(1/15) The Imperial Household

Among the posts queued up for me to answer on the Discourse is a request for more information about the Empire's institutions. Well, that's a big question. A damn big question. One that warrants more than a comment there, and frankly more than one post here to do it justice.

So y'all are going to get a whole series. Certain caveats apply: it only goes down to a certain level of granularity, it is a snapshot of one moment in time, and as always, the author reserves the right to adjust the details in the service of the work (although at this point in time, it's unlikely to change very much). Here are the posts it will be divided into, in order:

1. The Imperial Household
2. Ministries of the Imperial Service: Intro, and the Exchequer
3. Ministries of the Imperial Service: The Admiralty
4. Ministries of the Imperial Service: Ministry of the Empire
5. Ministries of the Imperial Service: Ministry of Harmonious Serenity
6. Ministries of the Imperial Service: Ministry of State and Outlands
7. Ministries of the Imperial Service: Ministry of Progress and Prosperity
8. Ministries of the Imperial Service: Threefold Auditors of Impropriety
9. Logarchies of the Imperial Service
10. The Judiciary: The Curial Courts
11. The Judiciary: Supporting Organizations
12. The Senate
13. The Eupraxic Collegium
14. The Plurality
15. The Privy Council and the Shadow Ministries

Where relevant, I'll link them back to the relevant section of the Imperial Charter. However, I haven't the time to link back to every time a given sub-organization is mentioned in a post; if you want that index, you'll need to build it yourself.

We begin with the Imperial Household. The executive branch of the Imperial governance, that runs its day-to-day business, descends in an orderly fashion from the Imperial Couple, usually via the Council of the Star, which is one of two bodies one might consider analogous to a "Cabinet", or like the British monarch's Privy Council¹.

These particular institutions are defined by Section V of the Imperial Charter:

The Imperial Charter: Section Five

…continued from part four. Probably worth noting that this section obviously interacts heavily with the following two sections, Six being the Curia and Seven the Senate, so if any questions you may have concern how the various branches interact, you may well find the answer there. SECTION V: THE IMPERIAL

The Associated WorldsAlistair Young

(It should also be mentioned that in many ways the primary institutions of the executive branch are the runér [defined in Section VIII of the Imperial Charter], who - with the assistance of a chancellor from the Chancelry of Coordination, discussed below - exercises executive authority over the ministries of the Imperial Service within their particular demesne, which report to them as well as to the higher levels of the ministries. But we won't be discussing them in this series; just the institutions themselves.)

Council of the Star

You know who the Imperial Couple are. Let us then begin with the Council of the Star, formally known as Their Clarities, the Members of Their Divine Majesties' Most Crystalline Stellar Council, an advisory body to the Imperial Couple themselves.

Traditionally, even though the Imperial Couple possess the power and authority to act on their own cognizance through decree, edict, and writ, it is customary for major policy decisions and other such things to be debated in front of the Council of the Star before being carried forth. While Acts of the Senate may be so debated, there is no strict tradition concerning them.

While defined by the Imperial Charter as purely an advisory body, the Council of the Star has, effectively and through delegation, received a delegation of authority to act directly on behalf of the Throne in non-legislative matters, when the Imperial Couple are unavailable, including the powers of appointment and dismissal. (Legislative matters are still often debated before the Council of the Star, but the personal assent of the Imperial Couple is required to take such action.) In the absence of the Imperial Couple, the Council of the Star is chaired by the Imperial Shadow, or the Lord Coordinator of the Chancelry.

The membership of the Council of the Star is set by the Imperial Charter to consist permanently of the Imperial Shadow, the Lord Coordinator of the Chancelry, and the Ministers of the Throne of the Imperial Service –

A note on ministers: there are two kinds. A Minister of the Throne is in charge of one of the seven "great ministries"; the Exchequer, Admiralty, Empire, Harmonious Serenity, State and Outlands, Progress and Prosperity, or the Three Departments of Impropriety. The heads of the "lesser ministries" which make up the great ministries are referred to as Ministers of the State, a lesser office.

