Government

Quicklinks

Royal Government (Link): | Eight Families | Council of Eight | Monarch | Principal Officers

Clusters (Link): Cluster Stations | Legate | Noble Council | Cluster Command

Fragments (Link): Lords | Aldermen | Police Force

Special Fragments (Link): Charter Fragments | Extraction Fragments | Farm & Wild Fragments | Prison Fragments | University Fragments

Writs (Link): Lord’s Writ | Inquisitorial Writ | Monarchical Writ | Informal Assistance | Emergency Powers

The Kingdom of Humanity is a union of 112 Fragments, organized into 13 Clusters that are ruled by a singular monarch.

Due to the vast distances separating each fragment from one another in Astral Space, governing the Kingdom’s millions of subjects in the Kingdom of Humanity is a complicated process. Although power ultimately rests with the Monarch, the government is divided into three levels: the Royal Government, the Clusters, and the Fragments.

Each of these three levels have different powers and privileges. However, all are loyal to the Monarch and dedicated to unifying humanity.

Royal Government

The Royal Government rules and governs the entire Kingdom of Humanity. It is composed of the eight royal families, the Council of Eight, and the Monarch’s agents, including the Inquisition and the Military (which are both discussed on their own pages).

The Eight Families

The Eight Families are the center of the Royal Government.  As their name implies, they are eight royal families who currently rule the Kingdom.

All royal families descend from King Astralis, the first King of Humanity following Fragmentation. King Astralis created the Astral Leylines and the Nexus on the Solis Fragment to bring technology to others and to prevent fragments from drifting aimlessly in Astral Space. Fearful of evildoers or planar outsiders sabotaging the Leylines and separating humanity once again, King Astralis constructed the Leylines to require his blood to operate. This right of blood can only be found within full members of the Eight Families and this blood right is required to become the Monarch.

While all of the families are equals in their right to the throne, the power dynamics between the families sway due to public opinion, corporate support, as well as ever changing political alliances and feuds between them.

The current Eight Families are  Astor, Burke, Charmont, Godwin, Hastings, Lockhart, Tudor, Windsor

Extinct Families. The number of royal families has changed over the course of history. Some royal families split apart, often due to ideological differences or because they have become too large. Other families die out or marry into others to consolidate political power. These changes though are rare and occur only once every several centuries.  Any time the number of royal families changes, the name of entities (such as the Council of Eight) change to reflect the current number of families.

The last family to go extinct was the Bryton family which succumbed to familicide. After years of internal infighting with their family’s leadership, several younger Bryton family members decided to assassinate their patriarch and dozens of their kin. By the time the royal guard apprehended the conspirators, the assassins and their allies were the only surviving members of their family. Due to the innoble nature of their crimes, all of the conspirators were executed by order of the Monarch and the family was rendered extinct.

Council of Eight

The Council of Eight is the body responsible for advising, and more importantly, electing the Monarch. Each head of the Eight Families, referred to as the Matriarch or Patriarch, serves on the Council and has one vote. The Council makes important decisions about the Kingdom and acts as gatekeepers to the Monarch. It hears regular reports from all branches of the government, including the military and the Inquisition. It also debates and votes on policies affecting the Kingdom, though the Monarch can always veto or disregard the Council’s decisions.

Symbolically, the Council and Monarch speak as one unanimous body and all royal decrees have the signatures of all the council members and the Monarch on them.

Ascension to the Council. Patriarchs and Matriarchs are senior members of their royal family who have extensive experience in politics. They are typically elderly and respected, but are oftentimes not the oldest members of their family. All Patriarchs and Matriarchs choose their successors with advice from other family elders. These successors are always adult princes or princesses who have accomplished great deeds earlier in life.  While Patriarchs and Matriarchs can serve for life, they traditionally step down upon becoming infirm or when they feel their successor is ready to govern. This allows retired patriarchs and matriarchs to advise their successors and prevents any unforeseen succession drama within a royal family.

