Sun Chamber

Motto

Tall trees require deep roots.

The Manifesto

The Sun Chamber is dedicated to the advancement, empowerment, and support of young citizens of the Empire, those who are full citizens but are only just beginning to make their mark on the world. The Chamber aims to help members win influence and wield power in the Empire. It holds the following to be true:

• Youth is an asset the Empire cannot afford to squander.
• Tradition lays out safe paths; fresh eyes find shortcuts
• A Virtuous Empire is one that empowers all its citizens to act.

The Sun Chamber therefore exists to:

• Help members gain positions of power and influence in the Empire
• Empower members to overcome obstacles and advance their goals
• Encourage members to approach existing problems in new ways

Symbol

The Sun Chamber's symbol is a stylised sun with a crown. Some members, when using the symbol on their clothing, choose to display the crown above the sun, whilst others put it at the centre. As with any symbol in the Empire, there is no uniform way to represent it - it is the common elements of a sun and a crown together that can be recognised as the emblem of the Sun Chamber.

Membership

Any Imperial citizen who is old enough to take their Test of Arms but has not yet turned nineteen can join the sodality using the Mark of Fellowship ritual. A member of the Chamber who turns nineteen during a summit remains a member until end of the summit. Even the Throne is not eligible to part of the sodality unless they are young enough to be a member.

As with any sodality, other citizens may only enter the sodality chamber while it is in session with the express permission of the members present. The sodality is unusual, because of its age limits; in the past, the sodality has often allowed people to enter if they were members in the last year and has sometimes allowed younger citizens who are not yet old enough to attend if they are eager to join the sodality and want to support its goals. As with all guests, they can attend only with the ongoing permission of members which can be withdrawn at any time.

Counsel of the Sun Chamber

The Counsel of the Sun Chamber is the single Imperial title elected by members of the sodality at the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice. Counsel is expected to be a mouthpiece for the sodality, with the responsibility to represent the Chambers's views to other parts of the Empire, to recruit new members, and to advance the sodality's goals and the members' interests.

Counsel serves until the next Summer Solstice or Winter Solstice, whichever is sooner. They can be revoked by the General Assembly and by the Assembly of the Nine.

The duration of appointment is unusual - but Empress Richilde was adamant on this issue when the title was first created. She stressed that whoever holds the position of Counsel should be using the title as a springboard to advance their political fortunes and gain a more powerful title.

Appointment

The Counsel of the Sun Chamber is selected by members of the sodality. Only a member of the sodality can present themselves for the title, and only a member of the sodality can vote in the election. The candidate who gains the most votes from the members of the sodality is elected to the title.

Powers

The Sun Chamber is the beneficiary of three bequests. Each event, they make vote to endow one or more of these bequests on a member of the sodality.

In addition to these powers, the Chamber has five powerful abilities, commonly referred to as the five points - one of these abilities is available each season.

If the title of Counsel of the Sun Chamber is vacant, then the sodality can take a vote to appoint a representative to the position.

Endowment

Over the years the Chamber has has been the beneficiary of some significant bequests, most often from former members who have gone on to wield great power and influence within the Empire. Keen to share their Prosperity with the sodality that supported them at the start of their life, these members have endowed the sodality with access to additional resources with the clear expectation that the sodality will use these resources to advance their goals.

Each season, the sodality can choose to endow each one of the bequests on a single citizen each. The three bequests must be voted on seperately, but each individual bequest can only be endowed in its entirety, they cannot be split up. A bequest rolls over each season that it is not endowed - the eligible member of the sodality receives everything accrued to date after a successful vote of endowment.

To endow a bequest on a member of the sodality requires a majority vote of members who are present when the sodality is in session. Any member of the sodality can call for such a vote during a session - if the vote is successful, then the attending civil servant will take the appropriate records of the event and provide the endowed resources.

