The Thibaian Divinity League (/θɪbaian dɪvɪnɪti li:g/ (Aeilla: sɪndɪsmos xɪrn ton θɪbaia/))
Σύνδεσμος Χρν τον Φιμπαϊα
The Thibaian Divinity League is the holiest of holy places of the Pandroi faith, a temple city with several smaller holy shrines and larger temples dedicated to the Pandroi gods. People from all over the Pandroi world come to Thibaia on a pilgrimage to the many holy places in the city, and many cities within the League have arisen to serve pilgrims travelling from abroad to go to the holy city itself. Those of a more worldly mindset come to the shores of Thibaia, which are secured by some of the deadliest fighters in the known world.
A political coup in ER 171 established the Divinity League as a state independent from the Exarchate of Korentis, a theocratic state where the faith was also the law. As a result, the Thibaian Divinity League is run directly by the priesthood of the holy city with some limited competition for religious and therefore secular influence over the state. This has resulted in a strange situation where most of the state bureaucracy is in fact also part of the priestly bureaucracy, with an unusually high proportion of spellcasters working to maintain the wheel of state. Generally, however, competition is kept relatively peaceful and indeed the various clergy, particularly of the more community-minded deities, often work together to improve conditions in the city.
Thibaia is relatively peaceful and stable, as with several powerful holy orders, including the fabled Knights of the Argent Raven, defending the theocracy, and few willing to actually attack a holy state, there is little external conflict. Strictly enforced laws limiting the conflict between temples that keep the internal peace. As a result, the Divinity League is often used as a neutral ground between various Aeillan leaders seeking to make peace by the pen instead of the sword. Generally, the speaker for the Divinity League is the head of its most influential temple, currently, this title is held by Pontifex Maximos Angevoi.
Demography and Population
Thibaia is comparatively heavily urbanized with most of the urban population living near the Bay of Alexios near the estuary of the River Tyros, which serves as a mercantile hub along the Tyros River trade route as well as coastal and maritime trade routes through southern Galisea. With several other cities inland serving pilgrims traveling on the road to the Holy City, and an extensive, though comparatively modest network of farms between all the urban areas. The temple attendance records of the Thibaian indicate a population of roughly 2,526,000 residents.
The Divinity League's city, and its capital, Thibaia has 86,100 residents. Aside from Thibaia, there are large settlements in the Divinity League, namely Kalristos with 17,200 residents, and Galos with 10,300. Thibaia concentrates its population along the coast and more specifically close to the Tyros River Estuary, one of the few river deltas with a comparatively deep and silt-resistant. Other smaller cities and towns do exist, largely along the major roads to Thibaia, serving as stopping points on the pilgrimage routes into the sacred city.
Thibaia is a melting pot of Aeillan cultures with most of the human population being split relatively evenly between the Tyroi Aeillans, Ilosi Aeillans, and Spartharoi Aellians, with the Tyroi having perhaps a slightly larger number than the other two. Other non-humans tend to be from other lands with large Pandroi presence, with Hadar and Gallegan peoples being particularly common inhabitants of the Divinity League, even if they are heavily concentrated in urban areas. Non-humans are rare and are of fewer races with Cyrenic dwarves and Grecci gnomes representing the near totality of the non-human population.
Territories
Thibaian Divinity League is on the smaller side for an Aeillan successor state. Possessing a land area of 73,200 square kilometers, which takes approximately 3 days to cross on foot, if one travels on the major roads, and somehow avoid the cities. It has an open frontier to its west and east, with Antiokos and Troinae respectively, and sharing the Menaulatolia with both states. Its eastern border is marked by the Tyros River, across from the Exarchate of Polanis and its Southern frontier is flanked by the Tealestrian Sea.
The Divinity League possesses a sem-humid seasonal climate with a short but very violent rainy season and a summer dry season with little precipitation. The nation is densely cultivated but with more drought-resistant crops than the wetter western states, and with the help of partially Feloran irrigation systems. Those areas that aren't cultivated are sparsely forested with grassland being the most common non-cultivated biome in the rolling hills of Thibaia. In recent years, the climate of the Divinity League has become milder, with many suspecting the influence of powerful spellcasters in the priesthood attempting to impact the climate of the nation.
Military
Aside from a small number of citizen militias to assist with law enforcement, the Divinity League lacks a standing military. Instead, the Thibaian temples each maintain a force of Paladins and other martial personnel who are often sent on quests by the temples but are required to come together for the common defense of Thibaia. Smaller chapter houses are scattered throughout the Divinity League with garrisons of knights. If such a force were united, it is doubtful any of Aeilla's armies, or indeed almost any army in the known world could successfully oppose them.
Technological Level
The Divinity League is somewhat behind in most aspects of technology in comparison to most other Aeillan successor states, with the Thibaian state being based on the Tyros River, its trade with Cyrenica and other advanced states is more limited than the western Aeillan states, and with certain holy orders being opposed to certain "spiritually weakening" technologies. The temples can however count on relatively modern metallurgy and in recent years are importing experts from Artenos, Cyrenica, and Felora to rapidly advance the technological base of the Divinity League specifically to rebuild Thibaia as a modern holy city, an ideal community upon which all members of the Pandroi Faith can be proud to travel to.
