it makes sense to consider Summerdale and Libero as "SA realms". In practice, the church has as much to say about the behaviour of Libero than it does about the behaviour of, say Astrum.
This, I would agree with. They are SA realms. They are
not] SA theocracies. That is a very important distinction. The Elders/Regent/Holy Prophet can make some demands of the theocracies, and expect compliance, as long as it doesn't get too wacky. The same cannot be said of Summerdale and LE.
My character, Brance, has always opposed enshrining the theocracies into the power structure of the church. This could lead to interesting times as the faith spreads more and more to non-theocracies. However, unless the non-theocratic members have some *very* good power blocs among the theocracies, they will most likely not find themselves moving into high-power positions, as many people still vote realm-centric when electing elders. Now, the non-theocratic members could bring more of their realm-mates with them, of course. But then, the faith spreads from that, and crowds out other faiths anyway. So we still end up spreading.