– and to additionally comprise such other grandees of the Empire that the Imperial Couple shall see fit to appoint, with the proviso that their number shall not exceed the number of the Ministers of the Throne. Since, at the present time, there are seven Ministers of the Throne, there can only be seven of these appointments, and the total size of the Council of the Star, not including the Imperial Couple, cannot exceed seventeen.

Imperial Shadow

Who are these chaps?

It's not mentioned in the Charter, but the old traditions of Cestian, Silver Crescent, and Veranthyran nobility included the office of royal or noble "shadows", their principal's most trusted adviser, executive, and second-in-command, with special privileges to challenge the noble’s thoughts and decisions, and if necessary, act as a check on their actions. It's a tradition that's useful enough to have found its way into all sorts of places, including this part of the Imperial governance, not to mention many runér.

The Chancelry of Coordination

The function of the Chancelry of Coordination is coordinating the efforts of all departments of the Imperial Service, along with other organizations (the COGs of the Plurality; the Shadow Ministries; and so forth) to ensure that the Imperial will is best carried forth. In itself, it's a relatively small department, if large relative to the overall size of the Imperial Household.

The Lord Coordinator of the Chancelry is, relevant to this, a dual-hatted role: the Lord Coordinator also serves as the Minister President of the Council of Ministers, which we'll be talking about next time. Ceremonially, he is also the Keeper of the Imperial Seal, and holds the Great Seal of the Empire, with which the most formal of Imperial documents are validated.

Apart from supporting his work directly, the Chancelry trains chancellors as aides for the runér, who serve similar functions at the level of the individual demesne.

Also subordinate to the Lord Coordinator is the Lord Keeper of the Registry of the Imperial Service, whose formal responsibility is keeping the master copy of the Registry of the Imperial Service, which describes in detail the structure of the Imperial Service, all its ministries and logarchies, and their precise responsibilities. The Lord Keeper is also dual-hatted, his office having been combined with that of the Secretary-General of the Imperial Service during the reign of Valentia I Amanyr, and as such is also in charge of all its administrative functions (i.e., the logarchies).

Imperial Household

And what of the rest of the Imperial Household? It contains a variety of offices, many domestic, but a few attached to state functions. These include:

Office of the Emperor & Office of the Empress

Headed by their respective Shadows, the Office of the Emperor and the Office of the Empress are the Imperial Couple's staff: researchers, analysts, advisors, secretaries, aides, and so on and so forth. All the support staff needed to do the job exist in these offices.

Office of Imperial Communications

Headed up by the Coronals' Voice, the Office of Imperial Communications is in charge of proclamations, events, press releases, and anything else that the Throne wishes to communicate to the citizen-shareholders.

Office of the Imperial Couple

Headed by the Imperial Majordomo, the Office of the Imperial Couple handles the Imperial family's personal staff: valets, maids, correspondence secretaries, personal assistants, and the like. They also coordinate the various aides assigned to junior members of the Imperial family, typically from the Navy, Legions, or Exploratory Service, responsible for protocol arrangements.

Together with the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and the Imperial Chatelaine, the Imperial Majordomo forms a triumvirate that together manage the affairs, such as they are managed, of the Court of Courts.

The Office of the Imperial Couple also includes a number of minor Household appointments and their staff, such as the Curator of the Imperial Collection, the Poet Laureate, the Astronomer Imperial, and the Physician to the Imperial Couple.

Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard, the Immortals, or simply the 1st Imperial Legion: by whichever name, they are the steadfast guardians of the Imperial Couple and the Palace. The strategos of the 1st Legion is entitled to the style Lord Commander of the Guard, and is counted among the Imperial Household.

Also specially titled are the 1st cohort, 516 strong, who serve as the Imperial Couple's personal overt guards, named the Companions. From within their ranks are also selected the Sovereign Protectors, their personal covert guards.

In addition to all of the above, the Imperial Guard is the Legions' premier ceremonial unit, as it has been a part of the Empire’s military traditions dating back to the founding of the Empire itself, and before - when the unit was known as the Legion of Dawn, Alphas I Amanyr's personal battlefield companions.

