Birth Of A Nation

Discovered by Luca Sargo De Santa during the great age of exploration the islands that would become known as the Sargossan Archipelago were gradually colonised by, predominantly Spanish, settlers from Europe. Landing on the largest island, named Sargosso after its discoverer, Sargo De Santa and his expedition quickly set up trading colonies along the southern coast and started exploring northwards towards the island’s interior and across the narrow straits to the south east to the neighbouring island of Cormino.

After penetrating deeper into the larger island contact was made with the island’s native inhabitants, the Mitizo. These natives were absorbed into the rapidly expanding European enclave, often unwillingly. As more and more settlers poured into Sargosso’s ports the European influence extended both north and south, bringing Larissa and Midea into the fold five and six years respectively after the first colony was founded.

The western island of Inca, along with its ruins of a much older civilisation, was added a year later. With the full integration of Quella some ten years after the first colony on Sargosso was founded the new land achieved the borders the modern nation still largely holds to this day. Gradually the islands would become a de facto nations in their own right as, unnoticed by the already colony heavy European powers, the new lands now known collectively as the Islas Sargossas quietly cut their ties with their European masters.

But life free of the European yoke was not easy. There followed decades of civil unrest, widespread pirate activity, Mitizo uprisings and the brutal and bloody conflicts, the so-called Unification Wars, between the various islands that would end with Sargossa finally settling into life as the nation it is today. But the exploration bug never really left and Sargossan sailors once again set out into the wider region, establishing colonies and making contact with the other nations of Olde Rushmore.

The Alternate Version

It is perhaps worth noting that the above is the most commonly accepted account of the nation’s founding. There is however a school of thought that adheres to a slightly less palatable version of events. Specifically that Luca Sargo De Santa rather than being a noted explorer was instead an infamous pirate who, upon stumbling across the largest of the archipelago’s islands, found its many bays and inlets useful as ports from which to strike out at passing shipping as well as secluded hiding places for both himself and his ill gotten gains. Such was his success that many more of his ilk were attracted to Sargosso and the neighbouring islands until eventually a thriving community could be found there.

Not willing to concede that their fine nation is descended from a gang of wanton criminals, successive governments have been trying to stamp out this particular version of events for centuries. Despite their attempts the belief still lives on, fuelled in no small part by the known fact that at one time the waters in and around the archipelago were indeed rife with piracy.