halamír large construction projects were started. Thousands upon thousands of thousands of catholics were send to previously predominately protestant and firrobatistic areas. This can be mostly seen in Höngeví, Hárýpé and other northern regions. For example, the regio of Gazimirgá was nearly only protestant, but after Halamír's rule the south of the region was primarily catholic. This made the average catholic way richer, as more land was available to him/her, on the expense of firrobatists and protestants. Halamír made himself quite popular by conservative catholics, who had tensions with the protestants as well. His army consisted of nearly only catholics, and life in southern regions, catholic areas, was greatly improved. Halamír introduced a newer better form of agricultural reform, which made it easier for smaller farmers to survive. Slums in cities were handled, and Halamír gave the people a say in the local government. King Halamír, as said an extremely conservative catholic, had built tens of catholic churches in Soigá during his reign. He introduced Bible lessons again in school, in catholic fashion, something which hadn't happen in centuries as the Soigan Kingdom was secularized by King Čárösart.

Padoor War[]

The Padoor War was a civil war/rebellion in Soigá from 1890 to 1893. Roughly 80,000 people died in this war. Sentiment against King Hálámír was growing, and it eventually resulted in a bloody war where pro King forces fought against a composition of religious, republican and communist forces. Many cities and villages were burned to the ground, and the King's victory resulted in an even heavier emigration.

TrenchesSoigans

Soigan troops fighting in northern France against the Germans (1917).

World War I[]

When the First World War started, Halamír supported France by sending tens of thousands of troops, in total around 220,000 men, of which around 40,000 died. Halamír feared that protestant Germany would become the dominant force in western but also southern Europe if they won. Because of his support to the French King Halamír received the highest miltary order to a foreign soldier/general of the French military.

King Húgo and the end of the monarchy[]

King Halamír died in the year 1923, aged 75 years. His death caused great shock in Soigá. Only now people could understand the fact of what Halamír had caused. Protestants, firrobatists and catholics had unearthed their grudges and hate to each other, what they have could buried for so long. The new king, a nephew of Halamír, Húgo, was someone who was unable to tie the broken and shocked country together. Húgo was someone who did not want to lead a country. King Húgo was what normal people would describe as simply crazy. Húgo ordered the death of all llamas in Soigá after one spat in his face, for example. The military generals tried to put some sense in Húgo as they saw that the instability of the country was only increasing, but Húgo responded with firing the generals. The army was divided and became ineffective. Protestants who saw their chance to rise up and strike, as anti protestant laws were still in effect, and Húgo was unable to stop them. He, according to Biographer of the Soigan Kings John Chessins, was not even willing to do one thing to stop the rebellion, he could only care about himself. According to Chessins, he should never have been king. Things rapidly worsened after the Wall Street Crash in 1929, as Soigá was still a nation heavily reliant on trade and commerce, due to being an island. Hundreds of thousands of Soigans became jobless, and there was not a single thing Húgo did to help them. Communists, who were heavily suppressed by King Halamír, saw their chance to get to power.

Kinggekke

King Húgó

Communist rebel groups were active in the country, and the army, even though it fought against these groups in both urban and rural areas, was ineffective in detering the communists. The country was basically in a semi civil war. Everywhere small militias (protestant, firrobatist, communist, anarchist etc.) fought against the broken army. The communists grouped together under the staunch communist Mífekaix Roifúrimír, and attacked the King in Vidígaz in 1935. The King held a speech in a concert building, and this was one of his few speeches he did every year. Thousands of communists, often not more armed than a simple rifle or a long knife, attacked the city. The King's Guard was the only unit able to make a stance. Fierce fights were fought in the the alleys of the city, but eventually, on August the 26th, the communist got through. King Húgo was killed in the firefight around the concert building. The communists proclaimed that the revolution had succeeded, and that oppression had ended and freedom had come. Roifúrimír was quick to proclaim Soigá to be a communistic state.

Communistic Soigá[]

Roifurimir

Roifúrimír in his younger years (date unknown, probably late 1910's or early 1920's).

Under Roifúrimír, there came a central state, but as he was more of an anarchist type of communist, he placed the focus more on independent communities. He gave each community their own right to determine how to balance and control their community, but at the end of the year certain demands and quotas had to fullfilled. Roifúrimír made some big changes regarding the constitution and the army. This was all due because Europe was rapidly changing in the 30's. The Spanish Civil War caused Franco, a fascist, to rise to power in Spain. Meanwhile Portugal had gotten a conservative nationalistic anti communist government by the rule of Salazar, and Hitler got to power in Germany.

The Soigan people were all but united. Not everyone had supported the coup d'etat by the communists, and royalists loyal to the Kingdom of Soigá had already formed militias which made various attacks on the communists. Many pro capitalists had fled the country, and people who supported fascism had gone to Spain or Germany, but there were still quite a few active in Soigá. But one of the larger forces against the communists were the Republicans, who wanted Soigá to become a republic. While there were genuine communists, and even quite a large portion of the population (mainly people in the poor rural areas), the communists were also divided between each other. Roifúrimír was an anarchist, but there were other forces in the communism faction who wanted more of a Leninistic type of communism, with a strong dictator, like in Soviet Russia, that had emerged at the end of the First World War.

Roifúrimír's dream of minimizing the government and let the people be in control over their goods and producing was simply not feasible, as he lacked the administrative skills and power to do so. However, he was a strong believer in his cause, and resistance in the form of militias were hard-handedly battled. He did this by increasing the military, but he knew this was contradictory to his ideals of an anarchistic state. He didn't want his dream to be lost by his own choices, which led Roifúrimír to the decision of talking to the other sides. This led to fierce critic from other communists, and quickly, the communist party in Soigá was fractured in small parties. Roifúrimír was killed in an attack by other communists, when he was in his car with guards at a lone road in a rural area, in 1938. One thing Roifúrimír is still known today for is his spelling reform he issued in 1937. He hoped with this the literacy rate would become higher, but also because he found that the current spelling rules and language was so that it would automatically create layers in society, something Roifúrimír was against at because he was a communist. For example, the pronoun dívus was used to adress higher ranking people, but it was banned by Roifúrimír, and to this date, it is rare to hear this pronoun.

The First Socialist Republic (1935-1941) was an unstable era, and the government did not fully control the executive agencies. Nevertheless, life situations did improve: workers got fundamental rights like being paid atleast a liveable wage, workers safety and more. Job unemployment also declined.

World War II, German invasion and the Fascist Republic[]

When France was conquered by Nazi Germany in 1940, and Spain of Franco directing threats to Soigá, a new chance arrived for the communists to unite the nation. Hitler, not so fond of communists, had been planning to invade Soigá, as the island was deemed as an excellent place to station rockets and ships, to deter possible American aggression (in 1941 America indeed attacked Germany). Fransíso Vídereg came to unite the communists in 1940, by proposing a combined version of communism and a communistic council which could overrule rules made by the communistic goverment. However, the fear that Germany might invade a defenseless Soigá prompted the communists to unite. Fransíso Vídereg was the one who could do this. Although there were still communists who did not want the communism version of Vídereg, direct threats of Germany (increased navy activity, troops mustering at the French shores) to Soigá made many dissident communist atleast consider to join Fransíso Vídereg's faction, as Vídereg promised to balance the many diverging opinions within the communist groups of Soigá with the help of a council.

Vídereg organised the army, but to deter the possible German invasion, he knew the army he needed more. The Soigan army was in a terrible state: the only modernities the army had were rifles from WWI and uniforms. For the rest the army used cannons of which some were older than 500 years, plus it had no tanks or anti aircraft weapons. After being in a recession for more than hundred years, the Soigan economy was one of the poorest in Europe. Expensive weapons from the UK or USA were not affordable for the communists. To combat these problems Vídereg ordered to build make-shift anti aircraft guns, as well as many small hide outs in the country and other sabotage/defend posts. Sea mines were build by miners and sailors, and put in the sea. Anything was done to delay/sabotage the future German invasion.

On 3 February 1941 the Germans indeed invaded Soigá. Roughly 300,000 German soldiers entered Soigan grounds. Fierce coastal fights had already occured, and the make-shift anti air guns proved to be difficult to spot as they were camouflaged greatly. General Ulrich Siegenthalt, who commanded the invasion of Soigá, made up a plan to invade Soigá from all sides. Makán and Monéjá would fall in a matter of one week, he claimed. This proved to be fundamentally wrong. The Germans were severely halted in their progress by the guerrilla tactics of the communists. Important roads were sabotaged, as well as bridges. The sea surrounding Soigá was littered with homemade sea mines, dropped in the sea from simple fishing boats. The Communists also made in underground basements the hAVK weapon, a weapon noted for its simplicity, its (relative) smallness, and effectiveness. The weapon could fire high caliber bullets with quite a rapid pace (36 per minute) at both land and air vehicles. These high caliber bullets could then penetrate through the shield and then explode directly into thousands of tiny particles that created a giant hole. With this, wings of planes were destroyed, making them unable to fly.