Control over Family Affairs. Royal family members are at the mercy of their family’s patriarch or matriarch. A patriarch/matriarch determines all facets of their relatives’ lives. They choose what type of education or job a royal family member receives. They approve all marriages and often play matchmaker. They even choose where a family member lives, with their favorites getting better palaces and residences. Royal family members, therefore, strive to impress and appease their patriarch/matriarch.

Monarch

The Monarch (also known as the King or Queen) is the supreme leader of the Kingdom of Humanity. Their duty is to govern humanity, control the Astral Leylines, and guide civilization towards a prosperous and secure future. The monarch serves for life and their position is regarded as one of great personal sacrifice. They are the face of the Eight Families and the Royal Government.

Their sovereignty is unquestionable and they wield absolute power over the Kingdom.

Ascension to the Throne. The monarch is selected by the Council of Eight. When a monarch abdicates or dies, each of the Eight Families, excluding the current reigning one, must present a candidate. Candidates cannot be the Matriarch or Patriarch of the family and are required to be young and in good health. Typically, the candidates are chosen by their family far in advance with the young prince or princess being groomed from birth for the job.

These candidates are presented before the Council and each one gives a speech to its members. After all the candidates have been presented, the Council of Eight votes with each family, excluding the ruling one, having one vote. The Council votes until a majority has selected a single candidate.

Once elected, the candidate performs a series of symbolic acts before sitting on the throne and becoming the new Monarch. The calendar then changes to reflect the new reigning family.

Monarch Emeritus. Some monarchs choose to abdicate the throne when they become old and infirm. While monarchs serve for life and can continue ruling until their death, roughly half of the monarchs in the Kingdom’s history have abdicated the throne. In cases where a Monarch abdicates, their successor traditionally bequeaths them the title of King Emeritus or Queen Emerita, giving them seniority and prestige over other princes and princesses in their family.  However, the title is purely ceremonial. Monarch emeritus have no political power and enjoy quiet, private lives in a royal palace.  They are forbidden from attending official meetings, performing royal business, or giving opinions or decrees. In fact, the public will rarely see a Monarch Emeritus. The only common exception are special events like the Kingsday celebration on the Coliseum Fragment, where emeritus customarily give a speech honoring and praising the current reigning Monarch.

Principal Officers

The Principal Officers are the most senior government officials and form the Monarch’s cabinet. The officers are courtiers and directly help the Monarch and the Council of Eight perform their duties. Regardless of their role, each is responsible for a bureaucratic function such as collecting taxes, overseeing funds, publishing writs and decrees, and writing reports.

The number of officers vary depending on the reigning monarch (who can construct the government as they see fit).  The positions are normally filled with the current reigning family’s members, kin, and allies. Officers typically train extensively for their position and often jockey with one another for spots. But, it is not uncommon for some positions to be temporary and tailored for a particular royal family member.

All Principal Officers are served by a large staff of clerks and bureaucrats who work within the Royal Palace on the Solis Fragment and in branch offices across Astral Space.

Clusters

Clusters are groupings of fragments that are centered around a cluster station. They are administrative divisions of the Kingdom and a cluster’s government is an intermediary between the Royal Government and a fragment’s government.

Since inhabited fragments are not uniformly found across Astral Space, the number of fragments in each cluster varies with some clusters having as few as three inhabited fragments and others having upwards to six.

Cluster Stations

Central to cluster is the cluster station. A station’s primary role is to act as a waypoint for Astral Leylines. Leylines emanating out of the Solis Fragment first head to a cluster station before being properly divided and directed to each fragment in the cluster. The Royal Government developed cluster stations early on in the Kingdom’s history to make Astral Leylines more efficient and to properly anchor connected fragments to a location in astral space.

Cluster stations are the seat of the cluster’s government and house military barracks, government offices, and docks for astral vessels.

Legate

Legates are personal representatives of the Monarch who are assigned to a cluster. They are considered the “eyes” and “ears” of the Monarch, always ensuring that the Monarch’s will is properly enacted even in the farthest reaches of the Kingdom. They are chiefly responsible for monitoring political and military activities within the cluster and reporting their findings back to the Council of Eight. But they also play a role in mediating disputes between fragments in their cluster, delivering Monarchical Writs to individuals, and directing emergency efforts during times of crisis.

