Cambrecia
Long the center of the worship of Zelos, God of the State, in the Imperial Pantheon, The Holy See of Cambrecia was long the last nation loyal to the Great Empire in Duria, despite being an essentially independent state. Cambrecia suffered greatly during the Dark Times, with chaos and rebellion ravaging the land after the fall of the Mage-King Lucasa and the Crimson Plague decimating the population thereafter. At the dawn of the Fourth Age of Man, the Potentates of Zelos have re-established their authority, despite losing a great deal of territory during the Dark Times. Despite the more liberal policies of recent Potentates, there are still some rebels covertly working to replace the theocracy with a monarchy.
| Cambrecia |
| The Holy See of Cambrecia |
 |
| Geographic Info |
| Continent: Duria |
| Location: Southern Duria, along the shores of the Maroshan Sea |
| Government |
| Government Type: Theocracy (Potentate, Archbishop, Bishop, Priest, Mayor) |
| Ruler: His Holiness the Pontate of Zelos, Gabriel II (Clr 16) |
| Arms: Potent, a book argent bordered by two altars argent with flames gules, to chief a crown or. |
| Coinage: 10 copper Pennies (1 cp) = 1 silver Eagle (1 sp), 2 Eagles = 1 Double Eagle (2sp), 25 Eagles = 1 gold Sceptre (25sp), 5 Sceptres = 1 platinum Solid (125sp) |
| Capital: Zelosia City (pop 20,450) |
| Alliances: Trading agreements with Auteria, Danas, Daredonia, the dwarves of Derlos, Enesia, Kamaros, Koramia, Malvetia, the Freecity of Neptaris and Numentora. No formal military alliances, by decree of the Potentate. |
| Hostilities: The state has had some skirmishes with pirates from Marosh and Tamerynd, but has no formally declared wars. |
| Society |
| Population: 750,000 (90% humans, 4% hobbits, 6% other) |
| Languages: Cambrecian |
| Important Persons: Archbishop Alexander Desteos of Belora, Archbishop Gawyn Marcos of Amesand, High Protector Julius Thurgood |
| Religious Info |
| Pantheon: Formally neutral, though there are strong sympathies to followers of the Koramian Heresy |
| Patron: Zelos |
Geography
Cambrecia is a fertile coastal land, enjoying a long, temperate planting season and a short winter. The terrain is primary chaparral that has been extensively cultivated.
History
Foundation of Cambrecia
The See of Cambrecia was founded in 664 NC by Septimius Varros, a praetor of the Zetian Republic seeking new lands to conquer. He found easy prey amongst the Kamaros and the Melvartans. The Kamaros, renamed the Cambrecians, seemed to assimilate themselves into the Zetian culture the easiest, so the newly-founded territory soon became a retirement community for old Zetian soldiers. When the Empire was founded by Octavius of House Zetar, Cambrecia, as it had become known, was one of the last of the outer territories of the Old Republic to swear allegiance to the Empire. Over the next two centuries, Cambrecia saw many rebellions as its citizens tried to found a new Senate in the capital city of Septarium. The Imperial response was heavy-handed at first, but in 149, the Emperor Metius the Elder decided on a more surreptitious approach to quelling the Cambrecians. In his role as Pontifex Maximus of the Imperial pantheon, he sent the Pontifex of Zelos, god of the State, to Septarium to build a great cathedral and begin the conversion of the populous to Zelos. The Pontifex of the time, Ionnanes II, was a persuasive man, and was able to quickly convert most of the local leadership to his banner. Over the next few centuries, as the power of the Empire waned in its northern territories, the Pontifex of Zelos was able to secure greater and greater power within Cambrecia, often without the Emperor's knowledge or consent. By 1284 NC, Cambrecia had become a monarchy, independent in most of its internal affairs.
The Cambrecian Civil Wars
After years of neglect for its colony, the Empire informed Cambrecia that it would have to see to its own affairs of defense in 1474 NC. The Cambrecian nobility, so reliant on the Emperor's support and guidance, immediately began to fall to internal bickering and strife, as civil war broke out across the land. For the next thirty years, war was the mainstay as monarch after monarch fell. Eventually, no heirs became apparent to the throne excepting a three year old child and the nobility, not trusting one another with the regency, elected to place the Pontifex of Zelos as regent to the crown. The Pontifex moved quickly and relentlessly in destroying the economic power of the local nobility, particularly the economies of those who opposed the Empire, Zelos, or him personally. By the time that the King came of age, it was apparent that the monarchy had power only so long as it was supported by the clergy of Zelos. That King's son, Jeremiah Tovex, abdicated his power of rulership to the Pontifex, making Geraldus the first Potentate of Cambrecia in 1512 NC. Civil war again erupted over the rulership of the Potentate, but, unfortunately, the power of those rebellious nobles had already been waning over the last few decades, and they proved no match for Geraldus. However, instead of replacing the defeated nobles with more nobility, they were replaced by priests of Zelos. By 1550 NC, the rebellions had ended, with nearly sixty percent of the nobility having been replaced by the church hierarchy. In 1584 NC, the Potentate declared the laws of inheritance by primogeniture anathema, and by 1637 NC, the entire noble hierarchy of Cambrecia had been replaced by the priesthood of Zelos. In 1650 NC, the Emperor Metaurus of House Drusus recognized Cambrecia officially as the Holy See of Cambrecia, and the noble class was irrevocably and completely removed from its position of rulership in the nation. It was at this time that the name of the Cambrecian capital was changed from Septarium to Zelosia City. Only the lowest position of secular rulership, that of Urbis Praefectus, remained, and even they were chosen by the religious hierarchy and not permitted position by heredity.
