Sprigstein
To an outsider, the capital city of Sprigstein already appears marvelous at first glance. Despite lying at the base of the Acronian Sea’s highest mountain, her grandeur is by no means diminished. A true metropolis, the entire city is carved of stone, and her tall towers are capped with golds and silvers. This is only part of her glory, as only her denizens and savvy outsiders know: like the tip of an iceburg, the city burrows deep into the earth, a network of tunnels and caverns taking the place of the upper roads and citadels. This is the city of the dwarves.
A highly devote and religious people, Sprigsteiners are hard working and every individual is devoted to a craft that serves the church. Many serve as knights, many more as stonecutters or miners, a prodigious few are sculptors, and those with an affinity for magic are adopted into the church as clerics. Almost every dwarf citizen, upon reaching adulthood, takes an apprenticeship in a chosen craft, following a strict and oft considered holy path to perfect their trade and advance to journeyman and eventually master craftsmen. In fact, the economy, government, and religion are barely indistinguishable as a layperson’s craft (and means of income, in order to pay the tithes) is considered their tribute to Rixa, and as such the aesthetics serve the Angel of the Earth by taking guardianship over the people.
The Theocracy is one of the few states that has little interest in either expanding her borders or governing the surrounding villages and hamlets. Aside from a very few farming towns and mining outposts, the church instead prefers to dig deeper into the earth for more precious metals, jewels, diamonds, and minerals, which they export for almost all the city’s other needs. In addition to raw materials, the mastercraft, dwarven, volcano-forged weapons are some of the strongest in Craedock.
Although wary of outsiders and with almost no immigration in the state, Sprigsteiners are exceptionally warmhearted and compassionate to those who befriend them. The capital, considered an impenetrable stronghold, has historically always hosted a number of refugees from other countries during their wars, as is the case now with Hekros.
Government
Leadership in Sprigstein is highly structured and rigid, requiring very formal religious councils to alter its form. The theocracy is governed by a council of archbishops, that is led by an Otho. The Otho is head of all the church and leader of the state, said to gain his prophetic might from Rixa himself, and has almost no checks on his executive power other than his strict adherence to religious oaths: including that to care for his people. Each clerical position, from the lowest priest to the Otho himself, is hand selected by his or her predecessor.
Unlike regional based jurisdiction, each of the archbishops of Sprigstein is granted domain over a different type of stone or metal: there may be an archbishop of gold, silver, phosphorus, obsidian, granite, etc, and each has power over tariffs, regulations, and mining operations involving those materials. At lower echelons, bishops might be given domain over a particular trade, craft, or profession and will hold the ability to regulate them as they see fit. Finally, priests worship locally, guiding their flock over a given tunnel, mine, neighborhood, or district of the great, sprawling, underground metropolis that is the capital.
Industry & Trade
Precious Metals
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