Custodian of the Concordium Dock
Overview
Constructed by order of the Imperial Senate, work was completed on this set of dedicated docks shortly before the Autumn Equinox 381YE.
The Kijker van het Vandersaar dok (Watcher of the Vandersaar Dock in Imperial) oversees a ministry that allows the purchase of White Granite from the Sarcophan Delves.
Responsibilities
The Watcher of the Vandersaar Dock is expected to ensure that Bedelaar Huisabaas Vandersaar of the Delves continues to trade white granite to the Empire. If the Vandersaar Dock were ever directly threatened, the Watcher would be responsible for dealing with those threats - but also for making decisions about any opportunity related to the dock. The continued operation of the dock, and thus the ministry, requires that relations between the Empire and the Sarcophan Delves remain cordial - the Watcher has a vested interest in ensuring friendship between the two nations continues.
Powers
| Total Money Spent | Production |
| 256 Crowns | 8 wains White Granite |
| 488 Crowns | 16 wains White Granite |
| 696 Crowns | 24 wains White Granite |
Ministry
As a ministry, the title of Watcher of the Vandersaar Dock allows the holder to purchase quantities of white granite at a set price. The Watcher spends their money and makes their choices during downtime from their character page. Money is removed from, and resources are placed into, the character's inventory when the downtime is processed.
Selection
As with white granite seats, the holder of the title is determined during the Summer Solstice. It is not clear at this time whether this is an Imperial title, or a National Urizen title.
Removal
The title of Watcher of the Vandersaar Dock is retained for a year, or until the citizen holding the seat dies, steps down, or is excommunicated. An Imperial Bourse title cannot be revoked by the Imperial Synod.
This title represents an agreement with the Vandersaar family of the Sarcophan Delves. In the even the relationship between the Empire and the Delves were to deteriorate, or the Vandersaar were to determine that trade with the Empire was no longer politically or economically viable, the amount of white granite available might drop - potentially to zero in a worst case scenario.
Vandersaar Dock
This private dock is built in Cargo, not far from the Sarcophan embassy. It takes the form of two long piers that enclose an area of open water with several jetties, along with a pair of dedicated heavily-reinforced weirwood cranes for lifting the white granite up to the town proper. The docks are servicable, and lack the ostentation of the nearby Pallas Docks.
The cranes lift the cargo of white granite up to the area dubbed "Little Delving" by a Marcher wag - that part of Cargo that has increasingly been taken over by Sarcophan merchants and visitors. Two squat warehouses store the white granite until it is purchased, guarded around the clock by well-paid Imperial mercenaries. Connecting the two warehouses is a rambling townhouse-cum-tower intended for the exclusive use of the Vandersaar traders and their companions. It provides an interesting example of a Sarcophan architectural style that sees the original structure heavily modified with additional rooms, sprawling window-box gardens, and covered walkways that, while servicable, appear ramshackle, disorganised, and thrown-together to the discerning eye of the Urizen.
The dock is for the exclusive use of merchants and traders dispatched by the Bedelaar Huisbaas of the Vandersaar family, who bring regular shipments of valuable white granite from the mercantile nation. The merchant vessels invariably arrive with a solid escort of powerful Sarcophan warships - although there are rumours that the Vandersaar have made a private deal with the Grendel to ensure their trading vessels remain unmolested in the Bay of Catazaar. The Vandersaar have also expressed an interest in employing vessels from the Brass Coast and the League to serve as additional protection for their priceless cargo.
(OOC Note: Any character with a military unit who takes the paid work action in downtime is free to roleplay that they have been guarding the Vandersaar warehouses, or serving as bodyguards to Vandersaar merchants wanting to visit other parts of the Empire. The Sarcophan family pays well and promptly, and appreciates professional soldiers who can present a menacing air. Likewise, any Freeborn or League fleet captain is free to roleplay that their privateering action involved guiding Vandersaar vessels to Cargo - or to other ports on the Bay of Catazaar that welcome Sarcophan traders.)
The Title in Play
The role does not provide additional information about events in the Empire, nor allow the player holding it to request special reports or downtime actions. These details are assumed to be below the abstraction layer. The title holder is encouraged to create their own stories about their activities within reasonable limits and to get involved in events appropriate to their title during the game, but they do not have any powers beyond those explicitly listed in the section on powers.
These details exist partly to provide context and character to the role - and partly to allow our writers to use the title as a plot hook. Plot that involves the position will be rare - but all the campaign positions in Empire have these details to create the potential for it to happen.