Political Entities: Kingdom of Mithraea

General Description: Feudal Monarchy with a strong monotheistic religion. While not technnolgically advanced, the Kingdom's manpower reserves make it one of the strongest land powers.

Location/Boundaries: On the western half of the northern continent between the Marches in the south and in the north to where the Highlands become impassable. Their western border is the coastline and in the east they share a border with several small kingdoms.

Government: A feudal monarchy. It is caesaropapist in that the king is a high church authority with the power to appoint the patriarch and call synods. Churchmen often serve in political positions such as that of judge. Church hierarchy parallels that of the state.

Laws/Legal System: The laws of the Kingdom are closely tied to the ethics of the Church of Light. Magicks are strongly regulated to ensure that they are not dangerous to thephysical and moral well-being of the populace. Magicks which can be proven to be "evil", i.e. those which have no purpose other than to cause someone harm or those which require contact between the caster and an enemy of the Church (a demon), are banned by law. The casting of other magicks may still result in the caster being charged with a crime, if they can be shown to be dangerous or unhealthy. Anyone practicing magick is subject to these laws. Church members caught doing so are subject to the inquisition by the Vehemites as well. In theory, foreigners are safe from this, but the Vehemites are powerful and often not well regulated. The legal codes are written and copies kept by both the church and state. Judges are appointed by the King or his sworn liegemen, and are often clergy. Punishment tends to be fairly harsh, and leans towards confiscation of property and imprisonment for the nobility and whipping, maiming, or execution for commoners. All such corporeal punishment is carried out as a public spectacle. Nobles are the only ones allowed a trial by a jury of their peers, though the king still has the final say in any such matter.

Social Classes/Status: The system is more rigid than in Gallacia, but not as convoluted as in the Empire. There are more levels of nobility than in either of those nations, however. This is a holdover from the days when central control was very weak in the Kingdom. The middle class is growing in size and power, and guilds are one of the main ways that they are accomplishing this.

Cities/People: The common people are a mix of gallic and sea-raider lineages, as well as western man and even achaean blood. The nobles are more pure western men, though not as much so as the men of the Empire tend to be. The men of the highlands, both commoners and nobles, tend to be of much purer (western) gallic blood. The cities are typical "late medieval" cities and towns. They are somewhat well planned and the technological advantages of Achaea are slowly being instituted.

Military: Local lords have small personal forces. When the lord holds sway over a town, this force makes up the core of a town guard/policing force. A town that is independently chartered will hire retired soldiers and mercenaries to police their towns. The military emphasis in the kingdom is switching to a more centralized standing force under the direct control of the king. To a great extent this is due to their defeat at the hands of the March Baronies some twenty years ago. The new system places more emphasis on the skilled professional soldier, although it would still heavily rely on civilian levies as well. The Kingdom boasts a fairly large navy, not as skilled as that of the Empire or some Achaean cities, but well outfitted. Arms and armor are just becoming standardized in the "New Army". Crossbows are still more common than gun-powder weapons because of their availability and reliability. There is also the fact that the Kingdom is reluctant to depend too much on gunpower since they can't field a lot of mages to protect it from magical attack.

Education: There is both private and Church supported education. The Church trains both those who enter her doors to become clergy as well as the sons (rarely daughters) of the nobility in religion, reading, writing, history, and simple sums/accounting. Private tutors will often be Achaean or Gallic, though of course a priest will still be responsible for the child's religious instruction. There is no mandatory education.

Technology: The Kingdom is more industrial than Gallacia, and yet not as technically advanced as Achaea and the Empire. They are beginning to be more interested in advances of technology, though much of the clergy is still suspicious of this 'new- fangled' stuff, as they feel it may introduce heretical thoughts and threaten their control over the populace. The kingdom still uses older ways of manufacturing goods, though they are known for their skill and the hard work put into the items they export.

Production & Industry: The kingdom produces a lot of raw materials: timber, animal products, grain etc. They also produce fine woven goods from local wool and linen and imported cotton. They are known for the paper they manufacture as well as iron and steel tools, cast bronze bells and dinnerware, rope, sails, armor, and such. They don't produce a lot of sophisticated equipment (like navigation instruments or fine weapons), but are known for sturdy products. They produce good craftsmen as well: brick-layers, carpenters, and especially glass-makers, many of whom are trained and employed by the Church.

Foreign Relations: The have good relations with the Fisherfolk and Gallacia, doing quite a bit of trade with them. They have good relations with Achaea as well, though more formal especially since Achaea has become more friendly with the Marches. They tolerate the Empire and the Marches, and have trade with them as well, though only for necessities. This is changing as a new generation of policy-makers come to power. The War of Secession was over a generation ago and relations are becoming more normal between the two states. The Kingdom supports and trades with a Plainstribe border state on its Northern frontier that insulates it from the main body of the Plainsmen (with whom they have little other direct contact), and they are on variable terms with the different southern border states, depending.

