Despite its importance, the "Sect" is not the backbone of satharian society.  The "Tribe" is.  Extended families with dozens of members, most tribes live a simple life on satharian worlds.  Living together in large communal homes.  They choose to survive at a nearly subsistence level.  Herding, fishing, farming, hunting, much as the proto-satha had before the reptilians came.  Stepping into a satharian village is like taking a time machine back thousands of years.  The Followers believe that the simpler the life?  The purer it is, in the Great Worm's eyes.

        Another common trait of the tribes is an aversion to technology.  Now they do make some concessions, especially when it comes to weapons and medicine.  However, they are kept well out of sight until needed.  The reptilians forced the proto-satha into a future that, in their hearts, they still want as little to do with as possible.  So they spend their days caring for their homelands and their communities.  Finding fulfillment in working with their tentacles, instead of machines.

        Satharian children are born and raised within their tribe.  Learning from the elders about their people, their faith, and their history.  When they reach maturity, about a dozen years old, sathar undertake a pilgrimage to one of their world's monasteries.  There they are tested, searching for what the Great Worm is calling on them to do.  Usually, that calling is too crusade with that monasteries' sect.  Years of training follow, before they are sent on to that sect's fleet or legion.

        It is during this training that their caste is chosen and their life-tattoo, a record of their tribe, caste, sect, rank, and accomplishments, is begun.  Once their calling is finished, often decades later, the sathar returns to its tribe.  Now some sathar choose to join a different tribe.  Normally happening if the sathar finds a lifemate, joining its mate's tribe instead.  Great celebrations occurring when they return.  Most then gladly shed the technological trappings of their service.  Returning to lives of tribe and faith, passing on what they have learned to new generations.

        Now some sathar never return to their tribes.  It is said they still feel the call of the Great Worm.  While for some this is true.  For others?  They are simply unwilling to cast aside the machine.  They remain with their sect for their entire lives, a few even ending up as elders in the monasteries and helping new pilgrims to find their callings.  Unlike those who return to the tribes, they continue to avoid mating.  Since it is considered "impure" for a sathar to be born outside a tribe.  Though tribes do accept cocoons from "strangers," and will raise them as their own.

It is not even uncommon for those who choose to stay too neuter and spay themselves.  A solemn declaration of their belonging to the sect and ceremonially cutting ties to their birth tribe.

        Though the tribes are the "backbone" of satharian society.  The sects are its "muscle."  It is the sects who protect the Great Worm's tribes from the foul, the alien.  It is the sects that answer the Great Worm's call to crusade.  It is the sects which build and maintain the machines that make the crusade possible.  The sects are the ones who bring fear to the befouler and glory to the guided.  Yet it is also the sects who watch each other, as well as the alien.  They are responsible for purging not only the unclean alien, but the tainted sathar as well.

        There are many different signs that another sathar, or even an entire sect, is becoming "tainted."  However, only the disciples should interpret those signs.  If there is evidence, it is to be brought to them.  They have absolute authority over all sects.  Though, in practice, that varies.  Just as their templars have absolute authority over all sathar.  Which, also, can vary.  Still, the disciples are patient and deliberate, so it is not unheard of for some to take care of the issue themselves, instead of waiting overly long for their judgement.

        The results of such impatience can often be quite messy...  Especially when entire sects are involved.  The disciples intervene only when the Great Worm has not already made its decision clear.

Today, there are dozens of Followers' sects.  Yet there were, originally, hundreds.  The trials and strain of centuries on crusade, has seen the weak (or impure) absorbed (or obliterated) by the rest.  Each remaining sect now controls several fortress-like monasteries sprinkled across the home worlds.  And beyond the satharian worlds?  Each lays claim to vast stretches of space and up to dozens of systems.  Searching for the tainted, harvesting, mining, and building their machines.  Watching over the lesser races and even guiding a chosen few.

        The Messenger was not alone in proclaiming the Great Worm's calling.  From its Followers came disciples.  Ones widely recognized as especially wise and devout.  They also went out and taught about the Great Worm.  When the Followers' enemies had fallen, it was the disciples they turned to for guidance.  It was the disciples who divined that the Great Worm wanted them to return to a simple life.  And it was the disciples the sects turned to, when they could not be sure who was tainted and who was not.

On the birth-world there is a complex that makes the sects' fortress monasteries look like villages in comparison.  It is the Great Temple of the Great Worm and where the disciples spend their time when they are not among the tribes.  Spending their days and nights studying the gospels, communing with the Great Worm, and debating evidence brought before them.  There is no limit to how few, or how many, disciples there may be at one time.  If one is accepted by the eldest among them?  Then that one is considered a disciple.

Now the Great Temple is not the only temple in the satharian worlds.  They are sprinkled across the homeworlds just like the sects' monasteries are, only far fewer in number.  The few sathar who do not find their calling to crusade with the sects?  Find it tending the temples and disciples instead.  These templars' callings are usually shorter than for those in the sects, but more tend to still feel the Great Worm's call than with the sects.

Like with the sects, the disciples' templars believe their calling requires the machine.  Though they go to much greater lengths to keep the machine out of sight, compared to the sects.  Restricting their harvesting, mining, and building to uninhabited planets, moons, asteroids, and the like.  Understandable, since the templars mostly remain within the satharian homeworlds.  While the sects crusade beyond, searching for the foul and guarding or even guiding the lesser races.  The templars remain behind.  Watching over the tribes and protecting the disciples.