Household Department

While the emperor is busy ruling the realm, someone has to keep running of the palace smooth and almost unnoticable. The emperor does not have time to fetch his own meals, pick his own clothes, chase after the ministers and sort out all of the important documents and memorandums that he needs to go through.   The Household department is an important governmental organization that consists of all of the staff that is making sure the imperial palace is running smoothly and without a hitch. But ever increasingly it seems that the whole department is dictating the direction it is running in, instead of the actual nobility in power.   Household department consists entirely of eunuchs who are the only men permitted on the grounds of the imperial palace. At first the household department was focusing mostly on the hard and taxing labour that comes with keeping this place running that cannot be easily performed by maids, like fetching wood and coal for the winter, repairs, cleaning of the wells and keeping barrels full of water in case of a fire outbreak. Eunuchs were also tasked with keeping up security in certain areas instead of regular guards.   Slowly but surely their responsibilities increased and so did their numbers. Nowadays you cannot take a single step in the palace without encountering a group of eunuch running to perform some vital tasks. More and more the incoming nobles and ministers recognised that being friendly to this serving staff can mean making sure that your report does not end up at the bottom of the pile and, if you pay a little bit extra, will arrive just in time when the emperor is in a good mood to receive it.   Eunuchs are now a power to be reckoned with and they almost fully control what will end up in front of the head of state and the condition it will end up at.