Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Firemane.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Role: Internal security.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Ziva Khalan.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Truthseekers
Classification: Internal security agency.
Affiliation: Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori, GRU, The Inner Circle, Investigative Reaction Unit, Ziva Khalan.
Organization Symbol: See here.
Group Name: Truthseekers
Description: The Truthseekers are a sub-division of the General Research Unit, Firemane's premier counterintelligence and security agency. All Truthseekers are Force-Sensitives who specialise in investigation, interrogation and information gathering. Rather than display the flashy powers that are commonly associated with Force-users, their esoteric training focused on empathic and mind-affecting abilities to sway, terrify or mentally dominate others, conduct mind probes and separate truth from lies. Several Truthseekers are skilled in psychometry and can manipulate memories, though their skill level varies.
Incredibly few Truthseekers are proficient in the use of a lightsabre beyond knowing the basics and many of those would have never used one in a combat situation. The vast majority of Truthseekers have not ignited a lightsabre outside of initial training and annual requalification. Far more have made of their service pistol, used Force Persuasion or truth serums. The Truthseekers' handbook expounds on many subjects at length, including providing a comprehensive overview of interrogation and surveillance techniques. It also elaborates on cults monitored by the security services. But less than a page is dedicated to the use of lightsabre, and then it is mostly about how it can be employed for psychological warfare.
Agents receive training in self-defence and marksmanship, but they are not soldiers. Their job is to investigate, not fight in battles participate in duels. They receive thorough training in a broad variety of interrogation methods. Use of various drugs is common in interrogations. Many Truthseekers are polyglots and can speak or understand several languages. This is pertinent because Firemane has often operated on rather remote worlds in the Outer Rim or Wild Space, where few if any natives would know Basic.
They are responsible for detecting, investigating, analysing and eliminating threats to the security of Firemane Industries and House Kerrigan-Alcori. However, they do not operate in a vacuum. Instead they answer to the Director of the GRU and ultimately to Siobhan Kerrigan, the overall leader of Firemane. The Truthseekers are rather secretive by nature. Candidates tend to be identified from early on and approached by Truthseeker recruiters after being monitored for their suitability. They are vetted thoroughly and undergo a rigorous training programme to weed out potential moles and corrupt or incompetent elements. Their training includes being exposed to a whole battery of mental attacks and simulated interrogations. All Truthseekers sign comprehensive non-disclosure agreements.
The Truthseekers are skilled in interrogation, threat detection and analysis, investigation, surveillance, manipulation, intelligence gathering, mentalism and psychology. They also perform counterespionage duties, weeding out spies and moles. However, they need a warrant from Siobhan or Vice President Kaylah Danton to investigate a high level employee. Their usual monitoring activities can uncover things, but they cannot act without direction from someone senior.
Due to the nature of their work, the Truthseekers are one of the Order of Fire's most secretive branches. They do not advertise their work, wear special uniforms or suits of armour that set them apart from other Firemane forces. After all, flabomyant outfits do not just tip people off, they are expensive. Only a fraction of the prisoners in Firemane's custody - or its employees, for that matter- will ever get to see a Truthseeker face to face. Their credo is 'be more than you seem' and so they do their best to blend in, wearing Firemane military uniforms. To quote one of their operatives:"You don't keep order with gaudy displays of violence. Real control is surgical. Invisible. It interferes only when necessary".
A lot of the work is office based and employees work nine to five. However, spies can be working around the clock if an operation goes live. A Truthseeker might work with different teams who intercept communications, bug targets' homes or cars or follow them around with human surveillance. This is all a good day's work. They are also called upon to interrogate suspects. Some Truthseekers work from headquarters, others are posted to field offices. There is a good deal of rotation though.
The Truthseekers have access to a special unit called the Investigative Reaction Unit. These special operators are supposed to provide the Truthseekers with muscle when making arrests or surveilling a suspect. Their duties involve counter-terrorism, providing support during investigations and arrests of infiltrators, enemy agents and so on. They excel at surveillance and direct action operations. The members of the IRU are well-trained in surveillance operations and direct action operations. In short, they do a lot of the legwork for the spooks. To make sure they do not get too big for their britches, the IRU operates under direct military and GRU oversight. The Truthseekers and the GRU have occasionally set up front companies to facilitate their monitoring activities. For instance, the IRU has operated a laundry service.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Arx Aeternae
Domain: The Truthseekers do not control any fixed planetary domain or lay claim to a certain area. They are present in areas Firemane operates in.