Here, Siegenthalt's plan failed: by making his army encircle Soigá, he thinned his divisions, which caused the individual colonnes to be even more unearthed to guerilla tactics. There had been some big clashes, namely at Solásír and Nímöl-Geláz, but although the Germans were victorious there, the Soigans proved to be a menace and many casualties were falling. Nearly two weeks into the fight, and still roughly 3/4 of Soigá was under control of the Communists. Siegenthalt heard from a telegram a message from Máríjöz Netíles, who was the leader of the Fascist Underground Party, a forbidden fascist Party, that aimed for Soigá to be a fascist state. In the telegram, Netíles claimed to have the location of Vídereg, and that his Party could kill him in a day plus that there were more than enough supporters of a Fascist Soigá. According to him, there was infighting between the Communists, and leadership was weakened, plus the Cities were not controlled anymore by the COmmunist police. A Fascist Soigá would plead allegiance to Nazi Germany, plus send help. Siegenthalt was skeptical about it, but indeed just two days later, Vídereg was found dead when a bomb was set off at his appartment. Before it was in the newspapers, Siegenthalt had another telegram wherein it was stated that it was the work of Netiles' Party. Adolf Hitler personally ordered Siegenthalt to get a Fascist regime into power in Soigá, as he needed more troops for the upcoming Operation Barbarossa, which would happen not long after the invasion of Soigá. While the fascists mustered in the streets of the cities, and did various attacks on governemtal buildings, the Germans gave them weapons and money, while further fighting the disorientated Communist armies. Because the Communists had lost quite a lot of leaders (the Fascists shot and killed every Communist they found), and since the Germans were advancing rapidly now, the Communists surrendered, on the condition that anyone who fought for the Communists in the war to be cleared of criminal charges.

The Fascist Republic of Soigá[]

The Fascists proclaimed the Fascist Republic of Soigá at 27th of February, 1941. The Republic would bring "stability", "peace & freedom" from "Marxist" oppression. Quite ironically, many Marxist laws put in effect since the First Socialist Republic, stayed in effect. Netíles was proclaimed Party Leader, and with this, de facto state and government head, A.K.A. a dictator. Unlike Adolf Hitler, Máríjöz Netíles was not antisemitic: there were even a few Jewish goverment officials. The task of instructing a new Republic was not hard, since the Germans were there to help secure a stable regime, which would benefit them as well. The promise to clear all criminal charges against the people who fought on the Communist side against the Germans was fullfilled, but these people were secretly put on a list and be kept in notice. Communist and resistance activities were forbidden and often punishable by death. The Germans trained the Fascist Army, and many Soigan Fascists who had fled the country in the previous decades, came back to join the Army (many Fascists had fled to Spain after the Communist coup in 1935). Netíles installed a though regime to destroy in his eyes the "Evil Marxism", but thanks to his connections with the Germans, the government did become stable. After the invasion of Germany, with the strong presence of German troops, the land could be rebuilt, and institutions in the hands of the Fascists could have a better grip on the country than the Communists could had.

Netiles

Netíles (the man in front with his fingers pointing) with his generals, 1942, discussing the building of a military fort.

Communist insurgents who had refused to give up arms, and who were hiding, continued to fight the regime. This was especially so in 1942, when the Germans left Soigá (although they gave Námofelá, which Netíles initially agreed to let Germany keep it, to Spain). Communist insurgents started to increase in numbers, and various cities were taken by Communists for periods of time. Fascists had the upper hand, but sentiment against them, which was lower, by far, than the sentiment against the Communists, which were popular, turned for the worse. The position was further weakened, when roughly 40,000 fascists went to the East front to fight for Germany, leaving the homeland weaker for the Fascists. At the end of 1942, Netíles had lost control over quite a bit of land. The popularity for the Fascists was rock bottom. Netíles further damaged the reputation by enacting Decree 66, which enabled the Fascist police to shoot anyone they thought obstructed the Fascist constitution and is resisting arrest. Death numbers increased compared to the period in 1941 when the Fascist Republic was declared.

Eventually, Netíles, angry on the Germans that they left him without help, had sent a letter to his Generals in the East front to send all soldiers back to Soigá, which now had totalled 100,000. The Fascist regime was desperately weakened, and in the last three months of 1942 alone, there had been 16 assasination attempts on Netíles. Hitler responded by cutting all money funds to the Fascists in Soigá. An even worse message Netíles received was that a large part of the army in Russia refused to go home: in this army, there were many hardened and fanatical members who saw their most important duty to eradicate Bolshevikism. The other part of the Army who came back were on the other hand actually disillusioned by the horrors of the war, and refusing to go back into the Fascist army in Soigá. At this point it was clear that without Germany's help, the Fascist regime would fall. And so it did: Communist groups grew larger, and as time passed by, more and more cities deflected to the Communists. The Communists were seen as liberators, with many peope shouting "Bílogaidó!" ("For the second time", referring to the Communist coup in 1935 as the "first" time) to them when they patrolled the city streets once again. Netíles commited suicide when he heard that the Fascist troops in Makán (where he resided) had surrendered to the Communists. Not long after, the Communists, under leadership of Hadezí Jiböl (1897-1964), the Communists proclaimed the Second Socialist Republic.

Second Socialist Republic of Soigá[]

<MORE TO COME>

Protests[]

Due to music and new cultures from the West from the USA, UK and Western Europe young students protested in the large cities against the communist rule in late 1981. But even before that, the 70's decade was known to be a rebellious 10 years by mainly young people. In the 60's and 70's, the Communist regime experienced several crisises, crop fails and other downfalls. Population and economy growth dropped, and (young) people became angry about the lack of action by the Government. The older people still mainly supported the communist rule, because they had experienced the poor and miserable times before the communist came to power. However, young people wanted more freedom, as papers, TV and radio channels were limited and going abroad was difficult. Many people argued that the Communist Council was corrupt and that the people had too little freedom. The government violated human rights and was oppressive, as many people argued. Wide scale protests erupted soon after the students occupied the Cobörai square in Makán. Eventually more than 200,000 people participated in the protests, and large parts of the main cities were barricaded by the people. The Government had sent the army, and many people feared bloodbaths could happen. Nevertheless, protests continued. The Government, who saw that the people did not fear the army, made an ultimatum: as it was nearly 1982, the Government said that everyone should be gone of the square before 1982, as otherwise tanks and other guns would be sent to the square.

At this point the world was watching carefully. The Cold War was still ongoing, and as Soigá was still a communist state communist or communistic alligned nations supported the Soigan regime, while the US, UK and other nations in the West supported the protestors. Ronald Reagan, president of the US at the time, made a clear and unambigious statement regarding the ultimatum the Soigan regime had made: "If they will be gun-blazing, we too will be gun-blazing". Soon other major capitalistic nations shared Reagan's statement. The Soigan goverment was pressured to accept the demands of the protestors.

Wide relief was shown when in the first week of 1982 the Government had not invaded the square. However, the Government refused to go into the demands of the protestors, which were that the current Government would step down and a democratic, free republic would replace it. At this moment, many soldiers of the army deserted from the army to join the protests. A group of 22 deserted soldiers invaded the Council Assemblee in the capital Makán after a short firefight which wounded no one. The building was occupied, and from there the soldiers said into press cameras that "anyone who wants a free and democratic Soigá should come to this place". The group was quickly called The Young Democrats by press media. Rather fast the whole area before the building was filled with people. People were singing songs about freedom and living together in harmony. When it became night and thus dark, the people lighted up lantern balloons with messages of hope.

After nearly two weeks, the Government, who had no building to seat in, made a press conference. Chair leader of the Communist Council Möseté Kátetim announced that the Communist party was willing to look into the demands of the people. After more than a week discussing with people and leaders of the protests, the Communist Party announced that it had come to an agreement that people would be able to vote for Communist leaders in the Council, and that the protest leaders had agreed with this proposal. However, this was a lie, said the protest leaders. The Communist Police apprehended the protest leaders for "Betrayal", and news reporting this was silenced. The Government had hoped that the week long discussing had stopped or atleast paused the tensions, but protests grew even more higher. Protests escalated when gun fights happened between army dissidents and police. A march of 12 tanks from the army neared Makán at the 18th of January. There was at first confusion whether these were from the Government or from dissidents, but rockets from military installations were fired at them. The tanks were disabled, and were apparently driven by deserted soldiers. The situation in the next four days kept escalating: special police were barricading the Council Assemblee, and people who were living in the neighbourhead were evacuated. More than thousands of army soldiers were in the cities of Monéjá and Makán. In the mean time, the Communist Council made press conferences where they said that it was only a small part of the army that had deserted and that the people who were protesting where a small minority. They dishonestly showed images of near empty streets (which were later proved by journalists to be cleared of protestors by the army), to "prove" the party had restored order and peace and that protestors were not as far spread as thought.

