Verdan

A budding new society has just begun on the frontier. The group is a cult that has moved out to resettle in this new area together. Every member within the walls of the community helps in every aspect of the villagers' day to day lives. The cooking, cleaning, farming, and caretaking is distributed equally among the people regardless of gender. With the harsh threat of open frontier just outside the walls, the need to populate the village is a high priority. Procreative coupling is highly encouraged in an effort to grow the numbers rapidly. The small community is overseen by a religious faction that controls all daily matters. They distribute goods back to the community and control the small military presence that keeps disputes to a minimum. Behinds the scenes, manipulative/intelligent monsters that are “farming” humans for their desires/needs are controlling the religious leaders. They are very secretive about their identities and attempt to control the population through proxies.

Verdan is rich with culture and art, but the defining feature of the small hillside village is its religion. The Church, either directly or indirectly, controls every aspect of life in the town. From advising government officials, and specifying Church Ceremonies for just about everything, to good old-fashioned propaganda, the Church delivers the word of God to the townspeople pertaining to every walk of life. Priests spend most of their time in the Temple which rests at the high point of the town, against the mountainside. When visions come upon them, they relay them to messengers who deliver the words to the people in the village. The Temple boasts high towers that are visible from anywhere in Verdan, they act as a beacon for the village and a constant reminder of the Church’s presence. The temple’s location was not chosen only for the optics but because it is the spot where the majority of visions take place.

When the founder, Rebecca Hall first traveled to this area she received visions of a grand city built into the mountain-side. After getting these visions she decided to gather people to make this city a reality. Since then, many townsfolk have reported having similar visions from God when they are in or around the Temple . For this reason, the location was selected so that priests and other officials of the Church would be able to spend much of their time near the holy site, a cave upon which the church had been built. an entrance to the cave stood at the back of the church and those who wished to atone for heresy would often turn to the caves for forgiveness, none returned. For this reason, many priests and villagers alike feared that any wavering from the path of religion would result in a similar fate.

The church, in actuality is controlled by a small hive of large wasp-like humanoid creatures known among themselves as Necrotera who, unbeknownst to the populace of Verdan, were sending telepathic visions to the church leaders in order to fully control the village. The Hive is comprised of a The Queen who lays eggs and gives all orders as to premonitions to be broadcast to humans. The workers tend to the hive, care for the eggs as they gestate and grow towards hatching, and tend the farms that keep the rest of the hive fed. The workers are also in charge of getting visions to the population of Verdan. They travel to the outer caverns of the mountain hive to telepathically transmit the queen's messages upon the land. There is also a small faction of warrior Necrotera whose primary role is to protect the hive from external threats such as the Nyactalus.

The Church reinforces its control over the citizens by holding regular services where it preaches teachings which the priests have divined from their visions. In addition, the Church has a hand in the distribution of food and resources to the townsfolk through its connection to the government. This allows it to siphon off some of the funds and put them into increasing the prominence of the Church. This includes paying for skilled artists to focus on their craft instead of working the fields. There is a small contingent of artists who work purely to improve the outward appearance of the Church. They have constructed statues around the town (see: Statue of the Founder), worked on the facade of the temple, and been commissioned to work on various interpretations of important visions.

Technology does not play nearly as large of a role in the day to day of a citizen of Verdan as the Church does. Most work is done through simple machines like pulleys and ramps. The closest thing to an engine is the furnaces and forges in the various workshops around town (see: The Forge). Flintlock pistols are the height of military technology for the majority of citizens. Only being outclassed by the defensive capabilities of ballista set up on the town’s wall (see: The Gate). The constant fear of the formidable bat-like Nyactalus) required that the town be ready to shoot the huge flying beasts out of the sky when they come out to feed.

Recently, some priests have been having visions of the gigantic bats emerging from their cave to ravage the countryside. This has led to a call for militarization. Nyactalus preparedness drills are being run with more regularity, more ballistas and ammo are being created, and trade has increased with the nearby town of Hillshur for their weaponry in the face of the coming threat. While most agree that this is a terrifying threat that needs to be prepared for, there is some friction from the townsfolk who are finding it harder and harder to get what they need from the workshops because of the increased focus on military production.

As a burgeoning settlement, Verdan’s economy does not yet use a traditional form of currency for goods within the settlement. Focused mainly on agriculture, citizens of Verdan give whatever goods they produce to the church which then rations those goods back to the citizens. Members of Verdan have a very split distribution of wealth, but the split is reserved to two different groups, The church/government, and villagers. Within these two separate groups, the wealth held is extremely equal, but the two groups have very different overall levels of wealth. Members of the church and government receive better treatment and rations than the villagers.

