Collegium (LoE20)

The emperor — so they say — has sent a message directly from his death bed to you alone, his pathetic subject, a tiny shadow which has taken refuge at the furthest distance from the imperial sun. He ordered the herald to kneel beside him and in front of the entire crowd of those witnessing his death—all the great ones of his empire are standing in a circle on the broad and high soaring flights of stairs—in front of all of them he dispatched his herald. The messenger, powerful and tireless, started off at once. But the crowd is so huge, its dwelling places are infinite. If there were an open field, how he would fly along, and soon you would hear the marvelous pounding of his fist on your door. Instead, he is still forcing his way through the private rooms of the innermost palace, and if he did manage that he would have to fight his way down the steps, stride through the courtyards, and after the courtyards through the second palace encircling the first, and so on for thousands of years. And if he finally burst through the outermost door — but that can never, never happen — the royal capital city, the centre of the world, is still there in front of him, piled high and full of sediment. No one pushes his way through here, certainly not someone with a message from a dead man.

Yet you sit at your window and dream of that message when evening comes.
- Franz Kafka, “The Imperial Message”

The sleepy world of Camad, named after its greatest continent, is home to innumerable nations in the valleys of its long mountain ranges or the verdure seas of its wide steppes. It is a garden world plentiful in resources, ether, exotic fauna, and magical entities. Of the great civilizations of Man it was likely first discovered by the Scythians who made it a destination along the peregrinations of their Royal Road. Missions of exploration by the others surveyed the abundance of exploitable Ether wells and made it the target of several extraction operations and even light colonization, but it lay too far off the beaten track to become strategically valuable and the local conditions too difficult for profitable low-cost ether extraction industry – many site managers quit over constant work stoppages resulting from an irate river God or stampedes of spirit steeds. By the high noon of Humanity, the world was populated primarily by the philosophical malcontents of high Technomagical civilization, servants of minor Gods, and the offshoots of Scythian migrations. A footnote to events in the wider galaxy, the people of Camad busily applied themselves in multiplying across this overlooked corner of the galaxy with largely primitive technomagics.

The people of Camad therefore suffered relatively little direct consequences in the Godswar, for all that they remembered it as an era of calamity same as any other, but sank into almost complete isolation as traders and adventurers neglected to brave the opening in the Etherstorms to Camad. As such, though the total population of Camad now teems in many millions, most of its residents live in inconsequential societies of low technological advancement. However, four great powers – known as the Four Eyes of the World – regularly stretch their power beyond Camad as respected powers: the culturally sophisticated Guarded Domains, the vast Amalgastene empire of Vaspurakan, the adventurous and industrious Mare, and the much ridiculed Rzeczpospolita.

The Rzeczpospolita, commonly referred to as the Collegium or Gyerim-Covasna, is the theocratic commonwealth of sovereign kingdoms, republics, free cities, and tribes governed by common Yuhwan religious institutions and the elective universal theocrat: the Eoraha. While some institutions and members date back to the onset of the Etherstorms and beyond, the Collegium as it is known now is only four centuries old, emerging from the political turmoil of the White Turban Rebellion. More a religious alliance than a Napoleonic nation-state, its torturous political contrivances make it a sluggish strategic actor that nevertheless has been treated with exasperated respect for the breadth of power its constituent states can, with some effort, bring to bear on its high ambitions of universal Yuhwan ministry. The Collegium was one of the first powers in the southeast to begin serious extrasolar adventures after the Etherstorms receded, and its missions of proselytization and trade traced far distant starways (though not without several high profile embarrassments) in the recent century. Despite serious setbacks and military disasters throughout the centuries, the Collegium has muddled through and remains poised to intervene in affairs across the galaxy.

The Sublime Yuhwan College of Nations including the Pious Common Kingship of the Hoopoewood and the Sanctified Tsintsar Crown of Yuhwasattva Vãduva
Rzeczpospolita
Collegium
Gyerim-Covasna (Colloquial)
Yuhwan Starburst Regular and Royal Ensign Seal of the Eoraha
Motto: ýezî drujem vêñnghaitî" ("The Righteous will smite the Liar.")
Anthem
Yatha Ahu Vairyo
Royal Anthems
Saka March
System Map
Regular and Royal Capitals	Main: Tyritake Vyšehrad Orakzai Soreaobol (Auxiliary)
Royal Capitals	Soreaobol (Gyerim) Arad (Covasna) Artashat (Tao)
Official languages	Liturgical Arshan Koine Yavanan Sanskrit High Gushan
	Other spoken languages: Gyerimean Sakan, Low Gushan, Vaspurakan
Religion	Western Sangha Yuhwaism (State Ideology)
	Other religions: Amalism
Demonym	Yuhwan, Dahae (derogatory)
Government	Federal Theocracy
- Eoraha
- Marshal of the Sejm	Yushin Sobeiski
- Grand Domestic
Legislatures	Three Common Legislatures with Floating Chambers
- Floating Chambers	Looya Jiirga Irregular Committees
- College of Magi	Anjoman of Athravan Envoys of the Temples Circles of the Parishes Circle of Astrologers
- College of Princes	Venerable Worthies Worthies of Kwarrah Divinely Adored Worthies House of the Rightly Guided Defenders of the Faith Extinct Races
- Celestial Sejm	Behdin Elders Chamber of Deputies
History
- First Looya Jiirga
- First Anjoman
- College of Princes Founded
- White Turban Rebellion
- Treaty of Altai Krai
- Treaty of
Population
- 1000 NE	70 Million/70 Housing
Territorial Regions:	16
Theme:	Undeveloped
Currency	Drachma Touman
Patron Saint	Saint Eunha
Patron Yazata	Yazd Tavus
Preceded by
← Faryunid-Mashanid Dynasty ← Western Gushan

