Moral Authority is one of the few names that can send the officials of Belltower into a seizure. The common image of them was a cordial and smiling figure holding a stamp labeled Approved and a piece of paper ordering brutal public executions of political dissidents: powerless little puppets of the Architects. Countless jokes about the two branches of the Belltower are made at the lower echelons of the society. In fact, the entire branch is considered by them to be a relic of the past era when there was still hope of returning to a free democratic society. Powerless, abandoned by the Architects, and perhaps even nonexistent. Indeed, many citizens of Stuttgart believe them to be myths, akin to angels.
But the officials of the Moral Authority do exist.
Because of this, the higher echelon of the Belltower knows to shut their mouth on the subject of the Moral Authority. Even the Chief of the Eyes and the Grand Architect becomes evasive around the subject, sometimes denying that they exist and sometimes dismissing the question quickly. They all dread a visit from the friendly man in a grey suit.
Sometimes a friendly man in a grey suit visits a district overseer and hands them an envelope containing a few names and tell him that the Peaceguard X has been too rough in dealing with teenage delinquents or Manager Y has been pushing government employees at the Ministry of Labor too hard. That is when the district overseer in question thanks the man in grey suit for visiting and tell him that a Person Z has an alcohol problem. Afterwards, the District Overseer goes to talk with Peaceguard X and the Manager Y while the friendly man in the grey suit goes to talk with person Z.
Sometimes the district overseer gets an envelope from the Architect telling him that persons X and Y needs to be punished on grounds of morality. In other words, find a way, any way or any excuse, to demote, punish, or transfer the persons in question before they do something stupid. This means that the friendly man in a grey suit has found some evidence of a wrongdoing by the Persons X and Y but would not take the trouble of a heavy legal action.
Sometimes the friendly man in a grey suit knocks on the office of the district overseer and hands him a blue envelope. Inside the envelope would be pictures of Persons X and Y. This means that the friendly man in a grey suit discovered that the persons X had raped a delinquent Z and got away with it, or Persons Y have been found embezzling crazy amounts of money. The friendly man in a grey suit would then tell him that there is a situation that needs to be resolved as quickly and quietly as possible. This is usually when two people are found dead the next morning due to mysterious circumstances.
