Sealed letters

Sealed letters (璽書) in Themiclesia are documents issued by the monarch or a public official to exercise some form of authority. In the documentarian administration of Themiclesia, the letter is the primary vehicle by which authority is exercised; if an official is unable to issue letters, they were unable to exercise most, if not all, of their authority in a recognized way. There was an increasingly-elaborate body of rules that governed the issuance of letters, often to the end of authentication and elimination of errors.

Depending on the issuing authority, sealed letters have varying degrees of competences. Traditionally, the monarch's sealed letters are considered to have unrestricted competence, while a public official's sealed letters were considered to have the competence of that public official. A royal letter must have unrestricted competence since it is the way by which parliamentary statutes are made, under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty.

Etymology

The word sealed corresponds to the Shinasthana word sniq (璽), which is usually considered a causative reading of niq, meaning "wrap, bundle". A niq was used to keep long threads and yarns tidy, amongst other things. Ancient Themiclesians, like Mengheans, wrote on long strips of bamboo or wood, which were strung together and kept as a bundle with a string. Additionally, the word sniq could also have the meaning of "tie", which was accomplished by knotting the remaining string, thus closing the document.

Royal letters

Royal letters (公璽書) have the highest legal authority in Themiclesia and are considered to embody the monarch's unlimited, sovereign authority completely. The monarch's oral expressions, however they are worded, are considered to have no legal effect by the early 18th century, since they are open to doubt by individuals who did not hear the monarch.

In the early Medieval period (mid-3rd to mid-6th centuries), the monarch had a rather fluid function and sometimes concerned himself sometimes with minor tasks, issuing commands, for instance, to regulate the seasonal contents of his flowerbeds, while significant authority was sometimes delegated away with little apparent oversight. As government became more complex and expansive in Themiclesia, particularly after the Mreng Restoration in 542, the monarch needed to rely on the ideas and efforts of others but retain systematic control over them. These parallel and somewhat contradictory demands meant monarch rarely initiated letters but mostly responded to letters sent by officials; that is, most of the monarch's letters were rescripts rather than proclamations. Even in cases when no official would have a genuine initiative, for instance to grant money to an unimportant person who found royal favour in some way, such letters were still framed as rescripts.

The legal maxim "follow the words in the palace; follow the seal outside" (中聽言 外聽璽) was developed in the 7th century to regulate the manner in which royal commands are conveyed; it was hoped that by this way, even if a royal command by word were counterfeited, its effect is restricted to the palace.

However,