Republic of Theros — The Godless City
I. Overview
Theros stands as a gleaming city of marble and logic in the heart of the desert, its domes crowned with sigils of knowledge rather than gods. The Rationalist Republic claims itself the first true civilization of mortals — independent of divine whim, ruled by reason, and protected by will alone. From its high courts to its academies, Theros thrives under the motto:
“Mortals are their own miracles.”
II. History
Founded after the Rebellion of Theros the Martyr, the Republic rose from exile into enlightenment. When the gods withdrew their blessings, crops withered and divine light faded — yet the city endured. Their mages distilled water from sand, their artificers healed the dying with alchemy, and their philosophers unified the survivors under secular law. This triumph is remembered as The Rationalist Miracle.
The gods’ curses never fully lifted; holy magic still fails within its walls. But this only serves as a badge of pride — a scar that proves mortals can thrive without prayer.
III. Government & Society
The Republic is governed by the Senate of Rationalists, a body of elected magi and philosophers presided over by the Archon.
Archon Lycinus the Skeptic: Elder statesman, orator, and founder of the Secular Codex.
General Drusilla “Adamant”: Commander of the Mage-Sentinels, enforcer of anti-divine law.
Senator Cassia “The Voice”: Minister of Culture and the Republic’s master propagandist.
Citizenship must be earned — one must renounce divine allegiance and pass the Test of Logic and Loyalty. Within, life is ordered and studious: duels of wit replace duels of blade; debate arenas echo louder than temples.
IV. MAJOR DISTRICTS / POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Seat of the Republic of Theros
A monumental citadel housing the Senate Chamber, the Archon’s Office, and the Rationalist Archives. Its ceiling is a mosaic of shattered halos — the symbol of freedom from divine oversight.
Hook: A hidden chamber beneath the Senate holds the first prototype of a device that nullifies divine magic across a mile radius.
2. Arcanum Mortalis
A sprawling campus of academies and laboratories where secular spellcraft, alchemy, and psionics are taught. Professors here debate the nature of the soul in purely material terms.
Hook: A philosopher claims to have mathematically proven the gods’ mortality — and promptly vanishes.
3. Courtyard of the Godless
A serene marble plaza where statues of every major god stand — each faceless, their names chiseled away. It is both a park and a silent protest.
Hook: One statue has begun to weep ichor — divine intrusion or rationalist hoax?
4. Golden Exchange
The city’s economic heart, where alchemists and artificers trade reagents, psionic amplifiers, and constructs. Banking here uses memory sigils instead of coin — transcribed thoughts stored in crystal.
Hook: A vault full of memory sigils has been corrupted; hundreds of citizens have lost fragments of their lives.
5. Theater of Man
A grand amphitheater where state-funded plays dramatize the triumph of mortals over divine folly. Senators often attend to “test” public sentiment.
Hook: The next play’s script mysteriously portrays Archon Lycinus as a tyrant — and no playwright claims authorship.
6. Necropolis
Once a temple district, now an ordered labyrinth of mausoleums. Here, psionic mourners maintain the minds of the dead in crystalline form, allowing families to “visit” their loved ones through projected memories.
Hook: The dead have begun speaking unscripted truths.
7. Alchemist’s Retreat
A quiet district of greenhouses, laboratories, and apothecaries. Secular healers here have replaced clerics, inventing self-mending grafts and mind-tonic elixirs.
Hook: An alchemist’s serum promises to remove divine influence entirely — but begins erasing souls.
8. Oasis of Whispers
A verdant sanctuary maintained through alchemical irrigation, where travelers and skeptics rest beneath whispering palms that seem to speak lost thoughts.
Hook: The whispers now repeat secrets of the Senate — someone is using the oasis as a psionic spy network.
9. Chains Bazaar
A lower district where outlawed divine relics are bought and dismantled for arcane study. Run by smugglers under secret Mage-Sentinel oversight.
Hook: A dismantled holy relic is reactivating itself.
10. Desert Crucible
The outer forges where the Iron Concord once trained. Here, the Mage-Sentinels test weapons designed to counter miracles. The sand is fused to glass from constant spellfire.
Hook: A weapon forged to “kill a god” has gone missing.
V. Culture & Daily Life
Therans live by reason: schools and forums outnumber taverns. Debating philosophy is a sport; theater is propaganda. Music celebrates invention, not divinity.
Priests who renounce their gods are granted citizenship with honor; those who don’t are exiled. Dreamers, engineers, and skeptics thrive — but faith is a crime of passion.
VI. Factions Within
The Republic of Theros (Civil Government)
The official ruling body of the city, composed of the Senate of Rationalists, led by Archon Lycinus the Skeptic. It governs through logic, law, and secular order. The Senate’s authority is absolute within the city walls, and its members see themselves as custodians of reason and civilization.
Focus: Legislation, education, diplomacy, public order.
Doctrine: “Mortals are their own miracles.”
Methods: Debate, propaganda, academic control, political purges.
Conflict: Split between moderate rationalists (who tolerate private belief) and zealots (who view faith as treason).
The Mage-Sentinels (Public Military and Guard Force)
Theros’s elite enforcers — an army of psionic warriors, artificer-knights, and secular magi who protect the city and uphold the Senate’s decrees. They are the Republic’s shield and its visible show of strength. Led by General Drusilla “Adamant,” they wield technology and disciplined thought as weapons against divine influence.
Focus: Law enforcement, city defense, and suppression of divine manifestations.
Doctrine: “Order is born from discipline; chaos from faith.”
Methods: Psionic patrols, counter-divine training, memory auditing.
Conflict: Increasing militarization and paranoia; some Sentinels question the morality of suppressing harmless faith.
The Iron Concord (Hidden Network)
The Republic’s shadow hand — an officially “nonexistent” organization tasked with waging covert war on the divine world beyond Theros. Composed of exiles, assassins, and militant philosophers, the Concord operates under Archon Lycinus’s secret patronage.
Focus: Covert operations, sabotage of divine cults, intelligence gathering.
Doctrine: “Faith is a weapon; we disarm the gods.”
Methods: Infiltration, relic theft, divine assassination, misinformation campaigns.
Conflict: Ideological extremism; some cells act without Senate sanction, blurring lines between protector and terrorist.
The Remnants (Outlawed Faithful)
A small but persistent underground of priests, former oracles, and quiet believers who cling to worship despite persecution. They meet in crypts, ruins, and the back rooms of libraries to whisper forbidden prayers.
Focus: Survival of faith, preservation of divine texts, spiritual refuge.
Doctrine: “Even silence is a form of prayer.”
Methods: Secret gatherings, hidden iconography, coded scripture.
Conflict: Constant persecution; infiltration by both the Mage-Sentinels and Iron Concord.
Faction Dynamics Summary:
The Republic maintains its polished order through the Mage-Sentinels’ visible might and the Iron Concord’s invisible reach — but both rely on control and suppression, not unity. The Remnants represent the quiet heartbeat of rebellion beneath the marble calm, and their mere existence threatens to fracture the illusion of absolute reason.
VII. Hooks & Secrets
The Archon’s Doubt: Lycinus secretly keeps a hidden altar to Athena — a moral fracture that could destroy him if discovered.
The Memory War: Psionic scholars at Arcanum Mortalis debate whether collective belief itself fuels divine power — if so, the Republic’s propaganda is literally weakening the gods.
The Oracle’s Ghost: A spectral prophet haunts the Necropolis, claiming to be the last true oracle of Theros — begging to warn the city of its own hubris.