Sinecure
Overview
A sinecure is any Imperial title that provides the office holder with a fixed income. The return can take the form of money, herbs, materials for crafting items, mana crystals or even liao.
Sinecures are traditionally appointed for life.
Senate Commissions
The Imperial Senate may pass a motion for the construction of an establishment capable of producing wealth - money, herbs, resources or similar. This motion automatically results in the creation of a sinecure once the construction is complete.
It is also possible for the Senate to pass a motion to upgrade a sinecure, increasing the benefits that it provides.
Costs
- Materials: Variable (minimum 10 wains)
- Time: 3 months to construct per 50 wains of materials used
- Labour: 2 crowns per wain
- Upkeep: None
The more resources are devoted to constructing a sinecure, the greater the return. Under normal circumstances, the material required will be the one associated with upgrading an equivalent personal resource. For example, at least 10 wains of mithril is required to create a sinecure that produces mana crystals.
In addition to the wains required, it costs 2 crowns per wain to pay for labour and skills to complete the construction.
| Wains | Money | Ingots | Herbs | Mana Crystals | Congregation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 216 rings | 12 | 18 | 9 | 6 liao, 12 votes |
| 12 | 252 rings | 14 | 21 | 10 | 7 liao, 14 votes |
| 16 | 288 rings | 16 | 24 | 12 | 8 liao, 16 votes |
| 20 | 324 rings | 18 | 27 | 13 | 9 liao, 18 votes |
| 30 | 396 rings | 20 | 30 | 15 | 10 liao, 20 votes |
| 60 | 540 rings | 30 | 45 | 22 | 15 liao, 30 votes |
| 80 | 612 rings | 34 | 51 | 25 | 17 liao, 34 votes |
| 116 | 720 rings | 40 | 60 | 30 | 20 liao, 40 votes |
The table shows some standard costs and benefits for a range of sinecures. For example a sinecure created by the Senate using 20 wains of mithril could produce 13 mana crystals each season. There is no upper limit on how many wains can be used to construct a sinecure; provided at least 10 wains are used, then any amount can be spent to build it.
Limitations
It is not possible to create a sinecure which mimics the effects of a fleet or military unit, nor is it possible to create a sinecure which creates mithril, ilium, weirwood, or white granite.
A sinecure is very similar to a personal resource such as a farm or mine in that it provides a set amount of resources to the character who holds the position at the start of each event. Unlike a personal resource, however, the sinecure cannot be upgraded or diversified by its holder (only by senate motion) and there are no decisions to be made about what the position provides or how it does so. A sinecure that produces liao will not come with an option to sell that liao in downtime, a sinecure that produces green iron cannot be paid to produce more in the way a green iron mine could.
Sinecures are not affected by rituals that target a personal resource. A ritual that increases the production of a green iron mine will not affect a sinecure that produces green iron.
A sinecure that produces herbs will normal produce equality quantities of all herbs. It is possible to create a sinecure that produces a single herb, provided it is one that is commonly found in the area.
Synod Votes
Any sinecure that produces liao also provides votes in the Imperial Synod. The flavour for such a sinecure almost invariably includes a group of faithful lay followers of the Way of some sort. The civil service evaluates this in the same way they would a congregation and assigns liao and votes in the Imperial Synod on that basis.
A sinecure that provide votes in the Imperial Synod has significant constitutional implications if the appointment of the sinecure is not made through the Synod. For example, the Guardian of Britta's Shrine is unconstitutional since it is appointed by the Senate but the title carries votes in the Synod. The magistrates would not have allowed this motion to pass in this form if they had noticed the situation at the time. If the sinecure were appointed by the Synod, then it would be constitutional.
A sinecure that provides votes in the Imperial Synod grants the holder of that title the legal powers and responsibilities of membership of the Synod. If the holder of the title is not already a member of the Synod, it automatically includes membership of all appropriate assemblies (the General Assembly, the appropriate National Assembly, and either the relevant Virtue Assembly or the Assembly of the Way).
The physical location of a sinecure that provides synod votes is not relevant to the assemblies that the owner is considered to belong to. A Navarr guide who maintains a cathedral in the Marches still wields their votes in the Navarr national assembly rather than the Marcher national assembly, even though the congregation of that cathedral are largely of Marcher nationality. Only the size of the congregation matters to the civil service, not its make-up.
A sinecure that provides votes in the Imperial Synod does not provide additional votes during the election of a Highborn senator. This could in theory lead to the odd situation where a Highborn citizen can vote in that election due to the possession of a sinecure, but has no votes. On the rare occasions that this has come up, the citizen can attend and participate in the interrogation of the candidates, but cannot cast any votes during the selection process.
Other Votes
It is no longer possible to create a sinecure that provides votes in a Bourse or Senate election, even where voting is determined by the size of a citizen's personal resource. After lengthy consideration, the Constitutional Court determined that sinecures that did this violated an important principle of presence, that an individual (or their appointed proxy) should be present to cast their vote.
Responsibility
Any citizen who is granted a sinecure is expected to be responsible for any problems that might beset the resources represented by the sinecure. For example, if Thule reavers are raiding the mines overseen by the Lady of the Upper Halls, then the Empire will expect that citizen to deal with the problem.
Recent Sinecures
This list includes all sinecures which have been appointed in recent times.
- Brock's Toll
- Bursar of the Imperial Academy
- Custodian of the Claw
- Custodian of the Starlight Drift
- Dean of Pilgrims
- Dredgemaster of Feverwater
- Gatekeeper of Falling Snow
- Guardian of Britta's Shrine
- Guardian of the Cairn
- Keeper of the Memorial Gardens of Treji
- Keeper of the Spice Gardens
- Spider's Tollkeep