Spy Agencies of the Mist.

[Mistmaster]

Here is the list of the principal intelligence agencies of the Core Continent of the Mistworld:

Core Great Powers

Falkovnia: Falken Polizei (Falkpo)
Darkon: Karg Agency of Trouble Solving (KargATS.)
Zherisia: Royal Investigation Service Section 6.(RIS6)
Nova Vaasa: Zhleznyye Glaza (Iron Eyes) (ZZG)
Dementlieu: Septieme Bureau (Seventh Agency) (SB)
Zeindost: Nationale Zeindostein Veiligheidsdienst (Zeindosteinian National
Security Service.) (NZV)
Borca: The Deadly Rose (DR)

Core Medium Powers

Barovia: Order of the Red Cloack (ORC)
Hazlan: Shadows of the Wizard King (Shadows)
Espinada: Holy Inquisition of the Creed (Inquisition)
Nebligtode Islands: Dead Eyes Corp (DEC )
Invidia:Queen's Men.

Core Minor Powers

Collodi: Servizi Informativi della Gendarmeria di Stato ( Informative Service of the State Gendarmery) (SIGS)
Lamordia: InnereStaatssicherheit Miliz (Internal Security State Milice) (ISM)
Tepest: the Mirror Sisterhood (MS)
Mordent(shire) : the Wisp

[ewancummins]

ACRONYMS!


That gives a very 20th Century espionage vibe.

Spy stories and horror can mix well, I'd say.

[Joël of the FoS]

Interesting! I'd put Borca into the big leagues however.

Joël

[Mistmaster]

Interesting! I'd put Borca into the big leagues however.

Joël

You might be right, since Borca is the mayor financial power of the Core, by the way I published a "My take on Borca" thread here http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... =1&t=10644

[Mischief]

I've got one to throw in from my Orospero Project: the necromantic Colégio d’Sombras.

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The College of Shadows (Colégio d’Sombras) is Orospero’s state-sanctioned, ‘secret’ society of historians, spies, necromancers, and guardians of the grave. The original circle was chartered early in Orospero’s history to watch the Fey of the Emerald Vault, preserve records, and investigate the mysterious undead Shadow who guided Prester Johannes’ search for Eldorado. The Shaded College’s scope soon expanded to general historical research, mitigating plague and lycanthropy outbreaks, and securing tombs and crypts. The College of Shadows is active in destroying cults; there is no shortage of intelligent undead, devils, and necromancers who peddle claims that they are or have contact with the Shadow. When Orospero joined the core, the College of Shadows expanded once again to become the main arcane wing of the nation’s spy service. Neighbors regard Orospero’s openly practicing necromancers with abject horror, but the organization is too entrenched to be overthrown easily. In the Pre-Ezra days, they acted as the quiet keepers of the nation’s soul. Even now, the Speroese value them as one of Orospero’s few reliable stabilizing institutions and a vital bastion of wisdom. Propaganda helps with this.
Collegians command willing souls, and they are expected to dedicate their own souls to the College’s causes. They help the dead complete works unfinished and assuage their last regrets in exchange for the information, talent, and knowledge they took to the grave. By only evoking the willing and sympathetic dead and not empowering them “unnaturally” they preserve the soul’s sanity and circumvent the usual metaphysical penalties. Even so, some Collegians do break away and walk the darker path, eventually necessitating their destruction.
College Members wear a black hood and gold masks to conceal their identities and a pair of carved onyx cameos – Prester Johannes in white on black, and the Shadow in black on white. Corporeal undead partners wear gold and black cloaks and a mask as well; they can be hard to distinguish from the living members. The souls of spectral undead may be kept in gold and silver cages.
The College is located on, in, and a long way under the Mourama Hills on the outskirts of Jazigo Sol. The crypts where they entomb their own are well guarded. Rarely seen by outsiders, the dungeons are gorgeously appointed with the works of Great Masters created post-mortem.

Other Darklords
The College of Shadows is well aware of the undead Darklords beyond Orospero’s borders and even understands the overall metaphysics of curses and acts of darkness, but they consider foreign dreadlords to be outside the scope of their responsibility as long as they aren’t impersonating the Shadow of legend, threatening the existence of Orospero, or unduly preying on the Speroese conquistadors in search of Eldorado. Those seeking the Collegians’ help with external undead dangers unrelated to Orospero will be turned away and directed to the public libraries or the more militant branches of the church of Ezra. Frankly, ordinary spy duties and the native supernatural threats are enough to keep the College busy.
Even if necromancers were allowed, the Collegians cannot move in Mordent because Godefroy is holding a Collegian’s soul hostage. Godefroy despises the Collegians and undermines them at any easy opportunity.

