The Order of the Harada Risadri is a prominent Maninist Order and voting member of Concourse. Their patron is the 6th century High Ward Risadri. Somewhat unusually for a Maninist Order, and alone among the Synothal Orders, the Risadrenes are a cloistered Order, and their Sequora imposes strict guidelines on their interactions with the outside world. The center of the Order is a monastery complex outside Gallasa.
History[]
Practices[]
Risadri is held to have exemplified the virtues of faith, purity, and self-control. Accordingly, the Risadrenes face much stricter constraints on their behaviour than the members of any other Order: sex, alcohol, meat and personal property are all outlawed for full initiates. Contact between initiates and the influences of the outside world is kept to an absolute minimum: typically all necessary business of a Risadrene abbey is conducted by a single person, allowing the rest of the initiates to continue unmolested. Similarly, entrance beyond the designated foyer of an abbey is restricted to Risadrene initiates and Interlocutors (and the High Ward himself, should he for some reason desire to enter one), with the exception of certain rare holidays when the rules are temporarily. Initiates are expected to spend their time in contemplation and theology, though of course a great deal of effort is always necessary to keep the monasteries running. A number of prominent philosophers and mathematicians have been among the Risadrene ranks, though it often takes time for their work to circulate outside of their own Order.
Organization[]
The Order is led by the Arch-Zaleta of Gallasa, elected for life by majority vote of the Zaletas of all Risadrene monasteries. Beneath him come the Zaletas, each the absolute leader of a large and prominent monastery, and appointed by the Arch-Zaleta. Beneath them come the Zalkasas, the leaders of smaller monasteries in a Zaleta's region. Beneath them come the mass of inititates, formally largely undifferentiated. The only other position of particular note is that of Ekocheto, the 'outside-speaker', responsible for handling a monastery's unavoiadable dealings with the outside world, and handling the Order's various economic holdings. These are considerable, which is a matter of some concern for the Risadrenes themselves. The Order, with its unmatched reputation for virtue, has been a particularly popular beneficiary of grants from elites seeking to improve their image. Most of the money and urban holdings are immediately given away again, but the Order controls a vast amount of farmland that it distributes freely among its associates. RIsadrene associates are largely drawn from these farmers, as the Order has comparatively little interest or appeal elsewhere.
Monasteries[]
Risadrene monasteries typically resemble small fortified towns more than anything else (or in the case of the greatest, such as the one at Gallasa, rather large fortified towns); a high curtain wall is considered essential to keeping out the riff-raff. Moreover, there are emergency provisos that allow Risadrene initiates to disregard most of their restrictions in the event of war - the founders of the Order were sensible enough not to make the Sequora a suicide pact - but it is considered that making the monasteries themselves somewhat defensible minimizes the contamination that would result if the emergency measures were enacted.