Edifice

You've all fools and briar-brains! This is another sop to them bloody mummers in the mountains, or I'm no brewer. It's folly to pass this thing. Them that pay the piper will call the tune.

Walter Brewer, Senator for Upwold

Overview

The great costs involved in creating a structure using mithril, weirwood, or white granite mean that most commissions are built to provide important practical benefits. If the Empire builds a sinecure, a great work, a ministry, or similar then the benefits are well known and can be relied on - barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Any commission that doesn't provide a guaranteed material return is classed as an "edifice" by the Imperial civil service. An edifice can be a straightforward endeavour, but might also represent something much more ambitious. Examples might include a statue or memorial created to celebrate some great accomplishment of a nation (or, more cynically, the reputation of one of its senators); a college or school; a theatre, library, or art gallery. It might also lay the groundwork for something larger - a new vale, spire, or chapterhouse might begin with an edifice and expand from there as people settle the area.

Once complete, an edifice becomes part of the Empire and the setting (details of the edifice are added to the wiki, usually on the page for the territory where it is built, and the person responsible is able to submit a description that will serve as the basis for that entry). Beyond their grandeur, an edifice does not usually provide tangible benefits. An edifice will only have a game effect as a result of an opportunity. Like any commission, foreign nations, eternals, groups of citizens who don't attend Anvil, and the like might all offer to provide an explicit return to the Empire if a suitable edifice is constructed. Such benefits only persist as long as the sponsors continue to support the edifice. It is also possible - albeit much less likely - for an opportunity to arise as the result of an edifice being built, although this represents the exception rather than the rule.

Senate Commissions

The Imperial Senate may pass a motion of commission for the construction of an edifice. As with other commissions, the Senate must select a territory, and a region within that territory, where the edifice will be constructed. Due to the wide range of possibilities presented by an edifice, the necessary details of the motion are particularly important. It's vital that the Civil Service know what is being created (and that there be enough detail for us to be able to create a description for the wiki).

Since the construction of an edifice does not provide any guaranteed tangible benefits, an Imperial title is not required to oversee its operation. It is possible for a senate motion to create a title to oversee the edifice if they choose, creating a custodian either at the same time the building is commissioned or in a later motion.

A small number of Imperial titles have the ability to commission an edifice: the Master of Rings, the Chair of the Wolf, the Master of the Koboldi, and of course the Mistress of Monuments. These titles often have restrictions on what they can build, where they can build it, or in the case of the Master of the Koboldi, what it needs to be built of.

Costs

Materials: Variable (minimum 1 wain)
Time: 3 months to construct per 50 wains of materials used
Labour: 3 crowns per wain
Upkeep: None

An edifice requires at least one wain of either white granite, weirwood, or mithril. There is no upper limit on the number of wains that may be used to construct the edifice; the more material used the greater its grandeur. The table gives examples of the appropriate scale for an edifice given the wains used.

In theory any type of wains might be used to build an edifice. The personal resources, and the material used to upgrade each one, can provide inspiration for the material best suited to creating a particular edifice. The description of the edifice should reflect the materials used to make it: a garden created with mithril or white granite, for example, is likely to be very different to one created with weirwood.

Benefits

Size	Possible Scale
<5 wains	Statue or small memorial
5-10 wains	Shrine, spire, or small building
10-25 wains	Church, tower, or hostel
25-50 wains	Basilica, hospital, college, or small keep
>50 wains	Cathedral, university, harbour, roads

Grandeur

Upon completion of an edifice, the wiki entry for the appropriate region is updated to include a description of the structure, with a length appropriate to the size and scale of the construction. The table right shows the kind of scale that is possible for an edifice. The Senate can legally commission a cathedral using five wains of white granite, but the result will be a tiny building unworthy of the name - and the description (and likely the reaction of non-player character Imperial citizens) will reflect that.

The length of the description added to the wiki will generally reflect the grandeur of the edifice. A monument using five or fewer wains might receive a sentence or two at most, while one using twenty-five or more wains may receive a couple of paragraphs.

The senator responsible for bringing the motion is encouraged to email us with what they would like to build so that we can use that information to create the wiki entry.

Tangible Opportunities

By definition, an edifice does not provide any predetermined benefits in the way most other commissions are guaranteed to do. An edifice will only ever provide a tangible gain if there is an appropriate opportunity that outlines this. For example, the Purple Sails sodality may offer to provide the Empire with a list of trade vessels operating out of the territory of Madruga if the Empire built large new shipping offices in Calvos.

Sometimes these opportunities will require the Senate to cede the construction to a certain group in return for their aid. For example, if the Senate approved the construction of a Temple of Balo and the Black Bull, the Asavean god of the sea, then their priesthood might agree to provide an Imperial title with three wains of white granite each season, but only if the edifice were ceded to them.