To facilitate luxury goods in Verdan, small tokens with the symbol of the church are given to the populace by the government as an allowance to allow them to buy luxury and specialty goods beyond the rations they usually receive. This allowance is based on how much is produced by the citizen during that week to promote better work. Artisans amongst the citizens are given more tokens that show appreciation for their work but are not given too many to avoid creating an inequality in the town amongst the villagers. Hoarding of these tokens is looked down upon by the government and church and for this reason, all of the items that can be traded for with these tokens are acquirable with one or two weeks’ worth of allowance.

The majority of the manpower of Verdan is used in bolstering their agriculture, with some artisans providing useful tools the citizens of Verdan have been able to herd mountain goats and cultivate a series of cave and mountainside farms. The focus on agriculture is motivated not only by the rapidly growing population but also because it is their main resource for trade with the neighboring village. Although the economic strength of Verdan is weak because they do not use a gold-based currency and use a cyclical system of wealth(give to the village and receive what is necessary in return), they have recently established a very strong trade link with a close-by settlement. Trading their luxury goods, artworks, and food/livestock they are able to receive necessary implements such as weapons and mercenaries to help protect the village. This trade connection has been growing stronger because Verdan is able to supply much-needed food to the recently established town and Verdan has a growing desire/need for military strength because of the impending Hunting Season.

The specific items traded varies, but from Verdan there's an assortment of goat milk and cheese, a variety of herbs and mushrooms, and some uniquely brewed alcohols. In return, Hillshur provides hired guards, an assortment of flintlocks, and ammunition for the large ballistas that are posted on the wall of Verdan.

As a newly founded society set apart from any civilization, work falls on all capable hands to be completed, leading to rather high gender equality within the mountain village. In this village, your hands become capable around the age of ten. There are jobs that must get done, and no one much cares who does it as long as it gets done well. Overall the small village leans more toward matriarchy, the desire to reproduce and populate the area means that women slightly above men in society. Although gender relations are currently high, they are trending down. The reason for this being the growing power and influence held by women in the society.

In addition to an even distribution of work, the new foundations of this society require a high prioritization of childbearing. Increasing the population is a strong push emerging from the church and government, more children leads to more hands leads to more that can be done. The growth of the populace is above all else. Because of this, hetero-normative relationships are forced upon the village by the church, and couples are highly encouraged to copulate as to raise population numbers quickly. To further incentivize increasing the population, expectant mothers and mothers of more children are given more rations and allowance.

The village consists of two main classes of people, the villagers, and the church/government. The villagers are the body of the village, constructing housing, farming livestock and crops, trading with the neighboring village, and doing the majority of the work within the village. The governmental workers serve as the heart of the village, they collect the food and crafts from the villagers and redistribute them amongst the village. They are also in charge of handing out Church Tokens. The governmental workers are the caretakers of the village, they make sure that everyone who is able to work is fed well and provided with any necessities(warm blankets for cold nights, medicine in some cases, etc.). The Church serves as the soul of the village, performing sermons and holding events to bolster the village morale, performing “burial” rights on the dead or soon to be (see: Church Ceremonies), and serving as the voice of God(s) providing edicts to the government if need be.

Among the villagers, there is little time or energy to worry about the differences in appearance between them. When work needs to be done, the capable hands are whoever fits the gloves. However, unbeknownst to the humans, they are seen as nothing more than slave labor and food to the Necrotera. The Necrotera view themselves as godly among the humans, for obvious reasons. They look down upon the creatures they are farming as weak and small, incapable of surviving without their guiding wisdom. They could cripple these puny humans with a single blow if they wanted to.

Verdan’s government is more intertwined with its citizen’s lives than most frontier towns. This is mostly due to its connection to the Church and the mandates handed down from its Priests. When the founder first had visions of what Verdan could become, they saw a utopian society where all were cared for. A stark contrast to the inequality in the world the founder had left behind. To make this vision a reality, the government of the town has been set up to mostly act as the caretaker of its constituents.

When the farmers take in their harvests, the produce goes right to the government storehouses (see: Government Distribution Center). From there, all of the production is recorded and organized so that it can be efficiently given out to the townspeople. Of course, a Priest (see: Brother Paul clergy) is present to look over the proceedings and to bless the harvest. Each citizen has a specific day of the week when they can come and collect their rations for the following week. The specific items and amounts they receive are directly related to their family’s needs. In this way, the government can be sure that none are going hungry. This system also means that the government can ensure that everyone is putting in the work that they are required to.

In addition to food, the citizens are given an allowance of wooden chips with the symbol of the church on them. These can be used to purchase specialty goods from government warehouses or as a system of currency when trading with other townsfolk. The size of their allowance is directly related to how much that person produced for the town that week. Highly skilled artisans are given enough to show that their work is appreciated, but not enough to cause great inequality within the town. Hoarding of chips is looked down upon by the government and, more importantly, the Church.