Lou
01-06-07, 11:15 PM
Letho, I edited the organization’s description a little bit, but nothing major. I just wanted to let you know that it is not exactly the same as you previously read it.
Name: Louicien “Lou” Filnor
Race: Elf
Gender: Male
Age: Equivalent to 18 year old human male
Hair color: Dark brown
Eye color: Dark brown
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 125 lbs
Occupation: Agent
Appearance
Despite all the reputed grandeur of the elvish race, Lou is no feast for the eyes. He certainly is not hideous or repulsive, but his appearance fails to elicit romantic visions of a handsome and wise creature of magic. His smooth pale skin and angular, hairless facial features are almost akin to those of some sort of rodent, although many people that look upon him tend to think of a little bird; he appears delicate and lanky, with unswerving almond eyes and a placid gaze. The elf’s small frame and lean mass carry the paradoxical fluidity and tension of a taut bow string—he moves in a manner that is graceful, flexible, but also powerful, poised to act at any given moment. Most often, Lou is dressed in darkly-dyed clothes that fit loosely, but not to a point of impeding his movement or creating noise. On most missions, he dons a thin black mask and gloves.
Personality
Arrogant, paternalistic, condescending; these are probably the best words to describe the elf, but most of his acquaintances regard him as quiet, polite, and cool-headed. The reason is his attitude toward having a public and a private face, the former being the kind and diplomatic front meant to disguise the latter—though he is no actor. Given that, his “personality” is somewhat amorphous, depending on the circumstances. He does not behave this way out of spite for people, but rather because he simply sees no reason why he should reveal his true disposition, as it would only hurt his “efforts.” Such things as sincerity and frankness are hardly as useful in avoiding enemies and confrontations.
You see, this attitude of realpolitik arises from Lou’s particular brew of ethics and resolve. Like most people of a healthy moral standing, he wishes to bring happiness to others and their children; that is his goal, and he will not waver from it. To achieve such an end, though, there must be some means to reach it—and Lou is ready to do whatever is necessary. The ends do not justify the means, for him; the ends and the means are essentially one and the same, and in his opinion, to say one justifies the other is nonsensical. The morality of a method does not have to be weighed, only the necessity of it. If it is deemed necessary, then all that is left is to do it, be it murder, sabotage, or gift-giving. Deception is just the first thing, as Lou sees most people, namely non-elves, as too foolish for their own good; for that reason, and because he believes most other affairs as lesser than his purpose, he is not prone to developing sincere relationships.
Skills
Burglary—Lou is a capable burglar, having been taught first by street rats and then by his own father’s business associate. The art ranges from physical fitness to professional know-how, and everything must be put together in a functional and cohesive technique. For physical faculties, agility and dexterity are emphasized: abilities such as sprinting, climbing, acrobatics, swimming, and even honing of the senses are addressed in training. In confrontational or diversion situations, Lou has also been instructed in evading blows until an opportunity to escape presents itself. Just as important are the professional skills: moving unseen and unheard, picking locks, sleight of hand, and even reading lips from afar. This is a hefty range of talents that come together with a bond of concentration and skill, and it takes years of practice to become a master burglar; at his current capability, Lou is above the average rogue in such feats, plus his innate elven skill, but is still susceptible to a lack of focus or ability, greatly depending on a mission’s intensity and circumstances; for example, burgling a common house at night is a simple task, whereas a prominent business or noble’s home is a possible feat almost exclusively at night, though the possibility of advanced locks, hidden traps, and attentive sentries create new pressures and therefore, mistakes.
Combat—To date, the elf has received no professional training in combat. Although he owns two daggers and a bow, he is only self-taught. He knows how to hold the daggers and, with the bow, he might be able to hit a target ten meters away in less than five arrows. Lou is more focused on improving his clandestine skills, as confrontations on the field are indicative of a failure. More often than not, he does not even bring his weapons on a mission.
