All dates after about 800 are subject to tweaking.

Early History

In order to understand the history of the Holy Empire of Loaf, one must know the basic workings of the official religion, Loafism. According to Loafism, God left all knowledge for any human to discover, except for the seven Great Secrets. God gave each one of these secrets to seven different people in the Giving of Secrets. These people, four men and three women, founded the priestly Loafian orders that persist today. Each order established its brand of the new religion in a region, eventually becoming strong political leaders. The founders then came together at the shore of the Great Lake, the current site of Loaf City, to sign the Charter of the Holy Empire, forming the Holy Empire of Loaf as one nation.

Each of the Loafian founders wrote their ideology into a book, as well as one very vague hint to their Great Secret. The founders' books were later edited into a coherent scripture by the orders they founded. After several rounds of ecclesiastical committees, the Holy Moot of Loafion (today's Loaf City) standardized the Book of Orders in 212 AL. The Book of Orders is read reverently by all worshipping Loafians today.

Loafians use the Giving of Secrets as year zero. The Loafian calendar was originally lunar, with additional months inserted to keep pace with the solar year, but was reformed to a solar system in the early 10th century. The current Loafian calendar year is 12561158, starting on the month of Monspring, followed by Dispring and Trispring, which are succeeded by Monsummer, Disummer, Trisummer, so on with autumn and winter. Loafians use the term AL, or Age of Loafism, to denote years after the Giving of Secrets.

The clergy of Loafism is hereditary. The first-born child of a Head Priest is instructed in the rites and doctrine of Loafism and spends four years of their life in their family monastery. At the end of their training, they are given their family's Great Secret, the one that God gave their ancestor, and they become their order's Head Priest upon the death of their priestly parent. Non-firstborn children can also be part of the priesthood, making each Loafian Order several hundred people large. However, only the first four legitimate children of a priest (later limited to the first three) were considered to be endowed with the holy gift, keeping the size of the priesthood relatively stable. Illegitimate or younger siblings have proven to be thorns in the priesthood's side throughout history. Loafian priests were also feudal lords, exercising absolute power over their provinces and answering to a High Priest in the center of the country. The position of High Priest, by religious law, has to circulate among the priestly orders. Six of the seven Loafian orders remain alive today, since the Order of Nyhl was destroyed and assimilated by the Order of Alx in the year 500.

Revolution and secularization

In the middle of the 10th century AL, several uprisings broke out in neighboring nations, sparked by both enlightenments and scientific revolutions as well as the rise of Agnosticism. Agnosticism attacked all forms of organized religion in all nations, claiming that the existence of any god could not be proved nor disproved. For the first time in Loafian history, a small minority of citizens were not following the official religion. In addition, many of the Loafian orders were pursuing increasingly tyrannical policies. Among other things, the orders increased taxation, closed libraries, and most importantly legalized the enslavement of Agnostics. The orders justified the enslavement with their Great Secrets, which they claimed gave them the right to deprive heretics of freedom. For the first time, several Loafians questioned the priesthood on the validity of the family secrets. In the Province of Jein, several public dissenters were jailed, sparking the Loafian Revolts. Across the country, Loafians and Agnostics alike participated in mass protests, which eventually turned into armed riots. The priestly orders were unable to contain the violence, and the mob raided the Holy Palace and beat High Priest Glod IV to death in 960 AL. The leaders of the uprising formed a provisional junta, which ruled the country for six crisis-filled years. During junta rule, the powers of the priesthood were severely curtailed, Loafism was de-emphasized in the state, civil liberties were suspended, and the country burned.

The Government of the Holy Constitution

Bankrupt and losing support, and pressed by mass peaceful protest, the junta negotiated the Holy Constitution with a coalition of Loafian priests and prominent Agnostic business leaders in 962. Under this constitution, a bicameral legislature was established, with one elected house (the House of the People) and one house composed of a few delegates from each priestly order (the House of God). While Loafism was still recognized as the official religion, religious freedom was built into the constitution. Free elections took place across the nation, and secular governors took office for the first time in many Loafian provinces. In 1091 a large number of Agnostics and Agnostic sympathizers sat in the House of the People, and they threatened the Loafian priesthood with taxation if they didn't relinquish their power in the government. By that year, many Loafian priests had grown far more liberal than their ancestors, rolling back religious regulations and decriminalizing the usage of alcohol, a substance considered sinful in Loafism. Liberal priests, primarily late-born heirs who did not sit in the House of God, pushed the church for reform. People's Speaker Ellis Lune spearheaded the Lune Amendment of 1093, which formally abolished the House of God. In exchange, Loafism was reaffirmed as the state religion, the Loafian Church was made permanently exempt from all taxation, and one member of the seven-member High Court of Loaf is elected by the priesthood.

