Turn 5, 822 Shavat: Study of the Spire's Fragments
In 805 AA the popular and wealthy yeshiva prelate Frodi Vadati published the first edition of his study of the Spire's Fragments, an encylopedia of the world for the curious student, the most rigorous of its kind in notoriously incurious Vaspukaran. Most prior such studies had focused on proving wrong the various religions of the world, or reveling in Vaspukaran's superiority, or else engaging in flights of fancy about foreign countries with lurid and ridiculous descriptions of 'soft-footed, big-handed crab-men of the far east'.
Utilizing a horde of assistants and contacts with legations in Nachivan, Vadati was the most notable to engage in a systematic evaluation of the world's polities. Achieving immense circulation in the last years of Patriarch Maravan's tenure, Vadati's first edition's influence came to a sudden end with the ascension of Patriarch Petrifor, who banned the volume across Vaspukaran as 'undermining morals'. Now, with the censorship of the past ended, and Vaspukaran opening again to the world under the most radical Patriarch and movement since the time of high confession, the Study has been republished. Although Vadati has passed, his friend the Pontiff-Prelate Samangan has elected to create a new and updated copy. Though this time, with a massive disclaimer that this work and his commentaries does not reflect his views as Nasi.
The document is thus simultaneously a republication of an essential work and a reflection of a new and illuminated age. Of particular popularity is its map, the most comprehensive rendition of spiral political boundaries available in Vaspukaran.
Warning: The section you are about to read has more than twice the recommended daily dose of worldbuilding. Consult with your local fantasy writer if this post is right for you.
Geographies of the Shattered Spire
God having broken up the world has also broken up its lands. There are innumerable and wondrous places, islands and archipelagos, great masses and tiny specks fringing glittering seas. But it may be said that for the safety of the student's memory that there are five continents divided by five oceans, and in between these oceans and in the gulfs and gaps seas have formed as well.
The greatest continent is redoutable
Camad, which comprises the west and center of the world (the center placed on the axis of God's Kingdom). It encompasses all aspects of the climate, from the cold and frigid northern wasteland to the hothouse of the equator islands. It is from here that humanity first came and spread to all the world. So vast is Camad that the majority of what is worth remarking on may be found within its bounds, and so great is it that the eyes of the earth watch the world from perches here. It is sometimes said the far western archipelagos form their own continent as well, so unique are the countries on this littoral. But they have been so influenced by the mainland, and their islands such an extension of it, that to say so is absurd.
Samangan's Notes: It is this fact of a great continent which is so essential for our country. God's Kingdom is part of a continuum, the greatest shard of the ancient spire. Should it have been isolated it would not have formed at all. Every country on Camad shares things with the others, and the innumerable little nations of this place have been shaped by our connection. It also means, to our detriment, we must sometimes share this place with those we'd rather send very far away.
The next continents are
Firanhj and
Landalusaj, the far east. Here mankind discovered new lands that had not been settled, by rowing kayaks and catamarans west from Camad's pelagic fringe. It is thought the first peoples came to here in a time before time, and then afterwards came the Arcteryxin explorers spreading Yuhwa, and then in latter days the ocean routes found by Patranesia and the Mare. The peoples here are of a unique make and are especially suited, in Firanhj, to the cold. Such coldness tends to make them emotional and ferocious, with hotter blood to compensate, at the expense of rationality. Landalusaj is more familiar for those of us used to the warmth of great empires, and it is thus no surprise that it hosts many rising empires, whilst Firanhj's are on decline.
Samangan's Notes: Vadati I am afraid still had to make concessions to the old style, obsessed as ever with the proof that one people are better than another by some irrational and unprovable explanation. As we cold-blooded rational beings, we should know that failures point much more to deficiencies of institution and religious practice.
To the south is the continent of
Aurura, the golden verge, where man and marsupial make friendship [A visible ? is put next to this in the annoted version], an isolated place influenced in part by the eastern reaches of Camad. This continent ranges from warm to very cold, dominated by chilled desert and the steppe that its people call the 'outback'. Many in Camad refer to Aurura as the 'third shard', with Camad the first, and the eastern continents the second. It defies easy understanding by those of us outside, impenetrable to our faiths.
Finally there is the accursed continent, Antipodea. When the time comes for the spire to be completed God will destroy this place and melt its ice into the sea. Amen.
Samangan's Notes: Vadati, a southron scholar to the last, never did much like the cold.
The geography of the shattered spire so dispensed with, we may now turn to the covenants of each people with the God they may call Gods.
