District (Cotrism)

In Cotrism, a District (Yen: 區) is an ecclesiastical polity, and the highest level to exist as such. A district has a main observatory that services it, whose affiliated and attached clergy are also effectively responsible for the affairs of the district as a whole, as with other Cotric administrative divisions and their observatories. The district is a division and organization based on not only geographical, but also political, and more importantly, community lines, each district acting as a communion of a large number and broad range of peoples. Since the 18th century the state-district is the most common and also most powerful form of this organization, which is in theory, a regional clerical institution recognized by the state as the school of pursuit of Accomplishment it endorses.

During the time of the Sage and his early successors, the Yen lands were divided into 5 districts, 4 for each of the cardinal directions and a 5th for the centre of the Yen empire. This layout was retained into the First Kingdoms Period when each individual kingdom established their own districts. Beginning with this, districts became much more fluid, and their existences dependent more on political factors. By the Chuk dynasty each commonly agreed cultural region of the Yen empire had its own district, and in the Yiek dynasty districts were formally established for converted populations in neighbouring states. The one-district-per-kingdom practice resumed in the Second Kingdoms Period, and due to its greater length, had profound effects on Cotric organization by the time Maengtau was established; dismantling this structure to ensure imperial supremacy was a major task of early Preceptor-Emperors. In Maengtau only 5 districts within the empire were recognized from 1205 to 1328, when they were abolished in favor of an all-encompassing imperial polity.

The Schismatic Wars of the early 16th century produced many self-proclaimed preceptor-empires that each functioned as a district on their own. Meanwhile, the authority and position of districts in Yen-influenced areas steadily grew. The emergence of schools in Cotrism saw the districts also increasingly governed and differentiated by differences in doctrine. The War of the Preceptors from 1650 to 1661 ended with new districts drawn and established for cultural regions where it concerned. The Hong dynasty saw the rise of divergent sects who established districts of their own. The ultimate disintegration of the Yen resulted in new districts established for each newly emerging empire, closely integrated with state apparatus as religion had been in previous times. The continued rise of new sects however meant that state districts could only exert control over those who recognized the sect of the state observatory, complicating political matters. To this day, each sovereign state in East Catai borne from the Yen-Cotric system or heavily influenced by it with a Cotric majority has at least one state district of the school of the state's endorsement, with smaller districts serving other sects and factions.

In today's state-districts the clerical institutions of the district is usually all-powerful with regards to religious administration. With most Cataian states and their populations still rather religious in the way the Observatory would be concerned with, district institutions remain important actors in national politics, or are incorporated fully into the government as in the case of more traditional and imperial states such as Qyred. Possession of a state-district was the marker of legitimacy of state - the only valid independent state is an organization by Cotrists of their own volition in Cotric political philosophy - only until very recently, and the existence of a state without associated clergy remains unthinkable for many today. Some viewpoints still view the state as an extension of the district, and not the reverse.

Stateless districts, besides representing minority schools and sects, also include assemblies of Cotric communities in regions lacking Cotric political infrastructure. In countries with sufficiently large communities by themselves, they constitute an individual district, but in other cases a district is shared by communities of many countries.

Legitimacy of a district in the past depended on the Preceptor's recognition, or revocation thereof, but after the vacancy of the Preceptorship permanent since 1884, majority recognition by state-districts assembled at a Congress of the Learned, or sometimes decisions by the Council for Regulation of Learning, suffice for recognition. However even the slightest dissent by a non-heretical state district sparks major contention in such discussions. A District has a ceremonial cauldron used as a symbol for its authority and instruments at rituals, along with other paraphernalia such as holy banners, ritual bells and bronze mirrors; loss of any of these artifacts damage a district's reputation, and even legitimacy, massively.