Survival lore—Although he envies the woodlore and independence of the rangers, Lou has not had the time in his life to devote to survival training. Someday, he promises himself, he will be as adept an outdoorsman as any elf, but not in the near future.
Rogue’s sense—The young elf discovered this intuitive trait during his adolescent adventures into other people’s privacy, and learned to focus it under his father’s associate’s guidance; he is capable of detecting when something is amiss, such as a growing danger or a person’s lie. It is not totally developed, but has shown itself to be very useful on more than one occasion, as a sense of warning may be the only thing that saves him, lacking a true skill in weapons. Many people describe such a sense as instincts or a “gut feeling,” but Lou’s perceptions are more acute; at the moment, it is almost impossible to sneak up on the elf without his having at least a slight feeling of foreboding, unless one is a master of stealth or magic; the same goes for a pending ambush or disguised trap. Also, Lou would say that more often than not, he is capable of discerning a lie from truth from utter bullshit, unless the individual is trained in the arts of deception or acting. If that is the case, he is very unlikely to succeed.
Willpower—Lou’s biology and nurturing have created in him a steady and powerful resolve. He has a slightly higher tolerance to physical and mental anguish than an average elf; the tolerance level could be accurately described as that of a professional soldier. Lou is also resistant to mental influences and attacks by similarly or less experienced persons, but his current chances at fully deflecting a hostile attempt are less than half.
Equipment
Standard traveling equipment; leather pack, waterskin, dried rations, regional map, soap, etc.
Two steel daggers; one sheathe for his belt and another for his thigh, reachable thru his pocket
An oaken bow, leather quiver, two dozen steel arrows
Steel, finely-crafted lock-picking set
Small set of binoculars, crafted for agents in the intelligence service, cannot zoom in or out
Dark-hued clothes, water-proofed and rubber-soled leather ‘sneakers’, woolen cloak, thin, breathable mask, black leather gloves
History
Louicien was born in Serenti to Jeaun and Bella Filnor, both of whom had moved from the mainland to Corone several centuries ago. Jeaun had heard of great opportunities in shipbuilding and shipping, and Bella had always wanted to see the renowned land of the Coronian island. The young elf’s upbringing was comfortable, though no family is perfect. Jeaun was very much a racist, and often speculated on the glorious day when elves would guide civilization and a contemporary Quessiria would stretch from Corone to Salvar. Bella was acquiescent concerning her spouse’s intolerance, to a point that it seemed to rub off on her in a way; rather than being hostile or contemptuous, though, she would speak of other races, and even elves, as pitiable, too ignorant for their own good. These two influences instilled in Louicien a paternalistic disposition in relation to “the rabble.”
As these forces were molding his young mind and his opinions of others, Louicien began to take an active interest in the affairs of random folk. Why do men fight each other? Why are some people poor and ignorant? Why are most people just so incapable? His little adventures brought him into the fold of the local rogues, though he was still very young at the time. “Lou,” as he refers to himself now, was dubbed by one of his peers in the streets; it was they who first showed him the true basics of burglary and evasion, and it was they who put the first dagger into his hand. Lou’s forays into private homes and dark alleys taught him some valuable things, certainly, but perhaps the greatest thing he took away from it was an acknowledgement that other races had some admirable qualities, just as the elves did. Perhaps the attributes of the others were not as great, but they were commendable, he would concede.
It was during one of his curious observations that Lou was nabbed by some Serenti guards. He was let off relatively easy—he was approximately fifteen at the time, and he would have faced much more trouble if it had not been for his father, who had grown into a mildly influential businessman of the shipbuilding industry. Whereas Bella was disappointed but not entirely surprised, as is expected of a mother, his father saw an opportunity in Lou’s pastime. Clandestinely, Jeaun kept his son in close contact with a business partner of his, Klovan, a middle-aged elf. Much to the young elf’s surprise, his father’s associate began to teach him the arts of thievery and acrobatics. As things became clearer, and Jeaun offered an explanation, Lou began to understand that he was becoming an employee of sorts—the sort that sneaks into rival businesses to acquire information or sabotage equipment. Jeaun was making a gamble, he knew: if his son was caught, there was no chance of plausible denial, but then again, he was certain that he could trust in his son to remain loyal to the family and its business.
