The Collective

""All hail the king," the Praetor spoke in a sharp, hollow tone. It rang in fervent murmurs from the other twelve. They bowed their heads and stared at Jibal once again. And all he saw was their collective, their ravenous, rebellious eyes, their conceit at wielding his power. They owned him. He was king, and they owned him. Oh, how he dreamed of their inevitable deaths. How he dreamed of raising their heads on pikes."

- Chapter IV, The Last Saiyan

The Collective (シュゥゴウテキ) are a group of high judges, considered to be the 'collective' hand of the king. They are the most politically powerful group in the entire world.

Appearance
All members of the Collective wear black, crimson-lined robes. All are elderly, at least past the age of sixty, and the thirteen comprises of both men and women. They sit in a small, circular room with three levels of chairs. As every day passes, the Collective move to the left, so that no one member holds a prime seat for longer than another. As such, trials that last multiple days can be disorienting to defendants, as their judges are never in the same place. Being that the Collective are almost never seen outside of their chamber, which is dimly lit, none have hugely differentiating features other than their eyes. Every one of them wears a pair of glasses that shine their eyes a bright color - and each judge has a different color. Praetor Candidus (see below) is perhaps the only judge who wears a hood. Most others are bald, and have skull-like faces with large eyes.

Personality
The Collective have one opinion. Each member acts as but a piece of a single brain, and while they may argue and debate matters intensely, they do so only to come to one conclusion. To date, the judges have never had a dissenting opinion. They are seen as very merciless and cruel by the general public, however, the thirteen just follow the laws strictly. They allow very little room for emotions when deciding fates, but it is not uncommon to use emotional reasoning in deductions leading up to the their rulings for each trial. They are very arrogant, and almost snarky to Jibal whom they serve, but seem to not respect or care to bow to. To others, they are completely elitist, and condescending. They will often threaten citizens with harsh(er) punishments for wasting time and/or being annoying.

Members
The original thirteen members of the Collective have never been replaced. They are primarily denoted by the color of their eyes:
 * Praetor Candidus
 * Praetor Caeruleus
 * Praetor Canus
 * Praetor Flavus
 * Praetor Fulvus
 * Praetor Luteus
 * Praetor Puniceus
 * Praetor Purpura
 * Praetor Ruber
 * Praetor Viridis
 * Praetor Aureus
 * Praetor Coracinus
 * Praetor Aeruginosus

Guards
Praetorian Guards are the most elite of the Ordained forces in King Jibal's empire. Apart from guarding the king and his highest generals, the guard also has a deployed company in guard of the judges. Each judge has a personal guard of 22 soldiers, with two extra generals overlooking the security for all platoons. The Collective's guards are considered to be more brutal and more skillful than those under Zirion or the other generals, but less skilled than those under Jibal.

History
The Collective were founded three years after Jibal's father (Jibal the First) came into power. Their original purpose was to basically run the boring governmental aspects of government while the King could do as he pleased, and not be troubled by the bureaucracy of his kingdom.

As time wore on, the Collective were given more and more power as the old king got lazier and lazier; he let more of his power trickle down to the judges slowly, but surely. By the time Jibal, his son, was born, the Collective held almost as much power as him, making the kingdom less monarchic and more diarchic (or oligarchic). In the old King's will, he gave the Collective far more power than they had been allowed while he was alive, but only until Jibal reached the age of 18. In this way, the hand of the king was actually the ruler, and was acting as a teacher to Jibal, to show him how to properly rule.

Needless to say, this didn't work out well. Jibal and the Collective eventually plotted against each other which caused a civil war, compounding on the empire's existing wars against the rebel Sciaon Malbarion, and the rogue Nir. This threw the empire into absolute chaos.