Genre: What if instead of secular enlightenment, there was a theopolitical Zoroastrian-Christian-Buddhist-Taoist revolution?

• Subgenre: Joseon Dynasty Austria-Hungary
• Fashion Subgenre: War & Peace x Otoyomegatari
• Military Subgenre: Guns & Stamps

In Brief

Type: Empire
Population: 70 Million Housed (70 SP)

• + 35 Bonus PP/month
• Population Growth (3%): 2,100,000 per annum

Terrain: 16 Regions
Infrastructure (190 SP)

• Industry [45 PP/month] 10 PP/month (10 SP) + 35 Bonus PP/month
  • Build Time [2x]
• Wealth [70 WU/month] (70 SP)
• Research [40 RP/annum] (40 SP)
  • Artificing Build Time [(Base Batch Cost+Capabilities)x5 Months]
• Ether Collection [70 EU/month] (70 SP)
• Magical Creatures & Friends (Magic Haven)
  • [25 RP/Month]

Advancement
Technological (125 SP)

• Engineering [TL3.75]
• Chemistry [TL3.75]
• Mathematics [TL3.75]
• Biology [TL3]
• Psychology [TL3.25]

Magical (150 SP)

• Destruction [ML3]
• Creation [ML3]
• Movement [ML5]
• Mental [ML5]
• Matter [ML4]

Traits
Advantages (75 SP)

• Fanatical Population (-25 SP)
• Mystic Haven (-50 SP)

Disadvantages (-145 SP)

• Factious World (+5 SP)
• Weak Government (+25 SP)
• Incompetent Armed Forces (+50 SP)
• Nuke Free Zone (+30 SP)
• Disaster Zone (+10 SP)
• Home is Where the Heart is (+25 SP)

Starting Military
Starting Military (135 SP): 1,350 PP
Initial Production

• Half Builds: 225 PP
• Magical Wildlife: 25 PP

Population

“In this region stands a bronze vessel, as much as six times greater than the cauldron dedicated by Pausanias son of Cleombrotus at the entrance of the Pontus.10 To any who has not yet seen this latter I will thus make my meaning plain: the Scythian bronze vessel easily contains five thousand and four hundred gallons, and it is of six fingers' thickness. […] For their king, whose name was Ariantas, desiring to know the numbers of the Scythians, commanded every Scythian to bring him the point from an arrow, threatening all who should not so do with death. So a vast number of arrow-heads was brought, and he resolved to make and leave a memorial out of them; and he made of these this bronze vessel, and set it up in this country. Thus much I heard concerning the number of the Scythians.”
– Herodotus, the Histories, IV.81

70 Million (70 SP)

Housing: [70/70], +35 Bonus PP/Month

Growth (3%): 2,100,000 per annum

Terrain

Theme: Undeveloped

Terrain Regions: 16 Regions (1 + 7 from Housed Population, x2 from Undeveloped)

Terrain Points: 35 TMP

Infrastructure

10 PP/Month + 35 Bonus PP/Month

70 Wealth/Month

• Treasury: 350 WU

40 Research/Year

75 Ether Collection/Month

• Strategic Reserve: 140 EU

Advancement

Technology

“Or, one should see with one's own eyes the Reception Hall of Khosraw, that powerful achievement of Persian architecture. Ar-Rashid intended to tear it down and destroy it but failed for all his trouble. He began the work, but then was not able to continue. […] It is worth noting that one dynasty was able to construct a building that another dynasty was not able to tear down, even though destruction is much easier than construction.”
- Ibn Khaldūn, the Muqaddimah

