Selkie Circle of Elders

Within the Khilaia, important judicial intepretations and emergency executive decisions are made by the Selkie Circle of Elders , a small oligarchy of ten old elite politicians led by the Revered Speaker.
The Circle of Elders is a group of ten elders, typically over the age of 50 or 60, each of whom is considered to have accomplished deeds and careers of note. Most of these elders come from powerful political dynasties, but not all of them do - glory and reputation matter much more than birth here. The Circle of Elders curate a list of possible successors, called the Esteemed Roll, which is quite the accomplishment to get on - the Roll is public and serves as a kind of award in itself. Whenever a member of the Circle dies, the Revered Elder, the first among equals, proposes a replacement from the list and the council votes on it.
The Circle of Elders' main job is the run the Hanahai, or sacred bureaucracy of the islands. They can also initiate internal changes within the selkie bureaucracy - notably, they can initiate the removal of a selkie clan from a major Naval title, though this often requires the support of the other Naval clans in practice. The Elders also manage emergency defense and executive decision making. The Elders have their own treasury, on top of the smaller treasuries of the Hanahai, from tarriffs and taxes paid at the sacred isles to mandatory "gifts" provided by elite station-holders to a portion of magic item license money. This slush fund is partially used to host the Assembly, but is mostly for executive decisions like putting bounties on pirates or treaty-breakers or mobilizing ship levies against community-wide threats.
The Circle of Elders rule from the small island of Okailu, where the Test of the Depths  is conducted, and control the island with absolute authority.
The current Revered Elder is Aimella Danohel, the Island Xenophobe. Aimella is an old woman with very rigid ideas of who should be a Selkie and who should not. She sneers down on the peltless and considers non-selkies to be inherently less valuable than selkies; she takes their personal costs only minimally into account when it comes to the cost-benefit judgments she makes. Aimella is deeply friendly and quite generous most of the time, when she interacts with fellow bureaucrats or selkie elites - even welcomes guests tend to see her smiling and polite face. As a Danohel, she tends towards central government and military solutions. She is excellent as an administrator of island infrastructure, but tends to be bad at estimating military costs, despite her background.

Type

Government, Leadership

Parent Organization

The Khilaia

Location

Khilaian Isles

Related Ranks & Titles

• Exarch of Motosui
• Grand Elder
• Revered Speaker