Santa Berllium

Santa Berllium
Flag
Montespera and the unfinished Marcodome, 2060
Location of Santa Berllium
Capital	Montespera
Government	Theocratic patriarchate
Head of state	Mark, Patriarch-Sovereign
Formation	1892 (the Concordat of the Banner)
Population	9.4 million (2061 est.)
Religion	Church of Mark (state church)
Location	Interior of Rendorlin

Santa Berllium (called by its critics "the Markian Empire") is a theocratic nation in the interior of Rendorlin, ruled since 1892 by the Patriarch-Sovereign of the Church of Mark. Its present ruler, Mark, is both head of state and head of the Church. With a population of about 9.4 million, mostly in the highland valleys around its capital, Montespera, it is a small state with large ambitions: its constitution names as its first purpose the recovery of the Hallowed Coast, the shoreline lost to the Ulmarkan Empire in 2041.^[1]

Santa Berllium was founded in 1892 when the first Mark's volunteers, after twenty years of campaigning, extracted a Concordat from the princes of the highland valleys, creating a state governed by the Church. In the twentieth century it was a quiet pilgrim state, supported by the pilgrim trade to Anselmar. In the Protectorate Wars (2035 to 2041) it joined the coalition of Rendorlin states and sent the ███████████████ to defend the Coast; the Brigades were defeated and Anselmar fell, after which the Empire established the Ulmarkan Protectorates along the shore.^[1]

The Patriarch-Sovereign holds all executive power. A College of Bishops advises him and a council of five hundred, the Chorus, composed of his spouses, sits as an upper chamber with the power to approve, but not to amend, his decrees. The Ministry of Households, which arranges clerical marriages, is the most powerful ministry after the Treasury of the Banner.

Santa Berllium has little industry and the nation's revenue depends on the Church: the sale of Letters of Remission, the dowries paid on clerical marriages and a pilgrim levy charged at the frontier. In 2060 the state's debts were reported to be larger than its annual product, most of them incurred in the construction of the Marcodome and in payments, in cash and in Letters of Remission, under the ███████████████████.

The capital, Montespera, lies in the highlands at the foot of the unfinished Marcodome. The state's founding document is the Concordat of the Banner; its army, the ███████████████, is maintained by a conscription of one son in five. The lost shrine-city of Anselmar remains on the state's coat of arms and on its stamps, outlined in black.

Santa Berllium has no embassies. It regards the Ulmarkan Empire as an occupier and the Cult of Landon as a heresy, and has banned both from its territory; pilgrims to Anselmar, who must pass through Imperial checkpoints and pay the Empire for a permit, are required by the Church to make a contribution for the privilege of paying twice.

• Church of Mark
• Mark
• Marcodome
• Rendorlin
• Ulmarkan Protectorates