Fraternity of Shadows
The similarly-named Fraternity of Shadows from Darkon has cautiously reached out to the College, and the two groups have begun trading mutual favors when convenient, but to call the two organizations allies would be a significant overstatement; their philosophies and membership are worlds apart. The Collegians are attempting to use the Fraternity to roundabout investigate Richten Haus and the final whereabouts of the eponymous scholar. The Collegians would very much like to add the good doctor’s shade to their ranks and provide him borrowed time to finish his incomplete works. They also want a finger on the pulses of Death and Azalin; both send undercover forces into Orospero for various nefarious reasons, and worse, they sometimes fight it out on Speroese turf.

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I set out to learn why they dress so inappropriately for the weather and stumbled across an even more intriguing mystery. The Collegians switched from typical scholastic robes to their eccentric, masked black-and-gold garb immediately after the twenty-four years-long siege of the Mourama Hills ended. Recall the Luktar-speaking Lost Domain went on to conquer Jazigo Sol two years after taking the low country, but failed to dig the chthonic Collegians from their dreary catacombs. My estimate is four or fivescore men and women were trapped underground. Using your Kargat and Karg’s dark alleys as a comparison data set for human predation rates, I don’t think these Collegians became undead because a hundred supernatural appetites would produce multiples more disappearances in Jazigo Sol than present. No, whatever is under the black robes is human enough to aggressively patronize expensive iced-drink stands. (I recommend the iced espresso lemonade with muddled mint, pay extra for the splash of rum.)
So, my conclusion: the Collegians had plenty of free time with one another in close quarters. Love and consequences followed, and they raised a generation of children in the crypts. Like dark water that becomes empowered because it flows without ever seeing sunlight, the children too were changed. The parents hid their children’s unnatural condition by adopting skin-concealing uniforms. I suspect the practice of raising children underground without sunlight may even continue today.

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Sadly, sneaking a sample of the seaweed proved impossible as the College of Shadows had several black-hooded representatives keeping close watch on the head end. I stepped closer to get a better look at the infection, but one with a [___] shaped gold and white mask and frosty green glare silently interposed. They personalize their masks and trimmings, so I recognized this individual as the one I casually followed around the Mourama Hills district.
I think this one must have been living, because he or she was wearing an exquisite gold-detailed silver cage at hip containing either a flaming soul or a subordinate will-o-wisp-like creature. There was something… not right about the Collegian’s shadow, so I hastily retreated before it overlapped mine.

Well spotted. The Colégio d’Sombras uses light to cast shadow, positive to command negative, and life to manipulate death. Their crippled approximations are but a pathetic shadow of proper necromancy, but theirs does not falter before sunlight or draw the attention of the Tormentors cowering in the mists.

Orospero’s state-sanctioned and openly-practicing organization of necromancers was chartered in the Pre-Ezrite days to investigate the Shadow of Eldorado legend. Its scope soon encompassed general historical research, defense against fiend and fey attacks, mitigating plague and lycanthropy outbreaks, and securing tombs and crypts. When Orospero joined the Core, the College of Shadows expanded once again to become the arcane wing of the nation’s spy service. I suspect they do rather more, as we both know necromancers are wont.
Their shade of black arts is a well-kept secret, but the collegians supposedly can raise an undead companion while preserving most of the personality, intelligence, and sanity it had in life so that the necromancer may benefit from its knowledge and historical insight. Speroese necromancers can channel the old masters to complete works unfinished or even revive skills lost to the grave or by having the dead tutor them. These benefits cannot be without limitation – perhaps only willing souls who have struck a mutually agreeable contract are so amenable to the grave magics of the College of Shadows?

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“You grow quite a few magical plants.”
“Uh’yup.”
“Do you have any seeds of the amaranth used grow in Il Aluk, which is now Necropolis?”
“Necropolitan amaranth? Nope. Seems too picky.”
“Oh, you know its current name? How are you familiar with it?”
His face flushed like a child caught with her spoon in the honey pot. “Erm, I didn’t know. I just guessed.”
“Viriato…” the nine-foot forester crumbled before my matronly imperiousness.
“You’re the second to be wanting those seeds this season. I learned the name from the first askers.”
“Who were they?” He shook his head. “What if I gave you a whole pig to answer that?”
“It ain’t spilling beans on my other buyers. And I don’t even have beans to spill. The asker wrote me like you did, I didn’t have the greens, and that was it. We never got the chance to meet. And I ash business letters I don’t need into fertilizer. But not fertilizer for whisper weed.”

