A crown rests on your head, and your throne elevates you above a resplendent court displaying the wealth and grandeur of your realm. You raise your arm to signal the royal guard to open the innermost doors of your palace: Dignitaries and petitioners stream inside, attended to by servants as, one-by-one, they bow before you and state their business.

You are Queen, King, Doge, High Chief: Ruler of your people and your land. Or that is what you would like to tell yourself. But whatever stretches before your eyes, you feel the weight of the draped insignas hanging above your head. Maroon and gold, black and red. They are not colors of your homeland. They are the colors of the South.

You remember that you rule over a fief that has existed for less than thirty years, devised by foreign generals and bureaucrats breaking the vast expanse of conquered empires into manageable pieces. You remember that you rule in the name of a God whose name, Aed, still strains your northern tongue. Is He truly the only God, as they say? Is He your god? Is He a god at all?

But God or not, Aed has great reach. Every day more northerners join the ranks of his followers, who call themselves Aedakom. Just as you did, when you swore obedience to Aed through his representatives on Earth: The Sword and the Mouthpiece.

The Sword, the Grand Survaek Empire ruled by the Khaitis line. Each one inherits the legacy of the Prophet-Emperor Raegar the Ancient, who united the Southern Continent and proclaimed Aedak from shore to shore. But eight-hundred years later, it is a very different Empire. Forty years ago, Emperor Yvor the Reformer created a great bureaucracy to tax the land and a great standing army to protect it, one-hundred thousand strong. He decided the South was not enough for Aed, and sailed across the Sea of Trouble to build outposts and strongholds. It took only a few missteps by the Northern peoples to justify the Great Conquest, which forged a swathe of crowns out of the ruins of ancient lands to sit beneath the One. Now his son, Emperor Vokoryn II, rules over the patchwork of vassals Yvor carved out of the North.

The Mouthpiece, the Messarom Vaekirate. Since the conquests of Raegar the Prophet-Emperor the Vaekirate has humbly upheld the Aedak faith. Shepherded by the "wise and benevolent" Vaekir, the voice of Aed himself, the Messarom Vaekirate extends its hand across the lands. Eight centuries since the death of their Prophet-Emperor, the Vaekirate stands more powerful than ever, legions of fanatics and entire hosts of mages protecting the faith no matter what the cost. Following Emperor Yvor northwards the armies of the Vaekirate stood only as the vanguard for things to come: the Order of the Crimson Tome, burdened with the glorious purpose of converting the north to the true faith. Over the last generation, the Order has slowly tightened it's hold over the hearts and minds of the people, sharing the benevolence of Aed with the kingdoms of the North whilst whispering in the ears of monarchs with tales of power to be gained. With Vaekir Koen I leading from the fore, a new page in the history of the north is written by the faithful of Aed.

But something strange has come to pass. No more than a generation after the Conquest, the two representatives of the One True God have increasingly diverged in their understanding of their authority's boundaries. Tension grows between the Vaekirate and the Empire. Vokoryn II dons himself with titles and authorities without the traditional approval of the Vaekir, while Koen challenges the role of the Sword by amassing his own impressive standing army and militarizing elements of the Crimson Tome Missions. Each continues to nominally acknowledge the authority of the other, but on the ground they are beginning to appear more like rival factions than two harmonious institutions of a single Aedakom civilization.

The moment is coming for the vassals to act. They will no longer be mere pawns, but pivotal players in the drama of this generation. Will you decide to value your pledges to one sovereign over another, accepting some risks for greater reward? Or will you be bolder and seek to throw off the shackles of Southern domination altogether? Or perhaps you will seek a different path, exploiting the machinations of both squabbling factions to achieve your personal ambitions for reform, riches, or glory?
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Church and State is a multi-thread nation RP in which players interact both with one another and with two Great Lieges, the Emperor (myself) and the Vaekir (the honorable Zurajai). Focus is on political blocs and machination, geopolitical/military conflict, and access to key resources. The roleplay has a map, a turn-based income and purchases system, and measures of military strength to guide battle moderation. However, roleplay is essential. Not only will playing out your characters often have material consequences, but the changing political, religious, and ideological landscape can potentially change the mechanics themselves. As a simple example, a player who gains an enormous amount of influence and power could become a third Great Liege of sorts, with their own accompanying mechanics and special rules.

We are looking for around 6 players, with an absolute maximum of 8, to join us in this endeavor. Once enough people have posted here, I will PM them a link and announce that this drive is CLOSED. But if for any reason members drop out, I may OPEN it again.

