Ranks:
Razin, Razia: The Monachs. The people with the big sticks who get to beat everyone else. Razins are almost always Razin Regnant (unless they are affirmed before adulthood, when a Regent will be appointed.) Raziae (pl, F) can be either Regnant or Consort. The standard honorific is Majesty, but they are permitted to self-select.
Ascendar, Ascendara: The Heirs. The people who may get the big stick eventually. The first in line is the Prim or Prima Ascendar/a. Their standard honorific is Ascendency, if first in line, and self-selected from a group of nice words for everyone else, but when there are a lot of Ascendars, they use distinct honorifics.
Teregenitor (M), Teregenia (F), Teregenis (pl, both): The aristocracy. The people with somewhat smaller sticks who only get to beat on a geographically distinct group of people. Teregenitors (pl, M only) make up the body of the Prava, the legislature of Galantier. Teregeniae (pl, F only) are not specifically barred from a Prava seat, but it doesn’t happen often. Their names are usually a given name and their langreve name, thus: Laarens Revinsel or Teregenitor Revinsel, Alvan Kurzon or Teregenitor Kurzon, Reginal Tiwendar or Teregenitor Tiwendar, Linzara Silvalt or Teregenia Silvalt. Their honorific is Excellence. Amongst themselves, they use either their given or family names. Their heirs are generally selected from amongst their children, but they are free to choose their successor if they have that option. The default inheritance process is by the eldest male descent, then to brothers and nephews.
Pronator, Pronatia, Pronatis: The children of the Teregenis. Also aristocracy, usually entitled to a share of their parents’ income. The eldest sons and all daughters are usually designated by a given name, a gender designator and their father’s name, as so: Quirin sune Tiwendar, Pronator Tiwendar. Celedane dat Alvard, Pronatia Alvard. The sune and dat are eroding in common usage. The eldest son is the only one commonly called Pronator, though all will be called Pronator/Pronatia in Curia settings. Most Pronatis are called Lord or Lady in formal settings or by those lower down the social ladder When one brother becomes Teregenitor, his siblings remain Pronatis for the rest of their lives, unless he dies without a suitable heir and one moves up.
Pronemor, Pronemia, Pronemis: The children of the Pronatis, the grandchildren of the Teregenis. Also aristocracy, but the further away, the more likely they are to be working at something. They are also entitled to shares of their family income, but even a 1% share is often not enough to support someone, and 1% is high for adult Pronemis. Primacy matters — a third son of a fourth son is likely to never come near inheriting. In the Pronemis, the gender designator and the primacy designator matter, thus their names: Samnel tret sune quan Paxular — meaning Sam is the third son of the 4th Pronator of Paxular. No wonder he signed up for the Army. Sam probably goes by Sam Paxular or Sam quan Paxular, and mostly tries to forget that his entire family has to get food poisoning if he’s going to inherit anything. The subsequent Pronemis tend to be either complete slackers, or complete self-starters, and are often the major players in any year’s marriage market. They need to climb.
All noble persons are bound to their house and langreve in economic, legal and social matters. They all require permanent permission of their seniors to marry, pursue education, take vows or contract business beyond the scope of their personal incomes. Most noble marriages are arranged to some degree. This matters more for the female half, who can be ordered to marry as their senior directs. In most cases, this doesn’t happen, but when it does, it can be disastrous. Noble adulthood is at age 16, or at presentation to the Monarch, whichever happens later.
Above this line, everyone is a noble.
Below this line, everyone is freeborn.
Freeborn: A general term for anyone not a noble, and thus not tied to any house. Being freeborn or not matters relatively little for men, but can mean a significant difference in freedoms and liberties for women. Once a freeborn person reaches adulthood (age 20 for the freeborn), she can make any contract she likes, be it marriage, a religious vocation, a business venture or education. Between the ages of approximately 15 and 20, parents can allow their children to pursue marriage, vocations or education, but the child requires permission and consent. Again, in most cases, parents do not order their children into disasters, but it does happen. However, for the freeborn, there is an absolute end — age 20. That doesn’t exist for the nobility.