The Falling Star

• Provides a bequest of three rings of ilium each season

According to legend, the Falling Star in Northpines is the birthplace of Myfanwy, one of the earliest companions of the First Empress. There has been a small Navarr striding here for centuries, but it is the waterfall itself which most citizens find remarkable. The river Casta is neither large nor even particularly memorable, except where it falls over the edge of the Giants Bluff. Here the water plunges nearly two hundred feet over the edge of the promontory to cascade into Casta Lake below.

Over the centuries the waterfall has cut away the rock, receding ever further from the edge. As a result, it is possible for a bold spelunker to walk upstream tracing the course of its history as you pick your way carefully into the mountain. Seventy feet in, the passageway opens out into a small chamber where the water crashes down from the rock above. If one stands here at night, ove can see the stars directly overhead, glistening through the mist thrown off by the waterfall.

It is possible that it is the arresting vision that gives the waterfall its name, but it could equally be the presence of small amounts of ilium that can be dredged from the plunge pool. The resource is small enough that it never formed part of the Bourse auction, but still large enough to be valuable. It was bequeathed to the sodality during the reign of Empress Teleri following a past life vision involving Myfanwy, the details of which are long lost.

The Line and the Curve

• Provides a bequest of twenty five mana crystals each season

The Line and the Curve are a prosperous coven of cabalists based in the forest of Skoremujac in Karov. The coven earn their wealth providing a mix of enchantments and wardings for people who live in the handful of vales scattered across the forest, boosting supplies of ambergelt and dragonbone. The coven chose to bequeath the sodality with a supply of crystals from the mana sites that they maintain in the forest during the region of Empress Varkula.

The official version of the story is that members of the sodality acted to save the coven from a deadly bargain that had been made with the Night Below. Rumours have periodically circulated that suggest that the deals made may have been more complicated than they first appeared, but nothing incriminating has ever been substantiated. The truth is likely long gone now - all that remains is the legacy bequeathed to the sodality.

The Wyrd Stone

• Provides a bequest of thirty crowns each season

The Wyrd Stone is a huge dark brown stone shaped like a wheel, complete with a hole where the axle might go. It is found on the trod that leads away from Brightway in Astolat towards Miaren, but is never found in the same spot twice, despite the fact that the circular rock is far too heavy to be moved. The Wyrd Stone defies divination magic, it is apparently under a powerful night shroud and would be destroyed if the shroud were breached.

According to local legends the Wyrd Stone brings a glorious outcome for lovers who pledge their troth here, if they each take it in turns to place a coin in the hole in the centre of the wheel and whisper a secret to the stone about their lover. As a result, it is common for young nobles to come here before they undertake a Test of Ardour, in the hope that the Wyrd Stone will lead to triumph. There is a common belief that the the coins need to be a single throne for each noble while yeofolk must find a crown each.

The Finest Hour, a circle of troubadours based out of Brightway make a journey to collect the coins from the Wyrd Stone regularly to ensure that their presence doesn't attract bandits. During the reign of Emperor Nicovar the Senate passed a motion bequeathing the funds collected to the Sun Chamber, less the four thrones upkeep required to support the sodality, which are remitted directly to the Imperial treasury.

The Doors of the Chamber

The doors are five powerful abilities that the Sun Chamber has gained over the years since its inception. They reflect power that the Chamber has accrued over many years of operation with the help of various factions, including supportive groups within the Empire as well as eternals. The name is in reference to the doors of the Sun Chamber in the Castle of Thorns, used by Empress Richilde during her reign when hosting dignitaries. Each door leads to a different part of the keep and each bore a different name - the Teacher's Door, the Merchant's Door, the Weaver's Door, the Smith's Door and the Hunter's Door.

The Sun Chamber can only employ a single one of the five powers in this set each summit. If they employ one of the five points, then they cannot use any of the other points that season. In addition, once a power has been used, it cannot be used again that year.

All five points reset at each Summer Solstice - at that summit, the Chamber can use any one of these five powers. Any power that is employed at a summit cannot be used again until the next Summer Solstice.

