Sacred Republic

After the War of Hubris, the Union was transformed into the Church of the Eightfold Way, and unified the territories of Talahaea into the single polity known as the Sacred Republic. They rooted out the curse of wizardry, burned the libraries of arcane lore and established a righteous authority across the land. They united the priests of the many faiths of Talahaea in a pure and perfect orthodoxy. The Bardic Colleges and Artificer's Guild welcomed the oversight of the Church, and the remnants of the old aristocracy (the Estates) rubbed shoulders with a rising merchant class (the Guilds) in a new government of the people.
So says the official account.
The Church most likely began with the best of intentions, but soon began revising the official histories, first to erase the role of the cults of magic in maintaining the arcanocracy of Mage Sovereigns, and then to ensure that only the worst aspects and excesses of the Sovereigns were remembered.
Before long, the forces of liberation shifted their focus to control.
The Union ransacked and destroyed the great libraries of magical lore and centres of arcane learning, burned the towers of the great wizards and destroyed the remnants of the magical dynasties of the old Kingdoms, heedless of the histories and mundane lore that they destroyed. Any religious cults that remained aligned with the Sovereigns were also destroyed, and the druids – folk practitioners who had strong links to the Primal Wild, for the most part maintained neutrality during the War, and refused to join the Union in the new peace – were driven to the fringes of society as the Union seized control. The Bardic Colleges and the newly-unified Artificers’ Guild were placed under strict controls, the latter for their ability to spread advanced technology, the former to ensure 'orthodoxy' of historical accounts back to and including the creation.
The Republic is indeed administered by a civilian government drawn from the Estates – the old aristocracy – and the Guilds, but all of the temporal organs of government are, at the very least, subject to strong influence from the Church, if not direct control.

• Head of State: The Octarch, High Regent of the Church
• Head of Government: The Supreme Consul; the leader of the Supreme Consulate is elected from that body by the Members of the Assembly.
• Executive Branch: The Supreme Consulate, a representative body consisting of three Consuls from each province. The means of selection for these consuls is determined independently by the provincial government.
• Legislative Branch: The Assembly of the Republic, a representative body consisting of five Members for every district of the Republic. A district is defined by the presence of twenty-five electors, and while the terms granting electoral rights vary from province to province, this equates to roughly one Member of the Assembly for every five thousand people.
• Judicial Branch: The Court Absolute, a body of senior civil judges and Church scolars appointed by the Octarch
• Official Language: Talahaean (lingua franca derived from the trade dialect of the Regime)
• State Religion: The Eightfold Way

The Sacred Republic

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Geography

The Sacred Republic occupies the greater portion of the territory which formerly made up the Regime Dominion of Talahaea, bordered by the Goblin Bluffs and the waters of Lake Aino in the north, the Riverlands below the Wall of the World in the east, the Dustlands and the Great Delta in the south, and the shores of the Whyrddin Sea to the west. The climate is predominantly temperate, the region lying between the hotter lands of the Aurora in the north, and the Crownlands in the south.
The old kingdoms of the Mage Sovereigns are now loosely mapped to the Provinces of the Republic. There are seven provinces of the Republic, distributed across four broader geographic regions.

Westhaea

Westhaea is the north-western coastal region of Talahaea, encompassing the provinces of Berngaard, Argea and Altea and stretching from the coast to the mountains of the Spine. It gets the morning sun strongly from the Aurora and while the far north lies in the cold shadow of the Bluffs, overall the region is warmer and drier than Stormhafn or the Umbral Coast. The climate is fairly constant through the year, but storms from the ocean are far more common in winter.

• Altea – Considered by many to be the cultural centre of the Republic, Altea is certainly at the forefront of technological progress and political life. Its aristocracy was decimated in the War of Hubris, but its guilds are powerful, and the provincial capital Aethrea is also the capital of the Church Octaval.
• Argea – Stretching along most of the western coast, Argea is a maritime and mercantile power with a famed military drawn from its fiercely independent constituent city-states. It is said that they have trade agreements with the Dragons of Ladonia, an island nation in the Whyrddin Sea.
• Berngaard – A bulwark against the Giants and Goblins of the north, Berngaard is a cold and militaristic province, ruled by an aristocracy with questionable ties back to the old days and the Mage Sovereigns.

Umbral Coast

The northern shores of the Great Delta fall into the Crownshade, where the dome of the Crown casts its shadow even at noon, keeping temperatures cooler. Most of the coast is part of the the Zeranzeri Drow domain of Azeranzerai, but the province of Zeryskaia also falls into the shadow. The summers are cooler than in the north, and the winters significantly cooler, thanks to the longer and deeper noondusk.

• Zeryskaia – Another wealthy, coastal province, Zeryskaia is a haunted land once ruled by a necromancer known as the Archlich.

Stormhafn

Bordered by the Spine and the Wall of the World, Stormhafn is a land of waters which encompasses the Riverlands, as well as the provinces of Ardheim and Kavala. Shaded by the mountains, the region also receives cold winds and rain from the north, as winds from the Northern Giantlands blow over the icy waters of Aino. Summers are wet, and winters cold, with occasional snow, and storms are common, year round.

• Ardheim – Ardheim is a temperate, highland province to the east of Altea, separated by the mountains of the Spine. Once the Holy Kingdom of the Immortal God-Queen, its once splendid forests have been much reduced as the population grows and adopted more expansive farming methods. The remaining woods are said to be haunted.
• Kavala – Sitting on the coast of an inland sea, Kavala is a province of fisherfolk and poets; so many poets. Across the water it faces Porhovala, last of the Mage Sovereignties.

Lucardh

The south-east of the Republic – specifically the province of Malahma, bordering the Dustlands, lies just outside the Crownshade and receives strong noon light throughout the year. The climate is warm, but the rivers of Stormhafn provide a constant supply of cool water which keeps the land rich and lush, all the way to the Water Margins in the south.

• Malahma – Malahma is a melting pot of cultures brought by successive waves of human refugees who fled the oppression of the Ophionic Empire and never went any further, travellers through the Gap of Don and the engimatic genies of the Dustlands.

Politics

The Republic is notionally governed by a tripartite government, although in the end all parts of the system answer to the Church. In addition to the Supreme Consulate, the Assembly and the Court Absolute, each of the provinces is ruled by a governor and has its own system of government. Most of these various systems are ultimately controlled by a number of electors, people of means who are entrusted with the political process. Electoral positions are granted based on ownership of land and property, or financial holdings invested in the provincial, national or Church banks, and so the majority of electors are drawn from either the Estates or the Guilds.
The Estates are the remnants of the old aristocracy, those who pitched their lot in with the Union at any rate. Although their power is greatly reduced since the foundation of the Republic, they still own much of the land in Talahaea and as a result have a considerable bloc of electoral votes at their disposal.
The Guilds are the merchant class that have risen in the absence of the Sovereigns' command economies. This emergent middle class lack the land holdings of the Estates, but their economic utility and power grants them status and powerful merchant houses have begun to accumulate electoral positions through fiscal holdings and property.

Type

Geopolitical, Republic