The Terranian Tetrarchy is the largest of the three great powers, geographically speaking, but much of its territory consists of the Cursed Lands, an area of land the size of the Sahara Desert where the ground is toxic as a result of radiation from Thanos' naquadria bomb tests. The presence in their midst of an evil place which killed those who neither ate of its sparse and corrupted plant-life nor drank its waters is perhaps the reason why the Terranians have retained a stronger religious sensibility than any other nation on Langara. In addition, the genetic mutation inflicted by the high levels of background radiation in the area also led to the Terranian programmes of selective breeding of crop strains, livestock and population.
The area now controlled by the Terranian Tetrarchy was originally home to several nomadic tribes and a number of sedentary cultures, all of which suffered greatly in the aftermath of the bomb testing. It was the northernmost tribe, the Teranen Dui, who were least affected and who took advantage of the weakening of their neighbours to expand their territory. The Teranen Dui (the name translates literally as the Tribe of the Dragon) spread their influence, installing their own chieftains as overlords of other tribes, converting others to their tribal religion - worshipping in turn Voltumne, Atunis and finally Artume as the successor of Thanos - and enforcing an early form of eugenics, forbidding those with mutations to breed.
Over time, as the Teranen Dui conquered the southern city-states, they became settled themselves. With the trappings of civilisation now open to them, they developed their eugenic doctrine to hone the skills of particular key sectors of the population. Drawing talented individuals from their various tribes, the first élite was formed.
The major cities of Terrania are primarily the old tribal mooting sites, or Gens. The largest is of course Gen Dui in the north, where the Teranen Dui and their vassal tribes would assemble to make laws and judge disputes, but large cities have also grown up around Gen Tral and Gen Chal on the coast of the Central Sea, now the main civilian and military ports respectively. The last large city is Gen Dali on the southern coast, which is one of the Tetrarchy's industrial centres. Gen Dali produces a vast quantity of pollution, but as this is pumped into the already lethal waters of the Poison Gulf it barely notices.
The first city in the Terranian territories was Gen Rada, the mooting ground of the only tribe to rival the Teranen Dui in the early years after the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the river that fed the city, the Rie Rada, is fed from Lake Thanos in the heart of the Cursed Land. As the groundwater beneath the lake became poisoned, the river brought death first to the river and then to the city, which is now a contaminated shell known as Necropolis. It is the Rei Rada that created the seething, corrosive waters of the Poisoned Gulf and the same waters, carried by the southern currents, that have destroyed the Dead Shore of Australis.
The modern Terranian state is controlled by - and in many ways for the four élite groups: The military, scientific, pastoral and religious.
Each élite is run as a series of quasi-religious orders, devoted to training novices and practicing their particular art in single-sex facilities. They are celibate except when they are directed to breed according to the eugenic programme mapped out by the genealogists of the Scientific Élite and their children are raised by the order. All members of the elite are removed from their birth parents in infancy and spend their lives in the absolute service of the state.
The Military Élite are the largest of the four groups, forming one-fifth of the sizeable Terranian military's officer corps. Novices of the order are trained as strategists, tacticians, morale officers, special forces and pilots rather than regular troop commanders and they are always deemed to outrank a regular officer of the same rank. Approximately twenty percent of the ME are female; despite the élite commitment to equality old prejudices die hard and a girl has to promise truly exceptional military skill to be selected for training by the order. This gender gap was closed considerably in the current novitiate by the Anubite Invasion.
Male members of the Military Élite are raised and trained in the Fortress, a vast and isolated citadel on the edge of the Cursed Lands. The Fortress is run as an extended military base, commanded by the Tutorial General Élite; all teaching staff are accorded the appellation 'Tutorial' before their rank, in addition to their Élite tag. The novices at the Fortress are divided into four chapters, each headed by a Tutorial Commissar-General Élite (abbreviated, except when addressing one of the four, to TCGE). Students are brought to the Fortress as infants and grow up within their chapter, breeding a fierce loyalty to chapter and order.
Female members of the Military Élite train at the Chapterhouse, a smaller organisation run by the Tutorial Subgeneral Élite. As its name suggests, the students at the Chapterhouse form a single chapter equivalent to those at the Fortress, headed in person by the Tutorial Subgeneral Élite. The administration of the Chapterhouse is very similar to that of the Fortress, with the institution being run as a combination of military base, training camp, school and nursery.
The students at both the Fortress and the Chapterhouse hold a cadet rank, beginning at Cadet Subaltern and rising to Cadet Commandant for the leaders of training companies. Novices join one of their chapter's training companies as children and, as they have never known their blood relations, the company become their family. It is not unusual for members of the ME to call each other by familial appellations: members of a company are brothers or sisters, those who share a chapter are cousins, and others are kins(wo)men.
Currently, the novitiate of the Military Élite are housed in temporary accommodation while the Fortress and Chapterhouse are rebuilt following the bombardment. When the Anubite attack came, Tutorial General Élite Vaica Maigreve opted to secure the Fortress against assault, while the Tutorial Subgeneral Élite Aria Dukaris chose to scatter her forces. As a result, almost 75% of the male novitiate were killed in the destruction of the Fortress and most of the remainder captured, while the female novices were blooded as partisans during the brief occupation.
