The Theocracy of Vidarr

## Description

Vidarr is the name of three things - the Dwarven God of Order, the Theocracy that worships him, and the nation ruled by that Theocracy, situated in the vast grasslands far to the north of Cordonis, through Ashhead Pass. It is a large plain with a mild climate and therefore produces grain, beer and livestock in vast quantities, which are its chief exports along with the Itinerants - wandering hedge-priests who preach about the glories of Vidarr. Vidarr has a large diplomatic and trading presence in Cordonis, as well as a smaller one in Orvain. Apart from this, its trade convoys and their attending guards in the sky blue and gold livery of the Reave or the Priesthood are an infrequent but unremarkable sight in the areas surrounding Cordonis and, to a lesser extent, Orvain.

Vidarr is known to be peaceful to an almost suspicious degree, with no known instances of internal turmoil or external aggression. However worship of other gods is prohibited, meaning that Clerics and Paladins of other faiths are not permitted to practice their abilities within Vidarr. Magic users also find their abilities to be weakened while within the borders of Vidarr, whereas conversely even the lowliest priest of Vidarr is said to be capable of using the proximity of Vidarr's regard to carry out near-miraculous feats. These enhanced abilities do not appear to extend outside the territory of Vidarr however.

## Praxiam

Praxiam is the capital and the only city of Vidarr. As the entire nation of Vidarr is centred around the worship of Vidarr and Praxiam itself, so is Praxiam centred around The Hallow - the city-with-the-city from which the entire Theocracy is governed. The Theocracy is headed by two Archons: the Archon of Law, who commands the Priesthood, and the Archon of Peace, who commands the Reave.

## The Priesthood

The priests of the Theocracy perform not only the function of overseeing religious instruction and practice, but also control the day-to-day internal administration of the entire nation. The consensus among those who study Vidarr is that the entire country is deliberately structured as a simple pastoral and agricultural economy with the specific aim of making it easy to govern. There are no large urban centres, and indeed no gatherings of people which cannot be administered by a parish priest, whose role apart from overseeing instruction and helping with agriculture mainly involves the logistics of transporting vast quantities of agricultural produce. The colours of their vestments are the gold of the grain.

## The Reave

The Reave is the military of Vidarr, commanded by four Cardinals, of the North, South, East and West. While the Vidarrics can afford to ensure that the Reave is extremely well outfitted, they are generally not thought to be a great military threat, as they are not known to have any significant experience of actual combat. That said, they do guard Vidarric trade convoys in sufficiently huge numbers to ensure their safety.

The colour of the Reave is the blue of the sky.

## Common Knowledge

There has been some talk recently about Vidarric grain convoys being delayed, and sometimes not showing up at all - something that has not been known to happen in living memory.