Religion: Monotheistic. The Kingdom believes that "the gods" gave up their powers/ existences to empower the new god Lugh (Mithras), the incarnation of the Sun so that he could drive off the forces of darkness. The Sol Invictus took on a human-like form to lead men against these forces, and then returned to the heavens. See the Mithraean Creation myth for more details. The Church is very byzantine in look and flavor, laden with ancient ritual and formal ceremony. The services are very formal and very beautiful. The main service is the Heliophany, the Celebration of Light.

Magick: Only Church magick ("good" channelling) and healing magicks are widely accepted. Other sorts of magick are tolerated but watched. These kinds of magicks include analysis magicks, anti-magick magick, combat magick and elemental and protective magicks. The intensity with which mages and their ilk are watched and regulated varies from place to place. Some nobles are more in favor of such powers, some less so. In general, Border nobles will be more open-minded. Note: as to channellers of other faiths, the Church believes them to be (knowingly or unknowingly) receiving powers from demonic sources, in which case they are evil and should be eradicated, or from fey sources. They see the fey as those who did not take sides in Lugh's war against the demons, and were therefore condemned to a sort of half-life or half-imprisonment befitting their non-committed state. The educated secular man will be more willing to believe, upon seeing Gallic of Fisher channelling, that they may actually be as justified in their beliefs as a Mithraic churchman.

Return to Map of Praedia

In the beginning was the One. The One was a light in the darkness, order in the primeval chaos, a warmth in the utter cold of the deep void of night. The One slept, and in this sleep, [he] dreamed. The dream was of Praedia Teneris, the Guarded Land, a place of life and order. When the One awoke [he] undertook to create the world of the dream. To do so, [he] broke himself apart, sacrificing [himself] for [his] vision. The world formed from his body and the inanimate life upon it from the fire of life within [him]. From his soul, divided in death, awoke the gods and their messengers, and from his thoughts the stars in the heavens.

The gods made forms for themselves from the matter of the earth, each according to his or her own nature, for each of the gods had once been a part of the One, and each was most like unto a certain part of [his] nature. Because each of the gods was once a part of the soul of the One, each remembered a part of [his] Dream. Thus, as their natures urged them, they shaped the stuff of Praedia into pleasing forms, laying the seeds of great forests and raising up the mountains from their roots. In time, they realized, that they were alone in the world. Though trees grew and creatures moved in the woods and the seas, only the gods understood. Only they dreamed. So the gods held council and one among them said unto them, "We must, as did the One which birthed us, give up of ourselves to create the peoples to live in the woods and the mountains we had made. And so they did, shaping creatures of pleasing form and placing sparks of their souls within. Like the gods who made them, these creatures had days unnumbered or darkened by infirmity, and like the gods they shown with a light that illuminated all creation. For long they multiplied (as is the way of life) and lived harmoniously in the world, giving thanks to the gods who made them.

But some few of the gods grew bitter. "Look," they said, "here we have given of ourselves to make these things, and what returns to us from it? Praise and thanks? What need have we of such? They are not ours to command, these creatures, even though they sprang from our souls." In their anger and self-centeredness, they forgot the sacrifice the One had made to create them, and they forgot the echoes of [his] Dream. They saw how the creatures below made themselves into kingdoms and clans, and desired to rule over them in a like fashion. So they made more creatures, now darkened and twisted by the hate growing in their master's souls, and set them upon the earth to conquer and destroy. From this pain an destruction they gained power, as their brethren did from willing sacrifice made in their names. Moreover, even where they did not rule, the soul-poison of these twisted creatures spread, darkening the hearts of all whom it touched. No longer did the bright people shine with the light of the gods, and the world was thrown into shadow.

The gods knew not what to do, for their creations turned from them, and were lost to wisdom. Again they took council and one spoke forth: "When we made these below us, we made shaped them from parts of our souls. Thus, as we are less that the One, they are less than us. Our thoughts are their vague dreamings, and without our guidance they cannot fight the evil which our brethren have cast among them. We must go into the world and reorder things as they once were." But another spoke as well, saying "No, what we must do is to make things free from the confines of our thoughts, free to shape the world as they will and not constrained as the fey beings we first made, to the images we had in our minds as we shaped them. We must make this new race not to be like children, for to continually meddle in the ways of the world will only steal beauty from it.

