Tribune (Themiclesia)

The Tribunes (御史, ngjah-srje') are officials in Themiclesia with a range of duties relating to the maintenance of law and order in official business.

Etymology

The first character 御 has the primary meaning of "steer", and the second character 史, that of an official of records. The first character has later been extrapolated to mean "royal" by semantic shift.

History

Tribunes (御史) are an ancient office in Menghean history. Officials of record (史) are attested as early as the bronze age, where the profession was hereditary and of significant stature. In the later bronze age, officials of record have borne descriptive titles such as "inner recorder" (內史) and "great recorder" (太史), but the term Tribune was not attested until the end of the Warring States period, in the pre-unification Meng state, where it indicated a group of officials with supervisory power over the transaction of state business. Tribunes were heavily associated with the legalist state dogma of the Meng state. The head of the Tribunes was the President of Tribunes (御史大夫), who not only possessed supervisory power over the state bureaucracy but also acted as deputy to the head of government, often invited from a foreign state. Recent research suggested that the head of government, often titled Chancellor (相國 sjangs-kwek or 丞相 gljing-sjangs), was typically associated with overseeing the implementation of transformative policies, while the President of the Tribunes was the professional head of the state bureaucracy.

President of Tribunes

The President of Tribunes (御史大夫) is the leader of the Tribunes and the statutory deputy for the Chancellor or Vice Chancellor. Compared to the leaders of other organizations, the President of Tribunes has little power over his subordinates, who are distributed across a number of settings to accept reports of and investigate breaches of the law. It seems from the earliest days of the institution of Tribunes, there was a degree of independence between members of the organization and its leader. In Themiclesia, the leadership of the President was further weakened, as individual tribunes were sent on lengthy journeys to enforce the law and then report independently to the court; the President's oversight was pro forma.

Royal Secretary of Tribunes

The Royal Secretary of Tribunes (御史中丞) is distinct from the Secretary of Tribunes due to his jurisdiction, namely the enforcement of laws in the royal palace. For this purpose, his office is also located proximal to the monarch, within the palace.

Attendant Tribunes

Attendant Tribunes (侍御史) are stationed within the the innermost section of the royal palace, the Enclosure (禁中), where the Emperor personally resides. Historically, they are often the Emperor's most trusted officers, for their extensive knowledge of the laws and dedication to them; in more modern times, it is customary to appoint decorated members of the Themiclesian Bar (the guild of attorneys of law) to this position.

Expressly, their functions are not dissimilar to those of other Tribunes. Attendant Tribunes are responsible for removing individuals or things tha breach the law and the Emperor's prerogatives. By extension, they are also in charge of security at the most intimate distance, since breaches of security are, by definition, breaches of the Emperor's prerogative. On a trivial level, individuals (including courtiers) who present themselves in inappropriate costumes, are inebriated, are irreverent in other ways, or have entered without permission, are liable to be removed by the Attendent Tribunes. On the other extreme, Attendent Tribunes have blocked assassins' swords and bullets with their own bodies.

At such proximity with the monarch, they also defend the Emperor's reputation and rectitude, through their (sometimes idiosyncratic) interpretations of the law. Attendant Tribunes have refused to communicate the Emperor's order to promote his concubines when the upper ranks were already full, even if this embarrassed the Emperor before his concubines. Met with papers asking for illegal personal favours, Attendant Tribunes have prevented Gentlemen of the Amber Gate from reading them by tearing the papers out of the Gentlemen's hands and then burning them, preventing the Emperor from having the opportunity to signify his assent.

In another instance, the Emperor was about to order the Captain-General of the Enclosure to kill a pair of assassin caught in the act. The Attendant Tribune instead ordered them to carry the assassin away for trial, because the unconscious assassins were no longer a threat. When the trial court reported the assassins were sentenced to death, the Emperor replied they should be skinned before decapitation. Before sending the reply, another Attendant Tribune erased the skinning instruction, saying that there was no such punishment in the statute books, and the Emperor ought not do the work of the courts or compel them break the law.

Tribunes of the Hall

Tribunes of the Hall (殿中侍御史) are a subtype of the Attendant Tribunes, specializing in investigating misconduct that occur within the palace itself. The definition of "within the palace" is statutory, not geographic. In general, the bodies that compose of the Inner Court are all "within the palace", even if some of their regional offices are far beyond it. Their jurisdiction also extends to affairs that occur geogrpahically in the palace where the monarch, his consort, and consorts of his predecessors currently reside, but not others. Some officers, such as the Director of Cats that report to the Privy Treasurer, who is a member of the Outer Court, are still "within the palace" due to their duties; others, such as the Captain-General of the Marines, are not. In terms of this jurisdiction, it is comparable to the Tyrannian Marshalsea Court.

Compared to Attendant Tribunes, Tribunes of the Hall have the additional power to accept reports from commoner and official alike and commence investigation upon them, as long as their reports are of affairs within their jurisdiction. They are authorized to read virtually all documents that physically exist, but they may not arrest civil officials, except in case of a flagrant offence. When an investigation has been conducted, their reports, by default, remain secret and are given to the Council of Correspondence and the Royal Secretary of Tribunes. The Council may elect to suppress the report if thought without merit, but the Royal Secretary is required to submit it to the Gentlemen of the Amber Gate, who will read the reports to the Emperor. If the Council desires to see action, the report would be released to the Attorney-General, who may then petition the Court for permission to arrest the implicated person and investigate further.

