Archbishop Iñígo de Osoçais was the leader of the Congregation of Calgaremi, a staunchly Church-aligned territory to the north of Oremis. Only a very tightly-controlled select few knew that Osoçais was also a wizard of considerable aptitude, and that the tales of miraculous recoveries spiralling outward from Calgaremi were actually thanks to his magic. He was chosen by the Church to deal with the Oremisian covens, hoping to secure the city as a stronghold because of its advantageous position.
It took Osoçais several years before he was able to bring Oremis into the fold of the Bascan Church. Nearly two years were spent convincing Ehagan de Aminsál to agree to deliver the territory; several years before that were spent researching and observing Oremeños to see which coven would successfully convince the cityfolk to follow them. In the end, the Coven of Aminsál was chosen because of their popularity with the Oremeños, which derived from the Aminsalenian ability to cast illusions that could soothe their loved ones’ passage into death.
The choice to pass on allying with House Volaans was a deliberate one: the Church, desiring to appear benevolent, did not want to be seen as directly conspiring with Oremis’ ruling power, and wanted Oremisian conversion and acceptance to seem “organic.” Many historians view this decision as the unintentional turning point in the balance of power in Oremis, with the Coven of Aminsál on the rise, and House Volaans gradually losing the semblance of authority over the city.
Among the promises the Coven of Aminsál received from the Church through Osoçais were territorial autonomy and impunity, but the most consequential of these was their Name. Ehagan de Aminsál and his immediate family were given the name Velo de Edén, the “veil of Eden,” because Ehagan, a coven elder, was an immensely powerful Aminsaleño whose illusions echoed that of Aminsál’s, capable of trapping foes within false realities so true, it drove them mad. At the insistence of Ehagan’s wife Cibilla, he extracted from Osoçais and the Church a promise to treat them as allies, not subordinates.
The entire magnitude of what became known as the Osoçais Accord would not be felt until a generation later, when its effects could be seen not just in Oremis’ relation to the Church, but in its overall Bascanisation.
Oremeñe is known as the language of the masses. It remains the most prominent language spoken in Oremis despite the Church’s several attempts to stymy it in favour of Bascan, the so-called language of the highborn, during the Proselytisation.
In the early years of the Church, Oremeños often spoke Oremeñe only at home and amongst one another out of fear of prosecution. Even their erstwhile allies, the Edenveils, subscribed to speaking only Bascan in public, even as they spoke Oremeñe in private. Over the years, and particularly during the onset of the First Oremisian Uprising, openly speaking Oremeñe was seen as one of the greatest and clearest symbols of defiance against Church rule amongst all of the city’s social classes.
Today, Oremeñe is once again the city’s lingua franca, and Bascan the taught language: even among the upper class, Oremeñe is learned first, though the reverse — that is, Bascan first and then Oremeñe — still remains relatively common. Conservative ultra-traditionalists, called les ultras, among this strata of Oremeños reject this and speak only Bascan, whilst employing Oremeñe-speaking household staff in order to communicate with others in Oremeñe; this is highly frowned upon by the rest of Oremis.
The other language commonly heard in the city is the Common Tongue, called the language of the transient, as Oremeños use it to communicate with traders, sailors, and merchants from all places and walks of life. Thanks to Oremis’ central location and status as the heart of a robust trade network on land and sea, proficiency in Common is widespread. As a result, most Oremeñes are trilingual — one of the hallmarks of its cosmopolitanism.
In addition, many other languages can be heard throughout the city thanks to those same traders, sailors, and merchants. This number only grows during the annual Sun Parade, a weeklong festival culminating in a parade through the city and a blessing of fire and light from the First Mother. Several schools for Oremeñe and Bascan were established throughout the city to help newly-established migrants assimilate by learning the languages.
Although Reimundo di Volaans fashioned Oremis into a duchy after the Conseixar elected him as its leader, it was not until the Proselytisation introduced the full system of aristocracy, or el aristkráte, to the city that was fully implemented. Under the Church, an ariste or arista, whose nobility was often twofold in Oremis through their status as casters and as newly-created aristes, had a divinely bestowed obligation to be charitable to those who did not have the same privileges that was afforded to them. Aristkráte culture in Oremis, therefore, is rooted in the act of giving, though not all noble families through the years continued to subscribe to it once Oremis’ standing grew.
This attitude changed around the First Oremisian Uprising, when it became clear that Church-accorded nobility did not afford any of Oremis’ magical aristocrats any more safety than their supposed immunity from the Inquisition for all the years they supported the Church.
Before titles of nobility were introduced into Oremisian society, precedence was chiefly determined by the age of one’s coven, though this was sometimes complicated by coven size, as well as collective magical strength, among other factors. For example, the Covens of Aminsál — the progenitor of House Edenveil — and of Aujena are both younger than the Coven of Burgón, but take precedence due to both magical strength and proximity to political power. Nevertheless, all three count as güardeixa covens, or covens of the old guard: that is, covens that were established in Oremis or Oremis territory long before the Osoçais Accord took effect. Due to this definition, no new coven can be assigned a güardeixa coven should one die out.
Güardeixa covens are accorded aristkráte privileges. This means that all güardeixerres are aristes, but not all aristes, whose numbers multiplied after the establishment of the merchant class and older witch-families wanted to distinguish themselves from newer houses, are güardeixerres.