Legates are appointed by the Monarch and serve until dismissed. They are always loyal allies to the reigning family with the most important legates being prince or princesses of the ruling family.

Legates perform their duties from the cluster station where they have offices and a special court that mimics the royal court on the Solis Fragment. Attendants, appointed by the Council of Eight, advise legates and help them in their official duties. Knights of the Royal Guard also act as bodyguards for the Legate with most Legates receiving two permanent knights and potentially more during times of emergency.

Noble Council

A noble council is the body responsible for determining the spacefaring laws within the Cluster and for settling disputes between fragments. The council is composed of the Legate and the Lords from each of the cluster’s fragments.

All noble councils make decisions through voting. Each lord receives one vote on the committee, and the Lord Preeminent of the cluster (a ceremonial title) receives two. The Legate settles ties and can veto decisions by the council, but does not formally get a vote.

A noble council does not have jurisdiction over fragments (that authority belongs to the Lord). They cannot make laws for fragments and cannot get involved in a fragment’s local affairs. Nevertheless, a council’s decision can affect a fragment’s economy or society and council meetings are known to lead to fiery disagreements between lords.

Cluster Command

Clusters are each assigned a fleet of the Astral Corps and a division of the Unity Corps (see the Military page for more). A cluster command is the military leadership committee for a cluster. The command has three members: the Admiral of the cluster’s fleet, the General of the cluster’s division, and the Legate.

A cluster command acts to make sure decisions of both corps are in agreement with one another and to make sure the Legate is updated on important military decisions. On this body, the Legate cannot give military orders, but can veto decisions or arbitrate disagreements between the Admiral and the General.

Other officers are barred from attending cluster command meetings unless they are invited or are sent by the Marshal on Bastion. For example, vice admirals and lieutenant generals regularly sit in on meetings, but other officers only attend meetings to share a report or presentation with command.

Fragments

Fragment governments are those that directly rule over the fragment. They make local laws, collect taxes, build roads and infrastructure, prosecute crimes, and oversee schools and hospitals. All fragments are ruled by a Lord. However, governments on fragments are extremely diverse in terms of size and scope. A fragment’s government is structured depending on the fragment’s history, population, geographic size, primary industries, and distance from the Crown Cluster.

Below are some of the main components that typically exist in a fragment’s government.

Lord

A Lord (or Lady) is an individual who rules a fragment. The Monarch appoints a Lord to rule over a connected fragment and invests them with a litany of powers. Lords govern their fragment much like miniature kings. Their fragment is their own personal domain and they direct the day-to-day business of it. They make laws, set taxes, decide court cases, and administer all sorts of functions in the name of the Monarch.

The Lord, like the Monarch, also delegates authority to an army of clerks, ministers, and secretaries, who perform the routine and menial work of government, leaving the Lord to make important decisions.

Investiture and Inheritance. Lords receive their fragment from an “Investiture”, a ceremonial document signed by the Monarch and the Council of Eight. Once invested, a Lord assumes the title for life, unless the Monarch decides to remove them from office.

While it is common for a single family to hold onto the title of Lord for generations, the title is not inheritable.The Monarch and the Council of Eight can select any individual they please to invest as the next Lord. Nevertheless, it is commonplace for a Lord to designate an heir (almost always a family member) and for the Monarch to affirm that selection without much conflict.

Prestige. Being a Lord is a privileged position and gives the titleholder special rights and prestige. Lords are held only beneath royal family members in terms of precedence and individuals, even those associated with the military or the Royal Government, are expected to show respect and deference to a Lord.

Powers and Other Levels of Government. Beyond a writ or decree from the Monarch, a Lord’s power cannot be overridden and a Lord cannot be compelled to do any action. Lords are immune to regular laws; they cannot be arrested or interrogated unless by decree from the monarch.

