Meroye

The Meroye (pl. Meroyene) is a political subdivision of the Lein Empire, roughly corresponding to a prefecture. As the second level of subdivisions, each meroye is itself comprised of several beliren.

While each meroyene is part of a kair, the vast size of each kair - and the corresponding paucity of officials working at the kair level - means that meroye level officials make up the core of regional government within the Empire. The governor of a meroye is called a Meroyast.

Name
The word 'meroye' is derived from imorya, meaning 'to guard' in Itarakoské. As the name suggests, meroye were originally military subdivisions during the feudal dynasties of the Tarakasane; each meroye contained a number of families, and was meant to be responsible for raising certain numbers of troops, with certain amounts of equipment, so as to be self-sufficient in military defence and policing.