Greymane/BoilOrgs

Civil Bureaus

Answering mostly to the Sheriff, the Civil Bureaus are the public-service branches of government in the Boil. They over see public works, tax collection, city maintenance, and safety within city-owned industries such as the foundries; the doldrums needed to preventing the industrial town from degrading into an utter mess. They also include intelligence gathering operations to keep tabs on affairs behind the scene within the city, though through less public offices. The Civil Bureaus use to include law enforcement until that role was almost completely taken over by the Garrison.

The Office of Unusual Occurrences

The Office of Unusual Occurrences, known both popularly and to one another as 'The Spookies,’ is one of the civilian bureaus under the direct overall control of the Sheriff and the last remaining branch of the old City Patrol. Taking their name from the bureaus habit of hiring ghost-blooded and demon-blooded half-breeds to act as agents, the Spookies are in charge of heading up any official investigation on all unusual supernatural events within the Boil. From thaumaturgy gone awry to demon cults on a rampage, the Spookies look into and attempt to deal with mystical matters large and small.

For the task expected of it though, the O.U.O. is woefully under staffed, under budgeted, and overworked. Their cramped offices are stuffed into a dilapidated building that leans drunkenly against the city wall. Impossibly warped wooden walls bulge in odd places and twist into strange patterns that seem to form faces when they catch in the corner of your eye. For most of the Spookies, the home-office is just that: home and office, unable to afford their own homes on their meager pay. With their terrible pay rates and never ending work, their doors are far from ever bursting open with new talent looking to get in. The Spookies often find themselves forced to buy, bribe, blackmail, or trick assistance out of private citizens simply because their own numbers are too small to cover every event within the city. In fact, the Spookies are almost seen as a last resort – a place for failures who couldn’t make it anywhere else or those trying to hide something in their pasts. Further complicating matters, being the last real branch of the City Patrol left around, they continue the tradition of rivalry with the Garrison as well. Often receiving little assistance from soldiers who patrol the streets, if they’re not outright hindered by them, every case has to start from scratch and crawl its way out of mystery. Yet despite being composed of almost nothing but rogues, misfits, and the mildly insane, the Spookies do possess an amazing record of success in their work – it’s simply that no one really cares to look.

With so many of it’s members half-breeds and supernaturals, new recruits have a wide body of experience to learn from, even if budgeting prevents any proper training. While magically prolific, the Spookies are investigators as much as they are thaumaturges or sorcerers. Crime scene analysis on both a mystical and mundane level is one of the first skills agents are expected to know and master. The mundane angle taking priority over the mystical as well; too many investigations are bungled thanks to hot-shot thaumaturges who so favor their rituals and divinations that they ignore the obvious. They operate in pairs whenever possible; a junior agent in the field dealing with the leg work while a senior remains back in the home office and supports the investigation through magical aspects. As can be imagined, their jobs are often dangerous and even the most seemingly innocent investigation can take a turn for the deadly at a moments notice. There have been several times in the history of the city where the Spookies have simply been outclassed by what they find when they follow a trail of breadcrumbs and larger guns have to be called in from Whiteshield or Windia to solve the problem. Yet those events were during the glory days of the City Patrol, before rampant corruption and competition with the Garrison bespoiled every branch of the Patrol. Figures of power now pay little heed to the Office of Unusual Occurrences and huge funding required to hire a Windian sorcerer or professional Whiteshield demon-hunter would be flatly denied. The Spookies have to find the talent to overcome any obstacle within the Boil and within themselves.

The City Patrol

Now defunct, the City Patrol was once the civilian peace-keeping force within the Boil. Organized long after the Whiteshield annexation of the Boil, when the industrial city began to under go major population booms thanks to jade-rushes on the mines and abnormally good harvesting seasons, the City Patrol was intended to be an improvement over the over burdened and often useless militia who had been failing to keep order in the city prior to Whiteshield's succession. During its initial years, the City Patrol functioned admirably well. With better training and equipment than the militia had available, they were often able to suppress the sort of riots and rampant violence that would often rampage out of control in the early days of the Boil. The rate of random, violent crimes dropped considerably and steps were being taken to, if not control, at least moderate the street gangs to more tolerable levels (this marked by the first ever ‘Cleaning Season,’ an orgy of arrest and execution which to this day is hotly debated). However, as time wore on, the higher levels of the City Patrol began to prove themselves prone to corruption from more organized criminal elements. Payoffs from the cities ever growing criminal underworld began to see the Patrol turning a blind-eye to their illegal activities. Smuggling, slavery, and drug-trafficking began to rise to an all time high. Business owners found themselves shook up for protection money and alchemists blackmailed into transforming their workplaces into drug-labs. Even at the highest level of authority, a quick bit of change was all that was needed to see an accused murderer set free.

