Sporsia

Senatorial Federation of Sporsia
Capital	Ganris
Official languages	Sporsian Aroman, Occidental Aroman
Demonym(s)	Sporsian (Sporsianu)
Government	Parliamentary Republic
• Procatemenu	Patriarch Septimu VII (as interim leader)
Legislature	Jerasia
Population
• 2019 census	45,130,102
GDP (nominal)	2019 estimate
• Total	$462 billion
• Per capita	$10,243
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left
Preceded by Aroman Empire

The Senatorial Republic of Sporsia is a sovereign country in Europa, one of the continents of Eurth. Much of it makes up an ithmus that connects the Occident to Amutia. It is bordered to the north-west by Tagmatium, the south-east by Euandria and the south-west by Suverina. It shares a maritime border to the east with Akiiryu. The Senatorial Republic is urbanised and has a population of 45 million and this tends to be concentrated along the coasts of the Raga Sea and the Strait of Tzius. The total area of Sporsia is .

Sporsia is a parliamentary republic, having been so since the last monarch, Vasliu Vasliun (King of Kings) Jeorjiu IV, abdicated the throne in 1864. The current head of state is Patriarch Septimu VII, who is also the head of the Church of Sporsia. This is not a normal arrangement, as Septimu VIII is acting in an interim role after the previous head of state fled the country due to a scandal. The capital city is Gangris, which is also the largest city and cultural and commercial centre, with a population of 6.7 million. The next largest city is Tzius, with a population of 4.5 million, and the religious heart of Sporsia. Other major urban areas are Ceracintis, in the south of the country, which is the main industrial city, and Abontichis, which is in the south-west.

The Senatorial Republic is considered to be a developing country, with a GDP of $462 billion and a GDP per capita of $10,243. Its main economic sector is agriculture and industries linked to farming, such as the production of farm machinery and the processing of agricultural products, with some heavy industry and shipbuilding taking place. Sporsia is a small power, overshadowed by its larger neighbours, Tagmatium and Suverina. However, it is able to exercise what power it does have as a crossroads between the Occident and Amutia. It has no true allies but has skillfully played off its two larger neighbours in order to maintain its independence. It maintains a low level of hostility to Euandria, which broke away and became independent when Jeorjiu IV abdicated.

History

Prehistoric Sporsia

Sporsia is an old country that has always been at the crossroads of the Occident and Amutia. The earliest evidence of human activity in the country comes from the south, near the city of Haphis, in caves dating from the Palaeolithic, roughly 50,000 years ago. However, the first evidence of settlement comes from later, from about 14,000 years ago. Called “Calpian Culture”, these were semi-sedentiary, pre-agricultural populations that lived on the east coast of the country and these populations then spread further along the coast. They exploited wild cereals and fruits, as well as hunting and are theorised by researchers at Panepistímion Petrion (Petrion University) to have been amongst the first to domesticate the dog.

This gave way to a series Mesolithic cultures and then aceramic and ceramic Neolithic cultures progressed and agriculture was brought into Sporsia from Amutia. This also saw the first settlements and monumental architecture such as cursuses – large earthworks that acted as ceremonial spaces, as well as henges and long barrows. The latter were utilised into antiquity as religion of venerating ancestors survived until the coming of Christianity. The settlements became tribal states, based on villages and farmsteads centred on hill forts, which acted as places of refuge in the cattle raiding that was a part of life. Rich farmland and the fact that the land was a crossroads for trade routes meant that the petty kingdoms became rich. Ancestors were buried with all sorts of riches and Aexpurtians kingdoms were united under a High King. The wealth of the land attracted foreigners – the coasts became colonised by trading settlements from the people of Laimias. At times, this relationship was peaceful but other times, conflict between the federation of tribes and the league of cities. In the end, it stabilised as almost a dual state and Aexpurtia became one of the rising powers of Europa.

The Adthenian Empire

The Adthenians, led by the Boy-King, boiled out of the western Occident, the Aexpurtian confederacy was washed away by the combination of phalanxes and heavy cavalry, as well as the fragile nature of a federation of petty kingdoms. The High King, Vrittaku, fell at the Battle of Gymenus and the rest of Aexpurtia quickly collapsed. Aexpurtia went on to become a part of the Adthenian conquests. When the conquests fragmented into warring rival powers after the early death of the Boy-King, Aexpurtia was ruled by one of his generals, Euandros. At its height, everything between the Eebay, the Raga Sea and even Vanamrambaium was under the Euandrid Empire. However, slowly fell apart as rival claimants to the throne squabbled and external pressure was exerted, the Euandrid Empire was worn down until by the time of Polymnestor XII, in BCE63, Numerius Seius Cotta invaded and conquered Aexpurtia and claimed it for Arome. This was against the wishes of the Senatus Aromanus and precipitated the Aroman Civil War.

