Interordinate relations
Interordinate relations (inter-, "between"; ordinatio, "government, order") are the relations between different states. More generally, it is the field of knowledge dealing with the analysis of diplomacy and of state systems.
Messenian model
Whether because of the practicalities of dealing between its different cultures, or conversely a shared culture, early Messenian diplomacy was characterised by the pragmatic and intuitive recognition of any reasonably significant actor with diplomatic dignity. The protocols behind diplomacy and strategy usually assumed that these actors were patrimonial rulers, that is, if their states or other claims to power were not directly their property, then at least those were something strongly associated with the rulers personally which the latter could be made accountable for. Though some of these actors like the Sabamanian respublics were constitutionally led in principle by a collective, only represented by or delegating duties to a monarch, their fictive personalities still dealt in the same language of rights, favours, and interests that linked them closely to their states.
This personalist, pragmatic model was probably at its typical height in the centuries after the Second Great Invasions during which much of Messenia became dominated by Palthians, who culturally practiced its assumptions as selship. However, it was also in this period that the pan-Messenian fabric of interactions came into more noticeable competition with universalist claims to precedence by the Third Sabāmani Empire under the Ecclesiarchy. Though the Third Great Invasions and the Secote Dominion ran the Cairan empire into the ground, appropriation of its hierarchies, coupled with the rise of regional protocols based on dynastic links between Secote commanders, marked the beginning of an arrangement where conscious attempts to construct and maintain regional polities were entertained alongside the more universal code of nobles and princes.
In the Cairan world, this took the form of the post-Secote Imperial Question about the restoration of pan-Cairan authority, even as it was challenged by separation of powers as promoted by Orange Revivalism. Neo-Sabamanian legacies again splintered between the imperial ambition itself, and the appropriation of some imperial dignities by 'kings' in the Maximilian system. With Maximilianism 'kingdoms' arose as a new diplomatic unit where the precedence of the king and the definition of systems around him over vassals was treated as an end in itself, steering the course of political conflicts in other regional systems such as the Six Tables.
During the 17th and 18th centuries post-Secote regional systems collapsed in a series of conflicts that coincidentally often had a sectarian character. The cultural Partition of Messenia thus joined with the assertion of new powers away from old rituals and systems; religion played a defining role in the establishment of new state protocols such as the Peace of Degersholm or the Blessed Conciliation. However, the equal positioning of Cairan, Sirian, and Arlaturi worlds has by necessity created working agreements in a common language, which is based on a matter-of-fact appraisal of state interests, and the allocation of 'sovereignty' to states as unitary agents over religious ecumenes. But beyond this, which is more of a recognition of modern states as technological objects superseding older forms of authority as the most realistic to deal with, the Messenian consensus arrogates no ideals. It has always allowed for culturally-specific reasons like Siur kvöðin to inform actions taken, the execution of ambitions and strategies of dominance or unification of cultural spheres, and contention with the universalist ideals of Vaestism, in its framework.
States in Vaestism
Historical overview
The development of the modern Vaestic state is characterised by rapid changes and the converging influences of diverse historical forces. Since its beginning, Vaestism has claimed for itself an authority encompassing all fields of social life, dictating the need for society to be run by those with correct Knowledge. For a long period, the universality of the Vaestic faith was paralleled by the universality of its political institutions. Until the establishment of the Neritsovid Empire, the entire Vaestic community was governed ultimately by the Scholar-Marshals of the Prysostaia, who delegated officials to serve as Vocation Scholars in new territories as the faith continued to spread. It was neither practicable nor possible, however, for the Prysostaia to direct and manage the entire Vaestic community in the way one might expect of a functioning government, and different Vaestic communities were continually experimenting with different approaches to the social practice of religion, necessitating continual and only partially successful drives for orthodoxy from the centre. Moreover, the sovereignty of the Prysostaia was limited in extent, and extensive Vaestic communities existed in other states such as the Tirfatsevid Empires, where real political power rested in the hands of heathen monarchs.
This complex situation changed dramatically with the foundation of Great Neritsia, the first sovereign Vaestic empire, at the end of the 15th century. Neritsia gradually came to take on the status of a universal Vaestic state, with successive Neritsovid Emperors mandating the establishment of new Banners and claiming the right of protection over the Prysostaia itself. With the combination of the positions of Emperor and Universal Prophet under the first Prophet-Emperor, Sobiebor II Zakon, Vaestic claims to sovereignty were realised unambiguously, and Vaestism established itself definitively as the unitary framework for state relations in Outer Joriscia. Even after the conversion of rulers outside the direct reach of the Neritsovid state, Neritsia remained characterised by its hyperimperial hegemony over the continent, unchallengeable by any of the external powers in its vicinity. Political reality thus reflected religious ideals. The existence of this empire preserved a sense of monolithic unity within Vaestism, as all Vaestic rulers were forced to contend more or less directly with the supremacy of the Neritsovid Prophet-Emperor.