But order was far from happening in the streets of the main cities. The police became more and more agressive (but the people kept on going to the streets protesting), and eventually deaths of citizens were a common thing. Independent journalists documented people asking in the cameras for help of other nations, as the "common people of Soigá are dying for freedom, literally". Between 20 and 26 January alone, nearly 400 people had died. In the mean time, European countries as France, West Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Spain were discussing about a military intervention. They warned the Communist government to listen to the people and stop the killings. The Communist government responded by saying it was protecting the innocent people of Soigá who were terrorised by "capitalist-funded street gangs". To prove this, the Communists showed "evidences" like an alleged meeting between an American politician with protest leaders and telephone recordings. On the 30th of January, a large explosion happened at the National Meeting of Soigan Chosen Commitees, a by the Communist Party owned building, which killed 11 people, including 4 prominent communist politicians (among which Hildá Lélim, Deputy President Official of the Council). The Government responded rashly by capturing the alleged culprits, 14 of them, and executed them on the same day.

On 2 February, the ACDSP (Alliance of Countries for the Democracy for the Soigan People) , consisting of 15 countries, ordered the Government to stand down and let Soigá have a peaceful transition to a democracy. The ACDSP said it had an army on stand by. Encouraged by this, even more people joined the streets, and now people from rural areas came to the cities to participate, even though rural areas were normally pro communist. A procession by nearly half a million people happened in the city of Makán, and the army was unable to stop them. The barricades could hold off the protestors for two days, but then the army and the special police saw that they were not able to stop the crowd. When the first people arrived at the Council Assemblee, they were gunned down. The Communists had machine guns installed in the building. The ACDSP accused the Government of Murder and Mass Killings, and in the next day, troops from ACDSP landed on Soigá. Troops of the Soigan army surrendered themselves, or deserted. When the first troops arrived at Makán, protestors saw a white flag being hanged on the Council Assemblee. However, people still threw molotov cocktails and other projectiles to the building, and managed to get in. Although some Communist politicians were formally apprehended, others were severely beaten. ACDSP troops stopped the beatings and secured the terrains and cities. Many Communist politicians tried to flee, particularly to Cuba or other Socialist republics, but many of them were arrested by the ACDSP. At this moment, the ACDSP acted as an agent to stabilise the regio and clear the path to democracy.

Republic of Soigá[]

The Republic of Soigá was proclaimed on 4th of March 1982. 4 March is still a national holiday and is known as the Day of the Republic. More than a month long the country was under control of the ACDSP and preparations for a democracy were ongoing, but the ACDSP was also there to stabilise the country, as there was fear that all kinds of movements would try for a move to get into control of Soigá, for example right wing extremely conservative Catholic movements and fascists. In this one month the people were introduced to democracy, and lectures/lessons were given about constitutions/republics and democracy, and people were prepared for three elections: about the type of republic, the type of constitution and first national elections for the parliament and president. Even though Soigá was now officially a republic, there was still an interim government, as first elections were underway: the people of Soiga could decide whether Soigá would be a parliamentary system or a (semi) presidential system. On the Ninth of March the elections happened, and nearly 90% voted for a parliamentary system. Now it was time for a constitution referendum: 5 types of constitutions were chosen by a commitee of which one could be chosen by the people. They ranged from a more centralized, national one to one with many liberties and decentralization, and everything in between. The constitutions also differed in the role of the president, how a parliament would work and what roles would be there in the parliament. A constitution which made the president more of a symbolic head of the state was chosen, and guaranteed freedom of religion, expression and more was chosen.

Elections for head of state and head of government would be for one time be set up on the same day, namely on the 14th of June. Everyone could start a party, and become candidate. To make sure rich people (and business people, as people feared for an oligarchy) would not have a larger chance of becoming prime minister or president, money for ads and tv time could only come from a commitee, and how much depended on how many members a party had. This was made to be a one time measure. Hozágíl Grezemír became popular and the leading candidate, as he was one of the people who had continued to pressure the Communistic Government to become much more democratic, and he was a great supporter of the EU and economical liberalisation. He became famous because of his speeches about the people of Soigá, and that every Soigan was a Hífard Pešilek, who became a symbol of a true Soigan. Grezemír was also popular because he had been a business man for a long time, and was known to be a man who could get things done. He became a symbol of both patriotism (which had been lost quite a bit over the years under communism rule) and westernisation, freedom and progress. He often ended his speeches by saying "Zoigá dobrédigad", which is semantically difficult to translate as it has a wide arrange of meanings, for example: Soigá can do this or Soigá can overcome anything, or Soigá will be the best. It has also the meaning of a preceived positive action done in the future by a collaberation of the Soigan people. The quote became popular, and eventually ended up to become the de facto unofficial motto of the Republic of Soigá.

Grezemir

Hozágíl Grezemír in 2001.

His party BML became popular, and on 17th of June, when the election results were in, Hozágíl Grezemír was chosen as prime minister, and Mathíhá Jeleritím (also BML) as first President of the Republic of Soigá. On the 20th of June the Government could finally start. In his Prime Minister years, Grezemír portrayed himself as someone who would fight for the democracy and republic the Soigan people wanted, and many constitution changes happened, and a grand total of 11 referenda had happened under Grezemír. Patriotism grew immensely, and to this date, Grezemír has been the only prime minister that has been reelected. On 23 June of 1986 Grezemír started for his second term, and now he made the pledge to have Soigá join the EU. Talks with the EU were already started in 1983, and on 7 December 1987 Soigá could join the EU. Another big policy Hozágíl Grezemír implemented was the change of the 4 Provinces of Soigá to 13 regions. Also, instead of having nearly 2 thousand komunú a sharply reduced number of 96 municipalities replaced these communes. Grezemír enabled with this a third form of elections, namely the regio/municipal elections, in 1989, when the regions and municipalities were created. Every three years regio/municipal elections take place since 1989.

Geography[]

Soigá is a country in South Western Europe. It is about 33,819 square kilometers in size, and about 145 km from the continent of Europe to its closest point. This makes Soigá around the size of Moldova, or Belgium. Soigá, however, consists of multiple islands. It is the 13th largest island country by area. The largest islands are Soigá (of which the country is named after), Hitíká and Námofelá. There are many small islands in the Sea of Hagaberia (Olfkin: Mofárá Hágáberae). The main island of Soigá (31,796 sq km) is the 5th largest island of Europe, behind Spitsbergen but before Sicily. The main island of Soigá constitutes 94% of the total surface of the Republic of Soigá. It has a coastline of more than 2,700 km, and the longitudinal distance between the most Southern point to the most Northern point is about 265 km, while the latitudinal distance between the most Western and Eastern points is about 212 km. At 1,664 square km, Hitíká is the second biggest island of Soigá, and it is place 27 of largest islands in Europe, and it is about the size of the Greek island of Lesbos. Námofelá is the third largest island of Soigá, at 124 square km. This makes Námofelá the 183rd largest island in Europe. Other large islands in Soigá are Trelpatá, Xírímegá and Sesí.

Formation[]

The Soigan sub-shelf is the shelf beneath Soigá and its islands, and is part of the larger Eurasian plate. The sub-shelf pushes against the plate around the Merkáte-Bliz area and Hitíká, which creates the rugged terrains of both areas. Some 10 million years ago the land was pushed above the water due to this pushing by the sub-shelf. During the Ice Age, water levels declined. This caused a near land bridge between Iberia and the main island of Soigá. Large islands of more than 1,000 square kilometers appeared. After the Ice Age, these islands dissapeared, and scientists believe Námofelá is the sole survivor of the islands in the Soigan Sea. Hitíká and Soigá were connected, but the Hagaberan Sea formed when the sea levels rose.

Mountains[]

Gebergte Soigá

The North Western part of Soigá is very rugged.

It has a hilly landscape, with the rugged Merkáte-Bliz area in the northwestern part of the country. The Hópátisíkai is the highest point in Soigá, with 2,106 meters. The island of Hitíká is quite mountainous, more so than Soigá, and harbors the second highest point of Soigá, the Yveter which is 2,077 meters high. The next five highest points of Soigá are all located in Hitíka, before coming back for three consecutive tops in main island Soigá. This makes the list of the ten highest points: 4 in Soigá, 6 in Hitíká.

Rivers and lakes[]

Soiga rivieren

Main rivers in Soigá. Interesting to notice is that these rivers often form the borders between muncipalities and/or regions.

Soigá has 5 to 7 main rivers, depending on how you count. The longest river is the Mímé river, which is 162 km. However, this is following the Mímé Kripelken (lit. The Wild Mímé), which sidetracks from the main Mímé river about 82 km from the source of the Mímé river, at the point where the Mímé river splits off into two rivers: the Mímé Kripelken and the Mimé Hofémen (lit. The Quiet Mímé). The Kripelken eventually splits as well, into the Kripelken and the sidetracked Mímé Tásanae (lit. The Tasanian Mímé). Some count the Mímé as just one river, at which point the Mímé would be around 314 km combined, or as two rivers (the Kripelken and Hofémen), or as three (the Kripelken, Hofémen and the Tásanae).

