Litany of Winter

HG-04: THE FOUR NATIONS THE HOLLOW GOSPEL CODEX

Modern maps divide the known world among four great political powers: the Aethermere Crown, the Vhaldrik Empire, the Solmara Republic, and the Dorvak Free States.

The first three are unified states. Dorvak is a federal union formed by eight sovereign countries, which makes its internal borders far more important than foreign maps sometimes suggest.

The Iron Concordat binds the three unified powers. Dorvak remains outside the alliance.

Government, law, military authority, education, religion, and ordinary expectations of power differ considerably across these borders.

THE CONCORDAT CALENDAR

The signing of the Iron Concordat established Year 0 as the reference point for the modern calendar used in these records.

Dates before the signing use BC, meaning Before Concordat.

Dates after the signing use PC, meaning Post Concordat.

YEAR 5 BC

Five years before the Iron Concordat was signed.

YEAR 0

The year of the signing.

YEAR 10 PC

Ten years after the Iron Concordat was signed.

At the opening of Litany of Winter, the calendar reads:

YEAR 60 PC

Sixty years have passed since the signing of the Iron Concordat.

The locations recorded below are selected reference points rather than complete lists of every settlement shown on contemporary maps.

AETHERMERE CROWN

Capital: Blackhaven

Government: Monarchy with Parliament

National Colors: Blue and gold

Iron Concordat: Member

Best Known For: Naval power, maritime trade, industry, and shipbuilding

Aethermere is a maritime kingdom whose wealth depends heavily on shipping and industry.

The king appoints ministers and controls the military and police. Major policy requires royal approval, and the Crown possesses the authority to dismiss Parliament. Parliament remains politically important, although the king retains decisive state power.

Aethermere has the strongest navy among the four powers. Its merchant fleet carries much of the kingdom’s trade, and service at sea enjoys greater prestige than service in the army.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Aethermerians often respect practical competence more readily than polish. Direct speech and dark humor are common in working communities, especially around ports, factories, rail yards, and shipyards.

Class is difficult to ignore. Speech, clothing, housing, education, occupation, and access to justice can all reveal social position. Old landed families share influence with fortunes built through coal, steel, rail, banking, and shipping.

Industrial districts contain active labor movements and mutual aid organizations. Rural areas tend to preserve older customs and stronger ties to estates.

The Eternal Church is influential, while maritime and rural traditions remain common beside formal worship. Sailors may carry charms, avoid certain words at sea, read weather signs carefully, or preserve local rites for those who drown.

NOTABLE LOCATIONS

Blackhaven

Capital of the Crown and one of its largest industrial centers.

Government and commerce share the city with enormous railway districts, factories, crowded working neighborhoods, and severe differences in wealth.

Silverlight

Coastal city on the Concord Sea.

Fishing and maritime traffic shape the surrounding region, while the Eternal Church maintains a strong public presence.

Southpoint

Major settlement on Aethermere’s southern coast.

Its position makes it important to naval traffic and the commercial routes leading toward Solmara.

Westwatch

Settlement on the southwestern coast and an important point along Aethermere’s western approaches.

Grayhook Isle

Remote Aethermerian island territory southwest of the mainland.

Crown authority governs matters such as taxation, shipping, criminal law, and relations with outsiders. Daily life remains strongly shaped by communal island customs and a distinctive regional faith.

VHALDRIK EMPIRE

Capital: Kronvaal

Government: Centralized empire

National Colors: Black and red

Iron Concordat: Leader

Best Known For: Engineering, military power, infrastructure, and technical education

Vhaldrik is the most centralized and technologically advanced of the four powers.

Historic principalities survive as regional identities, while the ministries and major institutions of the state answer ultimately to Kronvaal.

The twin headed eagle serves as the official emblem of the Empire.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Public life values punctuality and orderly procedure, with formal titles used widely in official settings. Private behavior can be much warmer and less restrained than foreign stereotypes suggest.

Vhaldrik maintains extensive systems of documentation. Identity papers, employment books, permits, inspections, and travel records are ordinary parts of life. The same bureaucracy that keeps administration efficient can make informal movement difficult.

The Empire maintains the largest army in the known world. Universal male conscription is followed by reserve obligations, and military habits have influenced many civilian institutions.

Technical education carries considerable social value. Engineering and medicine offer routes into professional life, as do administration, scientific work, and skilled industry. Aristocratic influence remains strong at the highest levels.

