Introduction
The Vizierate is a separate organisation to the Legion and the Bureaucracy. It is responsible broadly for advising the Overlord (and the Underlords). Its stated responsibilities include scientific research, intelligence gathering and analysis, library and historical services and knowledge management.
Structure
The Vizierate is not as hierarchical as the Bureaucracy and the Legion.The Grand Vizier is in charge.
Regional Vizierates are led by an Under Vizier who was historically charged with advising the Underlord, but now maintains an advisory role to the local Secretariat (along with the Legion Secretariat Liaison, usually a high-ranking Commissar.)
The Under Viziers each have two and the Grand Vizier has three Viziers Ordinary reporting to them.
Below the Viziers Ordinary are any number of Minor Viziers who may be called upon to fulfil tasks and roles from the minor and trivial to the major and extraordinary.
Vizants
Viziers of any level may be assisted by technical and administrative employees of the Vizierate who have not been awarded Vizier status. These staff are known as Vizierate Assistants or Viziers Assistants – ‘Vizants’ for short.
Vizants have broad Grade Structure from 1 to 4. In fact there are not many Vizant-4’s – that level of grade is usually held by a Minor Vizier.
Vizier Ableford Comments on Vizants
Wardens
The Vizierate has its own security force called the Vizierate Wardens (the Wardenate). Wardens are generally well trained, but much fewer in number that the legion.
Warden Rank Structure
Wardens are broadly divided into Wardens and Guard Wardens, with Guard Wardens’ training and roles limited to security and combat functions, while Wardens have a wider range of skills.
| Role | Guard Wardens | Wardens |
| Senior Admin | Grand Warden Warden Liaison | Grand Warden Warden Liaison |
| Strategic | Warden Commander | Warden Commander |
| Tactical | Warden Guard Leader | Warden Leader |
| Operational | Warden Guard | Warden |
Uniform
Viziers generally wear Purple (specifically a Dark Violet shade) although their uniforms are not as uniform (ha ha) as most other services with a wide array of styles to choose from – everything from combat fatigues through neat casual and business wear to priestly robes.
Depending on role and local facility rules, Vizants may wear a lighter shade of uniform (more of a pastel orchid colour) or civilian dress. Vizant rank is usually displayed with a number of vertical bars, ie: I, II, III, IIII.
Uniformed members of Vizierate Wardens have an Amethyst uniform.
Minor Vizier Mallory Harrison explains how the Vizierate works
“Well, it works like this: Like the rest of the Dominion the Vizierate is organised into Octants managed by an Under Vizier and has a Dominion-wide view led by the Grand Vizier. Each kiloCycle the Grand Vizier, the Under Viziers and the Viziers Ordinary that support them meet together at the Vizierate Tower on Zargonia and develop the Vizerate’s forward plan for the coming kiloCycle. That meeting is called the Burden and the forward plan is called the Decision of Help.
“So, with the Decision of Help decided, the Under Viziers go back to their Octants and they and the Grand Vizier pass down the contents of the Decision to the Viziers Ordinary, who are responsible for allocating resources to meet the broad strategic objectives outlined in the Decision.
“Like the other main institutions of the Dominion, the Vizierate receives an allocation of funds and resources through the Overlord’s Benevolence and the Grand Vizier gives allocations to the Under Viziers. The Viziers Ordinary carve their respective allocations of resources and objectives up into Projects, each intended to meet some objective contained in the Decision. So at that point the Viziers Ordinary have a big list of broad Projects defined and a pool of resources allocated to each one, and then they need people to carry those projects out.
“If you are a Minor Vizier or a Vizant Grade 4 then you have access to the Vizier’s Marketplace on VizNet. Every Vizier and Vizant 4 has an entry in the Marketplace where we list our skills and previous Projects held. If we want, we can indicate that we are open to take on new Projects and add them to our portfolio of current work.
“So, a Vizier Ordinary with a bag of projects to get done goes to the Marketplace and either does a search for Minor Viziers with appropriate skills, or posts a notice and interested Minor Viziers can apply.
“Any project a Vizier Ordinary hands out to a Minor Vizier to be Vizier in Charge, or ViC,” Mallory pronounces it ‘Vich’, “is a Tier 1 Project. Now, the sort of Projects a Vizier Ordinary hands out are usually pretty big, like ‘manage all Vizierate facilities in Octant 5’, or ‘co-ordinate Vizierate intelligence analysis of the Naki’, so the ViCs for those projects usually break them up into smaller projects and go to the Marketplace to find Viziers to run them. These are Tier 2 projects, which may be further broken up to smaller Tier 3 projects, and so on.
“There’s nothing to stop a Vizier collecting a Portfolio of multiple projects, and most of us do over time. We may not always be Vizier in Charge, we can be Vizier Researchers as well. Suffice to say that as far as rank and prestige goes among Minor Viziers, the number and Tier of the projects in your Portfolio is the main measure of your standing.”