Viorea

The Iron Kingdom of Virorea

In the Age of Gods the iron kingdom was ruled by the God Palnul, lord of fire. Palnul led his people and their servants to the far north, to a land without fire. The land was named Virorea and it's barren plains held nothing of value save the black holy water that would become the centerpiece of the Blackfire cult. The king built thousands of great towers to house and protect the people from the harsh weather and the monsters who dwelt in the tundra. The constant howling snowstorms made travel difficult, and every tower was given a portion of the sacred flame, to act as beacons for all time. The kingdom was known for its iron castles, towers, and war beasts. God-King Palnul held dominion over a great land that spread from the Sea of Worms to the shores of White Mountain. But the priests of Palnul grew bitter, as he no longer favored them despite their unerring support. In the waning days of the gods one high priest of the Cult of Fire betrayed Palnul and seized the sacred flame for herself. Known to her followers as The Wise Mother, she started a civil war that would devastate the land. Palnul attacked with massive war engines and iron dragons but without the power of the Sacred Capital Palnuls forces were a shadow of their former selves. The Wise Mother had gathered all the beasts from the tundra and used her awful powers to twist them into a new shape. Even without the sacred flame the God-king was formidable and the war was long. As the war raged in their homeland of Virorea, Palnul’s vassals and tributaries began to declare independence and fight amongst themselves. Palnul’s dominions were won by conquest and few held love for their masters. Notably, the rich duchy of Goux pledged their loyalty to the Plague King’s forces. When Palnul was finally defeated by the Wise Mother the Iron Kingdom only held the snowy heartland of Viorea.

In victory, The Wise Mother proclaimed a sacerdotal state, The Eternal Hierocracy. Her Hierophants acted as religious leaders and warriors, riding grotesque, translucent arachnids. The Hierophants maintain worship of The Wise Mother among the thralls and venerate their sacred mounts. In the war the knowledge of iron architecture was lost and very few iron towers existed at the end of the war. The modern towers are crude things with brittle stone used to imitate the soaring spires of the old kingdom. During the war, The Wise Mother cocooned herself within a massive hulk of angelic flesh as Palnul had done before her. Hidden deep inside the tunnels of the Sacred Capital she directs her followers from the depths. Only the most loyal and able Hierophants are allowed to glimpse her true form in all its horrible glory.

Hierocracy Culture

The culture of the Eternal Hierocracy is a thin membrane of elites with shared beliefs and ideals. The Castle of the Eternal Flame, sacred capital of the Hierocracy, is the religious and cultural center of the state. No priest is trained outside the walls of the castle. The Wise Mother’s high priests ensure that the hatcheries and parochial schools maintain fidelity to her teachings. Every priest is assigned to a tower in the tundra to finish their learning and minister to the thralls and spiders there until being moved to another tower. Hierophants are rotated frequently to keep them close to the capital. Once a priest is old enough they continue into the high priesthood or retire inside the castle. No retired priest is allowed to live outside the capital. Thus the culture is disseminated through the high priests and university and maintained by control of travel.

In contrast to the priest caste is the thrall caste. Thralls are fixed to one tower and may never leave it. Their primary duties are cultivation of the various tubers and mushrooms that comprise the tundra diet. Their homes are in the caverns and tunnels beneath the tower-lairs. While some are given duties in the upper levels of the tower those are usually reserved for the priest caste. The thralls of each tower have developed their own meager cultures, as their rulers have little interest in them. Lacking access to any conventional materials they maintain their identities by singing, dancing, and folk tales. Crude instruments are made from rubbish and makeshift murals are created with blood, soot, and crushed vegetables. Each tower has a unique vibrant culture that has developed over the decades. The only record of their unlettered culture is in their songs and myths. The thralls are descended from the old Vioreans and war captives. Adult captives are fed to the arachnids while the children too young to remember life outside the tower are given to the thralls.

The idea of an outside world is hidden from the thralls. The most a thrall would glimpse of the outside world in their life is the barren, storming plains of Viorea. Even on clear days the thralls tower is a solitary figure on the empty tundra. Little wonder that thralls truly believe that the Hierophants are messengers from heaven. To each thrall, their community is alone in the world. While revolts have been attempted, none have lasted long. Without a form of guidance, any travel on the tundra is certain death.

Towers of Old Viorea

By the modern age the iron towers built by Palnul were all destroyed or lost. What is known to outsiders as a Viorean Tower is actually an attempt to recreate the lost glory of the gods. The towers that litter Viorea now are stone imitations of the originals. Additionally their function is drastically different. The old towers were built along paths to guide travelers and to provide shelter from tundra. The new constructions are hidden in the wastes, impossible to find without a map and compass. The creatures that the towers were meant to protect against are now their chief inhabitants.

During the Thrallic War the layout of the towers was discovered to be fairly uniform. At the top of every tower is a holy bonfire created by the sacred flame and kept burning by the hierophants. The outermost chambers of the tower house the priests and form a shell around the central room. Past the shell, the main chamber is a chasm that reaches from the bottom of the tower to underneath the top floors. Inside this murky, torchless chasm is where the Hierophants tend to the arachnids. Beneath all this is the home of the thralls who live in tunnels connected to a central cavern beneath the tower. Paddocks for reindeer and ice worms are sometimes also present, attached to the outside of the tower.

