|
|
|
The Elariens are constantly reminded of their only religion, Tachte, by the organisation 'Priestcraft of Tachte'. It's often referred to as 'Nyndra' by the Elariens, which is a verb form of 'holy'. We will refer to it as the Priestcraft from here on.
In the Priestcraft there are four major levels of status. These are the official four, but special lower ranks can be found locally, especially in systems close to the Elarien border. The ranks are, to start with the lowest: Sparga'yneh, Sparga'hol, Rgankhun, and the highest, Tachte Kamator Dyero. The picture above shows the badge of rank for each level, with the lowest to the left and raising.
This is the lowest rank of all (note: civilians are regarded rankless)
in the Elarien society. The private soldier in a regular army has the
right to command Sparga'ynehs if given permission by both it's
commander and the Rgankhun that owns the Sparga'yneh. The step from a
civilian life to become a Sparga'yneh is a big step down in the social
scale, which is easily proved with a translation of the class title:
Sparga is actually two words, Spa, which is an old prefix that is used
to describe that person is a Trainee, Student or just not trained in
some area. Rga is a word that describes the Priestcraft in a very
positive way. The suffix, yneh, is just slave or servant. The whole thing
can be translated to something like "A lousy slave that wants to become
a member in the wonderful Priestcraft of Tachte." Not very flattering.
As the title describes them, the Sparga'ynehs are slaves under an Rgankhun and are mostly used for keeping their masters and the Sparga'hols houses clean and to carry heavy things. Sometimes they are lend out to do some service for the military, the first thing they do is one EY (Elarien standard Year=511.358 standard days) military training for a Sohlan Dumat. They are then used for stopping riots and demonstration but also in traffic duty.
This continues for about 4-5 EY and is seen as a test to see if they are fit and really can handle the pressure confronted in the Priestcraft. (It could also be that they are much cheaper than real personnel, the only things they get is food and some place to sleep (and punishments), when we asked the Elarien ambassador about this, he totally denied it and tried to swallow a chuckle).
Most of the Elariens that starts the 'training' has quit after the first three EYs and only 14% on average makes it up to Sparga'hol. The reward is definitely worth the first years of work according to the Elarien Sparga'hols we met, but the credibility in that could be discussed forever.
After a time of slavery that lasts for almost seven standard years, the
faithful Elarien is awarded the title Sparga'hol. As the Sparga part is
still present in the title, it's clear that the person is still a student.
Although, the 'hol suffix gives it a little more worthy tone, as it means
adept. The adept is now entitled to study the holy scripts and is completely
liberated from physical duties. (In reality they would never refuse to make
for their master a mug of hot beverage in the cold winter night.)
Despite the higher rang, a Sparga'hol has no right to command a Sparga'yneh without his masters permission. This is to point out that it's more important for the adept to study then to make use of his position, but all Sparga'ynehs has orders to make their student brothers and sisters as comfortable as possible.
The topics all adepts study is healing in form of bioengineering and cybernetics, exobiology, theoretic genetic farmery and of course, the whole array of Tachte scripts and legends. This is later to be practically used, after about 15-20 EYs of study, and gives the student some time so come out and get a taste of 'real life'. Most of them like it but the few that resists and stays behind in the vaults of the churches are often those who advance further up to Rgankhun level and becomes a true priest.
The result of the 'real life period' is that about 80-90% of the students become practical workers. This means upgrading the body with bioengineering, (they never ever uses cybernetics) to get a duty and a 'half' Rgankhun title. This means practically that they have the same badge of rank as one, but a practical priest can never attend at Charsant and must obey a theoretical Rgankhun. The practical Rgankhuns can be given the post of food technician in a farm province, they can join the military as a healer that repairs/heals and enhance troops in battles, or simply helps a Sohlan Ren to keep control of the people in his/her province. There are many more duties for a priest than these, but they are the most common ones.
The adepts that stays behind begins to study philosophy, different physics and mathematics, but also politics and psychology. The ones that doesn't advance to Rgankhun is often consulted by the Tul'mar Ren to control a planet.
This is the most free position in the whole Elarien Republic. The only
true responsibility of these priests (Rgankhun means 'True Priest') are
seeing to that their students doesn't do any major criminal activities,
but the problem is relatively small as punishments are high and a Rgankhun
has the provinces entire police and military force at disposal.
The practical 'half Rgankhuns' has already been covered and isn't really accepted amongst the theoretics, so this chapter will only describe the True Priests. These true priests are scientists and teachers, the only legally accepted scientists in the Republic as a matter of fact. Off course, the Elarien companies have their own scientists, the Elarien government knows that and they don't do anything about it. The fact is that they would be in a rather retarded position if they didn't let anyone research but the priests. The only thing they demand is that any major breakthrough is too be credited one of the closest un-credited Rgankhuns to make it seem like the priest helped the company instead. This fact has given the mislead Elariens a high morale and trust in their religion. (NOTE: this part has been censored from the Elarien version of CEG, to show another version of this part, even if it's not translated, means execution without trial within the Elarien Republic)
It's also the Rgankhuns duty to attend at the senate, Charsant where all Tul'mar Ren (planetary leaders) gather to discuss social and political matters with each others, in the Charsant is decided over new laws and declarations of war and things that concern the Republic, but also star-system wide and planetary matters are discussed between Tul'mar Ren and Rgankhun. The Rgankhun is not only listening to the new decisions, but are also technical advisors in their specific subjects and are always called to speak before involving the five Tachte Kamator Dyero's in Tachte Shran.
After a Charsant, the Rgankhuns informs his/her students and slaves about the changes and sees to that all below him follows the new decisions.
This title means shortly Total Priest/Only Priest (in the meaning, noting
BUT priest) but with lots of extra embellishing words to make it more
respectful. These priests have the total power over all planet leaders
and are in fact the ones that rule the Elarien Republic. There exists
many theories about these Elariens and the latest one has been sprung
from the translation of J'halm Tarn's findings (see:
MOG_JTARN-PROJELAR5436).
The theories is based on the more Psi resistant Elariens are involved in
the higher levels of Tachte. Nothing of this has been proved and the Elariens
threat-fully denies this theory and claims it to be rumors created by the
exposure of Tachte.
Nothing more is known about the Kamators, then the fact that they control the Elarien people with hard methods and they are openly hostile against the mixing of cultures occurring at the borders. We hope to find out more about this class in the future as the ambassadors seems to have lowered their most hostile defences regarding these questions. We might even get to speak to a Rgankhun over Hyperspace Relay if this works out. Any new information we obtain on this topic will appear in our next Encyclopedia update.
| Elarien Exobiology | Project Elari |