Chamber of Florid and Fluid Masters of Pen and Brush
Department of the Thousand Scales, formerly responsible for the copying and distribution of policy documents within the Imperial bureaucracy. The most important document of all is the Imperial Registry, the document which contains every law, every precedent, and every decree in the history of the Scarlet Empire, which together form the constitution governing all aspects of the Realm and particularly the Thousand Scales.
In the presence of the Empress, the Florid and Fluid Masters included thousands of scribes, masters of their craft, responsible for creating and amending copies of the Imperial Registry as each new decree and precedent emerged. These scribes worked from the Imperial Palace and traveled across the Blessed Isle to distribute and update the copies of the Registry kept by every ministry and prefectural seat. The highest honour for these scribes was to be asked to add to the master copy of the Registry, three thousand silk pages between covers of gleaming brass.
The Masters also included a cadre of roving legal scholars, known as the Infallible Arbitrators of the Imperial Way, whose task was to memorize the Registry and pass judgement on disputes between ministries.
With the reforms demanded by the Deliberative after the disappearance of the Empress, the Chamber of Florid and Fluid Masters was completely gutted. Its scribes were all dismissed, the salaries and resources of its Arbitrators cut to nothing. The Realm was left without a way to disseminate and judge its own laws and government systems.
And yet, such a mortal blow was not dealt out of ignorance, for the scribes and Arbitrators did not find themselves without employment. The Imperial Treasury and Imperial Library both stepped forward to seize control of the master Registry, a confrontation between Mnemon Bera and Bal Keraz that risked becoming violent until a compromise was reached: the head of the Masters and a reduced corps of its Arbitrators were made a subsidiary department of the Treasury, while the Chamber building and guardianship of the master Registry were granted to the Library. Today, two soldiers from amongst Bera's mercenary guard and one soldier of the Jade Legion share guardianship of the Registry chamber, while teams of scribes within the Library and Treasury attempt to produce copies of the document for distribution, at task where they are unable to match the pace once set by the Florid and Fluid Masters.
The scribes amongst the Masters did not move on to Library or Treasury, save for a small minority of loyalists willing to accept a cut in pay in the name of the Realm. Most were instead hired en masse by the Great Houses. These private stables of Registry scribes continue their work of amending copies of the Registry and distributing new ones, a service without which the Realm government would collapse... but attentive legal scholars might note these House-sponsored copies sometimes change a turn of phrase, sometimes abridge or omit a passage, invariably resulting in a code of laws more amenable to that House's interests. These imperfect copies are in the minority at the moment, the pre-existing tomes still not needing to be fully replaced, but as laws shift more drastically a time approaches where all departments and prefectures may need to call for new Registry books to guide their operations.
Head: Respected and Impartial Keeper of the Registry Bal Rubadar (former head, currently vice-minister within the Imperial Treasury).
