Dice A Time of Monsters - Setting

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This is information presented as most characters would know it. It is biased, likely inaccurate, may contain outright propaganda.
(anything I think you as a player should know but your character likely does not will be written like this and can be trusted as factual).

The Anointed Empire of Kelene dominates the central lands of the continent, with provinces as far afield as the eastern frontier beyond Gatewood and even an island on the southern Sleeping Sea.
Following a succession crisis about a century back, the Most High Church of Degra Veen decreed that to maintain the stability of the Empire over such a large area and with bloodlines so diluted, that the Provincial Dukes would become Electors and of course the Archbishoprics would have votes, too. Candidates had to be descended from the royal line, of course, and in practice succession has still largely passed to the firstborn heir.
The lands of the Empire are mostly temperate, with rolling plans and extensive farmland, and some of the older provinces are famed for the quality of their horses. They stretch from the mountains in the north, near the capital, down to the Sleeping Sea in the south, and from the Dead Marches in the west to Nouvillim Province in the east, in the untamed lands beyond the Gatewood.
(The Gatewood is a vast forest that forms the entire eastern border, and despite efforts to cut it back, it remains a haunted and storied place that cannot be controlled. One may pass the Kingsway through the wood but it is not entirely safe)

Five years ago, King Germaine III died in the night - some say sickness, some say murder, some that he went into exile of his own will for some strange and terrible crime.
Now, the Electors are split. One faction, lead by the Duchy of Delat, backs the younger son Guillaume as a pious and measured young man. Another, lead by the Duchy of Ferldain, supports the crown prince Frederique despite his religious peculiarities. The Church leans towards Guillaume for piety, and Frederique for tradition, and is like as not waiting for one or the other to gain a better claim.
A third faction lead by the Duchy of Thiah supports Duke d'Lim, a close cousin of the late king, who remains loyal to the true faith. The furthest flung provinces have mostly put forward Duke Maerlyn, the king's nephew, for the throne but the young Duke has been noncommital.

This in itself may not have lead to war, but religious tensions made it all but inevitable.

The Most High Church of Degra Veen is the oldest faith in the country, and has blessed the reign of the Farriden kings for generations back to the founding of the kingdom.
Based in the Holy City of Ymon in the province of Delat, the church has cathedrals and almshouses in every city, even in distant Hrothgard. They preach the word of the Father and his prophets; be virtuous in deed, stalwart in faith, and loyal to His anointed king. Of course, a fine way for men of means to prove these bonafides was the sale of indulgences - a forgiveness of all but the most mortal sins bought in goods and gold. The Church also continues to collect tithes, influence the appointment of officials in their parishes, preach strictly in Old Imperial, practice celibacy, and reinterpret the sacred texts as required.

The Benthite Apostasy are somewhat misnamed; they remain faithful to god, but consider the church too corrupt to continue. They encourage the learning of theology among the laity, yet also a strict adherence to the original letter of The Good Book. They claim the church has become a political apparatus, no longer concerned with the spiritual wellbeing of the people or the sanctity of the crown. While the church claims forgiveness is given at god's whim (especially if one donates to the church), the Benthites belief anyone can achieve redemption through good deeds. Indeed, they argue that even one ignorant of the faith entirely may be saved if his heart is righteous.

The Reformists, or Butchermen are nigh-identical to the Benthites, but differ in two key ways: the king does not need a divine mandate, if indeed a king be necessary, and whether a man is saved is demonstrated by his fortunes. If god knows the whole life of a man, then it is known to Him from the birth of any man whether he be damned or not. And if he is blessed with wealth and health, clearly this is the will of god who knows the measure of his soul. They're sometimes called the Butchermen because their first, strongest supporter owned the largest abbatoir in Le Royaume, the capital city.

The Revivalist Heresy are mostly scholars and dilletantes, who claim to have found texts older than The Good Book which contradict many teachings of all the above. They're a fractious lot, but are largely in agreement that the will of god is not for mortal men to know and that we must study all philosophy to find the proper path to Goodness. Some wish to revive old practices, like worship of Degra Veen's apocryphal wife-deity Ivanna. Other would go further afield and further back, suggesting that the Dodecahod of the lost empire is deserving of faith (though this is most popular with would-be sorcerors).

The war was ignited when alleged Benthites drowned the Bishop of Sur La Noire in a well for, equally allegedly, trafficking with the devils of the Blackwood.
Riots spread across the city, an Inquisitor was summoned, Duke Selanmere sent a small army believing there was a revolt in progress. Survivors carried conflicting tales in every direction.
Whatever turned the wheels of power is not known to the little people, but this was enough to turn brother against brother and gradually the battlefields spread across the land like a bloodstain.

There is, of course, another way to view this. After the Winter War last century wiped out vast swathes of the population, tenant farmers became yet more valuable and could argue with their feudal lords for better treatment, for more freedoms. As such, landlords, merchants, and artisans have come to rival the aristocracy for wealth. Yet they lack real power if they cannot curry the favour of Electors, they are taxed and controlled, set to quotas and seizures. The law need not constrain them if the church, too, can declare anyone defiant of the order a sinner and a heretic, and turn their neighbours or subordinates upon them.
Indeed, this same threat hangs over the aristocracy, who also find themselves kept from profitable industry by inertia and the quick-moving merchants who saw opportunities first like the printmakers of Maerlyn.
There is much coin to be made and power to be gained if one can upend the old order, or cleave to the maintanence thereof.

Spare a thought for the cobbler and farmer, the midwives and carters, over whose head all of this passes until the soldiers arrive in town looking to claim rations.

