Left Bannerman

The Left Bannerman is a ceremonial role used by the Prysostaic Council in the rare instance where the Prophetic Banner is actively used in the ceremony (rather than being merely on display as a symbol of the Universal Prophet).

While Standard-Bearers across Vaestism will, where needed, physically manipulate their own Banners where this is required, the Universal Prophet – although he may, for many purposes, be considered the supreme Standard-Bearer – cannot himself place hands on the Banner. The practice developed since the Radiance period, in part as a response to the discrediting of the concept of ultragnosis. By the Ultragnostic Edict of 1539, the Prophet-Emperor was deemed to be, by his bloodline, possessed of Knowledge beyond the capacity of any normal human being, and thus could not be harmed by the discharge of supreme cognition which may be "grounded” from the Prophet himself through the banner which was the symbol of all that Vaestism encompasses. With the separation of the Prophetic office from the throne, it was feared that a Universal Prophet who physically touched the Banner ran the risk of the Prophet’s supreme Knowledge descending into a mind which could not encompass it. It was thus necessary for a lesser individual to physically take hold of the Banner during ceremonials.

While this liturgical superstition has long been discredited as it originally stood, the practice remains, somewhat retooled as a ritualised separation within the ceremony of the Universal Prophet – who is merely a man – from the corpus of Knowledge which the Banner represents. The Left Bannerman (so dubbed as he stands on the left of the Universal Prophet or, in modern times, the Interrex, usually the non-weapon hand) thus holds an honourable part in the ceremony, although – as he was historically considered dispensible in the event of calamity – it is customary for volunteers to draw tiles from a bag until one person is selected for any one ceremony.