Of Singhapura, the Great Empire
The poet Additya Wickrama was a man of considerable gifts and considerable debts, the latter of which he resolved by dying. He once wrote thus: there are two kinds of people: those who belong to Singhapura, and those who will. He owed me six hundred and thirty-eight Owls at the time, which colors my affection for the observation, but I have traveled widely and I have not found reason to dispute it.
Singhapura is the greatest continuous Empire in the known world. It is the largest political, economic, and military power of our age. It stands at the forefront of infrastructure, education, magical development, and industrial capacity. It sprawls from the Diamond River Delta through the Balalpura Plains, one of the world’s great breadbaskets, to the Raavanskandha Mountains, said to be the bones of the dead god Raavan. It continues up into the mountain fastnesses of Udanuwara and Giridhora, past the Hooniyang Pass, from where it controls Wattle and Daub. To the south, it holds the entire coastline and the thousand islands of Tangowan as a vassal state.
Singhapura is the primary political fact of Your Grace’s governance. Fortunately, I am well-versed in its nature, having spent a greater part of my years therein; allow me, therefore, to guide Your Grace at length on the subject.
Of the City, Which Is Also the Empire
To understand Singhapura the empire, one must first understand Singhapura, the heart-city of the empire. The city was originally founded at the Diamond River delta, and then moved piecemeal and rebuilt in the shadow of the Raavanskandha mountains. All roads lead to Singhapura, or so it is said. Indeed, follow any road from any end of the empire; follow the lion statues - follow the Diamond River, monsoon-waters so wide you cannot see the end, and then at the end are vast Balalpura Plains, a sea of green interspersed by great chasming moats that shine crimson, as if watered with blood. This is Rathmada Samudra, more than five thousand hectares of reservoirs running red with Taprobane-cultivated algae, built to enrich and irrigate the land; beyond it, at the foot of the Raavanskansha mountains, is a vast city, fronted by great bridges. Your Grace, standing at the bridges, will see a great number of peoples and homes and buildings even before the city walls, which rise higher and higher as one goes in, until at the very apex sit several great towers.
Inside the walls is a world of glass and metal and spires, the hum of waterworks and arcane machinery, roads worth more than diamonds. The city is organized in concentric rings representing the cosmic order. At the center is Adhiraj House, built by the Lusian architect Andretto d’Orenzo alongside the finest mages of Taprobane; here lie the Adhiraj’s quarters and all essential administration, and the towers one can see with the naked eye. Below are the Botanical Gardens - the entire known world in microcosm, every plant from every place the empire can reach, trade with, or control. In the rings below are the sprawling buildings of the Taprobane Imperial University, the greatest university in the world, from which magic was and continues to be revolutionized; the offices of the Red and White Councils of the Haugris Church, and all its attendants; at the very bottom, by the great roads, come merchant, unloading cargo onto great runic conveyors. From Tangowan, from Wattle, from Lusia, from the Rosantic League, even from lands further still - all flock here.
The water infrastructure alone, built in these mountain lands, represents an administrative and engineering achievement that most states could not conceive. If Your Grace sees vast roots of stone, like a great hand laid upon the city, know that this is the Mahabag Subha, its underground and overground canals connecting public tanks across the entire breadth of the city, some extending hundreds of miles to supply entire towns.
The Sunken Church sits behind the city and above it; carved into the foothills of the Raavanskandha, it houses what the Haugris Church holds to be the Divine Corpus: the preserved remains of Raavan himself. It is a holy place, drawing pilgrims from the city in a ceaseless grey stream. The Ruins of Vidyaakara lie visible in the plains to the east, restored by the Temple of Eighteen. They are said to be one of the oldest remnants of ancient Samarskand - a stupas, a university, monasteries, with sealed areas yet unexplored, about the size of Daub; it should tell you much that the Empire is thus able to preserve an entire city thus, unused, for the sake of historical curiosity and antiquity.
There are, of course, satellite cities, as large but perhaps not as storied. Nagenapura to the East, Basnapura to the West, Ruhunapura to the South; and in between a thousand towns and minor dealings, all the way up to Udunuwara and Giridhora, which guard the passage to the North.