Patrona, Patronae (pl): The gentry, and the managerial class on the langreves. Patrona is not gendered — anyone can be a Patrona. Most langreves have many, at least two per settlement. Dense settlements often have several. This is both an old system that is eroding, and a reborn system, that is evolving into something like a local government. No two langreves use exactly the same rules for Patronae. This can get legally very messy. Pronemis sometimes become Patronae or leaseholders for their grandparents and aunts and uncles as a means of keeping management in the family.
Tenants: the common people who have agreed to a formal social contract with a specific Teregenitor to provide labor in exchange for income, shelter, leadership and (in theory) access to decision making through their Teregenitor. Tenant contracts are usually long, often life-time contracts (20-65ish), though the contracts can be broken or altered by mutual consent. In some rare cases, the contracts are for a set number of years (80-100), and are considered to be heritable assets and debits for an entire family line.
Leaseholders: the common people who have agreed to a formal contract for the right to use a specific piece of land in exchange for an annual sum of money. This is becoming the more common form of labor exchange in the south of Galantier. Leases can be as small as a single house or garden, or as large as a single digit fraction of a langreve. Some leaseholders are extremely wealthy. The most common lease contract is a century, with a right of resale for the leaseholder.
Land
Langreve: The common term for a land grant to a Teregenitor (or rarely a Teregenia) allowing his or her exclusive and more or less permanent use of a territory, provided that certain conditions are met. The Monarch grants the langreve, usually with tax, population levy and goods to be provided in exchange for the privilege. Historically, new langreves are extremely large, so that over the next few generations, as the population grows, the langreve can be divided among the best talent among the Pronatis and Pronemis. A prospective Teregenitor must have significant funds available, usually five years’ wages and capital expenses. This has been subsidized by the Monarch and/or the Prava from time to time, especially for exceptional service to the nation. Most langreves begin with about 1000 people, all Tenants and Patronae, and divide upon reaching 6-8,000. However, agreeing to a new langreve is a Prava vote, thus, politics can and have stalled the creation of new langreves for a while. Most early langreves were more or less mixed use, with some access to timber, mining, crop and pasture land, and the goal remains for a langreve to be mostly self-supporting, but specialization has been creeping in. Thus, Silvalt is a silvagreve, primarily forested, while Razavelt is a baigreve, primarily a port, seaside and fishery.
Millia, milliae (pl): a unit of measurement, a near equivalent to a mile. It is defined as the distance from the front of a single file armed battle column to the rear. A battle column is 1,000 infantry, and marching space is usually about 5 feet from center mass to center mass. The millia has been standardized to 5,000 feet in surveying, but it can also mean the distance one can walk in a quarter hour, or one third of the distance from an observer to the horizon at sea level, or 1/10 the distance between flash towers on level ground. Since time-keeping is still somewhat irregular, and over a thousand years of collective memory has been recycled into local measurements, milliae tend to be more flexible than precise.
Law:
Justiciars: The traditional judges of the Galantieran legal system, collectively, the Judicatura. Before 552 FG (Foundation of Galantier) and the Heirs’ Cabal, almost all local Justiciars were the appointment of the local Teregenis. This led to significant cronyism and malfeasance. After the Cabal, the first Justiciars were drawn by lot from all of the legal scholars in the country (10% of the total) and afterwards, were replaced by a combination of lottery and approval by the neighboring Teregenis. This system lasted until about 700, when again, the cronyism got intolerable and by which time the Advocates had come into being. In the 720s, the entire legal system was reformed. All langreves were required to elect or select four Justiciars from their population who would serve 10 year terms of office. At least half of that time would be spent as Circuit Justiciars, those who traveled between langreves. No Justiciar was allowed to serve their time in their home district. The remaining part of their terms would be served as an Appeals Justiciar, reviewing cases from the Circuit.