Aroman Aexportia

See also: Aroman Empire

In the times of Venerabilius, the first Emperor of Arome, and his successors, Aexpurtia was a key part of the empire. It was the breadbasket that provided the grain shipments that fed Arome and was the richest province. However, as the empire was rocked by invasion, disease and eurthquake, the province broke away and became the Ganrid Empire. Ultimately, the Ganrid Empire even wrestled the island of Vanamrambaium from Aroman rule and became a local rival, until brought to heel by Eudoxius in 289, who founded the Octarchy and revitalised the Aroman Empire.

It remained a key part of Arome through the trials of the next few centuries, such as the Burning of Arome in 297, the foundation of Europatoria as the new capital under Methodianus, the acceptance of Christianity, the Buranic Invasions and the final separation of Arome and Adaptus in the reign of Methodianus IV in 492. In the late 600s, Aexpurtia was even able to furnish Arome with a dynasty, albeit a short lived one. By the Disorder (768 to 791), a period of anarchy when the Leopard Throne was seized by several monarchs, the rise of the Qubdi finally disrupted the links between Arome and Aexpurtia, with the desert nation taking advantage of the civil war to force the rich province away from the empire. The swift desert cavalry were able to wipe out garrisons that had been stripped of troops by rival emperors and soon all of Aexpurtia was under Qubdish rule.

Under the Qubdi

Sporadic uprisings, often sponsored by Arome, meant that the Qubdish found Aexpurtia hard to completely pacify. There was always a strong cultural link with the old empire and the Qubdish method of rule was decentralised. Whilst the Qubdish Church wasn't all that different to the Aroman one, the invaders had an arrogance that offended the Aroman sentiments of the Aexpurtians and they chaffed under the rule of barbarians.

In 1001, taking advantage of a period of dynastic struggle in Qubdi, an uprising led by the Marzban (governor) of Tzius, Bictorinu, drove the Qubdish first from the area of the ancient city and then slowly from the rest of the country. Arome sent an army to help liberate its old province but the Aroman attitudes towards the Sporsians, after the Qubdish corruption of name Aexpurtia, cause friction between the two allies. When the capital of Ganris was taken in 1019 and Bictorinu set himself up as ruler, the Aroman strategos Maxkiminos Kontarian demanded that he swear loyalty to the Leopard Throne and accept the position of governor. Bictorinu made a show of loyalty but waited until a victory feast was held. At that moment, Kontarian and his staff was seized and imprisoned. Kontarian's forces were then harried as they withdrew from Sporsia and back to Arome. As a sign of gratitude towards the Aroman general who had helped him become ruler of Sporsia, Bictorinu released Kontarian, but not before proclaiming himself with the Aroman imperial title of Basileos, although to show their power it was changed to “Basileus Basileon” or King of Kings, rendered Vasliu Vaslun. Sporsia was no longer content to remain a vassal of a foreign power.

Free Sporsia

With an experienced army, trained under both Qubdish and Aroman officers and equipped to the standards of Arome, Sporsia was able to bring all of the territory of the old Euandrid Empire under its control. Bictorinu and his successors drew on their heritage as Aromans and more to cement a power equal to any of the surrounding nations. Whether the serried ranks of Arome, the robed desert tribes from the south or the hordes of horsemen from Akiiryu, the Sporsians were able to weather it all. Several times, different Aroman emperors attempted to retake the former province, but were turned back. At other times, the armies of the Vaslii even took Arome itself, the last time being 1704, although the Europatorion and even the later capital of Tagmatika were out of reach.

The Apogee

The 1700s was the apogee of Sporsian power and wealth. With the city of Arome under their control, the Sporsians took the title of Emperor of Arome, much to the chagrin of the Aromans. The Sporsians considered themselves as much Aroman as anyone else, as they had been a part of the empire for over seven hundred years. Two monarchs, Vasilu VI and Jeorgiu II, were crowned as Emperor in Arome by the Bishop of Arome, and it was claimed that this made them the proper emperor, as though the ancient acclamation by senate, people and army in faraway Tagmatika was false. The Sporsians were interested in the New Wurld and they sponsored voyages, in order to increase their wealth and knowledge.