Future Wealth

• Once a year, the Chamber can vote for resource upgrades to cost one wain less in a territory

Once each year, the Chamber can call on their links with the Church of the Little Mother to help members and former members find new ways to invest in the wealth of a single Imperial territory. Working together the sodality and the Church help to arrange apprenticeships and use their ingenuinty and drive to support the expansion of businesses and other resources in the area. In the following season, all personal resources in the territory cost one wain less to upgrade than normal. The option to benefit from this aid is only available in the season following the summit where the Chamber elects to employ this power; the cost of any new upgrades returns to normal after that. It is never possible to stack this benefit with an equivalent benefit from another source.

This ability relies on an assurance to the Church of the Little Mother that the Chamber will extract a fair price for their aid from those who benefit. They demand that the sodality make a senator, or any citizen, who wants their territory to benefit in this way pay handsomely for the help. With the right organisation, the Chamber can help the occupants of a territory save a small fortune in wains of mithril, white granite and weirwood. The Church insists that the sodality ensure that their rewards reflect the benefits they are providing, otherwise they will withdraw their help.

Past Lives

• Once a year, the Chamber can vote for a citizen to receive a dose of true liao

The Tall Oaks are a Navarr steading in Miaren many of whom were members of the Chamber years ago. The steading incorporates large gardens which are used to grow vinum to make liao and which occasionally produce true liao. When the sodality was created, members and former members of the chamber convinced Empress Richilde to grant the steading custody of one dose of true liao they produced each year, on the proviso that it would be granted to the sodality if they requested it.

As a whole the steading remains wholeheartedly committed to supporting the Chamber and remain committed to providing the sodality with a dose of true liao on request. Once each year, the Chamber can request a single dose of true liao from the Tall Oaks. The Chamber can name any single member of the sodality to receive this dose - but they cannot constrain what that citizen chooses to use the liao for.

In the past the Chamber have often opted to sell the dose of true liao to a wealthy supplicant, to raise significant funds to support their other activities. Where it has been used to access a past life, there is a long standing tradition, that the sodality won't choose the same member twice to receive this rare benefit.

Current Problems

• Once a year, the Chamber can vote to appraise a problem they are contending with

Once each year, the Chamber can call on members and former members to look into a specific problem with a view to identifying potential solutions for the Empire to consider. One of the founding tenets of the sodality is the belief that fresh eyes can find new solutions to old problems. Rather than prize experience and tried and tested solutions, the sodality exists to encourage members to approach existing problems in new ways. The goal is to look at a problem in new ways, to see if a different approach will yield results.

Usually, members of the Chamber will work with members of the Prognosticators Office who can compile the information and check it carefully so that it can be presented as if it were a regular appraisal. Graciana i Lòpez i Guerra, one of the foremost appraisers in current times is known to be an admirer of the sodality and her and her team are always willing to help where they can. Members of the sodality still have to do all the hard work, but cooperating with the prognosticators office allows them to check all findings carefully and then present them through official channels.

More rarely, members of the Chamber will present a summary of their findings to the Counsel of the Sun Chamber, to allow them to discuss the matter with members of the sodality at Anvil who can then decide what action to take.

Whatever form the research takes, it does not count against the limited number of appraisals the Imperial Senate can employ, nor require the use of any the specific prognosticator teams currently employed by the office. To employ the power, the Chamber must provide the attending civil servant with a verbatim copy of the question they want members to look into, after voting to approve it.

Eternal Allies

• Once a year, the Chamber can vote to send a formal request for aid to an eternal

While Barien offers their patronage officially, it is an open secret that many eternals have a particular interest in the youth of the Empire (seen recently in the boons offered to the so-called Summer Children by inhabitants of all the realms). Perhaps as a consequence once each year, the Chamber can send a short message to an eternal seeking aid or a boon for the Chamber. To employ the power, the Chamber must provide the attending civil servant with a verbatim copy of their request and the name of the eternal whose aid they seek, after voting to approve it. The civil service who support the sodality will then arrange for the message to be conveyed to a creature known as Inkowl - a feathered, portly, avian servant of Barien who lives in the woods near the Semmerstones. Inkowl is empowered by his master as the Lord of the Crossroads to ensure the missive gets to the eternal it is intended for either directly, or through contacts with other heralds or mortal agents.

