Ortho: NPC - Yamonuz, Minister of Doctrinal Purity

Some of this (particularly Yamonuz’s appearance) is still underdeveloped, as the final decisions for Shoryko haven’t been made yet. This should be slotted in without much trouble either way. Since traditionally many monks give up their family names, I've not listed one for Yamonuz but we can always assign one later.

As to the bureaucracy he's part of, I’ve envisaged a strong central bureaucracy that controls all the day to day running of the country – our autocratic nobles busy with other concerns (law, war, or whatever is decided…) and don’t want to lower themselves to such a common profession, and it seems like the ‘merchant classes’ won’t thrive here (the nobles having the wealth firmly under wraps) so they will likely choose the bureaucracy – or the Harmonium – as an avenue for advancement instead.

Last Edit: 04/05/07

The Minister of Doctrinal Purity

Shoryko’s Minister of Doctrinal Purity is charged with integrating Harmonium policies into the strict laws and customs of Shoryko society. The post was created during the ‘golden age’ of pre-Harmonium Shoryko, as Koryao and his heirs enforced a unified code of law upon the factious city-states.

The Ministry of Doctrinal Purity was created to examine, modify, and where necessary run roughshod over local laws, integrating them into a single rule of law directed from the capitol. Its chief soon became a person with incredible power over newly conquered areas, with authority to accept or dismiss the law and custom of each new province, be they matters of church or state. Although the political infighting around the new role was vicious and bloody (sometimes literally), as the unified nation slowly took form the Minister’s power waned. By the time of the Harmonium’s rise, the Ministry were little more than clerks and copyists, delivering the proclamations of the King.

Shoryko’s alliance with the Harmonium gave new life to the Ministry and renewed the influence of its chief. Once again they were required to examine edicts and missives for conflicts in local law, precedent, custom, and exemption. These days the Ministry acts much like a marcher state between the Harmonium and Shoryko’s hidebound administration. The Minister is a prominent role, but far less powerful than previously – ultimately the Harmonium’s edicts are always passed; the Ministry is charged only with ensuring that they are legally sound and distributed appropriately.

Name: Yamonuz, Minister of Doctrinal Purity
Race: Human Male
Age: 58
Position: Minister of Doctrinal Purity
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Class: Monk 9, Rogue 3

Description: The current Minister of Doctrinal Purity is Yamonuz, a former monk. Originally sent to court as a representative of his monastery, he found the luxuries of the capitol far more attractive than the severe austerity of his former role. Typical monkish practicality and efficiency, mixed with ruthlessness and wise alliances, lead him into the bureaucracy and eventually to his current role.

Although nearing his sixtieth year, Yamonuz still trains himself rigorously but is far more proficient in battles of court politics than martial arts. He uses persuasion, blackmail, and when necessary a sharp knife to ensure his work gets done, but it’s all for the benefit of Shoryko. He takes no particular pleasure in any evil he does; he is fighting a quiet war and inevitably there will be casualties. Outside his plans for the Shoryko Historical Society, Yamonuz is a conscientious bureaucrat with thoroughness, fairness, and discipline as his watchwords – this reputation serves him well in dealings with the Harmonium, when their edicts clash with his perception of what’s good of his nation.

Yamonuz is the currently highest ranked member of the Shoryko History Society, and he also leads the secret cabal that exists within it. He uses his powers to ensure that his nation never becomes a ‘mere province’ of the Harmonium. New laws, precedents, and edicts that threaten his homeland are met with determined obstruction and sabotage. Yamonuz takes care to couch his objections in legalistic terms however, and knows when to let a matter go (at least officially). He is always careful to appear content in defeat and depreciating in victory. As a result the Harmonium officers he deals with believe him to be an officious and hidebound bureaucrat, but not a threat. Yamanuz nevertheless enjoys a great deal of popularity with Shoryko's administration and nobility, who regard him as a quiet champion of national interests.

