Margrave Lorenzo Bellatori rules Velkaryn and the March of Velkaryn under the Crown of Alveron, holding command of the March's defense, high justice, the harbor, and dealings with foreign powers. The Margrave governs from Palazzo Bellatori within Fortezza Bellatori on Citadel Hill, reads his own ledgers, and receives merchants, captains, and envoys in person rather than leaving government to his officers. Petitioners can reach the Margrave, but he receives only those who bring him something worth his time, and he expects to be paid for whatever he grants.
The Consiglio del Margravio is the Margrave's privy council, meeting in Fortezza Bellatori to advise Margrave Lorenzo Bellatori on whatever he places before it. Its members are the Cancelliere Grande, the Capitano del Mare, the master of the Maregola, and senior members of the Consiglio Maggiore summoned at the Margrave's pleasure. The Consiglio del Margravio has no vote and no fixed membership, and it governs only as far as the Margrave allows.
The Cancelliere Grande keeps the Margrave's seal and directs the chancery in Fortezza Bellatori, where clerks draft every decree, charter, appointment, and letter issued in the Margrave's name. The chancery keeps the records of Velkaryn's councils and guards the March's charter of privileges under the Crown, the most closely held document in Velkaryn. The Cancelliere Grande is a citizen rather than a noble, holds the office for life, and commands no soldiers and no treasury, yet every family in Velkaryn knows that the chancery remembers what everyone else would prefer to forget. Chancery clerks are drawn from the same citizen class and rise by examination rather than birth.
The Consiglio Maggiore is the great council of Velkaryn, made up of the heads of the old ship-owning families whose names are entered in the Libro d'Oro, the Golden Book that records the families entitled to sit and their births and marriages. The Libro d'Oro is closed, and no new family can be entered in it. The Consiglio Maggiore governs Velkaryn's markets, weights and measures, walls, cisterns, streets, city taxes, and lesser courts, and must approve any tax the Margrave raises beyond the harbor's own revenue. Wealthy families outside the Libro d'Oro have no seat and no vote in the Consiglio Maggiore, and they exercise influence through debt, marriage, and favor instead.
The Maregola is Velkaryn's harbor customs office, working from the Palazzo della Maregola, where clerks register every ship entering or leaving the harbor, inspect cargo manifests, assess tariffs and docking fees, and collect the Crown's share of customs under the March's charter. The Maregola answers to the Margrave rather than the Consiglio Maggiore, because harbor revenue is the foundation of House Bellatori. Every chest of silver struck at the royal mint in the Silver March of Karsthal, known as Karsthal silver, passes through the Maregola's books on its way to Velstrade, and every chest of Velstradi gold coin that comes back is recorded the same way.
The Monte is the public debt of Velkaryn, a fund from which the Margrave borrows to build ships, forts, and harbor works, with interest paid from harbor revenue before almost anything else. Shares in the Monte are held by the Libro d'Oro families, by merchant houses outside the Libro d'Oro, and increasingly by the bankers of Velstrade. The Monte's creditors hold no office, but a Margrave who needs new loans must keep them content, and the council families who hold shares expect to be consulted on any policy that touches their returns.
The Arsenale is the Margrave's shipyard in Velkaryn's Harbor Ward, where the war galleys of House Bellatori are built, fitted, and repaired. The Capitano del Mare commands that fleet, the only standing force in the March of Velkaryn that answers to no one but the Margrave. The Capitano del Mare guards merchant convoys, hunts pirates along the coast, and holds the northern shore against Dravarethi raiders together with the garrison of Rocca di Miravento.
The Harbor Guard keeps order along Velkaryn's docks from the Torre dei Custodi under Captain Alessio Ferrante, answering to the Margrave. The Harbor Guard protects cargo, escorts silver and gold through the harbor, answers brawls and smuggling on the waterfront, and holds offenders in the cells beneath the Torre dei Custodi until the courts take them. The Harbor Guard's authority ends at the harbor wall, and arrests made on the quays are a frequent source of quarrels with the Signori di Notte.
The Signori di Notte are four night magistrates elected by the Consiglio Maggiore, one each for the Harbor Ward, the Merchant Terraces, the Temple Quarter, and the Foreign Ward of Velkaryn. The Signori di Notte command the city's night watch, enforce curfew and fire laws, and judge petty crimes committed after dark above the harbor wall. Citadel Hill lies outside the Signori di Notte's reach and is kept by the Margrave's own guard.
Justice in Velkaryn is divided among three courts. The magistrates of the Consiglio Maggiore hear debts, market fraud, brawls, and property disputes. The Consoli del Mare, the Consuls of the Sea, hear every matter belonging to the water: salvage, wrecks, damaged cargo, unpaid freight, and broken charters between captains and merchants. The Margrave's court hears serious crime, crimes involving nobles, and offenses against House Bellatori, and any wreck valuable enough is often claimed by both the Consoli del Mare and the Margrave's court.
The Church of Alveron holds jurisdiction over heresy and infernal dealings in Velkaryn through the Regional Bishop of the March, but the Church moves carefully in the city. Inquisitions frighten foreign merchants, and the Margrave makes it known that what frightens merchants concerns him. The Temple of Moneta is Velkaryn's great temple, and the sailors' shrines to Kylophia along the docks are left in peace.
Foreign merchant communities in Velkaryn live and trade within fondaci, walled trading houses in the Foreign Ward, each governed by its own consul. The fondaci keep foreigners under watch, but they also protect them, because no inquisitor may enter a fondaco without the Margrave's leave. A fondaco's consul judges disputes among the consul's own people according to their customs, while matters between a foreigner and a citizen of Velkaryn go to the city courts or the Consoli del Mare.
The Grand Guildhall of the Adventurers Guild in Velkaryn stands outside the city's law in matters concerning Guild members. The Harbor Guard and the Signori di Notte do not arrest members inside the Grand Guildhall over matters the Guild claims as its own, and no tax is paid there.
Beyond Velkaryn, the Margrave governs the March of Velkaryn through vassals and garrisons. Baron Giuliano Cassinari governs Porto Miravento as the Margrave's vassal, and the fortress of Rocca di Miravento guards the March's northern coast under its castellan.