Rewarding
The Synod has a fund devoted to rewarding and supporting virtuous citizens and thus positively encourage virtue throughout the Empire. This Virtue Fund grows by:
- Donations from prosperous citizens who wish to use their prosperity to encourage virtue.
- The auction of pure liao through the Bourse.
- Other activities arranged by the Synod, civil service or other virtuous citizens.
The Virtue Fund is restricted to donations of Imperial currency. Any non-monetary donations are encouraged by the civil service to be given to the smaller Synod assemblies for dissemination.
The rewarding requires a lesser majority of the General Assembly and can be targeted upon an individual or small group, such as a banner, sect or coven.
Rewards that exceed the Virtue Fund
It is not possible for the Virtue Fund to go into debt. Nor is it possible for a judgment to specify that a reward be made at some future time beyond the close of scrutiny.
If a reward judgment is upheld but there is not enough in the Virtue Fund for when the judgment's scrutiny ends, then the entirety of the current fund is paid to the priest who raised the judgment, but the priest cannot collect the remainder later. This is noted on the judgment.
If a reward judgment is upheld but there is no money in the Virtue Fund, then the successful vote is noted but the judgment is automatically failed due to lack of funds.
If multiple reward judgments are upheld at the same scrutiny time with insufficient money in the Virtue Fund to pay for them all, then the allocation starts with the earliest raised (by judgment number) until the Fund is empty. Again, a note is added to the judgment that the vote was successful but the judgment failed due to lack of funds.