"We cannot rely on the floor understanding what those matters are, and perhaps some of them have grown stale. So let us enumerate the categories. Off the top of my head, I can think of: adding members to the body, editing the overall organization of the government, imposing a new tax, declaring war, chartering a colony, chartering an order, issuing decrees, appointing ministers. What else is there?"

"Would you leave ratification of treaties with the Crown?"

Hmm. "No, I would add that to the list as well, I think."

The approval of the Estates General was not actually required for all of those purposes in Arodenite Cheliax, but considering that the new legislature will likely convene much more frequently, it doesn't seem unreasonable to imitate the customs of other countries in this respect.

"Approving regents for the Crown. Altering the composition of the coinage. Permitting favored churches to establish ecclesiastical courts, or revoking such permission." He frowns thoughtfully. "It would perhaps be prudent to consult with Conde Acevedo before presenting the Lord-Marshal with our proposal, to ensure we have not forgotten anything."

"I would consider it a favor if you obtained his advice without sharing your intelligence with him. We may lose our opportunity if the Duchess or the Lord Marshal think that if they give us a finger, we will take the whole arm."

He had been imagining that they would consult with other men of good judgment before presenting the Lord Marshal with a draft. The prospect of developing their proposal alone, with only their own knowledge and experience to guide them save what they can obtain without ever stating the reason directly, is rather more intimidating. It would be so easy to simply fail to consider something important, not out of malice or carelessness but merely due to the magnitude of the task.

His face betrays none of that. "Of course, Your Grace."

"If we forget an area of responsibility, I imagine it will be easy to add to the draft afterwards; it is only the skeleton we seek to establish at the moment.

So then the thresholds. There is both the question of who must be consulted--the deliberative body, the consultative body, the Queen--and what assent is required: a majority, two thirds, or three quarters. I doubt we will be able to get three quarters in the final proposal, but we may as well start there and retreat back to two thirds as required." If there are only twenty in the small council, the difference between the two is not very large, but he feels more comfortable with the prospect of finding six defenders for a privilege than nine. It will likely matter more for the large council.

"For issues related to her direct responsibilities, the Queen can rule directly; for issues related to the direct responsibilities of the deliberative body, it may rule directly, with a supermajority required to modify procedures or admit new members and a majority for other business. For minor issues pertaining to the realm, the deliberative body may rule with a majority vote with the approval of the Queen, or a supermajority with the Queen's disapproval. For major issues, the deliberative body may submit a proposal for the consideration of the consultative body on the same standard--majority with the Queen's approval and supermajority without--and the consultative body must approve with a majority for most matters and approve with a supermajority for modifications to the organization of the government." (Felip does not yet think of the 'constitution' as synonymous with the organization of the government, but he means constitutional amendments.)

"The deliberative body meets four times a year, at the turning of the seasons, or by direct summons of the Queen in cases of emergency, until they conclude their business by a supermajority vote of members; the consultative body has until the next regular meeting of the deliberative body to vote on all issues submitted to it, and has no direct meetings.

No doubt we will find much more to discuss in detail--perhaps there will be different requirements for appointing a minister to a term and cutting short that term, for example--but I am eager to hear your thoughts on the sketch."

Their feedback is interrupted by the arrival of the next course; this one is a selection of wines, cheeses, and pastries.

"If the consultative body never meets directly, it may be more difficult for its members to consult with each other on complex matters. Apart from that... I admit that I would expect quarterly meetings to become burdensome, but if you expect otherwise I would defer to your judgment. There will need to be some standard for major and minor issues, of course, and we ought specify how abstentions affect the threshold. 

It was also a priority of the Lord Marshal that all offensive wars be approved by the church of Iomedae, and I suspect it will be simplest to lay out provision for that separately, without attempting to make it fit an identical procedure to other matters."

"They will be able to consult through the standard modes of communication available throughout the Empire; with three months to consider matters,  I expect them to be well-understood. We should perhaps include a provision where, at the meeting after a proposal has been sent to the consultative body for approval, it can be amended by the deliberative body and sent out for review again, even if it has sufficient consent to pass, so that subtle issues raised by wider consideration can be addressed.

