The Empire - Government and Religion

Holy Ephesian Empire

            Usually called “The Empire” or “Ephesia”

The Government:

Theocratic Consulate

            The empire has two rulers, the Pope who rules from Rome and the Holy Emperor who rules from Capitol. Under these two is a hierarchy of clergy and aristocracy that enact their decisions.

The Pope

            The Pope is a man chosen by God and groomed from birth for his position. There are usually two or three “understudies” for the position because you never know when someone is going to get sick, die, screw a hooker or otherwise become unfit for the position.

            He’s assisted by a counsel of cardinals (the men, not the birds) who serve as his advisors and most trusted servants (at least until one of them tries to assassinate him, it’s happened). They also act as messengers, informing the public of the Pope’s decisions because talking to the masses would dilute his holy aura and make him unable to commune with God. The Pope is expected to remain pure and untainted by women, because this would also dilute his holy aura because sex is wrong and bad and girls are icky and full of cooties/demons/sin.

The Holy Emperor

            A man is chosen from the holy Brandt bloodline whenever the old emperor dies. Usually, the man selected is between 13 and 50 and sometimes the man is actually a girl. This tends to happen when there aren’t any suitable male candidates to take over. Legally, the girl is considered a man and is referred to as such because well see the argument above with girls being icky and full of sin. You can usually tell that a girl has been crowned because as soon as she reproduces and the kid reaches 13, she’s forced to “retire” or dies in a mysterious and unavoidable accident.

            No one ever said this was a nice country.

            Mostly, the actual ruling is left up to the aristocracy and clergy that surround the emperor constantly like a big bloated cloud of really bitchy mosquitoes that tell him what to do and influence policy to suit their own vapid and ever changing needs.

The Religion:

            Ephesian Catholicism is the only accepted religion in the Empire. All other religions were outlawed about 70 years ago and they aren’t exactly the type to accept people practicing heresy. (Unless you consider burning heretics as being accepting)

            Their actual religion is based around a combination of the Holy Bible from Catholicism and the teachings of a man named Ephesian. He taught of a Burning God whose Holy Fire brings enlightenment and burns away sins to purify humanity. His Fire moves in the form of messengers that bring harmony and peace through discord and war. The Pope is considered to be a vessel of Holy Fire and is chosen first by the “burning” of the mother (aka a single mother who has a certain pattern of symptoms and dies giving birth to the child) and then with a trial by fire. He is always surrounded by candles and is often wreathed in smoke (yay lung cancer). The Holy Brandt bloodline was touched by the messengers of the Burning God and carries the divinity of these messengers in their veins. It is said that these messengers occasionally visit Holy Emperors to give them guidance and reinforce the divinity of the bloodline (this excuse is often used when unwed women in the Emperor’s family randomly get pregnant).