- Each letter is a bullet, and every pen a weapon. The hand that wields them is the suspect.
- Every form and page is both a promise and a crime scene. A single letter out of place, and trust becomes betrayal.
- We are the inspectors, the eyes that find the crimes amongst the forests of the written word. But who watches us? No one. We are the last defense.
The Empire is rife with crime. Day after day, House Crux wages a seemingly endless war against murderers, thieves, treasonous defilers, and all manner of wickedness. But not all crimes are so visible, nor so valiantly overcome. Within the cubicles of the Pale Verstand, and across the Empire, House Crux’s Papierkrieg Büro fulfills the tasks that often go unseen. Patents, trademarks, intellectual property, contracts, and all forms of legal paperwork are the business of the Büro, and without their keen eyes and honed pens the Empire would surely grind to a halt.
Procedures and Co-Operations[]
The Clerical Mandate[]
Clerical Mandates are some of the most disliked but necessarily common issuances of the Papierkrieg Büro. Not a day goes by without a contract being amended, a document edited, or a name being changed somewhere in the Empire. It is the duty of the Papierkrieg Büro to ensure that paperwork throughout the Empire is as current as realistically possible, and the language accurate to the intent of its authors and the law. While the Büro is not directly responsible for issuing rulings on the legality of a document as a whole, a task which typically falls to the DoJ, they are still expected to provide advisements when the need arises, and failure to adhere to proper legal procedure and formatting risks a quick path to losing a legal battle over the validity of a contract.
Clerical Mandates are issued via PRISM’s Constant c service, or other, slower methods as deemed necessary. Upon receipt, any House, business, individual, or other entity must carefully and legally update all paperwork in their possession to which the Clerical Mandate applies. Failure to do so often risks invalidating legal documents such as contracts, patents, and invoices.
The Clerical Proclamation[]
While Clerical Mandates often require swift edits or changes to existing legal paperwork, Clerical Proclamations are more comparable to warnings. When the Büro undertakes a large-scale investigation, one of the expected outcomes, or all possible outcomes, may necessitate sweeping changes to documentation. The Proclamation is the public announcement of a Büro investigation, sometimes issued after a classified investigation has already been taking place. Its intent is to warn larger sections of the Imperial population (cities, planets, entire regions of space, etc.) to begin making or preparing for what changes might become necessary as detailed in the Proclamation.
Intellectual Property[]
The initial response to many breaches of intellectual property rights, including plagiarism, patent thievery, and trademark infringement, is either fines, cease and desist notices, or requested court appearances. Fines and lesser punishments are sometimes administered by local governments or appropriate Houses on behalf of the Papierkrieg Büro. If matters continue to escalate, a court appearance may be requested, usually a preliminary discussion with an Anwalt or several Anwalts and a Lyran mediator before going before a Richter. In this process, the Büro would evaluate the legality of the trademarks, intellectual licenses, and other pertinent filings to ensure legitimacy of claims and calculate punitive measures. House Lyra is also often consulted for their expertise on art, music, and other intellectual creations that are often at the root of these cases, and their archives of cultural history are invaluable in comparing intellectual creations to examine the validity of claims. House Triangulum is also frequently consulted regarding patents. In the event that all other steps are exhausted and the case remains unresolved, the Papierkrieg Büro would dispatch members of the JES to apprehend and incarcerate the wrongdoer or wrongdoers.
In addition to the procedures listed above, the Büro works closely with entities within the Empire, such as House Lyra, House Triangulum, the PRISM Network, and the Trilliant Ring, to appropriately administer punishments for infringements of intellectual property rights of those entities and their peoples, and to assist in the pursuance of justice for infringers as needed. Some cases may be too low level to warrant more than a note in a file by the Büro, while others may result in the direct involvement of DoJ and JES personnel. Additional punishments administered by other entities, such as from a corporation to an employee who attempted to steal valuable, patented plans, are of no concern to the Büro, so long as they abide by Imperial Law.
House Lyra[]
Given House Lyra’s vested interest in upholding intellectual property rights, specifically those of works of art, and their close relationship with House Crux, they take special interest in that aspect of the Büro. House Lyra holds those that violate another’s intellectual property in the highest contempt, which has resulted in the training of a special subset of both Meret and Horuset who specialize in the identification of copywritten pieces and mediating settlements. This training was strengthened especially during the reign of the Masked One, during which time IP laws were especially stringent.
House Eridanus[]
Before the conflict with the STO, House Eridanus possessed a strong influence in the realm of corporate oversight, and thus corporate affairs, including contracts (below) and some aspects of corporate intellectual property. House Eridanus kept a loose leash on corporations, partially due to their own internal philosophies and directives, and partially due to the complex legal relationship between themselves and the other Houses Minor through the procedures of the Astral Synedrium.
