Editing Mothfolk (section)

==Daimyo==

The Daimyo acts primarily as a monarchic figurehead of the Church of the Flame. The Daimyo also acts as part of a scholar gentry, an organization of philosopher-mages who hold much of the society's knowledge and act as patrons to its businesses and civilians. The Daimyo is not elected by vote or by heredity alone, but rather appointed by the Church of the Flame from within a select group of the higher echelons of society. A Daimyo may not choose their successor directly, but there are certain actions a Daimyo may take to ensure those they favor will likely succeed them. The Daimyo is widely considered the most centralizing figure of mothkin society, apart from the Church of the Flame itself, although the Daimyo will often be seen as the more accessible and more identifiable of the two.

The Matriarch has the duty of overseeing the welfare of the mothkin society as a whole and taking care of most internal affairs, acting as adjudicator of laws and a voice of guidance for those seeking her counsel, whether moral, legal, natural, or astrological. The Daimyo is responsible primarily for interactions with outside groups, acting as a diplomat as well as leader of military forces, and enforcer of the will of the Matriarch. The Daimyo also adds his counsel to the Matriarchs when available while deferring to her judgment. In practice, this means the Matriarch decides what must be done while the Daimyo decides how to do it. The same is true of military preparations, although the Daimyo is given leave to respond without the Matriarch’s counsel in times of great need. As mothkin are a highly solitary and intrinsically spread-out society, these positions are often unnecessary, and the offices hold far more pomp and circumstance than actual power despite being universally respected. The Daimyo and Matriarch are always from few select familial lines which are very carefully traced and often mate for political and hereditary reasons.

One odd practice seen by the mothkin is when an individual reaches a new village of mothkin, or an area where he has not met the local Daimyo, or even individuals returning after a journey of several days or more, the mothkin will seek an audience with the Daimyo for a brief welcoming ceremony. This ceremony is partially a mode of reinforcing tribal connectivity as well as respect and submission to the Daimyo in the form of a ritualistic antennae-cleaning that is otherwise stigmatized in mothkin society. The mothkin bows before the Daimyo, presenting their antennae (or “wreath,” as they call it) and reciting an old quotation from the Church of the Flame.

"It is the daimyo's choice should I carry my wreath. Should I be unfit, he may pluck them from my head, and my wreath is lost to be blind without sightlessness."

If the mothkin individual is respected or has done no wrong, the Daimyo will clean their wreath whether needed or not, as a symbol of encouragement and providence. On rare occasions if the mothkin has dishonored themselves or their tribe, or is an outcast and has attempted to return, then the Daimyo will tear one or both antennae from the head of the mothkin, rendering them without the anatomy to smell and removing their natural proficiency in alchemy. A mothkin who loses their antennae in such a way is no longer considered a mothkin by other members of their society.

===Beginning of the Daimyos===

The position of Leader within mothkin society was, prior to this, a tenuous one. There existed a position simply called Emissary, after the tradition of Farapid the Traveler, who was the first Emissary, and this position was primarily one of diplomat. However, after the first contact with the dwarves, this was changed with the formation of the Church of the Flame.

Scarred by the unprecedented and wholly alien act of violence against them by Baloth Ironchin, the mothkin resolved firstly to rebuild. Houses were reconstructed, the forest healed, and new generations of mothkin were raised into a different life than their forefathers. 

Around this time of reconstruction did the Church of the Flame develop. To its first practitioners, the fire would cleanse them of their past naivete, and reforge their connection to the fey that had guided them. Among their ranks came one known simply as Tanji. He preached words of revitalization and hope to the mothkin, and was claimed to be an emissary of Cimre herself. The mothkin finally had a true leader, and they named him Daimyo.

With their city rebuilt (with walls and palisades, for better defense), Tanji gave a new goal to the mothkin, an order issued at the end of the twilight days that is still followed today: Discover. They were told to spread out, fly beyond their ancestral forest and explore the world beyond, whatever good or bad lied within it. Settlements rose up from the Benayan mountains to the frosted steppes of Kharas, and new generations of mothkin grew up far from their old forest.

Tanji requested that the temple of the Flame, the first Agiari, be built as high as possible. The peaks of a great tree were hollowed out, spiraling steps carved within, and a great altar of flame raised in its canopy, tended eternally by devoted monks. The light of the flame, he said, would always lead the children of Cimre back home in dark times, and thus the first beacon temple was made.