The Four Styles of Covenant
Every faith has its flawed and confused interpretations of the divine message and mission, obscured by their refusal to accept the prophet Amalgast. The ways in which this message is translated may be thought of as its covenant, the bundle of laws, rites, scripture, worship, and custom which defines it. There may be said to be four styles, and no more than this, that encompasses all governments of the world. Each style is not exclusive, and most are not purely of one style - the best polities make use of most in moderation. What follows is a description of a 'pure form', which is not advisable as an exemplar for holy governance.
Sacral Kingdoms are centered on the glory and exaltation of a high priest or god-king. They may be elective, as is Vaspukaran, or hereditary, as is Osogdo. Strong offices form around the monarch, who is especially exalted and holy, and may in fact be an aspect of God or a false prophet. A woman may be king as well, to be clear, with this classification covering all instances of this style man or woman. The kingdom bends to the King's whims, and they are pre-eminent.
Samangan's Notes: "A wonderful time when the sacral king is truly holy, and a problem when the sacral king's sacral jaw juts as hard as his thick head. Elective kingship avoids this, but provides considerable power to elites who may seek the weak over the strong, such as our own Petrifor."
Judicates worship the application and maintenance of a divine religious law. The development of ever-more detailed scripture and commentaries has produced a clade of priests to interpret them, and in a judicate, these wise men of the law rule over their domain. The law is sacred above all, and is worshipped as one may worship an old and traditional pagan deity. The pure judicate raises those who execute the law properly, and brings down those who disobey.
Samangan's Notes: "And in its wonderful equality, this law often find itself serving well the lawgivers, and not so much the lawtakers. A sacral law without a commitment to the flock, is not such law at all."
Sympolities are ritual unions of many parts brought together in a unifying mission. Many of the fragments of the Spire are miniscule and tiny, and sympolities bring these together in common cause. Unified ritual, rite, worship, compel into confederacy smaller nations. The pure sympolity is endlessly discursive and deliberative, always defining its boundaries and balancing between its parts, absorbing more into its reaches or fraying at the edges, both weak and strong.
Samangan's Notes: "It is a miracle of the government of Vaspukaran that we are able to accomodate the autocephalates so well, and a disaster for the sanity of our legal system. Such are the tradeoffs of sympolity."
Blood Reign is the adoring of the hereditary and ancient lineages and titles of family and nobility. Those places who cherish blood rite often create assemblies of discussion and debate where the best men and women, as they see themselves, may control and guide the affairs of the country. The blood itself is holy, and the blooded must conduct themselves in the fashion of responsibility and power that befits their special, divine station. The family is the center of blood rite.
Samangan's Notes: "And nothing bad has ever happened when one trusts blood over any kind of wisdom, not at all."
There is sometimes said to be a fifth type of country, the
Whole Congregation, where the whole of the flock may be involved in the mediation of a relationship with God, but such a country exists only in tall tales, and in any case each of those governments above offer participation of the flock in varying ways. To suggest that the congregation may in and of itself take control, is a mad absurdity fitting only for the heretic.
Samangan's Notes: "
In Maravan's days, the censors were more lenient, not non-existent. I suspect if Vadati could have published today he may have discovered a different opinion, but he was not granted such a privilege."
With the introduction of these styles complete, we may turn to the communions of the shattered spire, and how they may be understood in this framework.
The Four Eyes of the Earth
No greater places have existed in the history of this sphere. It is these four titans who bestride the remnants of the spire and encompass the hope to unite it once again. Each claim a long, unique and distinguished history, dating to the mists of the far past. In truth, however, they have all come to their current size and stature only in the past one hundred years. It is likely today a plurality, or perhaps even a majority of the population of the world reside within their bounds.
Kingdom of God [Vaspukaran]. We are the middle country. Rising from the ashes of the flood, Sufgan, Amalgast and the ravs built the foundation for the world-state. No country is greater in population, no country is larger in size. Vaspukaran is the world, and the world comes to Vaspukaran. In covenant Vaspukaran endorses sacral kingship through the Patriarch, and judicate through the high priesthood. One may see sympolity in the
subordinate communions of the Autocephalates and Missions, but nowhere does one see blood reign - uniquely, Vaspukaran has banished this evil through the commandments of Karogen, and so it has benefited greatly by raising the wise and punishing the stupid. This country of ours is known across the world for its indomitable power, and the energy of its people. The rise of industry shall propel it once more to the pinnacle of creation.