Cambrecia and the Rise of Koramia
After the conclusion of the Cambrecian Civil Wars, the Holy See remained a stalwart supporter of Imperial interests on Duria, assisting in the defense of Imperial naval interests in the Maroshan Sea and in the petty kingdoms of Koramia. When, in 1951 NC, the self-styled King of Koramia placed his own Prelate of Vortumnus in the holy seat of Paeldain, the Pontifex of Zelos handed that king and Prelate an even stronger denunciation than the Pontifex Maximus himself: the See broke off all trade relations with the Kingdom of Koramia, refusing to recognize its sovereignty. This harsh treatment sparked off a minor war between the two nations in 1954 NC and, though the initial fighting lasted only a decade or so, no official treaty was established between the two nations. By 2000 NC, despite a minor movement among some of the priests of Cambrecia, the Potentate was still strong in his opposition to the concept of an independent Koramian Kingdom.
Cambrecia and the Mage War
When the Great Empire began its reconquest of Koramia in 2000 NC, Horatius IV, the Potentate of Zelos eagerly joined in the fray. The Potentate not only reiterated that all of Koramia was anathema to Zelos, but declared anyone willing to assist them and/or trade with the Koramians on an individual basis anathema. Despite the Potentate's personal eagerness, he could not commit all of the Cambrecian forces against Koramia: Cambrecia had long, sporadic conflict with the dwarves of the Cambrecian Mountains and soon after the Cambrecians began to withdraw from the mountains to attend to the Koramia campaign, the dwarves suddenly rose up en masse to attack Cambrecia from their ancient strongholds. Unbeknownst to the Potentate, the dwarves of Duria had allied with Koramia and were coordinating against Imperial forces.
While Imperial forces established a beachhead in Koramia, the Cambrecian front began to falter. Unexpectedly, the Mages of Lun Dorak, having quelled resistance among the clans of the nearby Calmerian Marches, began moving troops into the Cambrecian Mountains from the east. The Potentate quickly allied with the Mage-King Lucasa and the Dorakian forces under his command and the dwarves of the Cambrecian Mountains were driven underground. With the dwarves quelled, the combined forces of Cambrecia and Lun Dorak prepared their assault on the Cambrecian front of the war against Koramia.
Early in 2002, word reached Cambrecia that the Emperor Publius Antonius had died and his successor, Lucius was actually the Mage-King himself. The heirarchy of Zelos in Cambrecia initially went into a frenzied debate as to whether the succession was legal according to the laws of Zelos, but the Potentate had already cast his lot. He voiced his support for Lucasa as Mage-King and Emperor, declaring any who disobeyed not only traitors to the Empire, but Anathema. It was at this point that some of the priests of Zelos realized that Potentate Horatius IV had gone quite mad.
The Zelosian Schism
After Potentate Horatius IV declared his allegiance to Lucasa as the Imperial Emperor, he commanded renewed attacks against Koramia. Nearly a third of his generals, all priests of Zelos and formerly loyal to Cambrecia, refused. They withdrew their troops to the city of Trias in northern Cambrecia and called the Council of Trias. Though they invited all priests of Zelos to this Council, those who remained loyal to Horatius IV refused. Somehow, the few priests of Zelos who followed the Koramian Heresy in Koramia made it across the Cambreican Front and attended the Council.
Three weeks of heated debate followed, with those in attendance alternatively calling for unity in the Church of Zelos and for separation from the Office of the Potentate. After three weeks, Dorakian Mages arrived at the Council with documents in hand from the Potentate ordering the Priests to Zelosia City for trial as heretics and traitors, while they would assume command of the wayward armies. The Priests were furious, both at the unilateral decision of the Potentate and at the audacity of the Lun Dorakian Mages. Their decision was made... they would no longer obey the Potentate. The Dorakian Mages were subdued in a pitched battle within the Cathedral of Trias itself, quickly tried and burned at the stake for Heresy. The Council met for one more day... by noon, it had declared Lucasa and Horatius IV both Heretics.