Thrallic Wars

The Thrallic War began with the liberation of a tower close to the border of Wikinbau. A band of knights belonging to the Order of the Rose heard tales of the Wise Mother’s slave raids and vile rumors as to the fate of her captives. Traveling far to reach the Wikinbau border, the knights ventured into the icy tundra with no guide, for none would take them. After braving the dark heights of the bonfire tower and ousting the hierophants the knight freed the thralls and told them of the world. With the help of the freed slaves the knights burned out the arachnids inside the tower. After the tower went silent the Wise Mother, fearing the worst, sent an armed envoy of hierophants. The rose knights had prepared for this, being experienced warriors, and had fortified the tower and trained the thralls. The thralls needed little convincing to revolt. A lifetime of backbreaking labor and mistreatment had prepared them for combat. The thralls were also the only group of people besides the hierophants to have knowledge of the dreaded snow spiders. The knight and thralls successfully ambushed the envoy and looted their compass and maps. With it they led an expedition against other towers on the barren tundra. The Wise Mother’s yoke proved more brittle than believed and within a year the majority of the towers had been captured. The few towers that held out had slaughtered their thralls to prevent an uprising but this just delayed instead of prevented. The band of knights who liberated the first tower now appealed to other states. The Bernhardites, always eager to oust a god, sent a small company of soldiers. The duchies of Goux and Wikinbau sent significant soldiers and aid as they jumped at the chance to strike back against the Vioreans who had plagued their borders. The Ixmians sent a token force that many rightfully considered an underhanded insult. After years of bitter fighting the thrall armies had captured or destroyed all of the Wise Mother’s fortresses. With a large army composed of dozens of different people, the thralls began the siege of the Castle of Eternal Flame, home of the Black Fire Cult. Hammers in hand, the thralls stormed the citadel and painted the streets red with the blood of man and spider alike. The Wise Mother herself was pulled from her cocoon and cast her into the sacred flame.

The Free Rovakin

The free thralls were highly diverse but shared a bond of hardship and trauma. Ties forged in war brought the peoples together and the Viorean melting pot began. Now calling themselves the Rovakin they settled into the newly captured castle capital. Some Rovakin chose to return to their towers and the rest spread out and explored the world that was once denied to themThe Blackfire cult was lost in the war as they destroyed their thinking-golems and god machines rather than give them up. The Rovakin’s castle however still housed the Sacred Flame and the holy oil wells. With the Bernhardites influence, the Rovakin were persuaded to abandoned the secretive cult and use the holy oil as they saw fit. The Rovakin, now godless and jaded, invited Bernhardites scholars as they seemed to have similar pasts with their gods. While some more radical Rovakin have rejected foreign ideology in total, believing the Bernhardites to be intentionally shaping their culture as they please, far more were won over by the Bernhardites generous aid. The Bernhardites shared knowledge of architecture, road building, and statecraft. With help the Rovakin established a road network that connected the scattered towers with each other and the outside world. Trade goods in the tundra are few, but demand for their black holy water facilitated a great deal of trade. The rose knights established a chapter of the Order of the Rose and spent many years training students in its code.

The Great Coalition War

During the Winter War the March of Wikinbau and the Duchy of Goux lost a significant portion of their lands to the Vioreans. An unspoken question during the Thrallic Wars was what was to be done with this conquered land. In the year following the end of the wars, The Ixmian Empire and Goux signed a treaty of mutual aid with a secret clause, stating that Goux would accept vassalship in exchange for help in regaining their old borders. A surprise attack by a combined Ixmian and Gouxian force more than doubled the old territory of Goux. The Rovakin called for aid from the allies of Bernhardites and Wikinbau. The Bernhardites gladly sent forces in exchange for greater control in the Rovakin state and trade privileges. The march of Wikinbau also refused to answer the call to arms unless the Rovakin would cede the land that Wikinbau lost to the Viorneans. As the Rovakin pulled their new allies into the war, the Ixmians began to call upon their various protectorates and tributaries. The old rivalry between Bernhardites and Ixmians greatly expanded the scope of the war until it eventually engulfed the entire Chanis Swamp. The Rovakin Alliance, now primarily led by Bernhardites, allied with rebellious Ixmian vassals which in turn drove the vassals rivals into the arms of the Ixmians. After several defeats the Bernhardites began calling in their personal allies. A decade into the war only the most isolated powers had avoided declaring for one side or the other. The Great Coalition war raged for over 40 years and saw many drastic changes to the political landscape of Chanis and Viorea.

The Rovakin were pushed far back into the tundra and now control only the Castle of the Sacred Flame and a half dozen towers. The old Blackfire cult was revived and the Rovakin now zealously guard what little they know. The Margravess of Wikinbau switched sides halfway through the war in exchange for their independence and recognition as a kingdom. The Kingdom of Wikinbau holds extensive lands north and south along the coast and grows rich from its many tariffs. Goux, once a cultured and rich duchy that exercised great influence over the region, is now a ruined wasteland of dead cities. The few Gouxians who survived the war found their newly gained lands cold comfort. The Bernhardites lost many of their people and were forced to isolate themselves in White Mountain. After the war the Bernhardites did not send out a pilgrim for over a decade and it was half a century before they began politicking again.

Fate of the Ixmia

While nominally the victors, Ixmia and her allies were in disarray after the war. Famine, plague, bandits, and a resurgent Poxy Man saw the Ixmian empire fall in the following years. The powerful Ixmians who once invaded Terra and ruled over Chanis now were resigned to history as their predecessors before them.