Lord Keeper of the Imperial Library

In charge of the Palace library, and its archives, the records public, private, and personal of millennia of rule. Also reporting to him is the Master of the Scribes of the Palace, the official Imperial calligraphers whose work is visible in every curl and serif set to Imperial stationery.

The Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal

The officer of the Household who keeps the Imperial Couple's privy seal. Not the Great Seal of the Empire; that's the responsibility of the Lord Coordinator ex officio; this is their personal seal, stamped with the Imperial filwé.

They also supervise a number of minor Household offices: the General Counsel to the Throne (the Throne, rather than the Empire's, legal advisor); the Master of Correspondence; the Master of the Questions (in charge of receiving and answering questions directed to the Imperial Couple on matters of policy); the Office of Appeals (who address legal matters appealed to the Throne); the Office of the Citizenry (who keep the Imperial Couple in touch with the concerns of the citizen-shareholders); the Office of the Imperial Archives (which works closely with the Lord Keeper of the Imperial Library; they are in charge of making records of the Court and of all official events in which the Imperial Couple are involved); and the Keeper of the Privy Purse (the Throne's private funds).

The Lord Steward of the Household

In charge of much of the Household's physical assets and daily routine. Under the Lord Steward of the Household are the Office of the Palace (under the Imperial Chatelaine, in charge of the physical Imperial Palace and other Imperial dwellings, and also responsible for all official and unofficial court ceremonies, and all the ceremonial officeholders of the Court of Courts; also the Office of the Imperial Gardens, the Office of the Imperial Revels (in charge of all decorations, festivals, and Imperial entertainments); and the Office of Imperial Transportation (under the Throne Equerry), which handles all the Palace's attached starships, other vehicles, and even subways.

Office of the Capital

The Imperial City of Calmiríë was separated by Alphas I Amanyr from its former jurisdiction (Cestia) at the founding of the Empire, to avoid the tangle of difficulties that might result from the Imperial seat being technically answerable to the runér of a constituent demesne.

Titularly, the Imperial City is the personal demesne of the Imperial Couple; in practice, the Office of the Capital serves as its local governance, and it is run by the Capitoline Legate with their voice and authority.

Attorney-General of the Empire

As part of the Imperial Household, the Attorney-General of the Empire functions as the chief legal advisor to the Imperial governance, as well as advising and representing Their Divine Majesties' governance² before the Curia. If necessary, however, the Throne itself is independently represented by the General Counsel to the Throne.

While the Attorney-General of the Empire has no direct supervisory control over the attorneys-general attached to other runér or praetors within the Empire - to help assure regional independence in accordance with Charter law - he is ex officio also the chairsoph of the Imperial Bar Collegium, the body which serves to ensure uniformity of practice and benefits for the Empire's law officers.

Coronals' Hands

And finally, we come to the Coronals' Hands, probably the most unnerving part of the Household due to their special position in Imperial administration: they are the Imperial Couple's personal plenipotentiary agents to sort out any problems for which the normal processes of Imperial governance are inadequate, or to show a clear and firm Imperial presence.

They may operate overtly or covertly, as auditor, inquisitive, marshal, diplomat, spy, or all of the above; speak with the full voice and authority of the Imperial Couple; and are able to requisition any public property, direct any Charter-lawful course of action, and otherwise do as they see fit for the good of the Empire.

If you see one, it means that you have attracted Their Divine Majesties' personal attention. Comport yourself accordingly.

1. One similarity, for example, is that executive orders issued over the Imperial seal go out as either Orders-in-Council, when the Imperial Couple are acting in consensus with the Council of the Star, or as Orders Absolute, when they are acting on their personal authority alone.
2. It should be noted that in Imperial praxis, attorneys-general are not responsible for initiating prosecutions; such is the responsibility of procurators attached to the Watch Constabulary and Office of Investigation and Pursuit, or by private individuals bringing suit in their own right.