Occasionally Yamonuz steps over the line, moving from bureaucratic resistance to more underhand measures: threats, extortion, and blackmail. Sometimes he funds demonstrations and uprisings, passes useful information on ‘troublesome’ shipments and personnel to criminal and rebel organizations, and sometimes he resorts to outright murder. He’s dedicated to his cause but no fanatic - he is both careful and cautious in such schemes.

Yamonuz uses only trusted retainers for illegal operations, but he’s not afraid to get his own hands bloody if that’s what it takes. In fact, he’s developed a taste for it: As he grows older, Yamonuz has started to chafe against the restrictions of his social class, profession, and even the law; the nights when he becomes personally involved with secret dealings give him an exhilarating thrill, and he is beginning to involve himself too much in the Society’s secret and underhand affairs.

I'll edit in a full stat-up for Yamonuz asap

The Shoryko History Society

The History Society is a superficially harmless organization within the government of Shoryko. It is an entirely unofficial private club, with members drawn from the country’s bureaucracy. The Society studies historical texts and objects, seeking to gather a clearer picture of Shoryko’s history back to time immemorial. The majority of its members are simple amateur enthusiasts, but the Society is used for other purposes as well: A number of senior members have a secondary aim - to maintain national identity and interests in the face of interference with their country from the world state.

The society moves slowly and subtly, using their subordinates in the country’s bureaucracy to obstruct, challenge, and request endless clarifications on any matter they disapprove of – and occasionally provide discrete (usually financial) support for unrest against unwelcome policies they can obstruct no other way. Its extra-curricular activities would make it a proscribed organization if the Harmonium ever learned of this agenda, but fortunately the membership is relatively small, its actions usually legal and mistaken for typical bureaucratic exactitude, and many of its members really are genuine historians producing innocent academic works.

Organisation

The Society’s symbol is an open book with the heraldry of Shoryko on one page and the Harmonium symbol on the other. It is sometimes worn as a small pin or badge by members. Minister Yamonuz leads the Historical Society, assisted by deputies in each city-state, who in turn have influence in local government departments. Because of the strict social hierarchy in both the bureaucracy and Shoryko as a whole, the leadership of both the open and secret Society is largely identical.

The legitimate Society is organized into circles - informal groups usually arranged by location and government department, with cross-department circles only in isolated areas because Shoryko's government departments are notorious for their rivalries. Circles are generally between six to twelve individuals in size (some or all of which may be ‘secret’ members as well), but using their contacts and subordinates the Society can reach much farther than this number implies. Despite having members in all the major towns and cities of Shoryko however, the Society is neither as massve nor as powerful as the average cabal-member believes it to be.

The secret cabal operates entirely within the Historical Society, and most of its members have a genuine interest in history as well. The few who do not cultivate the appearance of it anyway, both as a cover for their nationalist activities and to ingratiate themselves with their superiors. They meet separately or after regular meetings. Normal Society members view these extra meetings as just the usual special treatment that stems from Shoryko’s age-old system of patronage, and work even harder to gain favour with their superiors.

Activities

The cabal meets under cover of normal Society meetings, co-coordinating their efforts and acting through subordinates and favours traded within the administration; utter loyalty to ones superior in the bureaucracy is an ancient and honourable tradition in the Shoryko. Like the society in which it hides, hierarchy is determined strictly by service rank, and within each rank by a person’s length of service. Those from backgrounds other than the traditional ‘bureaucrat classes’ are consistently snubbed, however. Its current leader is Yamonuz, Minister for Doctrinal Purity.

In its day-to-day activities, the cabal arranges various methods to sabotage or delay any dangerous proclamations from the Harmonium. They certainly don't object to all their efforts - ‘Dangerous’ means anything that could potentially threaten the nobility or powerful bureaucracy of Shoryko, further reduce its independence, or which encourages immigration. Shoryko law is intricate and full of precedent, and the Society’s legal experts examine each missive for errors and loopholes they can exploit. Sometimes these mistakes are deliberately overlooked to cause problems later, but most are sent back to the central government for questioning and clarification. Even spelling mistakes are sometimes used as an excuse for this, and thanks their work the Shoryko bureaucracy has a reputation as self important sticklers for procedure and propriety, an annoyance but certainly not a threat.

