Neritsovid dynasty

The Neritsovids (High Secote: ⰐⰅⰓⰉⰜⰑⰂⰠⰔⰍⰉⰊ, Nericovĭskii) were a Vesnite dynasty who held almost continuously for its several-hundred year existence the title of Emperor of the Vesnites, ruling over the Great Neritsovid Empire and, in the wake of that state's collapse, the rump monarchy in Azophin. For much of the period the Neritsovid Emperor was also Universal Prophet, making him the supreme religious and temporal authority (Prophet-Emperor) of all orthodox Vaestdom. The family took their name from Nerits, himself a relatively minor member of the High Nobility born into the Sirian aristocracy in modern Lacre, although his direct male descendants died out with Ostrobor the Pious (r. 1554–1572). Thereafter a series of lateral branches identifying themselves as Neritsovids by descent from Nerits' brothers (Ostrobor Neritsy for the Ostroborovids and Bytibor Neritsy for the Bytiborovids) and his uncle Ratibor Neritsy (for the Ratiborovids) took up the Neritsovid name, operating on the basis of Secote customs of inheritance and clan.

For much of the Neritsovid period and thereafter, the Neritsovids were ascribed special powers both in popular and, to a lesser extent, orthodox Vaestism. Most importantly, they were considered to have superhuman Knowledge, referred to as Ultragnosis, which was considered to be inherited (although after the accession of the Bytiborovid Ostrobor II Ultragnosis gradually reduced in importance). In older Vaestic parlance, especially Neritsovid and later Cathedralist language, they are regularly referred to by epithets such as 'the enlightened seed'; this language is now viewed with some suspicion and deification of the Neritsovids is considered heretical. Nonetheless, many of the Neritsovids, and to a significant extent the family as a whole, are much-venerated in Vaestic historiography.