Samangan's Notes: "If only one could still see this today after the war with the Mare. In actuality, the contradictions of Vaspukaran and the failures of past reform now place us in the Sanhedron in the most dire position to rescue ourselves from the potential of oblivion. Not since the Iconoclast Wars has there been a more dangerous position for our country, and precisely because of our size, every vulture on this earth will wish to see us fail. We are the mountain that if leveled will unveil such riches as to make princes out of the paupers of our neighbors."
Great Western Coven [Collegium]. Formed from the victories of the White Turban Rebellion that so influenced the Pugilist Risings, the Coven is an excess of every style of covenant, grotesque in government. In its College of Princes it holds to the absurd extreme of Blood Reign, hosting Gushan princes who have had no holdings for two-hundred years as equal members. Its College of Magi hold strictly to the laws of Yuhwa, defying the central Celestial Sejm as they wish. Its subject princes and alliances bind together a country which is not a country, with no stable capital, a greatcoat of nations diguised as empire. Its Eoraha, the witch-king, is a model of poorly conceived sacral kingship, powerful mostly in the length of his robes and ceremony. True, though, it must be conceded, that the Coven is a great power of the sea, and industry does emerge on the banks of the great river Iteru, and it does cultivate a mess of
Lesser Covens, tied by their faith in Yuhwa. But still, God shall one day blind this eye, and fittingly end its despicable existence which threatens the stability of students of theopolitics everywhere, especially when we discuss 'floating chambers'.
Samangan's Notes: "The Coven is the eternal loser of the Four Eyes of the Earth, and yet by some demonic form continues to survive being inflicted losses on every front. Even now it is tied into a war it will surely lose with the Mare, and yet the five princes lost shall be replaced by three more. God should save us from this place which was created by beings not of this earth to torment us. For the interests of diplomacy, however, we must make good with it, as the Mare poses the greater threat - we hold no risk from the Coven save that it will lose successfully should we fight it."
Guarded Domains [Asharei]. The immortal and resplendent dominion of plenty in the west. The Guarded Domains is a miracle of prosperity that has held to a single sacral kingship for three-thousand years, glorious and magnificent. Its culture defines the classics of the west. Its riches are exported to the whole world. A confederation of princes and satrapies compete alongside a harem bureaucracy of thousands. Blood Reign is controlled by the lines of caste and the merit of the coil of literacy whereby understanding of arcane language accords status. Sympolity of the satraps and princes are checked after a recent settlement and renewed covenant. In this place the laws of the state are held in such esteem that one may not even believe in God, so long as they believe in the state! Such blasphemies are uncomfortably unchecked, and speaks to the self-satisfaction of this eye that believes itself above even God. It does not deign to interact much with the outside, save to squabble in wars with Tsakharia or the Azar Rajas, and even the Mare dare not arouse its rage.
Samangan's Notes: "One must wonder about this description of the Domains which seems to fit so well in some ways with that of our own Vaspukaran before the war with the Mare. Undoubtedly the Domains remain strong and stalwart, and their wars with Tsakharia prove they are not incompetent, but at the same time this is the least industrial of the Four Eyes, and the most conservative in outlook. Resistance to change is such that even slavery was not abolished until just five years past. This paradise of plenty may yet be ruptured by a rude and crude outside as we have. Though they have come to many settlements with the Mare in the past, suggesting perhaps they are less closed than we believe."
The Grand Mare [Isles Stambol]. The grasping country which extends its reaches everywhere. United under a sultanate at the time when the Ravs were ending the weeping years, the Grand Mare's transformation came when a wicked and unwise sultan was betrayed by the wily and cunning women of the Harem. Replacing him and forming a council of their Harem, these women made alliance with the palace guard of the Garden Corps, and the 'ayan frontier admirals. Together, they have formed a union that holds territories on every continent save Antipodea, and reaches out for ever more. The Valide holds special power as the elected mother of the country chosen from the Harem, and the state-cult here is very strong. Unlike the Domains, however, denial of God is wisely barred, and the old pantheons of the west still held to. The Mare has conquered the
Outremare that forms its frontier, and also gained allegiance of a huge arsenal
Sokii Princely States, who are bound in personal union to the wives of the state. It also despises the Western Coven, and brawls with it incessantly.
Samangan's Notes: "The Mare is a new style of power which uses the idea of the state-cult to bind together once unrelated and completely unknown peoples into a single unifying mission of world conquest. It is severely overstretched, and now fights a war against the Coven for eleven years without end, and yet the assets of the Mare are such that it can easily recover this. It is everywhere on this earth, and its power is self-evident. It may be called the first truly Spiral power, that bestrides the world, and not, as we wished, ourselves."