The largest lake in Soigá is the Birboibílé, at 17.8 km^2, which is also the source of the river Higúrí (the name giver of the regio of Higormöz), and this lake can be found in the regio of Polčímer. Birboipílé gets its water from the melting snow and rain from the nearby mountains.

Forests[]

Farmland

The Southern regio's are mostly used for agriculture.

Soigá is also known to be quite forested (about 45% is forested). An especially forested part of Soigá is the northern part of the country. Čonmíjá and Hárýpé account for a third of all forests in Soigá. This is in contrast with the south, where a lot of forests have taken place for agriculture.

Climate[]

Soigá generally has a climate similar to that of Northern Spain and South Western France, although Southern Soigá (and Hitíká) can have a more mediterranean type of climate. Temperatures often range in the winter from 5 to 10 degrees (although in the mountains it often snows then) while in the summer it is often around 20 to 25 degrees (days with a higher temperature than 30 are not uncommon).

Flora and Fauna[]

Soigá has a relatively high amount of endemic species compared to other European countries, due to the island being separated by the main continent for millions of years. However, in the Ice Age the Sea Level was considerably lower than today, and many more islands were in the Soigan Sea (of which Námofelá is one of the sole survivers of). The theory goes that animals "floated" (or flew) to Soigá using these islands as stops, a theory that has also been used to explain terrestrial life on remote places on Earth as Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands.

Rode Lynx

The Soigan Red Lynx.

The Soigan Red Lynx is the national animal of Soigá, and can be found on the national coat of arms. Since it arrived from Iberia in Soigá in the Ice Age it is classified as the cousin of the Iberian Lynx. In the Firrobatist mythology the lynxes were the sons and daughters of the Sun (the red fur because the Sun "burned" it), there to protect the land of Soigá. Due to the high sacredness the Firrobatists had for the animal it had been relatively preserved in the ancient and medieval times, but in the Renaissance the fur of the animal became popular, and population growth (and thus higher demand for food) in the 18th and 19th century caused a decline in both the population and area of the lynx. However, conservation methods were introduced by the Communist halfway in the 20th century, and now the Soigan Red Lynx numbers around 1,000.

<PROBABLY MORE TO COME>

Politics[]

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.

Government[]

Political system[]

Soigá is an unitary parlementary republic (it is an unicameral one), and so, has a parlement and prime minister. The prime minister of the country is Vard Benúdae, who was the party candidate of the leading Partitos Por Kwalíkó mís Demográdó, or shortened PPKD (the social democrats) in the national elections of 2014, and sweared in as prime minister by the president. The prime minister's political term is for 4 years, and his/her job is to form a coalition (if his/her party did not reach the majority), and to form a cabinet.

Soigá has as well a president, however, the president has mostly symbolic functions (like going on diplomatic missions and establish trade agreements), but it has some powers. The current president of Soigá is Konṫátíne Biredazilógéx. She is from the KJ party (United Christians). You can only be president of Soigá if you are a Soigan citizen and have lived for atleast 25 years in the country, as well as being born in the country and above the age of 45. The president has the objective to protect the constitution and protect the people of Soigá. The president is also head of the military. When the prime minister enables the emegency level for the country, the president will be the head of the govenrment, and be able to enact decrees, for a max term of one month (the prime minister can extend it at the end of the term). The Soigan president swears in the prime minister, but has the option to deny to swear in the prime minister. If this happens a referendum takes place whether or not the prime minister should be sweared in. If the referendum gives as result that he/she should be, the president has to swear in or has to resign, which means new presidential elections will happen. If the referendum gives as result that the prime minister should not be sweared in, then new national elections have to take place. This has not happened yet in Soigan history. The Soigan president has also the powerful option of removing the prime minister, however, this can only truly happen if a third of the Parlement agrees with it. This can be cosidered "easier" in comparison with the method of issuing a "no confidence trust", which has to be enabled by one of the parlementarians, and which requires half of the parlementarians to agree with. But perhaps the most powerful weapon of the President is that it can veto laws, as laws can only become active if they are signed by the President. If he does not sign, the law will not become active, and this can be seen as a form of veto. However, this has to apply with the constitution, a president can't veto a law with no good reason based on the constitution. If he/she acts against the constitution according to the High Court, he/she can be removed from the position of president by the High Court. This is so because the law says that any law put forward by a democratically chosen political representation of the people (e.g. the cabinet) that does not contradict the constitution must be approved by the Soigan president. The Soigan president must also approve of referenda put forward by the Parliament. The Soigan president has a max term of 6 years, after which new elections will happen, although this can be longer, see beneath of the "Elections" header.

Elections[]

Soigá knows three types of elections: the national elections, the presidential elections and the regional/muncipal elections. Everyone 18 years old or older can vote, as long as one has the Soigan citizenship. The national elections decide what the make up of the parlíament will be, and who will be the prime minister (the leading candidate of the party with the most votes). Anyone can start a political party in Soigá, and there are no restrictions on what kind of goals it may set. For example, a party that says it wants to nuke every country (hyperbolical example) is not dissallowed to participate, and thus, can become the prime party. This has led to sharp criticism from the EU, as hate parties are free to participate, however, it is nearly impossible to have such get enacted, as the President is sweared in to protect the constitution which protects several freedoms and others. Parties get funding of the state when they have more than 500 members, and it gets increased the more members are in the party, however, nothing stops parties from getting donations. Parties are free in how they set up their candidates, party headquarters and everything else. There is only two restrictions: the party has to sign in on the National List of Parties to participate, and has to have atleast one candidate available. The voting treshold is 4 seats, and as there 165 seats, this means one party has to get 2.4% of the votes to get into the parliament. The votes on parties that have not get to parliament will be not counted for the seat distribution (which is proportionally by number of votes per party). Every four years there are national elections, however, it can happen sooner if the prime minister is removed from his/her position. There is no limit on how many terms someone can become prime minister.

There are also presidential elections. These happen every 6 years. Anyone in any party can list themselves as candidate for president, but they have to meet the criteria which have been discussed above (older than 45 years, lived in Soigan for more than 25 years and have the Soigan citizenship). When elected, the Soigan president has to do the oath, in which he/she swears loyalty to the Republic and defend the constitution and the people. The Soigan president can only be removed by the High Court of Soigá, if the Soigan president has violated his/her oath. However, the Soigan president can voluntarily resign, or he/she dies during his/her term, which both mean an interim president, chosen by the 13 hábel-prosú, will fullfill the roles untill new presidential elections will take place.

The third form of elections is the regional/muncipal elections. In this election citizens can decide who gets to be on the muncipal council, but also who will be the ábel-pros (leader regio). Again, everyone is free to start a political party, but now it has to write in the Local Muncipal List of Parties or the Regional List of Parties, or both. Every muncipal has a council of 15 people, and these govern the local politics of a muncipal, except municipalities which have a population larger than 40,000. The regios itself are led by the ábel-pros who often form the task of instructing tasks of local muncipalities in their regios. The ábel-pros can form a Regional Council (25 people), which decides what the regio will do with the money from the Government: every regio gets money from the government for infrastructure, jobs, environment, tourism, housing etc. which is totally up to the regio itself how to organize that money and use it. This is because there isn't a federal system, so a regio can bring more in than it gets, or vice versa. A regional muncipal election happens every three years.

The presidential and regional/muncipal elections are fixed for every 6 and 3 years respectively, and they never happen in the same year (as presidential elections started in 1982 while those of the regio/municipal started in 1989). However, it can however happen that the national elections will take place in the same year as the presidential or regional/muncipal elections, for example because the government had collapsed (for example if a party has left the ruling coalition and thus it has no majority). Also, if counting from 1982 every four years (the timeframe between two national elections) the presidential elections and national elections will happen in the same year theoretically every three national elections once. The cabinet has collapsed three times from 1982 to 2016 (in 1993, 1999 and 2006). The cabinet has only twice collapsed in a year that the regio/municipal or presidential elections will take place, namely with that of the regio/municipal election in 2010 and 2014. If the regio/municipal (as happened in 2010 and 2014) or presidential elections happen in the same year as the national elections, then the presidential elections or the regional/muncipal elections will be postphoned by one year. As it happened in 2010 and 2014 for the regio/municipal elections, this means the regio/municipal elections had been postphoned to 2011 for 2010, and thus from 2013 to 2014 (which is a year it would interval with that of the national elections as well, so again plus one year) to 2015. Counting plus three years this means the presidential elections and the regio/municipal elections will both happen 2018, something which can't happen as well according to the law. Now, the presidential elections will be postphoned by one year, making the hierarchy national elections > regio/municipal elections > presidential elections. This means the current president, Konṫátíne Biredazilógéx, will be president for 7 years instead of the traditional 6 years (and it could be even longer if the cabinet collapses in 2019). Although the presidential and national elections both happened in 1982, this year is seen as an exception due to being the start year of the Republic.

