A few other comments on Cavalier's latest 'Factfile':
The Pharaoh's divine authority is delegated to his servants, and his servants are rarely pleased to give up this authority in any matter.
So either Pharaoh's servants aren't particularly concerned by his divine authority, or they don't really acknowledge it at all. Sounds increasingly like a feudal chain of command, either way, which doesn't surprise me. We're going to have our hands full dealing with 'soft power', retail politics, and the fine art of not giving orders that we know won't be obeyed....
As for the positions:
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.
Lot of essential info here, especially:
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.
Based on this description, I'm actually wondering if we could play this straight with the eunuch Ptahshepses. That is, we'd tell him upfront that we'd be interested in appointing him to serve as our Vizier once the Regency is ended; BUT that to secure the realm and our right to rule, we'd need to make him the fall-guy for any significant failures of our reign. Indicate the near-certainty that we'd eventually need to dismiss him from the position, but that we'd let him retain his current post as head of the eunuchs, and would probably let him hand-pick & train his successor for when that day comes. (We'd also mention that it'd be best if said successor belonged to one of the other factions).
Thoughts?
Next in prestige is the position of the Keeper of the Royal Seal.
Like Vizier, this position is unfilled until the Regency is ended. Key points:
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.
Clearly, this person needs to be someone we absolutely and implicitly trust. On the other hand:
Typically the Keeper comes from a powerful noble family of the Delta Province, the most populous and wealthy of the provinces of Kemet.
Of our current Royal Council, the only two identified as coming from Delta Province are the eunuch Ptahshepses and the general Khui. Ptahshepses might be possible, but Khui is a
nope nope nope.
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.
...This makes it sound like we should have already met & worked with Wenamun before now. Or has Neferet taken care of all of it? I still find it odd we wouldn't have dealt with
any correspondence, or even received any training in how to deal with such correspondence at this point.
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.
Holy crap we're lucky that Ipy is so notoriously incorruptible. Seriously, as many problems as our Dad gave us re: the army (and the corrupt granaries), give him full credit for appointing a Royal Treasurer who does the job right.
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.
This explains our maid's "I wish he weren't so honest" comment. Though that makes me realize that our informant is apparently corrupt and upset that she can't get away with it....
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.
Excellent; "no natural allies" means their best ally is ourselves. Oddly, the worse their reputation, the better for us -- they rely on us more, and we can scapegoat them more effectively.
On the other hand! There was that very concerning bit about Khui being in love with a eunuch. If so, then that 'no natural allies' thing doesn't quite apply -- a conspiracy between the army and the eunuch corp would be a disaster.
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.
No ideas for steward, chamberlain, and cupberarer, but the best fit for Royal Handmaiden would be our friend Tayuheret. If our Martial training continues to go well, we might consider Ramessu for 'Royal Charioteer'. Note especially:
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.
So: we can appoint our friends to various minor offices to gain extra Actions per turn, but at the cost of damaging our relationship with existing office-holders who resent our interference. Notice that this might allow us to generate rivalries (between Khui and Ramessu, for instance) to distract and marginalize Khui's influence in the palace, but that might be iffy. We can also give those offices as bribes for nobles without that political cost, but also without the benefit of gaining a trusted agent.
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.
Given the strength of the alt-Greek navy, this would be a
considerable challenge and long-term project. I'm not sure it's worth it. On the other hand, if we encourage Egyptian (
cough Kemet) trade with other Mediterranean (
cough ...what's the alt-name for that, again?) peoples, our home-grown economy might benefit enormously. Better ships might also be able to said down the Red Sea (
cough ditto) and trade with the Near and Far East...
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.
If Khui turns out to be
too ambitious and we're unable to remove him for whatever reason, this would be a last ditch effort to shore up our own security. Note as well, though:
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.
Pretty sure that last item relates to the '
Medjay' action that was struck-through this last turn. Maybe not, but that does clear up a few things -- namely, given our economic strength (thanks Dad) we should be able to afford paying for mercenaries in case the army isn't trustworthy. I'm betting that was our father's plan, in fact, if the worse ever came to worst.
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.
Useful. We should evaluate which of our royal tutors are worth retaining as unofficial agents. Meryawy, for instance, would be a shoe-in as a long-term helper for Piety tasks (not sure what title we'd give him), and that's true even if we don't select him as mentor. Ma'atneferure is probably a no-go, unless she proves her worth with palace gossip. I don't know about our Astronomer tutor -- he's basically a non-entity at this point -- but our chariot teacher Ramessu also has potential if our training works out.
)