Part of the state series of articles
Sovereign orders are autonomous organisations chartered by the Vekllei Commonwealth and recognised internationally as distinct legal entities, separate from the federal state itself and from the ordinary run of NGOs or municipal corporations. Recognition requires backing from at least three republics, diplomatic ties with five or more foreign states and a demonstrated humanitarian purpose, and charters lapse without renewal every 25 years. Orders hold their own diplomatic relations, negotiate treaties and own property across several republics, and a foreign government will often deal with an order quite separately from the Commonwealth that charters it.
The Commonwealth subsidises the work heavily: CommRail, Commonwealth Airways and Commonwealth Lines move people and supplies, sometimes by military aircraft into conflict zones, and the Bureau of the Commons handles equipment. An office inside the Ministry of the Commonwealth reviews charters every year and steps in when an order’s relations with a republic or a foreign government sour. Orders negotiate their own status-of-forces terms abroad, and some host states extend members diplomatic immunity while others do not. Diplomatic protection comes from the Commonwealth, but it is the order itself that decides whether to stay or withdraw when its members are arrested or killed.
Most orders trace some inspiration to Catholic monasticism, though the Commonwealth charters them as secular bodies and judges them on humanitarian work rather than doctrine. The faith runs deeper in some places than others: Kalina and Verde territories have centuries of Catholic tradition behind their orders, Oslola and the Volcanic republics fold in older folk practices, and a few orders started out entirely secular. What gives them standing in the Commonwealth is not piety but the vow of poverty and the habit of staying where everyone else has left. Members who die on deployment are given state funerals, and a memorial garden in Comet holds their names.