Some parties want to change this system, and some parties want to have the political parliament decide who will be the president, and thus, eliminate one election. However, staunch supporters of the presidential elections say that the Soigan president should be chosen by the people as it is written in the law that the president is the one who is sworn to protect the people and the constitution. If the parliament can decide who will be the president, they can change the constitution much easier and the president would represent them more than he/she would represent the citizens.

The current elections have been in:

National elections: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1993 (cabinet collapsed), 1997, 1999 (cabinet collapsed), 2003, 2006 (cabinet collapsed), 2010 and 2014.

Presidential elections: 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006 and 2012.

Rego/municipal elections: 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2011 (postphoned by one year because of aforementioned law) and 2015 (also postphoned because of the law).

Parliament and political parties[]

Soiga politiek

Left you can see under in order which color belongs to which party.

Currently there are ten parties in the parliament. The largest party is the PPKD, or Partitos Pro Kifaló mís Demogratosó ("Party for Equality and Democracy"), the social democrats, with 31 seats. In the picture next you can see the proportion of seats per party in the parliament. The place of seats is not ordered by number or alphabetically order, but actually the chronogical order the parties came in this parliament. Parties can fuse to one, but they can register under one old name. If one party has been for a long time in the parliament, but have gotten in one election no seat, but in the following they have, they will "start over" on the right side of the parliament (seen from the picture). Parties on the left here are the oldest (in the parliament), while on the right they are the "youngest".

Following the political diagram on the right (from left to right), the political parties that are currently in the parliament, are:

  • PPKD (light purple): Partitos Pro Kifaló mís Demogratosó, the current largest party which is also the party that has been the longest in the parliament. They have often been described as the dominant party, but in recent elections they have lost many seats. They have 31 seats. They have as ideology social democratism, and believe that freedom can live with equality. They have made themselves popular in the working class in the 80's and 90's, but after the market crashes in 2008 and 2009 they became much less popular. They lost the election 2010, and became the second largest party, after the United Christians. The 2010 election is known for its distribution of seats to other parties and fragmentation of politics, and it is still visible today, as there aren't any parties that have a large lead on seats. Under Vard Benúdae the party gained popularity again and the party won the election of 2014. Of the 8 prime ministers that have been head of the government in the history of the Republic of Soigá, 4 have been from the PPKD party, including the current prime minister Vard Benúdae.
  • KJ (light green): Kriṫú Junegózigilzedor ("United Christians"), is currently the second largest party with 23 seats. Formely it were 7 different Christian parties (Protestant and Catholic), but they united in 2001 to form one large party, although for the parliament seats they are written under one old party. On the political spectrum they are socially centre-right but economically centre-left, and are often considered the "conservatives" because of their stances to abortus, immigration, gay marriage and such. However, from a conservative stance from other countries, they might seem more liberal towards these values, as Soigá has become a progressive country in recent decades, and thus the United Christians Party has been relatively mild conservative. They are also known of their advocacy of "respectful, honest and morally just" lifestyle, which critics saying they mean back to conservative roots and anti progressivism. Even though they are second, they have the largest membership of all political parties in Soigá, being nearly 20,000 members. The current president, Konṫátíne Biredazilógéx, is from the KJ party. They lost majorly in the 2014 election, going from 35 seats to now 23 seats. There has been 1 prime minister from the party.
  • PS (blue): Partitos Sóšálimet ("Socialist Party"), is partial 6th with 14 seats. It is also one of the oldest parties, and many communists joined the party after the proclamation of the Republic. It has a strong base in the North, but it didn't gain much seats primarily because of the general despise of communism in the 80's and 90's. To counter this, the party had promoted themselves as defenders of democracy as they "keep the financial elite from forming an oligarchy". Because of this they are often described as left populists. They gained many seats in the 2010 election, primarily from dissapointed PPKD voters due to the crisis in 2008.
  • BML (light blue): Bubelgá Mit Liberdosixiz ("Action using Freedom") is the main liberal party in Soigá, and the third largest party in the parliament with 22 seats. The first prime minister of Soigá, Hoságíl Grezemír, was from this party. On a political scale, they are pro capitalism but on a social level they are progressive. BML wants less involvement by the Government in business and education, but does not want to shut down social security measurements, rather decrease them to certain levels. They are progressive on gay marriage, abortus, immigration and more, and are also pro Western. They were the main opponents of the PPKD in the 80's and 90's, but then decreased in both seats and membership. There have been 2 prime ministers from this party.
  • hUD (light brown): Huníjon Demokratanai ("Union of Democrats") is the second main liberal party in Soigá. They have 17 seats currently, and are one of the parties that have benefitted the most from the fracturing of seats proportion. They differ from BML because hUD (with the "h" in lowercase, due to Olfkin spelling rules for abbrevations) is socially liberal. hUD is a strong defender of public schools and accessible schools for everyone. However, they are still on the centre regarding economic policies, as they still believe government's influence on companies should be reduced, but they do want to keep current rules for safeties, minimum salary and working times. Another unique part of the hUD is that it wants to decentralize the government more, and give people more say, by enabling yearly referenda and other things. They want to increase the power for Regional Councils and have more interaction between the citizens and local politics. They have also promoted themselves as corruption fighters. In the election of 1993 they became the party with the most votes, suddenly as no one expected it, and thus had a prime minister.
  • PK (purple): Partitos Katölíkimet ("Catholic Party") has 10 seats. It is a highly conservative party, having links to the decades old Monarchist movement in Soigá, which wishes to reinstate the Monarchy of Soigá. In its political manifesto it stands clearly that it seeks to make the "Soigan native Catholic culture" be dominant again. Although many critics blame the party for inciting hatred to other religions and pointing out the past of "Catholic supremacism", the party claims that it does not hate other religions and that it is a party for Catholics as there are parties for Firrobatists and Protestants. Even though journalists have unearthed connections between the party and monarchism supporters, some members deny the connections, while others are vague about it or even admit it. The party is popular in conservative Catholic muncipalities in Firečá and Mišömerá. They have made controversial statements like that atheists should be punished, are ruining the country, that the Bible should replace the constitution, and that Muslims, Jews and other religions follow a false religion.
  • VhÁPF (dark purple): Vévá, Hálendur Pro Firetíro! ("Let's Go, Together For Green!", although vévá has no real word in English) is the Green party in Soigá. It has 15 seats. The party is often said to be between the PPKD (less left) and PS (more left) on a political spectrum, and, as the name reveals, the party is supportive of green energy and nature reservation. Some may mistake the party for being one-issue, but the party has multiple positions on very different issues. For example, they have a strong stance against lobbying, and are pro EU. They could be described as socialist on economic issues, but they prefer the term "eco-socialism", and advocate for a "green revolution".
  • PPhÖZ (brown-grey): Partitos Pro Hörpaló Zoigae ("Party for the Soigan People") has 14 seats, and is the main right populist and nationalist party in Soigá, although it has also leftist positions. It advocates that the Parliament is corrupt, and that there is no real democracy in Soigá. They have been strongly against immigration, particularly EU-related, like Poles. Because of this they are anti EU, and their seats have increased most noticeably because of the austerity measures the EU took in Soigá after the Market crashes in 2009, which continued to 2015. For economic policies they are more socially liberal. They have a strong disdain for the perceived "progressive intellectual elite". But the party particularly focuses on the Soigan culture and nationality, and has made some quite controversial remarks, like that Spain, Portugal and Morocco have "Soigan roots" and were "stolen". Although the Socialist Party might seem the total opposite of this party, both parties have points where they both agree on, like that the elite is "in control", and both are EU skeptic, and because of this they often collaberate.
  • Pacifists (light blue-greenish): Pasifimanú ("Pacifists") is a relatively new party with 15 seats, and has recently gained many seats mainly from KJ and PPKD. They changed their name from Christian Pacifists to just Pacifists to attract more voters, but they still give their Christian background a prominent place. Many progressive Christians vote for this party, and the party is known for its ideology that tries to combine Christianity with progressivism. Although it is Christian in nature, it seeks to attract votes from atheists/agnostics but also from other religions by searching for common ground. It could be considered economically a little bit more left than PPKD, while socially a little bit more to the right. One of their main points is obviously pacifism. They seek to abolish the army and replace it with a much smaller National Guard, and advocate for leaving NATO. They are however pro EU, and support giving shelter to refugees.
  • hIPF (light red): Hindebendá Pro Firó ("Independence for the Firrobatists") is the smallest party qua seats in the parliament, with just 4. This means the party is just allowed to be in the parliament. The party has been leading the Regio Council in Hinkíjá for years, but in the last election it had enough votes to participate in the national parliament. As the name says, the party wants "independence" for the Firrobatists. The party does not wish to have a separate country for the Firrobatists, but have the Firrobatists have more control and autonomy over their lands and rules to live. In Hinkíjá the party has been succesful in enabling programs for Firrobatists which has led the Firrobatists to live more as they want to, for example, the Firrobatists believe taxation is part of Zídarí. The party also wants more autonomy for each regio.

