Omban governance

Political authority in the Omban successor states is distributed across a range of roles and positions, both local and national. We should be clear what this means: it's not simply 'separation of powers', but a sometimes convoluted and conflicting sets of rights and responsibilities, some of them customary, others encoded in formal law. And, of course, in the 300+ years since the end of the Omban Empire, different systems of power have come into existence.

Leaders

The ultimate political leadership of each of the Omban successor states is quite variable. Three countries - Taizi, Nulu, and Sharai - are hereditary monarchies in which power is invested in members of particular noble lineages and their descendants. The Taizian monarchy is stylized as Empire under the Ebesnata dynasty; Nulu is a duchy rather than a kingdom; only Sharai is a true kingdom but it is very new, founded less than forty years ago. A fourth country, Khutu, is monarchic but has a single, eternal ruler, the saint Eluli Ula, supported by nineteen Conduits, who are Voices of noble birth hand-picked to aid in governance.

Three more countries have some form of representative body, elected or otherwise. The Omban republic has a senate comprising chosen representatives of thirty noble lineages, led by a Speaker. In the Imperial period the Senate was merely advisory to the Emperor, though important, but now is the seat of power. The Daligashi republic, in contrast, is far more representative; commoners and nobles of sufficient wealth and status gain access to electoral rights to choose seventy-nine senators, who elect a First Senator among them. Malfan is a commonwealth in which various lineage elders come together to elect a Grand Chief at occasional conclaves and vote on important matters.

Finally, three countries have forms of government selected on some various basis of merit. In Hasmala, there is a governor and twelve councillors, but these are basically elected and picked by the high-ranking Hands of the various Hasmalan temples, and it is these priestesses who effectively hold the most political power, not the governor. Choradan's leadership does not segregate military and political hierarchies and so basically is an autocratic military government run by a Marshal. And in Basai, the most meritocratic of all, the Chancellor rules not on the basis of rank or election, but only so long as they hold power over other high-ranking mystics, until they are defeated in a highly ritualized and regulated magical combat.

Governance

Below the leaders of each country, governance of sub-units, if such exist, is generally handled from the central leadership as appointed, salaried positions. The exact structure of how power is apportioned differs from country to country. In Khutu, for instance, there are provincial governors who handle the application of laws handed down by the Conduits and manage tax collection and day-to-day affairs. In monarchies like Taizi and Sharai, for instance, power is relatively centralized, except in the most rural areas. In Daligash, where the lineage structure is weakest, two great factions (Bronze and Ruby) of wealthy elites delegate power. These officials are invested by the state with the authority to extract surpluses from lineages and use them to fund military endeavours, public works such as irrigation and defenses, support for craft specialists, and redistribution in times of famine.

At the local and community level, the role of the state is significantly less, and lineages play many of the key political roles. Lineage authority is customary rather than formally codified, but can be mixed with the larger systems of state governance. For instance, in cities and large towns, governance is generally either centralized in a single mayor, or in a council, but these individuals are normally drawn from the noble lineages of the area, or, in places like Daligash where the nobility is weaker, from the important lineages of each faction. In smaller towns and villages, lineages hold most of the power and no one individual is preeminent. Of course, social status, personal merit, and age may combine to give any individual relative authority, but projects and works take place under the authority of the wealthiest and most powerful lineages. The hengi of each lineage as well as other older well-respected members exercise considerable authority over the lands and property of the ifti.

Military

Each country has a military of some sort, ranging from formal, permanent military structures to locally conscripted, poorly trained peasant-soldiers. Every country has some military forces in the form of Sentinels, the institution descended from the Omban military, although only in Choradan is military force highly centralized in them. To a significant degree, the Sentinels regard themselves as reporting to the Emperor, but outside of Taizi and Khutu, that mainly means that they exercise a great deal of autonomy and are not simply ordered to fight. Conscript armies are common in times of war, but otherwise there is rarely a standing army outside of the Sentinels. In Hasmala, giant armies of bubun are available at short notice, led by military generals of the Hand. In Malfan, other than in the far northeast, there are not even sentinels, and military efforts are led by mustering from lineages. Everywhere, lineages are responsible for ensuring local defense against raiders, wild animals, and occasional inter-lineage and inter-community disputes - only when matters get out of hand does the state intervene.

Religion

The Hand and the Voice are major power-brokers almost everywhere in the former empire except in western Malfan, and also hold influence in most of Ashnabis despite the lack of political unity. Only in Khutu and Hasmala do they hold power directly, however. Control of Ancestors, the ability to raise the dead, and special relations with saints give the Voice a lot of soft power - mostly, this is not formally codified but a wise leader goes against the Ancestors only at grave peril. In many areas, there are still stoneguards, a loosely organized hierarchy of temple warriors whose principal role is to guard ancestors and temples, especially those of the Voice. The military role of the Hand is accompanied everywhere by control over agricultural lands worked by bubun - these are (mainly) former Imperial landholdings that fell to the Hand after the end of the Empire. While local and national tribunals determine guilt and assign punishments, the Hand is responsible for meting out corporal and capital criminal punishments.

Legal

The role of reckoner emerged from local practices of dispute resolution, some of which date to before the Empire. Particularly in smaller and rural communities, reckoners still occupy much of that informal legal and dispute-resolution authority they have always had. Larger lineages likely each have one or more of its own reckoners, and sometimes these will meet among themselves in conclaves of various degrees of formality to deal with local matters. But reckoners also played a key role in the Imperial bureaucracy - as experts on precedent, as judges, and as officials of various sorts. The person who managed weights and standards and the person who oversaw maritime traffic were probably both reckoners, in those days. Reckoners are still employed widely in those sorts of positions in many countries, especially in the creation and documentation of formal law.