Helsingfyrd Pact
Helsingfyrd Pact | |
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 The Helsingfyrd Pact, with major cities marked, in 1287 PR | |
| Capital and largest city | Helsingfyrd |
| Common languages |
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| Religion |
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| Demonym(s) | Helskari |
| Government | Elective monarchy |
• Emperor | Interregnum (since 1207 PR) |
| Establishment | |
• Signature of the Helsingfyrd Pact between the Kingdom of Orenaf and Ulthic tribes | 1 PR |
The Helsingfyrd Pact, often shortened to the Pact, is an ancient, undead-led empire located on the easternmost continent of the known world. It is one of the three major powers in the known world of Izaria, alongside the Republic of Carcola and the Azure Empire. Ruled by a coalition of vampires, lycanthropes, liches, necromancers, and humans, the Pact is known for its rigid social hierarchy, ancient origins, and reliance on undeath as a political organizing principle.
The Pact maintains internal stability through a complex balance of feudal obligations, magical labor, and the use of undead sprits as an energy source. Its capital is Helsingfyrd, a multilayered city built atop ancient ruins. It is said to be the signing place of the original Pact.
The historical dating system in wide use throughout the world, Pact Reckoning (PR), originates in the Helsingfyrd Pact and counts the number of years since the signature of the Pact itself.
History
The Pact claims a lineage dating back to the chaotic centuries following the Fall of Lagash. Legend has it that the continent that would later comprise the Helsingfyrd Pact was inhabited by nomadic lycanthropic followers of the deity Ulfgar, and agrarian vampiric followers of the deity Ekekkia. Centuries of wars between the mostly-settled vampires, who ruled over a sedentary human population, and nomadic lycanthropes led to cultural cross-pollination between the two groups that increased as centralization progressed on the continent. This process culminated in the signature of the Helsingfyrd Pact between the vampire-led Kingdom of Orenaf and the various Ulthic tribes that claimed suzerainty over the Northern Reach, the Hopgon Coast, and the Ibor Strait to resolve decades of raiding and conflict between the two factions. The Ulthic signatories pledged to acknowledge King Sigusmund Orenaf as their Emperor, while he pledged to use the tribes who had signed the Pact as official military forces, in contrast to the mercenaries. The Pact was signed by King Sigusmund Orenaf in the year later remembered as PR 1.
Though the Pact itself only formalized the growing informal relationship between the vampires and lycanthropes, it surprisingly held and acquired great symbolic importance to both the vampires and lycanthropes. Slowly, over the centuries, their societies knit together into a complex feudal caste hierarchy. The Pact grew into a continent-spanning power through conquest, ritual diplomacy, and the suppression of rival gods. Later centuries saw the formal addition of necromancers, humans, and liches as recognized political entities, although opposition was (and remains) fierce. Colonization efforts in the continent to the west, and the colonies attracted many mortal residents of the Pact that were weary of the increasing undead domination of Pact society.
The Pact’s greatest political crisis came during the Carcolan Rebellion, in which much of the western colonies seceded, united and formed the Republic of Carcola. Though the Pact retained all of its territories on its eastern mainland, the rebellion forced attempts at internal reform and sparked a centuries-long decline in mortal trust.
Government
The Helsingfyrd Pact functions as an elective feudal monarchy, governed by an Emperor, elected for life by a legislature known as the Preszdag, with each member representing a major undead house, lycanthrope tribe, or self-governing necromantic guild. Power is highly decentralized, with local rulers, often vampire lords or ancient liches, exercising near-total authority over their fiefs, provided they uphold Pact law and contribute to the collective defense.
The Pact operates through shared rituals, diplomatic obligations, and magical enforcement. Mortal bureaucrats and clerics serve under undead lords in a semi-indentured status, often elevated by loyalty or spiritual merit.
The Pact has been unable to elect an Emperor since the year 1207 PR due to a long-lasting political standoff triggered, in part, by the Carcolan Rebellion.
Society
The Pact enforces a strict caste system centered around undeath and ritual hierarchy. At the top are ancient vampires and deathless spirits; below them are necromancers, free lycanthropes, and favored mortals.
Mortals, usually humans or dwarves, live short, harsh lives as laborers, soldiers, or clerics, often assigned roles based on bloodline and loyalty. In many regions, undead laborers, such as reanimated skeletons and bound spirits, have replaced the living in agriculture and infrastructure, leading to economic growth yet social stagnation among the displaced.
Races commonly found in the Pact include:
- Vampires (aristocracy)
- Lycanthropes (both wild and free -- serve as military might)
- Humans (working class, clergy, or enforcers; some minor nobles)
- Dwarves (subterranean traders and smugglers)
- Spirits and ghosts (detached from mortal society but used ritually and for energy)
Religion
The Pact reveres a pantheon of deities centered on undeath, cycles, and boundaries. Its dominant goddess is Ekekkia, Mother of the Undead, a once-marginal road deity transformed into a powerful lunar and agricultural figure.
Other major deities include:
- Ulfgar, god of lycanthropy, wilderness, and the moon.
- Christopher Bale, god of time and spatial dominion, now marginal within Pact theology.
The Pact is highly suspicious of gods associated with life, fire, or mortal independence, often banning their worship or forcing syncretism through ancestral rites.
Foreign Relations
The Pact maintains a fragile peace with the Republic of Carcola, though relations are strained due to religious conflict, historical betrayal, and ideological incompatibility. Both nations impose mutual tariffs on the other, leading to the rise of Westport as an entrepot between the two nations. The Pact views the Azure Empire with curiosity and wariness, regarding it as a dangerous, chaotic upstart with no respect for tradition or metaphysical order.
Regions and Locations
- Helsingfyrd: The capital and heart of the nation. Built into layers from a luxurious Gothic Spire layer to a subterranean cavernous Tunnel Layer.
- Hopgon Coast: A misty, economically depressed coastline known for taverns, lycanthropes, and smuggling.
- Riksmal: A haunted, flooded city now controlled by Pact necromancers and home to the Pact navy.
- Ostholt: A melancholic port city with a strong lycanthrope intellectual presence.
- Charnheim: A Dickensian mining city governed by vampires and enforced by loyal human nobles.
- Nesskaap Reach: The mountainous, frosty northern peninsula of the Helskari continent. Loosely controlled by lycanthropic tribes, this region is also inhabited by humans, dwarves, and kitsune, who live simple lives of hunting, herding, fishing, and raiding, mostly free from control by government authorities.