Factfile #3: The Government of Kemet
- Location
- Southern Virginia
Government of Kemet
L'etat c'est moi – and these hundred thousand other people
In so far as Kemet has a developed legal theory of government, it is relatively simple. The Pharaoh is invested with rule of Kemet as he is invested with the ka of divinity by the god Ra. The entire world is held in trust for the gods by the Pharaoh. He is responsible for driving back the forces of Chaos and insuring that Maat, the ordained harmony of society and just action, is upheld. To that end he is invested with unlimited authority. The Pharaoh is Kemet, and the vast bureaucracy that runs the country is merely an extension of his will and body. Kemet's relatively unique state-controlled economy is merely one logical consequence of this conception of unbounded royal authority.
And as with the theoretically communistic economy, the reality of rule and governance in Kemet is quite different.
The Pharaoh's divine authority is delegated to his servants, and his servants are rarely pleased to give up this authority in any matter. Furthermore much of the countryside remains in the hands of local notables who have accumulated large tenant-estates and control significant numbers of the fellahin. The line between civil servant and local notable is frequently blurred by effectively and even explicitly hereditary positions at the level of the local nome. Of course individuals frequently have a great many enemies and the Pharaoh can claw back power by attacking them with their aid of their rivals, but attacks on institutions are another matter. All who benefit from the status quo will inevitably band together in defense of it, and their opposition must be overcome.
And if a Pharaoh should fail, well, there may be omens that indicate he has been rejected by Ra. Kemet has known civil war and coups before and will likely know them again.
The appointed agents of the Pharaoh who exercise one of the Great Offices of State are collected together under the Royal Council. The Royal Council operates out of the Pharaoh's palace and has day-to-day contact with the monarch. They serve as an advisory body to a strong Pharaoh, though a weak or indolent Pharaoh may delegate control of the state to the Council. The Royal Council also serves as collective regency, under the leadership of a designated Regent, in the absence of the Pharaoh or on rare occasions of an interregnum or minority heir. Each member of the Royal Council has their own power base and agenda, representing a concentration of power formidable enough that the Pharaoh must reckon with on the national scale.
The most prestigious and powerful position on the Royal Council is that of Vizier. The Pharaoh's Vizier is his shadow, his most trusted agent who has full authority to act as his proxy in all matters. In the meetings of the Royal Council the Vizier serves as chairman and directs the agenda of the Council to align with the Pharaoh's wishes. The Vizier invariably gains a large store of favors and followers across multiple bureaucratic institutions, the better with which to execute his master's will. Of course the Vizier can also gain enemies in the normal pursuit of policy, or by pursuing his own agenda. The all-powerful Vizier also serves as a useful scapegoat when matters go badly; the archetype of the dishonest ministers deceiving the benevolent Pharaoh is established in Kemet, and the Vizier makes an obvious focus for such sentiment. The Vizier's political standing is established by the trust the Pharaoh places in him, paradoxically making this most powerful of ministers often the easiest to dismiss. A powerful and competent Vizier can become the power behind the throne just as easily.
Next in prestige is the position of the Keeper of the Royal Seal. This position revolves around the custody of the Royal Seal of State used to confirm Pharaonic decrees. The Keeper of the Royal Seal acts as chairman of the Royal Council in the absence of an appointed Vizier, since not all Pharaohs find it necessary or desirable to have a Vizier. Typically the Keeper comes from a powerful noble family of the Delta Province, the most populous and wealthy of the provinces of Kemet. Because the Royal Seal is needed to authorize all bureaucratic acts originating from the palace, the Keeper's political role is that of a censor. He checks the acts of other officials to make sure they conform to law and the Pharaoh's will. The Keeper has a small but elite staff of scribes to assist in this measure. The Royal Seal is destroyed on the death of the Pharaoh and a new one not created until their successor is crowned; and under regency the Regent's own personal seal is used in place of the Royal Seal.