Under the wing of his father and especially Klovan, Lou developed from a roguish employee into an ambitious covert soldier. His acquaintance with the concept of a “mission” bred in him an understanding of shrewdness, of loyalty to a cause, of a will and means to realize that cause. The elf became much more confident in his skills, and considering the effects his actions had upon his father’s business, Lou began to understand that he was quite capable of having an impact in affairs. This was a time of self-realizations, turning the boy into the matured elf that he has become. He developed the ideas of elven rulership, implanted into him by his father, and began to formulate utopian visions of a benevolent oligarchy, ruled by master statesmen and academics, guiding the masses in the way that the technocrats knew best. It would be a time of eternal peace, and therefore, happiness.
With such grand ideas, the young man soon became disillusioned with the petty dealings of his father’s business. Lou wanted to spread happiness and prosperity to the entirety of the living kingdom, but to do that, a sort of elven aristocracy had to be placed in power; and to affect the power complex, he had to first become a part of it. Surprisingly, the key had been with him for a while: Klovan. The elf, almost a millennium old, could sense the younger elf’s growing restlessness, his desire for something more. He had cultivated the boy well, as he was trained to do: his job was to actively seek out new recruits while he was observing the Filnor shipbuilding enterprise, for Klovan was an agent and agent handler of the Assembly’s secretive Directorate of Intelligence. Jeaun’s associate probed the matter very delicately, until finally he offered the proposition forwardly. There were very clear terms to Klovan’s proposal, however: Lou could not reveal anything to his father, or else the safety of his family would be “compromised;” the young elf would have to go to a Radasanth office of the DI, where he would receive more training; and lastly, he would be entering the service of the state and the Five, and as such, would have to make a binding oath. Though he was loath to betray the trust of his father, Lou understood that his choice would affect the greater good in a historical context; to decline Klovan’s offer would be to a treacherous move not only to Corone but to himself. After several day’s time, and though his father was furious, the young elf was en route to Radasanth, ostensibly to “find himself.” The deception had begun; that was several months prior to the assassinations of the Steward and Grand Marshal and the consequent violence.
Corone’s Intelligence Establishment
At the beginning of the Age of Dawn, Corone was being rebuilt into a prosperous and thriving state, following the devastation by the demons. As the nation’s land and cities were being restored, so was the governmental apparatus. In one of his many acts of wisdom as Steward, Radasanth created a broad new intelligence agency, aptly named the Office of Intelligence Services (OIS). At the head of the new organization was the Director, who was advised by a slew of men or women in such specific matters as foreign relations, covert actions, military action, intelligence analysis, law, corruption inspections, etc. These advisors were also the heads of their respective departments. Below the Director was the Deputy Director, and then his Associate; besides these three men, there were several officers whose jobs were to coordinate intelligence activities with the various ministries of the new republic of Corone—these men and women worked closely at the departmental level; however, the Director was supreme and answered only to the Steward. The Office carried out standard intelligence activities, from foreign and domestic espionage to covert operations. The meat of the OIS consisted of willing and unwilling, knowing and unknowing agents and their handlers, who fell into their relevant department headed by its respective administrator. Although much of the organization was shrouded in complete secrecy, there were solid regulations upon the OIS, for the danger of a shadow government was great.