In their final year, all students - male and female - are transferred to one of the specialist schools run by the regular military: the Gunnery School, Flight School, Cavalry School, Engineer's School and so forth. On their graduation, all students are given the rank of Subaltern Élite and are assigned to regular military units; their time in the specialist schools is intended to prepare them for exposure to the non-élite and the opposite sex. They are permitted to continue to wear their cadet rank as a lapel pin on ceremonial occasions.
Older élite officers are transferred from the general military to the Tactical Scriptorium, where they develop new strategies and methodologies for combat.
The Military Élite are, above all other Terranians, devoted to the heritage of the Teranen Dui warrior-culture. The five chapters - Barkha, Loji, Treagan, Phosar and Neriya - are named after the five great heroes of the tribe: Aradath Barkha, the chieftain who led the Teranen Dui to power; his three greatest knights, Seloran Loji, Mastas Treagan and Veleris Phosar; and the warrior-queen, Neriya Twise. These five were seen as the founders of the great Teranen families. Neriya was a member of the Telachi tribe before her marriage to Forsyt Barkha and her first name is used for the female chapter because her family name is not Teranen.
A number of sects and secret societies exist within the Military Élite, devoted to the preservation of various alleged aspects of the Teranen Dui way of life. These societies make a big thing of anyone who has an ancestral link to one - or more - of the five families and claims of favouritism, nepotism and corruption have dogged the ME for generations.
The Scientific Élite and their junior order, the Medical Élite, are the second largest of the élite groups and contain the largest proportion of female members; over seventy percent. There is a great deal of rivalry between the élite and the civilian scientists of the Academy, although often this pales in comparison to the workaday rivalry between academics.
The Scientific Élite are raised, trained and undertake sensitive research in their priories and convents. These single-sex institutions are run as a mixture of religious house, school and scientific research establishment. Each monastery is headed by a Father Prior, assisted by priors and sub-priors; each convent by a Mother Prioress and her prioresses and sub-prioresses. Most members of the Scientific Élite remain in the cloisters all their lives, with the exception of exchange visits to other cloisters for collaborative research projects, and occasional scientific symposia and conventions. Only rarely will they be permitted to go out and work with individuals not of the Élite and for most, their first real contact with the opposite sex occurs when they are assigned a mating partner by the Eugenic Division of the Medical Élite.
Aside from the priors, the scientific élite carry only academic titles. All students are expected to obtain a doctoral qualification by the age of twenty; before this they are referred to with the salutation 'Pupil'. Once they hold a doctorate this is replaced by Dr and as they rise through the ranks they will hold in turn the titles Lector, Professor and Academician.
The Medical Élite, who must of necessity practice in public, operate in a slightly different fashion. In order to maintain discipline and isolation, they train and practice in all-élite priory-hospitals and convent-hospices. The administration of these facilities is very similar to that of the scientific priories and convents, but in addition to the teachers - the priors and sub-priors - each has a medical staff, with Pupils acting as nurses and qualified members of the élite as medical and surgical staff. Once qualified, members of the Medical Élite use the slightly archaic ranks of Doctor of Physic, Master Physician or Master Surgeon (depending on speciality) and Chief Physician or Surgeon.
In addition to medical practice and research, the Medical Élite includes perhaps the most powerful body in Terrania, the Eugenics Division. It is this august assembly that is responsible for assigning the Élite to mating pairs with the aim of creating yet more perfect children, and also for selecting those rare outsiders with the potential to join the Élite.
The powerful, but oft-underestimated Pastoral Élite are trained in industrial methodology, social engineering and diplomacy. They supply policy advice to the Tetrarchy and also form the bulk of the diplomatic corps.
The Pastoral Élite are not trained in cloister. Their work involves people and so they are expected to have greater contact with civilians than the other élite groups. Instead the Élite runs numerous small schools in major population centres. In these schools, a senior élite called a Mentor trains up to ten apprentices at a time, raising the younger children from infancy with the aid of the older. Security and discipline are tight at these schools, to prevent the élite from being corrupted.
Once trained, members of the Pastoral Élite are placed with civilian officials to act, initially, as advisers and aides. Senior members of the élite tend to be ambassadors and advisers to the Military, Scientific and Religious Tetrarchs.
The Religious Élite is the smallest of the four groups. They train parish priests and study the scriptures.
Naturally, the Religious Élite train in priories and convents. Once trained, most of them remain in cloisters as regular Brothers and Sisters of the order, studying, copying and interpreting scripture. The most disciplined are sent out to act as parish priests, with the rank of Father or Mother, or take roles in the administration of the church under the auspices of the Religious Tetrarch.
The Religious Élite also have the responsibility of ensuring religious orthodoxy. The Office of the Tetrarch are an inquisitorial order who persecute those who practice heretical religions. Of late they have been preoccupied with the tracing of Voltumnan cults and lesser heresies have been allowed to slide.