The High Priest of Atum sits on the Royal Council as the designated representative of the temple complexes of Kemet. In theory the religious complex as a whole is the wealthiest, most powerful, and most expansive arm of the Kemet state. All priests are civil servants employed by the Pharaoh to carry out religious rites on behalf of the fellahin, and their temples function as private granaries and state-run marketplaces for the peasantry to obtain crafted goods. The temples employ the largest number of people and impact the whole of the country from the lowest rung of the peasantry to the highest nobility, who often enjoy hereditary office as priests. Of course the various temples are dedicated to different gods, and despite the general religious tolerance of Kemet an undercurrent of rivalry is always present between the various major temple complexes. They may fight over resources and prestige rather than souls but the infighting can still be quite vicious.
Not all Pharaohs establish the office of Commander of the Royal Army. More martial Pharaohs prefer to retain absolute control of the Army and appoint regional commanders (preferably Princes) instead if they need to deal with enemies on multiple fronts. The nature of the military of Kemet does not particularly lend itself to the Army as a strong institution. Even the organized forces work at planting and harvesting when not mobilized on campaign, drilling only irregularly if not the subject of special attention. The movement of troops across provincial lines requires Pharaonic approval, as does the mobilization of the levies to support the organized forces. The natural defenses of Kemet are formidable enough that foreign invasion is usually only possible during a period of severe political weakness. That said coups happen, and the loyalty of the organized forces cannot be taken for granted; if the Pharaoh has lost legitimacy and support among the elite and the broad masses, the next dynasty is most likely to emerge from the ranks of the Royal Army.
The Chief Royal Scribe sits on the Royal Council as the official Secretary at meetings as well as a representative of the Corps of Scribes. He is the head of the Corps and as such responsible for the recruitment and training of scribes for other government departments. The Chief Royal Scribe also handles all of the Pharaoh's correspondence, providing advice and knowledge regarding styles of address and protocol. Many scribes receive training through the temple complexes or even private schools, but all of them are initially assigned to the Corps of Scribes prior to being given a position with another department. Some trained scribes are retained as teachers or as supernumerary secretaries appointed to the staff of important officials or commanders while remaining under the supervision of the Chief Royal Scribe.
Responsibility for the finances of the state are vested in the Royal Treasurer. The Royal Treasury holds the gold and valuables of the Pharaoh and exercises oversight of mines, craftsmen, and tax collection. Easy access to wealth usually makes the Treasury prone to corruption and a center of low-level waste and inefficiency, corralled only by the active and energetic oversight of its leadership. The state would be unable to function without the services the Treasury provides in accumulating the surplus production of the land. It is the most hated institution in Kemet despite (or rather, because of) this vital role. A treasury which becomes too rapacious will soon lead to political instability, but too much indulgence of the peasantry would leave the state unable to support vital infrastructure projects and military spending. The wealth of corrupt officials can also find its way into supporting plots or strengthening local factions and nobles at the expense of the Pharaoh. For all that, though, the taxmen remain indispensable.
Grain collected by the taxmen of the Royal Treasury is stored in a series of great public granaries managed by the Granaries Department. Each nome has at least one State Granary administered by an Overseer and his assistants, answering to the provincial governor's staff. The Inspector of Granaries is responsible for coordinating the accounts of State Granaries in all provinces, as well as reviewing wastage figures and prosecuting cases of corruption. The State Granaries pay out salaries of bronze deben as authorized by the Royal Treasury and provide the realm with a stockpile of grain against a bad flood or a plague of locusts leading to a major famine. The decentralized nature of the granaries system and the difficulty distinguishing between losses to inevitable wastage and deliberate corruption; an active and energetic Inspector of Granaries is necessary to keep losses in check and to prosecute granary Overseers for diversion of state-owned grain to private uses. A corrupt Inspector of Granaries can swiftly become a very rich and very powerful man, and even corrupt Overseers frequently find support from local notables who benefit from his dishonesty.
The Department of Works is responsible for actually overseeing construction of major projects and the maintenance of the vital irrigation and canal works of the Nile River Valley. It is headed by the chief Inspector of Works, whose role includes organizing his department and exercising direct oversight of the projects assigned to it. The Department has charge of the corvee labor obligations of the fellahin, which is usually discharged on the local level digging out silt from the canals and repairing levees after the annual flood. Surplus corvee labor can be directed to building temples or tombs, though for the most part such projects are facilitated by generous salaries for workmen. The Inundation season sees much of Kemet with nothing to do and so a term spent working on the Pharaoh's tomb is both a welcome opportunity to earn more deben and a prestigious way to discharge social opportunities. Needless to say the opportunities for graft and inefficiency are considerable given the myriad of functions and demanding projects that the Department oversees.
