The Tyrant Philosophers/Appointments Secretary to the Commission
The Appointments Secretary to the Commission is the office-holder within the Commission's bureaucracy formally charged with naming the next Perfector upon the incumbent's departure or death. Referenced during succession proceedings in Days of Shattered Faith, the role represents the institutional mechanism through which the selection of a new Perfector is made to take legal and administrative effect, positioning the Appointments Secretary as the designated channel between the Commission's deliberations and the public enactment of a new appointment. - ch 41
The post is mentioned only once in the text, in the dry procedural register of succession paperwork, and the books supply no name, no appearance, no personality, and no account of how the individual in the chair is chosen or what the naming process entails beyond the bare fact that it is this office, and no other, through which the next Perfector is formally designated. The significance of the Appointments Secretary is therefore structural rather than personal: the title marks the precise hinge at which the Commission's collective will becomes a single binding appointment, a point at which the continuity of Perfectorial authority in the city is either secured or left in limbo.
The Term
Meaning
In the administrative vocabulary of the Commission, "Appointments Secretary" denotes the specific functionary whose duty is to name the next Perfector. The phrase is not a metaphor or a colloquialism; it identifies a concrete office with a defined responsibility in the chain of succession. The books do not elaborate whether the Secretary exercises discretion in the naming or merely records and announces a decision already taken elsewhere within the Commission, nor do they describe the Secretary's relationship to other Commission secretaries or officers. What is clear is that the naming of a Perfector passes through this particular office as a procedural necessity. - ch 41
Usage
The title appears once, in the context of succession proceedings, spoken or written in the formal bureaucratic register proper to Commission documentation. Its deployment signals that the text is attending to the mechanics of institutional authority rather than to individual agency; the office is named where a person's name would otherwise appear, underscoring that the duty attaches to the chair rather than to any one individual. - ch 41
History
Days of Shattered Faith
In Days of Shattered Faith, the Appointments Secretary to the Commission is identified as the Commission official vested with the duty of naming the next Perfector - ch 41. The role is referenced in the context of succession proceedings, marking the Appointments Secretary as the designated office-holder through whom the selection of a new Perfector would be formally enacted. No further detail about the individual holding the post, their manner of appointment, or the mechanics of the naming process is supplied by the text at this point.
Relationships
- Perfector - The Appointments Secretary's sole described function is to name the next holder of this office. The relationship is one of procedural gatekeeping: the Secretary is the designated instrument through which the Commission's succession decision is enacted into effect. The books give no indication of any personal bond, rivalry, or influence between the Secretary and any particular Perfector; the connection is purely one of bureaucratic channel. - ch 41
Tags
- office · #appointment-authority · #commission-official