So again the gods made pleasing bodies, though of less profusion of forms than before. Into these forms they placed a few of the (infinite) thoughts of the One, which as stars were the only light that still lit the earth. Like the waking thoughts they were made from, the lives of these creatures were fleeting. But like thoughts, they were sharp and bright before their passing. Into the world the gods placed these new lives, naming them the race of man. Strong and wily in nature, few succumbed to the poison of the darkness, and for a time they walked strong upon the earth. But eventually, the twisted ones came against them with claws and teeth and the sorcery of their masters.' When the darkness was turned back from the kingdoms of the men, the hating- ones who had shaped it came upon the earth to fight as well. They left the heavens, taking forms again as had the gods at the beginning of the world. Their forms were terrible and great, shining with rage and hatred, but in taking flesh upon themselves again to destroy and create imbalance, they found the doors of the heavens closed to them. The gods followed, bringing war but driving their enemies deep into the cracks and crevasses of the world itself, stripping away their forms and leaving them as but evil winds in the darkness.

When the wars were over, men and the fey alike dwelt in peace for a great time. Evil had shaped the world and there was always darkness in the hearts of a few, but always there were men of good heart willing to fight this darkness and drive it from the farms and cities of those who wished to live in peace. But after many an age, arose those fey who would not be content. They were curious about the wars of old and the nature of the Gods and those who fought against them and came to be called demons. They sought old knowledge and magicks, and after long years learned to call forth the shadows of those demons. They made sacrifice to them in return for power and knowlege, and the demons became strong again.

In this way the demons, while they could not regain the heavens, tormented the creations of their fellows. The demons had learned the power of blood, and because men feared the demons and made sacrifice to them they became powerful and the gods could do nothing to stop them. Each god in turn tried his or her particular powers against the demons to no avail. In desperation they all agreed to give up their powers and pour all that they were into one of their number. The god they chose was the sun, the Sol Invictus, who had been the most successful of all there number in trying to drive the demons away. All of the gods took their powers and poured them into the sun, who began to glow so brightly that none could look at his face.

The demons, upon seeing this new, terribly bright fire in the sky turned and fled away from him. He tried to give pursuit but came too close to the earth herself and burned away all the life on her surface. Thus were the great southern deserts formed. Not being able to pursue the demons, the Sol Invictus had to content himself with waiting in the sky above. Even here he saw the plants below begin to whither from his heat, and he decided he must only keep watch half the time or he would destroy the very things sought to protect.

Thus stood things for a very long time. The demons were driven deep into the ground by day, but roamed free at night. The sun sought a solution to this dilemma. To protect the night sky he made a great mirror and poured some of his endless light into it. This mirror he named Moon, and he set her in the night sky to keep the demons at bay. But Moon was overly curious and turned her face to the dark caves to watch the work of Evil. This too was reflected on her surface and she was marred and her light darkened. The Sol Invictus did not take her from her course for he knew it was in her nature to reflect that which she saw rather than remaining true to the light (as is true in general for the weaker sex). Rather he required her to turn away from the earth every few days to renew her light from him. This left the earth unguarded for only a few nights, and mankind began to flourish. With the light of the sun to guide them they turned away from the worship of the Darkness and the demons were weakened.

It was not destined to remain so, however. Deprived of the surface and therefore their source of power through sacrifice, the demons crafted a new plan. They could no longer martial a mighty force of arms, so they fought a war of lies and temptation instead. They made their targets the elves and those men who were learning from the elves how to work magick. Only these, with their sensitivity to the essence of the world could here the their faint whispers from the shadows. At first, the men who knew the desires of the Sol Invictus turned away from these offers. But the elves, ever proud and unwilling to bend themselves to humble worship, listened and were deceived. Thus they learned the darkest of magicks, and slowly they taught them to men. As these users of magick became more and more corrupt they turned back to the way of sacrifice and the demons again grew strong enough to face the light of the sun.

In time all the lands of men were threatened by the demons and their human minions. The sun agonized over what to do. He could not bring more light to the earth without destroying her. He could not sway the men over by force without doing the same, and they would not listen to the words of his priests. To reach out to those on the earth below he again made a sacrifice of his light. He took a vessel of the earth herself, one-time goddess whose dreaming was still rich in power. A great and pure crystal was the form of the vessel, and into it he poured his light. There it was magnified and took the form of a man. When the crystal burst asunder, Mithras, whom the Gaels named Lugh, came forth into the world. Many were his deeds and much has been written of them elsewhere. Here is will suffice to say that he rallied those men who would here his words and led them forth against the dark. The demons were defeated and driven into the shadows. The great mountains that had been their shelter became their prisons, and only with the aid of sorcery can the weakest escape for a time to wreak havoc upon the earth.

Still they struggle, though. The prayers of the evil or the deceived have ever been their hope. There are still those who worship such dark powers and sacrifice the innocent to give them strength. There are also those who, in their ignorance still worship the Old Gods who are only dreams and memories. The force of their prayers, pure though they may be, does not increase the light but only serves to strengthen illusions of a time gone by. Only by following the one true light can the world be freed from evil for all time.