Finally, the position of Chief Eunuch is considered a Great Office of State and granted a position on the Royal Council despite the limited formal functions of the role. The Corps of Eunuchs exists to provide manpower for Royal Palaces and to administer the personal household of the Pharaoh. In practice the eunuchs provide a lot of supplementary manpower for other government departments, and the personal household of the Pharaoh has expanded over time to cover numerous devotional properties and estates. The eunuchs are loved by none, but if they hold the trust of the Pharaoh they can become a very powerful factor in the administration of the state. Eunuchs have a reputation for corruption and treachery but their lack of natural allies tends to give the Pharaoh a much tighter grip on them; and the Chief Eunuch, who administers all the other eunuchs, may aim to become a trusted advisor or even Vizier. An ambitious Chief Eunuch under a weak Pharaoh may aim to become the power behind the throne, though such a situation usually heralds the end of a dynasty.
There are also a number of lesser offices which, while not one of the Great Offices of State concerned with major affairs, provide limited authority and a position at court. The Royal Steward, the Royal Chamberlain, the Royal Handmaiden, the Royal Cupbearer, and the Royal Charioteer are all offices of considerable honor and little duty. The offices may be filled with powerful nobles as a bribe, or they may be given to trusted friends and confidents of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh may assign them additional duties as he sees fit, though there is the potential for their unofficial authority vested in the Pharaoh's confidence to collide with the official authority vested in one of the Great Offices. Senior bureaucrats often resent amateur favorites of the monarch interfering in their bailiwicks. Being able to assign an important task to a trusted aide may outweigh such concerns, and they rarely come up when a given office is being used as a sinecure for a noble.
There are also a handful of anomalous offices which are either associated so closely with the Pharaoh as to convey considerable prestige and authority without any corresponding responsibilities, or which require considerable duty without being considered a Great Office.
The Pharaoh's senior wife, usually his sister, enjoys by default the title of God's Wife of Ra. The God's Wife fulfills certain vital ceremonial roles and enjoys great influence over the functioning of the Royal Household. If there is no suitable senior wife, as often happens with an aged Pharaoh, the position could be handed over to a royal-blooded daughter ceremonially wedded to her father. Such a daughter might very well rise to the position of co-regent and enjoy considerably more power and independence than would normally be the case. In the rare event of a female ruler her husband would enjoy a similar level of authority as the Royal Consort and could stand in at rites to male gods. However, a prince of Kemet would likely expect, at the least, to occupy the office of Vizier as well; and even if not formally named to the office would exercise more or less the same level of informal authority baring some unusual circumstances.
Should a Pharaoh resurrect a royal navy it is likely that the Commander of the Royal Navy would merit a position on the Royal Council. There is no tradition of the Pharaoh achieving military glory or having direct oversight of naval forces, so such a commander would enjoy a less tenuous position than the Commander of the Royal Army. The task of administering and leading a Royal Navy would be absorbing enough that a full time office-holder would be necessary, and the investment required to create such an institution would make it a major force in Kemet. Alternatively some Pharaohs have found it expedient to elevate the Captain of the Horus Guard to a position on the Council as a counterbalance to the Royal Army. Encouraging rivalry between the Army and the Horus Guard is a risky maneuver, but it certainly leaves the Guard much less likely to collaborate in a coup attempt. The case for making the Captain a Great Office of State is stronger if the Captain is also given command over mercenary forces instead of the Army, or the Guard is significantly expanded beyond its status as a bodyguard force.
Lastly there are practical offices, usually filled by specialists who operate in a role that associates them directly with the Court without having broader authority. The position of Royal Magician is one such office, as is Royal Astronomer and Royal Physician. These offices may be filled by mere functionaries who serve in the background or by closely trusted friends of the Pharaoh who serve as unofficial advisors and agents. Royal Tutors are often retained at Court as an honored sinecure after their duties are fulfilled, but some may still be consulted or trusted with delicate missions. As with other unofficial agents, though, they may irritate or infuriate those holding official offices of state.
