Mark

Mark
Official portrait of Mark, issued by the Church, 2058
Title	Patriarch-Sovereign of Santa Berllium (2042–present)
Born	c. 2001 (historical); c. 1061 (Church tradition)
Church	Church of Mark
Spouses	500 (as of 2060)
Known for	The Millennial Crusade; the Marcodome

Mark (/mɑːrk/) (born c. 2001) is the Patriarch-Sovereign of Santa Berllium and the head of the Church of Mark. A former commander of the ███████████████, he has led the Church since 2042 and has for nearly two decades proclaimed his intention to retake the Hallowed Coast from the Ulmarkan Empire. The Church teaches that Mark is a thousand years old, that he took part in six crusades and that he will not die until the Coast is recovered. The historical record shows the name "Mark" at the head of the Church since 1873, borne by a succession of men, of whom the present one is the ninth.^[1][2]

According to the Church's Book of Years, Mark was born in the year 1061 in the hills above Anselmar, received the Banner at the age of thirty-five and has since fought in six crusades, each of which he lost and each of which he describes as the preparation for the next. The portraits issued by the Church show a man of about forty with a grey beard; the Church explains that Mark's face "is refreshed by faith" and that visitors who see him at a distance of more than three paces are not permitted to describe him.^[1]

The earliest document that mentions Mark is a muster roll of 1873, which lists a "Mark of the Banner" as the captain of a company of volunteers. Every earlier date in the Book of Years was written in 1874, and the Book is the only source for the six crusades. In 2059 the archivist Teodor Ravel published a study of the Patriarchal Archive arguing that eight men had held the name before the present one, each chosen for his resemblance to the last and trained in his manner and voice, and each buried in secret in the crypt beneath the Marcodome.^[2] The Church calls the study a forgery and has forbidden its sale.

The present Mark was born in the mountains of Santa Berllium and served as a captain, and later as commander, in the ███████████████, which fought beside the coalition of Rendorlin states in the Protectorate Wars. He was at Anselmar when it fell to the Empire in 2041, and is said to have been the last man to leave it. The eighth Mark died that winter, according to Ravel of a fever, according to the Church of "a journey", and the commander took the name in 2042.^[2]

Under the Clerical Dispensation, the Patriarch-Sovereign may take five hundred spouses, and Mark reached that number in 2060. Each marriage is arranged by the Ministry of Households with the family of the bride, and is understood by both sides as an alliance: the wives are drawn from noble houses and merchant families across Rendorlin, and their dowries are paid into the Treasury of the Banner. The wives live in a dedicated wing of the Marcodome, each with her own chapel, and form a body known as the Chorus, which sits as the upper chamber of Santa Berllium's council.^[3]

The Book of Years credits Mark with six crusades, each lost, and each told only in the Book: the Crusade of Salt (1096), the Winter Crusade (1119), the Crusade of the Three Rivers (1148), the Crusade of the Empty Boats (1172), the Crusade of Ash (1203) and The Last Banner (1214). No source independent of the Church mentions any of them. The Church teaches that the Millennial Crusade is the seventh, and the last.

Mark is a figure of great devotion among his believers and of ridicule elsewhere. His speeches, which routinely last six hours, are broadcast across Santa Berllium; his denunciations of the Empire and of the Cult of Landon are among the most quoted in Rendorlin. Torvald Hesk, asked about Mark in 2058, said only that he "did not hate him enough to be worth a war".

• Church of Mark
• Santa Berllium
• Marcodome
• Ulmarkan Empire