Law and Government
From Aparsus
Nominally, the power of Empire's governance rests squarely in the hands of the First Lord of the House Salidarus, who also holds the titles Emperor of Colndor, Protector of the Eastern Frontiers, and High King of the Cmyr; most commonly referred to simply as "the Emperor". The Emperor is High Commander of the Legions and Chief Deliberator of the Senate, and has the right to appoint in his place Citizen-representatives to those roles to act in his stead. He is the final court of appeal for any civil or criminal legal dispute, though the vast distances involved alone make his sitting trial on a case rare except in the cities of the central Empire. That the Emperor wields great power is a fact that lies beyond contestation, but that power is often tempered by the nature of Imperial governance - a field of study that often seems extremely - even needlessly - complex and quite arcane to outsiders.
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The Senate
The power to draft and propose laws lies with the Imperial Senate, which meets in the Great Senate in the capital city of Salid, though the final decision as to which laws they propose actually make their way into the canon of Imperial Law belongs to the Emperor, as Chief Deliberator, or to his representative, appointed and empowered to act in his stead.
The Senate consists of 105 Senators selected from among the land-owning Citizens of the Empire. Ninety of them are selected from the Three Provinces of the Central Empire, while the other fifteen are chosen from the Frontiers. These senators nominally serve the interests of the citizens they represent, and many do this in truth as well as name, but many more are "employed" by the Great Houses - who constantly seek representatives to serve their interests in the Senate. Because of the vagaries of war and circumstance, a simple majority of the Senators that are actually able to attend the Senate for a vote is all that is needed to propose a new law, though achieving that majority often requires long hours of debate and counter-debate, as the law is examined, defined, torn apart and redefined. The exceptions to this rule are twofold - the first is the budget of the Imperial Treasury, the purse-strings of the Empire on which all public works and military action hinge, only a four-fifths vote (100 senators total) can pass the budget along to the Chief Deliberator for final approval, making it one of the most important Senatorial conventions each year (the budget convention is actually attended by a week-long celebration known as Gold Week in Salid, a festival that has spread to outlying communities as well. Gold Week is characterized by festivals honouring the various gods worshipped in the Empire, and praying for a swift resolution to the impending budget debate).
Secondly, if the Chief Deliberator vetoes a law, the Senate may over-rule his decision with a unanimous vote. In the long history of the Empire, this has not happened once, and many scholars reason that - were the interests of the various Leagues, Guilds and Great Houses align so as to allow it to occur, it would spell doom for the line of Salidarus as the head of the Empire.
The Great Houses
The enforcement of Imperial Law is handled by the Great Houses - organized groups of Citizens granted the title of High Lord (often in antiquity) by the Emperor himself. Each House consists of the First Lord, a direct descendant of the House's original founder, that Lord's family and the House's Oathsworn - Citizen-vassals who serve the First Lord in exchange for a Writ of Lordship, conferring upon them (by grace of adoption into the House) the title of High Lord or a lesser noble title according to their station and position in the House.
The lineage of the Great Houses is often a tangled mess - those actually born into one of the Houses find themselves given life in the midst of a vast web of alliances, marriages, relations and age-old politics that spread across the 20 Houses, and may find themselves sworn enemies of close relatives, even childhood friends, due to House politics and power-plays. The Oathsworn, who are very rarely Highborn Citizens themselves, don't have to deal with the sheer weight of frankly incestuous politics found in the Houses' upper ranks, but often still find themselves unwitting pawns in the political games of their superiors in the House's structure.
Upon being granted status as a Great House, the House finds itself with an Administrative District, known as a Coln. The House then divides the Coln into magistracies, each overseen by a High Lord of the House. The High Lords have a fairly high degree of autonomy in their individual magistracies, but the Emperor nonetheless keeps a close watch on their activities, lest they become dangerous to the Empire as a whole. The Magistracies of the High Lords are further divided among Oathsworn Counts. Counts are given Writs allowing them to act as judges and ministers of Imperial Law in their counties. Counts are also the local commanders of their House Legions, and are traditionally chosen for their skill in battle as well as their talent for politics. Still, there are more Counts in power than there are Counts that know what they're doing, and such shall always be the way of the Empire.
Beneath the Counts are the steadholders - who may or may not be Oathsworn to the House that administers their land. Steadholders are Citizens granted land writs by a House or the Emperor himself for exceptional service to the Empire - usually achieved by achieving the rank of Veteran or higher in a Legion. Steadholders are responsible for administering civil law and providing protection in their Steads. On average, a Stead consists of the lands of ten farms - which may or may not be operated by Citizens - and a County may be between five and ten Steads, depending on population density.
It should be noted that there are often more people with the rank of High Lord than there are Magistracies for them to administer. Rather than becoming "Lord-Magistrates" these landless Lords act as agents for their Great Houses - solving problems that arise in House lands and defending House interests in the Imperial Court. The status of High Lord makes a Citizen ineligible for duty on the Senate, but the Great Houses nonetheless keep a fair number of agent Lords in Salid to lobby their interests to the Senators and Emperor.
