The Republic of Westervale
Culturally, the people of Westervale are Icatian. They broke away from the other cities within Icatia when the Church began consolidating control shortly after the retreat of the Dwarven Empire from the Free Realms, what they called the Shield Lands. The Republic takes its name from the largest geographic feature, the Westervale Plateau is an ancient raised impact crater that encompasses most of the population that makes up the breakaway realm. The people of Westervale live in the first democracy to exist in the lands occupied by the People of the Blood (elves, orcs and humans). Unlike the others in the region, they have a deep connection to their guild structure. In the Icatia before the Church took over in the east and before Westervale declared their democracy, the western parts of the region were far more developed in regards to the manufacture of finished goods. Rather than relying on the production of simple tools, food and livestock as was the tradition in the east, the plateau of Westervale cultivated a good relationship with their bloodless conquerors and learned the importance of being able to have a wide and deep understanding of what it takes to build, maintain and improve the infrastructure of their community. That appreciation turned to a spirit of self-reliance and guild-based decision-making, and when the dwarven governors retreated from the borderlands of their empire, they found themselves filling the vacuum of power with those same guild structures.
Things went well until such a time that the Church began to assert their control in the governance of Icatian cities and towns beyond influence and advice. The guilds came into friction with the High Farrells and their agents almost immediately, and that friction turned to conflict when western merchants and traders found themselves being subject to social persecution and targeted tariffs whenever they traveled into the larger cities of the east. These points of conflict turned to rounds of reprisals and retribution, and those cycles whipped up a degree of fervor that the Church used to consolidate their control and focus any anxiety and ire toward the most convenient enemy: the guilders of the west. While open warfare was never declared, it became clear that the west need to coordinate a response when several fortified towns were quickly conquered by crusading knights and put a large city on the border between the two regions under siege. The west reeled from the assault on their region from the east, and while they remained devoted to the tenets of the Divine King, the people of Westervale ejected the Church and its Farrells from their lands.
Representatives of the guilds and towns met at the first Great Convention in the dwarven citadel of Archtop Keep, further to the west and away from the border conflicts. They began to discuss formal unification as well as organizing a response to the armed invasion by their eastern neighbours, and it all culminated with the Autumnal Declaration which set out the structure of unification and government, their military response to the invasion, and the boundaries of their interim government.
Focus quickly shifted to military concerns, however, and the First Convention appointed a Field Marshal to command the nascent Republic's defense from their number. A merchant and horse breeder, the Field Marshal used her knowledge of producing and distributing supplies to ensure that her levied troops were well-equipped and well-supplied if not trained nor experienced. She quickly turned to expropriating vast sums of money from the guilds and commandeering strategic supplies and locations to help pay for the war effort. A central aspect of this effort was to engage with mercenary companies from Aldoon, allied volunteer battalions from Eos (especially Istvan's Reach), and even some half-elven siege masters from Othune. While the half-elven advisors were controversial, perhaps it was her invitation of the nomadic cavalry-based warriors of the Steppes into the conflict that was seen as the largest provocation of the Church.
It was this act that set the stage for a historic good relationship between the Republic and the loose theocracy of the Steppelands. The Prophet of the day, Kirtar the Great, agreed to send aid to the people of Westervale as long as there was an understanding that the borders between the two lands will be open to nomadic traders and, more importantly, the hitherto "clergy" of the One Faith. Empowered with near-absolute power, the Field Marshal agreed to the treaty, much to the chagrin of many future Guild Deputies and Convention Delegates in hindsight. With these deals in place, the diverse armies of soldiers, conscripts, mercenaries and warriors fighting for Westervale marched forth and met the feudal armies of the east and met with some limited success. The war ground on for over two years, and it became evident that the sheer logistic advantage that the Field Marshal put in place meant that the Republicans slowly turned the attrition into a concerted push against the Crusaders.
