Styrke

Styrke is an island in the Vikingland Islands.

History
The name Styrke comes from the Danish word "strength" due to the unusually stormy weather on the island, making it difficult for ships to access for much of the year.

Styrke is relatively isolated from the remaining Vikingland Islands. The first settlers came from the southern island of Litøy, but a majority vacated following a poor harvest season. Three separate incidents gave a remaining 14 shipwrecked individuals a home on the island. As a result of this, a lot of the cultural practices have been somewhat maintained by early settlers have been maintained all while Doggerland had modernized.

Climate
Styrke suffers from both poor soil quality, cold and overcast weather for most of the year, and is surrounded by tumultuous seas. This renders livestock extremely difficult to maintain on the island. Tussock grasses cover the island and seabirds are the most common sight. Both are mainstays on the Styrkian diet, along with another resource.

Culture
Styrkes' inhabitants are uniquely isolated from the remaining islands' populations due to its relative inaccessibility. Due to this Styrke is rather culturally isolated from the mainstream Dogger culture, already isolated due to Vikinglands' distance from the mainland.

A small population of an estimated 137 people live on the island, and there is evidence to show the population is consanguinous as a result of its relative isolation. There has been no mainstream push to immigrate or emigrate from the island due to its perceived inhospitability, as the island is rendered nearly inhabitable from its inability to grow crops and few livestock that can live on the island.

Many of the Styrkian People are descendants of shipwrecked sailors and early colonists venturing from the larger islands. A couple anthropologists visit the island yearly, but the government has advised against doing so.

The Styrkian People traditionally practice a monthly festival known as Fystdag (Feast Day in Strykian Danish). Fystdag was initially a means of survival and population control on the island of Styrke. Essentially Fystdag was ritualistic human sacrifice and cannibialism, the only instance of such a practice in modern-day Europe. Fystdag originated from early settlers running out of harvestable resources, which forced them to resort to practices to effectively curb explosive population growth (and the subsequent resource depletion coming from said practices) as well as managing resources effectively. Fystdag is understood to be a ritual that celebrates the being Fenyadd, a primordial fertility deity.

Styrkian culture is of particular interest to anthropologists and sociologists, who have come to the island to observe the socialocultural effects of extreme isolation on human behavior. Styrke and its people are often compared to Sentinel Island and the Pitcairn Islands due to their similarly isolated nature.