Four Gilded Wings
Either by provenant wisdom or good fortune, these four countries have flourished and are so honored by the Four Eyes of the Earth. Each have formidable and powerful armies and unique covenants that have guarded from the same obliteration which has seen so many other empires and nations fallen into the dominion of the four great eyes.
The Free Satrapy [Tsakharia]. Fanatically independent, having split many generations before from the Guarded Domains, Tsakharia is locked in endless conflict with its former suzerain. The Domains consider Tsakharia a part of its patrimony and Tsakharia considers the southern territories of the domains a holy ground. The satrap of this country is mostly ceremonial, and instead power is delegated to strong councils in the central cities. These councils are resistant to expansion but maintain a strong army and strong laws. Tsakharia is may be said is one of the great land powers of the west, cursed always by being between the Mare and the Domains and thus never ever able to expand. Tsakharia desires its survival at all costs, but has in recent years been exploring routes into the Kavanar Mosaic to further expand away from the eyes of the Mare and the Domains. It worships the King under the Mountain, Pagragoda, a style of worship popular in the Kavanar Mosaic as well.
Samangan's Notes: "Tsakharia is an angry mountain man who has carved out a fiefdom for himself and shall not let any take it save by his cold dead hands as a country. An excess of male enthusiasm is the likely diagnosis for the constant enragement of this place which hates the Domains so badly."
The Sunset Circle [Patranesia]. Sometimes referred to as the 'fifth eye', it is undeniable that Patranesia is a great power, with the third largest navy in the world, after the Collegium and the Mare. Overthrowing its maharajah, who fled across the sea to Landalusaj with his supporters, Patranesia is instead the greatest example of a sympolitical state-cult. The nation-god Patran, or Shiupilli, is an outgrowth of the old wargod of the ancient City of Victory that once ruled the west. Worship of his bloody visage is fanatic. Ruling the country is an elected Matapitan, a speaker who manages and corrals the isle councils and is seen with great esteem. Blocked from expansion in Camad by the Mare which it wars with constantly, Patranesia has instead turned to the far east, where the
Kedaton Rim represents the vast mandala of aligned islands and mainland countries it has bound to itself by partial-representation and military might. There is no doubt that if one of the Four Eyes were to fall from grace, Patranesia would soon take its place.
Samangan's Notes: "Patranesia's state-cult can only be called a special kind of idolatory which is transparently tied to the success of the country. But doing so is a denial of an all-loving God, and instead exchanges him for one who plays special favorites with one set of islands in the western fringe."
Dreamland [Ginnugarap]. Dreamland is a mystic and misty country that still retains isolation from the world and has battled off attempts by the Mare to open it. Organizing itself on the basis of timeless idol-worship, Dreamland is ruled by dreamsingers, wise priests who hold their entire ancestries as their current self, and so practice a peculiar style of blood reign whereby time is an illusion and the same figures that have dominated the place always have. Dreamland's art and brilliant philosophies of time and space have greatly influenced currents in Vaspukaran, and the eucalyptus-lined shores have long been lusted for by foreign adventurers. But Dreamland mediates its relations through
Half-Sleep Places, where time is allowed to run normally, and these conduits of change create a chain of transmission. It is said these days that the 'machine dreaming' is being crafted, so that the timeless expanse may integrate the possibility of industry into the schema of the dream.
Samangan's Notes: "The confessors would absolutely adore Ginnugarap as a distant concept, and be terrified of it as a place in which they lived. Not enough information is available about this country save as a mystic land, and so it is difficult to make true interpretations and not project utopias."
Blackland [Maganya]. The eternal blackland remains an unbroken dynasty even older than that of the Domains, where kingship has passed from dynasty to dynasty. The divine empress rules over the land of women, where it is said that the second gender is held in higher esteem than the first. In this country where the reliable ebb and flood of the Iteru river defines the seasons of harvest and planting, protection by hills and mountains to the east and north ensure Maganya's safety. Never stretching too far, but also never allowing itself to be conquered, Maganya is a refuge of an older world, the mosaic of the smaller countries. Strict hierarchies police the boundaries between low and high, and ensure that blood reign and judicate are most essential in this unified country. Maganya despises sympolity and seeks true unity, so it is no surprise that Amalism is so popular there as it is within the Western Coven.
Samangan's Notes: "Maganya holds a special place in the heart of anyone from Kusro, for it was the ancient monk Kusrabato who journeyed to the west of the blackland and brought back much of what passes for Kusro's covenant today. I am told this is disturbing and uncanny to Maganyans, which is deeply amusing to me."
