You, along with your compatriots, stumble out of a boat onto a large concrete platform. You’re tired from a long journey, achy from huddling on a cramped bench with the other incoming term servants. These men and women are, like you, the upper echelon of society back in their homelands – high nobility, lords and ladies, distinguished scholars or wealthy merchants, sometimes even kings or queens.
For the next month, however, all of them – including you – will be His Supremacy’s personal servants. They will clean up after Him and fetch His concubines. Maybe, if they’re lucky, they’ll serve Him dinner. When not in His Supremacy’s personal service, they’ll pull weeds, polish statues, and mop floors on His massive Sacred Estate.
Back home, you are a person with authority who is treated with respect. For the next month, you will be His Supremacy’s personal errand servant, or maybe His maid, or maybe His janitor. You are on the Term of Sacred Service.