Welcome to
Saint Peter's Heir, a forum game similar to most political RP games on other forums and is by no means unique at all. I, Kaferian, shall be your GM for this game and, hopefully, others in the future. You will look to rise through the ranks of The Church and navigate your character through the Halls of God.
Our start date will be May 26th, 1085, a day after the death of Pope Saint Gregory VII. It is a time when the Popes crowned Emperors and Kings and held sway over all of the Western Christian World and possessed the weapon of
excommunication a weapon more powerful than the armies of France or the Holy Roman Empire. Now your character must elect or even be his successor.
Whether you use the church to obtain personal wealth and power, fight in the name of the Church, or reform the Church to make it truly Holy, have fun.
Rules of Saint Peter's Heir
Applying and Joining:
You may join at any moment you desire, but you must join as either a priest or a soldier in the service of the Papal States. I will promote the first few priests that apply to the position of Cardinal or Captain-General. After the Pope is elected, he will take over these tasks for me.
To join you must fill this sheet out:
Name: Ex. Anon Ymous
Age: Self-explanatory
Culture: (Accepted Cultures are [at the moment]: French, Italian, and German)
Field: Priest or Soldier
Bio: Required. I don't care if it's masterfully written or not, just as long as you aren't an amnesiac. You can also be married if you are a priest or a soldier as priests were allowed to be married. You are not required to remain celibate, but some Popes may decide to do horrible things to you if you're not.
All priests start as Bishops in the region that is controlled by their culture group. (For example, French bishops would be in charge of a bishopric in France.) Elevations to Archbishop and Cardinal are made by the acting Pope, unless events change this.
Players are encouraged to create families and dynasties, so that when they die they can have a family member succeed them. The player playing the Successor will obtain a fraction of their predescessor's income, wealth, and influence as inheritance.
Conclave Matters:After the Pope dies, a Papal Conclave is called and all Cardinals must return to Rome to attend it. This is before Cardinals were locked in the Conclave until they elected a Pope, so you can head off to foreign lands to collect loot to further your Papal campaign.
To be elected the candidate must have a supermajority of the vote. Players may bribe, blackmail, and brute force their way through to the Papacy. This was commonplace as all of Europe pushed to have their candidate crowned as Pope.
Votes will be via PM to me, the GM. You may publicly declare who you're voting for in an IC post. Beware though, you may get blackmailed or threatened. For this first Conclave the Subject should be "SPH Vote 1085". Just put your character's name and who he is voting for.
If you need to distribute titles and land to Cardinals, you may PM at the end of the Conclave and I will update the stats accordingly.
There will be an update when a new Pope has been chosen. The new Pope will be obligated to choose his Papal name, and appoint his Curia in an IC post. If you have any special requests for your coronation update, PM me with them.
Papal Power:Popes traditionally choose the name of a Saint or Pope as their Papal Name, although they may choose any name. (I reserve the right to reject any silly name that I see and disapprove of.) Following this they must appoint 5 members of the Curia. The Pope has unlimited power, but outside of his normal duties such as running the Papal States, he must find a precedent for it. To find a precedent, the Pope must either PM the Prefect or state his order in an IC post for the Papal lawyers to find a precedent. If found the lawyers will respond via PM or IC depending on how the Pope wanted it to be done. If a precedent is not found, a Pope can go through with the action anyways, but a Cardinal can use this as justification for deposing the Pope.
Roman Curia:Vice Chancellor: Head of the Chancery of the Apostolic Briefs, serves as the Head of Government, as well as keeping the Cardinals in line and combating plots. He may only be a Cardinal.
Secretary of State: He handles foreign affairs. He may only be a Cardinal
Chamberlain: Head of the Apostolic Camera and is in charge of economic affairs. Cardinal
Prefect: Head of the Apostolic Signatura and is the second-highest judicial authority. Cardinal
Captain-General: Commander-in-chief and tactician. May be a regular soldier or a Cardinal
Cardinals The Pope will appoint the Cardinals.
The Cardinals may have either been a soldier or a priest, it does not matter.
The Cardinals may try to depose the Pope, but the leader of the deposal force must have a precedent and achieve a supermajority in the vote to depose the Pope. You can call for a vote in an IC post.
Stats:Your character has three stats: Income, Wealth, and Influence. Income is self-explanatory, so is Wealth. You can use Influence instead of Wealth in your Orders if you are flat broke. Doesn't work the other way around.
The Church has three stats as well: Net Income, Treasury, and Moral Authority. Net Income is just the Church's profits. The Treasury is how much Ducats the Church has saved up. Moral Authority is how strong and influential the Church is. This can be improved by smashing down heresies and anti-papacies and generally showing the superiority of the Church. The higher this is, the more things the Pope can do.
Orders:You get three Personal Orders to start off with. If you are a part of the Curia or the College of Cardinals, then you will have 2 Personal Orders and 1 Administrative Order. If you are The Pope, then you get 1 Personal Order, 1 Administrative Order, and 1 Papal Order.
Personal Orders are used to help yourself or the Church via Wealth or Influence.
Administrative Orders are used to serve the Church and the Papal States.
The Papal Order is used to order Excommunication, promote or demote priests and soldiers, expanding the College of Cardinals, and so on and so forth.
These Orders are to be sent via PM to me in this format:
To:Kaferian
Subject: SPH Orders, [Character Name], [Year]
Personal Order:
Expand the ports of Ancona...
Administrative Duties:
Drill the First Roman Lancers...
Papal Orders:
Excommunicate the whole College of Cardinals for being useless...
That is all for now. I will probably add more in the afternoon.