Vatican City
The Vatican City Sate is part of the city of Rome. Thought the Pope doesn't live here, having a private residency on the other side of Rome, it is essentially the ruling powerbase for the Roman Catholic Church.
Demographics
The Vatican has a number of clerks, priests, bishops & archbishops present. A number of local guards also protect the site too. If not a guard then the running of the church is the general purpose of work here.
Government
The Pope is classed as the Vichy of the Duchy that makes up the Papal City State. He has final say in all matters, and will generally leave the running of it to the bishops & priest, with the archbishops overseeing them. Only the ruling council of the Papal States & Rome, outrank anyone here but they generally leave well enough alone due to the power the church has throughout the country and beyond.
Defences
As part of the city of Rome, and the Papal States, the city itself acts as a front line of defence and all resources for it will protect the City State. Along with other nationalities loyal to the Church, at least nominally, the City State can call upon a massive array of troops & war machines to protect it. On top of that, they have recently elected Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor making attacking the City State a daunting prospect. Any attack on it may result in the largest European empire to date entering into war against the attacker.
Infrastructure
The area of the Vatican City has already been in existence for 700+ years, and only built up it's powerbase during the past couple of hundred or so. Because of this, they control the area by means of religion. As the de facto heart & soul of the Roman Catholic Church, the priesthood controls everything that goes on in the area. Finances, protection & law, training of local clergy & the rising up / casting down of members, and the matter of ecumenical matters all are governed here.
A clerical aide or more, along with a number of priests and a few bishops make up each branch of these overseeing the day to day running of the offices and religious observances. Archbishops deal with high ranking outsiders, and oversee the overall running of work. The Pope himself has final say though usually leaves the majority of the work to the archbishops.
Assets
The one thing the Papal City State has more than anything is manpower. Able to call all the faithful to their banner, the Church can be seen as the de facto power here, or the power behind the throne so to speak at least. Banking is highly important too, having a system of working out church dues throughout regions where their power is strong enough to do so. Also, many of the priests, bishops, and archbishops are of noble blood (usually the second or third or more in line to family lands & funds), allows them to call on these families to aid them when necessary with little trouble.
One problem they have is that they are trying to wrestle lands owned by the families into the church when one is still owned by the wealthy elite. Usually they get round this by having the family member leave their assets to the church upon death, or under certain circumstances. If this fails it reverts back to the family, though still kept as a religious building or holdings to keep the Church onside.
Guilds and Factions
Small clerical offices band together, usually under the auspices of a monastery or nunnery. They operate with little direct oversight, and usually report back on a regular basis to keep the hierarchy up to date of any changes or needs. They are usually based in different regions so keeping tabs on them directly can be painstaking so are usually given a degree of latitude.
There is two specific factions that holds quite a bit of power at present in the City State. The first is the financiers as they have the power to turn round and cut of funds at any time. The second is a group known as the Librarians. They control all information, and storage of the library in the Vatican. As information is a form of power they have to make specific decisions on a daily basis that could promote or ruin any part of the Church in any way. They also store any object or item that the Church decides they want to keep so they need to monitor these at all times.
One final group is the Black Pope. An evil organisation that makes it's home in & under the Vatican, it is the anthesis of everything the Vatican stands for. Led by a Dragonborn or Tiefling at a time they also make up the bulk of this group. Both have an ongoing shadow war against one another.
History
The Vatican City State has been in existence in some form from at least since before the 1st Century AD. The area was originally a marshy area of Rome on the west bank of the Tiber since the Roman Republic. Located in this area they were more of a prefecture until the Christianisation (nominally) in the late 300s AD to early 400s AD. After this the region was built up to accommodate the the burgeoning religion, and the need to have a central powerbase for it.
Tourism
Many faithful come to visit the Vatican regularly, especially wealthy elite trying to curry favour with the Church. Some lower caste peoples come too, hoping for a position to open up, or help of some kind. The later are normally driven off at the region around the Vatican is quite wealthy in & of itself.
Founding Date
1st century AD
Type
State
Population
300 to 400
Location under
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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