The Council of Shafts

The Council of Shafts is the primary legislative body of the Mining Coalition of Midivar, seated in the capital city of Karhark-Vel. It is composed of elected representatives drawn exclusively from the Five Founding Clans and is chaired by the High Prospector, a rotating position elected by the Council for a ten-year term. Its decisions carry binding authority across all Coalition territories and member clans.

What Is Known

The Council’s existence and authority are not in question. Records from external parties — traders, diplomatic envoys, and the administrative offices of neighboring states — consistently reference it as the final authority on matters of Coalition policy. Several decisions of note have been attributed to it, most prominently the formal authorization of the permanent Dwarven Quarter trade installation in Ferisia. That authorization is referenced in Ferisia’s own administrative records, confirming the Council’s hand in an arrangement that extended Midivar’s commercial presence beyond its own territorial borders — a decision of sufficient consequence to require Council approval rather than merchant-level negotiation.

Beyond outcomes, little is reliably documented.

What Is Not Known

How representatives from the Five Founding Clans are selected within their respective clans is not a matter of public record. Whether the Council’s proceedings are recorded at all, and in what form, has never been formally addressed for outside scholars. What constitutes a binding decision versus an advisory finding, how dissent is handled if it arises, and whether the High Prospector’s role extends beyond chairing into executive authority — these questions remain unanswered, and the Coalition has not indicated any interest in answering them.

Decisions emerge from the Council fully formed. No deliberation is published. No minority positions are circulated. External parties learn of outcomes when they are communicated through Midivar intermediaries; the reasoning behind them is considered internal to the Coalition.

Dealing With the Council

Those who have conducted negotiations with Midivar on behalf of external parties consistently report the same boundary. Once a matter has been referred for Council review, discussion with intermediaries ceases. Timelines for decisions are not provided. The phrase “the Council will consider it” functions as both acknowledgment and conclusion — what follows is waiting.

Whether this opacity is deliberate policy, the product of the Coalition Compact’s original design, or simply a very old habit — is not a question the Coalition has found reason to address.