L'etat c'est moi – and these hundred thousand other people
In so far as Kemet has a developed legal theory of government, it is relatively simple. The Pharaoh is invested with rule of Kemet as he is invested with the ka of divinity by the god Ra. The entire world is held in trust for the gods by the Pharaoh. He is responsible for driving back the forces of Chaos and insuring that Maat, the ordained harmony of society and just action, is upheld. To that end he is invested with unlimited authority. The Pharaoh is Kemet, and the vast bureaucracy that runs the country is merely an extension of his will and body. Kemet's relatively unique state-controlled economy is merely one logical consequence of this conception of unbounded royal authority.
And as with the theoretically communistic economy, the reality of rule and governance in Kemet is quite different.
The Pharaoh's divine authority is delegated to his servants, and his servants are rarely pleased to give up this authority in any matter. Furthermore much of the countryside remains in the hands of local notables who have accumulated large tenant-estates and control significant numbers of the fellahin. The line between civil servant and local notable is frequently blurred by effectively and even explicitly hereditary positions at the level of the local nome. Of course individuals frequently have a great many enemies and the Pharaoh can claw back power by attacking them with their aid of their rivals, but attacks on institutions are another matter. All who benefit from the status quo will inevitably band together in defense of it, and their opposition must be overcome.
And if a Pharaoh should fail, well, there may be omens that indicate he has been rejected by Ra. Kemet has known civil war and coups before and will likely know them again.
The appointed agents of the Pharaoh who exercise one of the Great Offices of State are collected together under the Royal Council. The Royal Council operates out of the Pharaoh's palace and has day-to-day contact with the monarch. They serve as an advisory body to a strong Pharaoh, though a weak or indolent Pharaoh may delegate control of the state to the Council. The Royal Council also serves as collective regency, under the leadership of a designated Regent, in the absence of the Pharaoh or on rare occasions of an interregnum or minority heir. Each member of the Royal Council has their own power base and agenda, representing a concentration of power formidable enough that the Pharaoh must reckon with on the national scale.
The most prestigious and powerful position on the Royal Council is that of Vizier. The Pharaoh's Vizier is his shadow, his most trusted agent who has full authority to act as his proxy in all matters. In the meetings of the Royal Council the Vizier serves as chairman and directs the agenda of the Council to align with the Pharaoh's wishes. The Vizier invariably gains a large store of favors and followers across multiple bureaucratic institutions, the better with which to execute his master's will. Of course the Vizier can also gain enemies in the normal pursuit of policy, or by pursuing his own agenda. The all-powerful Vizier also serves as a useful scapegoat when matters go badly; the archetype of the dishonest ministers deceiving the benevolent Pharaoh is established in Kemet, and the Vizier makes an obvious focus for such sentiment. The Vizier's political standing is established by the trust the Pharaoh places in him, paradoxically making this most powerful of ministers often the easiest to dismiss. A powerful and competent Vizier can become the power behind the throne just as easily.
Next in prestige is the position of the Keeper of the Royal Seal. This position revolves around the custody of the Royal Seal of State used to confirm Pharaonic decrees. The Keeper of the Royal Seal acts as chairman of the Royal Council in the absence of an appointed Vizier, since not all Pharaohs find it necessary or desirable to have a Vizier. Typically the Keeper comes from a powerful noble family of the Delta Province, the most populous and wealthy of the provinces of Kemet. Because the Royal Seal is needed to authorize all bureaucratic acts originating from the palace, the Keeper's political role is that of a censor. He checks the acts of other officials to make sure they conform to law and the Pharaoh's will. The Keeper has a small but elite staff of scribes to assist in this measure. The Royal Seal is destroyed on the death of the Pharaoh and a new one not created until their successor is crowned; and under regency the Regent's own personal seal is used in place of the Royal Seal.