The principal headquarters of the Eternal Church lies within Vhaldrik. Church institutions and the Imperial state cooperate openly while retaining separate authority.

NOTABLE LOCATIONS

Kronvaal

Capital of the Vhaldrik Empire.

Kronvaal is the administrative center of Imperial government and one of the largest rail hubs in the known world. The principal temple of the Blinded Crown is located beneath the city.

Westhold

Western port facing the Concord Sea.

Travelers arriving from Aethermere commonly pass through Westhold before continuing into the Imperial interior.

Sudwacht

Southern city connecting Imperial rail routes with maritime traffic and the approaches toward Solmara.

Stahlgrad

Major city of the Imperial interior and part of the industrial network linking Vhaldrik’s principal regions.

Fort Rehnar

Important fortress on the eastern frontier.

Its size and distance from Kronvaal reflect the resources Vhaldrik devotes to defending and administering remote Imperial territory.

SOLMARA REPUBLIC

Capital: Bellevere

Government: Presidential republic

National Colors: White and red

Iron Concordat: Member

Best Known For: Public education, civic law, universities, agriculture, and wine

Solmara is a constitutional republic.

A strong presidency operates alongside an elected assembly and provincial governments. The courts provide another check upon state authority. Constitutional emergency provisions allow temporary expansion of presidential power during severe national crises.

Public debate is part of ordinary civic life. Solmarans commonly expect officials to justify their authority through law, and open disagreement carries less social stigma than it does in more formal political cultures.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Education receives substantial public support. Primary and secondary schooling are compulsory, while universities and libraries are broadly accessible by the standards of the known world. Examinations and scholarship systems provide further routes into higher education.

Women possess legal civic equality. They may vote and own property, enter professions, attend university, hold public office, and serve in the Civil Reserve. Social prejudice persists despite these legal protections.

Solmara is officially secular. Several faiths receive legal recognition. The Eternal Church is the largest individual religion without possessing exclusive authority over the Republic.

The state maintains a small professional army supported by a much larger Civil Reserve.

Solmaran law gives considerable importance to warrants and access to counsel. Public trials and judicial review provide further protections, although the resulting procedures can be slower than those used elsewhere.

Agriculture and trade support much of the economy, with wine among the country’s best known exports. Cafés, newspapers, public lectures, theatre, parks, and political discussion shape life in many of the larger cities.

NOTABLE LOCATIONS

Bellevere

Capital of the Solmara Republic and seat of the presidency.

National ministries and major republican institutions are concentrated here.

Valmont

Major western city containing the most prestigious university in the known world.

Its academic reputation draws students and scholars from outside Solmara.

Lumiere

Eastern coastal city with access to routes crossing the Pale Strait toward Vhaldrik.

Port Azur

Important western port supporting Solmara’s maritime commerce.

Orvella

Northern city near the Azure Sea and one of the major settlements marked on national maps.

DORVAK FREE STATES

Federal Seat: Dredge City

Government: Union of eight sovereign countries

Iron Concordat: Outside the Concordat

Best Known For: Local autonomy, open internal trade, maritime commerce, and regional diversity

Dorvak is often treated abroad as a single country. The Free States are actually a union of eight sovereign members.

Each country maintains its own constitution, courts, taxation system, police, and armed forces.

Every member chooses a Speaker. The eight Speakers serve together on the federal council in Dredge City and elect a First Speaker for a fixed term.

The First Speaker coordinates agreed policy and represents the Free States abroad. Sovereign authority remains with the individual countries and their governments.

THE FEDERAL COMPACT

The union developed from a shared struggle for independence.

Its federal structure protects free movement between member countries and supports open internal trade. It also provides the mechanism through which the eight states organize collective defense.

Most domestic authority remains local.

This independence allows the member states to preserve distinct laws and institutions, although it can make a coordinated federal response slow.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Dorvak culture varies sharply by country and region.

Shared traditions tend to favor local loyalty and hospitality. Family, crew, neighborhood, town, and home country often carry more immediate importance than distant federal institutions.

A shared Dorvak language is used in trade and federal politics. Accent and vocabulary can still reveal a person’s country of origin.

No religion dominates the Free States. Regional practice includes maritime faiths and sacred wells alongside desert saints, ancestor traditions, household spirits, sun worship, and local protectors.

The Eternal Church is present but has less support in Dorvak than among the other great powers.

