One of the dominant archetypes of the modern world
This archetype has a lot of history behind it. It was originally the Despot, the archetypal ruler who doesn’t have any sort of mystical link to his land or people (like the True King) but just lords over both for his own benefit. The Despot made arbitrary pronouncements, and was never concerned with the impact of his decrees, because it was always other people who had to worry about the consequences.
The Despot’s successor is still like that, actually. Individual avatars are weaker and more circumscribed in their field of action… but on the other hand there never were very many despots, and there are hordes of bureaucrats. The archetype is as potent today as it’s ever been.
Among the occultists who try to trace the archetypes through history, opinion is split on when the Despot evolved into the Bureaucrat. The two main schools of thought are 1) in China, probably over a thousand years ago and 2) in 19th century Germany, when bureaucracy was launched into its (largely successful) bid to take over the world. There’s also a minority view that the Bureaucrat appeared early, but existed alongside the Despot for centuries until recently devouring it, leaving one archetype where there once were two. Avatars of all sorts resist the idea that such a thing could be possible.
Attributes: The Bureaucrat is the public servant turned into public master. He exercises impersonal authority by following predetermined rules. In principle bureaucratic decisions should be just, reasonable, and most of all predictable. In practice they often seem as whimsical and arbitrary as any absolute monarch’s.
Most Bureaucrats work for one or another level of government, but a sufficiently large private company can also host Bureaucrats. Banks and utility companies are both good possibilities, and it would be surprising if there weren’t any avatars working for the world’s largest fast food company. A Bureaucrat is unlikely to rise to the very top, but might be as high as a vice president.
Taboos: The Bureaucrat must always appear as someone who’s just doing his job, a cog in the machine, not an individual standing out against the crowd. Taking personal responsibility for a decision is strongly against the Bureaucrats’ code: everything they do should be justified by regulations or superior officials. Even a top Bureaucrat should appeal to mission statements, statutory requirements, and agency policies rather than actually deciding based purely on their own authority. The appearance is what matters here, not the reality, and several avatar channels exist to overcome this limitation.
The Bureaucrat is bound by regulations. Deliberately violating law or policy is taboo, at least while on the job. A few bureaucracies (e.g. secret police) aren’t much hampered by this taboo, but most avatars are significantly restricted. The Bureaucrat must not admit to being swayed by emotion or any human weakness in the performance of his duties. It’s not that he can’t make a decision out of spite or sympathy, but he can’t admit to any such motivation. Most Bureaucrats try to avoid showing emotion on the job at all. Humor, in particular, is anathema: an avatar must never joke about his role and functions, even when not actually on the clock.
Symbols: Paperwork, especially in piles on desks. Gray suits, or other formal wear that fades into the background. Writing implements, with black and red ink. Calendars, schedules, and ledgers.
Masks: Thoth (Egyptian). The August Personage in Jade or the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak (Chinese). St. Peter or the Recording Angel (Christian).
Suspected Avatars in History: Scads of faceless drones forgotten by history. Traditional monarchs are unlikely to fit the Bureaucrat archetype, though one could make a case for a few kings such as Philip II of Spain or Joseph II of Austria. No small number of modern dictators have channeled the archetype, and during World War II the Bureaucrat Joseph Stalin faced off against the Demagogue Adolf Hitler in what could almost have been a contest to see which archetype could be more demoniac.
Channels:
1%-50%: The Bureaucrat never has to take personal responsibility for his professional actions. With an avatar check, the Bureaucrat will not suffer any personal consequences as a result of anything he does (or says or decides) in his official capacity: he won’t be attacked, or sued, or punished by his employer. This channel does not protect the Bureaucrat simply because he’s on the clock: if he steps outside his role or if someone intends to revenge themselves against him for personal reasons, he can’t use it.
This channel is less effective against physical attacks. The Bureaucrat has to make a check every time an attacker would like to target him. If he succeeds, the target’s hostilities are redirected against some other manifestation of the same bureaucracy (which could even be an object instead of a person). If he is the only representative of the bureaucracy in the arena of conflict, the channel will not function against violence.
51%-70%: The Bureaucrat is the master of information. At this level, he can find any piece of information in his bureaucracy’s records with a successful avatar check: it takes a number of hours equal to the ones place of the successful roll. (So if he already knows more or less where to look, he’s probably better off just using mundane search techniques.)
He can also find an excuse to do whatever he wants, somewhere in the regulations, as long as it’s not totally outside the remit of his organization. The Department of Health and Human Services can’t send out agents with a kill order, but they can find an excuse to get an arrest warrant issued against some random lowlife. Unless the avatar check was a matched success or critical, there’s no guarantee the Bureaucrat will personally have the necessary authority, so he may well need to persuade the other people in his organization to take whatever action he is seeking. Such attempts do not, however, suffer from any negative shifts.
71%-90%: The Bureaucrat can inspire fear and despair. By confronting a victim with some sort of bureaucratic attack (tax audit notice, subpoena, change in credit terms, etc), the Bureaucrat can induce a Helplessness stress check. Usually, this is only rank-1 or -2, unless the target has a known vulnerability (e.g. a Fear stimulus that can be targeted).
If notice is given face-to-face, however, the Bureaucrat can impart a much more severe impression of remorseless pressure, such that the Helplessness stress level has a minimum rank equal to the higher digit of the successful avatar check. If the target fails this stress check, he will never frenzy in response: he must either freeze or flee.
Against a target who is somehow within the authority of his bureaucracy, a Bureaucrat can even trigger a stress check with nothing more than a spate of vaguely threatening jargon, although this is a difficult feat and requires a roll with a minimum 50. Such an attack is always considered to be outside his official duties, however, so that he will not be protected by his first channel if the target takes violent exception.
91%+: At this level the entire bureaucracy becomes an extension of the Bureaucrat’s will. With an avatar check, the Bureaucrat can perceive through the senses of any member of the bureaucracy he belongs to, or sift their memory insofar as it relates to their job (personal memories are not accessible). He can also cause them to take specific actions relating to their job – really, he’s taking the action himself, just using the other to do it. The affected flunky will be vague in their own mind about why they did whatever it was: they don’t have to make stress checks for doing something out of character, but a Helplessness check is in order if they find out that they were being supernaturally influenced. A Bureaucrat is allowed to use this channel to control the actions of their bureaucratic superiors, though another avatar can roll their own skill to resist and will always know what has happened.