As for wars, I was imagining simply leaving that off the list of powers of the council and Queen, and instead having a Minister of War who is appointed by the Glorious Reclamation, and may make such decisions in consultation with the Queen. 

I see another avenue we could proceed down: form multiple deliberative councils, which are responsible for laws of different types. I think this more closely resembles the Lord Marshal's proposal in committee. While we could form multiple consultative bodies as well, this seems unlikely to provide much value; instead we should ensure those matters which require specialized experience to consider have the standard for what issues are minor set so that most of their business need not be considered by the whole empire."

"Three months may be perfectly adequate for you and I, Your Grace, but for our Menadoran cousins, it may scarcely be enough time to receive word from the deliberative body and send back their decision."

He points out of the room and whispers. "We could consult with Narikopolus. It may be that it would be an unacceptable hardship for him to call his counts to Kantaria four times a year."

A servant enters with a map of Cheliax, which he investigates. "I am not sure what we could do differently, however. Either they must come to Westcrown--which is more of a hardship than simply receiving and sending a letter--or we reduce the frequency of meetings, to give the return trip four months instead of three. But I think it is far cheaper to spend Teleports on those few that cannot be reached swiftly enough by regular mail. If they can Scry, that also neatly solves receiving the letter, but not sending it back. Well, I suppose we will know who has not sent letters back in time, and can Scry them from Westcrown easily enough.

My own preference would be for them to consider the cost and exclude themselves from the consultative body if their contributions are not worth the hassle of communicating with Westcrown. But they cannot know whether any season's laws demand their attention without reading them. Delegating their vote would solve the issue as well, either to their better-connected liege or an ambassador."

"Of those possibilities, permitting delegation to a selected person seems as if it will best allow for us to address any issues we have failed to think of. If the chosen representatives are assembled together, it could also permit the legislature to respond to emergencies without undue delay."

"Are we imagining much in the way of emergency business which requires the full consultative body to be assembled? It will likely be as large as this convention, if not larger, and the only decisions we seem capable of making quickly seem to be bad ones."

"I am unsure what to imagine, but I fear that makes it all the more necessary that it be possible to respond to emergencies should they arise. Unnecessary haste is a danger too, but a danger that I hope can be mitigated with the composition of the bodies in question and the greater threshold for them to act."

"In times of crisis, it is often more important whether or not people act in unison than which plan they decide to implement. I think we should set responsibilities such that matters which require swiftness can be responded to by one or a few men, and only draw on the consent of the many in situations where issues can be slowly considered. An ox cannot gallop, and we should not limit a horse to an ox's speed. Even beyond the Lord Marshal's desire to only prosecute wars Iomedae approves of, it seems wise to me to vest that power in the hands of one or two men, rather than have deliberations which may be slow and public."

"By longstanding tradition, the approval of regents for the Crown has required the consent of a body of men far more similar to the consultative than the deliberative." (Primarily in the sense that it makes civil war marginally less likely if it's clear the counts are united, or so he was taught; it is not as if his tutors had many examples to draw from.) "It seems unlikely to matter in the near future, but I would not wish to leave our country headless for months if it can be avoided."

"I can see the wisdom of it. The Crown's appointed regent could begin to act immediately with limited powers, until approved in their office by the consultative body. If no such regent has been appointed, the deliberative body can appoint an acting regent, who has the same limited powers until approved, and if either is rejected by the consultative body the deliberative body must appoint another regent. But the Queen's brother is an adult, and so this will not be an issue until the future. But... he hardly has the security from danger that the Queen and her archmage friends enjoy from any common threat. And besides, I worry that power attracts danger commensurate with it, and it is the truly rare threats that we must consider."

He glances down the table.

"The House of Fraga was always deliberately small and thus fragile, concentrating our sorcerous power to better rule and protect. But now I find my modest family is a wealth of relations, by the standards of contemporary Cheliax. Regency, and process of filling vacant seats, will no doubt be on the minds of many."