The High Priest of Atum sits on the Royal Council as the designated representative of the temple complexes of Kemet. In theory the religious complex as a whole is the wealthiest, most powerful, and most expansive arm of the Kemet state. All priests are civil servants employed by the Pharaoh to carry out religious rites on behalf of the fellahin, and their temples function as private granaries and state-run marketplaces for the peasantry to obtain crafted goods. The temples employ the largest number of people and impact the whole of the country from the lowest rung of the peasantry to the highest nobility, who often enjoy hereditary office as priests. Of course the various temples are dedicated to different gods, and despite the general religious tolerance of Kemet an undercurrent of rivalry is always present between the various major temple complexes. They may fight over resources and prestige rather than souls but the infighting can still be quite vicious.
Not all Pharaohs establish the office of Commander of the Royal Army. More martial Pharaohs prefer to retain absolute control of the Army and appoint regional commanders (preferably Princes) instead if they need to deal with enemies on multiple fronts. The nature of the military of Kemet does not particularly lend itself to the Army as a strong institution. Even the organized forces work at planting and harvesting when not mobilized on campaign, drilling only irregularly if not the subject of special attention. The movement of troops across provincial lines requires Pharaonic approval, as does the mobilization of the levies to support the organized forces. The natural defenses of Kemet are formidable enough that foreign invasion is usually only possible during a period of severe political weakness. That said coups happen, and the loyalty of the organized forces cannot be taken for granted; if the Pharaoh has lost legitimacy and support among the elite and the broad masses, the next dynasty is most likely to emerge from the ranks of the Royal Army.
The Chief Royal Scribe sits on the Royal Council as the official Secretary at meetings as well as a representative of the Corps of Scribes. He is the head of the Corps and as such responsible for the recruitment and training of scribes for other government departments. The Chief Royal Scribe also handles all of the Pharaoh's correspondence, providing advice and knowledge regarding styles of address and protocol. Many scribes receive training through the temple complexes or even private schools, but all of them are initially assigned to the Corps of Scribes prior to being given a position with another department. Some trained scribes are retained as teachers or as supernumerary secretaries appointed to the staff of important officials or commanders while remaining under the supervision of the Chief Royal Scribe.
Responsibility for the finances of the state are vested in the Royal Treasurer. The Royal Treasury holds the gold and valuables of the Pharaoh and exercises oversight of mines, craftsmen, and tax collection. Easy access to wealth usually makes the Treasury prone to corruption and a center of low-level waste and inefficiency, corralled only by the active and energetic oversight of its leadership. The state would be unable to function without the services the Treasury provides in accumulating the surplus production of the land. It is the most hated institution in Kemet despite (or rather, because of) this vital role. A treasury which becomes too rapacious will soon lead to political instability, but too much indulgence of the peasantry would leave the state unable to support vital infrastructure projects and military spending. The wealth of corrupt officials can also find its way into supporting plots or strengthening local factions and nobles at the expense of the Pharaoh. For all that, though, the taxmen remain indispensable.
Grain collected by the taxmen of the Royal Treasury is stored in a series of great public granaries managed by the Granaries Department. Each nome has at least one State Granary administered by an Overseer and his assistants, answering to the provincial governor's staff. The Inspector of Granaries is responsible for coordinating the accounts of State Granaries in all provinces, as well as reviewing wastage figures and prosecuting cases of corruption. The State Granaries pay out salaries of bronze deben as authorized by the Royal Treasury and provide the realm with a stockpile of grain against a bad flood or a plague of locusts leading to a major famine. The decentralized nature of the granaries system and the difficulty distinguishing between losses to inevitable wastage and deliberate corruption; an active and energetic Inspector of Granaries is necessary to keep losses in check and to prosecute granary Overseers for diversion of state-owned grain to private uses. A corrupt Inspector of Granaries can swiftly become a very rich and very powerful man, and even corrupt Overseers frequently find support from local notables who benefit from his dishonesty.
The Department of Works is responsible for actually overseeing construction of major projects and the maintenance of the vital irrigation and canal works of the Nile River Valley. It is headed by the chief Inspector of Works, whose role includes organizing his department and exercising direct oversight of the projects assigned to it. The Department has charge of the corvee labor obligations of the fellahin, which is usually discharged on the local level digging out silt from the canals and repairing levees after the annual flood. Surplus corvee labor can be directed to building temples or tombs, though for the most part such projects are facilitated by generous salaries for workmen. The Inundation season sees much of Kemet with nothing to do and so a term spent working on the Pharaoh's tomb is both a welcome opportunity to earn more deben and a prestigious way to discharge social opportunities. Needless to say the opportunities for graft and inefficiency are considerable given the myriad of functions and demanding projects that the Department oversees.