Your Grace will not deal with these satellite cities directly. As Duchess of Daub, Your Grace is technically above most administrators and provincial nobility encountered on the road south; this is a pitfall, and I will urge you caution. Anything said in such conversations will be met with smiles and hospitality but little else, and promptly reported to Singhapura; conversely, little of import will be said unless by one specifically authorized to do so by the center.
Of How the Empire Is Actually Governed
Political theorists - I invoke Weerasingha and his student Molligoda, the latter of which I will spare Your Grace - have long since attempted to build classifications of empires in the same way that Taprobane classified magicians. One may use their thinking to describe Singhapura accurately as a divine-right absolute unitary state. Unfortunately, one may describe it equally accurately as an aristocratic legal feudal state with federal characteristics, and still be correct. This is the problem with applying theory to practice.
Your Grace should understand that the empire’s apparent monolithic unity, as seen from Daub, is the face it presents to its periphery.
Firstly, Singhapura nobility, Your Grace, is unusual. It is the custom around the world that noble title be drawn from some holding of land and people. In Singhapura one can live in a mud hut or a small city tenement and still be ennobled, either for some great work of scholarship, or of art, or some valorous deed in service of the state. Various Adhirajs, have, at times, bestowed land; but it is customary now for ennoblement to come with a fee commensurate to the deed rendered, paid annually. Indeed, the Grandmaster and Paragon ranks of magicians of the Taprobane Imperial University carry with them the priviledges of ennoblement. Onwership of land is now held to be the right of the state and the state alone; estates that are mismanaged can be given to others, or parcelled out, or taken over for public works.
There are fixed rules about manners of crests and customs, of address, and even of weapons; for example, unless otherwise bestowed by the Adhiraj, a member of a noble family may only carry on their person one kasthane, a curved blade, worn as a signifier of rank; though often highly decorated with lion motifs and even gems and the like, the actual blade is kept short, so that it may hang no further than the length of a coat. Hereditary power is real but not absolute - it can be stripped by the Adhiraj, the Church, or the judgment of peers. A commoner from a remote province can acquire a crest with the right patronage and the right deeds to their name. The bureaucracy, is appointed by and answerable to the Adhiraj, a system of Justice of Peace and Low and High Courts in each territory; these are, indeed, nobles, but it is the appointment that gives them power, not their nobility.
Thus, Your Grace, the nobility of Singhapura are not its primary power, however great their wealth may seem. It is best understood as a merchant-military aristocracy in which the Empire positions useful people and their families.
In reality, at the summit of the Empire sit four entities: the Singha Adhiraj, the Haugris Church, the Taprobane University, and the Guilds. They are four great powers in permanent negotiation, each dependent on the others, each limiting the others, each seeking advantage over the others.
The Adhiraj is the Highest of the High - First Prophet of the Haugris Church, Judge and Arbiter Above All, High Commander of all military forces. His word is law. In theory, he exercises total control over every aspect of the empire. In practice, everyday authority is delegated and wielded by others, while the Adhiraj crafts law, oversees the greatest of strategy and public works, and reserves supreme authority for moments that require it. The position is not hereditary; the Adhiraj selects a successor from the nobility and adopts them as heir. Theoretically, this position is open to anyone who demonstrates sufficient skill; in practice, the Ministers of the Interior, Trade, and Justice are commonly the chief candidates. The question of succession is thus permanently open and permanently political.
The Haugris Church handles the empire’s messaging and controls large portions of its money, education, and health. Its internal structure runs through Red and White Councils. The White Council dictates internal policy and major judgments; the Red oversees regional appointments and logistics. Underneath these Councils are three Sequences that form the body of the Church, and a fourth that does not get discussed in polite company. The Sequence of Letters runs the mail network and is, underneath that function, the most sophisticated intelligence operation ever constructed; the Sequence of Discourse produces the bureaucrats who go on to become the administrative functions of the Church; the Sequence of Acts produces the public face: priests, healers, diplomats, explorers. The Samanera Corps is the fourth; it was the Church’s answer, in its time, to orders like the Paladins, and is a great deal more violent and capable. These four sequences are the Empire’s public presence in most of its outlying territories, including Your Grace’s own.