This means agents from other levels of government, such as vanguards and inquisitors, cannot force a Lord’s hand or demand a Lord use his fragment’s resources to help them with a task.

For this reason, agents of the cluster or the Royal Government usually seek a Lord’s Writ (written permission from the Lord) before operating on a fragment. This prevents disagreements between different levels of government and avoids any unnecessary embarrassment for all parties.

Aldermen

Aldermen are important and influential members of a fragment’s society. They form a local assembly for the fragment where they can make recommendations to the Lord, write up laws, vote on legislation, and hear complaints from residents. On their own, aldermen and their assemblies have no authority. Lords are free to make their own laws and rules. Furthermore, an assembly can be dissolved at will and all decisions made by an alderman or an assembly require the Lord’s approval to become legal.

Aldermen are not found on all fragments. They are generally employed on urban fragments or other fragments with a large population that require significant day-to-day governance.

How aldermen are selected depends on the fragment. On most fragments, the aldermen are picked by the fragment’s Lord and serve until they are dismissed. However, there are some notable exceptions.

Arch & Cross Fragments. On the Arch and Cross Fragments, local trade boards and chambers of commerce nominate aldermen for the Lord to select. Candidates are almost always from major business interests. According to tradition, the Lord is expected to only pick aldermen from the list of recommended candidates.

Centrum Fragment. On Centrum, universal suffrage was promised in the fragment’s law code. Aldermen are picked through local elections of all adults every five years. They represent and serve specific districts of the fragment.

Additionally, the Mayor of Centrum is the head of the local assembly and after being elected, serves for five years (unless dismissed by the Lord). The mayor represents the people of Centrum at ceremonies and directly assists in the Lord’s duties.

Police Force

Fragments do not have their own militaries. Instead, they rely on a police force which is at the Lord’s beck and call. Police forces investigate criminal matters on a fragment, enforce the Lord’s laws and decrees, and prosecute individuals. Furthermore, police perform emergency duties and can assist a military landing party with objectives.

Chief of Police. With most fragments, the police force is led by a Chief of Police. The chief is appointed by the Lord and is usually a career police officer with years of experience. They are responsible for managing the entire police force, overseeing the force’s budget, promoting individuals, and determining when to deploy special police units. The Chief of Police is customarily the official who greets military landing parties to the fragment in times of emergency.

Police Ranks. Underneath the Chief is a rank structure of subordinates each with different duties. The structure of police forces can vary to the tastes of the fragment’s Lord and the size of the fragment’s population, so not all ranks are employed on all fragments.

• Police Captain – Captains lead a police station or oversee a division of the police force.
• Police Lieutenant – Lieutenants perform administrative duties at police stations, assign detectives and officers to cases, or oversee investigations of a particular type (drugs, homicide, etc.)
• Police Sergeant – Sergeants lead squads of police units while they are on patrol. They are responsible for overseeing neighborhoods and usually lead teams in emergency situations.
• Detective – A senior police officer that specializes in investigating crimes and ongoing cases. There may be grades of detectives depending on the size of the fragment.
• Officer

Judges. Connected to the police force are judges. Judges (or Magistrates) are officials that preside over civil cases and criminal tribunals. Judges are appointed by the Lord and serve for life unless dismissed. They act as proxies for the Lord, dispensing verdicts and justice as they see fit. Important court cases may involve a panel of judges or circumvent judges entirely and go to the Lord directly.

A Lord is free to override any decision made by a judge. By the same token, they can grant a convicted person immunity or a pardon if they broke fragment laws.

Special Government Types

Although most fragments in the Kingdom are ruled by a Lord, there are some notable exceptions as Fragments with either tailored roles or extremely low populations are sometimes administered differently.

Charter Fragments

Charter fragments are a special type of fragment that possesses an entirely unique form of government. Rather than being ruled by aristocrats, they are governed by a megacorporation that owns the fragment outright.

