Career in the State
You start as a probationary clerk in the Valdora Civil Service and can rise to undersecretary. Lower pay, longer-lived enemies.
The civil service
The State of Valdora is a vast machine of eight ministries and directorates, each with its own corridors, tea stations and invisible hierarchies. Here power is less a title than a signature: whose signature a file cannot move without.
Ranks and pay
- Probationary Clerk
- ₡1,900
- Clerk
- ₡2,600
- Assistant Expert
- ₡3,300
- Expert
- ₡4,200
- Section Chief
- ₡5,100
- Branch Director
- ₡6,400
- Head of Department
- ₡8,200
- Director General
- ₡11,000
- Undersecretary
- ₡16,000
Raises in the state depend on the national agenda: during austerity, civil service raises are frozen. Some degrees change how long you wait for promotion; public administration graduates learn the language of the corridors faster.
Ministries
- Ministry of Finance: budget cuts, tax amnesty rumours and letters to the Court of Accounts.
- Ministry of the Interior: security, governorships and reports nobody wants to remember.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs: receptions, protocol blunders and secret negotiations.
- Ministry of Justice: cases, pardons and files that vanish at interesting moments.
- Ministry of Defence: tenders, classification levels and very expensive screwdrivers.
- Ministry of Trade: customs, licences and OBSIDYNE's lobbyists.
- Ministry of Health: pandemic plans, vaccine tenders and sleepless nights.
- Directorate of Communications: press releases, “sources” and statements that say nothing.
The state calendar
In the state, the year is measured in reports. In April the first-quarter budget execution report goes to the Court of Accounts, and any line that overran needs an explanation. In July come parliamentary questions, where writing a “short answer that says nothing” is an art. In October the budget talks begin: the Treasury wants cuts, you defend your unit's allocation. January brings the annual review.
Bureaucratic intrigue
Intrigue in the state is slower but lasts longer. A journalist offers soft coverage in exchange for a draft budget; a deputy undersecretary calls you into the private office; a file is “accidentally” archived. Election seasons speed everything up. At the top, a succession struggle will decide the ministry's future, and who you stand with decides who will remember you.
You can move from the state to OBSIDYNE or back. In Valdora the revolving door always turns.
Last updated: 2026-11-09