5e Setting Working Document

The Faith

Alexandrianism is still the order of the day but, in the wake of Collar's Calamity, the Church has been through something of a Great Schism mixed with an English Reformation, spiced with a pinch of Lutheran and Calvinist separatism.

Petaran Alexandrianism

• Same as it ever was. Petara in general is ascendant and in the midst of a rare, outward looking mode, and have embassies in Celstia and Flannary both.

• Petaran missionaries working in secret? With the Calamity, their Divine magic is as good as anyone else. Toleration probably runs on a scale from "suspicious outsider" (Flannary, Celstia, Wydmoor) to "burn on discovery" (Odessa)

• Petarans? In MY Wydmoor? It's more likely than you think! It's the only real place to get Red Iron outside of Odessa. Why a nation of master metallurgists might want Red Iron is anyone's guess.

Western Alexandrianism

Western Alexandrianism is more decentralized in the wake of the Calamity, and Western Alexandrian priests no longer answer to the Arch-Warden. Indeed, most Western Alexandrians see themselves as the true heirs of Alexandria's legacy, while they see the Eastern Alexandrian faith as a puppet religion used by the Gilden to control the humans of the East.

Theoretically the Church and the Crown are co-equal; the Crown appoints new Hadriarchs (see also "lay investiture") while the Odessan Hadriarch anoints the new monarch. (Sure, that's sort of co-equal) Each major Western Alexandrian polity has their own Hadriarch that annoits the monarch. Odessa, Flannary, Celstia, Ubrekt, Wydmoor, [WALES PLACE], and [The Various Rump States of The Old Alexian Heartland] each have an Hadriarch. The Seven Hadriarch are the collective heads of what might be called Western Alexandrianism.

Over the past 20 or so years, a hyper-reactionary movement has taken root among the super-religious W. Alexandrians, especially in Celstia, [WALESLAND], Wydmoor, and [RUMP STATES]. These heretic movements reject the theological connection between The Stand an the current roster of Hadriarchs and totally deny the same of the Eastern Alexandrian Arch-Warden. These ""Protest-Stand"" Faiths (cough say it out loud) are a direct challenge to both the religious and secular authorities of the Western faith. They are heavily persecuted wherever they are found, and Odessa is particularly active in exporting Witch Hunters to western Alexandrian states to root out the ""Protest-Stands." The Radicals take a dim view of the Petaran's faith overall and sometimes cause problems even in tolerant areas by murdering Petarans.

• Odessan Hadriarch is
• Celstian Hadriarch is
• Flannari Hadriarch is
• Ubrekti Hadriarch is
• Wydmoorian Hadriarch is
• [WALES PLACE] Hadriarch is
• [RUMP STATES] Hadriarch is

Eastern Alexandrianism

Eastern Alexandrianism still maintains a (tremendously diminished) Arch-Warden, tight hierarchy, and direct investiture. Arch-Wardens since The Calamity have always been human, though most of the Curia are Dwarven. The Eastern Church still maintains control of the coinage of most of the East.

• The Arch-Warden is ... from ...

Paladins

The Travelers stll exist as a Faith Militant in the Eastern faith. Western Paladinly orgs also exist, but are a lot more independent and monastic and quasi-mercenary like the Templars or whatever other medieval holy order company you prefer. ""Protest-Stand"" Paladins are quite a bit more - uh - rigidly puritanical than the baseline. Which, yes, is saying something.

Nations of the World

Odessa

The Odessan royal family entered into a political/marriage alliance with the Flannary royals. Tennyson XII, Aden II, and Tennyson XIII all took Flannary princesses as brides. The Flannary kings, likewise, married Odessan princesses. Not only has this maintained an alliance for over a century now, but -- by total coincidence -- it has consistently removed eldest daughters from the lines of succession.

• ????-1392 : Queen Eloise I
• 1392-1405 : Regency of Prince Aden
  • Age 17-30 [13 years]
• 1404-1410 : Queen Regency for Tennyson XII [6 Years]
• 1410-1473 : King Tennyson XII
  • Age 16-79 [63 years]
• 1473-1482 : King Aden I
  • Age 63-72 [9 years]
• 1482-Pres : King Tennyson XIII
  • Current Age: 66 [33 years so far]

There could be a better spread here? Dunno.

Flannary

• Much of its far northern frontier has been lost to halflings, monsters, and bandits, but the core of the nation has recovered to a position of prosperity. With maritime connections to the Petarans and a border with Fresia, it serves as the Odessan/Celstian/[WALESLANDIAN/Petaran] connection to the Golden Road.