Regardless of how it is done, the message is guaranteed to reach the chosen eternal, but they are free to respond as they choose. Often, they will arrange a meeting with members of the sodality - as if it were a plenipotentiary arranged by an archmage. Care must be taken however; this is not a true plenipotentiary and the eternal is not restricted by the rules of a formal parley. A request for aid from the Chamber also does not carry the same weight as that of an archmage - the latter is usually treated as the designated authority in the Empire by most eternals - a position the Chamber do not have.

Also unlike a plenipotentiary missive, there is no specific word limit on the message that can be conveyed. However, the agreement with Barien is that the Chamber will get help with a single specific piece of aid or assistance with a single problem. The sodality can ask for as many things as they like, but whichever eternal they request help from will only ever provide help with one thing. It is a good idea to ask for a few different things - to ensure that the eternal is powerful enough to provide the help requested, but the more things they ask for, the less control the sodality has over what assistance they are likely to receive.

There is also an overwhelming expectation that the request directly benefit either the sodality itself or its members. The Iron Duke always knows what the message says; the eternal is known to be a keen supporter of the Chamber's manifesto and has been known to take a dim view of requests that seem to offer nothing to the Chamber itself. Wiley Counsel's have often ensure that their missive includes a short explanation of how the Chamber stands to gain from the aid to avoid incurring the wrath of the Master of Challenges.

Most eternals will refuse to extend an invitation to meet in response to a message that simply asks to talk without saying what it is about, though they may respond in other ways. As always, by far the best way to ensure that an eternal will respond positively to a request is to be clear and explicit about what is desired. The more specific and detailed the Chamber can be, the better. Such aid is rarely free, though eternals whose goals are aligned with those of the sodality will be more amenable to helping them than others, but the more powerful the aid requested, the higher the price.

The sodality can contact anyone, but a number of eternals have demonstrated a willingness to help the sodality in the past. Wise Rangara is known to take a close interest in the sodality and its members, though the eternal's aid has often come at a terrible price. One of the names of Irra Harah is the Guard of the Young, so it is perhaps no surprise that the Spring eternal is usually ready to support members of the sodality. Callidus, the Prince of the Argent Tontine has previously demonstrated a willingness to lend the sodality significant sums of money on request, though that friendship would likely turn very sour if the sodality failed to meet the terms of such a loan.

There is widely believed to be a fifth eternal who is a close ally of the sodality, potentially even a patron, but it is not clear who that might be. There are claims that the Chamber used to enjoy a close relationship with the Whisper Gallery, but that has never been publicly confirmed. Members of the order often seemed to enjoy a good relationship with both Zakalwe and Roshanwe but both eternals deny having extended any favour to the sodality. Sadogua and Meraud certainly have an interest in young magicians, but their attention is very focused on those with an interest in the arcane arts and in both cases their support of the Sun Chamber waxed and waned. Likewise, Azoth certainly seems to be intrigued by the Academy but that eternal is known for mercurial flights of fancy and is unlikely to ever be tied down to anything as mundane as "patronage". Whoever this fifth eternal is, they are playing their cards close to their chest.

Hidden Possibilities

• Once a year, the Chamber can vote to ask members to scout a specific territory

Once each year, the Chamber can call on members and former members to go to a territory with explicit instructions to try and find out what they can about what is happening there. The chosen territory can be an Imperial territory, or any territory which is adjacent to a territory under Imperial control. To employ the power, the Chamber must provide the attending civil servant with the name of the territory they want to scout out, along with a short summary of what to look for if desired.

The reconnaissance won't usually produce detailed information the way a spy network might, nor can the sodality create a map of a territory. But they can look for opportunities in the area that might benefit the Empire. If the chosen territory is one where Imperial armies are on campaign, or is one controlled by barbarians, then members will seek any opportunity to advance the Imperial war effort there. This will result in one or more opportunities to use the Sentinel Gate to strike at the enemy, either attacking them directly, or else recovering valuable information.

