Category:Celestial Censors
The Celestial Censors, serving within the Division of Divine Order’s Ministry of Celestial Censors in the Bureau of Heaven’s Department of Celestial Concerns, are the judges and chief investigators of Yu Shan, tasked with ensuring that the gods do not fall into corruption and violations of the laws of Heaven. The power of the Censors to impose Audits upon gods great and small grants them significant authority and influence, with some Censors employing it for the cause of justice, others (an increasing proportion in the Age of Sorrows) to further their own interests.
There are one hundred and thirty-two Celestial Censors, with 125 serving as Celestial Censors of Yu Shan with authority over matters in Heaven, and 7 serving as Celestial Censors of Creation, one for each Direction. There are three Censors assigned to the Blessed Isle, of whom the most powerful is titled Celestial Censor of the Omphalos.
The Celestial Censors are institutionally under the authority of the greatest of their number, the High Minister of Justice, and above him the Daimyo of their Division, the Shogun of their Department, and the Unconquered Sun himself in his role as head of their Bureau. However, divine law ensures that Censors are largely free of the usual hierarchies of the Celestial Bureaucracy, operating independently, able to Audit each other and needing not even bow to the commandments of their own High Minister. A separate title, that of Glorious Adjudicator of Truth, grants the authority to supervise and review the decisions of the seven Censors of Creation (one of many ways the inferiority of those posts to their Heavenly counterparts is reinforced), though at present the Censor Ideal Flame bears both titles at once.
In the present Age, all of the Censors are Lesser Elemental Dragons. This is far from accidental: elementals are thought to be ‘outside’ divine affairs and thus more neutral enforcers of justice, and the Elemental Dragon Sextes Jylis had been clear to the gods that the consequences for disrespecting those who bore the dragon shape would be vast indeed... this does not render lesser elemental dragons immune from harm or assassination, but certainly causes restraint amongst gods who might otherwise turn to assassination.
In addition to (often suspiciously sumptuous) quarters in Yu Shan or Creation, the Censors each maintain an expansive official office in the Hall of Celestial Stability. Censors also maintain significant staff, consisting mostly of Celestial Lion investigators and Lion Dog constables to assist them in investigating, prosecuting, and detaining criminals.
