Bastion
A strong theocracy of Bast residing along the Bast's Tail River. They have used religious zeal and military might to expand, conquering and converting neighboring settlements and using their wells to feed the Bast's Tail River. Because of the river, the lands of Bastion are some of the most desirable to settlers, and if the price to pay is a prayer then many are willing to pay it for survival.
Structure
The head Bastion is its clergy, with the clergy itself being run in a heirarchy of priests and priestesses headed by the high priestess who oversees not just the faithful but the entire coutry. All of their civil servants, from governors to tax men are required to be a part of the clergy, as a result worship of Bast is omnipresent.
Below the clergy is the military, although the line between the two is often blurred. All of the high ranking military need to be members of the clergy and all of the high ranking members of the clergy were once high ranking members of the military. Although there are still plenty of soldiers who do not double as priests or priestesses, they will never be promoted as far as being put in charge of others unless they have been inducted into the clergy.
Although merchants and artisans are technically in the same class as the rest of the lower classes, many of them have preferential treatment by both the military and the clergy because of their contributions, or by another name bribes, they are allowed to amass wealth only because they spend a huge fraction of that wealth appearing pious and nationalistic.
The peasentry is at the bottom, and although they provide most of the raw resources to the merchants and artisans, they rarely see much in return. The temple and military give even less, taking the majority of the resources and leaving the peasants with precious little. Despite the disparity many of the peasants have no qualms about the arrangement whether fueled by their faith or the knowledge that, although hard work, it is the safest job in all of Barren.
