Legation

In Borld contexts, a legation is a permanently staffed diplomatic representative office. Legations rank below embassies, and unlike embassies, are found in their "home" administrations managing relations between local instances. Legations serve as representative offices, but do not feature any permanent staff that is personally representative; there are no "legators" analogous to ambassadors, and so a legation outside its home territory is not typically used for things like intergovernmental negotiation.

Internal and external legations differ mainly in capacity and priorities. An external legation is outside its own administration and will primarily focus on relations with the host administration/government's local branch, while an internal legation is a piece of infrastructure where people can get information, forward their important mail, or consult somebody about taxation. Internal legations also serve as a way for local administrations to interface with the higher-level administration the legation belongs to.

External legations may be built to change locals' loyalties, either to encourage them to move to the legation's home area, or to get the local administration to transition away from its own higher-level administration and over to the legation's. Such a legation is sometimes called a propaganda hut (TRANSLATION) and is typically built covertly as host administrations usually don't enjoy others taking bites out of their populations or territories.

Legations are also used as logistical hubs and lodgings for the envoys staffing them, meaning they often suffer from dynamic staffing. Especially with internal legations, only a small proportion of the staff is assigned to the specific legation itself, with a large body of roving bureaucrats committed to work at a legation but not a specific one. As a result, legations may stand virtually abandoned in times when there is much ado elsewhere, leaving only skeleton crews and some maintenance staff to keep the building from collapsing.