The Civil Service

The Civil Service is the vast, dedicated bureaucracy that forms the most recognised face of ‘The Concord’ as a government, rather than a concept, an allegiance, or a foolhardy dream. Made up of about a thousand individuals spread across all five realms, although focused in Lerona Mere, the Civil Service acts as the workers of The Concord attempting to ensure that the disparate empire is bound together, as well as implementing the decrees of its great and powerful.

Importantly, the Civil Service is not a leadership organisation but rather a bureaucratic governance one. Their role is the collection and storage of taxation, the gathering of important information such as births and deaths, the distribution of important documentation, the enforcement of laws through trial, and other such sundries. In many places this work is far too much for the still fledgling Civil Service, instead being outsourced to currently existing power structures such as Reeves Councils, Clans, Noble Houses, The Baronial Households of the Weald, or Lerona Mere Citizens Assemblies. While there is a world where this is not needed, for many Concordians the face of their local government has not changed, it has simply gained another, more foreign, addition.

The Civil Service in the Life of Concordians

What follows is some of the many circumstances when the average Concordian would encounter the Civil Service. It is important to note that these apply largely to those folks lucky enough to live in one of The Concord’s larger settlements or cities. For many people living far from large-scale government, they could go seasons, or years without seeing a member of the Civil Service, let alone interacting with them. It is likely that in the reaches of the Weald, or the wilds of Mukarrem, there are some rare people who still do not know of The Concord, such is the scale of this undertaking.

For many, their life starts with the Civil Service, or at least shortly after. The Civil Service attempts to record the births of any Concordian Citizen, detailing their name and parents, ensuring that such details can be stored in some semblance of a Concord-wide census, as well as for organisations such as the Shardcircle and the Realmweave.

Once a month, or perhaps once a season in more rural areas, a Civil Service tax collector will knock on the door seeking the government’s due. This value is normally a set amount, but in some circumstances local ordinances or special concerns may be a larger amount. This is rarely a pleasant interaction and it's not uncommon for tax collectors to be accompanied by mercenary guards. Larger cities may see citizens attend to the Civil Service offices to pay their funds, rather than a visit from a travelling collector.

You may attend a town square for a ‘Work Call’ where a member of the local Civil Service will be hiring anything from labourers, to architects, or fighters to complete one of the many projects of The Concord. Many craftsfolk simply move from senate project to senate project, and more than a few ex-soldiers make their lives on small civil service projects protecting exchange warehouses, postal workers, or magistrates.

You may get a swift knock on the door, a pale-capped postal worker depositing a letter and little explanation in your hand before moving as swiftly as tired feet and Concordian coin can carry them onto their next target.

When misfortune and malice befall you, there is possibly a magistrate in your town at all times. Reporting the crime to them may see a local deputy and their assistants attempt to expose your crime, or perhaps the direct investigation by the Magistrate. For more outlying settlements you instead wait for one of the travelling magistrates to visit and do their best to resolve an entire township's crimes and civil cases in a week-long flurry of litigation.

And when you die, it is possible that someone close to you will travel to the local Civil Service office and have the roll updated. Given the solemnity of this time, this is an act often forgotten, further bringing any attempts to get an accurate assessment of The Concordian population into disrepute.

What the Civil Service Don’t Do

While the Civil Service is the blood and bones of The Concord, they are not its only form of civil government. Much of the old power structures are still intact across the five Realms and there is not much occuring to see this will change.

The Civil Service are not leaders. While local Administratants are likely local personalities of some note, they are servants of a distant imperial government, and not mayors or similar. Following on from this, governing the realms from the scale of small settlements all the way up to vast metropolises like Legend City falls to local governments with the Civil Service not being involved unless it directly relates to Concordian property or the whims of its many governing councils.

The Civil Service does not recruit or administrate armies or fleets. These forces remain firmly in control of their own leadership structures and realmic traditions, with Civil Service liaisons primarily supporting the organisation on a grand scale, despite the payment for such forces being heavily paid for by The Concord.

The Civil Service does not provide essential services such as healing, education, and local infrastructure. These are still controlled by local and realmic organisations, requiring local and realmic taxes to maintain. For many the arrival of The Concord was heralded by an additional, distantly understandable taxation, which is thankfully light. Something often grumbled about, until a Concordian army arrives over the hill, or a new grand construction appears nearby.

The Structure of the Civil Service

The Civil Service is primarily organised around its offices and its Special Bureaus.

Any town large enough to be featured on a reasonable map likely has at least a small Civil Service Office, which has a handful of staff attempting to complete all the tasks required of them. Larger settlements will have larger offices, with larger staffs as is to be expected. Each office will be led by an Administrant, which oversees and organises the staff and their duties. Each region will in turn have a large Regional Office in the largest settlement of the region, which also acts as the headquarters for specialised workers such as itinerant magistrates, postal workers, and similar. These Regional Offices will be led by a Chief Administrant, which not only organises the Civil Service in the whole region, but also sits on the Civil Service Committee, alongside the Symposiarch, to manage the organisation across The Concord. Functionally, the Symposiarch is the head of this arm of the Civil Service, but it is thankfully self-managing.