There is no single Dorvak police system. Authority may come from harbor guards or municipal watches, while other regions depend on magistrates, rural posses, private guards, or formal country forces.

Smuggling is frequently judged according to the harm caused. Evading an unpopular tax may draw little outrage in one port, while trafficking people or selling dangerous relics can provoke severe local punishment.

NOTABLE LOCATIONS

Dredge City

Inland federal seat of the Free States and capital of the Dredge Compact.

Government offices and archives share the city with important commercial institutions and influential professional guilds.

Stonewake

Capital of the Maritime Republic of Vrescant and an old political center on the western Dorvak coast.

Redwake

Vrescant’s largest commercial port.

It is wealthier and rougher than Stonewake, with a long association with contraband and unofficial trade.

Sandspire

Capital of Valdosa near the approaches to the Glass Desert.

Water management and caravan travel shape much of the city’s daily life.

Ironhold

Capital of Ferrovia and a major center for engineering, machinery, mining, and organized skilled labor.

THE EIGHT FREE STATES MARITIME REPUBLIC OF VRESCANT

Capital: Stonewake

Largest Commercial Port: Redwake

Vrescant depends on fishing and coastal commerce alongside ship repair, ropeworks, salt production, and smaller shipbuilding.

Stonewake is the older political center. Redwake handles greater commercial traffic and has a considerably rougher reputation.

REPUBLIC OF VALDOSA

Capital: Sandspire

Valdosa occupies the dry western interior and the approaches to the Glass Desert.

Its towns depend heavily on careful water systems and caravan traffic. Shaded markets are common, while local traditions surrounding wells and travelers lost in the desert remain culturally important.

The ruined settlement of Sombral lies beneath glass and is no longer inhabited.

DREDGE COMPACT

Capital: Dredge City

Dredge places unusual importance on written agreements and administrative records.

River trade, rail connections, printing, warehouses, courts, and professional guilds support its economy.

Dredge City is inland despite its importance to Dorvak commerce.

PRINCIPALITY OF SERRAVARA

Capital: Brackhold

Serravara combines hereditary aristocracy with heavy industry.

Its prince governs alongside an elected assembly, while engineering and mining support a powerful industrial sector.

Titles and military prestige remain important in public life. Industrial wealth has not erased the older divisions of class.

COMMONWEALTH OF FERROVIA

Capital: Ironhold

Ferrovia is an industrial democracy where technical competence carries substantial prestige.

Worker organizations and cooperatives have a visible place in public life, alongside rail associations and technical societies.

Mining and machinery are central industries, while artillery production contributes to the country’s military importance.

SALTREACH MERCHANT LEAGUE

Council Seat: Saltreach

Saltreach consists of self governing ports joined through a shared commercial council.

Merchant and shipping interests wield considerable influence, and women occupy highly visible positions in commercial life.

The wealthier ports are frequently criticized for neglecting inland communities that supply them.

MARITIME REPUBLIC OF BELLACOSTA

Capital: Shardwell

Bellacosta is known for shipbuilding, marine engineering, banking, navigation equipment, and processed seafood.

Shardwell projects civic prosperity through painted buildings and fountains. Music and public processions add to that image, while the fishing and shipyard communities supporting the city experience much harsher conditions.

DUSTFALL CANTON

Capital: Dustfall

Dustfall is a rural republic of villages and agricultural districts.

Local delegates form the cantonal assembly, which selects a Praetor.

Memory of famine remains central to public life. Communal granaries are treated as essential civic institutions, and wasting food carries strong social disapproval.

THE IRON CONCORDAT

The Iron Concordat was signed in Year 0.

Its membership consists of the three great powers outside Dorvak, with Vhaldrik serving as the alliance’s leading state.

The Concordat provides a framework for mutual security and international cooperation between governments whose political systems differ considerably.

Dorvak remains outside Concordat law and retains its separate federal structure.

Membership leaves the sovereignty of each signatory intact. Domestic law and military command remain national, as do the governments themselves. These distinctions become particularly important when Blinded Crown operations cross international borders.

ORDER REFERENCE

Nationality can help an operative anticipate language, law, official procedure, and local expectations.

A person’s class or profession may matter just as much, and regional background, faith, education, and individual experience can create substantial differences between citizens of the same country.

Order reports should record whichever distinctions affect the operation rather than assuming that nationality explains the person.