Engineering [TL3.75] 100 Base +275 RP

Chemistry [TL3.75] 100 Base + 275 RP

Mathematics [TL3.75] 100 Base + 275 RP

Biology [TL3] 100 Base + 200 RP

Psychology [TL3.25] 100 Base + 225 RP

Magic

In this offering, with this Baresman, I desire to approach the sublime immortals with my praise,
And I desire to approach the Saints with my praise,
And I desire to approach the spirits of the waters with my praise, and the spirits of the mountains with my praise,
And I desire to approach with my praise those chiefs who strike the wing, those which wander the steppe with my praise,
Witnesses of the ritual, each in their turn.
-Avesta Visperad 2.1

Destruction [ML3] 100 Base + 200 RP

Creation [ML3] 100 Base + 200 RP

Movement [ML4] 100 Base + 300 RP

Mental [ML5] 100 Base + 400 RP

Matter [ML4] 100 Base + 300 RP

Traits

Advantages

Fanatical Population (-25 SP)

"O King of kings, I am ready to do thy commandments, for my mother brought me into the world that I might weary myself for thee, and unto thee pertaineth rest and joy, and unto me combat everlasting."

- Firdausi, “Shahnamah”

Your People are incredibly devoted and can be urged on to great lengths for the state. Civil Order payments are twice as effective, the people will resist occupation harder and longer, and the Population Bonus also can be mobilized like Industrial Production in times of crisis.

Mystic Haven (-50 SP)

We circled once, at screaming speed, well outside the null. I was astounded at what Darling had put together. About fifty windwhales, including some monsters over a thousand feet long. Mantas by the hundred. A vast wedge of walking trees. Battalions of human soldiers. Menhirs by the hundred, flickering around the walking triees, shielding them. Thousands of things that leaped and hopped and glided and flopped and flew. So gruesome and wondrous a sight.

- Glen Cook, “The White Rose”

You can add your own Added Capabilities to them using your Advancement Levels, in which case the creatures are treated as uncapped ‘base’ units (with a cost of Base Batch Cost x Advancement Level) that are already built, reducing build times. Otherwise, you can treat them as ML3 or ML4 units designed using the Artificing rules and they enter service immediately. Note that this is limited to units that have a Base Batch size of 1:1 or smaller.

Disadvantages

Factious World (+5 SP)

It is this fact of a great continent which is so essential for our country. God's Kingdom is part of a continuum, the greatest shard of the ancient spire. Should it have been isolated it would not have formed at all. Every country on Camad shares things with the others, and the innumerable little nations of this place have been shaped by our connection. It also means, to our detriment, we must sometimes share this place with those we'd rather send very far away.

- Pontiff-Prelate Samangan, Marginalia on the pages of Study of the Spire’s Fragments

Weak Government (+25 SP)

What are the nobles doing who join him instead of the commanders? Trampling on law. What is the army doing? Violating discipline. And is he, a citizen, is he, a soldier, to stand at the head of lawlessness? Is he to cover it with his own dignity? Is he to give an example of insubordination, arbitrariness, disregard of law, all merely to receive power two months earlier? Is he to give such a fearful example to succeeding ages? To-day Prince Yeremi acts in this way; tomorrow, Konyetspolski, Pototski Firlei, Zamoyski, or Lyubomirski. And if each one, without reference to law and discipline, acts according to his own ambition; if the children follow the example of their fathers and grandfathers, what future is before that unhappy country? The worms of arbitrariness, disorder, self-seeking have so gnawed the trunk of that Commonwealth, that under the axe of civil war the rotten wood is scattered, the dry limbs fall from the tree. What will happen when those whose duty it is to guard and save it as the apple of the eye put fire under it? What will happen then? Oh, Jesus, Jesus!

- Henryk Sienkiewicz, "With Fire and Sword"

Your government is not fully in control of your nation. Making decisions is difficult and carrying them out more so. While this doesn’t affect day-to-day life as the routine bureaucracy ticks along nicely, it does affect the ability of your nation to respond to emergencies; in particular, mobilize the nation out of its daily grind and to wage war. Any Civil Order penalties incurred by war are doubled, and Industry cannot be mobilized save in times of grave crisis, and then is twice as damaging to population morale.

Incompetent Armed Forces (+50 SP)

“I have to confer with you!” Pause. “I’ve been abused,” he resumed, peering straight into the lawyer’s sparkling glasses, and noticed after a while that words were failing him. He should have brought the primer along. With that odious object in hand, he would have had a far easier time explaining things.

“What kind of abuse?” asked the lawyer.

“I never served with the cavalry.” That was how Captain Trotta felt he might best begin, although he himself realized he was not making himself clear. “And here these shameless writers write in the children’s books that I galloped up on a sorrel, they write, on a sweat-covered sorrel, to rescue the monarch, they write.”

The lawyer understood. He knew the piece himself from his sons’ books. “You’re taking it too seriously, captain,” he said. “Don’t forget, it’s for children.”

- Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March

Your armed forces just don’t have their shit together. They’re poorly trained, poorly motivated and poorly led. All military units start with Incompetent, and all new units produced are Incompetent. This is a very difficult disadvantage to remove as incompetence is institutionalized at all levels, but getting your military hardened in battle (if it survives long enough!) is an effective, if risky, solution.

Nuke Free Zone (+30 SP)

“[…] if anyone kills a human being, unless it is in punishment for murder or for spreading corruption on earth, it will be as though he killed of all human beings. And, if anyone saves a life, it will be as though he had saved the lives of all human beings. Our Messengers came to them with evidence of the truth. Yet, many of them continued to corrupt earth by their over indulgence.”

- The Qur’an 5:32 (Trans. Safi Kaskas & David Hungerford)

Your Nation will not countenance the usage of Weapons of Mass Destruction, or Doomsday Magic. They will not research or possess them, and while they understand that other nations do not share their ideals, they will react strongly to nations that go beyond possession and begin using such terrible weapons. If a nation makes routine use of WMD or Doomsday Magic, particularly on planets, and especially if they kill a large number of civilians with them, your Nation may end up treating them as Undiplomatic. In such a case you may also use the presence of WMD or Doomsday magic as cassus belli, allowing you to start a war without any Civil Order penalties.

Disaster Zone (+10 SP)

Between the trees, there is a bear ghost.

Bottom of the pond, there is a water ghost.

Beyond the sky, there is a phoenix.

Behind the traveler, there is a goblin.

What a shining bright full moon, EOLSSU!

Behold, Now the greatest tiger is coming down to this whispering mountain.

Let’s dance on this night until you lose your mind

Let’s dance right under the teeth of the Mountain God.

- Ahn Yeeun, “Changgwi”

Your Nation is subject to natural disasters, which occur regularly and can inflict considerable damage. The nature of these natural disasters should be specified, such as earthquakes or typhoons, or more esoteric disasters like plasma storms or outbreaks of mass insanity.

Home is Where the Heart is (+25 SP)

The ocean can be yours; why should you stop

Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?

The secrets of the sun are yours, but you

Content yourself with motes trapped in beams.

- Attar Nishapuri, "Conference of the Birds"

Your nation eschews colonialism and foreign holdings, preferring to remain in their home system. The Base Infrastructure Construction Rate may not be used in another system, and all Infrastructure of any kind built in another system costs twice as much.

Military

Regular and Republican Guard

Infantry & Cavalry

We knew that we should lose him. For one thing, we knew that he would be promoted. It was our great hope that some day he would command the company. Also we knew that he would be killed. He was so amazingly unself-conscious. For that reason we knew that he would be absolutely fearless. So it proved…
Bombs and air torpedoes were dropping round us all day. Of course the captain was there. It seemed as if he could not keep away. A torpedo fell into the trench, and buried some of our chaps. The fellows next to them ran to dig them out. Of course he was one of the first. Then came another torpedo in the same place. That was the end.
But he lives. Somehow he lives. And we who knew him do not forget. We feel his eyes on us. We still work for that wonderful smile of his. There are not many of the old lot left now; but I think that those who went West have seen him. When they got to the other side I think they were met. Someone said: "Well done, good and faithful servant." And as they knelt before that gracious pierced Figure, I reckon they saw nearby the captain's smile. Anyway, in that faith let me die, if death should come my way; and so, I think, shall I die content.
- Donald Hankey, “The Beloved Captain”

Artillery

Artillery in battle has its men grouped around the pieces, stationary assembly points, broadly distributed, each one having its commander and its cannoneers, who are always the same. Thus there is in effect a roll call each time artillery is put into battery. Artillery carries its men with it; they cannot be lost nor can they hide. If the officer is brave, his men rarely desert him. Certainly, in all armies, it is in the artillery that the soldier can best perform his duty.
-Ardant du Picq, Battle Studies IV. “Artillery”

Logistics Corps

“It’s a matter of accountability!”
- Hasemi Rasenjin, Guns & Stamps

Regular and Republican All Flags Fleet

“A navy is essentially and necessarily aristocratic. True as may be the political principles for which we are now contending they can never be practically applied or even admitted on board ship, out of port, or off soundings. This may seem a hardship, but it is nevertheless the simplest of truths. Whilst the ships sent forth by the Congress may and must fight for the principles of human rights and republican freedom, the ships themselves must be ruled and commanded at sea under a system of absolute despotism.”
-John Paul Jones, Letter to the Naval Committee of Congress (14 September 1775)

Fleet

“Meanwhile we wait and prepare, and prepare to make ourselves fit to fulfil our destiny. Let us hope that destiny is the destruction in a fair fight of the High Seas Fleet.”
- Sea Saga, Lt. Stephen King-Hall