Electorate[]

Administrative divisions[]

Soigá is divided into 13 regios, or hobermú. These replaced the 4 Provinces of Soigá in 1989. They reflect the regional cultures of Soigá. They are:

Name Location Population (2016) Area (sq km) Pop. / sq. km
Hitíká
Hitika
252,887 1,815 139.3
Deverná
Deferna-0
822,962 1,326 620.6
Mišömerá
Misomera-0
639,855 3,010 212.6
Firečá
Fireta-0
505,075 2,685 188.1
Gazimirgá
Gasimirge-0
213,661 2,617 81.6
Tópesemá
Topesema-0
209,566 2,011 104.2
Hertúmóper
Ertumoper-0
234,053 1,818 128.7
Hárýpé
Harype-0
100,452 2,232 45.0
Čonmíjá
Tonmia-0
159,007 4,900 32.5
Hinkíjá
Hinkia-0
216,943 4,105 52.8
Höngeví
Hongevi-0
310,770 2,604 119.3
Polčímer
Polcimer-1
178,206 2,963 60.1
Higormöz
Igormos-0
128,205 1,733 74.0

Muncipalities[]

Soiga 2 provincies gemeentes blanco

Furthermore, as a second level of administrative divisions, Soigá exists out of 96 muncipalities. Each muncipal is led by a council of 15-25 people, plus a mayor. A mayor is elected by the people of the muncipality in the regional/muncipal election. The Regio Council has the power of creating or merging muncipalities. Here is a map of all muncipalities (lines around islands mean they are grouped by the lined muncipality):

Furthermore, 5956 "statistical districts" exist, however, these are purely meant for statistical purposes, and not for actual government.

Law and criminal justice[]

Foreign relations[]

Soigá enjoys warm relations with many countries. Since accesion to the EU in 1987, Soigá has been active in the Union. Most recently, in 2015 Soigá could enable a program with an annual 8 billion euros budget, targeting more poorer European Union members, meant to fight global warming in those countries. Soigá is one of the most pro EU countries, with polls showing a support to the Union of about 70% of the population. This is despite hard austerity measures the country had to take by the EU.

Relations with Spain have always been the most troublesome, but recent years both countries have worked intensively together and opinion polls show that most of the population of each country has a favourable view to the other country. The island of Námofelá had mostly been the problem maker, as both countries had argued control over the island (with the island having large oil fields). In 2004 the final issue surrounding the island was solved, as then Soigá officially bought the remainder east part of the island. However, there are still some obstructions between both countries: Soigá argues for more self-control for the Besteriran minority in Spain, plus both countries still argue about which country gets which piece of the oil fields.

Soigá has a diplomatic mission to most countries, and it has an embassy in every European country, except Kosovo. It is a member of the UN and has ratified many agreements, including the Paris agreement about battling climate change. It is also a member of NATO, although some argue that participation in it is unnecessary as the country has no direct threats.

Military[]

The head of the military is the president of Soigá, currently Konṫátíne Biredazilógéx. The Armed Forces of Soigá consist of the Soigan Land Force, the Soigan Navy and the Air Force.

The goals of the Armed Forces of Soigá is to protect the integrity of Soigá, to protect its citizens and its parliament and president. Maintaining peace according to UN principle is an additional task, which can be followed with the President permission.

Currently there are around 12,000 active members in the Soigan army, while there are about 5,000 reserve personnel (however these are just normal people occassionaly training). The budget of the military is about 1.4% of the nominal GDP, or about 1 billion dollar. This is a lot different compared to the Communist times. Communistic leaders wanted a strong army of around 100,000 soldiers that could deter a possible "capitalistic and fascist" invasion. At the time there were heavy tensions with Spain (under leadership of Franco) but also with many Western nations because of Soigá's support of the Warschau Pact (although Soigá was never part of the Warschau Pact). A lot of material was bought from Soviet Russia, some of it still in use, but currently most of it has been sold or scrapped.

The Land Force and air force have around 45 fighter planes, 8 tanks, 137 armoured vehicles, 5 self propelled guns, 2 towed artillery and other equipment. However, most of the budget goes to the Navy, as the plan for the army is to have an navy that can operate anywhere in the world with proportional power, while the land army is meant to be able to defend Soigá for a time. And as Soigá is an island, a navy is and has been always important. The Navy of Soigá consists 2 frigates, 2 corvettes, 1 minehunter, 1 destroyer, 1 non-nuclear submarine, several patrol vessels and a moderate-sized auxiliary fleet. In the 18th century had a large fleet and was one of the main builders of warships.

Soigá is part of NATO and has done missions in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan, but not directly in Syria against ISIS. The Soigan army does provide money funds in the mission and communications.

Economy[]

History of the Soigan economy[]

The Soigan economy has had up and downs. Most recently, the economic crisis in 2008 caused the debt to GDP ratio go up to 150%. Austerity measures by the EU were unpopular, but it caused it to drop to the current level of 110%. The Soigan economy historically was an economy based on trade, mainly due to the island position. The economy decayed in the 19th century by several crop fails, colonial losses, losing trade competiveness and other crisises. The market crash in 1929 caused the economy of Soigá to fully collapse. At that moment the Soigan economy was one of the most ineffective and poorest of Europe. When the communists took control, the economy was made to be much more self relient. In fact, exports and imports became nearly negligible. This was not great for cities, but local economies prospered. The 30's and early 40's were transition era's, and the economy did not grow as much, but at the end of the 40's and especially in the 50's the Communist policies finally had effect. Although the economy was growing not particularly rapidly, the people had food, jobs and houses. This was something else than the miserable times of the 19th and early 20th century. In the 60's till the end of the 70's, economy flowered, but the Cigarette's Crisis in 1979 caused a steep increase in food prices and in basically everything. As the economy had few to zero import, this was disastrous for the economy, but especially for the common people as food prices went up rapidly. This was a turning point for the economy. People hoped for the better with the Republic of Soigá becoming a fact after the Soigan revolution of 1982, and although Hoságíl Grezemír, the prime minister of Soigá in the 80's, was very popular, he could not cause the economy to have a spurt growth. Instead, the economy continued to drop, mainly because the Soigan economy was not ready for economic liberisation, since it was focused on internal markets because of decades of communism. Grezemír's political goal was to have Soigá be able to join the EU. In 1987 Soigá indeed joined the EU. At that point things started to get better. With support from the EU Soigá could cope with the economic reforms. The late 80's were marked by modest growth, and the economy made a transition to a more Western style of economy, with open markets and more service based. Economic growth went higher in the early 1990's, reaching 4 to 6% levels. The economy entered a rapid economic growth phase in the late 90's, particularly because the economic policies finally had effect and public investments sky rocketed. Economic growth rates ranged from 7 to 11% from 1997 to 2005. In 2003 Soigá joined the Euro Zone. After that, a coalition by the leading party PPKD transformed the economy to a more protected economy, and focused more on internal parts of the economy, mostly to make the country less vulnerable from developments from other economies. Although the measure was not popular (and economic growth slowed down to about 5%), economists say that the crisis in 2008 would be a lot worse for Soigá otherwise. The crisis in 2008 had hit Soigá hard, and the debt went way up, just like the unemployement rate. The economy shrank from 2008 to 2010 with 6%. The still ruling PPKD party enabled severe austerity rules to combat the crisis, but this was very unpopular, and caused the PPKD party to lose many seats in the parliament. The KJ party used nationalism in the elections, but eventually did not stop the austerity measures. Although unpopular, the austerity measures did had some noticeable effect. The Soigan economy finally picked up growth again in 2011. Vard Benúdae, who became prime minister of the country in 2014, adressed to the people that he will stop the austerity measures, something he has relatively done so, and continue to strenghten the economy. The Soigan economy grew with 2.8% in 2014, but grew even more higher in 2015 with 3.5%. In 2016 the economy grew with 3.7% However, the debt ratio still remains high and unemployement rate is about 9%.

GDP and GDP per capita[]

The GDP nearly quadrupled from 1980 to 2016. At January the First, 2017, the GDP by PPP is calculated to be around 103 billion while the GDP by nominal is around 69 billion. This means the GDP per capita PPP is around 26 thousand, while that of the nominal is about 17 thousand dollar. Benúdá (not Benúdae here because of Olfkin rules, if first name appears THEN Benúdae), current prime minister of Soigá, pledged that he will add 2,000 euros (about 2,113 dollars) to the income of every Soigan at the end of his term in 2018 (he started in 2014). Soigá is one of the lowest qua gdp per capita in Western Europe, 24th of Europe (of the 44 countries) to be exact according to the IMF in 2016. However, Soigá has on average a much higher economy growth, as it had from 1980 to 2016 compared to other countries in Western Europe (except perhaps Ireland and Spain). Prime minister Benúdá has relatively succeeded in that as the Soigan GDP per capita has rose from about 15,800 to the current value of about 17,450 dollar, and he has another year. However, it is ofcourse the question how much of this extra money has been distributed equally is still ongoing.

