The Vestaltir does not have any kind of hereditary nobility, and instead, the position of the aristocracy is filled by local priests and other religious officials; who are in charge of regional affairs the same way a lord or baron would be elsewhere. Instead of inheriting their posts from their fathers, these individuals are assigned by the Alight in the case of high-ranking members of the government; who in turn may then assign lower-ranking priests to administrative positions within their own demesnes.
Laws
Religion and policy are deeply integrated at a state level within the polity. Instead of having an extensive code of laws like many other nations, the Vestaltir instead bases the majority of its legal framework on the content of the Shahru holy book: The Tome of Flames. What actions are or are not criminal are based on codes of behaviour set out within the passages in the book alongside other Rukhmarite holy scriptures, with punishments for illicit activities also being drawn from the same sources. In this way, crime is not framed as a simple secular breach of law as dictated by a monarch; but rather as an action which directly contravenes the word of God, and so by extension a sin.
Function Within Shahru
The Vestaltir's facilities within Flame's Providence serve as the headquarters of the Church, in which the Alight and the other highest-ranking members of the priesthood reside. Their role is primarily to oversee the activities of the other lesser-ranked priests in the Church, and to administer over the faith as a whole. The vast majority of Rukhmarite priests do not ever visit the Vestaltir directly, owing to its remote location in the heartland of Zemet, and so their interactions with the upper echelons of the organisation are limited to exchanging messages. This is how the majority of Church business is conducted, and the use of envoys is reserved for particularly important matters.
The main reason for which clerical officials may be called to the Vestaltir is in the event that a council is convened by the Alight. This is a particularly rare occurrence, commonly happening only once or twice every century, and sees the various
Parotias of the Church called from their domains to travel to Flame's Providence. The reason for the infrequency of these councils is the immense travel time required for some of the most distant
parotias to reach the city: The
parotias of Belyria can in some cases take multiple years to arrive at the Vestaltir, and it has happened at least once that a
parotia died mid-way through the journey. The individuals called for the council cannot tend to their normal duties while away from their flocks, which can be extremely disruptive given the durations of time that they are gone for. As such, councils are only called in times of truly great need.
When not holding councils, the Vestaltir frequently exchanges correspondence with the
parotias and flock-bearers of the wider Church. The matters discussed in these messages can vary widely, from high-ranking priests providing advice on doctrinal issues; to facilitating theological debate; to issuing new edicts on minor heresies or other developments in the faith. It will also sometimes send emissaries to Pretheyan countries in order to facilitate the enactment of its will, or to provide assistance to local priests; the latter most commonly in the event of a heresy having sprung up within a region.
Earthly Possessions
Where the Rukhmarite Church represents Rukhmar's spiritual dominion, the Vestaltir is said to be Rukhmar's temporal dominion on earth. Although not in possession of anywhere near as much territory as a traditional state, the Vestaltir holds a sizeable amount of land spread throughout Pretheya.
The home region of the Vestaltir consists of the area inside of the Holy Ridge in the north-western portion of the salt waste of Zemet. All of the land within the small ring of greenery surrounding Mount Varosok is part of its territory, although only the capital of Flame's Providence is directly governed by the Alight. The other settlements within the region are ruled over by priests appointed by the Alight, or in the cases of villages too small to have a clerical appointee; they may simply be governed by a village elder.
The Vestaltir lays claim to the entirety of Zemet and has fiercely guarded it against attempts by other Pretheyan polities to create settlements there. In reality, however; the salt wastes are far too large and inhospitable for the forces of the Vestaltir to ever hope to directly exert control over, and so the only parts of the region actually occupied are a small handful of villages that exist in isolated green areas outside of the Holy Ridge. Aside from Flame's Providence, the only major settlement that the Vestaltir controls is the salt-harvesting city of Whitefort, which is located in the south-east of the country.
In addition to these Zemetan possessions, the various
perrches, eyres, and
talvighs of the Shahru religion are all the propety of the Firebird Church. In many, though not all cases, this also makes them the possessions of the Vestaltir; meaning that the country technically owns property in every Rukhmarite country in Pretheya. In addition to this, as the result of a convoluted series of historical events to do with false claimants to the title of Alight, the Vestaltir also holds control over several small towns and one city in the Pretheyan mainland.
