Adept

In Vaestism, an Adept (High Secote: ⰈⰐⰀⰕⰅⰎⰠ, znatel'ĭ) is an individual with access to a superior level of Knowledge, but without the institutional authority of a Scholar. There is no universally accepted procedure to gain recognition as an Adept, and the prerequisites for the title will vary between and sometimes within the various Banners. Historically, recognition as an Adept depended simply on the acceptance of one's peers.

Adepts in the earliest phases of Vaestic history were probably the most numerous members of the nascent Vesnite clergy, who were referred to collectively as 'Savants'. In the absence of the defined Scholar class that later emerged with the institutionalisation of Vaestic structures under the Neritsovids, the title of Adept was given to many of those who taught at Schools as well as to other professional experts in hierocratic matters of various different backgrounds, including the lower-ranking missionaries dispatched to the countryside by Marshals. With the crystallisation of 'Scholars' as those resident in the Schools in the Banner of the Greater West—a development mirrored by the emergence of similar putative arrangements elsewhere, albeit under different names—'Adept' came to be applied exclusively to itinerant teachers, often discharging specific missionary responsibilities. The ideal of the Adept, if not the reality of the wandering preacher's lifestyle, enjoyed such prestige that during the later Neritsovid era members of the High Nobility without formal scholarly credentials were typically credentialed as Adepts, replacing the older and more general descriptor of 'savant' (or 'Vesnite') which had come to refer to all followers of the religion.

In most of Vaestdom, the status of Adepts diminished precipitously over the course of the Radiance, particularly with the development and standardisation of Scholarly bureaucracies in the High Radiance of the 19th century. Typical of the decline of the Adepts was the career of Chistin Kyazimov, who led Terophan in practice from 1869 to 1888. Kyazimov's claimed authority as an Adept was widely resented among the country's predominantly Rasheem Scholarly class, and by the time of his overthrow in the Monsoon Revolution of 1888 it had became an object of public mockery; Kyazimov was routinely portrayed as a boor and a dilettante with no business attempting to run a country. He thus became the last significant Adept statesman in Terophan, and when a perilous revival of High Noble rule ensued after the Consistence War in 1891, the occupying powers chose a Scholar to serve as Terophan's new Protector over the Throne—Mstislav Lazarov.

Nonetheless, towards the end of the 19th century, with Yorsephor as Universal Prophet leading an intellectual resistance to the claims of Strong Externalism, the tradition and—as it was later recognised—heresy of new charismatism attempted to rehabilitate the image of the Adept, depicting Adepts in romantic terms as wandering teachers with authentic practical Knowledge of the world, in contrast to the rarefied academic concerns of the Scholars. Charismatist ideas had a notable influence on subsequent anti-Scholarly sentiment in the 20th and 21st centuries, including the movements of Robulism and contemporary Hejrozinism. Partly in response to this tide of popular reaction, the first half of the 20th century thus saw efforts in many Banner-states to standardise the procedure by which Adept status was awarded, hoping to ensure, despite its diminished character, that it would not become the preserve of heterodoxy and heresy.

Though government across Vaestdom is now generally monopolised by Scholars, Adept status does continue to serve a utilitarian purpose. Since the Long War, qualification as an Adept has often been sought as a formal mark of distinction by engineers and other technical professionals outside the Scholarly government–academic complex, who will in any case almost always hold prior institutional credentials as Acolytes; in these cases, the qualification will generally be granted by a major mokykla in respect of their Knowledge of a specific field, and is considered more an award than a substantive separate title. Additionally, in contemporary Vaestism, all Scholars are Vocation Scholars, and in a small number of instances, Scholars who are forced away from their duties for a protracted period of time may therefore be granted extraordinary Adept status as a formality to allow the recycling of their vocational posts. This is, however, expected to be only temporary.