Organizations
(Part 1)
[DECLASSIFIED]
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Great Houses of Thessia
Known as the 'Old Families', 'Old Families of Thessia', 'Great Houses', or their more proper name, the 'Great Houses of Thessia', they are the true power behind the [asari] Republic, and is the main reason for the asari's interstellar dominance in the galaxy.
But the Great Houses wouldn't exist if not for their secrets. An ancient/prothean Beacon kept hidden in the Temple of Athame. This Beacon possesses, perhaps, the most complete alien repository in the known galaxy, coupled with a functional prothean AI that acts as a codec.
The knowledge from the Beacon had helped form asari society and culture to this day, holding a fair amount of knowledge of the anomalous itself.
The Naraius family were the initial caretakers of its more dangerous secrets. And the asari have known about the Reaper threat since its inception. After the fall of the protheans, the Naraius clan had taken up the mantle against the Reapers by shaping the development of asari society. This heavily influenced early Thessian warrior culture and created the mythological 'advanced' society of Arda amidst a bronze age culture. These developments, however, have led the asari people into various unification wars spanning large regions over the millennia that would eventually cumulate to a bloody world war as clan-led nations advanced themselves in military technology.
Finally united under one, single banner, the Naraius family would enact the second stage of their long-term plan and fast-track development of their society.
Various clans, weary of war, would later form secret alliances to oppose the Naraius hegemony. While the Naraius clan would reform the most powerful of them as Great Families as a form of appeasement, discontent still resides amongst a number of their members. Led by the Beyfors, it took years of cultivating these alliances, manipulation of the local and private economies, rising and complex influence, and later discovery and covert study of the Beacon under the noses of the Naraius family. They would eventually succeed in overthrowing them a thousand years later, a mere century away from the discovery of the Citadel. It's only unfortunate that the High Matriarch of the Beyfors at the time would then be more in line with the tenants of Naraius beliefs, a far cry from what the other Great Families had originally envisioned. This drastic shift of policy was rumored to be attributed to the Beacon itself.
With the Beyfor family's successful coup, the Naraius family was reduced to a shadow of its former self. While they were too powerful and influential to be outright expelled, still retaining their Great House status, they were now seen more as pariahs by the rest of the Great Houses.
To quell the more vocal members of her family, the Beyfor High Matriarch enacted policies and legislation that would later form the bedrock of representative democracy, the beginnings of the modern [Asari] Republics. As asari society further advanced, reformation of the government would take place, and the space age would bring colonized worlds into this asari state. As the Republics grew more and more, interstellar communication became cheaper and more advanced, until a reformation of the government reformed the republic into an E-Democracy, with representatives now representing individual worlds.
But true power did not lie with the democratic government, rather still with the Great Houses of Thessia. Indeed, to the wider public, the Great Families would be seen in a similar sense to the ceremonial royal families of England, but their vast wealth, monopoly of the Beacon, vast personal armies, and their influence over members of various elected officials solidified their power.
But every great power would unintentionally bring rise to a counterbalance. The Order of Athame, whom they had ignored throughout the centuries, had not only consolidated the religious to their side in a growing secular society but had begun stamping out the other smaller orders of the pantheon in a secret thousand-year bloody crusade. It was said that the creation of Siari was secretly crafted and introduced by House Artera, inspired by the salarian Wheel religion during their early cultural exchanges, to counter the influence of Athame indoctrination.
Illium would later become a decisive player in interstellar politics. Disparate asari members would form powerful companies that were invested by various alien allies (which was rumored to have been spearheaded by the STG and ████████) as a means to curve the influence of the Great Houses. This had shaped the current political landscape today, with power being split between the Old Houses of Thessia, the 'New Families' of Illium, and the Order of Athame (with which the Beacon lies in their temple).
The Great Houses, in the past thousand years, were behind the dominance of the asari today. A good example was House T'sodri, with their monopoly of the entertainment business, who had endeavored to spread asari culture across Council space which led to the most successful cultural-led project in history, accounting for the dominance and prevalence of asari culture. The planet Athalia, under House T'sodri, became known as the entertainment capital of the galaxy (This would later be supplanted by Illium). The dominance was so complete that it entangles turian society so deeply, and is an aspect the Union is hard-pressed to counter.
