History

World Weep Opening History

The nation of Vidrian had just started winding down from its celebrations of independence from Chelix when the First Heroes' March against the Mad Alchemist Mathesis was internationally organized. Many of its heroes of the revolution were lost in the creation of the Worldweep, and the nation buckled in navigating the period of time. The surviving representatives of government and militia attempted to guide the nation against the threats of the opportunistic pirates of the Shackles, the internal politicking of the devil-binding remnants of the Chelix nobility, and other burgeoning threats of these chaotic few months. Soon enough, when word from their neighbors that Mathesis's alchemical weapons of mass destruction were steadily raining ever southward, many abandoned the cities and moved inwards before they would fall victim to Mathesis's wrath. 

Age of Collapse History — The Era of Cacophony

In the millennium that followed, scattered pockets of survivors quickly began forming their own unique voices and identities. Many villages learned the habits of Mathesis, and word spread of effective ways to ensure settlments and populations never grew enough to earn her ire. However, in this age, there lurked an ever-present threat that did more harm to the people than even the occasional rain of Mathesis's experiments. Diabolism and the lingering dark influence of the remnants of the previous colonizing nation of Chelix. Devils stranded in the material universe due to the planar barrier of the Worldweep quickly adapted to their lot in life and created new rings of hierarchies, structures, and oppressed settlments. Although having lost many of its original members, the revolutionary underground group of the Firebrands still carried on in the hearts of the descendants of Vidrian. Many different voices in many different languages, cultures, and peoples all sang the same song of freedom, and where Devil Courts arose in this Age of Collapse, soon too would opposing bands of rebels. The nation banded together, and neighbors who had drifted over the centuries would fight shoulder to shoulder in undermining tyranny wherever it sprang up. 

Age of Renewal History

Once news spread of the defeat of Mathesis and the observation of no new alchemical experiments, the nation of Vidrian boomed as the various villages pulled together in shared alliance against the threats of Tyranny. Settlments would pool resources and expand into cities, and the cities would pool together to create a national government. In the decades since Mathesis's defeat, Vidrian has been organizing its Republic in preparation for reentering the world stage and exploring avenues of commerce available to it in the global and local markets.

Government

Vidrian currently houses a Guild Republic, where heads or representatives of the various guilds of the town hold more national power and ability to command infrastructure and militia than the various heads of cities. There is a push to institute a more democratic representative form of government, with many groups and towns pushing the idea of a constitutional democratic republic, but lobbying from said guilds is slowing this movement to a snail's crawl of bureaucracy and red tape. 

Points of Interest

• A city once called Anthusis, now simply known as New Freedom, stands in proud defiance against the tyranny of Cheliax and the so-called 'Free Captains' of the Shakles that seek to oppress the population of Vidrian. Port Freedom contains various headquarters of the guilds; most notably the Merchant-Prince League, the Indigo Weavers Cooperative, the Verdant Hand, the Horizon-Seeker co-op, and the Gem Guerre Guild. These various groups hold more power over the running of the city than the so-called mayor, and it is a fragile secret that the nation of the free has so many puppet masters of its various exports.
•  The Devil Points refer to various ranches, settlements, farms, and other places of interest that were once Chealix-affiliated and have since become overrun with bound devils, their masters, and other unfortunate souls that serve their desires. Each Devil Point is a stronghold of its own, and the takedown of a Devil Point is a lengthy campaign for those carrying the proverbial torch of the Firebrands. 
• The Blood Bastion refers to a Chealix-built fortress in what was once briefly called Silvertree and before that known as Crown's End. This Blood Bastion plays host to the new Noble Court of Chealix descended Diabolists. This structure and its surrounding settlement constitute the largest and most powerful of the Devil Points and serve as the impromptu capital of Chealix revivalists. 
• Several settlements throughout the previous national border of Vidrian are called 'blended-states'. Some of these blended states consider themselves part of the Mwangi Expanse, while some consider themselves Vidrian. There are no hard-set laws or rules towards these settlements within the new constitution of Vidrian, but the various guilds offer a number of financial incentives for these settlements to officially join the Republic of Vidrian.

