Thousand Scales

The Ministries of the Thousand Scales form the Imperial Bureaucracy of the Realm. They run the day-to-day functions of the Realm ranging from collecting taxes to publishing the debates of the Deliberative.

The bureaucrats of the Ministries are almost entirely mortal Dynasts and patricians, with only the highest ranks home to the Exalted. Positions are filled and new clerks recruited through a system of comprehensive examinations held annually in the Imperial City.

There are well over a hundred divisions within the ministries and some of them are quite small and others are mundane (tracking standardized weights and measures). However, there are some ministers and ministries that are powerful enough to help shape policy in the Realm... though this power has seen them come under political attack from Great Houses displeased to see possible rivals within the Realm’s structure.

The most important ministries are the Assessors, who collect the Realm's taxes; the Imperial Treasury, which decides how that money will be spent; and the Foreign Office, which advised the Empress (and now the Regent) on foreign policy. Recently, following the Empress' disappearance, these three ministries successfully pushed for the removal of the Magistrates from oversight over the Thousand Scales, but they have been loosing power to the Great Houses as time passes.

Technically, the Imperial Legions were part of the Thousand Scales, until the ministers transferred them to care of the Great Houses.

Departments and Ministries of the Thousand Scales

Imperial Treasury

Humble And Honest Assessors Of The Imperial Tax

Wise and Knowledgeable Advisors of Foreign Tributaries

Bureau of Climatic Deliberations

Honorable and Humble Caretakers of the Common Folk

--- Devoted Wellspring of Municipal Beneficence

--- Eternally Vigilant Wardens of Detritus

--- Imperial Census

--- Guardians of the Realm

--- (Public Health)