The Quivira-Cibola Pact (commonly called The Pact[1]) is a Mesogean superpower located approximately 2,000 miles south of the Republic of The Burgue. It was formed about 300 years ago through a political and religious union between the kingdoms of Quivira and Cibola, "the Southern Twins", which up that point had been locked in a bitter feud for control of Martyrism. Following unification, the Pact rapidly grew into a country formidable enough to rival the Republic.
History[]
Early history[]
Over 1,000 years ago, the settlements of Quivira and Cibola were eastern coastal settlements of the Florin Empire, which stretched across southern Mesogea as far south as the Silk Sea and as far west as Bakarne. About 900 years ago, the Florin Empire collapsed due to famine and political unrest, and its former territories became independent. Quivira and Cibola survived as city-states and became regional maritime powers.
Soon, a feud developed. The royal family of Cibola claimed descent from the Martyr Hosea, whose life and teachings were central to the burgeoning Cult of the Martyr religion, but when the King of Quivira converted to Martyrism, he declared himself Domnitor of the Faith and formalized the Cult into the Church of the Martyr's Holy Passion, known simply as the Quivira Passionist Church. Cibola took umbrage at Quivira's usurpation and established its own denomination of Martyrism, the Royal Cibolan Orthodox Church. This religious divide between Quivira and Cibola kept the two city-states at each other's throats for the next several centuries, even as they expanded into prosperous kingdoms.
The First Tirnanese War[]
About 300 years ago, the humans of Mesogea discovered the fae continents of Tirnanoc and Ignota, ushering in a colonization rush. Quivira and Cibola lay claim to colonies in Tirnanoc, but were unprepared when war broke out with the Burguish Empire. Clashing with each other as often as with The Burgue, Quivira and Cibola both lost most of their colonial territories, and the First Tirnanese War became their most embarrassing defeat. In response, the two kingdoms held a summit wherein the Domnitor of Quivira agreed to marry the daughter of the King of Cibola, uniting the Passionist Church with the Martyr's bloodline and merging the two countries. The resulting Quivira-Cibola Pact eventually secured the allegiance of neighboring countries and city-states, forging it into a superpower that became The Burgue's greatest rival.
The Second Tirnanese War[]
Shortly after the start of the 7th century by the Burguish calendar, the Republic of The Burgue declared war on the Pact in an attempt to restore its old imperial prestige, which had steadily diminished after the Burguish Empire reorganized into the Republic about 150 years earlier. Tirnanoc became the battlefield in what came to be known as the Second Tirnanese War, or the Great War of Tirnanoc.
The Burgue's ambitions against the Pact backfired spectacularly. Although both sides had developed similarly advanced mechanical weaponry and the Burguish Army was equipped with superior rifles, the Pact's zealotry, ruthlessness, and hatred of the fae proved to be an overwhelming advantage from the outset. While The Burgue felt obligated to protect its fae colonies and had to devote resources and soldiers to that end, the Pact eagerly set about massacring the fae populations of the territories it occupied and employed horrific tactics, such as firebombing via airship, killing prisoners of war, and purposely transforming its own soldiers into Marroks. A conflict that The Burgue had assumed would be an easy victory became a nightmarish rout as the Pact smashed through their defenses and marched relentlessly across the whole of Tirnanoc.
Seven years ago, The Pact invaded Anoun, a fae kingdom in north Tirnanoc that was the Republic of The Burgue's last Tirnanese ally. The combined armies of the Republic and Anoun failed to halt The Pact's advance, culminating in the loss of Anoun's capital of High Bresail and The Burgue's hasty retreat. The following year, The Burgue launched a counter-offensive that recaptured a portion of Anoun, but it ultimately conceded defeat in the war and withdrew from Anoun entirely, leaving the fae kingdom to be ravaged by The Pact. Since then, The Pact has forbidden all Fae from leaving Anoun on pain of death, and the Fae left behind there are said to be trapped in a living hell.
