Royaume de la Lumière

Royaume de la Lumière

"The Kingdom of Light" is a quiet kingdom no longer. The last king was a man of weak will who allowed his Chevaliers to run rampant, slaying, raping, and abusing the peasantry and even merchants without end. His son was no different, but his son's religious adviser is a man of uncommon will. Pope Quinidius, a man of the people, a man of great piety and charity. Well that's the hype anyway. In truth Quinidius is a power player (like most of the Lumiere Popes before him) with an eye on Empire. Under his directions the Orders that would not bend knee were disbanded, the remaining ones brought to heel within the capital and made to fight for the amusement of commoners in the Grand Tourney (ongoing for 30 years so far with the advent of Pope Quinidius's rule. All manner of war games with free bread and beer for all spectators) and to serve under political officer priests called "Confessors" when the Lumiere sends it's Chevaliers to war.

Administration

The King of Lumiere is nothing more than a figurehead who lives in a lavish palace guarded by The Order of the Crescent Knights (Quinidius's personal army.) The true power lies in the Palace Without Doors, a massive structure that dominates Lumiere's capital and that serves as the main site for the Grand Tourney; It's also where every minister and priest in the country takes his orders from. They are passed down from the pope through a series of various bureaucrats and from there the semifluid caste system is enforced. (Sefs>Free Peasants>Tradesmen>Merchants>Nobles of Varying Levels of Importance>Priests) One's place in society is fixed unless one can acquire enough wealth or political favor to have some priest discover an ancient patent of nobility that raises one to a new social level. Likewise, uncooperative people can find their social standing damaged by rumors of diluted ancestry of one sort or another.

Magic and its Role
Like most traditionalist nations, Lumiere makes heavy use of magic for everything from cooking meals to waging war. It's cities are built on leylines of power, and runic architecture allows the use of various appliances and simple tools to perform dozens of different functions. Unlike most other nations however, there aren't any privately practicing mages, most have either been cloistered by the church or driven out. The church makes use of archaic forms of runes and the odd scroll of lost knowledge to create unique items and provide its favored citizens with sacred artifacts that can perform feats of magic usually associated with witchcraft. With a bit of magical know how one can easily see that the church is monopolizing obscure rune forms and passing it off as blessings but the average man won't notice. (also the knights of the Crescent have shown no qualms about using "liberated" relics taken from countries they've conquered) The military makes use of magically powered airships, magically augmented suits of armor, swords, bows, wands, staves, potions and even magical animals of one sort or another.

Technology and its Role

Technology - that is, industrial technology - is brutally suppressed by Pope Quinidius's regime as it is (rightly) viewed as the deathknell of the Old Aristocracy and the Dogma that keeps The Church of Light in power. Being caught with so much as a mechanical lighter earns one a trip to the Grand Tourney- usually as one of the minor attractions. The King's former bodyguards, the Musketeers, have become the leaders of an elite resistance movement. Smuggling in weapons from technologically advanced nations like the Graustien Empire has become major business and heretical priests have taken to preaching about the uplifting power of industrial technology and the equalizing qualities of gunpowder in quiet corners across Lumiere.

Foriegn Policy

Royaume de la Lumière is an Empire first, and foremost. It has, in the last ten years or so, gobbled up a dozen smaller states, turning it's folk into serfs and vassals. The only free peasantry allowed are Lumiere citizens whose birth have to be recorded by priests at the Palace With No Doors. Priests are appointed to integrate the new kingdoms into the Empire, to stamp out dissent and enforce cultural cohesion. Their natural resources are harnessed for the good of the Empire, fields are planted, animals captured, and every year a tithe of soldiers is sent to the Grand Tourney. As of late the public's lust for unusual contests of skill has become so great that the Lumiere has started manufacturing more and more excuses to seize land and resources for the Empire and this is leading them into conflict with Graustien, as of late the Vaterland's Grenadiers are becoming a favorite of the Capital of Light's gamblers.