Capetia
Structure
Capetia is a feudal society in the most traditional sense. Political positions are hereditary and based on blood relation to the founding King Joannes of Capetia and his comrades in the Gods' War. All noble titles have lands and military obligations associated with the rank in order from highest to lowest being duc, marquis, comet, vicomte, baron, and vidame. These nobles live off the wealth produced by land and its bound serfs; in return they must answer the King's call to arms in any conflict with neighboring nations or to put down any internal revolt.
Of equal standing to the nobility are the clergy of the Church of the Triumvirate. All other religions are outlawed within the borders of Capetia, with heresy carrying the penalty of death by immolation. The priests of this faith provide all education, healthcare, and legal magic available in Capetia. They use this to support the martial might of the nobles.
Beneath both of these classes are the common folk who are roughly divided into three groups: freemen, bound serfs, and the unclean. Freemen are merchants, tradesmen, and other forces of skilled labor. They mostly live in or near urban areas and earn a living by producing goods for the upper classes. Serfs are farmers bound to a plot of land from birth until death. They are only allowed to leave during times of pilgrimage or during times of war when they are pressed into military service. All of their produce is confiscated by the nobility and then doled back out after their "taxes" have been collected. As such during times of famine the peasants receive little or nothing of their own produce. Beneath even the serfs are the unclean, people who have committed some offense directly against the church or nobility. These range from falling into a debt they cannot repay, to hiding food from tax collectors, to professing unorthodox religious believes. The unclean are all direct slaves of the clergy and forcibly possessed by church-summoned demons in order to make demonhosts.
Assets
While the lands of Capetia are rich in farmland, iron, and coal those are insignificant in comparison to the resources produced by the divine magic of the Tripartite Church. It is through their magic that the nobility have obtained near eternal youth, remaining young until their time is up, all but the most extreme wounds are healed, and crops are coaxed from even bare rock. However the most impressive and famous of Capetia's divine resources are the demonhosts, men and women enslaved for crimes against the church or state bound to a demonic spirit. The spirit possessing these hosts empower them with overwhelming physical strength and destructive magicks. The demonhosts are controlled by lesser clerics known as shepherds whose faith and holy symbols are able to overwhelm the demonic spirits and force them into submission.
History
Since long before the East had a written language the Capetian peoples were split into dozens of warring princedoms, only united by a common religion in the Church of the Triumvirate. Though there was exchange of territory between individual princes none was ever able to achieve hegemony. This time of perpetual warfare ended with the dawn of the Age of Awakening.
Church of the Triumvirate's clergy was overcome by a collective prophecy. The land which had been long divided must be united. The Three gods as One demanded their people be ruled by a single king. With that pronouncement the land was seized by great calamity. Rivers ran dry, rain turned to a black sour fluid, great chasms opened in the earth, and the sun froze at a perpetual twilight. Each prince gathered his armies in a mad rush to fulfill their gods' demand slaughtering eachother with abandon. Even so the food stores ran short long before the princes were reduced to one, and cannibalism was rampant.
On the seventh year of the Gods' War, Joannes the First slew his final rival claimant and was crowned King of all Capetians by the three Patriarchs. The land was healed as the third crown touched his brow. Rivers flowed fresh, the skies rained clear, and the sun resumed its movement. Not only that but all the clergy from the lowliest monk to the greatest Patriach was capable of working miracles in the name of the King and the gods. Thus the Divine Dynasty of Capetia was founded.
Founding Date
7 AE precursor nations go back to 1000 AS
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Alternative Names
Land of Devils, Goldus (Legaran exonym)
Demonym
Capetian
Leader
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Related Ethnicities
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