Spain

## Balance of Power

Noble : none (citizen republic)

Wyld : medium

Church : low (some Gabrielite)

## Former Glory

When asked today what the most powerful nation of Europe is, there will be those who say it is Francia, while others may very well argue that it is Avalon. Were this question to be asked two centuries early there would have been a simple unified answer : ‘Castille of course’

During the 16th century, the House Culebre was the undisputed lord and master of Europe, for a short but glorious while. What noone could have predicted, however, is that after this great height, a great fall would follow in such a way that it constitutes the nightmare of any traditional noble house today.

Three elements contributed most to Castille’s erewhile supremacy :

* Their acquisition of colonies in the New World, granting almost infinite resources for a short period in history (when the other powers of Europe had no similar enterprises)

* Their ‘holy alliance’ with the Church of Samael, turning society into an almost theocratic construct.

* Clever marriage politics and family connections to all other important factions on the continent.

## The Brujah’s curse

It is tragically at this high point of power that Culebre’s scions, in their pride caused their own downfall in several ways.

Following the influx of wealth out of the new world, the Castillan kings ordered massive construction projects, involving a lot of deforestation, and the flooding of other territories, to build even more spectacular drydocks or other marvels of engineering.

It said that the mighty king Philip (II) was approached once by a humble old beggar lady, as he travelled from his palace to the nation’s capital.

It is said that the horses in front of the carriage refused to march on, bringing the carriage to a grinding halt as the old woman approached the carriage. She merely admonished him to ‘be grateful with what he had, abandon his new plans, and to leave the land alone.’

Baffled by the peasant’s impudence, the King is said to have replied ‘Or what?’

As the crone replied ‘Or your line will share the fate of the drying land, that withers the strongest tree into nothingness’ , the king is said to have ignited in anger and ordered the crone arrested and executed. And yet, as his soldier grasped the beggar women, they held nothing but mist in their hands.

Though the King ignored this incident further, no sooner had laborer’s axes hacked into the new clearings or the crown prince fell seriously ill. And though the priests did as they could, the King had to watch as his own son Carlos withered away and died. (1568) Here the King remembered the crone’s admonition and his wrath was great and he ordered troops to scour the land, inflicting harsh penalties on anyone even vaguely accused of witchcraft and/or demonomacy. (which were the same , in the perceptions of the King)

Here once again the crone appeared before the King, this time in a dream, admonishing him to take this warning and recant his ways. This dream infuriated the King in such a manner that he not only intensified his Inquisition, but also ordered another forest burnt, merely to make a point.  This ‘Spanish Inquisition’ carried largely by zealots of the Domenican order imposed a terror regime on the Iberian peninsula and far beyond, and yet gave the King no satisfaction as he never beheld that same crone again, who seemed to forever elude his inquisitors. (This harsh period would also much contribute to the dissatisfaction of the Northern provinces, see ‘the netherlands’)

Philip at this point, desperate to produce a new heir married several times over (with different cousins) who, a lot of stillborns later, did manage to produce an heir and as he finally died he felt assured that his line would stand, as Philip III took the throne after him. Little did Philip know that what Iberia’s Brujah had inflicted upon him was many times more cruel than Morgana’s erewhile vengeance on Arthur. She never said he would have no heir, she said his line would wither, and so it would.

With every passing generation the dragonblood dwindled rapidly in Philip’s heirs, together with their physical health, their beauty and even their cognitive abilities. The last king of the line, Carlos II,  is said to have been a cretinous miscreant, mentally handicapped, infertile and so hideous that his own wife was scared of him. (without much reason, really, as the creature was impotent) The power of the Culebre dragon had fully left his blood and what remained was a miserable shell of a human, far far below even a common plebe.

## Revolt and downfall

Whereas in other nations, in other times, a new dynasty would have succeeded the fallen one, too much had happened in Castille already, and too much anger, bred by centuries of religious tyranny lived in the hearts of men, from the small villages up to the thriving cities.

The legitimate succession would technically fall at this point, due to the intermarrying of noble families, to the Francian House of Anjou, Bourbon-de-Guivres related by marriage to the Culebres royal family, but this never truly came to pass. Instead of accepting a new dynasty, utter and total revolts broke out upon the announcement that the regime was to continue, but simply under a new King.

When the new Francian ‘king of Castille’ ordered more taxes to pay for his inauguration, all hell broke loose as anger swept the land and turned against the Ancien Regime itself, and all that entailed.

Philip V (Anjou-Guivres) ‘reigned’ for about half a year over the Iberian peninsula, before suffering a fate that would profoundly shock the rest of the continent.