Eight Grasping Hands
Eight states through the unification of their fragmented regions or surging power have begun to distinguish themselves far above the other fragments of the Spire. Although their power is not proven in comparison to the gilded wings and four eyes, they may yet be victorious in their striving for the pinnacle and the reconstruction of the spire.
Gontagora Shehut. Ruled by a prophet called Shehu of a faith that binds together tenets of Yuhwa, Simurgh, and Amalgast, Gontagora has swept the lowlands of the Fudano region with its calls of holy war. Great horse-bound knights have gone on campaign every year, conquering further and further, forcing remaining princes to seek refuge with the Coven or the Mare. The Shehu binds a judicate around his sacral kingship, denying both the idea of blood reign and sympolity, seeking oneness. But the Gastite tendencies of false prophecy have meant that the title of Shehu has been inherited twice, and now the third Shehu, even as he seeks expansion, will surely face recrimination from his subjects who wonder if he truly hears the voice of God, as if God is a respector of a certain family line.
Samangan's Notes: "This wild heresy of prophecy demonstrates very well the folly and danger of erecting prophets in the modern age. It is far too easy for some warlord or prince to simply claim himself a prophet, and so carve out a petty empire on the basis of god-given revelation."
Odam Osogdo. As with Danaan, this region has been traditonally ruled by the great elder councils, the Oboni, and Odas, speakers or chiefs risen to prominence by virtue of good breeding or wise rulership for the sake of the city. In recent years, however, the sanctified Oda of the city of Della has conquered all his neighbors and reformed his country into one of such great power that it gives even the Mare pause, for his military is of such capability. Sweeping aside all of his neighboring polities the Oda retains the elder councils and their combination of sympolity and judiciary, but he has destroyed many of the old chieftains or driven their families out into the highlands or the Mare. Old and ailing, he will pass his kingdom to a son from one of his many powerful wives.
Samangan's Notes: "The old Oda was a canny one-eyed man whose lack of depth perception did not prevent him from far-seeing. His heir, who since this has ascended to the throne after a short civil war is known to be an immensely attractive and sharp young man, but one with special temper."
Zunisdan Trust. There is no stranger or purer example of sympolity in all Camad. This is a bizarre country where every valley retains its own self-government and yet it is arranged into a theoretically unified league of the Zuni people, who call themselves the 'free', and live by herding between valleys. Provoked by attempted and failed invasions by the Coven and the conquest of northern grazing lands the lowland Zunis have arranged themselves into a 'trust'. This trust, an ancient and reformed institution organizes its people into companies based upon their valley, village, town or city. These companies then form conglomerates as part of the great Zunisdan Trust, which every year expands. If there is to be a central government for the notoriously fragmented highlands of south-central Camad, then it shall be this country. But it remains a tool more for self-defense than true government. There is little common law, little common leadership, and blood reign is openly mocked by the charismatic chief officers of this country. It is as if the whole of Vaspukaran was ruled by the rural Minyan Communions.
Samangan's Notes: "It would surely be a nightmare if we were to grant self-government to the Minyan Communions, and say, let them create court tabernacles or something of the sort in their own lands. What a terrible suggestion, that will gain no leeway, surely!"
Nunaat Union. In the far northwest a union of the major clans of many petty kingdoms have formed a union, called the 'family of the homeland'. Denying the idea of sacral kingship, the Nunaat instead conceives of all within it as an extended family of children, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. Strongly preferring models of voting and consensus agreement between the great families, the Union remains a tool for self-defense as for true government. Individual enterprising kinship clans extend their reach out across the Nuni Ocean named for they who most ply it. Seeking furs and wool from the far east, the Union has seized significant holdings from Merovanj and holds these as both areas of 'friendship' and also as meeting fires between the east and west where they might ply their wares. A fusion of sympolity and blood reign, the Union does not involve itself much in politics further south but pays tribute to the Domains and resists fiercely any encroachments by the Mare.
Samangan's Notes: "This people I have found to be some of the most hospitable I have ever met, as well as the most hardy. I have great sympathy for them, as Kusro's climate is similar to the south of their own country, and their stone-stacked monuments are truly extraordinary to behold."
Fanjakan Rajemisa. The Fanjakan has been one of the fastest rises of recent memory. An isolationist monarchy defeated forty years ago by the Mare, the Rajemesa Dynasty of queens has unified all parts off-coast archipelago and transformed into a great new naval power. Deeply fascinated by the Mare, the Fanjakan has allied itself to its former enemy, and now extends its reach southeast. Using newly discovered routes and coaling stations they expand their power power into the frontier of Aurura and make war with the fleets of Hadashtai, recently shocking all outsiders by defeating Hadashtai at Tontokin and opening its territories to foreign trade. Under the Rajemisa Queens, the Fanjaken glorifies their power and maintains a strong adherence to the law, but denies the divisions of sympolity or the conceptions of blood reign, preferring instead to raise on merit especially women of meager standing to positions of high government.