Unfortunately, that is essentially what happened when the shrewd leadership of Radasanth was replaced by the less firm Theras Amuranis. The OIS was a key institution in the usurpation of the Stewardship; ministers, or their allies, eventually began to populate the Office’s hierarchy, to the point that the Office became less a service for the Steward and country and more a tool for the ministers’ ambitions. As the government of Corone began to decay, the OIS turned into a hotly contested political battleground, in which the combatants ranged from nobility to war-mongers to merchants. It was during this period of intrigue, and through the OIS, that the Corone government became partly involved with the Radasanth Crime Syndicate, and some historians even claim that the seeds of the Coalition were planted in the agency itself at this time, though the records supporting such an assertion are sketchy at best, nonexistent at worst.
This all ended with the legislation of Ferien Selamen, however. With a revised constitution establishing the Assembly came a new intelligence service, dubbed the Directorate of Intelligence (DI, sometimes just referred to as “the Directorate,” or D). Under the revisions, the agency still maintains a reasonably and necessarily large bureaucracy; also, it continues its former objectives of intelligence gathering and analysis, and of clandestine efforts of affecting business and governmental policy, domestic or foriegn. A lot of the influence of the Director’s advisors and coordination officers was diminished, along with the power of the ministers, per Selamen’s wishes. Also, being directly subject to the will of the Assembly ensures that the position of Director will not fall prey so easily to the machinations of power-mongers, and the inspections department head, responsible for investigating fraud and corruption, is chosen unanimously by the Five and must present to them regular, thorough reports. Still, even though the DI has a vastly different mandate than most other governmental institutions, it is still subject to manipulation, as is any bureaucracy. Over the centuries, it has become not so much a political arena anymore than a faction all its own; a powerful business and crime interest has become self-perpetuating in the hierarchy, though it is too difficult to say how much influence is exerted, given the secrecy of the organization.
Some have said in the past that the Coalition always has at least one vote in the Assembly; others are now beginning to speculate about a relationship between the ever-so-elusive Coalition and one of the Assembly’s most intimate and clandestine establishments. The assassinations of the Steward and Grand Marshal have certainly galvanized myriad theorists of the matter, and some have already asserted that the true murderers will not be found due to it being an inside job, executed by the DI.
Edit: small detail added to end of history to give a measure in relation to current events in Corone.
Name: Louicien “Lou” Filnor
Race: Elf
Gender: Male
Age: Equivalent to 18 year old human male
Hair color: Dark brown
Eye color: Dark brown
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 125 lbs
Occupation: Agent
Appearance
Despite all the reputed grandeur of the elvish race, Lou is no feast for the eyes. He certainly is not hideous or repulsive, but his appearance fails to elicit romantic visions of a handsome and wise creature of magic. His smooth pale skin and angular, hairless facial features are almost akin to those of some sort of rodent, although many people that look upon him tend to think of a little bird; he appears delicate and lanky, with unswerving almond eyes and a placid gaze. The elf’s small frame and lean mass carry the paradoxical fluidity and tension of a taut bow string—he moves in a manner that is graceful, flexible, but also powerful, poised to act at any given moment. Most often, Lou is dressed in darkly-dyed clothes that fit loosely, but not to a point of impeding his movement or creating noise. On most missions, he dons a thin black mask and gloves.
Personality
Arrogant, paternalistic, condescending; these are probably the best words to describe the elf, but most of his acquaintances regard him as quiet, polite, and cool-headed. The reason is his attitude toward having a public and a private face, the former being the kind and diplomatic front meant to disguise the latter—though he is no actor. Given that, his “personality” is somewhat amorphous, depending on the circumstances. He does not behave this way out of spite for people, but rather because he simply sees no reason why he should reveal his true disposition, as it would only hurt his “efforts.” Such things as sincerity and frankness are hardly as useful in avoiding enemies and confrontations.