The core of the Civil Service can be found at Concordian Plaza in Legend City. This set of large once-manors to the Artebazzani nobility contains the head offices of each of the Special Bureaus, as well as the staff responsible for making the Summits function. It also serves as the central repository of information and records, while also training new Civil Service workers in their duties.

In all, this arm of the Civil Service is collectively known as ‘The Central Service’, also containing many of its own staff to operate its myriad functions. Standard staff are known as ‘Clerks’, while senior staff are known as ‘Archivists’. Beyond these two ‘ranks’ Civil Servants may have specific titles if they are a part of a Special Bureau.

The Special Bureaus of the Civil Service

While for many their local office of the Civil Service is their primary point-of-contact, there are many specialised arms of the Civil Service (called ‘Bureaus’) which perform specific task or required specialised skills. These are each smaller than the regional Civil Service apparatus, but some are still quite large.

The Exchange

Operating out of The Regional Offices and Concordian Plaza, The Exchange primarily oversees the movement of essential and strategic resources, as well as taxation, with Concordian tax collectors falling under this bureau. Each Regional Office includes a protected warehouse for the storage of wains of resources as well as collected tax. In this manner the Concordian treasury is safely (and clumsily) dispersed. Officially led by a council of ‘Vendors’ who manage each warehouse as well as a ‘Master of Collectors’ . Also employs the Auctioneer of Passage and their staff.

The War Chamber

Smallest of the Special Bureaus, the War Chamber is primarily an information collection agency that gathers reports from the Concord’s forces, disperses resources from The Senate or Concordian Treasury, and presents this information to the Heroes of the Concord. Led by the Commandant of the War Chamber, who oversees a staff of approximately twenty.

The Shardcircle

Predating the Concord as an organisation, the Civil Service of the Shardcircle manage membership, records, and communications between the various arcane organisations of The Concord, notably their Schools of Magic. The Shardcircle Bureau also maintains the functions of The Shardcircle itself (that being the extra-physical space where the mages of The Concord meet), the artifacts of The Shardcircle, and monitor the Realmweave: the vast leyline-fueled network of magic that binds the Concord, its people, and its waystones together. A powerful, if undernotticed bureau led by the Augry and their staff.

The Church of the Divine Spheres

Largest of the arms of the Civil Service aside from its core form, the Church of the Divine Spheres Bureau contains many priests and layfolk dedicated to enacting the will of the Council of Six and the faithful. As the Church maintains its own treasury, can pursue its own projects, and in many ways has its own judicial system, the Church of the Divine Spheres bureau is in many ways a smaller version of the Civil Service as a whole, albeit one with far more priests among their number. Led by the Curate, the staff of the Church Bureau can be found wherever there are Civil Servants, and in many places where they are not. It is important to note that a vast number of priests are not members of this bureau, and it would be more accurate to see these Civil Servants as belonging to the Church ‘head office’.

The Magistrates

The Magistrates are the constantly overwhelmed and essential enforcers of Concordian law. Each of them are skilled jurors and individuals of the utmost trustworthiness, they are further augmented by secretive enchantments of the Spheres to ensure their compliance and honesty in matters of law. There is always a call for additional Magistrates and so it is not uncommon to see highly ranked members of the Civil Service also acting in this role. There is a single council of High Magistrates based out of Concordian Plaza that oversees the implementation and veracity of Concordian law, alongside representatives from the Church and Central Service.

The Concordian Civil Post

Part of the Central Service answering to the Symposiarch, but in reality lead by the Postmaster Captain, the Concordian Civil Post is one of the true ‘services’ the Civil Service provides. A (reasonably) effective and (reasonably) cheap, the Civil Post ensures that letters can cross the Concord and even travel to nearby nations. While many private messenger services still exist, the Civil Post is widely held as reliable, secure, and one of the best things the Concord has produced. Well known for their pale caps and considerable skill, being a Postal Servant is a dangerous job with many fine folk working it.

The Pathfinders

Technically an arm of The Shardcircle Bureau, the Pathfinders are often a force unto their own. Tasked with the hardest duty of The Concord; that being delivering prognostication equipment to dangerous flashpoints within or near the Concord, Pathfinders must be skilled in arcane equipment, capable of defending themselves, skilled at stealth, and wilderness travel experts. This results in an elite and selective organisation responsible for one of The Concord’s greatest strengths. The skill and myths surrounding The Pathfinders has led to the common occurrence of ‘False Pathfinders’ in taverns across The Concord, where untruthful individuals pretend to belong to this secretive band in order to impress others. In reality the purple-and-silver sigil of the Pathfinders is worn by less than thirty individuals across The Concord, who are far too busy to be explaining their work in taverns. They are led by six Pathfinder Captains (one for each Realm and one in Captain-Commanding), and are often lured to the role by a significantly generous pension, but many remain out of sheer madness and ‘love of the game’.

