Never a particularly effective body and, by 1334, one more or less paralised by incompetance, timidity and in-fighting. The Council don't precisely match the divisions as a city as a whole; nobody dares to openly espouse either federalism (apart from Ham Driak, who is a special case) or seperatism. Nonetheless, each Councillor seems to have a different standpoint and each is looking to see how they can best exploit the ongoing crisis. The Council is increasingly been squeezed by the seperatist movements on one side and pressure from Huwdone House and, more and more, the Zabric Baron on the other. At the same time they are blamed for the breakdown in law and order, the gradual crumbling of the city infrascruture, the overarching power of the city elite, rising religious tensions, declining trade and basically everything else. The whole Council narrowly survived a block deselection vote in 1332 (triggered by nothing more than a budget crisis). Unlike many other cities they only dare submit to regular elections once a decade and are already looking fearfully to 1338. Theoretically left-leaning in principle thanks largely to Tallis Siato's influence, few of their redistribution schemes have ever got anywhere.
Chairman - Tallis Siato 'If anyone can, Siato can' was actually once not only his campaign slogan but a popular saying. Nobody says it anymore. Once heralded as the saviour of Zabric politics, Tallis Siato is now as lost, overworked and baffled as anyone in his unenviable position can expect to be. He professes to be a left winger but Siato is actually a classic example of a centerist diplomat perpetually trying to unite factions who really don't want to be united; attempting to resist federalist pressure from Huwdone House while clamping down with increasing ruthlesness on the separatist groups. No-one can in fact bring peace to East Zabrial at the moment, and Siato's defenders claim that only his influence is preventing from Zabrial Council from impliding completely. However, his current exceptional unpopularity in every sector is the consequence of his old attempts to be all things to all people. A fine example of the rapid upward mobility still possible in Zabrial, he was born 60 years ago to impoverished artisan parents and built up a tanning and weaving firm which nowadays is the largest in East Zabrial. He entered politics as a praetor at the turn of the century, got a taste for it and showed exceptional slickness and skill to secure a Council post in 1312 and the Chair six years later. His rule has seen some sucesses, notably a reform of the corrupt harbour toll system and a perceptible improvement in education. He also gains credit from his private life, having used a sizeable portion of his fortune to build houses, schools and hostels for the poor. However, it also coincided with the independence movement coming to the boil and Siato's policies have if anything exacerbated it. Ateempting something of a 'divide and rule' strategy both in his Council and the city as whole, he has only really managed to entrench the divisions between the sides, done nothing to strengthen the Council's positions and allowed himself to be constantly manipulated. Siato himself is becoming increasingly ineffective as he grows older, lacking the forcefulness which once balanced his caution and having little to recommend him beyond his continued devotion to his job. He is, however, a survivor. Both the 1328 and the 1332 elections were won against what seemed like unsumountable odds with campaigns of startling cynical opportunism, and he has withstood various attempts by his Council to unseat him. Siato gets on surprisingly well with Tomas Fielan but Huwdone House sees him as a waster and wants him out.
Justice & Welfare - Ham Driak As the post which controls the hated Guards, J & W has never been a popular job. In 1324, in response to increasing anarchy in East Zabrial, it was removed from the electorate and declared Baron's Prerogative - which in most people's eyes meant it would be filled by a Huwdone House appointee. In 1327 the ineffectual Bitan Salmass was removed from it and replaced by Ham Driak; thus achieving the near-impossible by making both Driak and the post itself even less popular. The news was greeted with minor riots and ever since Driak, 'The Rifton Ripper' has replaced even Holan Brightson (the man behind the appointment) and Tomas Fielan as the unacceptable face of the federal government. The man who has become Christoté's favourite bogeyman was born in Schall in 1272. His father was a Guardsman and Driak happily followed in his footsteps, enrolling in the Tukas Institute and graduating just in time for the Labbish invasion. He fought with distinction in the war, leading a unit which played a notable part at Briers Field, helping to spearhead the drive which pushed the Labbish out of the country and taking part in the siege of Rifton. His eventual reward afterwards, apart from a string of medals, was deputy command of the Fourteenth Regiment, newly established to guard the Annexed Lands; and after a series of minor insurrections in 1309, the job of Governor of Rifton itself. The Governor post was a freshly created one which only operated in the Annexed Lands but one carrying considerable powers, which Driak wasn't slow to exploit. He effectivly made himself the dictator of Rifton, clamping savagely down on both rebels and criminals and giving the Guards considerable leeway. His defenders say that Rifton and the whole Annexed Lands would otherwise have tipped into anarchy, leaving them open to recapture by Labland; but tales of his brutality are many and aren't much exagurrated. In 1318 a much-quietened Rifton made a partial transition to proper democracy and Driak took command of the Fourteenth, until Brightson's invitation to repeat his Rifton trick in East Zabrial. He hasn't come close to managing it of course, and the city is even more turbulant than on his arrival. In his defence he has been hemmed in by a timid Council, a corrupt and disorganised Guards regiment, a far more effective resistance movement, and also by his own restraint. Despite the many lurid stories, Driak isn't a bloodthirsty tyrant. He is a military man, with a military background who even prays to a military god (Torgu). His greatest strength and weakness is to never be able to see anything from any other perspective.