The Tetrarchy are the leaders of the four élite orders and, by extension, of the Terranian state. The Military Tetrarch is the commander in chief of the armed forces and police, while the Scientific Tetrarch is in charge of all Terranian research, but is also involved in healthcare and industrial development. The Pastoral Tetrarch is the senior member of the Tetrarchy, while the Religious Tetrarchy is the nation's spiritual leader.
Each Tetrarch maintains an advisory staff of political specialists from their own and the other élite groups. Together with these advisers, the Tetrarchs debate and generate policy and propose legislation. It was formerly their role also to pass legislation, but since the opening of the borders and the relaxing of communication restrictions, it has been felt necessary - if not exactly desirable - to devolve the bulk of the Tetrarchy's legislative role to the Estates. Only in the matter of military and church affairs does the power of the Tetrarchy remain absolute.
Beneath the Tetrarchy, a vast and labyrinthine bureaucracy takes care of the actual business of the state. Many of these functionaries are ordinary citizens of Terrania, while the heads of departments are far more likely to be trained bureaucrats of the Pastoral Élite.
Those Terranians who are not members of the élite are known as citizens. They have fewer privileges and less influence than the élite, but they enjoy a greater degree of freedom. They are expected to defer to the élite in matters of their expertise and to show due reverence in all things, although the élite are in turn expected to use their expertise to protect and serve the citizenry.
All Terranians, élite or citizen, are both employees and wards of the state. Wages for citizens tend to be low, but all are housed and given basic food; wages are used only for supplementing these essentials and state funding means that prices tend to be low. The Terranian Tetrarchy has full employment, but job satisfaction is not always all it could be.
There are four special areas of employment: The Academy, the Estates, the Military and the Orders Minor. In addition to their other rights and privileges, members of these groups in good standing may be invited to enrich the élite breeding programme by contributing their DNA to the next generation of the élite.
The élite are educated in their own orders, but for the citizenry there is the Academy. The Academy is the governing body which administers the state-run schools, colleges, universities and vocational training courses of Terrania. Terranian colleges and universities are specialist institutions, focusing on one area of study; the colleges specialise more broadly than the universities.
All children take a test at age nine to decide whether they should enter college at thirteen or be assigned to vocational training, and which college or training course they should be placed in. There is very little personal choice involved. When a child finishes college at seventeen, they are again tested and placed in a university or vocational placement according to their results. Those citizens who obtain degrees may be kept on for postgraduate research and earn doctorates, or may enter professional placement.
All teaching staff in the Terranian system have completed at least a college education and a two-year professional placement. College teachers must hold a degree and university lecturers must hold a doctorate. University lecturers may, in rare cases, be members of the Scientific Elite.
On completion of their education, a Terranian citizen is assigned a work placement. As with their educational placement, this assignment is not open to much choice. A citizen is permitted to appeal against a placement - especially a military placement - but must accept the alternative then offered. A citizen who refuses an educational or work placement is detained and obliged to undertake equivalent training or labour while serving a custodial sentence.
The Estates are the administrative divisions of the Terranian territory, created by the partitioning of the old marches with the advance of sedentary agriculture. The Estates are controlled and represented on three levels: The Estates Minor, the Estates Major and the Estates General.
There are currently two thousand and ninety-seven Estates Minor, each one designated urban or rural. Urban Estates, or conurbations, consist of a town or city and its environs and are controlled by a Mayor. Rural Estates, or shires, are based in the countryside, usually encompassing several villages, and are controlled by a Sheriff. Mayors and Sheriffs are members of the Pastoral Élite, appointed by the Estates General from a list of candidates provided by the Tetrarchy. As well as administrators, they act as legislators in the Estates Major and as the supreme magistrate for their Estate.
The three hundred Estates Major each cover between five and nine Estates Minor. Each is governed by a council of Mayors and Sheriffs, assisted by fifty citizen officers, who are elected annually by the populace. The citizen officers are responsible for the running of the Estate and the proposing of local legislation. The Mayors and Sheriffs are responsible for debating and either passing or returning this legislation and for all matters of justice. One of their number is elected High Sheriff each year and acts as the supreme magistrate of appeal for the Estate Major.
In addition to electing their own local officers, the citizenry of each Estate Major elect two of their own number to represent their interests in the Estates General. Once a merely advisery body which voiced the concerns of the people to the 'caring' Tetrarchy, since the end of the cold war the Estates General have been granted legislative powers and are currently being reformed into a bicameral house.
The Military Command are the general staff who control the sizeable Terranian Military organisation, composed of several senior Generals and Overgenerals and their staff officers. The leader of the Military Command is the General-in-Ordinary, who is the only citizen who holds a grade equivalent to the prestigious rank of Overgeneral Élite. In addition to the staff officers, the Command includes the Commander-at-Arms, the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer in the organisation, who acts as the General-in-Ordinary's aide and liaison to the ordinary ranks.
A handful of citizens are selected to undertake religious studies and duties in support of the Religious Élite. There are three Orders Minor for these individuals: The Order of Preachers are lay ministers who undertake to act as deputies for élite priests; the Order of Scholars are a cloistered group who study scripture, again under the supervision of the Élite; and the Order of Friars are a mendicant order who preach in remote locations and also spy out nonconformist religious practice.