Following the dissolution of the STO and the merger of ACRE and Eridanus, the state of Eridanus’ previous authority has been called into question. Concerns have been raised regarding Eridanus’ neutrality, now that the House possesses so many of ACRE’s old assets and inherited a number of ACRE’s businesses. Equally, some have levied complaint that Eridanus’ loose-leash policy was a contributing aspect to the rise in power of Corporate entities that led to the conflict with the STO. Regardless, while House Crux’s Richters and Anwalts debate the divisive matter in the Oberlandesgericht, they await the final word from the newly-coronated Pyxis Emperox.
Contracts and Licenses[]
Informational advertisement of the Büro
Almost nothing happens in Acheron Rho without some sort of paperwork attached to it at some level. The investing of money with the Imperial Bank, the employment of a serf, and contracts for weaponry or ships to be forged and constructed by Reticulum and Fornax respectively are all common occurrences that involve contracts and licenses.
The Papierkrieg Büro files copies of all contracts and licenses, digital or physical, within the deep vaults of the Pale Verstand, their headquarters. While more important documents and those filed with requests for evaluation are looked over by the Büro before filing, many lesser contracts and licenses may go unexamined or only lightly skimmed until it becomes legally relevant to read through them in more depth. The Büro encourages all Imperial citizens preparing or signing contracts or acquiring licenses to do their research and seek legal counsel as necessary to avoid preparing or signing documents that are legally unsound or legal but unfair to certain parties.
Contracts and licenses involving the exchange of credits or other valuable assets may also be kept on file by House Eridanus and the Imperial Bank, in addition to the entities involved directly in the contract or license, and Eridanus and the Bank possess some power to ensure that payments are made on time and to acquire or repossess the appropriate monies or assets when deadlines are not met repeatedly. House Crux largely stays out of such matters beyond the keeping of files unless called upon by Eridanus and the Bank to intervene. In situations where the legality of contracts or licenses is called into question, House Crux will also likely become involved, the Papierkrieg Büro thoroughly evaluating all appropriate documents.
Specific to licenses, the Papierkrieg Büro is the primary administrative issuer and processor of House Crux for such documents, and the office that examines any licenses issued by other Houses or entities within the Empire for legal validity. Entities such as House Fornax and House Serpens issue licenses of their own, for ownership of a vessel and the use of psychic powers respectively, but the base form of such licenses has been reviewed by the Büro and digital copies of each legally issued license are to be provided to the Büro for filing.
Reprocessing[]
A rare procedure, reprocessing is a planetary-scale examination of legal paperwork and documentation that has not been implemented in hundreds of years. In cases of mass egregious failure to submit or accurately produce legal documents, or in situations where older paperwork is found to have been invalid for whatever reason, the Papierkrieg Büro may request "Reprocessing." All copies or originals of documents stored by the Büro for the region of Reprocessing are to be meticulously reviewed, and all documents not in the Büro's possession must be submitted for review or risk their legality being immediately revoked.
The region of Reprocessing is always large, sometimes an entire city, planet, or star system. The process can take months or even years, and often taxes the resources of the Büro to their limit, hence its infrequent use.
SAGA[]
Sequential Archives and General Administration, or SAGA, is the collective term for the Büro’s physical and digital stores of legal paperwork including patent documentation, licenses, contracts, court orders, legal addendums, and all manner of other filings. While the main vaults lie in many sub-basements beneath the Büro’s headquarters in Ven City, a copied digital version, frequently updated, is housed on each Core world and select major worlds beyond.
Misinformation has led to a belief that any document not filed within the SAGA system is legally invalid. While failure to properly submit copies of legal paperwork to SAGA will certainly work against a plaintiff or defendant as relevant, and may in some cases result in punitive measures, the Büro has a number of protections in place for situations of data loss, accident, and other non-intentional failures.
Polestar Electronics, a member of the PRISM Industrial Group, is the primary hardware supplier for the digital, copied versions of SAGA, as well as considerable portions of the closed-system hardware utilized in the main SAGA systems on Hiera. Polestar Electronics inherited the contract from the Conséc following the death of the Blood Eagle. The Conséc had been contracted by House Crux for the SAGA project after their success with SIGNET, and because they possessed access not just to the more modern tech of that era, but a uniquely capable understanding of outdated tech as well. The SAGA system has not been updated since its creation, and instead has been repaired, expanded, and maintained by House Crux and Polestar Electronics. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the Büro believes its older, less available technology to be more difficult to infiltrate than top-of-the-line, advanced systems.
