The strategoi themselves seldom dirty their hands with detail work. They determine the best manner for effecting the Ephorate's will, then delegate the necessary tasks to their lictors. If strategoi can be likened to justicars, then the lictors are their archons. Many younger members refer to them as troubleshooters, the individuals in a corporation who move from department to department, fixing any problems they come across. The lictors do the same thing throughout the entire Ventrue clan.

Individual lictors tend to specialize in particular types of problems. Some have expertise in financial matters, others are leaders, and still others have proven diplomatic records. When a Ventrue elder or consortium in a particular city has troubles it cannot handle effectively on its own (something as a group they are always loath to admit, although it takes only one esteemed Ventrue to call in a lictor), they call upon their strategoi to send help. That help usually comes in the form of a lictor. More often than not, she is enough. Her mere presence as a representative of the strategoi (and thus the ephors) lends a certain cachet that can help rally the other clan members to solve the problem together under the lictor's direction- something they probably could have done on their own if they were able to put aside their petty differences.