Administrative divisions of Lutoborsk
The Lutoborsk is a federation of states or realms (Lutoborian: volosti) under the Banner of the Wide North, with the Vozhd as monarch.
Realms
The realms roughly correspond to, but do not descend from, the noble lands held as self-sufficient domains under the Flank and Plinth States on the principle of kunentsyism. Princely titles are primarily held by the Great Houses of the Lutoborian nobility, descended from the knyazy of the Aborovid Confederacy. Their ceremonial pre-eminence is such that the Lutoborsk is constitutionally still considered their agglomeration, and formally referred to in the plural as the 'Lutoborian Imperial Realms'.
The most prestigious subdivisions are the Petty Kingdoms (Lutoborian: knyazivstvo, can also be rendered as “Kunentsydom”) that comprises the Dovhyi Tableland and Lower Nadrova, as well as the southern border regions; there are seven such kingdoms, including the territory directly controlled by the Lutoborian Imperial Household, descending from the Hremelska. They correspond to the lands held by the original Aborovid princes, although the arrangement of ruling houses do not exactly correspond to Aborovid divisions.
The north-western margins of the Dovhyi Tableland are governed as the Voivodeship of Okrainy, by the Voivode (Lutoborian: Voyevoda). This official was formerly charged with defence of the frontier against incursions by Steppe nomads.
Mesudachy and Unscany are divided into starostvy (singular: starostva, loosely translatable as “elderships”) controlled by a starosta, respectively three and two. Atsuho on the southern half of the Homul Peninsula is divided into two graviates (posadnyk). Mesudachy and Atsuho were absorbed in the Peridot Wars, from the Severnyye Kingdom and Komandje Kingdom respectively. While defecting elites in Severnyye were granted titles equal to the long-time Aborovid clients in Unscany as a reward, the more brutal subjugation of Komandje surrendered those lands to a more stern administration, imposing Vaestism on the population and drawing its styles from Great Neritsia.
The northern coast in Kadalkhia and Nodogo is subdivided into nine hospodates, headed by Hospodars. The title is derived from the Secote term for commander and not distinguished in Lutoborian. This region was conquered more gradually from the Kadalkhian Confederacy by Captains in the 19th century, and so was parcelled out to knyazchiks with less grandeur; they thus lack monarchies.
The Badgajoghic Peninsula is under the authority of the Polcovodate of the Badgajoghs, while the Joghunmal Plain is organised into the Polcovodate of the Joghs. They represent the autonomous fealty of the Joghunmal to the Lutoborian throne, mediated by the polcovode as both a margrave (as used under the Neritsovid Commandery) and Steppe leader. These are the only realms whose ceremonial leaders do not need to directly be from the Aborovid-origin Great Houses, but practically all recent polcovodes have some sort of family or titular relation to the High Nobility. The Polcovodate of the Joghs is more strictly speaking organised into tribal commanderies, either Secotic or Joghic. As those commanderies are attached to a specific tribe instead of land, their boundaries are fluid over time, following the movement of nomadic people. The Polcovode of the Joghs, although the effective ethnarch of the Joghunmal, has no direct territorial jurisdiction (except for his own tribal lands) over the other tribes, which all depend equally on the imperial government and have the privilege of directly representing themselves; the position nonetheless remains more senior than other Joghic commanders.
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State government
Each realm has its own government and laws; they can even issue their own currency, though usually with oversight from the Office of the Treasury. The Lutoborsk is omnigenic, with different realms exhibiting great differences in administrative structure and practice. Each state constitutes its own Debates to elect its head, and appoints its own Scholars without imperial interference. States also maintain two kinds of military formations: 'confederal' troops of the imperial army, and state defence forces.
In Vaestopolitical terms, the Lutoborian system is almost unique in Vaestdom. The Confection of 1988 established a somewhat inversionist, personation-based constitution where worship of the Lutoborian Banner is the ultimate animating cause of the Lutoborian realms, but imperial power itself is a product of their consensus after that fact. Thus, although the assembly of Debates and determination of state officials are formally done with imperial assent, theoretically, the use of this device in turn has only been consented to by the realms first.
Although the Confection constitution mostly eliminated higher intervention (as was common during the dictatorial regency of Dobromir Sillis) into local political compositions as a source of political conflict, state autonomy is not impervious. 'Imperial' Schools may have jurisdictions on a state's conventional 'territory', and imperial institutions may act to effectively override state authority in the name of imperial-banner causes. Additionally, major Lutoborian estates — including both ambitious conglomerates and syndicalistic Privateer Boards — often enjoy distinct terms of servience allowing them to ignore state laws or replace them with their own regulations. Political analysis has often argued that conflicts over autonomy in the Lutoborsk have transferred into the 'estate level'.