Maintenancy of Ağame

The Maintenancy of Ağame was a special Circuit of the Fifth Chotarian Empire whose jurisdiction covered the peninsula of Pạmā, modern-day Agamar. Its primary distinguishing feature was the prominent role played by a structured hierarchy of officials known as Maintenants, who were responsible for the upkeep of the elaborate system of anti-cayvore infrastructure which regulated Pạmān life and aimed to reduce the impact of the frequent storms which wrought havoc on its population.

The Maintenancy was first established in the Third Empire period, but the ranked and salaried structure under the Supreme Maintenant and his four deputies, the Grand Maintenants of the North, South, East and West of the peninsula, were a Fifth Empire innovation. This was perhaps linked to the increasing sophistication of the measures taken by the governors of Pạmā, who alongside traditional dykes and other hydraulic measures to help reduce the impact of flooding began to introduce far more complex provisioning measures to secure the food supply to affected provinces alongside the construction of sheltered underground storehouses. While the Supreme Maintenant was originally subordinate to the fejedelem of Ağame, in 770 CE the title of fejedelem began to be given by default to the holder of the former position. The logic behind this change seems to have been rooted in the crises of the mid-8th century, which were dramatically exacerbated by the Cayvore of 762. The creation of the Maintenancy also coincided with the establishment of Maintenant positions in other regions outside Pạmā, in modern-day Ephgil and Partia.

As a result of its unique geography, the Maintenancy enjoyed an unusual level of autonomy under a Chotarian system otherwise characterised by highly centralised management of the details of provincial political life. Despite periodic attempts to impose fejedelmek and other high-ranking bureaucrats of central Lacrean origin, as was the case almost universally elsewhere in the Empire, most of the Maintenants appear to have been of Pạmān origin, and were most likely difficult to replace with externally appointed bureaucrats because of the technical expertise required by their jobs. Although on its incorporation into the Court of Kozrat at the end of the Equinox era, Ağame was equipped with a fairly orthodox temple bureaucracy, tax collection and corvée functions were progressively annexed to the Maintenants' powers. This led to the gradual absorption of the temple system into the Maintenancy, and the Maintenants' assumption of a role far exceeding their ostensible primary task.

Although the province itself ceased to exist as a political unit with the defeat of Chotar and the conquest of Pạmā in 1065, when Ostromir I Spytihnevevid was appointed Kunentsy of All Mirokrai, the administrative apparatus of the Maintenancy survived almost entirely intact and continued to effectively govern the peninsula until the early 12th century. Under the Onorovid dynasty (1101–13) the senior Maintenants seem to have been largely sidelined and the great bureaucratic households assimilated into the newly established local Secote Commandery dynasties, with a corresponding decline in the efficiency of or even partial abandonment of the system they were meant to maintain. This process was accelerated by the political fragmentation of the peninsula in the early 13th century. 'Maintenant' continued to be part of the titulature of many Commanders well into the Seven States period (1213–c. 1350), but had lost all technical significance. The lower ranks of the bureaucracy appear to have been absorbed into the Auditors.