Organization[]
The Büro maintains the hierarchies of the JES and the DoJ with few exceptions. No particular titles are granted to those who work for or with the Büro, though some may choose to add “of the Büro,” to their existing title (Inquisitor of the Büro, Anwalt of the Büro, etc.). The House Guard is rarely employed by the Büro except in cases that affect House Crux or the nobles of Hiera directly. Many dislike the Büro because they view it as one large desk job, reading through contracts and checking databases, but in fact JES personnel find themselves dispatched out into the field with unusual frequency by the Büro’s command. Meistersingers are also frequently employed by the Büro, in addition to Crucian serfs assigned to more menial tasks.
The Fröbelsterne File and The Manila Fleet[]
Despite its function as a largely administrative and office-based entity, the Papierkrieg Büro maintains a small force of its own agents and ships. How and when the Büro was allocated these forces remains either classified or somehow unknown. In the words of one Crucian Richter, “All the paperwork was in order when we looked into it, so we couldn’t rightly say no, now could we?” People have often questioned why what is ostensibly an office job needs armaments at its disposal at all. Those people, as the Büro says, do not understand the severity of infringing on a Noble’s intellectual property.
The Fröbelsterne File[]
Fröbelstern. Noun. A geometric shape and human grav mine, deployed as a deterrent to land and air based forces.
File. Noun. A group of soldiers or troops.
Through a bizarre series of historical errors and misunderstandings on the nature of the shape of Moravian stars and the Hertz Horns of naval mines, House Crux historical records indicate that Fröbelsterne were advanced grav mines employed by humans in warfare long before the Empire. The name Fröbelsterne was thus not chosen for its relation to paper folding, coincidentally, but because Crucians relate it with the concepts of patience and preparedness.
The Fröbelsterne File are the agents of the Büro, as varied in their responsibilities as any members of the JES. Investigations, apprehension of perpetrators, and sting operations related to the business of the Büro have all been undertaken by The Fröbelsterne File in the past, orders passed down from the DoJ and the JES and carried out not swiftly and unexpectedly, but carefully and precisely. The agents of The Fröbelsterne File are considered slow and old fashioned by other departments of the JES because of their methodical patience, but their tactics have historically shown great success.
While some may believe failure to uphold contracts or infringements of intellectual property rights deserve a fast response, there are many steps in the Büro’s process before apprehension or physical force are typically authorized. Coupled with that, other Houses or entities often have a number of steps and processes of their own in various local laws that the Büro takes great care to respect where possible. Because of this, the agents of The Fröbelsterne File are known for an almost unparalleled patience, sometimes frustratingly so, and a fierce adherence to their orders.
The Manila Fleet[]
Mostly comprised of smaller vessels, the Manila Fleet is an unofficial name for a collection of Crucian ships, some borrowed from the House Guard or JES in times of need. The ships include personnel and data transports, a small number of dropships and fighters, and a handful of frigates tasked with moving protected and classified information around, transporting Büro personnel, and assisting in the acquisition of assets owed in cases under the Büro’s jurisdiction.
Assets owed can include:
- Payments or assets not provided for the fulfillment of contracts that House Eridanus is either unable or unwilling to acquire
- Objects of intellectual property, including prototypes, original works of art, and other physical representations of intellectual property
- Payments or assets owed in the processing of licenses, such as renewal fees
- Legal documents purposefully removed or never provided to Empire systems but that are being enforced through illegal means
- Repossession of payments or assets tied to deeds, titles, etc. that resist the authority of House Eridanus (such as a Noble Estate unable to pay taxes that attempts to resist foreclosure through use of armaments and mercenaries). In situations of extreme resistance House Aquila may be called upon instead
The Büro generally refrains from the extreme tactics of orbital bombardment and asset destruction unless explicitly requested to engage in such actions. House Aquila is typically contacted in such extreme scenarios. However, boarding with a warrant, disabling a vehicle or vessel, and planetary landings have all been undertaken at one point or another in response to failures to abide by the terms of legal documents or illegal attempts to enforce legal documents outside the law.
The Pale Verstand[]
Penmanship is critical in the Büro
Headquarters of the Büro, the Pale Verstand is a mixture of brutalism and art deco, a fortress of towering concrete, striking lines, and geometric adornments and windows. While the tower itself is not remarkably tall or beautiful compared to the many skyscrapers of Ven City that surround it, the Verstand sinks hundreds of levels below the surface, offices, vaults, and layer after layer of security burrowed deep beneath the earth.
The styling and equipment of the Verstand is decidedly old-fashioned, but this is intentional. Because the Büro’s computers, servers, and datadiscs are intentionally out-of-date, and largely kept to a local, closed system, it is surprisingly more difficult to attempt to hack or infiltrate. Some departments are also intentionally kept on separate closed systems, meaning the only method of transmitting data between them is either a handful of connected terminals or by hand through paper files and memos. This strategy may slow down the processes of the Büro, but it is believed it provides a level of internal security more easily maintainable by House Crux without having to contract out technological upgrades or security systems from House Triangulum or the Trilliant Ring.
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