By the time that the dwarves formalized their withdrawal, the tables had been turned on the Church and the Republic's Army of the South had Montford under siege for nearly three months. By the time the Treaty of Aldoon had been signed, the Republic of Westervale had effectively secured its independence which was recognized by all in the Free Realms, even the Holy Realm. The Republic survived its birth, and now could focus on how it would be and how it would act in the wider world.
The Field Marshal was a heroine of old. Compared in song and story to the both the Grim Queen Ashnod and Riga the White Sage, she took her leave the moment she arrived before the combined houses of her government. Both houses applauded not only her victories, but also her devotion to the Westervale cause. Unanimously, they asked her to sit as the Lord-Protector of the Republic and wield the same sweeping powers she enjoyed as Field Marshal. Politely, she declined and rebuffed the notion that the people of Westervale needed a living saviour -- the Divine King should be more than enough for that -- and asked that the house of the people select from their number a leader and council to make such decisions. After some stunned silence, the Deputies of the Guild Deliberative began to rise one by one in applause. Soon, the Delegates of the Great Convention accepted the challenge and rose to applaud themselves.
Thus, the Republic of Westervale would have no permanent leadership. They would be led by two houses of government: the people would elect Delegates to the Great Convention, and the guilds would select Deputies to sit in the Guild Deliberative. Both houses would have their powers and their interests represented in law-making, taxation and budgeting; but it would be the Chair and his or her Council of Secretaries that would make day-to-day, month-to-month and annual executive decisions in regards to implementing, enforcing and evaluating the laws set forth by the two houses. The balance would be tenuous at times, but it would remain. The Republic began to stabilize and flourish, and despite the sour relationship that they had with the Church, other countries had good relations with the diplomats and merchants from Westervale. It was through these relationships that the Republic founded their High Court of Law, which would serve as the interpreters of law and the adjudicators of civil conflict, as several diplomats had seen the effectiveness with which Eosian magistrates served their King and Country.
Today, the Republic serves as a center for producing reasonably-priced finished goods and as the main gateway between the Free Realms and the Steppelands. They have a strong tradition of writing prose and drama, and the period immediately following the war and the Treaty of Aldoon was a time of collective mythmaking and cultural distinction. The cities and towns are ruled by guild-focused councils, and the governance of the entire country is shared collectively through universal suffrage and a requirement for all citizens of the Republic to vote. Generally, citizens of the Republic are open and direct, free-wheeling and focused on a more pragmatic approach to politics and commerce. They still hold to the Divine King, though it is in a manner that has been moving toward the tenets of the nomadic One Faith more than the strict hierarchy of the Church-proper.
When the Farrells of the Church were exiled from Westervale, the guilds and interim leaders were careful to ensure that the Churches themselves were unharmed and that the commonfolk "officers" of the Church like the Deacons and various monastic folks remained untouched. Those who cleaved to their faith were left in an awkward position during the war for independence and the immediate period afterwards. They found solace in their houses of worship and the commonfolk acting in their supportive roles, but something needed to happen in order for the faithful to find their place once more in the Republic.
Two things occurred: the adoption of a scripture-based liturgy in the old Churches, and the embrace of the One Faith sect and their itinerant priesthood. Adoption of scripture as a guide for worship was more for pragmatic reasons, rather than relying on a Priesthood, the untrained laity used several holy books and history accounts of the Divine King as a God and as a Mortal to guide their observances of ritual and liturgy. The deal that the Field Marshal made with the nomadic Prophet of the One Faith opened the borders of the Republic to the Priests, Preachers and Scholars of that Divine King sect. Over the several generations, the vacuum of an ordained Priesthood from the Churches of Westervale has fundamentally changed the Republican approach to the worship of the Divine King. Using books consolidated for printing to conduct their communal worship, citizens of the Republic have the freedom to choose how they worship individually. In most cases, the people of Westervale are very tolerant of notions that would be considered apostasy at best and heresy at worst by the Church Proper. In addition, many citizens have been swayed into worship in the style of the nomadic peoples of the Steppelands and incorporate that into their native communal worship.
