The Pandese Senate

The Pandese Senate serve both as the Pandese government and the Empire’s legislative body. The holders of certain offices become senators upon retirement, if they have held the office in question for at least five years without scandal. Also the emperor can nominate candidates for the senate directly, but this must be approved by the current senate by a two-thirds majority. Most senators are former governors of so-called heartland provinces. Each non-ruling Imperial family has the right to appoint a governor within a period determined by the senate (currently three years). This is done in order of succession. A governor usually rules a province for ten years, which means that sometimes the family will waive that privilege if a more lucrative province is expected to be available later. Any excess governor appointments, as well as the military offices (general or admiral and above) and the court officials (quaestor of the palace, minister of domains, high chancellor, master of coin, keeper of records), the senatorial officials (see below) are appointed by the emperor. Unless the emperor is unusually long-lived, most senators at any given time will owe their seat to a previous emperor or an Imperial family. For this reason, the Senate is thought to be a force of continuity and stability. Apart from that, the rationale behind the Senate is to put to good use the wisdom and experience of the nation’s leaders. The emperor rules in all matters that are concerned with the safety of the Empire, mostly in military or foreign affairs. All other matters are dealt with in the Senate. Exactly what category a given decree falls into is often debatable. For this reason it is customary for an emperor to have his proposals validated by the Senate. If the emperor’s motion is voted down, he can insist on issuing a decree just the same. If so, the priests of Enki are consulted. If they judge that the decree is solely within the emperor’s jurisdiction, the decree is upheld. If they deem it is totally without, it falls. In principle, as emperors obviously consult the priests before issuing the decrees. If they deem it to be a borderline case, the Senate is asked again. If the Senate vote against the decree with a two-thirds majority, it is then suspended for a full year. If, when a year has passed, the emperor still lives, the decree is sanctioned. If the emperor has died, it falls. The most famous example of this happening was when Emperor Testudis, whose decrees was repeatedly opposed in the Senate, decreed that every soldier who marched with him should be rewarded roughly half a tun of gold. He knew that the Senate would oppose the proposal simply because the Empire could not afford paying off more than 15,000 men. Testudis then hoped that he would be popular among the soldiers while the Senate lost its support. Indeed, the Senate blocked the decree. When more than half of the year’s moratorium had passed, the Iluvar invaded. For a time Testudis stalled, but finally he met the invaders in battle, and died ingloriously before the year was up.

In addition to these offices, there are three ceremonial offices, all of which were invented during the ‘lean’ years of the Empire, when the nation controlled too few provinces to comply with the constitutional right of the nine Imperial houses not in possession of the throne to have a person in a ‘senatorial’ office. The offices are censor, aedil, and master of ceremony. These offices, especially the two latter, are often considered bogus titles for two reasons. The first reason is that the offices are funded by the persons themselves, whereas most other offices can be quite lucrative. The other reason is that the sphere of influence is limited to Hardor. The censor takes census in all of the Empire, but delegates public work in Hardor only. The aedil ensures that the public is supplied with public spectacle in a sober and godsfearing manner. He also keeps the peace, and maintains a small force of men to this end. The master of ceremony is charged with entertaining foreign envoys when they visit Hardor.

In all cases, the office holder must prove himself worthy. The traditional trial period is three years (known as the test of the thousand days). An incompetent governor is expected to recognize his failure and resign voluntarily. As mentioned above, in the case of governors, the total term of service for a is usually ten years, of which at there should be a five year stretch of order. In some cases.

In one case, the farce of political constructs rises to a level of absurdity unrivaled anywhere else. For various reasons the Pandese Empire declared war on Zagyath, the empire’s smaller barbarian neighbor. Since then, the war effort has proven absolutely untenable, and so the Empire has sent numerous envoys to Zagyath to negotiate the terms of peace. However, since the Zagy have no central government, no agreement was ever reached. Which would mean that the two nations are still at war. Instead, after reviewing the ever increasing loss of men in return for the gaining of small tracts of worthless territory, the Senate ruled that Zagyath had indeed been conquered, being now the Imperial province of Ishendekel. However, the gubernatorial duties of the poor fellow assigned to this province are not pleasant, as the province is in a constant state of rebellion, and whoever is governor must resign after three years commanding a fort on the River Belse, since he – predictably - has failed to quell the permanent state of unrest.