HighCourt

Anyway, the HighCourt is run by some kind of committee. The royal family is always busy with one ritual or another for blessings, or for honoring some drylander or other, or for the turn of the season or the moon. But the business seems to be done by a bunch of funny old men and women wearing pointy hats at a big round table. There's a Lord Keeper and a Lord Militant and a Lady Precedent and a Lord and Lady Harmony -- that's kind of the church here, they have two seats -- and a Lady Keys. She kind of gave me the shivers, I don't know why. And a few others, I forget how many.

All this stuff, the castle and palace and and eagle roost and gardens is in a hanging valley across a deep ravine from The PlainOfTheLabyrinth? where all these pilgrims are walking round in these funny patterns. I went across the hanging bridge and the swaying felt almost normal, you know, like kelp in a current.

There's a road from the HighCourt down to UpperAdamant which is kind of pretty itself, a city on a big mountain lake. Fortunately there were carriages so it was much less tiring, and I got to take a tour in an airship. Not a good idea in lightning season, I understand.

-- By PythiaTwentyThree

I was pleased upon meeting PythiaTwentyThree that her understanding of the HighCourt, its dignities, personages, and powers had improved remarkably in the interval since this writing.

Nonetheless, a novice might be well served by knowing that the HighCourt is situated at an equilibrium point for energy flows, having neither the erratic excursions of the heights nor the drain of the depths. DoctorWintertop has his practice here for this reason, with the other members of his esoteric group.

I am surprised that Pythia did not mention her meeting with the Gargoyle IronBiter, though perhaps IronBiter's response to her questions took her aback.

-- by AlfredReadyman

PythiaTwentyThree just doesn't understand the Harmony Walkers. I can understand how useless it all looks, but after I followed the LadyLionheart to the shrines on the PilgrimageOfTheChords, I know how it feels. And once in a while a pilgrim achieves the Greater Harmony. Maybe I'll become a Walker someday.

-- by LilyQuillpot

The meeting of the HighCourt is a more boisterous affair than that of the DeepCourt because there are so many more individuals with authority. Supplicants and witnesses arrive in similar numbers.

Really, a confusing place, and difficult to maneuver oneself towards the person who can get something done. With all of these titles strewn about it's deceptively challenging to discover who is responsible for what. The thing I have the hardest time explaining to folk of the sea is the cultural importance of inheriting land instead of responsibilities among landers.

When I visited, I found peace from my frustration in the PlainOfTheLabyrinth?, and listening to the singing of the WindHarps constructed to illustrate the beauty of harmony and the inherent music of existence. Beautiful.

-- by HalloaGrisau

The division of labor within the HighCourt isn't quite as complicated as Grisau and Pythia make it out to be. Perhaps I can explain... The titled landowners may act like they have a lot of authority, but true decisions are handled by the CircleOfSix. The HighGuard answer directly to the Circle, while the other SkyKnights answer to the LuftBaron and LuftBaroness. Who in turn report to the Lord Militant. (Although at the moment there are actually two Luft Barons because of that business with KendelDung, PrinceXanthus and LuftBaronKell?. Both roles seems to have been primarily administrative considering the extremely evident warmaking skills of the SkyKnights individual Lord Commanders.)

The Circle was historically quite off balance of course, considering there are two representatives from the Harmony Walkers sitting on it, but only until the LordKeeper and Lord Militant began to vote together, as do the Lady Precedent and the LadyKeys. With the Lord Harmony title currently unfilled, the Harmony Walkers' influence seems to have slightly waned. But perhaps that will change after the events of GrandSummer, when the new Lord is announced.

...I suppose that's not really that much clearer at all, is it? Perhaps with a picture?

-- JuneLaveau