Orders of Harmony and Harmonium missives that simply cannot be ignored are of course accepted without complaint, but examined minutely for any potential consequences that can be exploited. Sometimes the Society deliberately encourages these problems with a quiet word to interested parties.

As part of their anti-immigration strategy, the Society also encourages the subtle harassment of foreigners; nothing excessive or illegal, but foreigners (except high-ranking Harmonium of course) always have their citizenship papers and other paperwork scrutinized for the least discrepancy. Woe to the traveler who falls foul of their scrutiny: The society tries to arrange for judges and other law enforcement officials who are sympathetic to the Society’s cause (often Society members themselves) to deal with cases involving foreigners, and they ensure that miscreants receive the harshest sentences and are incarcerated in the very worst gaols with the very worse local criminals – many of whom know that they can earn the favour of their overseers if they give foreigners a rough time. About the only way the Society helps such foreigners is by expelling them as soon as possible afterwards.

Recent Developments

Under the command of Yamonuz, the Historical Society is taking a more proactive stance in resistance. Although its bureaucratic sabotage continues, over the years they have begun to take part in more illegal activities as well. Confidential economic papers are slipped to Merchant Cartels in advance; Private Notes end up in the hands of blackmailers; problems with travel papers are deliberately invented when they can’t be found; Shorykan Free Folk and criminal organizations target troublesome individuals (and wreck the occasional paper store or print works) on behalf of the Society, or just ‘encourage’ people to look the other way.

These deeds are paid for with government resources, money and goods “lost in the paperwork” and never recovered. Several senior bureaucrats are unhappy with this state of affairs – as it is both illegal and exposes them to potential discovery – but they have so far remained loyal to Yamonuz, who in the past has been prepared to use his nefarious contacts against hostile Society members as well as external enemies.

ADVENTURE IDEAS

1. While traveling in Shoryko, the PCs fall foul of a Society official who detects a discrepancy in their travel papers (genuine or accidental, it doesn’t matter). Being foreigners, they PCs are imprisoned while the matter is sorted out. They are incarcerated for days if they are Harmonium or have friends in high places - and for many weeks if they don’t. They must endure terrible conditions, attacks from inmates, and brutal punishments from the guards for the slightest infraction. Even orse, any crimes committed while imprisoned (such as trying to escape) are treated as a new and separate criminal matter – characters may soon find themselves serving a much longer sentence.

2. As above, but the PCs are sent in undercover to investigate reports of foreigners being harassed in the gaol.

3. Free Folk or underworld characters can be hired to take part in any of the illegal activities of the Society, from beatings and intimidation to sabotaging print works (such as replacing a few key letters so the edict can be declared invalid), to assassinating investigators (and making it look like an accident). Although well paid they are never supposed to learn who their paymasters are - those who do are targetted for elimination.

4. Capable secret Society members (such as adventuring PCs) will receive all kinds of instructions from higher ranking members; difficult jobs (like dealing with the underworld) that will earn them a great deal of trust from Yamonuz and his deputies – and swift advancement in the bureaucracy. They’ll be expected to take the fall for their superiors if things go wrong, however.

5. Native Merchant Cartels and Venture Companies might be persuaded – by money or for favours - to do work similar to the above, rewarded by preferential treatment by the bureaucracy (officials 'looking the other way' at Knights' Road checkpoints, lucrative government contracts, travel papers processed swiftly, etc). For most Shorykan cartels, this is simply the price of doing business.

6. If the Harmonium ever suspects that something is going on, they will likely send in undercover exigency teams to investigate – which might create divided loyalties if there are any natives in the group.

7. Foreign cartels might be equally concerned about the Society, but want to remove its influence unofficially. PCs might be charged with investigating the Society or just evening the score for its activities. Initially focusing on the underworld, the PCs and their allies will have to conduct their ‘war’ quietly beneath the nose of the local Harmonium.