Trade & Industry – Calab Assoti Trade & Industry is a key department in Zabrial Council and its governors reputedly possess more power than the Chairman himself. A sign of the times is that the Councillor is a separatist leader who won the seat in 1328 on a broadly pro-independence platform. Admittedly Assoti heads the Partisans, the most mainstream and respectable of the rebel groups, and growing numbers of even their members think he's sold them out. Nonetheless, his election was a landmark and there is considerable tension between him and Ham Driak. Much of Assoti's time now has little to do with the independence fight and a lot to do with efforts to revive East Zabrial's flagging Ellniss trade, stop merchants from bypassing his city in favour of the safer alternative of Port Crabal, negotiate with various pressure groups in a bewildering variety of languages and try to bring some rationality to the city's convoluted trade legislation. In between, he does try to check Driak's authoritarian measures, subtly nudge Siato towards his destruction and actually do what he was elected to do i.e. bring about Zabrial's freedom. Assoti is a hardworking and eternally patient man, probably too mild for his own good but a fiery speaker when roused. He comes from one of Zabrial's wealthy merchant families but endured a long period of poverty after falling out with his father. The feud was only ended by the latter's death, leaving Assoti with a considerable fortune. He embraced separatist politics shortly after the estrangement started (critics say he's doing nothing more than revenging himself on his father all along) and was taken under the wing of Zuan Telmass, the Partisans' reformist leader. After Telmass' death in 1322, rather suprisingly of natural causes, Assoti siezed control after a brutal power struggle. An attempted assassination in 1331 has left him with both a permanent limp and an unpopular habit of never going anywhere without being surrounded by bodyguards.
Housing – Bitan Salmass Gained national fame in 1327 when Huwdone House invoked emergency legislation to haul him out of the Justice and Welfare post and replace him with Ham Driak. Salmass immediately became a martyr of the independance fight, a role he eagerly exploited to get back onto the Council the next year. Huwdone House's coup was a mixture of panic and (on Holan Brightson's part) opportunism which will haunt them for many years to come. However they enacted it because they needed Zabrial Council to be in full control of the Guards; and with Justice & Welfare run by Salmass, who had alienated all the local commanders and half-crippled the force with a slew of pointless edicts, they clearly weren't. As vital housing projects gather dust on Salmass' shelves and tenders are awarded to whoever tops up his retirement funds, the people of East Zabrial are left to ponder the wisdom of their own kneejerk reaction. The truth is that Salmass was never a nationalist just an incompetent, and a corrupt one to boot. He continues trying to play the populist card, reserving his energy for crowd-pleasing gestures, attempting to build an alliance with Calab Assoti – who long ago saw through him, alas – and taking generally ignored potshots at Ham Driak.
Employment – Allyan Zanti Employment is something of an orphan child. It was carved out of Trade & Industry some twenty years ago in a bid to reduce the power of that department but has never really gained a life of its own. Allyan Zanti spends most of her time trying to justify her bureau's existence and persuade people that she is Calab Assoti's equal, not his deputy. The only female Councillor in the past twenty years, she is also from one of the city's most wealthy families and is thus an example of one type of Zabric prejudice defeating another. She began her political career as a praetor in the 1310, toyed briefly with separatism before embracing the bland indifference practiced by most of East Zabrial's rich, became a deputy to Baron Falcan Lennerson, jumped ship when he was capsized in 1325 and narrowly won elections in 1328. Fiery and autocratic, she loathes Assoti for being more powerful, Driak for being a pleb and Siato for being an idiot. Most of the Councillors despise her for being a woman. A little-known fact about her is that she was linked with the 1331 assassination attempt on Assoti. Though not actually an organiser, she was kept informed of the details and didn't see fit to tell anyone else.