By 800, the Galantieran system had evolved into a stronger meritocracy. Thanks to Advocacy, each potential Justiciar would have their memories and thoughts catalogued before beginning to serve. Ethical lapses resulted in rejection from service by the High Justiciars. The three tiered system of local magistrates, circuit Justiciars and the High Judicatura served to check and balance each other. Evidence, documentation, precedent and memory became prime in both civil and criminal cases.
The High Judicatura: the 13 members of Galantier’s supreme court. A High Justiciar must be an Advocate, capable of receiving, creating and distributing an unalterable memory through Perceptio. They must also have spent at least four years serving as a public Advocate for a ministry, or as a circuit Justiciar after nomination by a local community. A High Justiciar nominee must be examined by all twelve of the other High Justiciars. The decision must be unanimous.
The Appeals Judicatura: A panel of 25 Justiciars, all with at least two years service as public Advocates or counselors, or on the circuit Judicatura. A nominee must be examined by a panel of 10 Advocates, selected by lottery, and the decision must be unanimous. An Appeals Justiciar serves a ten year term that can be renewed indefinitely.
The Circuit Judicatura: 100 Justiciars who travel between 3-5 langreves on a schedule, hearing local cases. Any Advocate or counselor can be elected by lottery or selected by nomination to the Circuit Justiciar for a term of at least two years and not more than eight years in a 25 year career.
Advocates: Legal practitioners who have sufficient ingeniae to sense lies, record memories, archive those memories, recall data and usually read minds in a limited fashion. Advocates are usually Perceptives, though a few are primarily Impaths. Advocate training is a 6-8 year course of study plus at least 3 years of Ingeniae training, and covers all of the same material as a counselor. Both forms are collectively known as law school.
Counselors: Legal practitioners who use legal history, precedent, and opinion rather than ingeniae. Counselors cannot sit on the High Judicatura, but dominate the Chancery service. 6-8 year course of study. Most Counselors work in partnership with an Advocate, but Counsel strength is primarily in the precedent and the argument, not the ingeniae evidence.
Magistrates: elected or selected local mediators. Usually counselors, but not always. Most are elected by their communities, or selected by their leadership with the advice and consent of the community. Any magistrate opinion can be appealed by either side, but most matters brought before a magistrate end there. Most magistrates are skilled negotiators and mediators.
Mediators: a recent addition to the Judicatura system. Mediators are unofficial and may only serve their clients on civil matters. When a civil conflict arises, each party may select an Advocate or Counselor to represent them. Those two practitioners will mutually agree on a third to mediate the conflict. Without the clients present, the three practitioners negotiate a settlement. Mediation is a reaction to an over-burdened Judicatura.
Metropolita: Cimenarum’s police force. It consists primarily of formally trained peacekeepers with some enforcement capacity. Cimenarum has a temporary holding jail, intended for diversion and detainment, in practice to allow tempers to calm and miscreants to sober up. For the last century, the Judicatura has been mentoring and assisting with the development of a detective force within the Metropolita. Julianasport, Crooksmouth, Draughten, Bastra and Raidven also have Metro forces, on the Cimenarum model. Smaller cities usually have a part-time Guard with little formal training. Small towns often have no official law enforcement if their leaseholder or Teregenis does not provide one.
Justiciar Advocates General: The military branch of law. Like the civilian Judicatura, it uses the Advocate and counsel model and a two tier system for appeals. Discipline is often collective on a full unit. All Justiciar Advocates are also Circuit Justiciars — every military lawyer can be called as a judge in a trial. Their process is called the Courts Martial, and it tends to be somewhat quick and thus, often sloppier than the slower, more deliberative civilian Judicatura.
Metro jail: a holding facility for those accused of or apprehended in the act of a crime. Most jail stays are 2-5 days before seeing a local magistrate, who either releases the accused, passes an immediate fine or sentence, or refers the matter to the Circuit Justiciar. Sentences are served at the workfarms, or by semi-voluntary enlistment in the Army, the Navy, or with the Temples. Jails are not used for a term of sentencing.
