Kensar/Kensaria Profession in Ta Mando ~~ The World Of Kanda | World Anvil

Kensar/Kensaria

The Nation of Kanda is a truly gigantic one with colonies in faraway lands, enemies all around, all manner of trade and resource laws, needs for the people, the administration and the nobility. The list continues to go on as long as anyone cares to look for something to be concerned about.
And many indeed are quite concerned about just such things. The many thousands of mouths in any city are hungry and thirsty and the backs attached to those mouths too cold or too hot and in any case in need of being clothed. The heads need to be counted so that the beds can be placed. Every pound of grain and gallon of water must be tediously counted, stored and inventoried properly and the rates at which the resulting numbers rise and fall must be meticulously written down on countless scrolls, papers and parchments.   For that job The Empire Of Kanda has LONG had just such a position! The Kensar is a catch all Imperial Quartermaster if there ever was one; normally a man who is sharp and understanding in matters of inventory and supply and has made a name for himself previously in military campaign for rationing properly and exercising proper awareness of his kit and restraint in the presence of foreign temptations. However, Due to the nature of details and being able to keep them, a few noteworthy Kensaria in the past millennium have been upper class women who learned from and eventually surpassed their husbands.   While "The High Kensaria" is specifically an organization of 124 Kensaria that answer directly to The Kandar, each of them has a small army of personal apprentices that have long since graduated from their tutelage and trained their own apprentices, who themselves have carried on the tradition as well... and so on.
Originally these apprentices were not allowed to take on the official mantle of Kensar but over a millennium and a half of their existence the role has slowly changed and the High Kensaria were no longer able to maintain such great population statistics by themselves.   Nowadays there are tens of thousands of Kensaria and their role is more of a traditional, if highly complex quartermaster and census-takers. Every army has at least a few dozen Kensaria and every community, big or small, has at least one to manage the winter inventory. Moreover, All "Primary Kensaria" are superior in rank and station to any Prosernia and understand the working and management of the position of Proserna explicitly.

Career

Qualifications

MOST Kensaria were trained themselves by Kensaria when they were children, getting their feet in the door for administrative positions over trade and military logistics. However, anyone may become a Kensar if their organization, self control, attention to detail and concern for maintaining the status quo be sufficient. Obviously one must understand numbers quite intimately and must be fast enough with the hand to be able to sort through and scrawl over hundreds of records a day and be able to make sense of them and properly organize them. Furthermore, every Kensar must be familiar with at least two standards of measurement, several languages and a functional understanding of relatively advanced accounting.
Finally... it serves a Kensar best to have eyes that can quickly take general measurements and take in relatively precise measurements of something without needing tools; able to count minutes, judge weight, height and depth, consider potential density, meander on if something is fresh or not and measure how far away and how fast something is moving or might move at a glance all being invaluable to any Kensar.   While none of this necessarily need be all trained into one before attempting to become a Kensar, it clearly shows that ample education as a child gives major advantages to being chosen and some latter teens might well balk at all of the extra education they need to keep up with their more detail oriented military superiors without previous experience in the ways of heavy logistics.   Most importantly, the Position of Kensar is one that only has a limited population pool.
There can only BE so many Kensaria at any given time; a carefully built and maintained system that has lasted over 1600 years because it is so well balanced. Once you are a Kensar you are almost certainly safe in your position so long as you are not caught on a major infraction and/or crime but if you want that safety you must first become one; generally chosen by a higher circle of Kensaria that have considered you over many other potentials.
Therefor, anyone considering a life as a cushy administrator must understand that the road to it is full of cutthroat competition and being overlooked for the position possibly means a decade or more waiting for a new position to open up. This makes this highly prized and beneficial position one that people can often spend a lot of money into, work extremely hard to learn every aspect of and even KILL over!   NOT Everyone Can Be A Kensar.
There simply aren't that many positions...

