The Archregimancy
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| Flag of The Archregimancy | |
| Motto: Slouching Towards Bethlehem | |
| Mapping a dreamed nation is impossible | |
| Region | The Dreamed Realm |
|---|---|
| Capital | The Grand Lavra |
| Official Language(s) | Old Church Liturgic |
| Leader | the Archregimand |
| Population | small, but expanding |
| Currency | tithe |
| NS Sunset XML | |
The Archregimancy, a truly unusual nation, exists on a dreamed plane which only occasionally intersects with ordinary physical reality. Its population consists solely of monks and celibate priests, many of whom are rumoured to be dreaming the nation into existence as they medidate. Should the number of monks meditating the nation into existence fall below a certain - unknown - figure, the nation would simply cease to exist.
Those few travellers who have managed to penetrate the Dreamed Realm report that the Archregimancy, despite the ascetic nature of many of the monks, welcomes visitors so long as they respect the unique culture and environment of the nation. Many monasteries, hermitages, and small churches dot the landscape, which varies from the lush forests where the lesser spotted auroch (the national animal) frolics through to harsh mountains and desolate deserts - which are favoured spots for the more austere hermits.
Curiously, football seems to be fantastically popular with the Archregimancy's population, and a league exists which pits many of the leading monasteries against each other.
One mystery which continues to baffle those rare visitors to the Dreamed Realm is where all of the monks and priests come from - no women or children have ever been seen in the Archregimancy. A possible clue lies in the ancient Codex Frosticus, a copy of which was smuggled out by one particularly intrepid visitor. According to the latter document, the Archregimancy is actually controlled by the mysterious and reclusive Alasdair I Frosticus, and serves not only as a vast hermitage and seminary for that nation's clergy and monks, but also serves as a gateway through which the latter nation can still be reached. The Codex Frosticus speaks of portal somewhere in the Archregimancy which serves as the nexus between the two nations of the Dreamed Realm.
If the Codex is correct, the Archregimand himself is the sole secular figure in the nation, the personal representative of the Basileus Alasdair I Frosticus in the Archregimancy.
Others, however, believe the Codex to be a clever forgery, designed to distract outsiders from the true purpose of the Archregimancy, though what that purpose might actually be is a matter of considerable dispute.
