Miwoc

Geography

Miwoc is a coastal state stretching along the northern banks of Marin Bay at the northern edge of the River Province, neighboured to the south by Calin and Lookshy’s Marin Bay Redoubt, and to the north by Valis and Belbac. It is a land of small fishing ports, Wheat fields, Cedar woodlands, and hills scattered with Cypress.

Miwoc has few major settlements, but its capital is the large and cosmopolitan city Bay of Roots, in the shadow of the Well of Law on the coast of Marin Bay.

History

Miwoc was founded in the wake of the Great Contagion, when large numbers of refugees fled towards the supposed safety of the Inner Sea and Blessed Isle. In the aftermath of the Contagion, the refugees settled into the land alongside local survivors, but as the Contagion receded grave disputes emerged between the various groups due to the presence of three religious movements intermixed: followers of the Immaculate Faith, of the Cult of the Zenith, and of Hundred Gods Heresy followers of various divinities, who found their disparate cults unified by the pressure of those two more-organized rivals into the Hundred Gods Pantheon.

With very different views, relations between these three populations shifted rapidly from tension to dispute to violence, and back again, with none able to overcome its rivals. No religious leaders wished to surrender their ways, but several also saw that their conflicts would see their own peoples destroyed along with their enemies.

It was into this landscape that the emissaries of the Scarlet Empress came, demanding fealty. As many leaders in Miwoc had lived through the Contagion and seen the Empress bring it to an end, there was great respect for Her, but also trepidation amongst a majority… the Immaculate adherents of Miwoc, seeing the Immaculate Order shaping as dominant faith of the Scarlet Empire, hoped to gain a decisive advantage, and as neighboring states swore fealty and Imperial armies took shape the other cults seemed doomed.

To avoid this, the non-Immaculate leadership approached the Scarlet Throne and made an offer to the Empress: their land would swear fealty to Her as one, without need for invasion or civil war, if she would guarantee the political and religious security of all three faiths. The Immaculate Order and its adherents howled objections, but the Empress waved them away and offered her assent.

During the decades where the Realm attempted its invasions of the Scavenger Lands, Miwoc found itself first providing supplies to (and respite from) distant battlefronts, and then hosting increasing numbers of troops as the front shifted from the River of Tears northwest to Marin Bay and the country’s own borders. Though some extremists in each cult called for rebellion or purge, most voices took advantage of the stability to negotiate, and eventually reach an agreement which has held ever since.

Economy

Miwoc’s economy is mostly focused on exporting resources, primarily to the Blessed Isle, importing luxuries and finished goods rather than devoting much of its own economy to manufacturing. Where the landscape is open, agriculture dominates, particularly Wheat and Crampbark, while rockier areas are home to trees such as Cedar, Cypress, and Juniper. Miwoc Cedar is considered to have an attractive yellowed color and fragrance, as well as resistance to decay, with both locals and scions of the Scarlet Dynasty seeking to for furniture and construction, with its resins used to preserve wood and even for embalming by the morticians of Sijan to the East.

Fishing in Marin Bay is also fruitful, though the danger of Confederation privateers when tensions run high means the fishing villages tend to be small and most merchant traffic moves through Bay of Roots. Several of the small sheltered bays on the Marin coast are home to fishing retreats for the wealthy of the Scarlet Dynasty, who can take in a spot of fishing and hunting while claiming to be manning the borders against Scavenger aggression. Amongst these villa estates are Dutyhome and the Burning Kiln Winery.

Politics

Miwoc takes part of its structure from the Shogunate bureaucracy, with a Left Minister and a Right Minister, a ‘Foremost Minister’ assuming the pinnacle role of the Shogun, though with far less direct authority. The Left Minister is responsible for matters of the interior, such as taxation, social welfare, and infrastructure, while the Right is responsible for matters of the exterior, such as the military and foreign trade. The Foremost Minister is responsible for matters of law and its enforcement, and approval for the appointment of bureaucrats and officers to serve under either minister.

The Scarlet Empress holds the right to name the Ministers themselves, and to arbitrate disputes between them, exercised through Miwoc’s Imperial Satrap Cynis Jamari. Each Minister always hails from a different one of the country’s three faiths: the Right Minister from the Hundred Gods Pantheon, the Left Minister from the Immaculate Faith, and the Foremost Minister from the Cult of the Zenith.

The Ministers of Miwoc swear an oath, to be enforced by the Empress, that they will not act to oppress or attack the country’s other two cults. In practice, the three Ministers and three faiths have managed to keep to this oath for several centuries, and while all make efforts to convert their neighbours peaceably, and while local scuffles are not irregular, they have kept their communities from falling into widespread violence.

