Ministry of Natural Coordination

The Ministry of Natural Coordination is at once two institutions.

The Bureau

One is a department of the Realm's bureaucracy the Thousand Scales, tasked with tracking and coordinating the work of Elementals on the Blessed Isle so that the Scarlet Empress and her government remain abreast of their activities and spirits serve to aid rather than disrupt the workings of the Scarlet Empire. Some might wonder why the secular government requires such an organ, when the Immaculate Order is responsible for enforcing the Perfected Hierarchy, Prayer Calendar, and Wyld Hunt, but those who know the nature of the Empress' Thousand Mazy Paths know well its purpose, as a competing authority to the Order which could offer official sanction and the protection of the Throne to elementals who used their powers to serve Her interests even if that means stepping outside the normal dictates of the Perfected Hierarchy. Amongst the Ministry's responsibilities was arranging the bureaucratic side of the Festival of Salt.

Minister of Coordination: None. The previous minister appointed by the Empress, the air-aspect Tepet Jodo, resigned her post to serve with the Legions of House Tepet during the War with the Bull, where she was killed. Her subordinate, the mortal Sesus Tertius, was found guilty of severe heresies by the Immaculate Order and sentenced to confiscation of all properties followed by a Penitential Pilgrimage in order to earn absolution.

While not officially dissolved, the Imperial Treasury no longer supplies the Ministry of Natural Coordination with a budget, as part of recent widespread reductions in the Thousand Scales. As such, no bureaucrats remain employed by the Ministry, and thus no one remains to ascend to the post of Minister.

The Court

The other side of the Ministry of Natural Coordination is a Spirit Court, made up of five elementals who serve as 'Elemental Coordinators', working with both the Thousand Scales bureaucracy and representatives of the Elemental Spirit Courts of the Blessed Isle which have made direct arrangements with the Throne. In years past, this involved much work for the Scales on communicating matters such as Salt Rate adjustments and the weather control requests of the Bureau of Climatic Deliberations, as well as recording complaints about abusive summoners so they could be forwarded to the White Ministry and dealt with quietly before drawing the attention of Heaven's Celestial Censors.

The widespread disruption of the Thousand Scales in the absence of the Scarlet Empress has caused a breakdown of this system: even if most of the Scales ministries were not themselves suffering closures and cutbacks, their connection with the Court was through the bureaucrats of the Ministry, whose desks are now empty. Even worse for the elementals involved, the Immaculate Order and the Isle's Celestial Censors have always fixed their attentions on the work of the Court. With the protection of the Empress, this was not such a great threat, though it had resulted in the spirits being amongst the least corrupt in Creation, but in Her absence any misstep could allow the Immaculates and their allies to pounce.

For membership of the Court, refer here.