The Cerulean Chancery
The Cerulean Chancery is the mechanism by which the Empire counters arcane threats, both domestic and foreign. It is a taxpayer-funded organisation with a broad remit but also is fanatically loyal to the throne. As it's name suggests, it is essentially part of the legislative branch of the Empire and although it operates under, and controls, a legal framework it answers only to the Empire itself.
Location
The original Chancery is an ornate 'cathedral-like' building located near the old Imperial palace, in the heart of the capitol city of Merebia. It gets its name from blue-tinted beacon at the top of the Chancery’s spire. The beacon itself has no specific purpose (as far as the populace knows) but is an important landmark in the city, which many people use to navigate their way around the winding streets.
The Chancery also maintains 'outposts' in most cities throughout the Empire. These 'outposts' are usually fairly plain buildings, situated near either a court or Army barracks. Outposts can be visited during daylight hours by any citizen of the Empire who wishes to trade arcane items or to discuss 'arcane matters' with the Chancery.
History
In the early days of the Empire, Emperor Darameus found that although he was able to quash mundane threats through force of arms, arcane threats caused him great concern. The idea that a single individual could, literally, wish that he vanish from existence was an unacceptable challenge to his supreme authority. Darameus turned to his advisers and asked for a solution to this to this quandary and that solution was the Cerulean Chancery.
The Chancery was given three remits:
- 1. To regulate the study of the arcane arts and the possession of enchanted items to ensure the safety of the Empire
- 2. To actively seek out and eradicate magical threats to the Empire
- 3. To use magic to protect the Empire
The Chancery’s first remit is fulfilled by an order of mages who are responsible for teaching magic in the Empire to those of the Wizard class. Most player characters who are Wizards will belong to this order. The main benefit of being a member of the order is that the player can obtain scrolls at a slightly discounted rate from any of the Chancery’s many outlets.
The second remit is achieved by using the Chancery outposts to form a 'network' of information about who has arcane power, what their intentions are and to deploy resources to deal with the threat as required. A willing supply of adventurers assists in this for most low-level threats. For the most part though, the Chancery invites individuals that have potential to be a threat to use that power for the good of the Empire. Failure to comply with this will result in termination, usually via hired adventurers or, rarely, via direct intervention by the Chancery.
The third remit is where the Chancery exert their actual power. For centuries, mostly in secret, the Chancery has been amassing vast amounts of arcane might of its own with intent to deploy this, alongside conventional warfare, to quash any magical advantage a threat to the Empire may have. The Chancery actively researches new spells and artefacts for this purpose alongside developing non-traditional forces. Most recently they employed necromancy to create a legion of warforged to fight ceaselessly against the forces of Yuritan. Rumours abound that the Chancery is currently preparing for future invasion in a number of quite unpleasant ways. Some of those rumours are undoubtedly true although no one knows which.
Sorcerers and Warlocks
As noted, the Chancery is the regulator of schools that teach magic (for the most part - some schools are so incompetent at doing this that the Chancery lets them continue as it improves the relative quality of their own teaching). However, study is not the only way by which individuals acquire arcane might.
Other arcane magic users, such as Warlocks and Sorcerers, are strongly encouraged to join the order once their powers manifest. Although the Chancery cannot teach these individuals anything, agreeing to be registered goes a long way towards avoid any “Imperial entanglement” later on. Registering with the Chancery confers no benefits other that that the Chancery know about the individual and are able to 'track' their movements thereafter.
Of course, player characters do NOT have to belong to the Chancery but as the Order is the only legal teacher of magic in the Empire not doing so will imply that the character is a ”maverick” and potentially dangerous.
Reputation
The Chancery is seen by most people as a positive regulator of magic use and has helped to ease fears over misuse. There are still some ‘bad apples’ but most people are aware of how to deal with low-level magic now and the high-level magic is kept in check by the powers of the Chancery.
Services
The Chancery also provide low-level magic services that are used extensively in towns and cities to improve civic life. Most lamp lighters use a variation of the ‘Light’ spell, which helps save the cost of lamp oil whereas ‘Comprehend Languages’ significantly improves translation. The Chancery also vigorously restricts the availability of mind-altering magic, which pleases the merchant community.