Religions

Miwoc is home to three major faiths, each one making up roughly a third of the population, and each barred from overcoming the others by the country’s political system. This has allowed a religious diversity rare in Creation’s states, though some travelers note that this has not made the three faiths.

Cult of the Zenith

The Cult of the Zenith is an organized cult of the Sun which has existed since the Shogunate Era, though the Great Contagion saw it all but eliminated outside of a column of refugees who reached the lands that would become Miroc. Its core tenet is that the Unconquered Sun is the Most High, the Zenith of All Things, unparalleled ruler of Creation, who saved it from the grip of the demonic Yozi in ancient times and who oversees it with benevolence and grace to this day.

To the Cult, the power of all other gods comes from Sol Invictus, who passes a portion of his grace onto them so they might serve him without him sullying himself with base matters as he commands the world from his throne in Heaven. Prayer too ought be directed to the Sun, for it is his power that causes all good things in Creation, and keeps back the evils lurking beyond its walls.

The Cult of the Zenith holds that each person must strive to serve the Sun by living a life of virtue and doing battle against those things which threaten the stability of Creation, knowing their place in the perfected hierarchy which serves beneath Sol Invictus. Prayer is a personal responsibility, and each individual must strive to contribute as much as they can to Sol, for there can be no limit on the gratitude due to the Most High. The rituals of the Cult are frequent and ostentatious, filled with gilded instruments, bright fires, and animal sacrifices. Cult of Zenith communities are served by an all-male body of clerics, out of ‘cathedrals’ overseen by ‘hierophants’. The Perihelic, head of the faith, is chosen from amongst their number through contests of combat, rhetoric, leadership, and endurance.

As the creation of Godblooded is considered against the commandments of Sol, there are few naturally-gifted Essence users in the Cult, but its practices birth numerous Enlightened Mortals practiced in Martial Arts and Thaumaturgy. Of particular note is a willingness to make use of Demons, whom the Unconquered Sun vanquished and made slaves to Creation’s needs… thaumaturgical summonings carry great risk, but the rituals of the Cult and the demands on those it tasks with carrying this out are strict indeed.

Notable amongst Sun cults is the vehemence of the Cult of the Zenith’s hatred towards the Anathema: as perfect Sol would never share his power directly with mortals, acting only through his divine servants, those who undergo Solar Exaltation must have stolen their power in one way or another, and the Cult will see it returned to its rightful place without delay.

- They see the Hundred Gods Pantheon as deluded for they attribute merit and prayer to lesser spirits which belongs rightfully to the Unconquered Sun… but can respect their embrace of widespread prayer and support for the Sun’s god-servants.

- They see the Immaculate Faith as deluded for the Immaculate claims of ‘Exaltation’ coming from merit of the soul (when in fact their supposed bodhisattvas are the Godblooded result of promiscuous Elemental Dragons, before the Sun commanded they return to their Poles and their duties), and also for their lack of focus on the Most High in their restrictive ‘Prayer Calendar’… but respect their adoption of a lesser version of the Perfected Hierarchy and support of the Wyld Hunt.

Hundred Gods Pantheon

The Hundred Gods Pantheon is an offshoot of the common religious practices known to the Immaculate Order as the Hundred Gods Heresy, the direct worship of divinities in exchange for favour or assistance. While worship of local spirits is widespread in Creation, in the land of Miwoc those who did so faced pressures from the more organized cults of the Immaculate Faith and the Cult of the Zenith, forcing them to band together more closely than is common elsewhere.

The resulting Pantheon is essentially a cabal of Miwoc’s local divinities to consolidate their interests and worshippers into a more capable bloc. While the individual gods have different rituals, moral codes, and theological beliefs, centuries of this consolidation have produced a set of common practices and rituals in use by those who worship them. These include the ‘common prayer’, a prayer to Miwoc’s major deities, which precedes any more specific prayer made by worshippers, and the basic theological tenet that prayer ought migrate upward, with local gods who are providing direct assistance receiving the bulk of prayer and passing it upward to those other gods whose work assisted them. Worshippers are encouraged to pray to gods as often as possible, and to directly pray for assistance in their lives as it is the place of gods not mortals to lead the way in solving problems. It is structured in a loose network of shrines, each with a ‘priest’ or ‘priestess’, though the traits and garb of these varies widely and their communion is expressed with a simple amulet of polished Cedar, carved with the word ‘Unity’ in Old Realm. The Pantheon’s High Priest is selected by the divine cabal from amongst their ranks.

Within the Pantheon there is little place for Exalts who might be potential competition, and little need for mortals to enlighten their essence as they ought instead pray for divine assistance and accept the god’s direct involvement. However, both amongst priesthood and laity there are numerous Godblooded born of the close relations between gods and their worshippers. However, those born of spirits other than gods, or even other such spirits and elementals, find few allies in the Pantheon… while not every shrine in Miwoc is devoted to the Pantheon, those who are not must either accept its suzerainty by paying out a tribute of prayer and treasure, or else find themselves undefended against the hostility of Immaculates and Zenith Cultists, while the Pantheon itself is known to move directly against the rise of Ancestor Cults or demonic influences, firmly opposing any direction of prayer to beings other than the divine. .

