Reading the chart: The Axis holds supreme cross-domain constitutional authority, but the Spheres govern their jurisdictions independently. Unanimous agreement by all 11 occupied Spheres can veto the Axis; it has never successfully happened. The three vacant seats are excluded from this active consensus. This is a structural map, not a claim that the Spheres report through a conventional civil-service hierarchy.
CANON · Creator-established lore. Any explicit open questions below remain unresolved.
Constitutional structure, institutional hierarchy, domain sovereignty and Axis supremacy.
Status: CANON unless marked otherwise.
Terya is governed through the ancient Concordance, jointly established by magic and science in antiquity. The government is not a familiar modern parliamentary or party system.
- The Principal Axis sits in the Sphere of Philosophia, an exceptional +1 Sphere, holds final cross-domain authority.
- There are 11 occupied domain Spheres, 3 vacant Sphere positions, and 1 Philosophia +1: 15 total positions.
- Each domain Sphere has an elevated Holder with broad authority within that jurisdiction.
- Internal priesthoods, directorates, councils and sub-governments can advise a Holder, but the Holder may act independently.
- The current Axis is Arcane-aligned, but is distinct from the Arcane domain Sphere.
- Magic and Science comprise numerous rival factions and subfactions. Political authority is not an Arcane/Scientific binary.
- The relevant domain Sphere ordinarily determines rules in its domain. For an education proposal, the education Sphere's rejection normally overrides the preferences of other Spheres.
- The Axis may nevertheless override that rejection and enact the law anyway, or amend, veto or strip an existing Sphere law.
- Historically, the Axis rarely exercises this intervention power against Spheres.
- All 11 occupied Spheres must agree to collectively veto the Axis. A successful use of this extraordinary veto is unprecedented.
- For philosophical laws the Axis possesses direct supreme jurisdiction as Holder of Philosophia. Whether an extraordinary unanimous veto applies there is not settled.
- Being ancient, powerful, a Patron, or a Sphere council member does not automatically confer Sphere Holder or Axial authority.
- Some Patrons are Sphere members; the current Axis is approximately 200 years old and some advisers are far older.
Spheres are domains of governance, not factions; Arcane and Scientific traditions have many internally competing organisations.
Exact internal Sphere unanimity law procedure versus Holder unilateral action; precisely who votes on an Assent; limits on philosophical decrees; whether vacant positions ever held offices.
Source archive: Original Markdown in Google Drive. When revising, prioritise creator corrections over earlier model proposals.