You see, this attitude of realpolitik arises from Lou’s particular brew of ethics and resolve. Like most people of a healthy moral standing, he wishes to bring happiness to others and their children; that is his goal, and he will not waver from it. To achieve such an end, though, there must be some means to reach it—and Lou is ready to do whatever is necessary. The ends do not justify the means, for him; the ends and the means are essentially one and the same, and in his opinion, to say one justifies the other is nonsensical. The morality of a method does not have to be weighed, only the necessity of it. If it is deemed necessary, then all that is left is to do it, be it murder, sabotage, or gift-giving. Deception is just the first thing, as Lou sees most people, namely non-elves, as too foolish for their own good; for that reason, and because he believes most other affairs as lesser than his purpose, he is not prone to developing sincere relationships.
Skills
Burglary—Lou is a capable burglar, having been taught first by street rats and then by his own father’s business associate. The art ranges from physical fitness to professional know-how, and everything must be put together in a functional and cohesive technique. For physical faculties, agility and dexterity are emphasized: abilities such as sprinting, climbing, acrobatics, swimming, and even honing of the senses are addressed in training. In confrontational or diversion situations, Lou has also been instructed in evading blows until an opportunity to escape presents itself. Just as important are the professional skills: moving unseen and unheard, picking locks, sleight of hand, and even reading lips from afar. This is a hefty range of talents that come together with a bond of concentration and skill, and it takes years of practice to become a master burglar; at his current capability, Lou is above the average rogue in such feats, plus his innate elven skill, but is still susceptible to a lack of focus or ability, greatly depending on a mission’s intensity and circumstances; for example, burgling a common house at night is a simple task, whereas a prominent business or noble’s home is a possible feat almost exclusively at night, though the possibility of advanced locks, hidden traps, and attentive sentries create new pressures and therefore, mistakes.
Combat—To date, the elf has received no professional training in combat. Although he owns two daggers and a bow, he is only self-taught. He knows how to hold the daggers and, with the bow, he might be able to hit a target ten meters away in less than five arrows. Lou is more focused on improving his clandestine skills, as confrontations on the field are indicative of a failure. More often than not, he does not even bring his weapons on a mission.
Survival lore—Although he envies the woodlore and independence of the rangers, Lou has not had the time in his life to devote to survival training. Someday, he promises himself, he will be as adept an outdoorsman as any elf, but not in the near future.
Rogue’s sense—The young elf discovered this intuitive trait during his adolescent adventures into other people’s privacy, and learned to focus it under his father’s associate’s guidance; he is capable of detecting when something is amiss, such as a growing danger or a person’s lie. It is not totally developed, but has shown itself to be very useful on more than one occasion, as a sense of warning may be the only thing that saves him, lacking a true skill in weapons. Many people describe such a sense as instincts or a “gut feeling,” but Lou’s perceptions are more acute; at the moment, it is almost impossible to sneak up on the elf without his having at least a slight feeling of foreboding, unless one is a master of stealth or magic; the same goes for a pending ambush or disguised trap. Also, Lou would say that more often than not, he is capable of discerning a lie from truth from utter bullshit, unless the individual is trained in the arts of deception or acting. If that is the case, he is very unlikely to succeed.
Willpower—Lou’s biology and nurturing have created in him a steady and powerful resolve. He has a slightly higher tolerance to physical and mental anguish than an average elf; the tolerance level could be accurately described as that of a professional soldier. Lou is also resistant to mental influences and attacks by similarly or less experienced persons, but his current chances at fully deflecting a hostile attempt are less than half.
Equipment
Standard traveling equipment; leather pack, waterskin, dried rations, regional map, soap, etc.
