The Updates

The Mayor's Government

The current Mayor of Horizon is Colonel Andrew Zero, a military veteran of 56 who has retained his position for some 30 years. He has a reputation for pragmatism and ruthlessness, and these qualities doutbless have something to do with the length of his tenure. In the immediate aftermath of the Last War Horizon suffered a series of weak Mayors, all of whom were regarded as puppets of one or other of the victorious Four Nations and none of whom lasted especially long in the office before disappearing or being assassinated. Mayor Zero's election is widely regarded as the point when Horizon stood up, brushed itself off, and started working its way back to being a world power again.

A number of ministries, councils and departments form the Mayoral government, and the bulk of the employees of these ministries are overworked bureaucrats. Corruption is rife and rarely investigated, at this level at least; it's almost impossible to get anything done without bribing a few pen-pushers to submit the relevant forms quickly, or to give you an appointment to see someone who actually knows what they are doing.

It's an open secret that within the ministries there exists small, sometimes frighteningly competant cliques, subdivisions, sub-sub-subdepartments and so forth who tackle the genuinely important matters and handle emergencies. How many of these actually exist is anyone's guess; what is certain is that everyone and his uncle has a friend of a friend of a friend whose brother-in-law who was interviewed by shadowy government agents who claimed to come from an obscure outfit with an ambiguous name, such as "the Service" or "the Double-O" or whatever.

The ministries of government are as follows:

The Loyal Order of Hounds, which looks out for the welfare of the dogs of Horizon and is responsible for law, justice, and policing. All dogs in the city are honourary members of the Order and are under its protection. All the city's judges are also members, and the Order employs the City Guard - the "Watchdogs" - and is in charge of the Doghouse, Horizon's main prison.

Traditionally, the Lord Chancellor and Grand Master of the Order has been the alpha dog of the city - currently a proud, regal, and somewhat grumpy poodle named Montague Wellesby Arbuthnot Sinclair III. The most important human member of the Order - and its de facto head, who sits in the Mayor's Privy Council - is known as the Chancellor's Man, and asides from the usual responsibilities of the head of the judiciary and the police force also has to take the Lord Chancellor for frequent walks and clean up his mess.

The Goodly Chamber is where all the nobles of Horizon in good standing meet to debate the issues of the day. It passes no laws, and whilst it does vote on motions it only exists to advise the Mayor and has no legal standing, though it would be wrong to call it entirely irrelevant since it provides a handy talking shop for the great and the good of the City. The head of the Chamber is given the honourary (and meaningless) title of First Lord of the Roads and sits on the Mayor's Privy Council.

The Mayoral Legions were formerly the Imperial Legions, but with the end of the war the name and allegiance changed. The Legions are vastly reduced in size; once upon a time they were vast and marched across the world like unstoppable juggernauts, now the Treaty has compelled them to drastically reduce their size and to purge themselves of hardcore Imperialists. They patrol the border and the roads into Horizon, they drink a lot, they pine for their former glory. The troops are amongst Colonel Zero's most loyal supporters; he is, after all, one of the boys. The head of the Legions is given the rank of All-Fields General.

The Ministry of Friendship is the diplomatic service, responsible for sending embassies to other nations and negotiating matters with the embassies of the Four Nations in Horizon. The head of the ministry holds the title of Voice of Horizon, and sits on the Privy Council.

The Ministry of Public Works maintains and builts public buildings and roads and keeps the subway running.

The Treasury collects the city's taxes, and is as unpopular as you'd expect.

Rumours about the Government

Colonel Zero was never legally elected; he threatened the Moot of Years with a military coup if they did not elect him. The Embassies went along with this because they don't much care who rules Horizon so long as they aren't expansionist maniacs.

My cousin's husband Joey came out of the Doghouse last week, and he's still not walking right.

Colonel Zero never served in the military, he just claims to have to gain credibility. Think about it - do you know of anything he did during the Last War?

The Goodly Chamber is a hive of Imperialist conspirators.

Colonel Zero used to command the Emperor's assassins in foreign lands. Just one word from him and the rulers of the Four Nations will all be dead within a week. He's re-establishing the Empire by stealth.

The Ministry of Friendship are traitors who have sold out to the Four Nations, and call the shots for the rest of the government. If Colonel Zero ever made a genuine move against the Four, he'd be dead within a week.

Colonel Zero receives orders from a prostitute who worships a golden skull.

The Ministry of Public Works has been bought by the Grey Order, that's why they let those clockwork-steam taxis run on the streets. They're going to engineer accidents in the subway in order to discredit the Steam Union.

Colonel Zero worships the Soldier secretly. He's planning to lead Horizon into a war it can't possibly win.

Something funny's up in the Treasury. They can't seem to make their mind up how much people owe them - I met a bloke down the pub last week whose boss got half his taxes for the year returned as an official rebate, and then was levied with twice that as a fine for non-payment.

Colonel Zero is obviously the Emperor in disguise. I mean, come on, military figure with a nebulous service record pops up conveniently soon after the Emperor disappears? And then sails into power after all his predecessors mysteriously die? There's got to be something in that.