Finally, the position of Chief Eunuch is considered a Great Office of State and granted a position on the Royal Council despite the limited formal functions of the role. The Corps of Eunuchs exists to provide manpower for Royal Palaces and to administer the personal household of the Pharaoh. In practice the eunuchs provide a lot of supplementary manpower for other government departments, and the personal household of the Pharaoh has expanded over time to cover numerous devotional properties and estates. The eunuchs are loved by none, but if they hold the trust of the Pharaoh they can become a very powerful factor in the administration of the state. Eunuchs have a reputation for corruption and treachery but their lack of natural allies tends to give the Pharaoh a much tighter grip on them; and the Chief Eunuch, who administers all the other eunuchs, may aim to become a trusted advisor or even Vizier. An ambitious Chief Eunuch under a weak Pharaoh may aim to become the power behind the throne, though such a situation usually heralds the end of a dynasty.
There are also a number of lesser offices which, while not one of the Great Offices of State concerned with major affairs, provide limited authority and a position at court. The Royal Steward, the Royal Chamberlain, the Royal Handmaiden, the Royal Cupbearer, and the Royal Charioteer are all offices of considerable honor and little duty. The offices may be filled with powerful nobles as a bribe, or they may be given to trusted friends and confidents of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh may assign them additional duties as he sees fit, though there is the potential for their unofficial authority vested in the Pharaoh's confidence to collide with the official authority vested in one of the Great Offices. Senior bureaucrats often resent amateur favorites of the monarch interfering in their bailiwicks. Being able to assign an important task to a trusted aide may outweigh such concerns, and they rarely come up when a given office is being used as a sinecure for a noble.
There are also a handful of anomalous offices which are either associated so closely with the Pharaoh as to convey considerable prestige and authority without any corresponding responsibilities, or which require considerable duty without being considered a Great Office.
The Pharaoh's senior wife, usually his sister, enjoys by default the title of God's Wife of Ra. The God's Wife fulfills certain vital ceremonial roles and enjoys great influence over the functioning of the Royal Household. If there is no suitable senior wife, as often happens with an aged Pharaoh, the position could be handed over to a royal-blooded daughter ceremonially wedded to her father. Such a daughter might very well rise to the position of co-regent and enjoy considerably more power and independence than would normally be the case. In the rare event of a female ruler her husband would enjoy a similar level of authority as the Royal Consort and could stand in at rites to male gods. However, a prince of Kemet would likely expect, at the least, to occupy the office of Vizier as well; and even if not formally named to the office would exercise more or less the same level of informal authority baring some unusual circumstances.
Should a Pharaoh resurrect a royal navy it is likely that the Commander of the Royal Navy would merit a position on the Royal Council. There is no tradition of the Pharaoh achieving military glory or having direct oversight of naval forces, so such a commander would enjoy a less tenuous position than the Commander of the Royal Army. The task of administering and leading a Royal Navy would be absorbing enough that a full time office-holder would be necessary, and the investment required to create such an institution would make it a major force in Kemet. Alternatively some Pharaohs have found it expedient to elevate the Captain of the Horus Guard to a position on the Council as a counterbalance to the Royal Army. Encouraging rivalry between the Army and the Horus Guard is a risky maneuver, but it certainly leaves the Guard much less likely to collaborate in a coup attempt. The case for making the Captain a Great Office of State is stronger if the Captain is also given command over mercenary forces instead of the Army, or the Guard is significantly expanded beyond its status as a bodyguard force.
Lastly there are practical offices, usually filled by specialists who operate in a role that associates them directly with the Court without having broader authority. The position of Royal Magician is one such office, as is Royal Astronomer and Royal Physician. These offices may be filled by mere functionaries who serve in the background or by closely trusted friends of the Pharaoh who serve as unofficial advisors and agents. Royal Tutors are often retained at Court as an honored sinecure after their duties are fulfilled, but some may still be consulted or trusted with delicate missions. As with other unofficial agents, though, they may irritate or infuriate those holding official offices of state.