Two steel daggers; one sheathe for his belt and another for his thigh, reachable thru his pocket
An oaken bow, leather quiver, two dozen steel arrows
Steel, finely-crafted lock-picking set
Small set of binoculars, crafted for agents in the intelligence service, cannot zoom in or out
Dark-hued clothes, water-proofed and rubber-soled leather ‘sneakers’, woolen cloak, thin, breathable mask, black leather gloves
History
Louicien was born in Serenti to Jeaun and Bella Filnor, both of whom had moved from the mainland to Corone several centuries ago. Jeaun had heard of great opportunities in shipbuilding and shipping, and Bella had always wanted to see the renowned land of the Coronian island. The young elf’s upbringing was comfortable, though no family is perfect. Jeaun was very much a racist, and often speculated on the glorious day when elves would guide civilization and a contemporary Quessiria would stretch from Corone to Salvar. Bella was acquiescent concerning her spouse’s intolerance, to a point that it seemed to rub off on her in a way; rather than being hostile or contemptuous, though, she would speak of other races, and even elves, as pitiable, too ignorant for their own good. These two influences instilled in Louicien a paternalistic disposition in relation to “the rabble.”
As these forces were molding his young mind and his opinions of others, Louicien began to take an active interest in the affairs of random folk. Why do men fight each other? Why are some people poor and ignorant? Why are most people just so incapable? His little adventures brought him into the fold of the local rogues, though he was still very young at the time. “Lou,” as he refers to himself now, was dubbed by one of his peers in the streets; it was they who first showed him the true basics of burglary and evasion, and it was they who put the first dagger into his hand. Lou’s forays into private homes and dark alleys taught him some valuable things, certainly, but perhaps the greatest thing he took away from it was an acknowledgement that other races had some admirable qualities, just as the elves did. Perhaps the attributes of the others were not as great, but they were commendable, he would concede.
It was during one of his curious observations that Lou was nabbed by some Serenti guards. He was let off relatively easy—he was approximately fifteen at the time, and he would have faced much more trouble if it had not been for his father, who had grown into a mildly influential businessman of the shipbuilding industry. Whereas Bella was disappointed but not entirely surprised, as is expected of a mother, his father saw an opportunity in Lou’s pastime. Clandestinely, Jeaun kept his son in close contact with a business partner of his, Klovan, a middle-aged elf. Much to the young elf’s surprise, his father’s associate began to teach him the arts of thievery and acrobatics. As things became clearer, and Jeaun offered an explanation, Lou began to understand that he was becoming an employee of sorts—the sort that sneaks into rival businesses to acquire information or sabotage equipment. Jeaun was making a gamble, he knew: if his son was caught, there was no chance of plausible denial, but then again, he was certain that he could trust in his son to remain loyal to the family and its business.
Under the wing of his father and especially Klovan, Lou developed from a roguish employee into an ambitious covert soldier. His acquaintance with the concept of a “mission” bred in him an understanding of shrewdness, of loyalty to a cause, of a will and means to realize that cause. The elf became much more confident in his skills, and considering the effects his actions had upon his father’s business, Lou began to understand that he was quite capable of having an impact in affairs. This was a time of self-realizations, turning the boy into the matured elf that he has become. He developed the ideas of elven rulership, implanted into him by his father, and began to formulate utopian visions of a benevolent oligarchy, ruled by master statesmen and academics, guiding the masses in the way that the technocrats knew best. It would be a time of eternal peace, and therefore, happiness.
With such grand ideas, the young man soon became disillusioned with the petty dealings of his father’s business. Lou wanted to spread happiness and prosperity to the entirety of the living kingdom, but to do that, a sort of elven aristocracy had to be placed in power; and to affect the power complex, he had to first become a part of it. Surprisingly, the key had been with him for a while: Klovan. The elf, almost a millennium old, could sense the younger elf’s growing restlessness, his desire for something more. He had cultivated the boy well, as he was trained to do: his job was to actively seek out new recruits while he was observing the Filnor shipbuilding enterprise, for Klovan was an agent and agent handler of the Assembly’s secretive Directorate of Intelligence. Jeaun’s associate probed the matter very delicately, until finally he offered the proposition forwardly. There were very clear terms to Klovan’s proposal, however: Lou could not reveal anything to his father, or else the safety of his family would be “compromised;” the young elf would have to go to a Radasanth office of the DI, where he would receive more training; and lastly, he would be entering the service of the state and the Five, and as such, would have to make a binding oath. Though he was loath to betray the trust of his father, Lou understood that his choice would affect the greater good in a historical context; to decline Klovan’s offer would be to a treacherous move not only to Corone but to himself. After several day’s time, and though his father was furious, the young elf was en route to Radasanth, ostensibly to “find himself.” The deception had begun; that was several months prior to the assassinations of the Steward and Grand Marshal and the consequent violence.