Interesting, how active do you expect players to be?

We don't have a strict posting requirement, but we're counting on players posting a minimum of once per week for the roleplay to function. To really participate in the experience, I'd recommend posting once every couple of days or so.

Is there a certain ascetic or overall, "culture," if you will shared throughout the North? IE is the North representative of say Celtic/Germanic/Norse culture at the time of their respective Christianization, or would it be kosher to have a society based on whatever the players feel like? I mean, if someone wanted to have a society based on Ming Dynasty Chinese culture, albeit with acknowledgement of Aed, would that be allowed? Or should these societies be based on European cultures as they were first Christianized?

Despite some historical parallels our backstory invokes, players are free to design their own realms' asthetic/"flavor." My personal recommendation is that players consider one another's apps as they make their own and discuss shared history, arriving at a network of interconnected cultures.

Delete.

As for our fiefdoms, I can't imagine everyone involved is especially happy with the new order of things. Presumably there would be several independent proto-revolutionary elements in each of our territories, from displaced elements of former religious institutions to bitter children of deposed and disenfranchised lords and ladies, perhaps even members of the extended royal families, uncles, aunts, cousins and the like, who are unhappy with the growing influence the South exerts over their traditional lands and freedoms. Will this be a central theme in the role play itself, keeping the peace with our Southern overlords whilst appeasing nationalist factions and traditionalists within our own borders? Or would this simply be an optional concern one could choose to have to deal with should they so please?

It will depend on circumstances as they play out. Players themselves, of course, can plot to rebel and restore Northern independence. And naturally, they are free to roleplay discontented factions within their realms if they so choose.

As for NPC rebels, since the current fiefs do not correspond with traditional Northern polities, any mobilization would be "transnational," so to speak. If they crop up, it will be through our third administrator, Vaklu, who is the official "mercenaries, bandits, and pirates" player. Unlike me and Zurajai, though, he also plays a vassal-realm.

It's also possible that a fourth admin, Talis the "God" moderator in charge of occasional random global events, might throw out some sort of rebellion. But he is more there for things like natural disasters, droughts and the like, and he won't be moderating very often anyways. For the record, he will also be playing a vassal-realm.

Put more briefly, we weren't planning on making non-player traditionalist/nationalist factions a major focus, but the RP could totally move in that direction. We are open to all sorts of possibilities.

Well then, color me interested. I'll start work on the history of my civilization if you'd be interested in having me aboard. I'm thinking something along the lines of Boudica-era Iceni/Celtic tribal cultures with a splash of West African hoodoo for flavor.

I'm not sure exactly how West African culture is more "flavorful" than Celtic, but in any case you are definitely welcome aboard!

Well, it's not necessarily. However, combining elements of the two disparate cultures into a single autonomous society is far more interesting than simply carbon copying one or the other with slight tweaks and twists thrown in to make either seem, "original,". Headhunting tribesmen protecting sacred groves and standing stones garbed in the bones and skulls of their enemies wearing painted, wooden masks and howling wildly to the beat of drums as they whirl about a burning wicker man in the light of the setting sun, rattling rain sticks carved of petrified wood filled with the knuckles of their ancestors whose sound is nearly drowned out by the screams of their dying, burning foes seems more interesting to me than, "this is my society. It's basically the Iceni celts, but I tweaked the names a little so now we have, 'drudai,' rather than druids,".

EDIT:

This of course is what their society was like before the introduction of Aed and the Southern backed monarchy, as well as the current state of the most zealous keepers of the old ways. My monarch certainly isn't running around in face paint burning people in wicker cages and collecting heads. Then again, everyone but the most extreme pro-Aed or pro-tradition is somewhere in between the two cultures.

Hey folks! I was told I should quickly say hello! I'm Zurajai and I shall be playing the role of the Vaekir, the Aedak 'Pope' if you will. Glad to see some interest in the forum! Can't wait to to Vaekirate things with you folks.

I'm up for it. Seems a nice idea, and you seem a swell guy.

Im interested.

Fantastic! I've PMed you all the link, but the roleplay is still very open! 2-4 spots to fill!

I am interested.

Messaged you, Saoshyant. Anyone else interested? :)

Yes, very, if you're still accepting.

I normally loathe fantasy, but this looks fun. Sign me up if you're still accepting!

We are still accepting, in fact! I will PM you two with the link right away!