Chapter 509: Council of High Lords
927.M41, Holy Terra, Imperial Palace
At dawn, the air here seems to be full of smoke.
In preparation for the Japanese-Chinese Senate meeting, slave workers have lit the incense burners in the upper corridor and entrance hall, as well as those in the alcoves next to the Heroes' Walk.
The great leaded windows of those niches, which miraculously survived the rolling bombardments of the Siege of Terra during the Horus Heresy, had gazed upon the stately courtyard behind the Eternal Gate A hundred centuries old.
The incense burner floats up clouds of camphor, scepter wood, and rose ashes. This is the sacred incense of the Ecclesiarchy. It is said to smell exactly like the immortal and holy smell of the Emperor's eternal body.
Cleopatra Sis cannot testify to this. Although he is a representative of the Inquisition, he can apply and may even be allowed to attend the state church ceremony at the foot of the Golden Throne, but he I've never worried about this.
He is not interested in honor, even sacred honor.
What interested him, what fascinated him, was how to make the destruction of heretics more painful, and the opportunities provided by the destruction of heretics.
But as a radical master here, he has to deal with all the things he is not interested in.
Since the end of the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's accession to the Eternal Throne, power in the Imperium of Man has been transferred to the Council of High Lords, the Imperial Senate, composed of the High Lords.
As the highest authority in the empire, the Senate is composed of the twelve most powerful people in the human race. This institution coordinates and manages various political decisions within the empire in the name of the emperor. It has its own responsibilities. It is to interpret and carry out the Emperor's will, especially now that the Emperor can no longer rule directly over his Imperium.
However, the territory of the human empire is too vast, and it is impossible for the High Lords Council to cover everything, but their decisions still determine the fate of trillions of humans in the galaxy.
Since the Apostasy Era, the number of seats in the Imperial Senate has basically remained unchanged. Except for personnel fluctuations at certain moments of crisis, the number of seats in the Imperial Senate has remained stable at 12 seats under other circumstances.
Each seat is assigned to a powerful expert or the leader of an imperial organization. Tradition, intrigue, flattery, retaliation and common interests intertwine to determine who will rule and who will. Lost the election, and the status of certain institutions is too important, and the absence of their voices in the Senate is unreasonable. These are the nine permanent seats.
These include the Director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Pope of the State Religion, the Forging General, the Minister of Justice, the Navigator Ambassador, the Host of the Star Torch Court, the Grand Master of the Assassin Court, the Abbot of the Star Talk Court, and the representative of the Inquisition Court.
The nine seats are sacred and inviolable, and seats are rarely vacant in the history of the empire. Usually, after the death of the previous one, a successor can be chosen quickly within the organization.
However, some seat candidates are more special. For example, the Navigator Ambassador is open to any member of the Navigator family who is in power. In order to ensure the balance of power, the strong family will usually have a weak family member as the ambassador for this seat. In this way This is to ensure that the powerful families of the Navigators do not dominate their special political struggle system and form a power monopoly.
In addition to the nine seats, there are three non-permanent seats, elected from the powerful leaders of various imperial factions. They include:
The Sun Lord, Commander-in-Chief of the Astra Militarum , the high-ranking admiral of the empire, the bishop of the state church of Terra, the battle nun, the commander of the imperial army, the imperial archives minister, and the spokesperson of the charter captain (representative of the Rogue Trader).
Strangely, the Adeptus Astartes, the important military force of the Empire, almost never had a seat on the Council of the High Lords, except for the first Imperial Regent Guilliman himself and the current Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists.
It also involves a piece of trivia - since the Primarch Guilliman served as regent, the Speaker of the High Lords Council will also be given the title "Robert Guilliman", although it is for Commemorating the Primarch who remade the Empire can sometimes feel ridiculous.
The absence of the Astartes from the highest authority in the Imperium seems to be deliberate by Guilliman, for as the Imperium's elite military force, although outside the Council, when the Imperium is in crisis others will have to look to the stars. The help of the warrior leaders, while some believe that the Space Marines were excluded in order to implement the philosophy of the former Terran Council, distinguishing the original War Council from excluding the Astartes. Guilliman himself believed that, as stated in the Codex Astartes, the Space Marines served humanity, not ruled it.
Cleopatra As the Grand Inquisitor, she also agreed with this point.
The representative of the Tribunal is the voice of the Tribunal in the Council of High Lords of the Empire. Although this position does not bring additional power above that of the Grand Inquisitor, it has the impact of being at the highest level of power. This is indeed a powerful support for maintaining his already supreme power.
Inquisitor representatives are nominated from among the Grand Inquisitors of the various Inquisition divisions located on Terra, and those Inquisitors who have fulfilled this duty are designated as Terran Grand Inquisitors.
In addition, it is not uncommon for multiple Terran Grand Inquisitors to share the position of Representative of the Inquisition Seat at the same time, and the maximum term for a Terran Grand Inquisitor to serve on the High Lords Council is 5 years, after which he must step down.
Cleopatra Sis has been in this position for 4 years and is about to expire. In the future, he has a grand plan to hunt down heretics.
But now, he still has to deal with these annoying chores.
He entered the inner palace through the West Gate at the first ray of sunlight in the morning, and then followed the high garden and the corridor behind the Dawn Wall to the chapel behind the cloister, where he said a brief prayer at the font.
Cleopatra was not a good-looking person, she was a person of faith, but this was not the reason for him to pray every day.
He went to pray because he knew, or at least he was quite aware, that at least a dozen agents from other agencies or camps were watching him day and night.
It is easier to make sure he is seen doing what he is supposed to do than to waste manpower on clearing out those agents and eyes and ears every day.
This is the daily life of Holy Terra.
Let his opponents be busy, acting is not a big deal.
Cleopatra did this throughout her life.
So he is doing what others want him to do, as a Grand Inquisitor, he should attend all meetings, whether formal or informal.
He should behave with humility and dignity, and he should express no cruelty or bloodlust, as his opponents often assume that representatives of the Inquisition must harbor such things.
Since the Assassin's Tribunal went berserk thousands of years ago, the High Lords often thought that the Inquisition might be the second institution to go berserk on Terra.
Especially at the end of the 41st Millennium, when the conflict was deepening, the Inquisition did many things that they considered very outrageous.
(End of this chapter)