The Veteran Privy Counsellor

"The Veteran Privy Counsellor would like you to come this way. He's a Duke, isn't he? You should probably pop along."

The Veteran Privy Counsellor is a highly influential nobleman in London.

The Duke of Drama

"The Court lacks for an Imperial Artist-in-Residence. The last one… well, we won't see them for some time. My point is that the Court wishes to be entertained with original compositions. Your early works impressed the Empress, and she doesn't even like mushrooms. So get to it, would you? We can't wait to see what you come up with."

The Veteran Privy Counsellor is a duke with a significant amount of social sway over the Shuttered Palace. Per his title, he is a longtime member of the Privy Council, a formal body of advisors to the Empress. He has resided at the Empress' Court for sixty years, and thus has amassed extensive connections. He possesses enough blackmail to threaten all of London’s Ministers; unsurprisingly, he is in turn surveilled by Rattus Faber, who are more than happy to sell incriminating evidence about him. Decades ago, likely prior to the Fall of London, he governed a "considerable portion" of Africa. His office, located far from the Empress' throne, is decorated with opulent furniture, old paintings, and wallpaper made of zebra hide.

The Counsellor has been assigned the responsibility of appointing the Imperial Artist-in-Residence, and while such a duty sounds rather droll, he has in fact been using this privilege as a popularity mill for an unknown amount of time. He has a penchant for pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, often encouraging artists to create works that offend the sensibilities of the Court, and eventually instigating them to get themselves banished from the court through an exceptional degree of scandal. He uses the ensuing chaos to grant the banished artists government positions at home and abroad, allowing them to rebuild their reputation enough to return to the Court as celebrities. His motivations remain unclear, but he is known to hold clandestine meetings on the Palace roof with something that can fly, and he has a Correspondence tattoo meaning "faith kept, aeons" — suggesting an oath or allegiance. The Masters of the Bazaar may be involved, as they have an interest in shaping notable Londoners.

But Not the Most Dramatic Man

"The Veteran Privy Counsellor smiles thinly, but does not permit any mention of the w_r, and certainly not of the S____d M_n, within these walls. 'The Palace knows well enough how to function in times of— Well, at all times.'"

The Counsellor has political duties that extend beyond the arts, of course. When the Great Hellbound Railway reached Balmoral and fell back under the Crown’s jurisdiction, he appointed the Unyielding Highlander as the settlement's Castellan. During the Starved attack that followed the London Horticultural Show, he went so far as to restrict any mention of the matter within the Palace, turning away any pleas for help from the city.

As invested as he is into both social and political scheming, the Counsellor is, at the end of the day, a typical old aristocrat. He dislikes poetry but adores ballet, even dancing spontaneously at the thought — though his skills are as poor as one would expect of an elderly, portly man. He dismisses modern technology, and maintains a private club where he socializes with fellow nobles over his favorite port wine. And like an untold number of powerful men over the course of history, he has his, shall we say, preferences. He has many illegitimate children scattered throughout London's orphanages and poor-houses, whom he neither acknowledges nor provides financial assistance. He remains keenly aware of the damage they could inflict on his reputation should the truth come to light, but he may also acknowledge that exposure would harm the children and their mothers far more than it would harm him. Despite the potential consequences, Feducci has taken an interest in seeking out one of his offspring.

Historical Inspirations

The Privy Council, the formal body of advisors to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, is primarily made up of senior politicians who are current or former MPs. It was created in 1801 as the renamed successor to the Privy Council of Great Britain, which in turn superseded several separate and longstanding councils for each country incorporated into the UK.