Orhana

**Orhana** short for **Orhana kulum**, supreme prefect or highest prefect is the highest rank in the Thousander Faiths. Founded by Harko the Seaking the position served as the keystone of the church under his control. Traditionally he seated in Tir-Našadar just as any other imperial officer, but after a new capital was created the religious authority followed it. Until the schism it was a royal prerogative to appoint the supreme servant of the faith, which tradition was retained in the East.

For most time, the orhana kulum remained a politically insignificant, albeit high-prestige position. Usually less-talented individuals kept it, dutyfully toeing the official line. Sitting in such a high chair was a boring task. For the better part of the time the high priest initiated pompous services, praised the emperor or lived isolated in glamour and grandeur. Religious debates were led on lower levels, while decisions were made overhead, by the emperor himself. As such the institution served a golden cage, a political dead end for overly ambtious or zealous aristocrats and dynasty members alike.

Indeed, no orhana kulum has ever filled another after reveiving the seablue tunics and golden adornments. Only Rakho the unlucky came close, when his nephew died after he fell from the sadle. However the widow empress consort was pregnant, undoubtly by the late ruler. Sonn after the death she gave birth to a healthy boy thus securing the dynasty for the following generations. When the age of conquest came to a halt religion started to fill an ever growing role in integrating the diverse society under a common banner. Royal control over the church was strenghtened until the point that no one else but the most incompetent, easy-to-handle candidates were considered. During the pentarchy when the empire was partitioned among semi-autonomous viceroys under the nominal supremacy of Kartam, the system was at large retained.

True changes only happened from the late 7th century onwards, when the emperor began fading into obscurity. Once considered divine rulers, they were relegated to ceremonial roles by their powermongering viceroys, at times relatives of the ruler who made themselves hereditary overlords in the allocated provinces. Paralell to this development the monarchy took a more elective turn as the person of the emperor became a matter of bargain between the cliques. Same applied to the orhana kulum. The ecclesy remained unchanged in centuries. Reaching from the mountains to the ocean having affilates in every single city, town and village around the Empire the church remained a capable instrument of espionage, propaganda, stabilisation and destabilisation. This potential was discovered out by several lords roughly at the same time which turned the highest sacral office of the state into a murderous trap.

As nobody could appoint a sufficiently servile orhana without seriously hurting the interest of others, Independent high priest would have been an optimal compromise. But compromise became a dirty word in this era of political tribalism, and as such undesirable nomines were swiftly assasinated by their opponents. Discussed or rumored candidates were threatened, intimidated, their families were harassed or kidnapped. Several high-ranking church functionary outright refused to present themselves before the emperor when they learnt of the appointment instead fleeing into a hideout with all of their loved ones. A popular saying among the Kartamese summed the situation as follows:

> *"Orhanas come and go nowadays faster than whores in the cheapest brothel."*
>
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Indeed during the bloody decades in the mid eigth century an astonishing seventy seven orhanas were murdered in the a period of twenty six years. This was only a symptom of the far-reaching imperial voes. A low-intensity civil war raged on, fought not on the battlefields, but in houses, dark back alleys in a cladestine manner employing hired blades, poisonmakers, scare-mongers, demagogues, spies. Every politican was suspicious in the eyes of his fellows, while the ordinary folk despised them as the origin of everything wrong in their lifes. Institutions eroded into irrelevance, the choking yoke of crime and corruption brought progress to a standstill. Apathy, disillusionment and a general end-of-the-world mood settled upon the people during the ninety years of the Pentarchy. Many people turned to the church for salvation what it could not deliver. In spite of this they remained a glowing lighthouse in an increasingly rowdy world, where nothing but the faith remained a constant.

All of the aforementioned development contributed to an overall situation where even minor challanges at one end of the subcontinent turned into the equivalent of a political plague both contaminating and subduing everyone else in its way. First the empire gave place to the pentarchy and pentarchs replaced the supreme leadership on a more regional scale. Power was increasingly localised with the nominal overlords holding only a legal-traditional authority, especially west of the Šyul where assimilation and amalgamisation never happened to a similar degree as in the east. The Viceroyalty of the Ore Mountains was the first to break also in name not just in effect. After the last viceroy disappeared under suspicious circumstances in

 The increasing chaos made even minor challanges into deadly threats. During the deluge, three viceroyalties out of five were utterly destroyed. They were either overtaken by the foreign intruders or shattered into minor polities. The Freeland followed suit a century later, largely lost in an Aharganite onslaught what left the court of Kartam seriously weakened against that of Tir-Našadar. In turn this opened up a rare window of opportunity. Most earlier orhanas would have been inable to the take advantage from the situation but Maur Alasillis was a resourceful man who profited from the extensive missionary work initiated in the west by their predecessors. With the help of the western court he deposed the emperor, established the Sacred Band as a religious-military order both to project power and to answer to the direct military challanges he faced and organised a ragtag coalition of fresh convert chieftans, former Imperial iofficeholders and western courtiers to deflect the threatening eastern advances.

Although unlikely the coalition emerged victorious in a number of battles both defeating and humilating the Eastern Court of Tir-Našadar, but the luck turned around in the northern plains of the Freelands where the Eastern Army was able to retake a large portion of land from Ahargan. The campaign was more a matter of luck than that of careful Planning or power balance. As such it was clear for both parties, that the status quo can not be a base of negotiations.

This also meant that Kartam was threatened from the north by a large, battleworthy and before anything else revanchist foe not intent upon making a compromise. With the western armies en route to their quarters, Alassilis made an unlikely move. He commited support to easter court at the negotiations with Ahargan this securing a leverage over them. He wielded immer se power at has already shown that the western At last Kartam was incorporated into the treaty with both major parties acknowleding its nominal independence. The Hadashim continued to claim formaz sovereignity, but they were satisfied with a limitet military presence in the city along formal homage from the orhana kulum. Apart from this, the imperial bureocracy vacated Kartam. Surrounding lands were annexed a long minor townships and Kartam became in fact an independent entity. As a last measure Alassilis petitioned the

Due to the invasion from the north, Ahargan was lost for the church. Some decades later the interior of Hadašham followed suit, after which the Western Realm was fragmented into uncounted autonomous polities, some pagan, other followers of the faith, or even recent converts to the sand religion. During the Fourth Aharganite War between 986-992 much of the buffer zone between Kartam and the direct rule of Ahargan was lost, even Kartam itself was besieged. Because of the growing pressure from the north, the imperial court was moved to Tir-Našadar a decade later, leaving only a sole erinmeš behind.

The city was still claimed by the empire, but it became an independent city state in effect. This power vacuum was quickly filled by the orhana kulum who petitioned the ragtag, but still nominally unified Western Realm for enrollment that was quickly approved. Some outskirts and minor towns were annexed to create a buffer zone against both enchroaching states from the east and the north respectively. Thanks to the more amicial relations between the western court in Lurrak and Ahargan the citys fate have seemed ever since secure.

With this political movement, the orhana kulum delegitimized himself in the eyes of Hadašham, where the titleholders have been considered persona non grata afterwards. Under royal pressure even some liturgical changes have happened in the church and a counter orhana kulum was appointed in Tir-Našadar.

Despite that, the supreme priest enjoys considerable might in the West, where the orhanas are often kingsmakers among the lesser rulers of provinces. Some even manage the feat to be shadow emperors behind the elected figureheads, like in the case of Ellelim Zetitas.