Theocracy of Yaztas

The Theocracy of Yaztas is a militarily and diplomatically influential nation located in the Yaztas region of Florathel. It is a theocratic nation that worships the religion of Marwanism, and is the highest concentration of adherents to that religion in the universe. The Theocracy borders the Dominion of Khela, the Trezhath, the Marakat Interstellar Union, and the Arnot Exclusion Zone.

Area

The Theocracy is in control of roughly 443 million stars in Florathel, plus some random splodges of territory that they sneakily colonized within the Arnot Exclusion Zone. It is divided into eight cantons, each of which is divided into a series of sectors. Also, the two holiest systems to the Marwanist religion, the Quanta System and the Kastra System, are governed directly by the central government.

Capital

The capital of the Theocracy of Yaztas, Artas, is not itself home to any government services. However, all of its major moons, Mira, Tarka, Umo, Alos, and Phain, are covered in various government buildings and population centers. Artas is considered to be a holy planet, and the construction of anything artificial in its atmosphere is strictly prohibited by law.

Artas was originally named after the goddess Artas, the head of the Marwa, the Marwanist pantheon of gods. The other planets in the Quanta System are similarly named, and there are severe restrictions on building basically anything on the surfaces of any planet in the system. Thus, the entire system has a far lower population than many others.

Government - Original

At the time of the founding of the Theocracy of Yaztas, its government struggled to integrate the Marwanist Church with its original secular government. Laws were always proposed by a council of religious scholars, which were randomly chosen from a pool of high-graded graduates from religious schools. This council also elected the Supreme Leader of the nation, who served a term of 40 years. The bureaucracy, left over from its days as a colony of Khela was meant to carry out these resolutions. There was much tension between these two groups.

Government - Modern

In the year 9905 CE, a popular protest with some key quotes from various Marwanist holy books encouraged the sitting council to reform the government. Today, rather than having laws being created by the religious scholar council, there is a mostly secular elected parliament which makes laws which are then sent to the religious scholars for veto or passage. There is also an executive branch which is also elected by the people which does things to enforce the laws. The systems had been largely merged by this point, leaving little distinction between church and state.

History

The Holy Revolution

The Theocracy was founded after a comparatively small community of Marwanists positioned in the long-neglected Quanta system. With nothing in the way of work and a discontent populous, little prevented a revolution. High Priest Uigan, then simply the "Governor," gave his people much work. Local military units soon fell under his spell, in particular after seeing the treatment of Quanta's veterans—probably the group most uncared for. Rather than bail out their colony or offer economic support, Khela let it fester.

Thus, the local Marwanist priests declared a new nation around Quanta, and immediately Khela's navy began advancing toward it. Because of the incredibly large size of these fleets, the new Theocracy of Yaztas seemed doomed. The advance fleet, rushing into battle and operating with mostly skeleton crews, fell victim to a crack team of religious zealots, who traveled to the location of and somehow disabled their communication systems, blinding the craft. Unfortunately, they all died in the process, but this allowed the small Yaztas fleet to destroy them at their leisure, saving the rebellion. The Dominion retreated shortly thereafter, unable to afford the invasion.

The War of Revenge

Modern Times

For 100 years after the War of Revenge, things essentially kept going as normal. There were small things, like arguments over whether a certain law applies in a certain position, but they didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Today, the new government actually functions better than the old one, and citizen satisfaction levels are high. Minor reforms in regards to things like anti-corruption law has happened, but the overall structure of government hasn't changed.