Legation

In Borld contexts, a legation is a permanently staffed diplomatic representative office. Legations rank below embassies, and unlike embassies, can be found in their "home" countries as offices managing relations between a local area/government and national instances. Legations serve as representative offices for their instance (government, state..), but do not feature any permanent staff that is personally representative (=no ambassadors). They serve to assist citizens in reaching the relevant national offices for their concerns, which may be physically unavailable (particularly with legations abroad), and they are also often used as logistical hubs and lodgings for their state/government and its envoys.

Domestic and foreign legations differ mainly in their processing capacity and priorities; a legation in a foreign country will primarily focus on foreign relations and dealing with citizens' concerns, while a domestic legation can be thought of more as a piece of government infrastructure, with secondary functions like giving people information or forwarding their important mail.

Legations, particularly domestic ones, often suffer from dynamic staffing due to only small portions of staff being assigned to the legation itself, as opposed to a role that may or may not make use of the establishment. They may stand virtually abandoned except in times of particular political relevance/tension, but are maintained nonetheless for their increased safety of staff & communications in volatile situations compared to using public services.

tldr: a place for national/central/federal governments to keep their stuff and people in when they're out and about