Ibo

Ibo was a form of elective public office in southern Roscia originating with the Uko, where the electee was in power contingent on certain phenomena or measurements agreed as part of the election. Terms were thus measured and determined by natural phenomena, divination, or task and accomplishment. What contrasted it from general assessments of worthiness for office was that the metric had significance to the office only as much as the election and its underlying considerations decided, and thus such positions were entirely the work of these decisions.

In its early forms ibo was often associated with apeje, where it operated essentially to regularize the wagering of power and status, elevating authority above the distinction of egbe and ege into something truly political. However, elective and auditory systems became a culture and body of knowledge in their own right, rivalling the traditional beliefs of Egun and creating a secular-religious distinction in Uko society. Ibo officials and a wider class of citizens capable enough to be regularly elected began making scientific discoveries and building engineering projects acting as new benchmarks, in order to allow them to reliably hold office and dedicate their power towards grander visions, undermining even the etopa divination initially used to consecrate the elections (sometimes seen as a precursor to the onipes).

By the 1st century CE ibo polities became kingdoms centred on teachers essentially judged and supported for their prophetic capabilities, which were implemented through onisen priests, originally tasked with reconciling ibo decisions with Egun interpretation. The governments established by the onisens proved powerful enough to ignore ibo itself, usurping power from kings by the 2nd century and becoming the main form of Uko polities by the 3rd. Elections became officially conceived of in an increasingly abstract manner as the legitimation onisens tried to win for their orders through war and administration. In reaction, mystical and magical movements marrying the individual, charismatic ibo king with the dizzying spiritual world of Egun and the intricate systems of etopa they had previously sought to outwit would drive polities born from rebellions and occasionally the founding of new onisen orders.

Ibo survived the fall of Uko and the rise of the Bakh, providing one of the many ways rulers or movements could lay a claim to power with in the chaotic cultural landscape of the Bakh era. It was also practiced by the Abamnyama to the south and west. It is often compared to the device of imeghe developed later on the Oda Sea coast.