Fae seeking to escape the clutches of The Pact rely on "sparrowhawks", other Fae who work for smugglers. Sparrowhawks guide refugees past Pact guards to the coast, where they rendezvous with smuggler ships and pay them for passage to places such as The Burgue. The Pact executes refugees and sparrowhawks on sight, and uses coastal artillery batteries to prevent the smugglers and other vessels from approaching the shore.
The New Dawn Revolution[]
One year ago, the New Dawn Revolution erupted in the Pact city of Ragusa, located on the coast of the northern mainland region of the Pact. The New Dawn was a collectivist egalitarian revolutionary movement led by a former faun servant named Leonora, who wrote the manifesto that became the movement's ideological core. The New Dawn set about destroying the bigoted Pact aristocracy and attempting to create a society where humans and fae could coexist as equals. Although the revolutionaries were outnumbered by the Pact military, their control of Ragusa meant they also held Ragusa's state-of-the-art weapons factories, which had been the center of the Pact's entire arms industry. The New Dawn was consequently able to bring more firepower to bear in the long term, giving them the advantage as the civil war stretched into the following year.
By the time of the events of Carnival Row, the Pact government is losing ground against the New Dawn movement and is forced to turn to its old enemy, the Republic of The Burgue, for weapons. Chancellor Jonah Breakspear and Sophie Longerbane convince Parliament to approve the arms deal by arguing that The Burgue can take advantage of the Pact's internal strife to reclaim Tirnanoc. However, not even the new weapons are enough for the Pact to stop the New Dawn and the civil war continues to go badly. As a last resort, the Pact withdraws all of its forces stationed in Tirnanoc, abandoning its occupation of the fae continent entirely, and launches an all-out assault on the New Dawn's territory, with a particular focus on its de facto capital of Ragusa. This assault fails, and the last of the Pact army is decisively routed. It is subsequently reported that the Pact is on the verge of surrendering to the New Dawn, but it is also claimed that the remnants of the Pact intend to fight to the last man.
Meanwhile, Leonora personally leads the operation to instigate the revolution in The Burgue with the Black Raven, aided by the sparas provocateur Mikulas Vir, who infiltrated the Pact military and worked undercover as aide-de-camp to Pact Ambassador Anrep. When Vir fails to massacre Parliament as planned and is instead killed, Leonora orders the New Dawn fighters to go into hiding. Leonora herself is captured by Agreus Astrayon, but she chooses to commit suicide rather than be imprisoned. The ultimate fates of the Pact and the New Dawn are not elaborated.
Politics[]
The Pact is a strict feudal state ruled by a King, who holds absolute power over the government and also heads the Passionist Church, the Pact's official denomination of Martyrism. The Pact's aristocracy convene in a representative body called the Lords of the Pact, but it is unknown how much power this body wields under the King.
Culture[]
As the center of the Passionist Church, the largest Martyrite denomination in the world, the Pact is deeply religious. The Pact's brand of Martyrism zealously adheres to the tenet that humans are inherently pure and fae are inherently sinful, due to humans being the children of the God of the Martyr Hosea and fae being the children of a deity whom they call the Mother Goddess Danu. According to Martyrite doctrine, fae are born into sin and were cast down by the Martyr as punishment, condemned to lives of pain and suffering beyond any redemption. While the Northern Martyrite Church of The Burgue teaches that the Martyr desires that humans treat fae with mercy and compassion despite their supposed impurity, the Passionist Church asserts that all fae are merely animals that must be controlled or exterminated. In the Pact homeland, all fae living there are required to work under harsh indentured servitude contracts, and in Pact-occupied Tirnanoc, fae lives are considered forfeit.
Locations[]
- Quivira
- Cibola
- Ragusa
Individuals[]
- Pact Loyalists
- Pact Ambassador Anrep
- Major Mikulas Vir
- Count Bozak
- New Dawn
- Leonora
- Kastor
- Tomas
- Hannah