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.