Resources[]

Soigá is a rich country when valued by resources. The Romans traded with the Soigans before the year 0 AD primarily because of its vastness of gold and amber reserves. When Rome controlled Soigá, large gold mines were builded, and many of the gold in Rome can be traced back to Soigá. Soigá has a large resource of gold (especially in the Hárýpé regio) and amber. Other metals beside gold that can be found in Soigá in relative large quantities are iron, tin, copper, cobalt, magnesium, manganese and tungsten. The rare metal of indium (used in mobile phones) can be found in Soigá in one of the highest proportions compared to other European countries. Soigá has also a large phosphate reserve, estimated to be around 400 million kg (the highest in Europe besides Russia). Because of its vast wooden areas (about 45% is forested) wood has also been a major export product. Especially in the Kingdom era, when Soigá was one of the world's major ship builders in the world, but also of ship products. Fish has been a prominent export product as well, but in recent decades fish has been over captured, but environment measures have tried to counter this. In 1974 a large oil reserve had been found in the Soigan Sea, somewhat east of the island of Námofelá, which could produce in total perhaps to a billion oil barrels. Spain and Soigá are still fighting over rights to produce oil, which has obstructed most of the oil production. Green parties in both countries don't support oil production for obvious reasons, and since Soigá has been known to be a relative pro green country, this has also caused oil production to be reduced. In the Korisefan peninsula salt has for millenia been mined.

Energy[]

After the proclamation of the Republic, Soigá has made considerable steps to have a more green economy. Whereas only 10% of all electrical energy was generated using sustainable resources, in 2016 this was 54%. Prime minister Vard Benúdae has said that, if reelected in 2018, Soigá would have 75% of all its electrical generated energy to be green by 2022. Large solar parks were created in Hitíká, and in windy areas large wind turbines were built. Innovation to green energy has also been a prime goal in Soigá, and prime minister Benúdá had pledged another 300 million euros (above the already 500 million euro budget) for research to green innovation.

Demographics[]

Main article: Demographics of Soigá

Please note that the following data is from the 2016 census

Cities[]

The following table shows the twelve biggest cities of Soigá (in proper city). Proper city has been defined as the city population in the "real" city, as the historical parts of it and parts that have been internal of the city, this excludes outskirts and nearby villages and cities which act as the homes and living areas of the many people that work in the city but don't live there (in the proper city). The municipal population is in all cases larger, but is less interesting to show as the municipality a city is often also incorporates nearby land where farms and villages are located that are not necessarily directly linked to the city. However, some municipaltities cover nearly only the city, the most prominent example being the municipality of Pojiṫíjá, the area, on which Makán lays, has historically been called (and thus where Makán is located). Both the urban and metropolitan populations are larger in each city. Makán and Monéjá form the largest urban agglomeration in population in Soigá with around 1 million people, or a quarter of the total population in Soigá. A city in Soigá is defined as a place with a population larger than 20,000 which lays in connected statistical districts where each district has a population density of no less than 500 people per km^2.

The 12 largest cities in Soigá:

City (proper) Population

(2016)

Region
Makán 590,857 Deverná
Monéjá 277,073 Mišömerá
Vidígaz 146,314 Firečá
Ṫámíras 145,001 Höngeví
Mílegrum 117,029 Hitíká
Jikáteson 107,345 Hertúmóper
Zoigezon 96,894 Firečá
Tásaní 80,554 Tópesemí
Mihílágíjá 63,389 Gasimirgá
Köšílas 59,280 Hinkíjá
Hönipreson 52,797 Hárýpé
Borín 48,751 Polčímer

Growth[]

The latest census in 2016 gave as result that 3,971,642 citizens are living in Soigá. There have been 19 censusses (from 1981 to current date every five years, in 1932, 1948, 1955, 1961, 1974 and from 1884 to 1924 every eight years). The first census in Soigá ever done was in 1884, at what point 2,295,446 citizens were living in Soigá. With these numbers the average annual population growth between 1884 and 2016 can be calculated: namely 0.4%.

However, the population growth curve of Soigá is by far not monotone. The highest growth was recorded between the 1948 and 1955 censusses, with an annual growth rate between the two of 1.36%. The lowest growth was recorded is recorded between the censusses of 1986 and 1991, with -0.35% per year (the population actually shrank). The current annual population growth using the latest two censusses is 0.04%. The current birth rate is 9.9 per 1,000 inhabitants, while the death rate is 10.0 per 1,000 inhabitants. The highest birth rate was recorded in the second census (as the first census could not compare numbers, as there wasn't any numbers before), with 32.5 per 1,000 inhabitants. It has as well the record of the highest death rate, with 22.7 per 1,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile, the minima are a birth rate of 7.9 (1991-1996) and a death rate of 8.2 (1961-1974).

Ethnicity[]

Soiga nieuw religie

Religion in Soigá per muncipality. The muncipality of Pojiṫíjá (the middlest of the Devernese muncipalities on the eastern coast) should be middle yellow.

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 92.0%. 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. Spanish are by far the largest minority, with 3.5%, descendants mainly of the Spanish immigrants in the 19th century when Spain controlled the country, but often these people speak Olfkin as first language and are well integrated, but simply prefer to give their ethnicity as Spanish. Other European countries are following, with 1.5% (mainly from East European countries as Poland, Bulgaria and Romania). They come to Soigá primarily because of the booming of the economy and the excellent programmes Soigá has for migrants. Around 0.5% of the country says they identify primarily as a Maruiqi, of whom you can find in the history section more information. However, perhaps up to 5% could have (partial) Maruiqi roots. Portuguese count around 0.3%. 2.2% of the country has a different ethnicity or nationality, or hasn't given (or doesn't want to give) one.

Religion[]

Main article: Religion in Soigá

Religion in Soigá
Affiliation % of the Soigan population
Catholic 59.7 59.7
 
Protestant 11.7 11.7
 
Other Christian 0.8 0.8
 
Firrobatist 5.6 5.6
 
Muslim 0.7 0.7
 
Jewish 0.7 0.7
 
Other Faith 0.3 0.3
 
Unaffiliated/not declared 20.5 20.5
 
Total 100 100
 

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 Hertúmóper and Tópesemá. The Firrobatists are strong in the rural areas of Inkíá, but also to a somewhat lesser extent in Čonmíjá, Höngeví, Polčímer and Higormöz.

In the ancient times Soigá was primarily a Firrobatist place, but Christianity brought by the Suevians and French monks had replaced it at the end of the First Millenia in the South. Due to the powerful position the South always had, Christianity slowly but surely spread. In the Medieval Ages Spehardic Jews from Spain and Italy had come to Soigá, to escape persecutions. In 1560 the Swiss theologist of Calvinism Christianity (Reformed Protestantism) Jacob Schwärz introduced protestantism. In the late Medieval Ages, particularly because Soigá was a trading nation, other religions were largely tolerated, but some suspicious eyes were pointed to them. The people of the Eastern part of Soigá, nowadays the regio's of Tópesemá, Hertúmóper and to a degree Gazimirgá, who were poorer and still somewhat discriminated because of their supposedly "lesser" heritage from the Gaodii people, gladly accepted Protestantism. This led to a more religiously divided Soigá, and led to the rise of the theocratic Catholic monk Rofájel in the late 17th to early 18th century. The religious tensions calmed down in the Soigan Kingdom Era, and Muslims from nowadays Mauretania and Senegal were welcomed in the 1850's. However, under King Halamír the religious tensions were used by Halamír to enable his agenda of creating a "strong Catholic country". Firrobatists, Protestants and Catholics had near equal share, but at the end of Halamír's reign the Catholics had a clear majority. In the Communism era agnosticism and atheism grew, but the percentage of Firrobatists had grown mainly because of the higher birth rates of Firrobatists (although this is compensated a bit by the higher emigration and conversion rate of Firrobatists). The Constitution of the Soigan Republic protects religious freedoms, but at the moment Firrobatist parties are pushing for a more free and self-determination status for Firrobatists (for example, as Firrobatists have a tendence to work and live in more secluded communities and generally despise tax money and government influence on their business, as they believe those are part of Zídarí).

Language[]

Most Soigans speak Olfkin, around 96% speaks it as first language. Olfkin is a language like no other, an isolated language, like Basque. Just like Basque it is not a nominative-accusative language, but an ergative-absolutive language. It is a primarily SOV language, and verbs and nouns are are heavily inflected.