 

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The Esoteric Order of Stonecutters were once just highly skilled stonemasons who were hired by the church, and paid well, to construct beautiful new churches and cathedrals.
There were three kinds, at first; those who rubbed shoulders with priests and scholars enough to take an interest in theology, those who used their new wealth and leisure to read books and hire teachers, and those who blundered into the mystery of the cult through sincere contemplation.
The order are aware of Degra Veens earlier worship - as a god of the forge and chisel, the Architect of the Earth and Great Maker. Their philosophy is beautiful in its earnest simplicity; as god is a maker, therefore in making is one closest to divinity, and the act of creation is more sacred than the thing which is made.
This de-emphasis on moral truths was offensive to the church, but at the same time mostly harmless. Technically declared a heresy, persecution of Stonecutters has generally been a matter of political expedience and scapegoating. The more scholarly of their number have been known to read forbidden texts, and at least one is accepted to have trafficked with actual demonic forces. As the world spirals into madness, even the accusation of being a Stonecutter can be a useful way to focus the rage and fear of the masses.

The Guild of Holy Engineers are an old, entrenched faction based on the city of Hrothgard. They've been around for centuries and are credited with some scientific innovations such as the crossbow, steam power, and rudimentary firearms. Hrothgard is an ancient city which was very clearly not fashioned by human hands, and the nomads of the region claim it was the city of the god of death. Beneath the street a labyrinth of chambers and tunnels extends miles deep, and deeper still are strange machines which the Guild studies. They're a fixture of the city, close to the Queen, and so despite frequent clashes with the church cannot be rooted out. They pose as a secular order of natural philosophers and engineers, but the inner circle are said to worship the machines, or the city, or the strange creatures rumoured to dwell in the depths.

The Dragon Cult have been on the margins since the ascendancy of the Most High Church. They claim to be the oldest, truest faith in the world, worshiping a pantheon of twelve gods, twelve dragons who built the world. Their most visible face are the Monks of Eotre, a martial order of itinerant vampire slayers. It is the belief of the cult that the gods turned their faces from the world in disgust and shame as some great sin birthed the first vampires. In the current era they are regarded as sometimes-useful maniacs. Vampires do not exist, obviously, but there are other monsters abroad in the world that these fools are suited to slay without spending a single coin, as they are motived by zeal and sweat vows of poverty.

The Old Faith is not its name. It has no name. To the nomads of the Hrothgaard highlands, the many gods of the wild are as real and clear as the snow and the sea. Old Man Winter, The Crow Sisters, The Charioteer of the Sun, The Green Man, The Judge of the Dead - if you have eyes to see, you will see them. Hear their voices. Know their power.
They've been outlawed and despised for generations, accused of consorting with demons, and their tradition of mantling lends some credence to this. Stories abound of nomad priests who, by walking the steps of the gods, draw on their power, become something other. The werewolves of The Green Man, the war-witches of the Moru Gán, all have been observed to wield terrible powers in their many battles with their settled neighbours when they try to drive them from their ancestral lands.

The Humanists of H'kaer, in the west, say that if there are gods, they are malevolent, monstrous, merely creatures which claim divinity. Their strange doctrine has spread in recent years, and some find their focus on human ingenuity, resilience, and cooperation appealing. Their philosophy also argues for the abolition of monarchy so that an elected party of learned scholars may govern, which has proven less popular.

The Cult of Vasnok are likely to be killed on discovery. Spreading from Kroms, neighbours and enemies of the H'kaeri, they claim to serve The Living Goddess Vasnok. She who was made by the Dragons in antiquity, and who was cursed with vampirism as the gods lashed out in jealousy, for she alone could walk among mortals and be loved by them. Her angels are those called vampires by the ignorant, who watch over the faithful. Only by supplication to her can any be saved, for one day she will rouse from her sleep and wipe clean the world to be remade in the image of her dark and radiant majesty.

The Dreamed Dreamers come from the strange city-state of Radiant Pearl, across the Sleeping Sea. They claim the world is but a dream of the sleeping Godhead, and alive with spirits which govern the function of the world as their bodies in the world beyond lie sleeping. A handful of their missionaries can be found in the Empire, tolerated because their navy is most fearsome. They make all the powers very nervous, for some of their missionaries claim to be priests of their various gods and call upon their power to enact miraculous feats.
One, whose name is apparently Alluring Black Pearl, spent awhile in a small town on the coast in the province of Thiah. They say she could call upon the spirits of the dead and speak to them, that she could step into a shadow and appear somewhere else. That she could command sickness to leave the body or kill with a word. When the town was beset with a famine, the local bishop cast blame upon her and whipped a mob into a frenzy. Nearly two score men and women besieged her lodgings and tried to drag her out to be burned. Everyone who laid hands on her dropped dead, and she walked away unharmed as the survivors stared in horror. Before she left, they say, she met the eye of the bishop, spoke a curse in her heathen language, and his flesh rotted from his bones where he stood. They say his bones screamed and raved even as they were buried.

The Occulted Sodality of Magi are a network of wizards hidden across the land, hiding from the Inquisition, waiting for their moment to seize power and restore the Magocracy that once covered the continent. They are so secretive some believe they're a convenient fiction and it is unknown how one goes about joining. It's said before the Winter War they were often housed in the old Castle Delat, or if they refused, were put to death. There are certainly many historical accounts of their interference in events, most especially the legendary tale of Julien Deslieux, purportedly a necromancer or The Red Prince who was claimed to command fire and led a revolt against the House of Maerlyn.
Despite this, there are those who suggest House Maerlyn is the secret benefactor of this cult.