A corporation secures a charter fragment through purchasing a royal charter from the Monarch.  When a corporation holds a charter, it has legal ownership of the entire fragment and the company’s leadership acts as its local government. This allows charter-owning companies to set their own laws, construct infrastructure, and control who can live on the fragment. The head of the company (a President, CEO, or other chief executive) gains the powers associated with a Lord, such as writing writs, but does not gain the prestige, formal title, or legal protections of lordship.

Royal charters have an explicit duration and usually last around a century. After a charter expires, a company must seek renewal from the Monarch and pay for the fragment again. The Monarch or the Council of Eight can choose to nullify charters at any time, revoking the company’s ownership over the fragment and evicting the company from it.

Due to their private ownership, charter fragments operate differently from other fragments. They are unconnected to the Astral Leylines and rely on giant battery systems that are recharged via government-operated battery ships. Additionally, because the structure of companies can differ, the actual government on charter fragments can vary wildly from fragment to fragment. On some charter fragments, the company’s owner holds unilateral decision power. On others, the chief executive is responsible to a board of investors who can vote to remove the executive and elect a new one.

All charter companies are large and powerful since owning an outright monopoly over a fragment requires extensive financial resources and political connections. However, the liberties associated with ruling over a fragment to perform confidential research, extraction, and manufacturing processes are seen as worth the hefty investment. Furthermore, owning a charter is seen as a mark of prestige and future success, inciting investors and consumers to support the company.

Extraction Fragments

Extraction fragments are small, temporary fragments that are valued for their abundance of non-renewable resources such as metal ore, precious minerals, or  arcane crystals. Extraction fragments are governed by a Royal Commission, which is chaired by the Legate of the nearest cluster station. The commission hires initial surveyors and divides the fragments into parcels. These parcels are then leased out to mining and resource extraction companies with these contracted companies sharing their profits with the Royal government.

While laws of an extraction fragment are created by the Noble Council of the nearest cluster, the Royal Commission acts as the fragment’s government. The Royal Commissioners, excluding the Legate, live full-time on the fragment and are primarily concerned with overseeing the profitable operations of the fragment. They settle disputes between contracted companies and ensure that companies are meeting their quotas.

The commissioners rarely get involved in matters with the general public, often leaving companies to handle the conduct of their employees or property. For instance, policing on extract fragments is typically performed by contracted companies or by security companies hired by the Royal Commission. However, the Royal Commissioners do act as judges in major criminal cases. They may also employ a permanent garrison of Unity Corps marines if seen as worth the expense.

Given their nature to be extracted and exploited, all extraction fragments are temporary arrangements. Some extraction fragments exist for decades or centuries, whereas others are mined out entirely in a matter of years and are never given a proper fragment name. As time goes on, parcels often change hands, as the profitability of a given parcel decreases over time. This generally leads to smaller companies buying pre-owned parcels from larger, richer ones. The eventual fate of an extraction fragment depends on the resource being extracted. Sometimes a fragment is repurposed for other uses after its resources have been mined, others are deemed uninhabitable or not worth the economic costs to redevelopment.

Farm & Wild Fragments

Farm and Wild Fragments are uninhabited fragments that are focused on resource conservation or land preservation. They are administered directly by the Monarch and the Council of Eight who make the laws and rules for the fragment. The Monarch and the Council appoint Rangers, who live year-round on the fragment and ensure that the Royal Government’s decrees are being enforced.

Rangers have a wide range of responsibilities and powers. Although they mainly act as tour guides to visitors or as land surveyors for their particular fragment, Rangers are responsible for rescuing individuals stranded on their fragment, monitoring the fragment’s flora and fauna, and investigating crimes that take place on the fragment. They also have the power to arrest or detain individuals, ban ship entry to the fragment, or even execute those they deem as a danger to the fragment. For this reason, Rangers are almost always from a military background and have extensive wildlife and survival training.

Rangers operate out of stations or base camps around the fragment. The number of Rangers on a fragment can vary with some small fragments having only one permanent ranger and larger fragments (such as the Heptads or Ocean fragments) having dozens..