Samangan's Notes: "This country is a surprise, and an example of how one should not discount peoples on the basis of inferiority. The ingenuity and focus of the Rajemisans is something to behold, and something to emulate, for how fast they have risen to the ranks of the great."
Ummat Timar. When the Mare felled its sultan, not all agreed with the direction taken by the Harem and the Garden Corps. Seeking a puritan expression that denied anything that smelled like kingship, the wealthy Koraki family crossed the sea. With them were followers from a failed Mare civil war. In Firanhj they were granted a march across the River Maeot by the Rexes of Merovanj, and there formed what would become the Ummat Timar. In union with local farmer-communities fleeing the weight of serf subjugation in Merovanj or the tribute of Golgaria, the Ummat, or community of believers, has grown from a small series of eight estates on the eastern coasts to an eminent and rising power in the far east. A landholding congregation where those who hold property may determine the path of God, this strange alteration on the old rules is a judicate even purer than the Mare. Law and law alone rules, and the natural law is indivisible from God. Ruled by a congress of the Sovereign Elect, the Ummat sees as its destiny the control of much of the center of the continent, and to burst forth from the sea-domination of Andoles and Patranesia.
Samangan's Notes: "There has been no shortage either of Vasp migrants who have gone to this country. It is by any means quite impressive, and yet one cannot help but be disappointed in the limitations of power to the Sovereign Elect descended from the founding families of this country."
Mandala Andolesi. When the Patranesian Maharajah was defeated in the Great Western War and fled across the sea, he did not come alone - much of the fleet, aristocratic in nature, fled with him to the far east. They were granted a march on the western reaches of the declining August Perpetuity, beyond the silver straits. The Maharajah and his court settled here and built a new mandala centered on the fertile western peninsula, conquering petty kingdoms with superior technology. Binding themselves to locals through marriages, the Andolesi abandoned their allegiance to the weakening Perpetuity and built a new dominion of their own. Devoted in adoration of their king and holding to the old mandala model of control, the Andolesi may struggle yet against other more novel forms that yet challenge them, and still hold a vicious rivalry with the Patranesians, competing over the silver straits on the eastern edge of the Erythaean Sea.
Samangan's Notes: "The Maharajahs remind me somewhat of the Rohirs in that it seems absolutely impossible to get rid of them. They may be crushed in one place and appear in another. The Rohir descendents, at least, are reduced to a title - the Patranesians must deal with a new empire!"
Myriad Ralanui. From the southern jungle these descendents of ancient migrants from the Arcteryxan explorers have emerged as one of the greatest sympolity-kingdoms of the current world. It is ruled by a federation of wise Ala'nui priests elected from among the regions of the country, and the elected Kahuna. The Myriad has grown into a formidable and beastly country, surging from the jungles to the highlands in the north to the pampa in the south. Everywhere it is pushing, and everywhere it is fighting, year after year, its militia soldiers pushing further and further towards the coasts. Already they have overwhelmed the coastal kingdoms of the east and fought the Mare expeditions to a standstill, and now they take to the seas. Emerging industry propels this country into the ranks of powers that may well soon earn gilding for their honoring of God.
Samangan's Notes: "The Myriad is an example of the growing power of sympolity. In an era where literacy and print allow the education of the many, is it not then possible to bind together a multitude of princes under a single banner? Cannot this be done in Vaspukaran as well?"
Four Broken Knees
Four old and decaying dominions have by failure and their own imperfections been toppled from the heights once reached. Where praises were sung, and riches flung, to these countries, now they stand teetering on the edge of defeat and collapse. A stern warning is made by their weakness to the other countries, that those who do not properly honor God will doom all.
Twin-Dead Isles [Hadashtai]. Formed by those who were exiled from Dreamland to an offshore island, and declared ever-dead, Hadashtai grew to be a great and mighty trading empire forged by the settlement of islands to the north where lived peoples similar to those of Osogdo. Dominating the archipelago of the twin-dead isles for which is it named, Hadashtai's Undying Council of 101 elders cultivated blood reign and shared faith of its core over the imperatives of central kingship long feared for its associations with Vaspukaran, or sympolity which threatened the dilution of the old elite of exiles. But after defeats by Vaspukaran during the reign of the Infallible Patriarchs, and then by the Mare, and finally a sinking of its fleet by Rajemisa, Hadashtai may yet spin apart. Overly dependent on mercenaries from Osogdo, and on support from Patranesia for naval improvements, many of Hadashtai's subject cities, heavily independent, may seek freedom and better terms under more modern powers. The idea of Hadashtai, as a union of cities of Aurura rejecting the timelessness of Dreamland, may yet perish.