Career Progression

The beginning prospects of being a Kensar involve understanding the branches of what Kensaria DO!   Kensaria are not just simple inventory keepers that monitor how many items are in stock!
Instead a Kensar must understand how to cook, preserve, weave, sew, appraise, douse and otherwise manage any and all designated specialties that lie underneath their position.   Suitably a Kensar begins their career by learning the basics and then specializes in each field in turn!
Gradually, as a Kensar trains more they achieve small patches to include on a special pouch they carry documents in. The pouch generally tells how experienced and thus how high of rank and station the Kensar is and most of the time they are expected to carry it with them wherever they go, especially considering the delicate nature of the documents within.   ONCE a Kensar has mastered all of the specialties under their jurisdiction they are generally allowed to request promotion to a higher circle of Kensar, raising them to a higher position of management and administration in society and opening a new field of specialties that deeper society contains.
Fermentation, Preservation and Appraisal specialties give way to essays and theses on Proper food aging, how to keep wine from turning, how to preserve eggs, how to shave weight off of swords in production without sacrificing effectiveness, etc.
Similar to how the batches on their satchels allow them promotion once they have collected all of them; once a Kensar writes a successfully accepted thesis on each such subject they may apply for entry into a higher circle still.   After the writing of theses comes the construction of inventions; with the Kensar in question GENERALLY expected to create inventions pertaining to their previous writings in any given subject but it is not unheard of for Kensaria to make entirely new inventions in those given fields and still being well accepted for it.
Of course, once they have created an invention of every major specialty they may once again apply for promotion into the next higher circle.   Beyond that the processes for promotion become rather too specific to list out in this article but suffice to say that there are about twenty levels to climb from the lowest Kensar seeking to gain specialty in every field and generally tasked with the maintenance and good attention to a community's winter reserves to the highest Imperial Kensaria; managing the palace inventories and monitoring the general reports of ALL of the Empire's Kensaria to maintain a stably balanced status quo.
In order to move up into any circle above the one they are presently in, however, a Kensar MUST be accepted by that circle first and welcome upward as well as have a position empty and waiting for them in the first place.
Often the opening of such positions are greatly celebrated in a community and even the most frugal of Kensaria generally find a way to throw a bit of a bash at the chance to welcome a new Kensar into their respective circle.

Payment & Reimbursement

The wages of a Kensar, even at the highest level, are generally considered middling regardless of station. The Imperial Kensaria are generally considered to be no comparably higher in their class of luxury than the winter inventory specialists of rural fortress holdings are compared to others around them. Largely the Kensaria have always been considered frugal enough that this is enough for them.   Generally, the benefits of being a Kensar are not of money but of material.

Other Benefits

While the pay the average Kensar is neither impressive nor wanting, the job brings far more in the way of social, material and labor benefits.
The life of a Kensar is mostly one of management and administration and the position holds considerable weight no matter where in the Empire they are found. Kensaria are consistently able to naturally take control of inventories, kitchens, preservation sheds, army food stocks, cloth stores, oil barns and even armories and arsenals if they so consider it necessary; often with hardly anyone nearby who possesses the authority to stop them from personally inspecting or even confiscating anything they can find good reason to stick their nose into before taking.   Moreover, Kensaria are considered some of the most necessary professions in the entire Empire, responsible for the very movement of its most required goods; food, water, clothing, weapons, tools, medicine and PEOPLE.
With that in mind, it is completely unheard of that one is without hungry, thirsty or without lodging, as it goes without saying that those who are best able to delegate and divide resources to their rightful positions would be the first to direct resources to. Kensaria often do not need money to acquire goods and services, as their activities can almost universally be written off as official business and reported up the ladder for proper administration at a later date by their superiors. Matters of housing are almost always attended to before a Kensar even arrives in a community and they are so highly desired in any community that Lords often compete over them and prepare lavish arrangements to keep them comfortable and encourage them to send to the capital that they have decided where they will keep as their specified jurisdiction.   Kensaria are almost universally considered highly marriageable, provided they aren't yet partnered with someone, and their organization and general resistance against fiscal temptation is largely considered an incredibly attractive feature in Kandia Culture, regardless of appearance or fitness. Parents Regularly try to get their children apprenticed under Kensaria so that, when they become men and join the military, they may state that they trained under a Kensar in their credentials. This usually gets their children moved to some sort of administrative role very early in their military career, which brings benefits upon the family as well.

