Regio dela Verde
 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| more than 305 million | |
| Founder | |
| Septon Valerius d'Léon | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Verde | 193,044,337 |
 Dorado | 56,351,044 |
 Plata | 27,687,046 |
 Capisaria | 13,077,653 |
 Davidos | 13,077,653 |
 Lesser Verde | 7,474,192 |
 Finorskia | 2,777,081 |
 Los Cuarzos | 319,121 |
 Diamante | 154,653 |
| Especia | Unknown, estimated to be more than three million. |
| Other Greater Meridon | Unknown, estimated to be more than one million. |
| Religions | |
| Syncretic Modernism, Parisism, Liberationism, Imperial Regio, Syncretic Traditionalism, Traditionalism | |
| Scriptures | |
| Lejendalia, Códices para Liberación | |
| Languages | |
| Classical Verdean, Vulgar Verdean | |
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Regio dela Verde (Classical Verdean: Reign of the Jade Queen) is a religion native to the Verdean Archipelago, founded by a group of Sacrementist clergy looking to reform their original faith, centralizing divine power into fewer deities. Over time, the beliefs of the Regio heresy diverged significantly enough that the heresy had become radically different from the parent faith. Valerius d'Léon and the heretical clergy on Isla Verde near Corazón del Río, declared the Septonate Brotherhood and cut all ties to Sacramentist believers, and established formally a separate Regio faith in AI 1330.
Over the multiple thousands of years of the Verdean hundreds of various sects, churches, and heresies split off of official Septonate doctrine, however sects can generally be divided into six broad categories, some of which are historical, and some extremely modern, with breakdowns being tied to traditionalism versus modernism, and snycretic and anti-syncretic Regio faith. Generally however, core Verdean nations tend to be anti-syncretic whereas diaspora communities, Verdean minorities overseas, and non-Verdean practitioners being more Syncretic in outlook.
History and Spread
Foundation
The Regio faith was originally the result of a centralist heresy of Sacramentalist religion established in the Archipelago roughly four thousand years ago. After the end of the dark age, Sacramentist teachings became formally established with a priesthood and organized church which slowly spread from Isla Lapis to the rest of the Archipelago. Over the course of Sacramento's spread, clerical disagreements over the nature of the gods resulted in sectarian divisions. A group of priests on Isla Verde formed a creed based around seven central deities as patrons of each of the Verdean Islands, as opposed to the hundreds of deities of more traditional Sacramentist sects.
The Septevate sect of Sacramentism grew more powerful on Isla Verde throughout the second millennium AI, however, Traditional Sacramentist aggressively worked to limit power of the Septevate sect. While initially liturgical and peaceful in nature, religious conflicts would break out into physical violence and persecution as the traditionalists engaged in mass executions of the Septevans and Septevans attacking the temples of the traditionalists. In AI 1830 (BCE 1330), conflicts would come to a head when a group of Septevate heretics led by Valerius d'Léon would in a religious conclave establish the tenets of the Regio faith, proclaiming the divine rulership of the Jade Deity and founding Regio de Verde.
Early Spread
Regio cults during the 19th century AI (BCE 14th century) were influential in the area around the city of Core de Rie on Isla Verde. It was during this time that the elite Parisus family, practitioners of the Regio, would come into political prominence. Under Alexias Parisus the Parisus family would seize control of Core de Rie and the Kingdom of Bayan in AI 1819 (BCE 1319) and launched a campaign to seize the whole of Isla Verde. Over the course of twelve years his conquests would bring the entire island to heel under the Kingdom of Bayan. Alexias would declare the Kingdom of Isla Verde, and as a Regio faithful made Regio dela Verde the official faith of the Kingdom, spreading the faith farther in twelve years than it had in the decades previous to his ascension. Sacramentalists and traditional Animists remained numerous outside the core regions of the island until after Alexias' death in AI 1798 (BCE 1298).
Alexias' successor, Andreas would be far more active in proselytizing the Regio faith to the Island. However, after many Septons were killed attempting to spread the faith Andreas would back these missionaries with the force of the state, executing apostates en masse. Though violent resistance would continue for many years, and indeed it is suspected that Andreas was assassinated in response to his cruelty, conversions to the Regio faith would increase steadily throughout the 18th century AI (BCE 13 century). Missionaries would spread the faith to other islands as well, with their conversion attempts backed by a zealous series of Verdean monarches, overthrowing Sacramentists throughout the Archipelago and establishing religious hegemony by the end of the century. The resultant conflicts resulted in the establishment of the Regio over the Verdean Archipelago as the Sacramentists fled to mainland Meridon, spreading their faith to the mainland.
Imperial Regio
During the unification of the Verdean Archipelago, the Diamnean queens of the Parisus and Santiago Dynasty, who also captured Corazón del Río in AI 501 (BCE 1), formed a symbiotic relationship with the Septonate of Corazón del Río. During the ensuing unification wars, the Santiago-Parsisus queens would receive the formal religious backing of the Septons for their conquests, which provided much needed legitimacy for the conquest. In exchange most Septon temples would receive protection from the Queens during the conquest. This informal sanction would be crystallized into the Mandate of Heaven, a divine sanction of right to rule for the Verdean monarchy, with the establishment of the Verdean Empire in AdI 1 (CE 500).
For much of the early Imperial period, the Septonate and the Empire would remain seperate but allied power structures in the Verdean Empire, with the Septonate providing legitimacy for the crown and stability within the empire and the Verdean crown providing military protection for the Septonate, and in some cases expanding the faith through conquest and colonization on the Meridonian mainland. This relationship would come to an end during the late 4th century AdI (9th century CE), when after Corazón del Río burned to the ground in a great fire, the Verdean monarchy refused to allow the establishment of a New Grand Temple away from the city while themselves relocating. Combined with the installation of a noble of a prominent Verdean dynasty, the relationship between the two organizations would fray for several decades, with the nobility of the Empire using the crown and the Septonate as methods of staging palace coups to seize control of the other. This would come to a head when Andrea de Bastille, a leading member of the Septonate seized the throne, favoring the Church in several matters. At the conclusion of the Imperial Civil War, the divide between the Regio Septonate and the Imperial Throne was restored in order to prevent further usage of the Septonate to establish party coups with nobles largely being forbidden from high level positions in the Septonate.
During the High Imperial Period, a time marked by exploration and colonization of the Especian Continent by the Verdean Empire, the Regio faith would spread somewhat to Especia. Efforts convert the native Especian populace however would prove much more challenging than that of the Meridonian continent. Relations between the Septonate and the Crown would become more tense as several Septons would "go native" with regard to native Especians, with many Septons siding with the natives against the throne even during native uprisings. Broken relations would lead to the publishing of a series of essays under the name El Caso del Libertad in AdI 1042 (1542). El Caso condemned the Mandate of Heaven and created a treatise of universal rights which would become the basis of liberalism and further anti-monarchist tendencies in the future, though the Regio establishment would remain in support of the crown in the immediate future.
Though relations between the Septonate and the Crown would recover over the 12th and 13th Imperial centuries (16th and 17th centuries), the crises of AdI 1299-1300 (1799-1800), notably the Great Plague of AdI 1300, and inability of the Emperor to deal with it, would finally put an end to the Regio-Imperial relationship. After a conference early in the year, the Septonate of Diamante and the Septonate of Corazón del Río would firstly formalize the Declaration of the Rights of the Commons (first postulated in El Caso), and then jointly declare an end to the Mandate of Heaven, tacitly supporting a revolution brewing in the Empire. With the overthrow of the child Empress and execution of her Lord Regent, the First Verdean Republic was established.