Erzzeuge

The Erzzeuge is the nation's highest rank within a church of any of the six gods. In case of the nation Caramiza the Erzzeuge of the church of Maned is also considred the spiritual superior of all churches.
There is only ever one Erzzeuge per church at a time within a nation. An Erzzeuge is elected by a conclave of high priests for a tenure of at ten years. After seven years, the conclave can vote at most three times, once per year, to expand this call for life or until the Erzzeuge retires. This vote has succeeded several times during the past centuries. The longest reining Erzzeuge was a priest of Vitukua and held his position for almost 75 years. It has always been very common, that upon retirement, the Erzzeuge will suggest a successor.
An Erzzeuge is an absolute institution when it comes to setting rules, traditions, and law for all matters concerning the church. Usually, the Erzzeuge in Caramiza are close advisors of the regent and at the beginning of the Caramizian Council, all Erzzeugen were a member of this council, having significant influence over secular matters as well.
This influence in the secular world has steadily declined, however, especially since Erzzeuge Marius Birkwald declared the instrumental Tauschwart as independent from the church of Maned. During the rather recent Silent Secular Revolution the decline in influence became almost unstoppable.