Word of the Council of Trias spread like wildfire throughout Cambrecia. More priests declared their support for the priests, bringing their flocks with them. In the midst of one of the largest wars the world had ever seen, Cambrecia erupted in Civil War. Koramia assumed a policy of containment... they pushed Cambrecia back to their traditional borders and stopped there, instead concentrating what forces they had left against the Empire in central Koramia.
The civil war in Cambrecia eventually coalesced into three main factions. The Imperials were those who remained loyal to Horatius IV and the Mage-King. The Sacerdosi, under the Episcopus of Trias, Cyril the Scholar, declared for the Council of Trias. The third faction were the Royalists, lead by an underground amalgam of dissenters who believed that the people were lead to ruin by the lack of a hereditary monarch. The fighting between the three factions was so intense that few seemed to notice when the Mage-King was defeated in 2003 NC and his continent-spanning Empire collapsed.
For much of the early action in the war, the main conflict was between the Imperials and the Sacerdos, with the Royalists forces skirmishing from time to time with both. No one really took the Royalists seriously until The Freecity of Neptaris unexpectedly entered the fray on the side of the Royalists. Despite having a long and bloody history of fighting against Cambrecia, the Council of Neptaris decided that it would rather have a belligerent Monarchy than a fanatical theocracy as a neighbor. With new troops to bolster their ranks and arguably the world's most powerful navy at their disposal, the Royalists began to make ground against the other two faction or, at least, hold their own in battle.
By 2012 NC, the fighting had reached something of an apex. No faction was prepared to give way or compromise with the other. It seemed that nothing would end the wars. Only the impossible would end the conflict.
That is the year the impossible happened.
Cambrecia and the Recession of the Gods
In the Spring of 2012 NC, the Crimson Plague reached Neptaris and quickly spread into Cambrecia. Despite the Plague's resistance to magical cures, the extensive priesthoods of the Imperial and the Sacredosi factions were able to provide some care to their populace and the disease was not as rampant in the central and northern areas of Cambrecia as it was elsewhere. The Royalist forces were decimated and Neptaris withdrew its military support to help deal with the Plague in their own city. It is generally believed that the Royalist leader, Drogo Garibald, was prepared to surrender by the end of spring and was en route to Zelosia City to lay down arms on the Summer Solstice.
On the Summer Solstice of 2012 NC, the Recession of the Gods began. Initially, it was believed in Cambrecia that only the priests of Zelos had lost the blessing of their god. Riots by people convinced the Schism had damned them all immediately erupted throughout the nation. By nightfall, Zelosia City was in flames and by the following morning, Potentate Horatius IV lay dead on the steps of the Great Temple of Zelos, having flung himself from its tower. It is said that when Drogo Garibald saw Zelosia City ablaze and received word that its preists no longer received blessings from the God of the State, he turned his entourage around and returned to the city of Tryscon. Trias, the defacto capital of the Sacerdosi, were faring little better than the Imperials as the people revolted against them. Cyril the Scholar kept his head and soon discovered that all priests of the Old Gods had lost their connection to the divine and showed signs of regaining some semblance of control over the angry mobs in Trias, but he was dead of the Crimson Plague within a week.
Without any divine healing, the Crimson Plague soon took Cambrecia by the same stranglehold it had elsewhere. In a panic and now without divine leadership, those who did not die from the Plague either tried to flee or rallied under corrupt charlatans claiming to have visions of the divine. Most towns and cities were struck the hardest by the Plague, with Trias losing three quarters of its population and Zelosia City some seven eights of its population by Autumn. In Royalist territories to the east and south, the leadership remained more or less intact and the people did not panic quite as much as in other regions of Cambrecia... many had already resigned themselves to being Anathema to Zelos, so few were interested in divine guidance already. Drogo Garibald himself was crowned Drogo I, King of Daredonia on the first of Mudens in Tryscon and immediately set about instituting draconian measures to stem the tide of the plague. He canceled all public celebrations, including religious celebrations, and forbade trade of any sort, even between villages. To ensure no one traveled the roads, he founded the Order of the Black Shroud, a band of knights who would grimly travel the roads of Cambrecia, slaying any they found not of their Order, but also forbidden from entering village or town themselves.
By 2013 NC, the wars had effectively ground to a halt. Justinian III, an adviser to Cyril the Scholar, became the leader of the Sacredosi in the north, though he had little authority outside Trias. The Imperials could not gather enough Episcopi to elect a new Potentate, so remained without a Head of State for almost a decade. King Drogo I was successful in stemming the tide of the Crimson Plague in the south and east, but his draconian imprisonment of the populace in their own homes was intensely despised by his people.