These operations rely on help from the eternal Barien. As a patron of the sodality, the Lord of the Crossroads has committed to providing members of the sodality with the assistance they need to move past enemy lines. The price of this aid, is that the Chamber commits to sending only members of the sodality on any conjunction that is identified. Such expeditions are challenging and dangerous - members of the Chamber have been killed on more than one occasion attempting some dangerous quest through the gate. But the potential benefits can be significant if the sodality triumphs, providing invaluable aid that can assist with an ongoing campaign, or damage the enemy's infrastructure.

In the past, the sodality have occasionally employed Barien's aid to spy on an active danger inside the Empire's borders. The resulting efforts are equally dangerous, but can yield valuable opportunities to deal with an internal threat or gather vital intelligence about it. To succeed in this way, it is crucial for the sodality to be explicit about the threat they want members to pursue, otherwise they risk their orders being misinterpreted.

History

The Sun Chamber was founded during the reign of Empress Richilde. As a Dawnish noble, Richilde was concerned that citizens who had passed their Test of Citizenship and Test of Arms should have opportunities to pass their Test of Mettle so that they might join a noble house.

The early Empire had become much more formalised during the reign of Emperor Giovanni, and where previously titles had been appointed on merit, Richilde felt they were increasingly being offered only to those who had served long apprenticeships. The Empress disdained the idea that someone must spend years serving as the proxy for a senator or an adjutant for a general before they might aspire to high office, and rarely failed to point out that many who now occupied those titles had not had to endure such trials. She spoke regularly on the lack of Pride she perceived in such sentiments and argued that it was little more than a crude attempt to hold onto power by an older generation.

The Throne worked with a number of aspiring heroes of the age to create the Sun Chamber, and bequeathed it with a clear goal to empower its members and help them gain high office and to wield power within the Empire. The Chamber benefitted from the Richilde's patronage and deliberately chose the name to emphasize their closeness to the Throne. There were accusations that the Throne also benefitted from the relationship, with the sodality providing the Empress with gossip and information about goings on in Anvil.

The power of the Chamber grew slowly but steadily, in the decades that followed, working to secure the patronage of a number of groups as well as the support of several eternals. Unfortunately the sodality collapsed during the reign of Empress Britta. The Wintermark banner-bearer had been a member of the sodality as a youth and the charismatic Throne remained very popular with the current members of the Chamber. As a result, every member of the Chamber who could, fought alongside the Empress in the fateful battle in Skarsind where Britta met her death. One by one, they died fighting by her side.

Following the recent work to restore the power and status of sodalities, Luca and Zoria of the Zulgan Tash pushed the civil service to look into the status of the Sun Chamber. Having identified that the sodality's powers were never abrogated, the Constitutional Court have confirmed that the Chamber is still a viable legal body with a number of important powers that it can now utilise.

Patronage

The Sun Chamber currently enjoys the patronage of the eternal Barien and three notable groups of Imperial citizens.

The Lord of the Crossroads is a stalwart ally of the sodality, and often lends aid with challenges and expeditions. His patronage supports the Chamber's ability to contact eternals and to scout territories in the Empire - the Traveller sends heralds to provide assistance and support. This aid does not make the efforts any easier or any safer, but it does help to identify any conjunctions that the sodality can use to gain a material benefit for the Empire. The assurance for this aid is that the sodality ensure that only members of the sodality make use of the conjunction - as Master of Challenges Barien is keen to ensure that members of the sodality risk their own lives to test their mettle.

Once each year during their term, the Counsel of the Sun Chamber is expected to arrange a Winged Messenger detailing rumours and gossip the members have uncovered to Geoffre of House Murtell at Brightway in Astolat.

The Finest Hour are a group of Dawnish troubadours who live in Brightway in Astolat. They help to maintain the Wyrd Stone as well as producing complex genealogies of relationships between Dawnish nobles. Those who approve of their efforts point to the scholasticism with which they meticulously record the epic moments of people's lives; critics deride their work as little more than tittle-tattle and gossip. As assurance for their support, once a year, the Counsel of the Sun Chamber or their proxy is expected to provide the group with a winged messenger sent to Geoffre of House Murtell at Brightway in Astolat, detailing interesting rumours and gossip the sodality have discovered.