The Taprobane University theoretically exists outside the political structure. Practically, the people who devise and control the most powerful magic in the known world are involved in every aspect of Singhapura’s development. After all, the Taprobane system of magic, which is modern Ritualism, is the empire’s decisive advantage in every domain in which it operates. The University trains not only magicians but lawyers, judges, and engineers; thus it has sway even in places nominally outside its fiefdom, from the architects of the well-to-do to the most rural of courts. Its friendly rivalry with the Lesser Theoretical University of Daub is, from the University’s perspective, intellectual sport conducted with a lesser rival that serves a common cause.
Last but not the least are the Guilds. It should not surprise one to learn that those who make the products of empire have a great sway over it. These forces I would not underestimate; it is well-said that while the sword of the Adhiraj are the Military Orders, the arrows are the Guilds. The Guilds hold no formal legal authority except over themselves, but in reality they exercise considerable practical power over everything; by far the greatest is the Singhapura Merchants Guild, which is both trading-house and bank with private armies and navies attached. Your Grace may see in this the dangers of this model for the Daub and Wattle Guilds.
The ideals behind the Empire are real: universal law, the Taprobane system, free education, centralized administration, competitive examination for almost every post, heavy investment in new technologies. However, what holds it together is a shared calculation; that this arrangement is more practical than any available alternative, and that together they are stronger than any of them would be alone.
Of the Empire’s Tensions and Opportunities Therein
No structure this large is without strain, and I would be failing Your Grace’s interests if I catalogued Singhapura’s strengths without attending to what lies beneath them.
The first is steel. The empire requires high-quality steel - for construction, for armies, for everything that holds a civilization together. Centuries of exploitation have depleted the accessible metal deposits of Udanuwara. The empire is pushing north again, which is why the trade relationships through Wattle and Daub matter more now than they did a generation ago. It also means that whoever controls northern trade routes has both leverage and a noose around their own necks. This, more than any, is why Singhapura desires control over Wattle. Your Grace should be aware of what flows through Daub, and what that flow is worth to the Empire.
The second is religious. The Haugris Church dominates, but the Temple of Eighteen remains powerful in the eastern provinces, and the Iron Pagoda grows in the southwest. The Taprobane University increasingly chafes at the Church’s involvement in magical regulation. These pressures, one suspects, are held carefully by the Singha Adhiraj, lest one incumbent prove too powerful. Daub has both the Church and the Temple within its walls. Your Grace manages this as a local equilibrium, but it is also a microcosm of a larger war of faiths and reason.
The third is the frontier. The empire’s particular frontiers are consequential. There is Wattle and Daub to the north, and the Waste beyond them. Tangowan to the south. Lusia and the Rosantic League to the west; and many Tears around the border cities due to magical excess. A wise empire must watch its borders. The Military Orders are a consistent drain on resources here, a condition that worsens as the supply of metals tightens.
Of the Governance of Daub, and What It Means to Stand in the Shadow of the Empire
This brings us to Daub. Your Grace governs a city and province that is too well-positioned to ignore. However, if I may make so bold, the arrangement - tribute, nominal deference, and the occasional imperial quest - is a softer noose than one may expect in such circumstances, especially when Wattle struggles beneath tighter bonds. It may very well be that the Adhiraj is content to let Daub exist and grow as a vassal; it may also be that the fruit is being ripened for the picking. My belief, however, is that the Empire, and especially its Guilds, desire trade with provinces beyond - the Obsidian Empire, for one; and that having observed Lusia, and the advantages of having a free port in the north.
There are three direct avenues I would urge Your Grace to examine. The Military Orders of Singhapura exist in uneasy tension with Your Grace’s Charter Knights, the Paladins, and whatever mercenaries are present at any given moment. These Orders have trained for war against the north; that is their present orientation and capability. The Church is in subtle but tense dialogue with the Temple across Daub’s wards and provinces. The Merchants Guild will trade and intermingle whether or not it is invited to; from here come the strings of capital, favors, and votes.