Organizations Within

• Merchant-Prince League is a guild of sea-faring merchants and priveteers who primarily operate out of the Sodden Lands and The Shackles. They have a prominent satellite office in Vidrian and influence a number of policies and other political decisions to maximise trading profits. 
• The Indigo Weavers Cooperative is the largest textile and crafts guild operating in Vidrian. They are known for their signature Indigo dye, but work with several other imported or home-grown dyes to produce a number of clothing items, fabrics, threads, ropes, carpets, and any other textile item the workshops can produce.  
• The Verdant Hand is a federation of farmers who operate on several models to produce both cash crops for export and domestic yields for internal food security, especially in the city of New Freedom.
• The Horizon-Seeker Co-Op is an adventuring guild that has turned the previous model of the First Harbor of Hearts into a commercial industry of heroes for hire. They operate internationally and have a number of prime hero teams ready to accept contracts from other national governments.
• The Gem Guerre Guild is the nation's leading mining corporation, heading both luxury goods like gemstones, which is their primary business model, and also financing a number of industrial materials mines like those extracting copper, iron, and other staple metals.  
• The Fire Brand Revivalists are many groups that operate under the previous goals and tenets of the Firebrand organizations of the Era of Lost Omens. They are loose in their organization and structure, but are aligned in the basic practice of fighting tyrants. Some operate with the humble intent of quietly rebuilding the nation, while others are loud in their intent to bring attention to themselves and their practice. The sects of these firebrands often operate independently of each other, and some groups simply adopt the name without any contact with other Firebrands whatsoever. 
• The Cheliax Diabolists are a hierarchy of those who trace their ancestry, or at least claim their ancestral roots to the Cheliax colonists of the previous eras. These organizations often operate on a hierarchy tied to their devil-binding ability, with those who bind more powerful devils as more legitimate leaders of the various Devil Point settlements.  

Major Conflicts

• The Freedom Wars are a long-waging series of conflicts that were present even from the Age of Collapse, and have persisted over the centuries to the modern day. Cheliax Diabolists operating the Devil points against the main population of Vidrian townfolk and neighboring populations like the peoples of the Mwgani Expanse, and even the Free Captains of the Shackles, who put freedoms over their internal desire for profit. 
• Vidrian is one of the nations that has had its borders attacked by the up-and-coming Boggard Empire of the Sodden Lands, and a portion of their adventuring guild and internal militia are dedicated to rapid response units to Boggard attacks. 
• Similarly, the Shackle Free Captain Pirates have been a constant presence of raids and plundering in part due to their nearby location and Vidrian being one of the larger independent ports of the Western Coast of Garund. The Merchant-Prince League in Vidrian is one of the few places to reliably do trading with due to the league's treaties with the Free Captain pirates, and allows the league to charge exorbitant prices for their shipping. Independent merchants do not have those same protections and make the sea-faring life at Vidrian extremely perilous as the nation has only recently begun building up anything resembling a navy. 

Events in the Age of Renewal

• The Signing of the Spirit of the Nation is an event approximately thirty years previous to the founding of the Second Harbor of Hearts, in which the various settlements of Vidrian signed agreements and alliances to form a fledgling nation. This day is a celebrated national holiday, and a popular date for attacks from the Diabolist Chealixe faction, rewiring what would usually be a day of rest into a day of militant pride and preparation for the various settlements across Vidrian.
• The day after Signing Day is the Burning Day holiday, which celebrates a macabre victory over the Diabolists the day after the original Signing. The Diabolists led a massive march onto Anthusis and burned a majority of the city to the ground, before being repelled in a pyrrhic victory. Instead of giving up on the one-day-old nation, the people rebuilt the city into New Freedom, and celebrate this occasion each year with the controlled burning of various objects of personal significance. 

Other notable changes from the past Golarion

The general population and characteristics of inhabitants mirror the past Golarion. There is a notable difference in some aspects of culture regarding diabolistics and bound devils, and this has increased national faith in gods and pantheons that traditionally war against devils.