The Great Experiment

Founding

The Gods give the Apex province limited autonomy after appeals by philosophers that wish for mortals to move out from under their "parents'" shadows.

For a thousand years the Ordering existed in harmony. The mortals were grateful for the Gods' guidance. However, over time many began to wish to move out from under the heavy hand of the Gods and their Guardians. Appeals for self rule begun to be made in the 1000s. Many debates were had in the Temple. At first the Gods declined to grant these wishes. Finally in the year 1126 a short lived "free city" was established in Apex City. This republic failed by 1128. In the aftermath Khalesar the waterwalker seized a mothballed fleet left over from the First Scourge and established the Dead Sea Collective.   Over the next thirty years the arguments concerning a free province continued. In the Apex province there were major unrest in the winter of 1150. The revolt was suppressed by 1152, but summering discontent continued. In 1155 a petition signed by most of the prominent citizens in the Apex province was given to the Gods. It asked that Apex be allowed to experiment with a Republican government for a century as an autonomous province of the Ordering.   A Great Debate was held among the Gods. The Allfather favored the petition, arguing that the republic would fail, and thus prove the superiority of the Ordering system. The Manyfaced and the Unmaker were against the petition, thinking it would seed rebellion and dissent in the Ordering. The Forgemother was initially skeptical, but reports of Dead Sea Collective attacks in the west convinced her that the last thing the Ordering needed was a full scale rebellion in Apex. The Allspeaking was moderately in favour of the petition. He was dispatched to oversee the province. Apex was given autonomy in 1156.   By 1158 Apex had a republican constitution, a Dux (doge in the local dialect), a Great Council, and a Senate. Dissenters, Free-Thinker, Inventors and Merchants flocked to the province. Apex was not free, but it was less oppressive than anywhere else. The province did not fail as the gods had expected. Soon it enjoyed wealth unrivaled anywhere else in Renata.   It was not long before the rulers and great men of Apex begun to plot to achieve full freedom. They anxiously awaited the year 1256 when their experiment would be ended. Their independence would have to be secured before then. During the decades leading up to 1200 the Dead Sea Collective grew in power. Many scholars now suspect they received material and monetary aid from Apex merchants with support from the government. The God sent to oversee the experimental Republic soon grew enamored with it. The unity of purpose which the Gods had until then enjoyed was breaking up.