Arome was taken back by the Aromans in 1732, although this seemed like something of blip. However, as the industrial revolution took hold in northern Tagmatium, Sporsia began to be on the back foot. Tagmatium started to go from an agricultural backwater to a powerhouse whilst Sporsia was content to remain as a trading centre. Even Suverina started to nip at the heels of Sporsia more, too, as did the desert nations to the south. The great river Fiaru to the south had long been the border between the Grand Kingdom of Sporsia and Qubdi but it was breached several times in the late 1700s, and a permanent toe-hold happened by 1801. The pressure from the surrounding nations had become unrelenting and the Alexandrian Peninsula fell to the Suverinians in 1825 after the Second Ragasan War. This precipitated a civil war in 1832, which was inconclusive and the south-eastern province of Sporsia split off, becoming the Kingdom of Euandria, named after the ancient pre-Aroman dynasty and enabled by meddling from Tagmatika. An Aroman army besieged Gangris and prevented any Sporsian forces preventing the secession.

Sporsian Decline

The Third Ragasan War started over a straying pig in 1847 and ended in 1853, with the headland of Bictorna seceded to the Great Queendom. This was led to a decade of unrest and elderly Vasliu Vasliun, Jeorjiu IV, abdicated the throne in 1864. Sporsia was no longer a great monarchy but a minor republic and contented itself with staying on the sidelines throughout the the 1800s, although minor border scuffles took place against its sister-nation of Euandria as they occasionally attempted to re-establish the monarchy. At times, either Suverina or Tagmatium has meddled, attempting to aid one over the other.

Politics

Government

The government itself is ancient, or at least draws on ancient roots. As the 1800s wore on and the excesses of war between Arome and nations of Amutia took their toll on the people and economy of Sporsia, republican sentiment started to take hold. The elderly Vasliu Vasliun, Jeorjiu IV, saw that the writing was on the wall. Rather than subject his country to the sort of civil war that had often rocked Arome, Jeorjiu abdicated his throne, disbanded the monarchy and retired to a monastery. He left his country in the hands of his council of nobles and bureaucrats, the Jerasia. At the time, a sense of enlightenment gripped the country – with the monarchy no longer existing, they could be masters of their own fate.

The Jerasia reformed itself along democratic lines, with each member of the Jerasia, known as a Jerasiu, voted for by their local district, or files (plural filay). These were drawn up along the lines of the ancient tribes that had ruled the lands before the Boy-King's conquests. They did make sure that there was a property and tax threshold for voters, as it was thought that only those who had a stake in the country's future would be able to make the right decisions. Each decision was put to the floor by the head of the Jerasia, the Procatemenu, to be voted on before it was made into law or enacted. At first, the Procatemenu was merely the first amongst equals but the role slowly evolved into the head of government and state of Sporsia. The incumbent of the role is chosen by a majority vote and this led to the evolution of party politics in the Jerasia.

In recent years, the system has stagnated. The amount of the population that is eligible to vote has not increased markedly over time and the direction of the country is controlled by the upper classes, making Sporsia almost a plutocracy. The Great Europan Collapse hit Sporsia as hard as the rest of the continent and unemployment is rife and the economy stagnant. This has fuelled unrest in the country and it undercut support for the then Procatemenu, Velsariu Sphrantz. This led to widespread unrest, which forced Procatemenu Sphrantz to stand down as the protests grew evermore aggressive. The next leader, Cernthu Jrejor, was at the centre of a vast scandal after it turned out that a full quarter of the army's active strength was made up of paper units, with much of the general staff pocketing the money. Jrejor fled the country before he could be arrested whilst the Majster Militun, the Chief of the General Staff, was shot by a disgruntled soldier.

At the moment, a caretaker government is being run by the head of the Aroman Church in Sporsia, Patriarch Septimu VII. This isn't ideal, however, as the religious divisions of the country mean that the caretaker government is fragile and vulnerable to the instability that has rocked the country in recent years. The country creaks under the pressure of the repeated scandals, economic stagnation, unemployment and religious tension. It may not take much for it to buckle completely.

Military

The military history of Sporsia is an ancient one.

Before the Adthenian conquests, the kinglets of Aexpurtia had spent centuries waging war against each other in one manner or another, often for cattle or to bicker over the borders between their tribal territories. The richness of their country meant that they could afford arms and armour like the Laimiaic hoplomakhoi, Adthenian phalanxes or the Aroman consribones and their warlike nature and sophisticated training meant that they could go toe to toe with any classical army. They fielded chariot forces alongside their infantry blocks and were much feared in the ancient wurld.

They later became an integral part of the armies of Arome and after their split, they were able to keep their nation on an even footing with the nearby powers, even besieging Arome on several occasions.

In modern times, the Sporsian armed forces are middling at best. Morale is at an absolute low due to the recent scandal and the murder of the Majster Militun (the Commander-in-Chief, from the Aroman "Magister Militum") and a purge of many of the general officers of the army.

Otherwise, it is well drilled military with somewhat outdated equipment.