He is ranging broadly, again. Time to refocus him. "Indeed, but on such a personal matter I expect most to choose sensibly. Perhaps we should determine whether there is anything else to add to our sketch of the legislature to flesh it out, or whether it is complete enough for others to consider."

"If there are to be religious or elected bodies working alongside the consultative body, as we were discussing earlier, we ought have some proposal for the proper responsibilities of those bodies, even if the Lord-Marshal will likely want to refine it."

"In a negotiation, it is best to learn from the other side what they value dearly and trade it to them, not guess and perhaps overspend. Let us set the structure, one example, and a process for creating more, and see what they clamor for. The wizards of the realm may wish to set the standards for the academies, or they might not, content to leave it to the boards of individual institutions. If we assign them the work they may be reluctant to let go of it.

But as for the form--it could be different consultative bodies, spread widely throughout the realm like the counts, but I doubt this will provide much wisdom to the government. Do we need a majority of Pharasmin clerics to approve of regulations for graveyards, or can we simply consult with the church, or a single cleric in the relevant ministry?

We could flip it on its head, and instead propose different deliberative bodies. The Pharasmins might be able to propose decrees related to their remit, which must then be approved by the consultative body. This maintains power in the hands of the nobility, who can halt the worst flights of fancy, while including the others and making use of their expertise."

"And how would you determine what is or isn't in their remit? To allow any church to propose any policy might force the nobility to continually shoot down ideas which sound good to the populace and are against their long-term interests, fomenting unrest. And if the main deliberative body must approve all such proposals, they might be tempted to exercise broader judgment in whether or not to let the proposal pass on than the other deliberative bodies wish."

"The Queen has already showed us the way; a geased magistrate can interpret the law on whether the proposal falls inside or outside of a body's charter."

He nods. "The idea of a single consultative body with more specialized deliberative bodies seems wise, Your Grace, so long as the magistrate is a man of good judgement and character and his Geas is phrased so as to allow him adequate discretion. I suspect the composition of the additional deliberative bodies will also be a point of contention, though perhaps in that matter we may wish to hear the Lord-Marshal's thoughts before committing to any particular proposal."

"Then let us put it together." He gestures, and the scribe hands him the notes and prepares to take dictation.

"Three entities shall participate in the creation of laws: ministers, deliberative bodies, and the consultative body. Ministers may issue orders and decrees in their area of authority, and may propose statutes to the relevant deliberative body. Deliberative bodies may propose statutes that relate to their area of responsibility to the consultative body. The consultative body shall consider all proposals put before it by the deliberative bodies; those approved by a majority shall become law of the land. If a deliberative body sees fit, it may retract a proposal from consideration by majority vote.

The consultative body shall consist of all archdukes, dukes and counts of the Empire. It shall not have regular meetings, and conduct its business by mail or other remote communication, with three months to approve statutes, unless called to an emergency meeting by the Queen. It may add additional members or change its rules of operation by two-thirds vote. The body shall elect one of its members by majority vote as a minister to receive and communicate proposals, record votes, and otherwise manage its affairs.

Deliberative bodies shall be formed by statute, which will define their area of responsibility. While bodies may not alter their area of responsibility, they shall be able to determine their own rules of operation and modify them with a two thirds vote. Each body shall elect one of its members by majority vote to chair the body and communicate proposals to the consultative body.

The first deliberative body, formed by this statute, shall consist of all archdukes and dukes of the Empire. It shall meet at a time and place of its choosing, at least every three months. It shall have responsibility for: the creation of other deliberative bodies, the imposition of taxes, the chartering of colonies and orders, the appointment of government ministers, of approving regents for the Crown, for the minting of coinage, the creation of courts, and all responsibilities not devolved to other authorities.

The second deliberative body, formed by this statute, shall consist of members appointed by the Church of Iomedae. It shall have responsibility for the appointment of the Minister of War and military regulations."

He quickly skims over it, then nods.

"We could go on about the limitations on offensive wars, and the ability to recognize defensive wars, but I imagine that it is better placed in the section that establishes the ministries, and not in the section that establishes the War Board."