Notable Assets: No major industrial facilities or similar. They are funded by Firemane. Moreover, the agency operates a number of safe houses and black sites. Moreover, the Truthseekers can use the Investigative Reaction Unit as muscle.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: The hierarchy can be compared to a spider web, with each strand connecting to others in neighbouring areas all leading eventually to a central, single point. That point are Ziva and her staff. She reports to the Director of the GRU and ultimately to Lady Siobhan Kerrigan.
Membership: All Truthseekers are Force-Sensitive, with a focus on mental, empathic and investigative talents. Though the Truthseekers utilise plenty of informants both within and without Firemane, becoming an actual member of the organisation is a difficult process. The Truthseekers are a branch of the Order of Fire and thus recruit many of their members from its ranks. Potential members must pass a series of tests to prove their capabilities and loyalty.
The 10 month-long interview process is shrouded in secrecy. Applicants face hours of questioning in unmarked buildings on everything from their political alignment to their personal life, religion and ethics. They must sign a non-disclosure agreement, which means that if they discuss the stages of their work with anyone they could be imprisoned. A few months after their first three hour-long interrogation they are invited to a day with other candidates where they face intense exercises, role play, more interviews and written tests. All agents undergo a thorough screening process to weed out the disloyal and potential infiltrators.
The penultimate stage sees recruits face another very long, intense interview with a senior spook, senior bureaucrat and psychiatrist. If a candidate gets through all of that, the Truthseekers then vet them to the highest clearance level in Firemane. In this case a candidate is interviewed again. They also interview one's family and want the candidate to name four nominated friends from different phases of their life. Then they ask those friends for four more nominations. Then they go out and interview them and do background checks. While every drunken escapade, naughty teenage mishap and embarrassing blunder from your past gets brought up, the Truthseekers are not moralistic. All they want to do is find out every dirty secret from a recruit's past so that it cannot be used as blackmail.
The first two weeks of the job are as enigmatic as the interview process. Recruits go through an induction course, which teaches basic things, such as how the office works, security protocols, different investigatory tools and so on. The training gets more intense with time. They must go through a ruthless mental battery with Order of Fire mentalists to learn how to steel their minds against mental manipulation and intrusion.
When it comes to recruitment, there are no racial or gender barriers. However, the agency has many Falleen employees. Their natural resistance to mind tricks and ability to emit pheromones make them skilled interrogators or spies. Epicanthix and Toydarians are also valued due to their natural unconscious talent for shielding themselves from Force-based mental manipulation. All members of the group must be Force-Sensitive and loyal to Firemane.
Climate: As can be expected from an organisation like this, the Truthseekers have a formal working environment. Daily life in it is defined by rules, regulation and secretiveness. Members are expected to adhere to security protocols, especially regarding confidential matters, such as those labelled top secret. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations that goven the group can be punished with various forms of penalties, depending on the severity of the offence. They can range from a simple written or verbal notice, demotion, reassignment, court martial or, in the most extreme cases such as treason, capital punishment. However, there are no random purges, 'accidents' or similar. Broadly speaking, it is like working in any corporate or military environment that requires a high security clearance.
The Truthseekers are quite family-friendly. As the work is top secret colleagues become close and there is a lot of camaraderie between the team. But because members are not allowed to talk about their work outside of the service it does put a strain on personal relationships and friendships as there are barriers there. This means that living as a Truthseeker can be isolating. Most people end up socialising with other Truthseekers. Truthseekers receive a cover that says they work for Firemane's defence department. Their own slang for Truthseeker work is working for 'the box'.
Aside being Force-Sensitive, a quick thinker and discreet, there are certain personality traits people need to join the Truthseekers. Broadly speaking, the group looks for people good with very strong communications skills, written and oral, so that they can write a departmental brief, go out and persuade an informant to do something or, conversely, persuade a suspect to cooperate with the authorities. Agents must have very good judgement, especially under pressure. Moreover, the ability to work in a team is essential. Truthseekers must run operations with all sorts of people, on a local, planetary or interstellar level. Integrity and loyalty are also essential qualities.
Reputation: Varies, as it is a clandestine agency. The galaxy is huge, so many people would not know about. For those that do it depends on their opinion of Firemane. Within Firemane opinions can vary. Some have no strong feelings on the agency, others see it as a necessary institution and no different from other agencies of this nature employed by other corporate entities and governments. Firemane operates on a galactic scale and has many far-flung outposts.
