The World of Tiesha
By Bree Heidenburg

King Virat IV currently rules the world of Tiesha, consequently making his son, Prince Keon, the heir to thrown. Otherwise, the man lucky enough to marry his daughter, Princess Hana, would be next in line. Queen Eden, mother of Keon and Hana, passed away several years ago. The king's three advisors are the three high priestess leaders of the church. They oversee the masses on the other three continents of the world while the king remains in the central location that is Maharat.

The King holds absolute and supreme power over the people, and can overrule the priestess at any time. However, there is almost no record of this ever being done. Most of the people follow the priestesses. Generally speaking, the army dislikes the church (because they don't like that the church has control over the king) and the rest of the population lives for it. There are of course, the exceptions.

The line of succession for the king is usually simple, in that the male relative closest to the King at the time of his death inherits the throne. If there are no directly related living male relatives then the husband of the closest female blood relative will become king. In the horribly unusual case that there is neither a living male nor female relative the new king is elected by the high priestesses and the lords of the lands.

The Priestesses are elected officials of the church, selected by the lesser-ranked people of the church based upon how the girls serve their people, God and country. Of course, the King oversees the decisions of high priestesses. Shockingly, the King has never appeared to disagree with the church.

The priestesses and king all gather on Maharat once a year to celebrate the exodus of the people of the ancient civilization of Sorelia, led by the savior, the late, King Brolen the first. Though mainly for the ritualistic and spiritual requirements of the people, this visit is also used for the king to meet personally with the overseers of the other continents.

As far as the people of the land are concerned, the king is in charge of the laws and of the army, navy, and military forces. Also, the king oversees and funds the scientific research and all technological advances of the times. Most trials (aside from those of treason and the like) are held in courts judged by lords or nobles appointed by the king. The king rules on the cases of treason, sabotage etc. Legally, the church has little or no control over any governmental issues, such as the laws, however, the people, kings included, tend to follow the teachings of the high priestess (at least to some degree) and therefore most of the laws reflect the views of the church.

Finally, should a king not fulfill his duties, there is no way to overrule his authority aside from the obvious conquest/assassination route. The priestesses, on the other hand, can be impeached by either the other 2 priestesses or the lesser-ranked members of the church. They cannot, however, be dismissed by the king as they are elected officials.

This brings us to the religion of Tiesha, Shantinism, which is very closely tied to its politics. The three elected high priestesses serve as the king's advisors as well as the leaders of the church. Being elected officials the priestess advise the king in the wants and needs, spiritually and socially, or the people.

The beliefs of the church are simple. A god and a goddess, Devean and Andecia, created mankind to live as they would on the world of Tiesha. This is not, however, the main focus of the religion. The church and religion mainly worship humanity, while continuing to serve the gods, as they should. Essentially, the church insists upon the respect of Devean and Andecia and of the world of Tiesha. However, the church fully backs scientific research and reaching the "intended potential of humanity".

The Shanti code of ethics is, to put it simply a "don't know don't care" sort of code. The church promotes intelligence, work ethic etc. in the people of Tiesha and frowns upon anything that would hinder or prevent one from reaching one's potential. Basic rules of this, you cannot do anything that would prevent someone else from achieving their potential. Example, no killing. There is no real book or scripture that lists the code or beliefs, but it is preached every fourth day of the week (the church found that productivity increased when a break was given in the middle of the week, not that it matters anymore since there is no weekend and thus the fourth day has become the weekend).

The laws of the world generally tend to follow the code of the church, remembering that the priestesses advise the king and always have. So, should you in anyway go against the ethics of the church, you would be referred to either one of the priestess or the king himself (depending on which continent you live on) and they would punish you according. Typically, if you have done something wrong you are put to work, generally under the church or the king, and used to help humanity reach its intended potential.

In general, no one seems to question the church, as it does work for the betterment of humankind. Of course, there are groups of people that dislike the church, they tend to keep to themselves about it to avoid punishment under the "hindering the potential of others" principal. However, the ones that do not like the way the church seemingly controls everything tend to join the army (practically the only thing under command only from the king).

The society of Tiesha is very smart, very intelligent. During the day, everyone above working age (25 years old) is working in some way shape or form. Children, everyone below 25 and above the age of 3, are in school. General schooling ends at age 15 and specialized schooling begins thereafter. Babies from age zero to three stay home with their mothers**, who get the three years off of work, paid, and their jobs is secure for when they return. Because of this, generally, having more than 2 children, or another child while the first is still a baby is highly frowned upon. Highly frowned upon meaning it's legal, but no one does it... well save those that never completed schooling.