Their tank arm, the Issidari, is the élite of their armed forces, took advantage of the farming and heavy machinery industry in the early 1900s and were able to keep with the technological advances of the later half of the 20th Century, but their tanks now lag significantly behind the surrounding nations, and are of the second generation. The army, the Comitatay, has suffered some major blows of late but has a good reputation, if it hasn't been tested in recently.It fights as a combined arms force and is prepared to defend its territory but knows that its two biggest neighbours would likely defeat it in a conventional fight.

The navy, the Prosalentay, is a not a blue water navy, and it cannot compete with the naval forces of its two most powerful navies. Mainly, it exists to defend the coasts of Sporsia and keep the shipping lanes clear.

The Airoclassi is the air force and supports the other two arms at the tactical level, with largely outdated aircraft. They are also charged with the air defences of the country.

Economy

The economy is centred around agriculture, especially along the coastal lowlands and the large valley that runs parallel to the southern border of Sporsia. It is mainly arable in nature and this reflects the country's ancient history of farming, dating back to the Neolithic. Indeed, it is one of the oldest agricultural centres in Europa, if not Eurth. This has always represented the country's wealth, as well as ready access to sea routes in order to trade the produce to the Occident, Amutia and beyond.

The central highlands are the industrial centre of Sporsia, but it has never been the country's strong point. It has suffered a historic lack of investment, as much of the country's needs were fulfilled through trade. Attempts in the latter part of the 20th and 21st Century to boost the industry came to nothing due to the general collapse of the economy across the region. Still, iron ore, coal and other minerals are mined in quantities to meet its own demands, with small amounts available for export. Ceracintis is the main industrial city.

Heavy industry is mainly oriented around the manufacture of farming machinery, processing crops and animals for consumption or export and the manufacture of fertiliser. There is a small shipbuilding sector centred on Haphis in the south-east and Abontichis on the western coast. Logging also plays a role, with much lumber and by-products consumed internally, although the city of Tzius and its ancient university has some vast paper mills, amongst the oldest in Europa.

Demographics

Population

The population of Sporsia is roughly 45,130,102, although the last census carried out in 2011, so it is likely to now be larger than that.

The country, especially along the coasts, is quite urbanised, a trend that has continued from the prehistoric past into the modern day. The countryside is also relatively heavily populated, as much of the economy is dependent on agriculture and servicing the agricultural industry. Whilst the rural interior of Sporsia is dominated by vast vehicles of crop, small villages and service towns are common, often interspersed along highways and nestled in river valleys.

The least populated part of the country are the central highlands, as they are fairly remote in parts, but they do not compare to the mounts of the north and centre of the Occident. Here, they are mainly mining and logging towns, often with small, close-knit populations. The largest city is Ceracintis, which acts as an industrial centre for the country.

The people themselves are quite mixed genetically, sitting at a crossroads between Amutia and the Occident. The people see themselves as much Aroman as Sporsian, as they were part of the empire for hundreds of years and share the religion, as well as a political system that is very much based on that of Arome.

Religion

Sporsia was one of the first areas to adopt Christianity wholesale. The ancient faith of ancestor worship had long been competing with the Aroman religion and the various mystery cults that had been introduced by the Aroman legions and immigrants to the land. Little by little, these were usurped by Christianity, especially after the ancient centre of learning in Tzius was taken over as a Christian body. By the time Sporsia had finally and irrevocably split from the Aroman Empire during the Disorder, it was almost thoroughly Christianised, with only the central highlands clinging on to the ancient tribal religion.

The coasts and the north are the strongholds of the Aroman Church. This is an autocephalous church, as it does not look to the Emperor of Arome or the Ecumenical Patriarch of Europatorion to appoint its hierarchy, but the Patriarch of Ganris instead. The recognition of autocephaly was finally given in 1005, as a reward for a Sporsian force coming to the aid of the Patriarch of Europatorion against the then Aroman Emperor, Methodianus IX.

In the south of the country, there are those who hold to the Qubdish Christianity. Older than the Aroman variant, it holds different views on the nature of Christ. These are amongst the smallest group, although still large, as they have at times been persecuted by the majority Aroman faith.

Thrown into the mix are adherents to Suverinian Christianity on the western coast, who often look across the Raga Sea for leadership. They are later comers to the situation and only rose in numbers during the latter part of the 1800s.

In very remote valleys of the mountains, there are adherents to the ancient Aexpurtian faith, who still practice excarnation and bury their dead in vast communal long barrows, some of which have been in use longer than Arome has stood.

Roughly 70% of the population are Aroman Christians, 10% Qubdish Christians, 10% Suverinian Christians, 5% Aexpurtian faith and smaller numbers of other religions and Christian denominations.