Corone’s Intelligence Establishment
At the beginning of the Age of Dawn, Corone was being rebuilt into a prosperous and thriving state, following the devastation by the demons. As the nation’s land and cities were being restored, so was the governmental apparatus. In one of his many acts of wisdom as Steward, Radasanth created a broad new intelligence agency, aptly named the Office of Intelligence Services (OIS). At the head of the new organization was the Director, who was advised by a slew of men or women in such specific matters as foreign relations, covert actions, military action, intelligence analysis, law, corruption inspections, etc. These advisors were also the heads of their respective departments. Below the Director was the Deputy Director, and then his Associate; besides these three men, there were several officers whose jobs were to coordinate intelligence activities with the various ministries of the new republic of Corone—these men and women worked closely at the departmental level; however, the Director was supreme and answered only to the Steward. The Office carried out standard intelligence activities, from foreign and domestic espionage to covert operations. The meat of the OIS consisted of willing and unwilling, knowing and unknowing agents and their handlers, who fell into their relevant department headed by its respective administrator. Although much of the organization was shrouded in complete secrecy, there were solid regulations upon the OIS, for the danger of a shadow government was great.
Unfortunately, that is essentially what happened when the shrewd leadership of Radasanth was replaced by the less firm Theras Amuranis. The OIS was a key institution in the usurpation of the Stewardship; ministers, or their allies, eventually began to populate the Office’s hierarchy, to the point that the Office became less a service for the Steward and country and more a tool for the ministers’ ambitions. As the government of Corone began to decay, the OIS turned into a hotly contested political battleground, in which the combatants ranged from nobility to war-mongers to merchants. It was during this period of intrigue, and through the OIS, that the Corone government became partly involved with the Radasanth Crime Syndicate, and some historians even claim that the seeds of the Coalition were planted in the agency itself at this time, though the records supporting such an assertion are sketchy at best, nonexistent at worst.
This all ended with the legislation of Ferien Selamen, however. With a revised constitution establishing the Assembly came a new intelligence service, dubbed the Directorate of Intelligence (DI, sometimes just referred to as “the Directorate,” or D). Under the revisions, the agency still maintains a reasonably and necessarily large bureaucracy; also, it continues its former objectives of intelligence gathering and analysis, and of clandestine efforts of affecting business and governmental policy, domestic or foriegn. A lot of the influence of the Director’s advisors and coordination officers was diminished, along with the power of the ministers, per Selamen’s wishes. Also, being directly subject to the will of the Assembly ensures that the position of Director will not fall prey so easily to the machinations of power-mongers, and the inspections department head, responsible for investigating fraud and corruption, is chosen unanimously by the Five and must present to them regular, thorough reports. Still, even though the DI has a vastly different mandate than most other governmental institutions, it is still subject to manipulation, as is any bureaucracy. Over the centuries, it has become not so much a political arena anymore than a faction all its own; a powerful business and crime interest has become self-perpetuating in the hierarchy, though it is too difficult to say how much influence is exerted, given the secrecy of the organization.
Some have said in the past that the Coalition always has at least one vote in the Assembly; others are now beginning to speculate about a relationship between the ever-so-elusive Coalition and one of the Assembly’s most intimate and clandestine establishments. The assassinations of the Steward and Grand Marshal have certainly galvanized myriad theorists of the matter, and some have already asserted that the true murderers will not be found due to it being an inside job, executed by the DI.
Edit: small detail added to end of history to give a measure in relation to current events in Corone.