Workfarms: Royal holdings, all secured. Prison farms.
Ministries:
Women and Children: The newest ministry. Primarily an advocacy for those members of Galantieran society with the least access to formal power. Works closely with Mercy.
Chancery: Law enforcement and prosecution. Works closely with Judicatura.
Plenipotenitary: Diplomatic corps. Works closely with Trade.
Trade: Oversees imports and exports, collects taxes and tariffs. Works closely with Plenipotentiary.
Exchequer: Oversees the Treasury, the mint and the accounting. Works closely with Quartermaster.
Judicatura: Law interpretation. Works closely with Chancery.
War: Oversees recruitment, training, supply and mobilization. Works with everyone, and nobody. Was smallest ministry until Spagnan war first erupted. Is now largest.
Knowledge: Formerly the head of the Royal University and Library, now oversees all of Galantier’s schools and training conversatories. Coordinates standards and funding. Works closely with Healing.
Mercy: Coordinates charitable endeavours and oversees the Famine Coffer. Works closely with Women and Children.
Healing: Coordinates Healing, the training of Healers and Healer’s assistants, and the development of knowledge specific to Healing and curative work. Works closely with Knowledge.
Quartermaster: national inventory, national statistician, national assessor. Works closely with Exchequer.
Government:
The Prava: A legislative body consisting of the current Teregenis and the Monarch’s block. Each Teregenitor has one vote in the Prava, while the Monarch consistently represents a block vote equal to 1/3 to 6/13ths of the Prava’s total. (Usually around 44%, but fluctuates depending on recent langreve grants and consolidations.) The Prava under Vohan consisted of 103 members plus 48 votes shared between Vohan (35), Rien (9), Ragin (3) and Savrin (1), for a total of 151. The number is always odd. The goal is to keep each langreve representing around 4000 people, but subdivision in certain areas is becoming very difficult, both practically and politically. Thus, most southern langreves near Cimenarum run between 10,000 and 15,000 people, while multiple northern and western langreves are under 2,000 in population.
Most Prava vote are simple majority (50% +1, rounded up) votes that include the Monarch’s block, so most votes at the time of Vohan’s death required 76 votes to pass. There are two exceptions: When selecting a Monarch from amongst the Ascendars, the Monarch’s block vote is in abeyance and cannot be cast and the vote must pass by 75% +1. Thus, the ascension votes for Vohan’s successor require 80 votes to pass. (103 Teregenis, plus Rien, Ragin and Savrin as voting members.) The second exception are for sealed ballot routine business. These are essentially preference polls that have some binding effect. At those times, it is a one person, one vote scheme and are generally simple majority votes. They’re used for non-urgent and/or non-controversial matters, like end of term budgets, empowering diplomatic matters, emergency funding, and the succession plans. Sealed ballots usually pass at between 85 and 95%.
The Monarch’s block vote, in most matters, can be split at the Monarch’s discretion. In Vohan’s case, he delegated specific langreves from the Royal holdings to his heirs, but did not gift them. Few monarchs actually give the land to their heirs — Galantier has learned to prevent sibling rivalry amongst the Ascendars whenever possible. Each subsequent monarch may revoke any previous monarch’s Royal Writs without cause or prejudice, but no Monarch is required to do so.
The 33-46% Royal block exists specifically as a hedge against a popular but untenable idea and as a bolster for unpopular but necessary requirements. Its most famous use was 63 years after the founding, shortly after Juliana and Argentus assumed leadership after Galene, their mother, died. The Prava then numbered 15, plus the Dux and the Razia, and at the time, Galantier believed that the 2000 people in the early Cimenarum were all the people left in the world. Juliana believed that Galantier must send three ships with crews of twenty each back towards Porsiria to discover what had happened to turn the sky grey for three years, and for pumice to wash on the beaches for another decade. (They were aware of volcanoes; they suspected Mt Porsir had destroyed the Empire, but they had no proof.) The Prava could not justify sending three percent of the population to die in the ash choked seas. Juliana and Argentus’ 6 votes, with 6 of the Prava, carried the vote. After six voyages and seven years, the expeditions finally found other living people. Galantier was the only Porsirian colony to survive more or less intact and without mass physical devastation.