The Tall Oaks are a Navarr Steading based in Oakways in Miaren. The Steading was founded by a group of young Navarr who attended Anvil together long ago during the region of Empress Richilde. According to their history, the Tall Oaks were founding members of the Sun Chamber and while it is rare for any of their descendants to attend Anvil today, the Steading remains passionately committed to supporting the sodality. The Tall Oaks maintain large gardens where they grow vinum plants to produce liao for the civil service, including a surprising amount of true liao. Most of this precious commodity is provided to the Empire, but the Steading keeps just enough to provide the sodality with a single dose each year if requested. In return, they ask only that the sodality does what it can to support the growth of civilisation in the Empire through investment, both in people and projects that advance Imperial ambitions.

The Church of the Little Mother used to enjoy a close relationship with the Chamber, with complementary goals. While priests of the Little Mother invest in the future to help children better themselves, the sodality aims to empower young citizens in the hope that they can better themselves. A close relationship with the Church is essential to the sodality to allow them to help invest in the Prosperity of a territory. In return for their aid, the Church demands an assurance that the Chamber will ensure that they are well recompensed for their efforts by representatives of the territory they have helped.

Game Design

We've created the Sun Chamber sodality because we want to directly address the fact that Empire can be a very inaccessible game for players before they turn twenty. We have always tried to provide a range of options to actively engage younger players and we've had some fantastic feedback on the successes of that, but once players past their Test of Citizenship and either take their Test of Arms or choose not to, that framework falls away.

The hope was always that players in would be able to engage with the political game of Empire, getting involved in Conclave, the Synod and the other parts of the game as they try for Imperial titles. In practice, that assumption was hopelessly naive. While the setting asserts that anyone who has passed their Test of Citizenship has all the rights and responsibilities of an Imperial citizen, in practice, that doesn't always happen. A player who looks young will often have to deal with ageism, with people unconsciously assuming that they're not old enough or not mature enough or not experienced enough simply because of their apparent age. We want our game design to support our conduct rules and push back where practical on out-of-character prejudicial assumptions. For example, we will not tolerate someone saying that another player or character shouldn't be in the military council because of their gender or whether or not they take the battlefield. We've had some conversations with younger players about their experiences playing the game. Drawing on their feedback, we've created a powerful sodality with some significant in-character abilities to help address the barriers faced by players in this age group.

Our goal is three-fold; first of all, we want to create a degree of equity for players who are under twenty. We want to directly bolster their political power to make the PvP game accessible on a more equal footing with other players. The sodality is aimed at players aged fourteen to eighteen, but includes the potential for players a little older and a little younger to interact with it.

Secondly, we want to create a forum where players in our target group can engage in politics with each other - the sodality is deliberately set up in such a way as to make its inherent operation political. Deciding how and when to deploy its powers will require the same kind of politics and compromise that underpins the rest of the game. Our goal is to give members of the sodality difficult decisions to wrestle with - exactly the same as other players - but in an environment where almost nobody but them has any hard power to determine what happens.

Finally, we wanted to create reasons that other players might want to interact with the sodality. We hope that senators, grandmasters, cardinals and characters without titles will want to approach the sodality and seek their help and support, just as they might with other political bodies in the game. Likewise, members of the sodality will have to approach these titles to advance their own goals. We really want to avoid interactions where people either give them everything they want because they're perceived as children, or else write them off and ignore them for the same reason. Instead, we hope that players will treat them as significant characters who have powers they can wield that can be employed to their advantage if they can persuade enough of them to go for it - that is to treat them as peers in the player-vs-player and player-with-player political game of Empire.

We'll watch the development of the sodality carefully - and listen to all feedback as always, but we hope that the Sun Chamber will serve to make the political game of Empire more accessible to more players.

Further Reading

• Imperial sodality
• The Academy

• An old sodality - 387YE Summer wind of fortune re-introducing the sodality