The Foreign Service

The Foreign Service is often seen as one of the most selective and glamorous postings within The Concord. Falling under the purview of the Core Civil Service, the Foreign Service staffs Concordian Embassies and ensures the less-active elements of the Concord’s spy networks. This small purview results in a small overall number of staff, that is very selective and rarely recruiting. It remains unique for two quirks of its function:

Initial founding elements of The Concord that wished to ensure each realm COULD be represented in matters of diplomacy see many members of the Foreign Service swearing a different oath, allowing them to maintain citizenship in their home realm.
The Foreign Service technically answers to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a Concordian Hero, rather than a Civil Service member. In reality many of their duties are managed by the Central Service.

The Academy

A very small and strange bureau, The Academy is an educational institution that can be found in the Realmic capitals. It offers supplementary education for gifted, notable, or well economically supported youths. To some it is a diminutive charity helping The Concord feel good about itself, while illiteracy is still quite common, but for others it is our greatest hope for the future.

Joining the Civil Service

The Civil Service is appealing for many reasons. If questioned it is likely that each member has a different reason for their employment. But if enough are asked, certain trends are common;

The Civil Service’s dedication to ‘presenting a cosmopolitan Concord’ results in most Civil Servants working far from their homelands. For many, wanderlust and a desire to see the world is enough to apply. This same nature also appeals to those who wish to leave painful places, people, or memories far behind them.
The Civil Service offers a respected career path that is separate from many realmic institutions. Individuals who encounter entrenched opposition, or restrictive orthodoxies often join the Civil Service to advance their careers around this blockages.
The Civil Service offers an above-average pay for many Concordians. The restrictive nature of service and not-insignificant requirements on applicants support this pay, but for many it is the best paying position for their skills.
Inspiringly, many Civil Servants genuinely believe in The Concord, its promise, and its role. Motivation is generally higher than would be reasonably expected.

The Civil Service is generally always hiring, but specific positions (such as Magistrate or Pathfinder) may be on invitation only. Each season will see the local office conduct an intake process which includes extensive interviews, a battery of tests (primarily focused around literacy and arithmetic), and assessments of local records regarding the individuals. Applicants are from a wide variety of backgrounds, ages, and professions, but given the nature of The Concord as an organisation and its needs, city-folk from educated households, and ex-soldiers tend to be the most common applicants.

Generally two thirds of these applicants are successful and are paid to travel to Concordian Plaza in Legend City. Here they undergo a six month training period preparing them to work in a regional or local office. This process is focused around the civic functions of The Concord, its ideological framework, the structure of the Civil Service, the nature of the other Realms, and legal matters. About half of those who attend this training complete it, resulting in a one-third recruitment rate for the service.

The training is capstoned by the ‘Oath and Contract of Service’ wherein the new Civil Servant swears to their tasks, the organisation, and the Concord as a whole, forsaking their citizenship to the Realm of their birth for the duration of Their Contract. Importantly, postings are only given AFTER this oath and contract are sworn, trapping some new Civil Servants in postings they may not have, but also ensuring that last-minute dropouts are not possible. Some new Civil Servants may be poached to particular Special Bureau’s based on need, but most of these Bureau’s recruit from within the Central Service (often necessitating an extension of contract).

Civil Service contracts are three years long, with advancement, new postings, and Special Bureau’s often gated behind signing on to another term. While early ending of contracts are not unheard of, it is reasonably rare in the Service’s short history.

The Oath of Service

I stand before The Concord and swear to faithfully serve its people.

I shall show no favour to realm, band, house, kin, or friend. My duty is to all Concordians equally, and I shall place the common good above local or my own interest.

I shall perform my office with diligence, skill, and care. I shall strive to be worthy of the trust placed in me and shall not neglect the duties entrusted to my keeping.

I shall be honest in word and deed. I shall not abuse my authority, betray my trust, or place personal gain above my obligations. I shall act with fairness, integrity, and good judgement.

I shall uphold the laws and institutions of The Concord and dedicate my efforts to its future. I believe that together under the Sphere’s light The Concord will do rightfully by its citizens.

For the term of my service, I set aside the citizenship of my birth and accept the citizenship of The Concord.

This I swear freely and without reservation.

Let my conduct be my witness. Let my service be my proof.

The Civil Service in Play

The Civil Service serves two purposes in Concord:

It acts as the fictional government of The Concord, explaining how many of its actions are performed.
It is the in-character organisation used to personify and justify the staff of Concord and their actions in-character.

This page exists to help player characters understand the Civil Service in character and place them in the world, and to help team members understand the organisation that their character is a part of. It is important to note that Civil Service characters are encouraged to be full ‘people’ if not full ‘characters’. While they may not attend confluxes, hold titles, or engage in the game fully, they are each a full person with friends, beliefs, failings, and stories of their own. Some members of the Civil Service may also be contacted by letter outside of a Summit. This helps the staff of the event not go insane.

This page is not intended to be a guide to making your own player character. Civil Service roles are exclusively for the staff of the event and characters that are members of The Civil Service or previously were, will not be approved. However characters that have worked with the Civil Service (such as mercenary guards, or local guides) are certainly valid.