"New Rome"

Nova Roma or "New Rome" is a concept within the Pontifical Church and Pontifical States which posits that after the fall of the Vatican City the Church needs to be strongly and favorably tied to the economic, cultural, and military center of the Doggerlands for its own proliferation and protection, similar to the position of the early Church in the Roman Empire.

Several candidates have been proposed for what city or state can claim to be the New Rome. Traditionalists in Ekklesiovsk recognize Ekklesiovsk and the Pontifical States as the New Rome due to its long history of being the home for the administration and main corpus of the Pontifical Church, and due to the linkage of the state government to the Church's institutions.

During the Neu Corporate Republik's (NCR) takeover of the Pontifical States, particularly after the NCR's victory over the Eastern Federal Republic (EFR), several universalists argued that Novenae as Capital of the Republik and center of Doggerland commerce and political activity was to be the New Rome. Under Rokossovsky's pontificate the Church in Novenae expanded rapidly under this idea, including the construction of the largest cathedral on the Doggerlands in the city. The Holy See however remained in Ekklesiovsk following Rokossovsky's death and the Pontifical States' declared independence from the Republik after its collapse in 3021.

After the downfall of the NCR and its reorganization into Paxem, the universalist claims on a New Rome split between newly independent Novenae and the new capitol of Paxem in Cyrene. The Church has seen favorable growth in Cyrene, however it still represents a small minority of the Doggerlands' Pontifical population. Several Pontifical States delegations have been sent to establish property and legal protections in the new capitol on the nations islands to the south in what has been rumored to be a large administrative complex for the Church, however whether it represents a full departure from Church administration in Ekklesiovsk is yet unclear.