I will not advise Your Grace on how to deal with the Adhiraj directly. What I will say is this: the empire, for all its coherence and capability, is a machine built by human hands, maintained by human institutions, and subject to the tides that affect any large human enterprise. It may present a unified face to its periphery, but Your Grace has the advantage of being close enough to see behind that face, and experienced enough to decide which aspects of it you wish to see in your own mirror.
Further Reading
A ruler who wishes to understand Singhapura must first understand that it produces, in abundance, the means by which it prefers to be understood. Your Grace will find this pattern familiar. It is not unique among states, but Singhapura has been more systematic about it than most, so much so that every major ward and province has its own censor, whose duty it is to inspect materials before publication; even plays and literature are examined thus. The same Additya Wickrama that I spoke of earlier was fond of musing that the most dangerous thing anyone can do is believe the Empire’s account of itself; such words would never have been allowed to be distributed in writing in Singhapura.
Indeed, my own writing herein is protected partly by censorial precedent (I have not stated anything that does not have some record in the public eye) but partly also by dint of this law not applying to Daub or such outlying provinces. Even so, if this work is to be read in Singhapura, it must either be given special accord by the Taprobane University, circulated internally for its own uses; or it must be edited to suit the tastes of censors. With this stated plainly, let me recommend some additional works.
The Singha Chronicle is the official account of the founding and the history of the Singhapura Empire. For Your Grace, it will be most instructive; not only in its account of how the Empire wishes to be seen, but it also contains the most complete record available of approved crests and sigils, and for this reason alone it remains indispensable in any dispute concerning lineage or the legitimacy of claims. I have compresssed the histories into a more readable account of my own devising in other chapters.
The Himakatu Chronicle covers the affairs of the North that the Singha Chronicle prefers to pass over quickly. It concerns the building of Himakatupura and the failures of Empress Kudakaali II that led to the daemon breakthrough and the ultimate creation of the Great Northern Waste. It is a tragedy in every sense, full of glory, hubris, violence and power; it is the Empire at its worst, and in some sense may explain the shame that the Empire, even today, sees lingering in the ruins of Wattle.
The Ithihaasa Potha is a sequence of epic poems composed by seventeen philosopher-poets once exiled from Singhapura. It is the only known work of prophecy that has consistently proven accurate. Every prediction has thus far been fulfilled, but in the most indirect and perverse manner imaginable. I recommend it to Your Grace not because it contains a map of the future - indeed, its lines are often so vague and allusive as to be hopelessly incomprehensible even to scholars of literature; but because of the hold it has on the minds of those who govern. Indeed, to a great degree, it may be said to be behind the Empire’s tacit obsession with horoscopes and astrology, which may not govern its armies, but do indeed have a great play in the dates for marraiges and the breaking of ground for works of all kinds.
The Assembly of Gold and Saffron, maintained by the Haugris Church, is assigned to schoolchildren throughout Church territories. It is, by the consensus of everyone compelled to read it, among the most tedious documents in any tradition. Nevertheless, it is vital in understanding how the Church sees itself. In its pages are recorded the minutae of almost every decision made by the Church, down to minutes of the Red and White Councils.
The Reflections of the Moon in Still Water, attributed to the Nameless Sage of the Temple of Eighteen, is a collection of verse in the manner of aphorism set to poetry. Its primary social function is the conferral of apparent profundity. A ruler who can produce a passage at the right moment will be taken for a person steeped in the customs of the Temple, whether she is one or not. This I trust Your Grace may put to use.
Lastly, there is Weerasingha’s foundational analysis on the arrangement of states, extended by Molligoda. It reduces all states to three basic forms and subdivides each by the source of its legitimacy, the scope of its power, and the structure through which that power operates. I will spare Your Grace the need to read Molligoda, a man universally recognized for his singular lack of talent in the art of letters; I have summarized its salient contents elswehere in this work.
Folio XVI · Of Provinces
Transcribed by Victor Konara