Perception

Purpose

The Kensaria are a hyper-complex version of a quartermaster and census keeper.   They maintain consumable products, tools and general logistics not only for armies but for every community and group of Kanda from the largest cities to the smallest villages; managing and supervising over any and all cooks, Prosernia, weavers, blacksmiths, waste managers and even just general citizens, all the while keeping records of the population and how it rises and falls alongside all of the many reports they've kept of the resources for that population.   Thereafter a Kensar generally researches older reports and appraises the rates of growth, wealth, production, consumption, etc and constructs much larger, more consolidated records before making long term projections on what needs to be done in the community or organization at large.   The incredible attention to detail required for these positions often extends down to understanding exactly how much water each person drinks every day, week, month and year in turn, measuring them against every member of the family and measuring those families against all others in the region... to say nothing of how many square feet of cloth, how much grain, how many bales of straw and how many bottles of lamp oil they go through; on the individual, familial, neighborhood and regional scales, of course!   However, one philosopher about 300 years ago by the name of Cassius Abendion said this about the position of Kensar and its purpose:
"The Kensar is the most fickle of tax collectors; for he cannot be bribed, intimidated, fooled or distracted and his numbers never err toward personal profit or attempts at any personal business. He does not desire for fame nor happiness, for he already understands the necessity of his position and his very existence as Kensar sacrosanct except by the hands of others like him who seek to take his position by way of bringing to light his most personal predilections. He understands that, so long as he maintains only the greatest attention to detail and ensures that all resources go where they need, that the structure that he maintains will maintain him in kind and thus cannot be fooled into turning his loyalties elsewhere. To be a Kensar is to be an extension not of The Empire and its people... but of the Bureaucratic system itself; no longer human but a pen and ink with a mind of its own, tasked with ensuring that the system be maintained. Just as nobody would ever attack a pen and ink unless they were mourning a tragedy or suffering the madness of the unsound mind, nobody would ever think to turn their ire on a Kensar. And to attack a Kensar would be to attack the property not of any one man but of Kanda itself and so to threaten the livelihood and efficient function of the Empire as a whole."

Social Status

Kensaria are generally welcomed in with open arms even in businesses and homes that are indebted in some way.
No matter what social class they come from, Kensaria have good heads on their shoulders by nature and are generally showered with praise, gifts and welcome in any community in an attempt to endear them to the community at large. A well buttered up Kensar might pass on noteworthy advice to members that treat him well, teach a new preservation method to the community Prosernia or even be so impressed by the state of need for them in the community that they decide to stay for a time, even making these smaller communities their permanent homes on occasion. While their position as tax collectors and inspectors is certainly one that causes consistent anxiety it is largely considered that their bias against corruption ensures that those who are responsible with their business stay on a Kensar's good side and those who are merely clumsy or irresponsible can often pay a Kensar to tutor them or their children to correct their ways quite readily!   Indeed such measures often bring a Kensar to forego any potential fines, fees, citations and ill reporting in preference of more preferential reports about those they are inspecting being eager to improve and provide more in future years to the system of Kanda, which they in turn help bolster in an attempt to garner greater favor and benefits within the newly updated community. These future benefits and favors often come in handy during a Kensar's latter career, when they have gained considerable following and need to return to these communities to cross reference old reports as well as find new apprentices; often from these old communities in the form of the grandchildren of those they once professionally assisted, now more than willing to have their heirs receive quality educations by well established administrative officials.

Demographics

A VERY Small percentage of the population is dedicated to Kensaria and the numbers do not often change unless major land gains are recently attained by Kanda. Instead of Kensaria, considerably more smiths, Prosernia, cooks and other specialists exist in the fields that Kensaria happen to master all of to get their positions. Generally these many specialists are directly overseen by a Kensar of some rank or another..

