Bell Digest v940203p4

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From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois)
Subject: Lunar Intelligence
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Date: 1 Feb 94 04:48:46 GMT
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   From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
   Subject: Lunar and Solar thoughts.
   Date: 1 Feb 94 03:25:12 GMT
   X-RQ-ID: 2956

   Anyway, all this leads me to the conclusion that the DX cult is the
   backbone of Imperial Intelligence.  Lunar Balance (and Paradox)
   dictate that the worst evil-doers who tried to tear down Imperial
   society become its most ardent protectors.  These guys believe that
   the end justifies the means, and that the Lunar Way is the last
   best hope to keep Glorantha from dissolving back into the Void or
   becoming a fossilized and lifeless husk - thus ANYTHING AT ALL is
   justified to protect the Empire and the Way.  (But some may believe
   the Way outweighs the Empire).

There must be a number of security-related organizations within the
Empire.  In general, intrigue is rampant and there are no independent
sources of information, so every cult, political faction, military
unit, provincial government, city council, and Imperial ministry and
department devotes some of its resources to covert activities and
intelligence.  Some groups span these boundaries.  Here are some of
the ones I have found:

The Red Claw.  A fanatical bunch of Danfive Xaron and Yanafal Tarnils
cowboys whose monomaniacal goal is to further their own twisted vision
of what is good for the Empire.  (Think of the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency and its worst excesses in Latin America and
Indochina.  Multiply that by 10, and give them the support of a
government that has no need to apologize for their atrocities.)  The
agents are technically under the control of the Red Emperor (and his
cultists fill the group's upper echelons,) but the agents have
considerable autonomy.  The agents' actions are no end of trouble for
other security groups.  They often ruin carefully laid schemes and
break long-standing intelligence networks.  They are also experts at
shifting the blame when they really screw things up.

The Cult of the Red Goddess.  The cult acts as an information
clearinghouse for the Goddess (after all, they talk to her every
week.)  The members who came up through the cult of Jakaleel the Witch
run the permanent spy networks (composed of ordinary Jakaleel
cultists) at an executive level.  The Jakaleel cultists also act as
the secret police.  Also, most Etyries cultists report to a Red
Goddess agent.

The Red Guard.  Young Lunar fanatics from a variety of cults.  Think
of the Communist Youth.  Their main tasks are to cheerlead for the
Empire and to spy on Lunar citizens for signs of ideological impurity.
They are frightening to the average Lunar citizen but not very
effective, except when a mob of them gets together to lynch a heretic.

The Cult of the White Moon.  Think of the US Peace Corps.  The cult is
thoroughly infiltrated by every other intelligence group.

The Emperor's Spoken Word.  See TotRM.

The New-Moon Reconnaissance Office.  A group of Red Goddess cultists
stationed on the Red Moon itself.  They provide gather intelligence
simply by looking down on Gloranthan.  There is a special, somewhat
sacrilegious, spell that they use to see through the red haze.  They
are always in the market for old God Learner teleoptical devices.  Due
to political and ideological infighting between the Society for the
Ascendency of the Red Moon and the Red Army faction, the info they
have is not quite the military boon one might think; requests for
troop movement intelligence, for example, can take weeks to process.
The meteorological data they collect is invaluable for the groups
fighting Valind, and some of it also filters down to the Earth cults.

Ministry of Earthly Information.  Actually, these guys just provide
agricultural support services.  (Their duties are similar to those of
extension agents in the US.)  They really hate it when they are
mistaken for spies.

The Shooters' Club.  An illegal extortionist group that provides
information the dart competitions to worried and unwilling
participants.  In reality, this group reports to the Jakaleel cult;
their real purpose is to keep the old Carmanian and Dara Happan
nobility busy with their decadent games and to prevent the mess from
spilling over into the business of the Empire.  They are not often
effective at either task.

The New School in Alkoth.  A group of crazed philosophers who maintain
the Empire's military and government communication lines.  They create
the magical parchment used for secret messages as well as deciphering
and analyzing enemy communications.

The Cult of the Blue Moon.  Provides "insertion and removal" services;
I don't know much else about them.

The Imperial Revenue Service.  The tax collectors know more about what
is going on in the Empire than anyone else and are not adverse to
calling out the Red Guard in cases of ideological impurity (assuming,
of course, that the action will be revenue-neutral.)

The Sun Network.  They mostly provide military intelligence for the
Solar regiments but also serve as political spies for the Old Sun
Party.

The Daughter's Eye.  A Hwarin Dalthippa subcult that collects and
provides most of the useful military intelligence for the Imperial
Army.

The cult of the Great Sister must also have some widespread
intelligence and covert functions, but those guys are more secretive
than the Blue Moon Trolls.

--David Gadbois

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