## Counter-revolutionaries in exile

Of all Dragons, it was said that Culebre was the most loyal and devoted but also, the most vengeful of them all. How do you expect his few remaining descendents to react to what occurred during the revolution? Those few nobles that managed to escape the guillotines found refuge in other noble regions of Europe, predominantly either in Italia, or in Southern Francia. Almost all of them currently live a life pledged to ‘Vendetta’ and aid the counter-revolutionary cause by any means they have.

Those who ended up in Southern Francia now usually pledge their remaining forces to the war efforts of the Duc d’Aquitaine, Jean-Phillipe de St. Cyr, commander of the Francian armies of the South,  lending a somewhat unsettling Castilian-religious vibe to his Dukely Court, and causing the Duke’s name (and all associated with it) to be particularly hated by the Galderans, who feature him in a lot of their own public propaganda.

The Italian Culebre’s are no less vengeful toward the Citizen Republic, but usually contribute to the cause from the Sea. They attempt to prevent all attempts of Galderan commercial interaction with the trade republics of Italia, and have hitherto succeeded in barring Galderan access to the inner mediteranean, which harms them considerably.

## Stalemate at the Pyrenees

For nearly two decades now, this border has been a ‘hot zone’ and backdrop for brutal violence between two radically different concepts of statehood. The Galderan republic remains resolved to ‘expand the revolution’ and the Francians are equally resolved that they’ll be having none of that. On other occasions, it's the Francians who decide ‘to wage the righteous counterrevolutionary war’ and it's the Galderans who defend from their end. The endresult is usually the same : no one wins. This has reasons of course, and a series of elements contribute to this complicated situation.

* The Brujah disapproves of both sides whose trampling boots have ruined quite a bit of the Pyrenees original beauty already. And while both armies suffer constant annoyance by the forces of nature, the local Galderan’s are simply more used to this particular style of f\*ckery, so know better how to avoid it. This Galderan advantage is slowly eroding, however, as the Francian forces gain more experience day by day, and will soon be on par with the Galderan in this regard.

* The Dwarves of the Pyrenees have decreed long ago that all humans should instantly cease all shenanigans in their mountains, but have been largely ignored by both warring factions. This is not without consequences, as the Dwarves are well entrenched in their mountain fortress. Though it is neither warring faction’s intent to directly mess with the dwarves, let alone assault their impregnable fortress, the Dwarves see things differently. They consider the very presence of both armies an insult to their decrees so regularly assault either. In addition, the many artillery entrenchments in the mountains have been known to open fire on both Galderan and Francian battle lines , unannounced, causing much destruction and upheaval. Both sides have attempted to bribe the Dwarves for access, yet they remain adamant in their position. The shrewd dwarf tacticians tend to side with whatever human army is losing, to assure a mutual defeat, forcing both armies (and not just one) to leave their mountains.

* While no one but the highest ranking dwarves are aware of this, there is a good reason this region contains a dwarf fortress. Below it Culebre itself lies dormant, and the dwarves really would like to keep it this way. The constant violence however, certainly when it involves scions of his own bloodline, causes the Beast to stir, and the dwarves to become more distressed by the war. A sad side effect however, of Culebre’s hidden presence, is that his properties start to bleed over into the environment, as is always the case with dormant Dragons. Seeing he is both devoted and vengeful, both sides become more and more convinced of their own ‘just cause’ and more and more eager to harm the enemy, for all that has already been done...

* Guerilla’s and Priests. It needs to come as no surprise that the Church of Samael has resolutely chosen the side of the counter-revolution, if for no other reason than that the Galderan republic has executed every single bishop, deacon, abbot or priest they got their hands on, along with the nobles who used to conspire with them. The consequence of this is that the Francian armies are accompanied by Samaelite knightly orders, and granted full license of Necromancy. While this is a tough nut to crack for Spanish commanders, they have their own special means. First of all, European warfare presumes that priests are considered sacrosanct, and not be made explicit targets by enemy forces. Galderan’s however, see this entirely different and even have squads of specialized priest-hunters, aiming specifically to remove these ‘blackrobes’ by every means they have. Secondly, through trade and commerce, the Spanish do seem to have access to purchased Abrahamite incantations, to counter the Angelic magic at crucial moments. Both of these strategies infuriate the pope to no end, but as it stands, there’s very little he can do about it. Finally, the Church doesn’t control all clerics. Spain has become a refuge for a particular type of outcast protestants who have faced persecution at the hands of the Church before, and are keen to lend help to the Galderan cause in the form of clerical magic. It is these ministers, combined with resurgent lower-class neo-Dolcenite clerics who supply the Galderan armies with their ‘angelic’ prowess.