>I agree. Of course, in the case of Safelster, Seshnela and the Ecclesiarchy
>are close allies of one another whereas the Hohenstaufens and the Pope were
>not.
In internal questions, the Seshnegi king and his ecclesiarch are arch-enemies, only in their cause to bash the heathens and collect booty they are united, and only barely. HtWW1 has a lot of this already, and Rise of Ralios continued some of these threads. (Freeforms, both...)
>The allegiance of Guilmarn and Theoblanc is more reminiscent of
>Charlemagne and Pope Leo III than that of Frederick and Pope Alexander III.
Externally, maybe, but internally Guilmarn claims the king to be hereditary head of the church, and all church lands to be crown lands. Logically, Theoblanc dissents on both accounts...
>The guilds began in the chartered towns and cities of Carolingian France, but
>did not rise to power until the formation of the Italian city-states. The
>Hanseatic League was also a guild power, but it was formed much later (circa
>1500).
As someone living in a former Hanse city, I can tell you that you are wrong on this account. The earliest official foundations of the league date back to around 1161 in Visby, on the Swedish island of Gotland; other "Hanse"s were founded e.g. in Cologne. All of these leagues joined in 1358 to _the_ German Hanseatic League, but the origins were much earlier.
>> I have developed a Safelstran parallel to this, where in Rokari
>> areas each major guild has a Malkioni Saint as his patron, while
>> in Henotheist areas this role is taken over by a god of the Orlanth
>> pantheon. In the latter case the guildmaster should be at least an
>> Acolyte of the deity.
Do you have details on this?
>A nice means of handling the disparity. Of course, this would lead to
>out-and-out conflict between competing Rokari, Henotheist, and Stygian
>guilds, especially when more than one inhabit the same city.
Or, about as annoying to the church authorities, to cooperation between the different creeds in the guilds. Do the guilds have single aspects of crafts, or are all crafts thrown together as per religion, in your model?
>> One point that makes the parallel not totally fitting is the fact that
>> there has never been any religious struggle in and between the Italian
>> city-states. To find a good Earth counterpart for the sects of
>> Safelster, you must go to the Renaissance period, but in Germany.
>> Here three different churches (Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed)
>> struggled, sometimes even in arms, for supremacy, involving the
>> Electors and Princes in the struggle.
Take the Netherlands, with even more strange sects, like the Mennonites (which took Muenster in Westfalen and held it against the catholics for over a year).
>> The religious geography of the
>> HRE (i.e. Germany) during that period should be extremely similar to
>> the current Safelster situation....
>I concur. The religious turmoil of "modern-day" Safelster is best modeled
>after that of the Reformation. However, the past history of Safelstran
>religion would be better compared to Charlemagne's wars against paganism.
In that case, take Spain in the late 4th to early 7th century, with the national churches of Visigoths, Vandals, Suebes and other Germanic invaders of more or less stable composition. Since a lot of the Roman Empire's traditions survived there, the urban crafters might have had guild-like congregations as well. Add some remaining paganism or Mithraism from the Roman Empire, and you get close to the religious situation in Safelster. The Muslim conquest of Spain is comparable to the Seshnegi invasion(s) of Ralios, too...
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