Today, the Holy Empire of Loaf is still symbolically headed by the High Priest, though the Prime Minister holds all powers of state. A unicameral legislature, which still carries the title of House of the People, controls all laws through a parliamentary system. The executive branch is controlled by the Prime Minister, who appoints the heads of the various Ministries. The High Court of Loaf is the supreme judicial court, though it cannot interpret laws. The Holy Empire is divided into six provinces, mirroring the six surviving Orders. Today, the country is formally about 22% Agnostic, 70% Loafian, and 8% Other (largely immigrants), though over a third of the self-identified Loafians have little to no involvement with religion. The country is about 9% foreign-born: as a middle-income country with a strong religious history, it isn't the most attractive to immigrants, though it still attracts migrants from poorer or less safe nations.

Provinces and Orders of the Holy Empire

The province of Alx contains Loaf City, and is the largest of the provinces. This province is wholly inland, and borders one side of the Great Lake. The current High Priest, Alx IV, hails from this region's Order of Alx. A very small movement exists to reestablish the destroyed House of Nyhl. This region is typically politically and socially moderate, balancing Loafian religious ideals with Agnostic secularism. Agriculture is dominant in this region, alongside proud and old Alxian factories. The presence of the politically-independent Loaf City and the Regional Assembly adds an international community to Alx that contrasts with the traditional-feeling prairies of the rest of the province.

The province of Jein controls almost half of the Loafian coastline, and is the most liberal of the provinces. The Order of Jein successfully pushed for the abolition of strict regulations on things like adultery and abortion. While agriculture and industry are prominent, Jein is the most populous province due to its three substantial metropolitan areas (Jein City, Allaben, and Cadil) and urban character, and service and technology thrive there.

The province of Hild is by far the smallest province, both in population and area. It takes up nearly all of the mountainous terrain along the western Loafian border. The region's largest city, Hildon, has a population of 200,000. The mountain's small quantity of arable land is mostly grazed by sheep and Degosauruses. The Order of Hild lives exclusively in monasteries built into the sides of Hildan mountains or caves. Hild is too small to matter much politically, but it has been shown to vote conservatively.

The province of Flen is the second-largest province, extending across hundreds of kilometers of old-growth Loafian forest. Timber has been the dominant industry for hundreds of years, though it is carefully regulated by the religious Order of Flen. Religiously and politically, Flen stands out from the rest of the provinces. While it isn't the most conservative region in the Holy Empire, Flen leaves several aspects of administration to the priests, who regulate things like fishing and mining. The priestly tradition of Flen is a proud one, and efforts by other Loafians to change the region's politics are met with fierce local opposition. With the exception of the moderately-sized capital city of Flena, Flen is a fairly rural place.

Part of the Loafian plains and all of its desert are controlled by the Province of Glod. In the first free election, Glodians elected a firebrand priest, who quickly reestablished all of the old institutions with the support of the people. The Province of Glod is the only region in the nation which still strictly adheres to old Loafian religious law. Here is where the Grey Fear of technology is strongest, making the province remarkably non-industrial. Entering Glod feels like walking into a time machine. This region participates in agriculture and handcrafting, and grows several valuable herbs like incense on the outskirts of the Golden Desert.

The rest of the Loafian plain and the remainder of its coastline are ruled by the Province of Zin. The Zinese are a separate ethnic group and have a largely different culture. However, a Zinese woman testified to receiving a Great Secret from God alongside the six ethnically Loafian founders. The former Kingdom of Zin joined the Empire in 20 AL, and the Zinese have been proud Loafians ever since. The Order of Zin observes different rituals from the rest of the church, and the province has historically been discriminated against on religious grounds by the rest of the nation. While racial discrimination hasn't been a primary issue in the Holy Empire, the five other provinces have a shared cultural history, while the province of Zin has always been separate. Occasionally, anti-Zin sentiment breaks out in Loafian politics, and separatists gain brief attention in Zin itself. In the year 800 a succession of High Priests tried to exclude the Order of Zin from the Holy Empire, deeming its traditions heretical and its culture un-Loafian. In spite of this, the province continues to play an important part in Loafian politics. Its different cultural and social norms make it take on a completely different stance from traditional Loafians and liberal Agnostics. Several policies are passed or defeated by the vote of Zin. Agriculture, fishing, and manufacturing thrive in the geography of Zin, and the provincial capital of Zina is regarded as one of the nation's most beautiful cities. Out of all Loafian provinces, Zin attracts the most tourism.