’She’s done this before.’
A few of the others shifted forward instinctively, drawn toward the empty page.
"Alright," I said, picking up from where the room’s energy was already moving. "Structure. Let’s lay out what we know first — what the minimum requirents are for a functioning faction within the war council frawork, and then we build from there. I don’t want to design sothing in a vacuum and find out halfway through that we’ve been reinventing sothing that already has a better version."
"Smart," Carven said, with a small dip of his chin. "The minimum functional requirents are well-docunted. Every faction under the war council umbrella has to maintain at minimum three defined tiers of mbership, a nad leadership hierarchy with no fewer than two nad officer positions beneath the faction head, and a recorded intake process for new mbers that’s filed with the council’s administrative body within sixty days of the faction’s first active recruitnt."
"Filed how?" the woman beside him asked. She had a clipped, precise manner of speaking — I’d caught her na in the folder as Seris, a forr administrative officer from one of the mid-tier factions who had spent twelve years in all of it.
"Standard docuntation package," Carven replied. "Tier designations, officer titles, intake criteria, and a brief charter statent that summarises the faction’s purpose and operating philosophy. Nothing they’ll scrutinise too hard at this stage. It’s more a formality than an examination."
"Then the charter statent matters more internally than externally," I said.
"For now," Seris confird.
’Good instinct. I’ll rember that one.’
Colis had been quiet since his last contribution.
"Three tiers," Brek said, picking up a writing instrunt and marking a rough vertical structure on the blank chart. Three horizontal bars, stacked. Clean. "Minimum requirent. We can exceed it, but we start with the question of whether we should."
"Most factions that exceed three tiers do it for one of two reasons," offered a quieter man near the middle of the table — Daven, if I recalled the brief correctly.
"Either genuine operational complexity that requires more defined layers, or status inflation — giving people a rank to keep them content rather than because the rank serves an actual function."
"And the second one," Seris said flatly, "is how you end up with twelve tiers where tiers three through nine an nothing and everyone knows it, but you can’t remove them without offending half your mbership."
A few rueful sounds moved around the table.
"Three tiers to start," I said. "Clean, functional, no inflation. We define each one with actual aning attached — entry criteria, what you gain access to, and what responsibilities co with the position. Not just a na."
"Then we need to decide how movent between tiers works," Brek said, tapping the chart. "rit-based, ti-based, or a combination."
"Not ti-based," I said imdiately.
"Agreed," Daven echoed.
"Most of the factions I’ve worked under used a hybrid," Carven offered. "Minimum ti thresholds combined with performance criteria. The idea being that you can’t rush the foundation even if you’re exceptional."
"That logic has rit in a training institution," I replied. "In a faction, a minimum ti threshold for advancent regardless of performance tells your most capable people that the ceiling on how fast they can grow is decided by a calendar rather than their actual output. Which ans your most capable people are the first ones to feel the ceiling and the first ones to consider whether sowhere else has a lower one."
That one landed clearly.
"rit-based then," Brek said, and marked the note beside the tier structure.
"With defined criteria, not subjective evaluation," Seris added. "Subjective advancent processes are how favouritism becos institutional."
"Both," I agreed. "rit, defined criteria, no ambiguity about what qualifies."
The chart was beginning to fill in slowly, in fragnts and notations.
"Officer positions," Seris continued.
"Two minimum, as stated. I’d suggest we consider what functional areas actually need nad leadership before we assign titles."
"Operations and recruitnt, at minimum," Carven said. "Those are the two areas where a faction of this size will see the most imdiate activity and the most imdiate chaos if left without a nad point of responsibility."
"Resource managent," the dwarven woman said.
"Communication and information," Daven added.
"That gives us four functional areas," I said, scanning the room. Two minimum officers required, four areas that need coverage. Which ans we either collapse so of these under shared roles or we define four officer positions with clear separation."
"Shared roles work until they don’t," Brek said. "The mont a faction grows past a certain threshold, soone who holds two responsibilities will always unconsciously prioritise one over the other. Usually, the one they’re better at."
"Then four," I said. "Define the four, keep them clean, and we’ve got room to expand later without restructuring from scratch."
The room was moving well. Efficiently, collaboratively. I kept my own input asured — specific when I had a clear preference, open when I genuinely wanted the room’s direction. The balance mattered. Lead too hard, and you end up with a room that stops thinking and starts just confirming. Lead too softly and the whole thing drifts.
It was Colis who shifted the weight of the room.
"The intake process," he said.
"Let’s hear it," I said.
He unfolded his hands and set one flat on the table.
"You spoke earlier about recruiting powerful, unaffiliated Imperials. The ones who’ve turned down every existing faction offer and remained independent. You implied you had a way to move them that others haven’t."
"I did."
"And I don’t doubt that you have resources and angles that make that more possible than it sounds on the surface," he continued, his tone carrying no hostility in it whatsoever.
"But a faction built with powerful individuals as its first and primary mbers has a structural problem that isn’t about power at all."
I said nothing. Let him finish.
"Powerful, unaffiliated Imperials who have refused to join existing factions are independent precisely because they don’t want to be managed, directed, or integrated into structures that limit them. If you recruit them first and build the structure around them, the structure will always bend toward accommodating their preferences rather than functioning on its own logic. And then when you try to recruit ordinary mbers into the lower tiers, what they encounter isn’t a functioning faction — it’s a collection of powerful individuals who have no interest in ntoring, leading, or supporting the people beneath them."
The room was quiet.
’He’s not wrong.’
I sat with that for a real mont. I had ways around that, but I would rather hear from these experienced people who have survived it all. I am smart enough to know when to keep my mouth shut.
"You’re right," I said.
Colis didn’t react with satisfaction. He just nodded, once.
"The intake process needs to function for ordinary mbers first," I continued, thinking aloud now, restructuring the sequence in real ti. "The foundation tier needs to have enough mbers — enough of a genuine community — that when we do bring in the powerful individuals, they’re entering sothing real. Not standing on top of a fra pretending to be a building."
"And they’re more likely to stay," Seris said, following the logic imdiately, "if they enter sothing that already has montum. Independent Imperials don’t stay in static structures. They need the sense that what they’ve joined is moving."
"Which ans early recruitnt needs to prioritise the foundation," Carven said slowly, working through it as he spoke. "Even if those early mbers are less impressive on paper."
"Less impressive on paper," I echoed, "but the ones who will actually build the culture of this faction. The powerful nas co in later, and they enter a culture, not just a roster."
Brek was already marking revisions on the chart.
Colis leaned back again, dude is starting to look like a Terminator to .
We spent the better part of the next hour filling in the rest. The three tiers took shape with actual nas and actual criteria attached to each. Foundation tier — entry level, open intake, defined contribution expectations. Core tier — rit-based elevation, access to faction resources, and small leadership responsibilities within their area. Officer tier — four positions, clearly delineated, no overlap in authority.
By the ti Brek set down her writing instrunt and turned the now-covered chart toward the centre of the table, it looked like sothing real.
"That’s a skeleton," Daven observed.
"Skeletons are what you start with," I replied.
Brek looked at the chart for a mont, then looked at . "It’s solid. Better than solid, actually, given that an hour ago, that page was empty."
’It’s good, everything is going well.’
My mind mused, thanks to Ralph’s hard work, the ones gathered here are good, the best of the best, and with them taking the lead, I will be able to create sothing more concrete here, a virus spreading inside the enemy that will be of use to , one that will shine the best when I need it.
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