Religion
It is unmistakable that Thibaia is dominated by the Pandroi temples that make up most of the noteworthy buildings in the capital. With the priesthood often serving both as religious and temporal political heads. It comes as no surprise then that the Pandroi faith is the official religion of the Thibaian Divinity League. Despite this, the Thibaians maintain a rather cosmopolitan view and allow travelers from other faiths to come to Thibaia, and there is a minority of people who don't practice Panandroi living there. However, some temples are not pleased with this arrangement, and seek to more firmly convert the unfaithful. Indeed this is one of the primary sources of conflict between the temples at times.
Thibaia has no named patron deity, instead electing to worship the deities of the faith with a degree of relative equality, as the sacred neutral ground of Pandandroi. Nominally as a holy site there is to be no infighting by members of the faith, and the peace of the gods is to be maintained. Functionally speaking there is some competition between the temples, though open conflict is strictly forbidden with punishments for violence and especially sacrilegious activities are severe. For the most part, the competing temples maintain this peace faithfully.
Currently, the most influential temples and attendant deities in Thibaia are those of Maia, the Aeillan specific goddess of the Hearth, Io, and Hadriana, both goddesses of rulership, victory, and wisdom, and Syros the God of Solidarity, who in the Divinity League is generally worshipped in their feminine aspect. The weakest temples are those dedicated Tymnaros and Apatheon, which are generally poorly regarded, and worshiped through fear, and Rey and Odos, two deities who are protectors of certain non-humans and maintain domains important to those peoples.
Foreign Relations
Thibaia is largely neutral in Aeillan affairs and actively works to establish itself as a neutral ground for which members of the faith can be allowed to freely worship without the risk of being attacked. This has not, however, been without some complications. Thibaia is generally opposed to the practice of slavery, thanks to the large influence of the cult of Syros, which means that many slaving states are hostile to Thibaia. Additionally, as Thibaia was carved from the Korentine state, the Korentines are hostile, seeking to reclaim their lost land, with the Tourmarch of Antiokos being particularly keen on reclaiming the Holy City as a power base. All hostile nations, however, find themselves unable to meaningfully act against the state as the sacred nature of the league, and more importantly, the large army of extremely powerful holy warriors, ward off invasions.
Outside of Aeilla, Thibaia is largely a nonentity except for those states that officially support the Pandroi religion or have a majority or large minority of Pandroi faithful in their populations. Some Tealestrian powers, notably Qua'adar and the Dotharan Alliance do maintain envoys to the League to oversee a healthy trading relationship. Thibaia's high concentration of priestly power enables them to influence the actions of faithful states through seeking favor from the gods. However, Thibaia lacks the diplomatic capacity of more traditionally temporal Aeillan states and is necessarily reactive rather than proactive in foreign policy.
Agriculture & Industry
The Thibaian Divinity League maintains a highly developed agricultural network that is utilized by the overwhelming majority of the population to grow food for the populace. Much of Thibaia's arable land is crisscrossed by irrigation canals made by Felorans who sought to dramatically improve the agricultural output of the Tyros River while they held the Tyros watershed as the base of their power. This has resulted in Thibaia maintaining a respectable agricultural community with vast surplus outputs despite their small size. This surplus feeds the urban population which has grown rapidly in recent years.
Thibaia does not have much in the way of excess productive capacity with almost craftspeople in the Divinity League producing goods for local use, though goods made, especially by the forge priests of Rauranos are of exceptional quality. Instead, Thibaia has a valuable commodity in the form of magical services rendered by Thibaia's many clerics. Additionally, due to the security of the holy city protected by a small army of Paladins a number of financial institutions have headquartered themselves in Thibaia, meaning those seeking great quantities of gold in credit for some objective must come to the Holy City. Thanks to the fairly easy availability of spell casting, and credit individuals, Thibaia has become a major economic power in spite of its lack of industrial throughput.
Trade & Transport
Thibaia exists on the Tyros River trade route, along with the coastal and overland Guandao to Erigan trade route with the intersection forming the basis of Thibaian commerce with some additional routes overland and transoceanic rounding out the movement of merchants into and out of the Divinity League. The Divinity League benefits enormously from the pilgrimage routes to the Holy City itself with several well-made roads bringing trade in from neighboring states.
Available for purchase in most Thibaian markets are wares produced locally, with most marketplaces serving largely glorified grain exchanges with foodstuffs forming the overwhelming majority of goods on the market. Goods made by skilled professionals also exist, but are comparatively uncommon, through pottery, and some simple farm tools can be found relatively easily. Thibaia does, however, trade in services with those seeking the favor of the gods, or a source of coin, the banks, and temples of the Thibaian Divinity League are willing to provide.
Infrastructure
Thibaia is transmitted via the well-maintained Imperial Road network which consists of straight highways leading to other Polei and the city of Thibaia. In the older and better-maintained parts of the cities, there are some luxuries such as plumbing and sewers, and even streetlights, however, most urban areas have little in the way of advanced infrastructure, this is especially true of cities other than Thibaia, which were largely grossly underdeveloped, to begin with. The Holy City itself however is much more advanced than most of its satellite cities in this respect.
Founding Date
ER 171
Type
Geopolitical, Theocracy
Capital
Demonym
Thibaian, Thibaians
Head of Government
Government System
Theocracy
Power Structure
Provisional government
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
Imperial Denarios, Imperial Oros
Official State Religion
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Related Ethnicities