But perhaps the biggest indicator for the power wielded by the Great Houses of Thessia was the military.
The smallest of the Three Great Powers, asari would field, what the turians would call, a token force relative to its size. In actuality, the majority of its fleet is under mothball, hidden away in off-the-record hanger worlds under the semi-secret Republic Research and Development department.
Enigmatic by reputation, hardly anyone knows of its existence. But the opposite can be said to the various intelligence agencies across the galaxy.
Strangely enough, the mothballed ships are not under the purview of the Republic Armed Forces, but rather the R&D. Several intelligent analysts have concluded that the suspicious leaps of defensive & shield research, optronics, and DEWs that keep the asari at the technological edge, are to be attributed to the R&D department.
In fact, to the STG, the Republic's R&D is one of the golden [apples] to infiltrate, as its secrets may shift the balance of power decisively. Rumors, such as research to empower biotics into near strategic assets, proliferate certain groups amongst the STG but fortunately, and unbeknownst to them, progress has slowed thanks to declining interest and frustrations over the asari genome.
In general, the asari have a far more powerful naval force that not even the STG fully understands. Unfortunately, where the STG failed, the Shadow Broker was able to acquire this knowledge, along with a number of more sensitive projects. The Shadow Broker has used this leverage to gain certain favors amongst the Great Houses.
Of particular note, the Beyfors have also utilized knowledge within the Beacon to amplify certain traits within individuals in their family, unbeknownst to even the rest of their peers. These individuals hold high positions within the family, gaining knowledge of things not even the ████████ ██, with its long existence, possesses. It's said that this knowledge somehow pertains the newly discovered humanity and now the Beyfors are leading a shift of their cultural and economic might to enrapture humans under their fold with rabid fervor.
One of the more unsettling things recently uncovered by the Beacon is the ██████████.
Regarding the anomalous, while both the [salarian] Union and the [asari] Republics generally avoid delving too deeply into them, they cannot avoid it. Their solutions to these problems, however, differ. While the ████████ ██ takes all responsibility away from the main salarian government to deal with it itself, the asari, on the other hand, sends the 'problem' to the Citadel under secret treaties with the Order of Athame.
It's interesting to note that only the Beyfors and the Naraius families have knowledge of the true origins of the asari, and this point of contention is believed to be a driving force in expelling the Naraius family from the Great Houses—and from existence. The recent Naraius High Matriarch had used this leverage to keep the Beyfors at bay, but with her recent death, removed the protection she had over the family. Tevos Nariaus was next in line to acquire this secret, but the intervention by Matriarch ██████████ have ended the sharing of this secret.
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Alliance Intelligence Community
'Alliance Intelligence' is the cumulative name for the System Alliance's various intelligence organs. Similar to the Special Task Group, most of these organizations are mundane in origins and execution. There are three outliers within Alliance Intelligence: the Directorate of Intelligence, to whom lead the organizations, the Department of Secret Service (DSS), which is their domestic intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, and the Secret Intelligence Agency (SIA), handling foreign intelligence collection and analysis.
These intelligence communities are handled, more or less, by the fiercely loyal Dioland family, █ ██████ ██ ███████ that trace their origin to the founding of the United States. Serving as the heads of Alliance Intelligence since their founding, they use various █████████, technologies, and manipulation of records to conceal their familiar looks and name. The family's origins are known only by the Prime Minister, certain members of Parliament, and the general staff.
Unbeknownst to ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ and even to Cerberus, under the Dioland family, Alliance Intelligence is covertly keeping track of the various █████████ █████████████ on Earth while investigating signs of similar █████████ organizations throughout the galaxy.
Unfortunately, because of STG and asari meddling, they lack the necessary funding needed. Just as well, they lag behind the sheer capabilities of Cerberus, the STG, and even House T'haana, but under their newest Director, Melanie Smith (Dioland), she is slowly overturning these disadvantages.
Considered a prodigy by her own family, she is the youngest member to take the position of Director and is quickly being identified as the driving force for the Alliance Intelligence's increased capabilities. For example, through blackmail alone, she was able to maneuver around political manipulation of certain members of Parliament to replace her, as well as counter several assassination attempts by Cerberus, the STG, and even the Shadow Broker.
