Obligators and the Steel Ministry

[killersquirrel59]

I know we don't have a lot of information on the Steel Ministry's doctrines, but I'm wondering if anyone has any information even on its structure in more detail, somewhere I missed. I was contemplating a Ministry based game using MAG where the players are Obligators when I realized there is almost nothing there. I can make up most of it, but I'm curious what might be there, buried in some corner that most people have missed. Therefore I come to this gathering place of those who know every scrap of Cosmere lore from every obscure source and are prepared to debate them with great fervor, the 17th Shard forums.

 

Key questions:

 

1. What are the cantons? We know of 4 from the books (Inquisition, Orthodoxy, Finance, and Resource). Are there more? What does each canton actually do (beyond the obvious associations based on their names).

 

2. Are all Obligators male? All those described in the books were male, but is that a constant rule or did we only see male Obligators. For that matter, are all Steel Inquisitors male? It would seem odd that something as efficient as the Ministry would discount the resource of a properly dedicated female Mistborn to use as a base for a new Inquisitor.

 

3. Are Obligators celebate? We don't hear of any being married or legally reproducing (though obviously Vin's father did so anyway, and I'd imagine others did as well without getting caught).

 

4. What the hell is a Prelan? Are there other ranks? We have heard the terms Prelan, High Prelan, and Lord Prelan, as well as the general terms of Obligator and Acolyte. What is the actual rank structure and are there any others?

 

Any information would be appreciated if anyone has some.

[WeiryWriter]

I know we don't have a lot of information on the Steel Ministry's doctrines, but I'm wondering if anyone has any information even on its structure in more detail, somewhere I missed. I was contemplating a Ministry based game using MAG where the players are Obligators when I realized there is almost nothing there. I can make up most of it, but I'm curious what might be there, buried in some corner that most people have missed. Therefore I come to this gathering place of those who know every scrap of Cosmere lore from every obscure source and are prepared to debate them with great fervor, the 17th Shard forums.

 

Key questions:

First off I would recommend looking at the Coppermind wiki, it has answers to some, but not all, of these questions.

 

1. What are the cantons? We know of 4 from the books (Inquisition, Orthodoxy, Finance, and Resource). Are there more? What does each canton actually do (beyond the obvious associations based on their names).

Orthodoxy: Basically runs the Steel Ministry, the bureaucratic branch that keeps everything running. Also in charge of the more "religious" aspects of the Ministry

Finance: The Final Empire's Banking institution

Resource: Oversees trade, transportation, and taxation

Inquisition: Organizes Steel Inquisitors, polices the magic-users in the Final Empire

 

2. Are all Obligators male? All those described in the books were male, but is that a constant rule or did we only see male Obligators. For that matter, are all Steel Inquisitors male? It would seem odd that something as efficient as the Ministry would discount the resource of a properly dedicated female Mistborn to use as a base for a new Inquisitor.

No, Obligators, and Steel Inquistors can be female. There are few female inquistors that Vin fights in the climax of HoA, they just aren't remarked upon.

 

3. Are Obligators celebate? We don't hear of any being married or legally reproducing (though obviously Vin's father did so anyway, and I'd imagine others did as well without getting caught).

Obligators are allowed to marry

 

4. What the hell is a Prelan? Are there other ranks? We have heard the terms Prelan, High Prelan, and Lord Prelan, as well as the general terms of Obligator and Acolyte. What is the actual rank structure and are there any others?

 

Any information would be appreciated if anyone has some.

I believe it goes Acolyte -> Obligator -> Prelan (Regional Head of a Canton) -> High Prelan (National Head of a Canton) -> Lord Prelan (Head of the Steel Ministry) but I could be wrong, we don't know very much about the Steel Ministry (a supplement centered around them would be really cool though).

[Wyrmhero]

1. What are the cantons? We know of 4 from the books (Inquisition, Orthodoxy, Finance, and Resource). Are there more? What does each canton actually do (beyond the obvious associations based on their names).

 

I'm afraid I can't help you much with this in general (I too would love more information on the Steel Ministry and the religion of The Lord Ruler in general), but I can tell you that in Wrought of Copper, the Terrisman supplemental book to MAG, a fifth Canton is mentioned.

 

The Canton of Hegemony was in charge of the Terris Dominance after it was conquered. They're the ones responsible for the whole system of subjugation in place there to stop Feruchemists from being born, and went around killing any Terrismen with familial connections to Feruchemists. They were disbanded an undisclosed amount of time after, however, and the Canton of Inquisition took over their job. Unfortunately, even WoC doesn't have much information on them - They're mentioned twice, and I've just said all the information we have on them.

 

So we basically see that while more Cantons existed in the past, they became a part of other, less specialised ones. I wouldn't be surprised if Resource and Finance were merged into one later down the line, and we basically see the death of the Canton of Orthodoxy, or at least it losing a good chunk of its work, when the Inquisition takes over the Steel Ministry. So I think it's pretty likely there are only four by the time of the books, but more definitely did exist in the past.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[killersquirrel59]

Thank you both. That's great stuff. I didn't know there was a Terris supplement for MAG. I'll have to pick that one up for sure.

[Kadrok]

There is a neat little description buried in the "Justice, like Ash" module of the Terris Supplement (page 131; no spoilers here, but spoilers for the module if you go to that page, due warning):

 

Though the Canton of Finance keeps extensive financial records, and the Canton of Resource knows every food store and mine in the Empire, the Canton of Orthodoxy keeps records on its people — the largest single archive of information on the activities of citizens of the Final Empire. Records from informants, reports on allegiance to the Lord Ruler, histories of the relationships between noble houses...if you want to know what someone is up to, has been up to, or maybe will be up to, this is the place to check.

 

So the way I see it, of the currently remaining Cantons:

• Finance are Bankers and Accountants.
• Resource do resource management (duh) and probably town-planning type stuff. According to the Coppermind, they also do tax.
• Orthodoxy are the Thought Police/Big Brother and according to the Coppermind cover the more priestly side of things too.
• Inquisition are the Anti-Magic Squad, and probably pull SWAT team type work for the rest of the Ministry. Inquisition probably also handle "magical research" as well, given they likely have the monopoly on both Hemalurgy and the little Feruchemy the non-Terris have, as well as the strongest Allomancy of the Ministry.

But a lot of this is redundant to what has already been said.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Kadrok