After almost thirty years, the upper echelons of the City Patrol had became so entangled with criminal politics that they began to hinder the actions of the average patrolman on the street, things had gone too far. The time finally came when the Patrol was so burdened by it’s own corruption that it could no longer even suppress riots or violent crimes as it once did. And when the faith in the Patrol fell, the Garrison was there to take their place. The military garrison stationed to keep the Boil safe from external threats soon turned their attention inward. Under the command of their Captain, they took to the streets and put down the worst series of riots in the cities history with swift and brutal efficiency. The Garrisons now famous March to the Mines marked the death of the City Patrol. In only a few short years, nearly the entire Patrol had been dismantled or absorbed into the Garrison. Only a tiny handful of hold-outs still remain, such as the Office of Unusual Occurrences and the Office of Internal Security, but even these were far less than they had been.

In its heyday, the City Patrol was organized something akin to a military-minded bureaucracy and like any large bureaucracy was often encumbered by it’s own size. A central pillar of authority stood in the middle of the Patrol, it’s base the simple patrolman who walked the streets and it’s summit personified by Sheriff himself and, directly bellow him, the Chief of the Watch. Between them stood the simple sergeants and officers of the Patrol, whose task it was to organize and lead the patrolmen on various levels. Above them still were the District Chiefs, who were as much the central authority for each district as they were the central hubs of corruption. Meanwhile, branching out all along its length was a tumultuous variety of specialized offices, each lorded over jealously by it’s own chief and manned solely by officers. Duties of these offices were often muddled, confused, and over lapping and rivalries between them were frequent as they clashed over funding. Some offices even sabotaged one another based on their criminal associations; undercutting the operations of those who had been bought out by a rival criminal organization. These offices encompassed both the best and the worst of the City Patrol. Some, such as the still functional Office of the Unusual Occurrences, were the straight-arrows and untouchables of the Patrol. Yet others were practically criminals unto themselves, abusing their authority for personal gain whenever possible.

Mystical Organizations

The Eir Alchemical Society

Most who live in the north have forgotten the name of Eir. A spirit of healing and herbalists who walked the world in the early days, she taught the women of the northern barbarian tribes how to make potions and healing tinctures, aiding greatly in laying down the first roots of society. But the chill of winter was not kind to a goddess of life and in her loneliness, she fell in love with a Raksha who carved his shape from ice, leaving him beautiful to behold, but ever so cold. Though she loved him, he said he could never love anything so alive, but would be happy to use her until she learned to kill her compassionate ways. The longer she spent laying in his arms, the more his frost seeped into her soul, until one day it froze her heart completely and she rose to become the spirit known as the Scythe of Winter.

The Eir Alchemical Society is a small group of female medical-alchemist who have joined together under the name of the former healing goddess Eir to share knowledge and technique. Eir Society members are easily marked within the Boil, clad in almost identical gown-like habits of pristine white, studiously clean when all else in the city is soiled. Despite many believing otherwise, the Eir Society has no true religious connotations. There is no worship of Eir nor the Scythe of Winter. Rather, the Eir Society embraces the compassion and pageantry of the Lonely Goddess. While most are independent practitioners, selling their skills to make a living, the Society maintains a small free clinic at the edge of the Ash District. The Eir Clinic is situated in the bottom floor of a low-rise apartment complex, an area which rather ghoulish use to be a butchers shop, the only building in the area large enough to even support such an effort. At least one Eir Alchemist is in attendance every day, keeping the doors open and the beds clean for the sad and sick who come wandering in out of the cold. Violence as common as it is in the Boil, such nights of calm are rare and the duty of a Eir Alchemist is one not to be taken lightly. Bleeding, tattered bodies carted in by screaming children are almost a common occurrence and worse appears at their door. Stress is a constant companion and, even with the support of their sisters, failure an ever looming shadow. Many Eir Alchemists find themselves unable to endure the frantic pace and hopeless struggle of being staffed to the clinc for more than a night. Yet in many cases, this is the only medical assistance the poorer families, street punks, and itinerants can obtain. Though gratefulness is rare and the clinic faces constant break-ins and attempted violence against it’s members, the members of the Eir Alchemical Society somehow find the strength to stand fast.

Another aspect of the Eir Society does exist, though fewer are aware of it. Raksha are not as prolific in Whiteshield as most other parts of the north, yet when the Fair Ones arise they are no less dire a threat. As it was a Raksha who laid Lonely Goddess low, the Eir Society quietly dedicates itself to the elimination of these creatures. At any time, only two of their extremely limited numbers are actually singularly dedicated to this task, a sacrifice the others support them in, as 'Raksha Hunting' is far from a lucrative practice. This pair of warrior-healers must confront Raksha almost alone. Alchemical potions burning in their blood, wards and talismans glinting upon their habits, and cold iron in their hands; their dedication to the Society is perhaps the only thing which does boarder upon the religious. While their sisters face the Fair Folk directly, rest fight the war on a different front, gathering together to perform rituals of seeking and assistance or carefully preparing elaborate traps of wards to draw the Wyld Born into.