Olfkin is the only language enjoying the official status, but there are also other languages spoken in Soigá. Spanish is the second largest one, with around 1.7% of the population. These are often the descendants of Spanish traders and people who eventually settled in Soigá, and the immigrants to the country in the 19th century when Spain controlled the islands. Polish is the second largest spoken language besides of Olfkin in Soigá, with 0.6% native speakers. The numbers have grown in recent years, mainly due to the immigration of many Poles to Soigá. Another language that has considerable numbers is Romanian with 0.5%, and just like Polish this is mainly due to the immigration to Soigá in recent years. Notable other languages are Ladino which is spoken by the Sephardic Jews in Soigá who came to the island in the Medieval Ages to flee from the purges by the Catholic Church in Spain and Portugal. Although it is a dying language in Soigá, as more and more jews are switching over to Olfkin or Hebrew, it is still a common language heard in Jewish quarters in Makán and Monéjá. Maruiqish, the language spoken by the Maruiqi people, is still only spoken by around 2,000 Maruiqis living in Soigá. Most Maruiqis have been well integrated and married into the local Soigan population, which has led to the loss of the language. It is still primarily spoken by elderly people in the Maruiqish Neighbourhead in Makán.

Dialects[]

Although Olfkin is the most spoken language by far in Soigá, there are many dialects of it, some even not mutually intelligeble with each other. For example, the dialect (Firrobatistic Olfkin) spoken by the Firrobatists in upper central Soigá is sometimes also referred to as Archaic Olfkin, due to the many old grammar rules and others that have been lost by other dialects. However, the name "Firrobatistic Olfkin" can be quite misleading, as not all Firrobatists speak this dialect. The dialects are as followed: Hitikan, Milatese, Eastern, Western, Firrobatistic and Northern. Small pockets of Firrobatistic Olfkin speakers can still be found on the far end of the Higormöz peninsula, who were separated by other Firrobatistic Olfkin speakers after many catholics settled in the regio in in the King Halamír era. There are also a lot of Milatese speakers in Harype, who also came to the regio in Halamír's era. On the island of Námofelá people speak a whole separate dialect, due to the relative isolation of the island from the main islands.

The characteristics (stereotypes) of tone and accent of each dialect go like this: on Hitíká people speak Olfkin without moving their mouth, creating a kind of like Russian accent. In the Milatese dialect the stress is on the last syllable often and people talk fast, and other dialect speakers often characterise Milatese speakers as being always excited about what they speak. The Eastern dialect is known for its "öi" (kind of as in French Louis) sound, which doesn't exist in other dialects, and "ae" on the end of a word (genitive often) is replaced then with this sound. Other dialect speakers depict the Eastern dialect as a dialect that has a rythmn in it, as if a song is sung. The Western dialect is known for its lack of "air", as if someone spoke a whole sentence without letting air out of his mouth, and holding his breath. The Firrobatist dialect is often said to be "1800-Olfkin", as if someone in England would talk in Shakespearean English. This is because the Firrobatists often form isolated communities "chains" which have survived without interference from the outside world for hundreds if not thousands of years. The Northern dialect is sometimes colloqually called TBD ("The j'ed dialect"), because of the many j's inserted into words, but also that the stress has often been replaced to the first syllable. Namofellan is said to be "Alien Olfkin", because many sounds that have switched between each other and the weird (for Devernese Olfkin speakers) stress system. But just like the Firrobatist dialect, it has retained some old vocabulary and grammar.

See the map on the right for the distribution of dialects in Soigá. Do notice however that this doesn't automatically mean the majority in those regions speak the dialect colored there. This map is purely there to show which dialect is native to which area.

Soiga dialects

Dialects in Soigá. Red = Devernese. Yellow = Milatese. Green = Eastern. Blue = Western. Pink = Firrobatistic. Brown = Northern. Purple = Namofellan. Deep Brown = Hitikan.

The standard language is based on the Devernese dialect. This is also the dialect often used for learners of Olfkin. It is therefore also considered the prestige dialect. Because schools are not allowed to teach in an other language or dialect than Devernese Olfkin, many younger children are speaking Devernese, albeit often with an accent. This has caused a large decrease in the proficiency of other dialects. Because Devernese is the "main" dialect, it is often just named "Standard Olfkin".

Classification of Olfkin[]

The classification of Olfkin remains tricky. For a long while scholars thought Olfkin was a language related to Basque, or paleo Hispanic languages, like Iberian and Lusitanian. However, modern scholars reject this theory, as there are too many profound differences between the grammar. However, some words do have the same word root, probably because of the long time the two cultures have remained together. Many scholars also reject theories that say Olfkin is related to the Afro-Asiatic family, or specifically the Berber languages. Instead, scholars group Olfkin in its own language family, with the name [TBD]. There have been theories that Olfkin might be a descendant of Etruscan, or one of the Kartvelian languages, but scholars generally reject these theories.

Education[]

A child in Soigá goes to school when he or she becomes 5, although a child can go to school when he or she is 4 years old. Going to school is mandatory in Soigá. Soigá exists out of three schools: primary school (Premíjerá), secondary school (Józedá) and tertiary school (Tertír). Primary school takes 6 years, secondary school 4 years and tertiary school 3 to 5 years, depending on the course. Secondary and tertiary schools are often connected. In primary school, children learn reading, writing and basic math, while in secondary school, children learn more grammar, math and other subjects while in the tertiary school children take a path (more mathematical, theoretical, or more to literature etc., or more to the practical side) and follow more in-depth subjects relating to that path. Unlike most countries, the secondary school is not skill-based (the tertiary is), and children, difficult or no difficult time learning, follow the same subjects. The tertiary school is skill-based, with teachers giving at the end of the secondary school an advice per pupil. However, it is not obligatory to follow the advice, although it is highly recommend to follow the advice. In both the secondary and tertiary schools, pupils get the help they need. Classes are often small, with official school regulations stating that classes should have no more than 20 pupils. Lessons are often shaped to be mainly focused on working. This makes the teaching part of the lesson less, but is more balancing for every child, as smarter children now get more free time (done means done in Soigan schools) and can have extra, challenging work, while children who have greater difficulty get more personal help.

University etc. (will be elaborated)

Culture[]

Art, architecture and literature[]

Cuisine[]

Food is an important aspect of common life in Soigá. Food is eaten together with family, and on some dates the whole village eats together. Traditionally, in the morning a light breakfast is consumed and at noon a soup with or without bread called Beḋídé, traditionally a bread baked the "Soigan" style, airy and easily tearable, which can be filled with spreads and used for the soup. The evening is marked with a grand dinner, traditionally, and takes place late at around 8 to 10 pm. Traditional dishes differ per regio: in the North, dishes tend to be more "rural", with the use of more local ingredients that can be found on the land. In the North-Western part of the country, fish is often the main dish, while in the South dishes have often elaborate sauces and/or "add-ons". Hitikan cuisine is known for ...

But all drink soup (will be elaborated )

Media[]

Sports[]

Football (Fopál) is the most popular sport in Soigá, and just like in Spain and Italy, Football is sometimes called "The 2nd religion". The Football League of Soigá, [TBD], was started in 1951, after the Second Great War. This is relatively late compared to other Football leagues in Europe. This is because in the time that many football leagues were started, around ~1880 to ~1910, King Hálámír was ruler of Soigá, and he forbade football, as he deemed it too be an entertainment for "rough, devilish, non-God-fearing people". The 20's and 30's were hectic decades in Soigá, and no time or fund was really available. Due to the war no football league could be started in the Second World War, but the Socialist Republic allowed a state funded Football League in 1951.

Since its start there can be spoken of 5 clubs of major importance: Krókomö, Helkirú, Firutú, SC Mílátíjá and Dezíno. Krókomö and Helkirú are both from Makán, of whom Helkirú historically being supported by the Protestants of Makán. Krókomö has been the most succesful club in the competition, and its name was created by the Ancient Greek name for the island (see Etymology). Firutú is the club from Ṫámíras, the largest city from North Soigá. It names relates to the Firrobatists, and literally translates to "of the stock of the Firrobatists". It receives large support from many places and not only in Ṫámíras, due to the club acting as the "Club of the North". SC Mílátíjá is the main club from Monéjá, and games between it and Krókomö are one of the most watched games in Soigá, due to the long lasting rivalry between Monéjá and Makán (both cities being capitals of Soigá, and being the most important city of it at points in time). Dezíno is a relatively new club, created by the merging of the clubs from the two biggest cities in Firečá: Zoigezon and Vidígaz. It has proven to be a strong club, winning quite a few times the competition since its emerging in 1994.

Regional differences[]

There are many regional differences, even between village and village, but the most profound difference is between the South, Northern, Eastern and Hitikan culture. Regional stereotypes are often used in comedy sketches but in history they were sometimes negatively used to discriminate (for example under King Halamír reign). In current time, stereotypes of regional cultures go like this: Hitikans are arrogant and they think they are the best and most special, but they are also cool and funny. Southerners (or Milatians or Milatese) are elitist, exclusive and conservative but have the money, while Devernese (specifically Makán but also Monéjá, the two largest cities) are hipsters, young and students, who want to change everything. Easterners are peasants, protestant and dirty with eating and in general, but have a funny accent, are hearth-warming and friendly. Northerners (plus Firrobatists) are often seen as traditional but also generous and open/inclusive, but as well as the Hitikan they are seen as people who think they are "superior" and/or are the "true" Soigans while the others are not.

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