Augustin Backstrom

Augustin Backstrom holds the chair of the Scales — the faction of the institution responsible for what its records refer to, without further explanation, as judgment and account. He has held the chair since 1989. He is approximately seventy-six years old. He is, by a substantial margin, the longest-serving Council member currently living.

He is the institution's memory. He has read, by the testimony of his colleagues, every record the institution has produced since 1964. He is consulted, at irregular intervals, on questions of historical precedent. He has not, by any account, been wrong.

He drinks whiskey in a wood-paneled library under a single green-shaded reading lamp. He prefers, by all reports, that the lamp be the only light in the room.