As with any similar opportunity, benefits remain dependent on the goodwill of the non-player characters involved and will cease if the characters involved are killed, or they become angry enough to end the deal (which will likely happen if the Empire breaks the terms of any agreement).

If the Empire wants to dismantle an edifice, then it may pass an appropriately worded Senate motion to instruct the magistrates to remediate the situation - provided the commission has not been ceded. It is much harder to reclaim anything that has been ceded to another group, nation, or eternal - in that case an army is likely to be required to reclaim the edifice. As with everything else the exact circumstances at play at the time the motion is passed will impact how easy or hard it proves to dismantle an edifice.

Current Edifices

This list shows all edifices constructed by the Empire in recent times that are still standing. It was last updated following the Autumn Equinox 386YE.

Former Edifices

These edifices are no longer active. This happens automatically if an edifice is decommissioned by the Imperial Senate but edifices may be destroyed or become inactive for many different reasons.

Edifice in Play

Edifices exist so that players can create a proper memorial to the dead, or create similar structures that celebrate national pride or personal achievements. If a Highborn group want to found an impressive new chapterhouse in the dark forests of Tamarbode, then commissioning a suitable edifice is a good way to make that a real challenge that may take significant effort to accomplish. It also ensures that their effort is reflected both on the wiki and in the wider setting. If the Freeborn nation wants to build a new Shining Pillar, then an edifice would be one way to do that.

Edifices are ideal ways to create monuments, or for a wealthy or influential citizens to place a lasting mark on the Empire. They can also be a way to pursue a personal or group goal, one that might take many years to complete (such as establishing a theatre dedicated to the puppetry of the potato, or establishing beautiful gardens dedicated to the founder of a group for example).

It is not, however, possible for players to build an edifice and then have the building provide some direct tangible benefit, without taking advantage of an opportunity. The rules for sinecures, ministries, and great works provide the rules framework for standard commissions that provide known benefits.

Game Design

Initially the role of this "catch-all" commission with no game benefit was called a folly. We've changed this for a couple of reasons. Follies are by their nature meant to be purely decorative, with a suggestion that building them is foolish or a waste of resources. There was also a strong suggestion in the original incarnation that follies were a trap - that they would only be built so that someone could trick the Senate into providing a benefit to someone they might normally not want to deal with in an underhand way.

We've made these changes in particular to try and remove the stigma from building memorials, shrines, and other things that don't have a direct game benefit while still allowing players to make things "real" in the setting. All edifices are added to the wiki, and whether they have game benefits (as a result of an opportunity) or not, they become a "thing" in the game world that can be woven into plots, referenced in future opportunities, threatened by barbarians and monsters, and so on - just like any other commission.

The initial incarnation of this commission placed far too much emphasis on the idea that the structure needed to be ceded to have any game benefits. While this is the most usual way to get a mechanical advantage from an edifice - the Senate gifting the completed structure to a foreign nation, eternal, or special interest group within the Empire - it's far from the only way to achieve some measurable benefit. It's also important to note that any commission might be subverted by the action of player characters, or reliant on the goodwill of a group of NPCs for the advantages it delivers. For example, there are a number of ministries, sinecures, and even Bourse seats that provide resources only due to an agreement with an NPC power. Likewise, an agreement might require any kind of commission to be ceded, or player action might see anything they have dominion over be subverted or compromised by an NPC in return for hidden benefits.

At their heart, edifices exist so that players can create monuments, engage in conspicuous consumption, and pursue personal goals without always having to have the things they build provide resources in the manner of a sinecure or ministry. While the other kinds of commission will always be "better" in terms of the mechanical advantage they provide, the edifice has value in and of itself - its grandeur can be a way to leave a permanent stamp on the Empire.

Sinecures, great works, and ministries provide quantifiable, predictable benefits, but without an opportunity, edifices do not. The fact they don't provide a mechanical advantage or income means that they are a good way to signal to the plot team that an individual or group cares about something, or thinks it is important. Building a shrine that provides liao - a sinecure - is in some ways its own reward. Spending 50 wains of white granite to build an edifice in the form of a temple dedicated to a certain hero or exemplar is much more likely to pique the interest of a plot writer. We would never promise that something like this will result in opportunities or inspire plot, but it is more likely than an edifice will get that kind of attention at some point than a commission that already provides a benefit. For example, when we're writing a wind of fortune about a spiritual renaissance in a territory, an edifice that takes the form of a beautiful temple is exactly the kind of hook we might choose to hang an opportunity from.

The grandeur of the edifice, and the details behind its creation and meaning, would all be relevant to the kind of response that might happen - assuming it happens at all.