Prison Fragments

The Royal Government and the military employ Prison Fragments to jail and punish dissidents and dangerous felons. The government values Prison Fragments since it keeps political agitators and hardened criminals away from population centers or any organizations that could support them. On the fragment, the military controls the entire government and the prison’s Warden is a military official who acts as the fragment’s Lord. Government rule is strict since the population is either prisoners or marines acting as prison guards.

The Marshal of Humanity appoints Wardens to a Prison Fragment. The Warden serves until he is dismissed or the Marshal that appointed them retires. In terms of military hierarchy, a Warden is considered on par with an Admiral or a General. The position has special authority such as the ability to unsolicitedly contact the Council of Eight or the Marshal on Bastion. Wardens though lack the legal protections or prestige of a Lord and are considered military officers, not aristocrats. Notably, they are unable to write writs or are not invited to Noble Council meetings.

The Warden and a small group of officers are the only permanent staff on the fragment. All other staff are temporary. They arrive from landing parties of Unity Corps marines and serve for 91 days before another landing party replaces them. This rotation of marines prevents fraternization between guards and prisoners. Furthermore, it prevents the harsh climate and working conditions from demoralizing the soldiers.

The Warden and the prison staff make sure that prisoners are well-behaved and put down riots or disruptions brutally. Since Prison fragments are primarily industrial fragments, the marines supervise lower-risk inmates working on construction projects or manufacturing munitions for the military. The staff is also responsible for guarding higher-risk inmates and making sure they do not escape from their solitary confinement.

University Fragments

University fragments are built around a royal university in order to be centers of learning and study for humanity. They are overseen by the Monarch and the Council of Eight directly, but are afforded a great deal of autonomy to encourage academic research.

On the fragment, the university controls all areas of society. The fragment is governed by the university’s leadership and all government agents are staff of the university. The head of the university, known as a Chancellor, performs a role similar to the Lord on other fragments. Unlike lords though, they are elected to the position by university’s faculty in a formal vote. Traditionally, a Chancellor is a dean or other senior professor who has a long tenure at the academy and has contributed significantly to their field. Once elected, Chancellors serve until they are either removed by the Monarch or by the university’s faculty in a vote of no confidence against them.

Chancellors have all the powers associated with lordship, including the legal protections and prestige of an aristocrat. They control all civic and academic life on the fragment, determining not only laws, but also what academic courses will be offered to students and what faculty research projects to sponsor.

Underneath Chancellors are a Council of Deans. These deans are senior academics in their fields and are appointed to their positions by the Chancellor. Each dean directs and oversees a college of the university. They approve which students can study the majors and degrees provided by their college and advise on which research grants should be funded. In addition, they act as judges on the fragment, specifically presiding over cases that involve students or faculty from their college.

A military police force consisting of a Unity Corps garrison is always stationed on a University fragment. These marines are often students of the university and being stationed to a university fragment is seen as part of a marine specialists training.

Writs

Within the Kingdom of Humanity, the Monarch and the Royal Government reign supreme. Agents of the Royal Government are immune to the local laws of fragments and cannot be prevented from performing their duties for the Crown.

Nevertheless, over the centuries the Kingdom has developed a set of traditions and legal rights to keep peace between the fragments and respect their autonomy. These traditions dictate that royal agents are expected to respect the powers of a fragment’s Lord, police force, and local government.

Therefore, agents of the Royal Government (including inquisitors and military officers) are expected to avoid acting unilaterally. Instead, they must perform their duties either with the permission of the fragment’s government or when sanctioned by a higher authority (such as the Monarch).

Writs are the formal documents that authorize agents of a Royal Government (or a Cluster-level government) to operate on the fragment. Writs are procured for a specific task, infestation or mission, and have an explicit duration. Three main types of Writs exist: Lord’s Writs, Inquisitorial Writs, and Monarchical Writs.

Each of these three types of writs spell out a relationship between agents of the Royal Government and a fragment’s government. They clarify what the agents can or cannot request, seize, or commandeer from the fragment’s government during an operation. They also state what authority those agents have over the local government’s police force.