Secretary of Tribunes

The Secretary of Tribunes has certain administrative powers over the Tribunes that do not serve in the palace. The Secretary also acts as a normal Tribune, but most of the duties specific to him are the distribution of investigative resources. Unlike the Tribunes that answer to the Royal Secretary, these Tribunes not only investigate misconduct but also ordinary conduct as requested by the government. These investigations tend to be far larger in scale (due to the size of the bureaucracy that is not "within the palace"), hence the necessity of a distributor of resources.

Tribunes

Ordinary Tribunes are potentially the oldest group of Tribunes historically. Some Menghean bronze inscriptions have been interpreted as containing early references to "Ordinary Officials", written with two characters (御事) very similar to and sometimes synonymous with "Tribune"; this corroborates the theory that Tribunes were earlier not primarily concerned with the enforcement of the law, but ordinary administration. Nevertheless, ordinary Tribunes in Themiclesian history and today are primarily concerned with investigations. The function of ordinary Tribunes are analogous to those of the Tribunes of the Hall, but on affairs beyond the palace.

Tribunes of Invigilation (civil)

There are two species of Tribunes of Invigilation. One type travels on circuits within each prefecture and "invigilate" the conduct of local officials. The other type is only appointed to active military campaigns beyond Themiclesia's borders.

Tribunes of Invigilation (military)

The military type of Tribunes of Invigilation are appointed ahead of major campaigns by the Themiclesian court. Their provenance are ancient, as early military commanders wielded tremendous powers over soldiers and the battlefield. There was little distinction between actual military affairs (where commanders exercised power) and civilian ones that occurred in a military setting (where the local magistrate exercised power). Under the Tsjins Dynasty, it was not unusual for commanders to eclipse local magistrates in power and expropriate civilian possessions for his campaign, even when not empowered to do so; soldiers under his command had little choice but to obey his command, failing which he also acted as a court-marshal. Abuse of power was rampant, which resulted in many soldiers escaping the Army, in turn causing disputes with civilians. To manage these complaints, the Rjang Dynasty instituted appointed Tribunes along with each active army.

Tribunes of Invigilation had no power over generals that commanded the army in which they officiated, nor did they have power to try cases between soldiers. However, they reviewed decisions made by the courts-martial and reported them to court. These reports were confidential. Preventing the Tribune from writing reports or altering their contents were capital offences, since the government was always suspicious of military commanders subverting authority. In the Meng Dynasty, Tribunes of Invigilation further acquired the power to write reports on all activities of military officers. Lower-ranking officers feared "a word of the Tribune more than a hundred outnumbered battles"; higher-ranking ones, often civil servants commissioned ad hoc, did not fear them as much. Historians report that Tribunes of Invigilation successfully curbed some corruption but could not uproot it entirely, as there were not enough tribunes to investigate every misdeed, and most were too small to prosecute and implicated far too many soldiers.

Naval Tribunes

The Themiclesian Navy originated as armed convoys in the 4th century that protected Themiclesian merchant vessels, first within the Halu'an Sea, then along the western coast of Hemithea, and then finally on the northern coast of Meridia. These are understood as a civic effort at providing security where the state did not. By the 7th and 8th centuries, expansion of commerce brought profound changes to the modus operandi of the convoy system, and the government acquired the dominant role in managing these warships, which were now fitted with battering rams and projectiles and infantrymen holding arms. Though legally not part of a military, the court appointed Tribunes to supervise its operation, analogous to the Tribunes of Invigilation in the Army.

Naval Tribunes were responsible for enforcing laws on the high seas. For much of the Navy's history, there existed two fleets, and one Naval Tribune was appointed for each. The Naval Tribune outranked every other officer on board, but none of them were responsible to him. Since there were no courts of law in the Navy, the Naval Tribune functioned as prosecutor in all cases where the ship's crew were implicated; in all other cases, he also presided as judge. Where the ship's crew were tried, the ship's captain presided; this is because the ship would be paralyzed if it were to lose crew members to prolonged confinement, which may occur as the Naval Tribune investigated other cases on other ships. As historians noted, this was one of the few areas Themiclesian Tribunes relented to local customs, and even then out of the greatest exigence.

The jurisdiction of Naval Tribunes expanded following the acquisition of Portcullia in the 900s. The Naval Tribunes presided over financial disputes between Themiclesian and foreign merchants on Themiclesian territory and between Themiclesian tax officials and merchants. By extension, Naval Tribunes also tried other cases between members of the Navy and the public. Following a war in Meridia that resulted over a misunderstanding, the government ordered Naval Tribunes to enforce order everywhere there was no local government. In 1030, two more Naval Tribunes were appointed to hear cases that arose in western Hemithea and in northern Meridia, respectively. When Themiclesia lost control over northern Meridia in the 1300s and western Hemithea in the 1600s, these two positions were abolished.