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, only they discharge them before the royal presence. Attendant Tribunes are responsible for discerning and removing individuals who breach the law and the Emperor's prerogatives before the royal presence. By extension, they are also in charge of security at the most intimate distance from the sovereign, since breaches of security are, by definition, breaches of the Emperor's prerogatives. On the most menial 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. In another instance, the Emperor was about to spear a courtier who led a plot on his life. An Attendant Tribune requested the Emperor to lay aside the spear and allow the conspirator to be "committed to the law". When the Empreor refused, he placed himself between the Emperor's spear and the courtier; the Emperor then speared the Attendant Tribune, but another took his place. The Emperor asked, "For whom would you die?" He replied, "For Your Majesty." The Emperor asked, "How?" He replied, "Your Majesty pays out of the country's coffers for a legal system to be instituted. Your Majesty must not deprive it of its function for which it is paid." The Emperor then calmed and promoted him, sending the courtier to the Marshal of Justice.