On Tiesha, you do not want to be some one that doesn't complete schooling. Those people are the petty workers, looked down upon and generally ignored by the rest of the population. This is because they are essentially useless to society. Everything "easy" is done by computers or machines. There is, however, a sort of welfare for these people, paid for by the king (which is really, of course, tax money). No one is happy about this tax, but the church insists that perhaps that is his or her intended potential.

Now, based on all said previously, one can assume that no one takes sick days or vacations, no one choose not to work, and everyone puts a high value on intelligence. Complaining, whining, etc. is nearly unheard of. The workweek is 6 days with the seventh being off for church service. And everyone (with the exception of those in the armed forces) get a week off for Brolen (the celebration of the exodus of the people of the ancient civilization of Sorelia, led by the savior King Brolen the first).

So, the act of people interacting with other people is generally intelligent production conversation. This does not mean there is no fun anywhere. After the workday is over people relax and give their brains a rest. Plays, singing etc. and of course dinner are common after work activities. But basically, as long as you aren't hindering your potential or anyone else's you can do whatever you want. Therefore, anything in excess, drinking etc. isn't generally done.

This brings me to how the people interact with the king. The king is respected by the people, who will bow and remain standing in the king's presence unless told otherwise. Most people have not seen the king and see no reason to do so. The king enforces the laws, and since most educated intelligent people don't break the laws... well... they don't need to worry about the king.

Now, people and the priestesses are very different, at least in church circumstances. Recall, the priestesses are also the law enforcers on the other three continents. That aspect aside, (because educated intelligent people don't break the laws) every Wednesday, the people, well at least most people, are at the church. Services are usually given by a head priest or priestess for that particular location. Everyone sits, the person giving the service included and everything is very relaxing and informal. Now most people have seen one of the high priestesses personally, but it's more of a mentor advisor type of setting, also very informal, despite the immense respect for the priestesses.

The uneducated people, as said before, are generally ignored by the other people. The king and the priestesses, however, tend to pay close attention to them. The king sees them as the troublemakers or the ones that break the laws. This does not mean they are murders or thieves, thought some of them are. But, recall that the goals of the church and likewise the laws are to reach the intended potential of humanity, and since they are not educated enough to work they are more likely to do something that would hinder the efficiency of others. The army and the king have little tolerance for this and these people have frequently personally seen the military or the king.

The priestesses likewise know of these people because they are frequently requesting audience. In a world like Tiesha, these people have literally nothing to do. So, they go to the church and the priests find something productive for them to do. This working for the church is a way to avoid punishment under the law (which was usually some type of work anyways).

The economic system of Tiesha is capitalist, but only if you had to classify it as something. Due to the philosophy of reaching humanity's intended potential, what we would perceive as lower class jobs (Store clerks... etc.) are all done by computers, entirely automated. Because of this the government... well a team of economics paid for by the government set the prices for most good based on average income and the necessity of the item.

Money is of course credited by the government and paid to people generally in the form and sheet of metal imprinted with government signature of an alloy impossible to duplicate outside of a laboratory and it is, of course, illegal for any laboratory to create such bills. The king backs the money with the world's supply of precious metals.

As you can imagine, given the main industry of the world as technology most of the world's money comes from exporting such technology (because lets face it what would one man need with an abundance of computers or things run by computers) to other planets.

The jobs of Tiesha are fairly similarly paid, mainly because they are fairly similar jobs. They all are engineers and scientists of some form. Everyone does research in his or her field as well as practice. Practice to reach the potential of the world itself and research, likewise, to reach the potential of the science and combining those things, humanity itself. Patents are irrelevant to a society that desires to expand humanities potential and therefore inventing something leads to some sort of reward from the king, usually money, and perhaps your name is being recorded as the first to make such an item.

Women are treated as intellectual equals to men and participate in the economy just as much. While they do take the 3 years off work for child raising this is expected and half of the time women will insist to work from home, if only so they are not bored.

While there is a lot of synthetic food, made by chemists and nutritionist generally, there are also a few farms. Not typical farms though. Farming is done entirely by machine, supervised by a scientist with programming knowledge, who sees to it that the computers/robots do exactly what is necessary to optimize the crop production and quality.

So, life on Tiesha is very simple, work as much as you can, and go to church every fourth day of the week. Shopping is done at night along with singing dancing etc. for fun.

**Mothers also mean wives. Marriage is typical in this society at around the age of 30.

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