Gaddam

The gaddam, or gatudamana (Tanumanic; loosely 'throne house', from gatu, 'place, throne', and dəmāna), is a dam that holds a highly prestigious and respected reputation in Pastism as practiced in much of Carsa as the apex of a regional hierarchy or network of 'child' dams. The gaddam is the root or ancestor of its children dams through a complex matter of historical genealogy locally extensively studied on its own, typically the foundation of new dams by students and initiates of the gaddam or its existing children, but also often including cases such as embrace of such relationships ex nihilo, the most common example being due to revelations or miracles relating to historical or Tanumanic figures the gaddam or a child in question is associated with. These genealogies may vary greatly in their importance, between regions as much as between gaddams, some tightly regulating the appointment, ranking, and organization of an entire ecclesiastical hierarchy, and others only observing a customary friendliness with related dams.

In the modern era, gaddams and their networks have been used to form states in Carsa under Pytarene guidance, particularly in eastern Utanistan where large political formations were absent for most of known history. These states constitutively compose the entirety of the area where a gaddam is patron, although the actual dam network is not necessarily involved in governance, which is instead delegated to a unitary layman body with the proclaimed purpose of serving and defending the gaddam. They have been known as gatu-xšaθra or 'throne-states', based on the common-sense division of Pastic society into the temporal shathra and religious daman authorities.