Samangan's Notes: "The Twin-Dead Isles' great failure has always been their exclusion of their subjects from power. Relying instead on a narrow faithful core, they are hopelessly outmatched against the more modern countries of Rajemisa and the Mare who bring all they have to bear. A warning for us."
Sanctified Expanse [Merovanj]. No country has inspired more romantic paeans than this place of castles and horse-bound knights. The colossus of Firanhj and the first daughter of the Yuhwan Eastern Coven has been ruined by those they call 'Maracens'. Where only sixty years ago under their greatest Rex, Carolus, the western coast was conquered, now the country is in torpor. Although not nearly so advanced in decline as Kanguedoc or the Emperian Lhatan Carolus Rex helped weaken, Merovanj's frailty were exposed in a war with the Mare over trade which Merovanj lost terribly despite significant support from the Western Coven. Now the weakened expanse, where the priesthood feuds with the king and blood assemblies, faces dire choices on how to proceed. The Rex, cloistered in the divine capital of Aach Urbes, allows for the countryside to be dominated by military aristocrats and for the west to be engulfed in disorder between the feuding
douxal limits, who seek to advance themselves at the expense of the center. Without strong support from the Magos Maximus, the highest witch-priestof the Eastern Coven, Merovanj faces decay and weeping years aplenty.
Samangan's Notes: "Perhaps because Merovanj is so popular as an allegory rather than a real country, I suspect that Vadati has peppered some commentary in his description. His hidden warning, that we may become as Merovanj did, has never been more obvious now."
Four Cornered Sun [Kanguedoc]. Alas, poor Kanguedoc! So far from God, and so close to the Mare. What was the greatest kingdom of southern Camad has become a shadow, near to utter destruction. Where the Sun-King's light shone from the Jade Sea to the Mesogaic Gulf and Tethys, now only a sliver of royal demesne still remains. Worm-eaten by vassals swearing allegiance to the Mare, and with an aged and ailing king, Kanguedoc is the furthest advanced to collapse of any of the broken knees. When it was vigorous, Kanguedoc was a model of sacral kingship and a testament to the power of blood reign. Now over-mighty princes have shattered it, and the country lies at the brink of total destruction. The patchwork of laws, and the over-eagerness to run over local interests in the sake of royal power, have created so many enemies that there is almost relief at the Mare's invasion and conquest of this, what has become the jewel in the Valide's crown.
Samangan's Notes: "The warning left by Kanguedoc is that an overreach of kingship combined with over-mighty vassals can be exploited by foreign enemies to completely destroy the country. What was the sun-kingdom is now the Outremare, and a pathetic, dying sliver of itself."
August Perpetuity [Lhatan]. A divine empire close to the purest example of sacral kingship in existence, the August Perpetuity is in steep decline. Threatened to the east by Patranesia and to the west by its former vassal of Andoles, the rise of a Firanhji dynasty dispatched from Merovanj placed this schismatic Yuhwan empire back into the communion of the Eastern Coven but fatally weakened it. To the north, Golgarian tsars grow ever bolder in pushing its frontiers. In the southwest Despotates form out of those who reject the authority of the Emperian Lhatan, as it calls itself. To the immediate south, Ralanui explorers find passes through the mountains and raid the coast. To the west, the Andolesi strip its sugar-island territories away. And Patranesia hungers for control of the straits. It is only the support of the Grand Mare, which does not wish for any great new power to seize control of these profoundly important straits, that prevents a fleet of Patranesia or Andoles from putting a final lie to the Perpetuity's name.
Samangan's Notes: "The danger of the Perpetuity in particular was that trying to force a common communion on another country to heal schism will inevitably make the schism worse. The perpetuity is now risking disintegration, and Merovanj's overextension contributed to its current disaster."
Great Regions
Everywhere else within the world God must especially treasure, for these peoples are those who are the demolished material of history, or else hold within them the embryos of greatness. A short survey of these areas shall suffice, for they are not of sufficient note to otherwise mention save for their reaction to and survival of the great Eyes and hands and wings of the fragmented spire.
