Arganite States

Arganite States Estats arganois
1332–1498
Flag
The Arganite States shown (in red) relative to the other major Savamese realms in 1400 CE
Capital	Etamps-La-Sainte
Common languages	Medieval Sabamic (formal), Old Savamese (vernacular)
Religion	Cairony (Post-Imperial)
Government	Theocracy
Holy Mother
• 1324-1358	Térésa de Tulmontant
• 1482-1498	Livie d'Hesbèn
Legislature	Sorority
History
• Submission of Sarre	1332
• Cairan Heartland conquered	1345
• Loss of Brocquie	1461
• Collapse	1498
Preceded by Succeeded by Montalbian Empire Dordanie Brocquie Valdenois Sarre Various states

The Arganite States (Savamese: États arganites) were a collection of territories governed directly by the Argan of Savam between 1332 and 1498 in western Savam, located in the Cairan Heartland and around the shores of Lake Carles. The Arganite States were the last attempt by the conservative post-imperial catholic faction of the Sabamic/Savamese Cairan clergy to recreate the Ecclesiarchy, the religious-political administration that had existed during the Third Sabāmani Empire, and to counter the intellectual movement of Orange Revivalism, which had thrived under the patronage of the Montalbian Empire.

History

Rise

The Arganite States arose under the leadership of Térésa de Tulmontant, who rose to the position of Holy Mother in 1324, following the devastation in the clergy's ranks that resulted from the Great Plague. After securing conservative positions in Etamps-La-Sainte, the Holy Mother used the Argan's treasury to recruit mercenary sword-noblemen, many of them former elite soldiers of the Montablans, and form a significant army.

The Count of Sarre was forced to submit to the Argan in 1332, and by 1345 all the post-Montalbian states surrounding Lake Carles had been placed under the Argan's direct authority. Secular administration was once again placed under direct control by the Argan, as had been the case under the Ecclesiarchy. In the pre-Secote bureaucracy, all bureaucrats were clergy members, although actual clergywomen occupied most of the intermediate to high magisterial positions, the rest being manned by lay members of both genders (a special corps of the clergy nonetheless).

The ancient symbiosis could not be fully recreated, notably because of significant redundancies; instead, clerics took only the most senior magisterial positions. The Argan appointed itself the highest feudal suzerain, and such noble parliaments as existed were dissolved, with the arganite sorority replacing them (effectively, because of the rules on rise to the rank of matron, the Argan replaced male-only noble assemblies with a female-only noble assembly). Zealous anti-Orangism became de rigueur, with a widespread ban of Orangist publications; the de facto schism of Cairony became much more apparent, as reform-minded clergy outside of the Arganite States started to operate independently from the Holy Mother's sanction.

Conflicts with secular dynasties

During the second half of the 14^th century, the principal counterweights to the Arganite States were, in the west, the newly-rising sabamicised princes of Elland, and, to the east, the Respublic of Quesailles under the leadership of chancellor Dominique du Felbois (until the Fair Charter of 1372).

After their victory in the Adaquian War (1360-61), where they extended their control in the east to Taurive, the States' territorial expansion stalled. They started to lose territory to Quesailles in the Second Adaquian War of the early 1370s. As a result, the clergy became more inwardly focused, starting an obsessive quest to purge Orangist supporters, both in the clergy and in the nobility.

For the next half-century, the states benefited from the decline of Quesailles and inter-dynastic conflicts in Quènie and Dordanie to remain relatively unscathed. After the initial purges, this period was rich in intellectual activity, with a complex formalisation of traditional catholic rhetoric and arguments, as well as the first widespread debates on the merits of the growing divergences between the Daelic and Sabamic argans (that would evolve into the Dael and Eastern rites). The economy also developed, as the Argan removed tariff barriers between its tributary states, and a great building push took place in Etamps. The construction of the Sagittae Templum and its impressive 142-metre beacon, one of the city’s most iconic buildings, started in 1391; another significant work was the refurbishment of the Librarium Sanctuary in the 1390s and 1400s. However, the ban on slavery imposed in 1369 did damage some urban centres, especially those that had important commercial relations with Quesailles and its slavery-based economy.

The beginning of the 15^th century marked the end of this relative peace. Champions of the Orangist cause, the House of Flessandre became a major player in the Savamese realms from the 1390s by unifying the Sablons with Benovia and by putting Quesailles under its control in 1412; and the Flessandres were generally successful in their struggle against the Quènian Montalban-Dessor dynasty. Having established the house as Prince of the Sablons, Benovia, and the Gaste, the Flessandres played out the main act of their opposition with the Arganite States during the Brocquian War (1439-61), during which Brocquie was wrestled out of the Argan's control despite its sudden alliance with the Prince of Quènie. Although the Flessandres did not annex Brocquie, they allowed its return as a fully independent secular principality and took away one of the Argan's wealthiest territory.

The Argan's defeat triggered some major changes in the realms. Immediately following the war Prince Maxime of Flessandre crowned himself king of Dordanie. It was the first time that any ruler in the realms had assumed this title, one specifically made to be higher than the princes but lower than the emperor – a form of compromise for an imperial crown that was otherwise still unobtainable. This event is considered a watershed moment for the birth of modern state in the Sabamic world, as it was accompanied by the implementation of important legal reforms as well as the de facto beginning of secular pre-eminence.

To strengthen an essentially political move, Maxime sponsored the foundation of a new argan which regrouped all the Orangist Savamese clergy; this new argan was immediately claimed to be the actual Argan of Savam, thus crystallising the unofficial schism that had existed since the 13^th century. The conservatives in Etamps could not contain their rage; a sentence of heresy was soon issued on the "new" argan, which reciprocated. Tensions flared: mobs attacked temples and other arganic properties, clergywomen were murdered by nobles or by fellow clerics belonging to the opposing faction, and many assets and intellectual materials were burned down.

Decline

Amidst this violence, over the course of thirty years the Arganite States progressively collapsed. Orangist ranks grew as clergywomen steadily defected. A side effect of this conflict, and the heavy sponsoring of the new argan by the Flessandres, was the reduction of the Argan's moral authority against that of the secular rulers. Vassalised nobles rose in rebellion and claimed back their independence – perhaps the most significant example in the period being the lightning-strike campaign by Emilia with Ellish support which reconstituted the former principality in 1476–77 – although the last two Holy Mothers Laure des Histals and Livie d'Hesbèn had some success in slowing down the collapse through the heavy use of mercenary forces against these rebels. By the late 1490s, however, the Argan's resources had run out, and it collapsed for good, in the process allowing Sarre to reclaim its independence. Flessandre led an army into Etamps and captured d'Hesbèn and her staff; soon afterwards, the Orangist rebels, meeting temporarily in Taurive, chose Clémence de Roussel as the new Holy Mother. Her taking the matriarchal seat two months later nominally reunited the argan, but with no question as to who was now in charge.

The fall of the Arganite States marked the last attempt at theocratic rule in the Savamese realms, as well as the end of traditional Catholicism. Western argans (in the Dael realms and Elland) had adopted Orangist precepts much earlier than in Savam and with less opposition; thus the end of the Arganite States also represents the end of so-called "post-imperial" Cairony and the full transition toward early Orange Orthodoxy. Some conflicts persisted in Ceresora until the late 16^th century, as a number of post-imperial migrants from the great wave of the mid-14^th century that settled past Vallinia had brought with them their conservative doctrine. However, those groups were never adequately organised, and were quickly dispatched by the growing power of the Bragonis.