None of the three factions had any real ability to conduct war, though there were some skirmishes over the next fifty years. Despite the priesthood having no divine power, the Imperial Zelosians were able to retain power in central Cambrecia throughout the Dark Times by focusing on their traditions and now empty rituals (and, in part, because the people just didn't have the spirit to oppose them). In the north, the Episcopi Zelosians slowly turned over power to secular representatives, in part because of a lack of priests qualified to administer the region. By 2050 NC, the region under Episcopi control was generally known by its traditional, pre-Imperial name of Numentora and was conducting its own affairs as a sovereign nation, though this separation would not be formalized until 2063 NC.
It should be noted that, during these dark times, druids began to arrive in Cambrecia from the Calmerian Marches. Despite being welcomed by the Daredonians and, to a lesser degree, by Nementora, the powerless priests of Zelosia City treated the druids as a threat and forbade their interference and, eventually, even entry into territory they controlled. Unfortunately for the priests, this edict was generally ignored outside of Zelosia City, as the healing magics and wisdom of the druids were seen as a welcome respite to the powerless, corrupt priests of Zelos. Even in Zelosia City, a small number of druids established themselves, hidden from the priesthood's men by the populace.
Most believed that the Old Gods had abandoned the mortal world forever and were fully prepared to take on the beliefs of their Druidic saviors. Then, as abruptly as their gifts were taken away, the Old Gods suddenly returned.
Cambrecia in the Fourth Age
When the Old Gods returned to the world in 2062 NC, Cambrecia was almost immediately reborn from the ashes of the Dark Times. With no Great Empire to remain loyal to, the few remaining Episcopi still loyal to Zelosia City elected a new Potentate, Gabriel I, and he formally issued the Edict of Absolution, which not only absolved all who had been condemned by the Church in the past (with the notable exceptions of Ditis Carnifex and the Mage King), but it formally declared Cambrecia independent of any civilian government, beholden only to Zelos himself, with the Potentate as his ultimate agent in the mortal realm. Even official priestly titles were altered to the local language: Episcopi and Archisacerdi became Archbishops, Sacerdos became Bishops and Flamen became Priests (the Potentate retained his title, though he declared himself no longer subject to a Pontifex Maximus). Not only were the schismatics from the Zelosian Schism restored to the Church, but ecclesiastic ambassadors were sent to Koramia and, in 2070 NC, Potentate Gabriel I formally announced the Edict of One State, which embraced those worshipers of Zelos following the Koramian Heresy, the Aebasan Orthodoxy and the Imperial Ecclesia, with preference for none. Essentially, the Potentate declared that henceforth, the Church would support the decisions of the legitimate local civilian government on how the gods governed themselves.
Despite having lost much of its territory to the war, strife and the depredations of the Dark Times, Gabriel I and his successors (Ambrose I, Urban IV and the current Potentate, Gabriel II) seem satisfied to rule over the remaining territory as the Holy See. Though ambassadorial overtures to the splinter states were initially received suspiciously at best, the Potentates recognized the legitimacy of Daredonia, Kamaros, Numentora, Auteria and even the Freecity of Neptaris. Zelosia City itself has grown quickly in the Fourth Age of Man as trade routes reopen and pilgrims travel to the Great Temple to pay homage to the renewed God of the State.
Economy
Though grapes and olives were once the crops of choice in its southern regions, necessity during the Dark Times required much of the country to focus on corns and bean crops for sustenance. Trade during the Fourth Age of Man has sharply increased in the nation under the gentle guidance of a series of liberal Potentates, who lifted most of the restrictions to trade imposed on Cambrecians during the Third Age of Man. There have even been nascent attempts to restore the once-famous wines of Cambrecia, with the full support and encouragement of the Church.
Religion
The worship of Zelos is absolutely predominant in Cambrecia. Despite a historic prohibition against formal worship of any deity not directly descendant from Lord Ptharos himself, recent Potentates have relaxed these regulations to permit temples to any non-Dagonian god; even Druidic shrines dedicated to the Tuatha are permitted in the countryside. Betshaba has a strong following along the coastal cities of Cambrecia. Despite their more liberal policies in the last century, the priests of Zelos still maintain their feared Inquisitors, those priests dedicated to finding and executing worshippers of the children of Dagon, particularly worshipers of Phlegethon, who are reputed to seek to overthrow the Holy See and replace the Potentate with a civilian tyrant.
| This page has been identified as needing a map for clarity. |
| This article is part of the Player's Guide to Duria | |
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Introduction · Economics and Trade · Legends and History · Religion · Regions and Realms | |
| Regions and Realms on Duria | |