- They see the Cult of the Zenith as deluded for directing all prayer to a distant god, rather than through local divinities who have more need of it, and for making use of tainted demons… but can respect their encouragement of prayer and of the primacy of the divine in Creation.

- They see the Immaculate Faith as deluded for their restrictive Perfected Hierarchy, though accept the prayers assigned to all gods according to the Prayer Calendar, and the concept that only gods are meant to receive prayer.

Immaculate Faith

The Immaculate Faith in Miwoc has a long history, with a large monastery complex known as the Dome of Enlightened Martyrdom outside Bay of Roots dating from the Shogunate Era. This became a center for refugees fleeing the Contagion, and close contact with the Blessed Isle has meant the Faith in Miwoc is firmly in the hands of the Immaculate Order, following its tenets and structure. The major restraint on orthodox Immaculate practice in Miwoc is the Scarlet Empress to force her state religion to tolerate the presence of other, heretical faiths, a source of great dissatisfaction amongst local Immaculate clergy.

- They see the Cult of the Zenith as deluded for grossly excessive prayer to the Unconquered Sun and for rejecting the truth that souls are Exalted through enlightenment and right practice… but can respect their acknowledgement of a basic Perfected Hierarchy of division between god and mortal, and their enthusiastic opposition to the Anathema.

- They see the Hundred Gods Pantheon as deluded for being an organized incarnation of the Hundred Gods Heresy, though they acknowledge the Pantheon’s opposition to prayer being granted to non-divinities.

Military

In early years, each of Miwoc’s three faiths maintained its own armed militias, but these were gradually disarmed. The current political arrangement has preserved relative peace between the faiths, but in the event of religious conflict all three are likely to muster large numbers of local irregulars.

The Miwoc army itself is made up of individual units with a single religious affiliation, assembled into combined formations. Realm terminology is employed for these units, despite divergent organization, with single-faith Scales (25), and Talons (125). Three Talons, one of each faith, create a Wing (375), the largest independently-operating unit, with more significant operations carried out by attaching several Wings as auxiliaries to units of the Imperial Legions. Miwoc forces are primarily light cavalry and bowmen, due to the need for forces which can range on patrols along their frontier with the Confederation of Rivers. The Imperial Legions maintain a number of fortified camps spaced along the border, and have constructed good roads to allow troops to move quickly between them in event of an invasion from the Scavenger Lands. The more common threat are the Ranger units of the Seventh Legion, who are known to engage in infiltration, espionage, and disruption: regular mortal patrols are more inconvenience than obstacle to Magitech-laden Exalts, but small Legion detachments (most often officers from the Imperial Guard seeking glory and combat) command the overall defense and oppose Ranger infiltration directly, supported by the Army of Miwoc’s only elite unit, the Badger’s Talon.

In numbers, the faiths are represented roughly equally amongst the soldiers of the army, though amongst the officer corps the Hundred Gods Pantheon are more numerous, the Immaculate Faith underrepresented, a fact mitigated by the fact that when units are attached to Imperial forces, Legion officers are almost invariably Immaculates.

The size and power of the Army of Miwoc remains constrained by the balance between the various faiths: the Immaculates and Zenith Cultists are concerned over a potent military, as the Right Minister who commands the army always hails from the Hundred Gods Pantheon. At the same time, while the Pantheon’s interests are least aligned with maintaining vast troop numbers for the Realm’s enmity towards the River Province, the army is a major source of power to keep balance with the Ministers from the other faiths.

Current Issues

The peace between faiths in Miwoc has never been entirely comfortable, but it has been stable for centuries. However, recent events are bringing the matter into question.

For many years, the Immaculate population in Miwoc has been growing more quickly than that of the two other faiths, due to frequent interaction with the Blessed Isle and those spreading the faith having the resources of the Immaculate Order behind them. This growth has meant many Immaculates in Miwoc feel that the three-way agreement on the sharing of power has become outdated, and that their numbers merit greater control over government. The other cults, with little to gain from any renegotiated accord, are unwilling to entertain any changes in the current structure.

Even before this shift, the Immaculate Order had long lobbied the Scarlet Empress to rescind the privileges of the Zenith Cult and the Pantheon in Miwoc, so they might have a freer hand in enlightening the populace, but these demands were never humoured by the Throne. However, with that Throne now empty, there is a great deal of worry throughout Miwoc, as the position of any successor could vary, while with every day that passes the Order feels less reason to refrain from acting on its own.