The Republican Army was established during the third sitting of the Great Convention after the end of the Icatian Civil War. Originally a collection of common levies, guilder men-at-arms, and mercenaries from all over, the Republican Army is now one of the comparatively larger professional armies organized much in similar fashion to the Royal Host of the Kingdom of Eos: vast formations of pikeman as standard infantry; elite heavy infantry armed with halberds; crossbowmen rather than archers; a vast assortment of light cavalry; and heavy cavalry split into lancers, who fight other cavalry, and cuirassiers, who run down infantry. The Republican Army employs a large assortment of siege engineers, and they still have a deep connection to the siege masters of the Kingdom of Othune. Due to the very strained relationship between the Republic and the Church, the armies and heroes of Westervale tend to utilize the Arcanum, the Kingdom of Othune, the Nomadic City of Qorum, or the former Dwarven Empire as their primary source of magical items, armour and weaponry.
Stand Together!
Type
Geopolitical, Republic
Capital
Alternative Names
The Republic, The Autumn Republic
Demonym
Republican
Head of State
Government System
Democracy, Representative
Economic System
Market economy
Legislative Body
The Guild Deliberative
Consisting of five representatives from each major guild within the Republic, the Guild Deliberative sit as the upper house, responsible for a sober second thought on the laws and policies of the more chaotic and free-wheeling lower house. Called Deputies, members of the Guild Deliberative sit for ten year terms with a two term limit. Currently, there are thirteen major guilds -- meaning that there are currently sixty five sitting Deputies. The Deliberative began with eleven Guilds, and they have since added the Alchemist's Guild and the Guild of Artifice to their number.
The Great Convention
Tied to population, the Great Convention is the lower house of the Republican legislature. Consisting today of four hundred and ninety representatives called Delegates, the first sittings of the Great Convention numbered only two hundred and eleven. Each of these Delegates are elected in two staggered general elections held every two years, each half of the group standing for election every four years. Each seat in the Great Convention is meant to represent roughly five thousand people, though that exact number can vary depending on the changing populations and the struggle for census takers to keep up with the vibrant and roiling population of the Republic. Unlike the Guild Deliberative, which require guild membership and represent guild interests, the Delegates of the Great Convention may not be more than apprentices and journeyman within these guilds. They may not hold advanced office within a guild, nor may they hold noble title within Westervale or abroad. In addition, they may not be ordained Priests of the Church of the Divine King nor may they be members of religions or other orders that require obedience to another power outside the Republic itself.
Party Politics
Recently, the Great Convention have organized themselves into ideologically-based political parties for mutual benefit. There are three major parties and one minor one: the Patriots, the Mercantilists, and the Labourer's Party. Thus far, the Patriots have the longest history of holding power -- they claim the Field Marshal as their muse and inspiration. At the moment, however, the Mercantilists under Garrett Harner control a razor-slim margin of power and they have focused very much on opening up better trade relations beyond the Free Realms. The Labourer's Party, however, has started to consolidate power in the larger cities and attempt to assert the voices of forgotten non-guild workers in the considerations of government. Lastly, a small party called the Hands of Justice has won several seats in areas traditionally loyal to the Patriots, which opened up an avenue for the Mercantilists to negotiate support from the Labourer's Party and hold government. The Hands of Justice are hardline in their belief that the Republic needs to expand to survive, and they are religious in their own right -- often invoking the example of Sainte Leitbur as the leader of a peasant's crusade against the petty arcane warlords during the Age of Blood and Fire.
There are also rumours that the Arcanum is covertly sowing discord within the Republic and have contributed to engineering the enmity within its halls of power, but that has so far gone unaddressed and unfounded.
Judicial Body
The Republic has established a High Court of Law with seven Republican Magistrates sitting. They interpret law, set precedent, and resolve civil disputes.
Executive Body
The current executive government consists of the Chairman Garrett Harner and his Council of Secretaries, all falling under the political banner of the Mercantilists.
Location
Neighboring Nations
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
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