West & South Camad. Here one may find the Arcteryxin archipelago, a maze of islands kept deliberately divided by local chiefs, the Mare, and Patranesia, who fear any strong power emerging here would impede western routes. Between the Mare and the Domains is the Azar Peninsula, a place of small rajahs competing in petty games within the giants' shadows, and the Multepalli of Kokom, united in the past in a single league now hopelessly fragmented and feuding. In South Camad of course the Kavanar Mosaic is a place of tiny valleys and shifting sands, where one hundred languages exist together, while to the east the better developed Higher Zun faces the encroachment of Coven, Zunisdan, and Mare, and organizes more fully to defend themselves.
Samangan's Notes: "The pressure of the major powers on these regions is growing more with every passing year. It may be that they will soon enough have to form into sympolities to survive, or else die entirely, crushed beneath the weight of the great empires."
North & East Camad. In the east of Camad one finds both the highland leagues and lowland princes of the Kano, the former defending themselves from the approaches of Vaspukaran and the latter from the Coven, the former well-unified and the latter totally fragmented. To the north is the pitiable chieftains of the transmontane that exists beyond the Coven and the Domains, the ground too thin and the air too cold to grow much of anything. And between Gontagora and Osogdo are the highland states, who increasingly form themselves to face both of these ambitious countries as well as Vaspukaran, whom they have as of late become a pestilence in raiding.
Samangan's Notes: "These highland leagues may have formed partly to protect against Vaspukaran, but even in our reduction of foreign excursion remain united. This is something of a lesson that this new age favors construction over destruction, and we may see the formation of new nations soon."
Greater Aurura. In this region we may find some of the strange and mysterious places, such as the Millawa River-Princes who still fight on moa and who now brawl endlessly with the importation of rifled muskets from the Rajemisa. In the Murawungi inlets herders and fishermen live idyllic lives in a wet country and trade with passing whalers, whilst the smattering of islands scattered as stars across the Muralage Sea retain small settlements of islanders influenced by the faith in dreams of Hadashtai and Ginnugarap. Finally, and accursedly, there exist small communities of the shipwrecked, the enterprising, and the damned, who do sinfully and attempt to settle enclosed inlets of the Antipode, where potatoes may be said to grow in the right conditions if it may be believed. May they all be expelled, and the evils of the ice not be unveiled!
Samangan's Notes: "I underline again that Vadati does not like the cold. I know it is a subtle thing, difficult to spot without expert interpretation."
Firanhj and Landalusaj. In the Evar Taiga, the purest examples of the old Firanhj before the conquests of Merovanj still persist in boreal forest, whilst on the savanna of Golgaria tsars and princes fight the Ummat, the Perpetuity, and most of all each other for dominance. In the Calixtine Antilles heresies and syncretic fantasies abound, and pirates are rife, with many small and independent isles who obey the Mare and Patranesia as they order and pass through. On the Despotatic Coast, the holdouts of the Frati who deny the new Lhatan royal dynasty of the Perpeuity fight for the privilege of fighting for the imperial crown. Finally, to the very far south, on the pampa of the extremadora, vaqueros and hidalgos fight against the encroachment of the Myriad in vicious wars for cattle and land.
Samangan's Notes: "The frontiers of the world are closing. In their place, new countries take hold, and old countries fall apart. What then shall be the state of the spire at the turn of the next century? What technologies shall be unleashed, and what shall they do to us all?
Praised be God for placing such a multitude of peoples on this earth, and cursed is man for splitting us apart! Let it be written, and let it be said, that the dream of Vaspukaran is the unification of the whole world! And let is be said, that if the whole world should be unified, that it shall be a mosaic miracle!
Samangan's Notes: "Amen."
The Sect and the Spire
But what do you, HaKhofshim believe, after seeing all of this before you? The unity of the world is a fine goal, but in the past you have chosen to dispense with the idea of the Spire, of the assumptions of High Confession. How then, should unity be achieved? For a long time Vaspukaran was seen as synonymous with the world. But the sect reading of this book, held on the 25th of Shavat, brings to question that idea, and renews the imperative in this new age to bring forth the message of Pugilism and HaKhofshim to the world. Right now, this question may be a mere matter of theology, but perhaps soon it shall not be!
If Vaspukaran is simply first in a great multitude of nations, how should it prove itself to be the greatest of countries?
[] We must be a beacon unto the nations, set an exemplar for all to follow, and not be entangled in outside schemes! [Traditional Pugilist Position].
[] We must spread the word of God to the world with vigor but with peace, so that the world will hear our message clearly! [Amalist Position].
[] We must bring up the fallen, and break down the walls of iniquity wherever we may see it, for evil resides not just in Vaspukaran! [Iconoclast and Confessor position].