Lord’s Writ

Lord’s Writs are writs that derive from a fragment’s Lord and local government. They are created when a fragment’s Lord requests the services or the intervention of the Royal Government on their fragment. Normally, this is done when a Lord believes the deployment of the military is necessary to keep the peace. However, it also occurs when the Lord desires assistance from the Inquisition to investigate crimes or unusual phenomena.

When royal agents receive a Lord’s Writ, they are bestowed the power to act in the name of the fragment’s Lord and are able to marshal the fragment’s resources. This legal power allows the bearers to compel local police forces and other government officials to cooperate with them and to receive material support from the fragment over the course of an assignment.

Lord’s Writs are the most common writs created.. For the Royal Government, it is the preferred writ to seek in any situation since it gives royal agents substantial powers to do their jobs but allows fragments to keep their traditional autonomy.

Inquisitorial Writ

Inquisitorial Writs are writs created by a Grand Inquisitor to authorize an investigation on a fragment. They allow royal agents, notably the Inquisition and the Vanguard, to act on a matter without consulting the local government or the Monarch. Most Inquisitorial Writs exist secretly, approving special investigations by the Inquisition’s various departments across known Astral Space.

Unlike a Lord’s Writ, an Inquisitorial Writ does not bestow the writ bearer with any authority over the local government. The local government and the Lord are not forced to cooperate or even assist in the bearer’s mission. All the writ allows the bearer to do is use their own resources to perform an investigation or accomplish a mission on the fragment without having to fear that the local government or police will knowingly interfere or obstruct them.

Inquisitorial Writs are the most controversial of all Writs since a Grand Inquisitor can draft one independently and in secret. Lords notably detest Inquisitorial Writs and see them as a breach of their authority and rights. This is particularly true on fragments where Inquisitorial Writs were used to enact investigations a Lord already rejected or a mission that the fragment’s population disagreed with or protested.

Nevertheless, even with its flaws and reputation, the Inquisitorial Writ is seen as a valuable tool for the Royal Government to carry out time sensitive, secret, or unpopular investigations.

Monarchical Writ

Monarchical Writs are the most powerful and encompassing writ. It gives royal agents the ability to act in the name of the Monarch. Thus, it compels fragment governments and a fragment’s Lord to not just support royal agents in their mission, but act subservient to the bearer.

When royal agents receive Monarchical Writ, they are considered physical representatives of the Monarch’s power. Individuals are expected to aid the writ bearer with their missions and any individual who knowingly obstructs or impedes the mission can be declared traitors to Humanity.

Monarchical Writs can only be drafted by the Monarch directly. Due to their sheer political power, they are usually rewarded only in times of emergency or when tackling an issue that possibly threatens the entire Kingdom.

Informal Assistance

Royal agents are to avoid acting on a fragment without a writ. When a royal agent is writless, it is illegal for them to get involved in any investigation and the normal laws on the fragment apply to them.

However, royal agents can provide assistance to a proper authority of a fragment or cluster when that authority requests it. In these situations, the royal agent is expected to be subservient to the authority that enlisted them. Assistance though is not required and a royal agent can always refuse any offer for assistance at any time. The royal agent does not need to provide any reason for refusing.

Emergency Powers

Flexibility is given to Royal Agents during times of crises  In times of emergency, royal agents can bestow themselves with a writ preemptively. This independent action can only be done when there is a direct threat to the royal agent, the fragment, or the Kingdom.

When invoking emergency powers, the royal agent assumes all powers that would normally come from a specific type of writ (Lord’s, Inquisitorial, or Monarchical) under the assumption that the authority who would approve that type of write would support their actions after the fact.

Emergency powers give royal agents broad latitudes to act in times of crisis, but because they are informal, they can be challenged by a fragment’s Lordor any other official. The royal agent will also have to justify their actions once the emergency has passed (assuming they do not receive the appropriate writ before then) and the authority whose powers they invoked can punish the royal agent if they disagree with the agent’s actions.