So there plenty of people within its power structure who might have never heard of the Truthseekers or only possess a basic understanding of what they doe. Naturally there are those who are distrustful of it, believe it is too intrusive and lacking in transparency. Detractors call them 'mind readers' and think the spooks have gotten too big for their britches. The clandestine nature of many of their activities has provided ample fodder for conspiracy theories, ranging from the possible to the plain absurd.
Curios: Truthseekers receive identification chips and unique code cylinders in order to identify themselves and receive access to locations, systems and so on. A tamper-resistant Ghost-Wave Communicator is often issued to agents. The Truthseekers do not wear special uniforms or suits of armour that set them apart from other Firemane forces.
Rules: The Truthseekers regard themselves as instruments of Firemane policy and House Kerrigan-Alcori. They see themselves as an elite within the elite, cultivating a self-image of calm professionalism and ruthless competence. It is regarded as a matter of principle not to talk about one's work. After all, loose lips sink ships. Trust is good. For this reason, agents sign non-disclosure agreements. Control better – and real control is surgical. Due to the nature of their work, few Truthseekers are Lightsiders. Grey and Dark Side Force-users predominate. However, the agency dislikes sadists, as it regards violence as a means to an end, not an end in itself. Interrogators prefer more 'refined' methods than crude, physical violence, though they will resort to those if needed. 'Death of personality' is regarded as a valid punishment for particularly heinous criminals, traitors and the like – especialy if the agency can still make use of them. Firemane is seen as a force of order and stability, though how ideologically committed the members of the organisation are varies. After all, they work for a corporation.
Goals: To ensure the security of Firemane, obtain valuable information and detect, analyse and eliminate threats. Also expand its influence and increase its budget, like every bureaucratic organisation.
MEMBERS
Ziva Khalan: Ziva was the scion of a Falleen noble family, but had experienced first-hand how treacherous the game of thrones was after her family was butchered at her wedding by their rivals. After going into exile for several years and honing her Force skills in the Unknown Regions, she returned to get revenge on the murderers of her family by manipulating them into destroying each other. Lacking an interest in becoming part of a system she detested, she left her homeworld to build a life of her own choosing.
This eventually led her to Firemane, where she proved to be a capable agent and bureaucrat. Ziva is a detached, cynical woman who cultivates an air of aloofness. She can be friendky, but is very guarded. She has institutional loyalty to Firemane, but treats it as another employer. It is a corporation, she is an employee and gets paid to work for it. Her view of sentient beings is a grim one: "Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him." There is nothing more seductive than freedom, but nothing more burdensome either. In fact, most people are all too eager to find someone they can give up their freedom so that they can escape the responsibility that comes with it.
Isem Xeedril is a Truthseeker who often works with the IRU. Serious and with a dry wit, she is a workaholic. The Falleen is not a particularly powerful Force-User, preferring a gun to a lightsabre. However, she is a capable investigator and an expert on the occult and mysticism. Indeed, she probably a fixation with preternatural phenomena. She is fluent in Sithese and often called upon to translate or decipher mystical texts. Isem has a background in monitoring Xioquo cults. More recently, she helped thwart a demon summoning on Arkas. She has been assigned to the Unit by Ziva Khalan, a fellow Falleen and the head of the Truthseekers.
Hiaraq'Zael is the leader of the IRU. Strictly speaking she is not a Truthseeker or even a Force-User, but the IRU works for them. The Xioquo was once the indentured servant of one of the Council of Ten, chosen so because of her abilities both as a bodyguard, and as an early cryptographer. Despite being given privileges and freedoms beyond that of others of her station she was still very much a servant dependent on the grace of her Mistress. With the Underealm falling to invaders Hiaraq'Zael betrayed her Mistress' family, casting one of the family she was guarding to her death and reappearing at the Firemane lines with valuable information on spies and secret stashes. This allowed Firemane to unearth several potential fifth column agents who had 'surrendered'. Later, when her talents as both a fighter and a thinker were uncovered she was placed in charge of a squad of the IRU, and later made its overall commander.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Truthseekers were created to provide Firemane with an effective instrument to counter infiltration, industrial espionage and similar threats. Firemane's ruling couple has had trouble with infiltrators in the past. Tegaea Alcori was tortured and nearly killed by the Sith Assassin Kaelin Isandros. While she was rescued by Siobhan Kerrigan, her injuries made her unable to continue her work as Lady Protector of the Omega Protectorate. Firemane has also been targeted by Archangel, a genocidal machine cult that utilises infiltration droids. Darth Shadow conspired with Archangel to try and murder both Tegaea and Siobhan.
