The Imperial government’s tendrils and feelers extended in a million different directions from within the marbled halls of the palace complex sitting in the very heart of the capitol of Alleria Prime. All power derived its mandate from the favor of Diana and through the will and wishes of the Empress Arabella de Lylles. In practice the supreme ruler of the Allerian Empire could not possibly oversee and manage every facet of Her government without help. Thus the Allerians and the gods had willed the creation of an Imperial Court composed of the finest minds and most skillful hands to direct the day to day running of the empire. Of these the Imperial Ministers wielded immense power over a single organ of the body of government. The Lord Imperial Marshall controlled the might body of Imperial legions and the swift fist of the Imperial fleets. The Lord Imperial Judicator possessed the power to prosecute nobleman and commoner alike for violation of the laws of the land. The Lord Imperial Magus bore the power to regulate every mage of every sphere in the Empire. But there was power, and then there was power. Without money the fearless legions would desert, the prison gates would be thrust open, and all manner of mages would wreak havoc across the Empire. The responsibility for the collection of taxes and the regulation of the economy fell upon the shoulders of the Imperial Exchequer. Beneath him lay, in theory at least, the Imperial Mint, the Imperial Treasury, the Imperial Bank, and all manner of other bodies and agencies. The head of the Ministry of Finance lay in a marble building in a busy corner of the Imperial Forum. Its actual location was hidden within a veritable maze of corridors filled with bustling clerks and busy accountants.
At the end of a long, quiet hallway was a simple pair of oak doors bearing a simple brass plaque bearing the following words in simple, plain text:
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Office of the Imperial Exchequer
Hsin Zhou
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The atrium of the office was decorated with a strange blend of Kemite and Imperial art. Watercolor paintings of trees and rivers in the traditional style of Zinn’sunn shared the dark wood paneling with portraits of past Emperors, Exchequers, and other notable personalities. The hard wood floor was covered in a rug imported from Arakamat. On both sides of the door were twin lines of identical chairs for petitioners to sit while waiting in line to see the Exchequer. The left wall of the office was covered completely with enormous bookshelves bearing heavy tomes of tax records and statistics gleaned from the depths of the Imperial archive. The right wall was lined with a number of large windows pointing towards the western sunset. In the middle of the room was a simple desk bearing the all the signs of occupation and use by a scribe or clerk of some sort. Indeed, it was here that an elderly Kemite man kept himself busy with office work or, when the work was done and no one was in the office, turning simple squares of paper into complex folded sculptures. Hochen Rakyocha kept the Kemite’s schedule and served as a sort of secretary/butler/and sometime coachman for his much younger employer. Beyond his perch was another pair of double doors leading to the inner sanctum of the Ministry of Finance.
Both the eastern and western wall and the southern wall were covered with tall bookshelves reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Big books wrapped in black leathered contained statistics and information on population, income, taxation, and expenditure from across the length and breath of the Allerian Empire dating back to the fracturing of the Aethergem. Other shelves contained all manners of text on tax law, politics, science, arcana, alchemy, literature, and philosophy. It was the young Kemite’s one concession to his scholarly past. In the middle of the right wall stood a large black marble fireplace. The floor was covered with the same Arakamatian rugs as the atrium. Light filtered in through four tall glass windows mounted on the northern wall. Between the windows and on the sides hung a small collection of memorandum from his ancestral home: fans, a sheathed katana disguised as a walking stick, a wood and paper lamp used in the celebration of the new year in Zinn’sunn. The most dominant piece of furniture was a large black walnut desk. Pens, inkstands, paper, and books were all kept in neat piles awaiting their master’s beck and call. His chair was chosen more for simplicity and comfort than anything, and its well worn cushions had been patched once or twice already. Two more chairs were on the opposite side of the desk flanking a low, round table used to serve tea to those who wished to speak to the Imperial Exchequer. The last piece of notable furniture was a globe in the northeastern corner of the room showing only the lands of the Allerian Empire. Each province had been crafted carefully from the best of maps, giving a quick and easy access to the geography of the Empire without the need for piles of maps.
Those who wished to meet the Imperial Exchequer would first have to approach the secretary’s desk in the atrium. Hochen Rakyocha would rise and bow to each visitor before inquiring politely,
”Serale and welcome. Do you have an appointment to see Master Zhou?”