Geopolitical Influence
The Vestaltir sits at the heart of the political landscape of Pretheya. It is almost inarguably the most influential political entity in Pretheya, and it derives its power from two main factors: Its role as the head of the Firebird Church, and its incredibly powerful economic position attained from holding a monopoly on the production and sale of salt.
As the head of the Shahru faith, the Vestaltir exercises absolute power to make decisions concerning doctrine and practise among the religion's faithful. Amendments to the Tome of Flames can only be made by the Vestaltir itself, and it is also the body which decides if whether new holy scripture should be treated as canon or not. This alone allows it an immense degree of control over the societies of countries which adhere to the Shahru religion: The Vestaltir can change or alter existing parts of the Tome of Flames within reason, and can also add new sections to it; most commonly in the form of new prohibitions on certain behaviours. In this way, they can directly exert control over Rukhmarites by forcing codes of behaviour upon them. Individual Rukhmarites are kept in line by their fellow faithful, who will shun them in the event that they stray from the path; and may even burn them as heretics if they become too open in their defiance.
These regulations are particularly important for monarchs to follow. Within Shahru, rulers derive their right to rule from a divine mandate given by the Firebird herself; which can be revoked by the Alight in the event that he deems them as having strayed from the path or turned against the faith. This understanding of legitimacy is deeply ingrained into the cultures of the majority of Rukhmarite nations, and so it is necessary for he ruler of a country to be seen as an exemplar of the Rukhmarite way by his subjects; lest they start to question if he is indeed worthy to rule them. In this way, kings and queens must follow the same rules applied to the commoners, and so are equally subject to the Vestaltir's dictates.
Economy
The region in which the Vestaltir is situated, Zemet, is known for being the only place where salt can be readily acquired in Pretheya. The country's limitless reserves of ground-level salt, created when it was cursed by the Leskeln at the onset of the war, can be extracted en masse and in quantities only limited by the amount of personnel available to harvest it. The ease of acquisition involved in this method stands in stark contrast to the painstaking process of brine salt panning that is used by the rest of the Pretheyan continent.
Salt is produced in exactly one part of Zemet: The city of
Whitefort, which is owned and controlled by the Vestaltir. Due to the ease with which it can be extracted there compared to the rest of the continent, the Vestaltir has come to possess a virtual monopoly on the material; producing more than 95% of the continent's supply and selling it to merchants from all across the continent at a huge mark-up. The importance of salt in preserving food means that no country can afford not to buy from the Vestaltir, unless they are willing to shoulder the enormous cost of attempting production locally. This also means that, should a country cut their diplomatic ties with the Vestaltir, they find themselves at risk of having their supply of salt cut off; which has the potential to single-handedly devastate both their economy and food supplies. This monopoly, perhaps even more than the Vestaltir's religious hegemony, is what has kept them in their position as the continent's dominant political power for so many centuries now.
The revenue from this monopoly is what has served to allow the construction of the many vast and opulent places of worship found all throughout the Vestaltir's domain, and when combined with the tithes extracted from the Rukhmarite faithful is responsible for funding the majority of the Firebird Church's operations. The state's many secular building projects also rely on funds from the salt trade; including the ongoing construction of a road connecting the Holy Ridge to the Pretheyan mainland, as well as the maintenance of the ancient walls around the city of Whitefort. Much of the money also goes to paying for the country's small but professional military.
Foreign Policy
The Vestaltir is the main driving force behind the conservative politics which dominate the Pretheyan continent. Their interests primarily lie in preserving the status quo which sees them as the continent's undisputed rulers; to which end they advocate for staunch religious traditionalism and push back against new social, and in some cases technological developments within other countries. The forces of the Vestaltir advocate for the structuring of society in line with the social order set out in the Tome of Flames, and to this end have continually stripped rights from minorities and other groups whose beliefs are not in line with those of orthodox Shahru.
The other main goal of the Vestaltir is to continue expanding the reach and primacy of the Shahru religion as much as possible. The Vestaltir is the most insistent proponent of the suppression of minority religions, and has consistently been one of the loudest advocates for stamping out heresies, non-Rukhmarite religions; or any other social movement that might threaten their authority. In addition, they constantly send missionaries to countries and regions that have not yet embraced the Shahru faith; this most commonly includes Landamar, but they may also sometimes be dispatched to the far northern reaches of Pretheya beyond Belyria, or to Ostokive in the west. In the past, attempts were made to send missionaries to the people living in Ethlarnashem, but after multiple waves of priests were killed immediately upon crossing the border, this was abandoned.
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