Periodically, the High Lords of a specific House will meet, along with the local commander of the Legion Imperatorum Way-forts, to elect a Duke. The Duke, who wields nearly as much power as the First Lord of his House and is, in fact, often chosen to succeed the First Lord, is responsible for the collection of both Imperial and House taxes in the region, as well as the coordination of all local Legions in the event of an armed conflict.
The Great Houses of the Empire Alarid Drosus Gaius Altinus Gnaeus Florentio Cor'd'alene Kotenoi Pavageau Nodal Anabtawi Nomah Tulm Za'gibyolo (Dark Elf) Ra'Duranyo (Dark Elf) Ki'Mondoy (Dark Elf) Ramsus Moinos
The Guilds
If the Great Houses rule the Empire's countryside, then the Citizen's Guilds rule its cities. Organized as unions for craftsmen and merchants alike, the Guilds provide a number of benefits for their members, as well as the Empire and the Great Houses - who support them through grants from the Imperial and House Treasuries. Guilds provide their members with a means to arrange work and trade their goods through a network of trade alliances that spans the Empire - even providing banking services and loans for new member-businessmen just starting out. They maintain funds for members who have been injured or fallen ill, ensuring that their families are provided for until they can resume work (though it's a commonly known Guild bylaw that any citizen who attains membership in a Guild and relies on the Guild's largesse but is unable to return to service finds his family forced into a period of indentured servitude to pay back his debts), and even provide for the negotiation of settlements and payments in legal matters of a civil nature. In turn, a portion of Guild dues are paid back to the Empire to pay off the "Guild Debt", and the Empire receives large discounts from the Craft's Guilds when hiring craftsmen for large public works projects and other forms of mass production. The most notable example of this is the Armorer's Guild, which enjoys a status of permanent retainer with the Imperial Legions that has allowed it to open a full-scale manufactory in the city of Bellas Regales in the Western Province.
In most cases, the Guild respects two hierarchies - one based on politics and wealth, the other based on skill. It's largely regarded that as one's skill increases, one moves upward in the Guild, but while this is often true, it is not always the case, and it is possible for an exceptional craftsman to retain a low rank, while a less skilled but more politically adept Citizen may attain a position of power. The ranks of skill are: Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. One's skill-based rank is determined solely by the amount of training one has had in their Guild's discipline and the quality of their work, as determined by the Masters at yearly Guild-Meets held in most of the major cities. Novices are not actually members of the Guild and are often not Citizens. Instead, they are children taken in by the Guild before their majority and set on the path to apprenticeship. Guild Novices run errands for the Guild, do menial labour and learn the basics of their craft before entering in to their mandatory Imperial service. During their service, they are often but not always placed in a position to deal with some aspect of what will be their craft once their term is over. Upon leaving Imperial service, they may then enter the Guild as Citizens and attain the rank of Apprentice. Apprenticeships are long and hard, with the yearly Guild-Meets being the only break in the monotony of learning their craft, but when the Apprentice shows enough competence and promise, they leave their Master's side and become Journeymen.
Most Guildmembers are, and remain, Journeymen, rarely increasing their rank beyond that point. Only a handful achieve the level of skill and talent necessary to become Masters, and those men are sought out constantly for their skill. It is common practice, at the Grand Guild-Meet in Salid, for the Masters to meet every fifth year. During this special Guild-Meet, they bring one masterwork of their craft, and vote among themselves to determine who will hold the position of Grand Master for the next five years. Being accorded the title of Grand Master of one's Guild is a tremendous honour, and carries with it the promise of a comfortable life long after the title has passed to someone else.
The true administrative power of the Guilds lies in the hands of the Merchant-Princes, who arrange the trade and transport of goods and services, interpret and create Guild bylaws and secure funding and contracts from the Empire and the Great Houses. Local Guild chapters are administered by Stewards, who in turn answer to regional Factors, all of whom form the core of the network that the Merchant-Princes use to serve their Guild's purpose.
The Leagues
The final faction of the Imperial Court is the Leagues. The Leagues are citizen's groups that cross Guild and House lines and offer membership to patrician and High Lord alike. Each League is bound together not by station or craft, but by a specific political agenda. Leagues - as organizations based on idealism - play a dangerous game in Imperial politics, as their desires are often contrary to the self-interest of the Great Houses. One example is the League of Arinos, which supports manumission of all slaves in the Empire. Though supported by the Imperial Cult and the Cult of the Nine - and by a fair number of citizens - its agenda of abolition makes it a target for the Western Provincial Houses, such as House Florentio, who rely on slavery en masse to provide enough labour to tend their lands.
Over the years, the High Lords of the Great Houses have found it best to deal with the Leagues circumspectly, for a number of reason. Firstly, Leagues enjoy Imperial protection as a check on the power of the Houses, making open warfare between the two factions untenable. Secondly, even if the Lord in question supports the League, membership in a League has been known to lead directly to expulsion from one's House, forcing the High Lords to offer their support as quietly as possible.
