Four Courts

The term Four Courts or Four Courtyards refers to the central civilian government of Great Neritsia up to the Majestic Peace, and occasionally to the government of late Tirfatsia before that. In the Tirfatsevid context it generally meant the household of the Tirfatsevid Emperor, while in Neritsovid usage it came to encompass an extensive government bureaucracy at the service of the Prophet-Emperor. It remains in use today in Outer Joriscian languages as a literary term for the state bureaucracy or for a ruling regime.

The original 'four courts' were the now-ruined Equestrian Palace built in Axopol by Miroslav I to serve as his permanent residence in the new full-time capital, a move which completed the gradual sedentarisation and 'Joriscianisation' of the Tirfatsevid rulers; the name, which follows a post-Chotarian convention of referring to the imperial court obliquely by reference to the central open location in which it sat, is itself indicative of this shift. At first the 'Four Courts' were primarily a location and only secondarily a metonym for the Tirfatsevid Emperor (later the southern Emperor once diarchy was restored) and his retainers, but by the time of the Neritsovid conquest in the late 15th century the association was so closely established that it was inherited straightforwardly by the new imperial court. When the court moved to the Irdosku Palace built by Sobiebor II in his new capital of Great Pestul, the appellation 'Four Courts' moved with it – to the extent that it was commonly if somewhat circuitously asserted by Neritsovid writers that it had always referred to the three main courtyards of the Irdosku and that the fourth was the grand courtyard in front of the Blue Palace in the Prysostaia. Other ahistorical interpretations associated each 'courtyard' with a direction of the compass, making it a metaphorical claim to universal empire.

The Courts' development from a mere collection of retainers to a fairly complex state bureaucracy was gradual and is difficult to pin down precisely. The Tirfatsevid imperial retinue already had more bureaucrats than would be customary in a contemporary Messenian royal court, a legacy of the post-Chotarian state apparatuses it replaced, and these included a Paymaster and a Quartermaster responsible for the complex affairs of the Commandery. It was only under Sobiebor II and his successors, however, that the classic model of four Grand Officers of War and Peace became established: the Auditor, the Recorder, the Paymaster and the Quartermaster. As their duties became more complex and their staffs larger, these Officers acquired deputies and ultimately numerical grades, so that in the 17th century it became customary for there to be (for example) a First, Second and Third Recorder. There were also numerous other officials and administrative bodies, whose numbers grew steadily over the course of the Neritsovid period; some of these additional bodies, such as the Court of the Cloisters and the treasurer, were eventually given equivalent status to the Grand Offices.