• Sort of a blank slate at present: Probably has a king or a queen or something? Maybe a Regency would be more interesting? Either some sort of dipshit council, or otherwise some sort of Richelieu-like figure from the church?

• As the intersection of so many different places and groups in the west, and with Wydmoor a bit more of a legitimate state now, it might be the new place for our requisite "City of Intrigue to go. (Erith)

Fresia

• Seen as religious weirdos and hicks in the West. The lands lost to plague were never recovered, but the smaller nation is much more centralized and the Emperor is a strong position, even if he should rightly be called a King. There are several "free cities" still, and there are still technically elections, but the loss of the frontier dutchies means that since the Calamity a single family has been able to continually manage the elections.

• Fresia retains its character and thrives as the middlemen between the Golden Road and the exotic (Dwarven/Gnomish) lands of the East. They also have a connection to the Chrysanthemum Gulf via the Silver Highway.

• Fresia has launched several campaigns against the territory across the river, to mixed results. The Empire has settlements and even fortifications on the far side of the river, but pushing into the more heavily forested lands to the north has not met with any sustained success. The Silver Road has some pretty well fortified trading posts, but otherwise there is little to no settlement along its banks.

Celstia

• Under the thumb of Odessa and they H - A - T - E it. Good place for Robin Hood or Partisan campaigns. Petarans probably supporting Celstian pirates and partisans to put the hurt on their old rivals the Odessans. Petaran missionaries operating more or less openly in major port cities, if not openly in the countryside.

Ubrekt

• The king was deposed back during the Calamity, a nasty civil war, and a bit of an ethnic cleansing. A large number of them landed in Wydmoor and the Rump States. Hakani are by far the largest human group in Wydmoor and are substantial minorities in the Rump States.

• Back to being run by the Senate, which is no doubt shady af. Wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of Necromancers behind the scenes in a group of mega-old people with old money and old blood. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the King's family - annointed by Alexandria herself as they were - ended up as some nasty blood ritual or something, or I'm am sure there are rumors to that effect, at least.

• Possibly another location of City of Intrigue, but probably more like Ancient City of Decadence and Wealth. [Seat of Ubrekt Metroplex]

Wydmoor

[Mattiverse Dependent]

Gildenhome

• The Calamity hits Gildenhome worst of all. Not only are they committed to the Crusade against their will, when it is discovered that Gnomish partisans (The Masked Gnome, Byll, the Infernalist Gnomes from the Beta Team Game, and Etc.) are behind the outfitting and training of the Servitor Irregulars, war erupts between Dwarf and Gnome. A Gnomish Turncloak reveals also that the Gnomish semi-autonomous CIA thing were also the cause of the Green Flu, Fresia gets involved.
  • (The gnomish turncloak is . . . . THED! He was recruited into the Gnome CIA as soon as he got to his homeland. In fact, Gnome CIA folks had been watching him since he'd taken down the Masked Gnome. That's why they gave him one of their "guns." When he discovered the GCIA were behind the events of Draglet, he took his plague diary and that information to his old friend Kleptinax, and connects with other information given to him from nub's Inquisitor-Columbo (and Co.) Beta Team. This is a long sidecar, but I think it was worth the ride. I expect he returns to the West and the realm of men after this. How long do gnomes live? Is he still around? Hm. Anyway, the gnomes wanted the star iron to make Usurper weapons with and knew the Dwarves were going to get to it first. Since it needed to be supercharged to have an effect on the dwarves, once it hit humans the curse got a little out of hand. It's also why you found Gnome survivors in the plaguelands - the plague was programmed not to work on gnomes.)

• The Wild Gnomes side with the Dwarves, as do a small rump of Hakani. The Gildenhome-Hakan war is essentially considered a civil war from the Gnomish perspective.