Death-Eater Amaranth and the winter festival
“I’ll tell you what I told the other guy. There’s another amaranth that seems awfully same-like – it grows in dead energy. Likes the dark even. The Collegians got trapped in their crypts during a siege forever ago and needed something to eat that didn’t need sun. You can pick the amaranth yourself for free, if you can reach it.”
“Where?”
“Death-eater Amaranth grows wild on the Mourama hills in Jazigo Sol. You know, where the College of Shadows is. The Historians’ catacombs down under have those hills a’glowing. Look for red flower sprouts where the dark’s thickest. Those hills’ got eyes though, even for invisible sneaks. Smarter to wait for the winter auction when the Historians get rid of old things they don’t need. Sometimes real old things from who knows where. Anywho, the College apprentices do their bake at the same time. They harvest the hillside for popped-amaranth and mixed nut brittle bars – real good those.”
“Th, the necromancers bake!?”
“Yup, for charity. They do ordinary doctoring too. The elderlies with their fingers and toes bent all which way line up at the hammering tent and the black robes whack-whack-whack ‘em straight again with their flesh hammers. Poors get to fill their bellies with free sweeties, so they’ll always help a Collegian later. And it’s one of the few whens they’ll just chat with you like normal folk. If you’re looking to work for ‘em and you don’t have a letter of introduction ‘cause you’re an outside talent, that’s where you’d meet one or two and put your foot on the first branch. Me? I go just because I like the snacks!”
“I recommend their spiced quince paste.” – my follower
“That’s me’ missus’ favorite. The deep-fried sugar-boiled yolks too.”
I hope you are taking notes for your Kargat, dear Patron.

My Kargat do not need the public’s favor, the public does not need a culinary atrocity, and you do not need to meddle with amaranth, Death-Eater or Necropolitan! And true, I too have accumulated quite the trove of junk. Prudence’s bane is the deadly pair, greed and fear of missing out. Perhaps I could lure in some of these thorns in my side with a one-off royal auction…

“Anywho, the apprentices’l sell you uncooked seeds if you ask nice-like. That’s probably how it firstwise went north to your country.

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┣ BC 363 (+0). Orospero forms as an island domain.
┣ BC 365–366 (+2–+3). The Fairy Massacre. “Bycatch” fey trapped when the Dark Powers dragged down Orospero’s land into Ravenloft riot. Rallied by a powerful evil entity, the fey attempt to overthrow the Dark Powers. Non-fey are massacred, fed-upon, or mutated to fuel the fairy war efforts. They fail, but put up enough fight to strain the Powers. Several secret levels are added to the Emerald Vault Temple and the commander of the fey is sealed into its lowest depths. Incomplete maps only showing the main temple floors are drafted and distributed to confuse the records. The dungeon is later expanded on its shallow floors to accommodate several sealed mist horrors and vestiges of significant or lesser power, but the True Depths have not been rediscovered. The base of Castello Ferreiro may possibly link up with them.
┣ BC 366 (+3). The College of Shadows is chartered by the Otron d’Oro to preserve records, establish an arcane university, study legends, and mind supernatural internal threats. They settle into a hilly coastal village near the Emerald Vault, which is renamed Jazigo Sol, and begin to construct a base beneath the Mourama Hills and the ____ University on the cliffs near the harbor.
┣ BC 414 (+51). Orospero conjoins with and is conquered by a Luktar-speaking domain. The Royal family flees to Mideãon,
┣ BC 414 (+51). ____ city at the mouth of the Pactolo is conquered and the city is thoroughly sacked and burnt. It is raised again under the name of ___.
┣ BC 416 (+53). Jazigo Sol is conquered, the city is partially sacked. Numerous records are captured, burnt, or lost. This marks the end of the lost recordkeeping years and the beginning of the patchy recordkeeping years as Speroese historians are more careful to hide their records for preservation.
┣ BC 441 (+78). Orospero disjoins from the Luktar-speaking domain and the remaining occupiers are slaughtered or assimilated. This marks the end of the patchy recordkeeping years. Orospero’s history is fairly well recorded after this point.
┣ BC 416-441 (+53-+78). The College of Shadows' base under the Mourama Hills holds strong through 24 years of seige. They preserve a cache of vital records. About a dozen children are born within the Collegians' ranks, and are exposed in the womb and in childhood to continuous concentrated undeathly energies. These children discover even the faintest ray of sunlight sears them, so they wear robes and masks, which are soon taken up by all Collegians as their uniform.

[Mistmaster]

Very interesting Edit, I upgraded Borca to mayor power status and I added Invidia as a medium power.