The hopebringers were imperial officials used in the Dragon Empire and early Sun Empire for diplomacy and communications during the Orc Wars.

Powers and Roles

The office of hopebringer was very powerful. Individual hopebringers, after swearing oaths of allegiance to Ochebana, the Emperor, and Tempus, were allowed to receive full imperial authority; the emperor could, and occasionally did, transfer the full state-making powers of his office to hopebringers.

Their primary task was to handle Ochebana's relations with allies and neutral states during the Orc Wars, a mission of utmost importance given the Venan Bastion's reliance on weapons importations from the west. Hopebringers were sent, with a small escort of functionaries and guards, to hash out deals and make sure enough supplies were sent. Thus hopebringers regularly appeared and stayed for some length of time in the capitals and trade centers of Cuprien, Zann'Elth, and Tsseh.

Most of the time, hopebringer mandates were relatively limited; a phrasing such as "The task of making the request for three regiments' worth of artillery, in the most modern and portable configuration possible, in exchange for payment and debt from imperial coffers" was quite common, bestowing the official with the power to commit the empire but only to a specific, predefined commitment. There were also more general powers, such as being able to hash out treaties within some vague frame or even to wholly speak on behalf of the emperor, as was sometimes the case with hopebringer delegations sent to Zann'Elth with the purpose of proving Ochebana's sincerity with words more than anything else.

Composition and Appearance

The hopebringer corps, which varied from a handful to nearly two dozen over the years, was composed exclusively of Ochebanian human women. These were often very elite ladies and usually unmarried, such as daughters of high nobility and officers. The hopebringers were relatively unique in allowing considerable imperial power and status to a gender that had little access to positions of any power otherwise.

Hopebringers were quite similar to the Ochebanian visualization of Tempus's adjudicator angels, and this was no coincidence. The adjudicators were painted as angelic warrior-women who appeared above a battlefield to determine the winning side and embolden its soldiers. Hopebringer equipment mirrored this, as the standard "uniform" was a full plate harness and draping red cloak (and the helmet was omitted, so a hopebringer's flowing long hair could be visible). In formal appearances of all kinds, whether at the imperial court or when appearing before foreign notables, hopebringers thus resembled heroic warriors more than diplomats.