Thus as the Order of Fire took shape, Siobhan realises that she would need an organisation with the ability to weed out potential spies and double agents. Thus initially the Truthseekers were created to vet Order of Fire recruits and keep an eye on the Order, acting as a sort of internal affairs agency. Knowledge is power, after all. Or it can give power at any rate, provided one analyses and utilises it intelligently. Over time, the Truthseekers' responsibilities were expanded and they were charged with monitoring regular Firemane employees. To impose a check on the group and keep them from misusing their authorities, they were placed under the control of Firemane's in-house intelligence service.
While there were no racial or gender restrictions when it came to recruitment, two groups ended up being overrepresented among the ranks of the Truthseekers: Falleen and former members of the defunct Atrisian Inquisition. Falleen are a natural choice because they exude powerful pheromones, which can be helpful in rendering a subject compliant rather than resorting to more crude methods. They are also resistant to mind tricks. As for the Atrisians, Firemane recruited a number of Inquisitors who fled Atrisia after Empress Madeline initiated an Anti-Force-User Purge. Their background as former agents of the now defunct Atrisian Empire gave them plenty of experience. One example would be former Grand Inquisitor Mirien Valdier, who ran COAS, Firemane's intelligence service, which the Truthseekers were subordinate to.
The organisation suffered a blow during the Netherworld, as several senior leaders were raptured. At the same time Kaeshana was engulfed by chaos and civil war, as Eldorai fanatics believed the end of days had come and rose up against the monarchy and all 'unbelievers'. The Truthseekers worked with Sergeant Freya Solveig, temporarily in charge of Firemane HQ due to the disappearance of so many senior leaders, and the Chimaera Squad black ops unit to strike back. Their campaign against internal traitors and external fanatics was ruthless, but helped restore order. After a cabal of reactionary Eldorai aristos attempted to assassinate Siobhan Kerrigan, the Truthseekers played a vital role in investigating this conspiracy and interrogating its ringleaders. Some time after the Eldorai Exodus from Kaeshana and the colonisation of Tygara, an energetic Falleen called Ziva Khalan was recruited.
Ziva was the scion of a Falleen noble family, but had experienced first-hand how treacherous the game of thrones was after her family was butchered at her wedding by their rivals. After going into exile for several years and honing her Force skills in the Unknown Regions, she returned to get revenge on the murderers of her family by manipulating them into destroying each other. Lacking an interest in becoming part of a system she detested, she left her homeworld to build a life of her own choosing. This eventually led her to Firemane, where she proved to be a capable agent and bureaucrat. After the conquest of the Underealm and the defeat of the Xioquo, the Truthseekers were involved in counterinsurgency operations on Tygara. Ziva herself was captured by Xioquo rebels, but managed to leave clues that enabled loyalists to find and help rescue her. The agency uncovered intelligence that helped foil a terrorist plot to murder Queen Liavondra, Firemane's vassal ruler of the Xioquo.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Kaeshana, Siobhan decided to reorganise Firemane's intelligence apparatus. During the course of the battle, a group of Firemane soldiers turned on their comrades, defecting to the enemy. While their desertion occured relatively late - in the midst of Firemane and Alliance troops - and thus did not affect the outcome of the fight, it alerted Siobhan to the danger posed by traitors within the ranks.Her suspicions grew when Tarissa Cadalthor, an Eldorai Duchess who had once been her ally, tried to exploit the negative outcome of the battle. After returning to Tygara, the Duchess instigated anti-foreigner riots, blaming foreigners in general and Firemane in particular for the defeat. Her goal was to rally the mob and the Eldorai nobility so that she could seize the throne. Her plot was foiled when Firemane and Eldorai soldiers uncovered evidence of her activities.
To make a point, Lady Kerrigan personally executed Tarissa in front of the entire Eldorai Council of Nobles, then warned them not to cross her. To provide Firemane and herself with a more effective instrument, Siobhan initiated a shake-up of Firemane's intelligence community. She created a new agency to take over counterintelligence duties. It was called the General Research Unit, or the GRU for short. The Truthseekers were subordinated to it. At first it was a task force created to carry out a thorough screening process of Firemane employees, but it soon became a permanent fixture. Ziva was put in charge of the Truthseekers and became a Deputy Director of the GRU. There is a bit of a rivalry between her and the GRU Director Kuwahara, as both women dislike each other.
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