Sadan

A sadan (Dreamprint: 社團) is a social corporation characteristic of eastern Ausarea, particularly Serony. A Serno-Tasgolene term (a calque of 'social corporation'), the definition of 'sadan' encompasses tonghway, bunphai, and chongchok, along with other less common types of institutions. Considered classical examples of social corporations, sadans have considerable weight in Sernic life, and are often the primary and most important political and social units, especially over the more transient and fluid governmental structure of the compact that has prevailed in the modern era – which in turn is primarily conceived of as being formed by sadans.

Origins
The use of the term generally surrounds study of the development and transformation of social corporations adversarial to authorities in Sernic and wider eastern Ausarean history. In this sense even though the groups identified as sadans today have existed at latest since the turn of the 1st millennium, they had not yet entered such a role, being mostly tribal associations or social clubs with little independent political agency. The First Hierocaust however imbued them with power as locals, drawing on such groups, re-imposed order in the wake of chaos. With new communities marked by their membership in a sadan they were to become increasingly important for their members as well as society. However even after the Second Hierocaust and towards the early Liong Empire those that could be known as sadans were usually no more than secret societies typically only holding power in peripheral communities, though these soon became notorious as havens from the rule of law. The quasi-tribal chongchok however found the scope of familial favours steadily expanding, while bunphai began acquiring more and more followers and support among the vulnerable of society; in these aspects they had began to challenge state authority to a significant level as well.

With practically the entire continent coming under its domination, the Liong Empire had opened up a great deal of commercial opportunities and more generally, cultural exchange across the region, allowing social traditions to be seeded in large networks. At the same time its reliance on assertive regional governors both forced local society to organise in response but also opened up opportunities for sadans to expand their influence. With this a rich culture of secret societies in Serony had emerged by the turn of the 2nd millennium, gaining increasing influence in many areas depending on type and background. Both elites such as the homun and common populations (seen with a much greater variety of examples) had become associated closely with such groups. The centrifugation and collapse of the empire was when they decisively made their move in implanting themselves as a fundamental element of many areas' political life as well, as regional conflicts became exacerbated by the disintegration of the political-economic system.

Post-Liong
The Sernic polity of the post-Liong period (and indeed for a long time during the late Liong) was marked by the sundering of authority in the system known as the Sernic diarchy: the aristocrats and governors whose legitimacy descended from Liong bureaucracy or earlier Sernic kingship traditions stood alongside the life that was beyond the former's power, which the sadans represented. The compact became increasingly important in constituting polities to formalize sadan groups into blocs able to act in concert and resolve their own disputes. Their relationship with the official eventually settled down into the recognition of separate spheres of life each claimed jurisdiction over, with the latter acting as a mediator and arbitrator for the compact, finally resolving the late-Liong crisis, and more or less establishing the compact as the single political unit for much of Serony. However, outside of areas like Lian, where the authority of Hainism was observed openly by the masses, much of sadan culture remained initiatory, at least to the public, even though the proportion of members to the population was increasing. The sadan imposed a sort of local order and commanded respect of locals, but many would still be regarded as being outside of its membership.

Though popularly thought of as continuing to the present-day, the post-Liong arrangement of sadans in society was actually seriously challenged starting in the 18th century, when the restoration of a centralized bureaucracy came about alongside intensified competition between compact polities. As the demands of exerting the compact in such conflicts increased the interests of member groups diverged, the military aristocrat in his arbitrating role progressively gaining more power. It was in these circumstances that Ausarean political thinkers such as Yang Woo began to conceptualize the compact in itself, and as the foundation for society that should be defended against such central overreach. Implicit then in these theorizations was the membership of all in one sadan or another. But the trend of the reasserting sovereign had triumphed with the consequence of depletion or devastation in regional wars in the late 18th century, the conquest of Serony by the Yiu Empire, and a second round of destruction in the Great Sernic War. The northern para-Sernic states of Tasgol and Eliyny also regarded themselves as outside of this sadan-defined world, with their central states securely ensconcing itself without the disaster of the Yiu reunification, and the general power of sadans in their societies becoming weakened.

Post-Yiu
Under the Yiu the sadans' overt political participation was suppressed, but their influence and expansive membership remained against all official efforts. The new compacts established after the war recapitulated the previous order. Partially a result of mobilization in the process of regaining independence, identification with sadans increased greatly, and this happened alongside the first articulations of Sernic nationalism. The membership of many sadans expanded greatly to encompass most of the population, and the sadans themselves had transformed to adapt. Political theory and central policymaking became interested in rationalizing reforms, such as the idea of kungho, in which the sadans became a unit of both analysis and intervention, and were to be formalized and delimited more to bring about a clearly ordered society in which all were able to boast membership in such a sphere of life. This thinking also justified the growth of a Vasarean-styled bureaucracy in the period, which was seen as expediting harmony between sadans. The sadans, as the non-official sphere of the diarchy, had claimed more prerogatives for themselves, while the officials they were in symbiosis with steadily became subservient to the collective constituted by them.

However issues, conflicts, and tensions were building up. As with before the increasing importance of the bureaucracy, and of the integrated political sphere, was felt to be at the expense of less powerful sadans. Secondly the unrepresented or 'uninitiated' population, or simply those who were not in sadans, became a problem. They were not necessarily outside of any sadan's influence (bunphai regularly support populations many times that their actual membership), but the protection of their political privileges (for example, making other sadans admit them, or adopting happon policies where sadan membership became disregarded altogether) became difficult to approach without reforms that would upset other parties or the entire existing order. In turn vulnerable parts of society not part of, or unable to gain benefit from, sadans became restive and discontent, something only exacerbated by industrialization and the Silent Conquest. This sure occupied rationalist reformers of the period in general, but found a destructive expression in the First Ausarean War.

Under the Celitine system and the post-Celitine period considerable divergence has emerged as to the role of sadans in society. For example in Ding they have been radically removed from politics, in Lian they have become reformed into main transmitters of state power, and more generally assertive governments have co-opted them into sangams, while states with less concentrated disposition of power have struck an uneasy balance between rationalization and preservation. Regardless, across Serony the sadan remains important in many aspects of social and political life.