• The war is a disaster for everyone involved, and lasts a hell of a long time. Worse - it pretty quickly forces the majority of dwarven and Fresian focus away from the War in the West (aka The Crusade). This leaves a very Zealous Celstia and depleted Flannary against a consolidated Odessa who had been ordaining Clerics on the sly and deploying them in battle. With Kaine's madcap plan to kill and usurp Marwynn of the Mountain's power totally busted by Edrell's robbery and the Silverwalker's removal of Kaylee as a weapon, those energies are redirected towards the conventional war effort to great effect.
  • The consensus history puts it around here that Marwynn - abandoned by all of her allies, humiliated, and at once all- and no-powerful decides to do something crazy, decisive, and crazy-decisive.
  • It's worth noting that Marwynn was by trade a diviner. It's always a sad irony to see a Seer undone, in this case by a trio of machination, isolation, and alienation. She deserved better than she got, but the other part of being a Seer is that even if you don't see "it" coming - once you see it, you see it in its entirety. You have that moment to reflect and to choose and sometimes you choose "fuck all of these people and all of their bullshit" and then blow it all up. Metaphorically, or literally, or in this case - both. Sages argue about the particulars to this day, but the important part is that Marwynn destroyed the Statue and possibly herself in a way that liberated Divine magic from the Wardenship of the Church.
  • The church shattered beyond repair, and the Dwarves dealing with a total shitshow on their borders, the two treat with the Odessans that more or less ends the Crusade and leaves the Odessans as soft Overlords of the West. The Heartlands are a total wreck and will regrow wild. The Dwarves and their Gnome allies are able to finally win that theatre and establish a lasting peace that sees the exile a great many Hakani gnomes. Some Wild Gnomes return to the Scar, but most move to an island in the Hakani sea, formerly a Gnomish naval stronghold leveled by the Dwarves no-nonsense siege-navy.

• Dwarves live a hell of a long time, so probably a good number of the Principles here are still around and exerting influence. I'd expect Kleptinax to be one of the Over-Thane's direct counselors.

Hakan

• See Gildenhome

• Exiled Gnomes end up on the Breaker Islands, which are basically rain-forests or monsoon-temperate regions. Madness and storms and darkness that way lies. This was also the core of the Gnomish ability to be shadowy replacement killers, and along with the reduced state of Church power, the Gnome's traditional "iron and blood veto" is not really a factor anymore.

• Hakan probably lost a bit of land to Fresia and hates them more than ever. The Dwarven/Gnomish border is more or less unchanged, and some return to positive relations happened quickly after the gnomes exiled their more problematic elements. This was probably something like a 50 year inquisition level event in Gnomish lands, so there are no doubt still a hell of a lot of gnomes that experienced it first hand.

• Scar Wild Gnomes are as weird and alien as ever. Island Gnomes (or better name) are a bit more like the traditional "burrow and woodland" gnome.

Sidhe-Praxen

[Redacted Pending Gnob's Folly]

The New States

• If some Real Nation nearby has their Shit Together, it might be fun at making a run at conquering some of these.

(WALESLAND)

• Also under the thumb of Odessa, but much more chill about it. Semi-Autonomy is a step up from their old position, and they have no love lost for the Celstians who were not exactly gracious and subtle three or so generations ago when WALESLAND land was the primary conventional battleground of the Calamity. Odessa has often played favorites as regional hegemon and set WALESLAND aganst Celstia.

Nia-Agliare

• CriminalSyndicateBerg.
• Probably officially run by a mayor or some sort of merchant council
• Spoiler! Bloody Marwynn actually runs the show with Religious Wackadoodle Vampire Levan as her Right Hand enforcer.
  • A being of light controls her city from the shadows. Is it a bit much? Maybe a bit much.
  • Edrell never actually killed Levan, only used his blood. (Throw away a perfectly good vampire?!?) He gave Levan to Marwynn at her (convoluted) request. One of the few deals he probably regrets making, although he learned a lot from it.
  • She drove Levan crazy by locking him in a room and feeding him only with her positive-energy-blood power. It sustained and destroyed him at once, and quickly made him bonkers. A vampire-renfield?! Again, a bit on the nose, but there you go. He's a little bit more "terrifying True Believer" than he is "totally unhinged fly-eater," which redeems it somewhat.

(The Petty Kingdom)

• Remote and provincial. Run by the descendants of a Warlord-Made-Good and mostly noteworthy for being a place both geographically-cohesive enough and isolated enough that it can manage as a single state. The King there rules most of the realm almost-directly through his dozen or so counts that administer the counties. Although counties are hereditary, individual counties are weak enough that justified revocation is a trivial matter of state, and generations of kings have been ever alert to marriages between counties. Additionally, daughters have been strategically married to various counts enough times that a good number of the noble families have a tie to the royal family.

• One day that sort of scenario could lead to a totally crazy civil war, where there are a dozen arguable claims to the throne, but it hasn't yet.