The Astral Empire: Territories

(Disclaimer: the Abh are ultimately the work of Hiroyuki Morioka. This adaptation deviates significantly from the source material, partly by design but mostly by ignorance: I've simply invented details where I've forgotten things or never knew them.)

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The Abh Empire divides its territory into dadh /dɑð/ and fadh /fɑð/, which are legal divisions with a mostly physical basis. Dadh is generally what the Manual of the Planes refers to as "the world": the interior of crystal spheres or other nonastral dominions, or more simply, the area where an astral skiff cannot travel. Fadh, then, is generally the Astral Sea itself and any astral domains, the region an astral skiff can traverse.

Non-dadh soil is typically divided into two portions: astral domains, and ‘floating rocks’ — any unensphered and extradominary astral territory, which for simplicity we shall call asteroids. (Lacmhacarh properly falls into this latter category.) Astral domains with proper veils and domain-properties are relatively rare in the region of the Astral Sea in which the Empire is located, and are generally highly prized for their resources even when uninhabitable. Contrariwise, asteroids are relatively common: a Hawai'i-sized slab of rock would barely be worth more than a glance here.

Closely related to the dadh/fadh division is the concept of a demesne, or the domain legally held by an Abh noble. All crystal spheres within the Empire's borders are either part of the demesne of some noble, or of the Imperial Demesne; the latter exists primarily to be able to grant titles with, and any inhabited territory which falls into the Imperial Demesne for one reason or another (conquered, no living heirs, etc.)

(Conjecture: Legally, almost all demesnes are dadh, even purely astral ones: the distinction occasionally must be drawn between dadh razaimer (dadh de jure) and dadh clofairr (dadh by natural law). No dadh is considered fadh razaimer, however.)

See here for further information about Abh nobility. Notably, almost everything in the Class header is taken unchanged (with some qualifications about the third paragraph, to be covered next time).

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(Edit 2008-12-23: And once again, I fail to hit Publish Post.)
(Edit 2008-12-24: Fixed an incomplete sentence.)
(Edit 2008-12-29: Fixed fadh/dadh, which I had exactly backwards. Got rid of most of the IPA.)