Altar of Divine Innovation
While the Imperial Palace and the senate building get all the glory of rulership, the civic center in the nearby Westpark district is where most day-to-day business of the state actually gets done. Formerly a temple to Aroden, the building was converted into government offices after the god’s death, and it now contains a byzantine mess of overworked actors within the Taldan government, including bureaucrats, diplomats, military officers, agents lobbying for the pet projects of influential people, and even representatives from popular clothiers and jewelers.
Attempting to accomplish anything via strictly legal avenues is a source of extreme frustration for everyone involved; requests are redirected to departments that don’t exist, while myriad redundant agencies work at cross-purposes in pursuit of their own notions of the country’s aims. The once-orderly system has effectively devolved into a frustrating and chaotic melee in which independent political entities grab as much power as possible from one another in an attempt to accomplish their goals.
Even the seemingly simplest processes have become so opaque that one bitterly jaded noble, Baronet Solmon Menander, has gone so far as to set up a bureaucratic back channel in which he regularly employs means of blackmail, bribery, and forgery. While unquestionably corrupt, Solmon uses his misbegotten influence mostly to provide a means of recourse to nonnobles who get caught up in the dysfunctional and uncaring system. Solmon sometimes even goes out of his way to offer assistance to those in need—especially if helping them fulfill their requests is likely to make one of Solmon’s fellow nobles suffer.