The dramatic collapse of Neritsia over the course of the late 17th century caused this universal order to disintegrate. The new Terophatic Empire laid claim to the heritage of the heathen Tirfatsevids as a source of legitimacy, posing a challenge to the picture of ultimate Vaestic sovereignty as the underpinning of state legitimation. Thus, for a long period, the reality of interordinate relations in Outer Joriscia fell into a severe dissonance with the traditional Vaestic conception of political organisation, which saw the Prysostaia leading or acting as the pivot of an ordered, universal Vaestic society. While Neritsia was gone, it continued to cast a long shadow over developments in Outer Joriscia. All but one of the independent states thrown up by the fragmentation of Neritsia could draw their history back to the actions of a Neritsovid emperor; even the Terophatic exception came to lay some claim to the Neritsovid heritage.
This period of ambiguity lasted until the 1840s, when the Neritsovid ghost, still personified in the Azophine remnant, was finally laid to rest. The settlement of the Great Peninsular War established three clearly distinct imperial crowns: the Terophatic, the Chotarian (Lacrean), and the Azophine, though the latter was upheld by a regency. The notion, and hope, that Vaestic universality could yet be reflected once more in political practice was destroyed by the settlement laid down in the Treaty of Tharamann, which firmly established in the Vaestic heartland the state sovereignty already typified by outside powers such as Agamar and the Lutoborsk. As the Radiance grew to its heights, new ideas of state organisation and the notion of Banner interest, refined and formulated by the proponents of the three principles of politics, began to reshape conceptions of the Outer Joriscian order, firmly dissociating state power and interests from the universal laws of Vaestism. Diplomacy became a legitimate art in its own right, providing an alternative to the laborious and often dishonest contortions of Vaestic hierology which had hitherto characterised formal relations between states.
However, the relationship between Vaestism and the political structures of Outer Joriscia continued to live on. Above all, states continued to be legitimated by Vaestic beliefs: in the world of Vaestic ideology, rulers elected by virtue of their Knowledge continued to guide organized Banners in accordance with Vaestic teachings. Far from competing, however, the Banner and the reality of secular state came to complement each other, allowing the establishment of the loose satellite state hierarchies that are familiar to this day, while providing an ideological framework for understanding the state: the so-called "banner-state". Instead of the sharp dissonance of the 18th century, Vaestic ideas had evolved to reflect and dynamically influence the political situation.
This concept of the legitimacy of independence posed problems for the role of the Prysostaia, however. Now more than ever before, the Universal Prophet, head of this central School, was dependent not on an ideal, universal Vaestic community, but on a layer of fractious and competing governments for his election. By the 1920s, the position itself had fallen into abeyance, symbolically completing at last the shift from universal hegemony to plural competition within a universal framework. The Long War reinforced this new reality, and it is this inheritance which was crystallised by the Kethpor Accords to form the Vaestic half of the modern Kethpor System. Though its legitimacy has fallen into ideological dispute, it has substantially persevered for the past half-century. While the banner-states continue in their systemic and ideological divergence, the framework of the Vaestic state sets firm limits on state action, and guides the institutional realisation of interactions between the Vaestic states of Outer Joriscia. The monolithic "Vaestdom" of earlier centuries has become a broader framework of relations, universal but not hegemonic, institutional and not power-political, providing the environment for the Vaestic model of the state and not the model itself.
The banner-state
Between models
Inner Joriscia
Neutral Lestria
Civilisation and the uncivilised powers
There are two senses of civilisation: the particular cultural and religious ideologies embodied throughout distinct societies, and the general measure of sophistication and dominance exalting Messeno-Joriscia as the Civilised World. Vaestism's missionary attitudes, and particularly its claims to universal sovereignty with the dogma of First Prostration, has informed the treatment of all Ignorant societies as by default latent subjects of the Prophetic Banner yet to be brought under proper tutelage. For example, Domradovid Joriscia is officially a polcovodate subordinate to the Prophetic Banner, and ultimately in principle the Joriscian powers tolerate their peers in Messenia just as much as less powerful or developed polities in Lestria or Ascesia insofar as they are co-habitants of universal Vaestdom. In contrast, it is much more difficult for Messenian diplomatic philosophy to be meaningfully informed by claims beyond simple matters of strategy where favouring co-religionists or carrying out the duty of kvöðin is pursued.
A combined Messeno-Joriscian civilisation is more commonly acted upon through the working understandings between the two worlds, even though it finds much less of an intellectual audience in either of its parts. To favour the many faces of fellow civilised powers or cultures over 'uncivilised' Lestrian and Ascesian actors is a common assumption, while Messeno-Joriscian precedence influences considerably the freedoms expected and respect accorded of parties to all negotiations and confrontations. With the Great Enclosure and the growing identification of uncivilised clients with their civilised patrons' interests, this has become challenged on many occasions such as during the Dusk War, although the primacy of civilisation was reaffirmed with diplomacy between the civilised powers involved proving to decide the outcome.
Colonialism
The Kethpor System
While "the Kethpor System" is a widely-used term referring to the modern framework of global interordinate relations, its precise meaning is far from obvious. It would be false to suggest that the Congress of Kethpor, which established the System in 1959, represented a radical break in historical development. Much of the enduring influence of the Congress derives from its symbolic and practical precedent rather than the explicit prescriptions adopted in the Kethpor Accords. Functionally, the Kethpor System is the institutional framework that connects the Messenian and Joriscian systems of interordinate relations at the global level. The System therefore necessitated the identification of a common ground of meaning on which both civilisations could operate. This sphere of mutual interests and responsibilities was set out in the preamble to the Accords, often referred to separately as the Kethpor Proclamation.