Arcadia

Arcadia was a vassal once — Frysia's vassal. Then Britannia lifted them up, armed them, sanctified them, and aimed them. Today Arcadian soldiers hold the occupied Frysian north, Arcadian STARs march under banners of the god TiAtlas, and Arcadian preachers explain that all of it is destiny.

Most Arcadians believe it. That's the masterstroke. You don't need to chain a puppet that thinks it's the hero.

But the seams are showing. Royalists cling to Britannia's hand. Nationalists whisper that an empire that rose by someone else's hand can fall by it too. And the Purists — the fastest growing faith movement in Arcadia — preach that the STAR program is heresy, that strength granted by machines profanes everything TiAtlas stands for.

Deep in Arcadia's holiest temple sits a relic the nation would burn before surrendering. They worship it as the fist of their god. They have no idea what it actually is — or that the most important object in their vaults isn't even the famous one.