Operations

Tools

While a Kensar's greatest tools are largely considered to be pen and ink they are no strangers to the tools of any basic trade that could be feasibly imagined.
Any Kensar needs to understand at least how to make food, cloth, purify water, refine metal and make a sword/spearhead out of it, handle medicine and otherwise manage any material or item they might find in any given inventory across the main portion of the empire.   In times of emergency a Kensar is supposed to be able to have a functional enough understanding of ANY artisan tool setup such that they can personally teach any given portion of the economy back into existence.

Materials

Paper And Ink!
If there is ANYTHING that counts as the primary-most material of the job... it's paper and ink!   Kensaria go through paper, parchment, tablets, scrolls and wood slat rolls like you wouldn't believe, all the while monitoring and recording and cross referencing every previous report they've ever made and noting the results on even MORE paper and ink!   Despite the fact that Kensaria tend to handle everything from wood to food to water to metal their most needed supplies truly are those required to write and record.

Workplace

Much like the Skurrilos, the average Kensar tends to be surrounded by chests full of ledgers, records, manifests and writing supplies and followed by a small army of attendants ensuring they have everything they need to maintain the easy running of wherever they have found themselves. However, unlike the Skurrilos, the desk and chests only compose of half of the Kensar's workplace and such a workplace tends to be more stationary once a Kensar settles into their chosen community. (Though Military Kensaria tend to have an almost identical "Moving Office" display as almost any Skurrilos)   The rest of a Kensar's workplace generally tends to be inspecting the many kitchens, armories, cloth stores, Cellars, and HOMES of their local areas; working with people directly to ensure that all numbers are managed as well as to continue the economic tradition of ensuring that every Kandia head is accounted for and every drop of water and spoon of food is taken into that account as well.

Provided Services

While the general purpose of the Kensar is mentioned in other parts of this article, the Services that a freely roaming Kensar might provide are also worth mentioning.   Just as mentioned, a Kensar can help a household balance their budgets, resources and land holdings as well as potentially tutor their child whether short or long term, thus giving the child a major advantage in becoming a Kensar himself and bringing great reputation to the family. However, the lowest and most mobile of Kensaria are often a wealth of understanding and the compassionate spread of knowledge!
For a night in the loft of the barn with some extra blankets, a hot meal and a strong drink in their belly, most younger Kensaria will be more than happy to help around even the lowliest properties to assist in rearranging things to work more efficiently, perhaps clear up a local dispute or arrange better pricing at a local market that they happen to have potential connections to.   Despite being the lowest of Kensaria, even those still patching their satchels, any Kensar officially ranks higher than any specialist within their purview of any rank, meaning that they are able to render management and administration services unto ANY production facility that they are paid to look after; from flour factories to sawmills to mass cooking operations for military camps to foundries.   Of course any Kensar is more than welcome to request their own, personal price for any such services granted but the lowest of Kensaria tend to provide quite reasonable prices for such well trained services.

Dangers & Hazards

Being a Kensar is largely considered to be a safe profession, at least if one remains a civilian professional. However, Military Kensaria are still soldiers and regularly find themselves in difficult situations and even the subject of assassinations if they are found to be the source of logistical order in any given Kandia force.   Perhaps more importantly, All Kensaria must watch their backs from those Kensaria in the circles directly beneath their own. All Kensaria are always looking to take advantage of an opened position above them and might even use their medicinal skills to nudge those sitting in these higher positions out of their chairs faster than would be otherwise considered natural.
Alternative Names
Counters, Squints, Night-Readers, Strippers, Sticks (Derogatory) ---- Thirst Breakers, Feeders, Fetchers, Collectors, Savers, Medicine Carriers, Providers, Warmth Bringers (Affectionate)
Type
Administration / Management
Demand
Kensaria Are Beyond Necessity! They Maintain The Very Order Of Kanda!
Legality
The position of Kensar is not only allowed by law but mandated by it!
EVERY community MUST have at least one resident Kensar to manage their stocks and record properly.
EVERY major fighting force must have at least one Kensar to manage their logistics
EVERY Lord must employ a Kensar in some fashion, whether permanently or temporarily, at any given time to ensure that corruption is not sown in the resources of any house.   A Kensar is not a position protected by law.
The Position of Kensar IS Law!
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