The Regime
He gave us the walls. We give him our gratitude. This is the covenant. This is the law.
Overview
The Regime is the immortal state of Caligo — the apparatus of statues, prayers, garrisons, and silver ravens that all serve the rule of the God-King Rimalath. It is not, strictly speaking, a government in the sense that any other city in any other land might have a government. It is a covenant, enforced as law, repeated as prayer, taught to children before they can read.
The walls keep out the Ruined. The Regime keeps the people inside the walls. The two have been twined for so many generations that most citizens cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. To question the Regime is to weaken the walls. To weaken the walls is to invite the kaiju in. The logic is clean. The enforcement is thorough. Most people believe it.
The God-King
Rimalath is the elf-king whose "divine continuance" — a quality the state priests cite without ever quite defining — has allowed him to rule for longer than history bothers to record. He is credited with the building of the three walls. His statues line every square. His prayers are spoken each morning in every canton, every school, every garrison barracks, from the outermost farms to the innermost courts.
The Regime does not exist independently of him. The Regime is him, refracted through the institutions that serve his rule. The Inquisition is his sword. The Garrison is his shield. The priesthood is his voice. The walls are his promise.
What the Regime is for — beyond the perpetuation of his rule and the management of the people behind his walls — is the question Harland Ashworth disappeared trying to answer.
Structure
| Arm | Role |
|---|---|
| The God-King | Sole authority. Source of all law. Resides in the capital behind the innermost wall. |
| The Inquisition | Internal enforcement. Magic ban, treason cases, canton quarantine. Silver ravens on dark greatcoats. |
| The Garrison | Standing army. Patrols the walls. Mans the gates. Repels kaiju assaults. |
| The Priesthood | Ceremonial. Maintains the prayers and the statues. Less powerful than it appears; mostly an instrument of the Inquisition. |
Goals
- Maintain the rule of the God-King.
- Keep the walls intact.
- Suppress magic. (Per the magic ban: to practice magic is to defy the God-King; to defy the God-King is to betray every soul sheltered by his walls.)
- Control all information about what lies beyond the walls.
Relationships
- The Inquisition — Internal enforcement arm. Closer to the God-King than the Garrison.
- The Garrison — External enforcement. The wall guards.
- The Resistance — The threat from within. Hunted at every level.
- House Ashworth — A nobility the Regime tolerates because it provides intelligence on the kaiju. The Regime does not know what else the Ashworths know.
Status
Active. The dominant — and only legitimate — power within the walls.