Temple Lands

The Temple Lands were a state controlled by the Church of God Awaiting, with Zion as its capital and the Knights of the Temple Lands serving as its provinces' secular rulers.

History
Although smaller then its neighbors, and land-locked and isolated during the winter, the Temple Lands exerted a degree of influence disperportionate to their population. They also had a higher gross income product than most, if not all other nations on Safehold. This was due to the fact that the Temple Lands were home to the religious hierachy of the planet's religion, in the form of the Council of Vicars, receiving a great deal of income through tithes (religous payments), and semaphore payments. 

Group of Four
Under the influence of the Group of Four, the Temple Lands embarked upon a crusade against, initially, the Kingdom of Charis, and later against the Empire of Charis and its client states. This was mostly due to the remoteness of Charis relative to Zion, and its constant challenges to the Proscriptions of Jwo-jeng, and the expanding liberalism of its clergy. 

Taxation
The Temple Lands were smaller than Harchong or Siddarmark, with a smaller population, but they were larger and more populous than almost any other Safeholdian realm. Every single person on Safehold was obligated by law to deliver a tithe of twenty percent of his income every single year. Secular rulers were responsible for collecting that tithe and delivering it to the Church; the Church then used it for charitable projects, the construction of yet more churches, and as capital for a profitable business lending funds back to the local princes and nobility at usurious rates. 

The nobility of the Temple Lands were exempt from taxation, but after the Battle of the Markovian Sea, this policy was due to be revised.