The block was also used to prevent a war with Gorthania in the 4th century, and to permit immigrants who otherwise would have been barred soon after. Vohan used it several times in the public interest, usually on matters of the western border, or to protect the rights of the freeborn.
The Ministries have Prava blessing, and funding, but operate independently of the Prava, and at the Monarch’s discretion. The exception is the Judicatura, which is mostly independent of both Monarch and Prava.
The Curia: The social aspect of the nobility, centered around the Prava and the Karsai. Curiars are the social elite — tastemakers, trend-setters, and in many cases, the financial support for art and innovation. Most nobles are Curia, but not all Curiars are noble — very wealthy freeborn are marriage prizes. In recent years, the Curia’s influence has waned, since so many of the younger male members have volunteered for military service, and their sisters have stepped into their absent brothers’ roles. Winter is still the primary Curia season, since that is the quiet season in a primarily agricultural economy, but compared to a generation before, the Curia is staid and tame.
Social-Financial:
Money:
Teander: the basic unit of money. Bronze, stamped octogons. A teander usually buys about five pounds of flour, or a one pound loaf of bread, or a serving of protein. Currently, the median wage for a non-contracted laborer is about 10 teanders a day. In the median community of 250 Tenant-contracted people with 50-100 people not yet under Tenant contract, 10 teanders a day will provide for a single shared room with floor bedding and scant heat, 2-3 communal baths each tenday, simple food including standard ale and cheaper wine, 3-4 complete kits of clothing a year, and 100-200 teanders of discretionary funds a year. It won’t support a family, but it will support a young person just starting out. While teanders are used for daily transaction, and are often cracked or broken for smaller sums, such as for cups of fondal, stuffed buns, or (in urban areas) street food like noodles or flatbread, most people are not paid in teanders, since very few people are paid by the day. 10 teanders a day will not support a single adult in Cimenarum. It’s barely possible in Julianasport and Crooksmouth.
5, 10 and 20 teander coins exist, but are falling out of circulation. Paper transactions — treasury drafts –and bills of account are taking the place of mid-range and large exchanges. The major exceptions are inns and taverns, which require coin, and very small transactions.
Half-royal: 25 teanders, round, small, silver alloy. Starting daily wage for most newly contracted Tenants. Median household income for two adults and two children is in the range of a half-royal a day. A newly contracted Tenant has a right to one private room, food including ale and wine, sufficient fuel for moderate warmth provided by the langreve. This is a bare-bones, ramen and roommates living in Cimenarum, with no safety net except the Temples and the Famine Coffer. A clean, comfortable, secure room in a good but not excellent Cimenarum inn runs 20-25 teanders per day.
Royal: 50 teanders. Round, thicker, wider, milled edge, silver alloy. Median daily wage for 5+ year contracted Tenants. Median daily wage for a typesetter, Healer’s assistant, skilled artisan, or a legal clerk in Cimenarum. Median cost for solid, well-made but not precisely custom boots, or a basic suit of not-custom clothing.
Magna: 100 teanders. Round, milled edge, gold. Largest coin in circulation. Median daily wage for a hospital Healer, most builders, a senior Advocate or Counselor just entering into private practice on partnership track.
200 teanders: the price of a prepared ermine skin, or of a tanned reindeer hide, or for one 60 foot long x 2 foot diameter log. 200 teanders will purchase a used riding pony with tack, but not one trained for harness. What the Karsai steward estimates it costs to maintain one person in the Karsai per day.
300 teanders: cost to purchase 150 gallons of fuel oil. Cost of one complete kit of armor for either light infantry or light artillery. Usual cost for a middle-aged, fertile army mare on the surplus market.