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Cult of Sitrax
While technically, the Hierarchy codifies freedom of religion as a right, not many within the Hierarchy claim to be actually religious. Indeed, an estimated 89% of the population declared themselves agnostic. According to research conducted by those from the ██████████, the larger a conglomeration of a turian population gathers than the decrease of religious inclination grows.
That isn't to say turians are adverse to worship in general. The endurance of ancestry worship is proof of this. Invoking the spirits, over time, has, more or less, fallen to an expression of disbelief or shock, like how a human atheist would say, "Oh my God!"
Ancestral worship has taken on a more human Buddhist or asari Siari approach, with an emphasis on the philosophical/metaphysical approach to life. Interestingly enough, this study was conducted in the first place because of recruited members from these separatist worlds. While some of these separatist colonies field a population near the millions, there are many of those sitting in the hundreds, which will be the focus of this segment.
The smaller the population, the more religiously inclined that society will be. What is strange, however, are the similarities these scattered cults have in their faith. While the absolute minutia isn't exactly the same with every group, the broad strokes are eerily similar enough to warrant investigation.
Note, there is no recorded text or rites performed by those affected by this phenomenon. The main avenue for gaining insight towards this cult can only be extracted from interviews.
It all starts with a figure named Sitrax. Sitrax is said to be the father of creation, who birthed many races under his fold. Life had sprung under his care, and everyone lived in harmony. Sitrax loved the world he built and even though he knew everything and everyone throughout creation, he enjoyed traveling the world to live amongst his children. It wasn't until he discovered a cave not of his own making, and with curiosity taking a hold of him, he delved into the cave alone.
After three days and three nights, he emerged a changed man. He had lost his youthful and vibrant glow, stoic and quieter than had ever been. That day, he held a contest, inviting all of his created children to join. It was said to be the first contest ever held, and it was a simple one: a race. A race from one end of the world to the other. While the details of this race varied, it was the Feraldis, a bone-like velociraptor with wings, that had won.
In victory, Sitrax offered his body to be feasted upon, which the Feraldis reluctantly did. The rest of creation watched as once the Feraldis finished his meal, he had changed. Changed into what we now know as the modern turian. Tired from his meal, he fell asleep and dreamt of fire and brimstone. When he later woke, the children of Sitrax were nowhere to be found, and he was left alone in this world.
As he wandered, he encountered the same cave Sitrax himself had found, and entered it himself. When he emerged, he emerged in what was called the Colorless World. He also did not emerge alone, as a near-identical version of himself left the cave with him. Near-identical except that the turian was female and her name was Celentia, and she was just as confused as he was.
In time, they had children and populated this world. Odd enough that the cave they emerged from simply disappeared, never to be found again.
While this was just a general summary of the origins of this cult, members would eventually start seeing visions of Sitrax. What is most striking to researchers was that Sitrax was not exactly a turian, as is found in most religious origin stories. In fact, Sitrax's description varied from one member to the other.
To one particular member, he resembled his late mother, whom he had last seen when he was five. To another, Sitrax resembled an asari idol he was infatuated with. There is a never agreed-upon vision of what Sitrax actually looked like.
Sitrax would usually show up in their dreams. In rarer cases, he would show up whenever the cult member would lose conscience unwillingly, like a fevered dream. Whatever the case, the image of Sitrax would always have a soothing effect on the individual and spur onwards until they solve their crisis.
There are a few requisites for the Cult of Sitrax to emerge. One: they must be in a company no more than a thousand, and two: they must live with these members for at least, one [Palaven] year. The Cult of Sitrax doesn't always emerge in the same way. Turian mercenary groups and even separatist terror cells have fallen under this phenomenon, its effects invigorating them in ways that had led to further bloodshed. On the other end, dreams of Sitrax have also been revealed to lost travelers, helping them guide their way back to civilization. There is no ethical choice to whom Sitrax would show himself towards.
Research is ongoing. At the moment, there are tests being conducted on whether this phenomenon is affected when a member is placed into Hierarchy society, or rather, any large turian population. Also, there have been no effects on aliens living amongst small turian communities. Of a notable point, is the similarities this tale of Sitrax has with the origins of man in the human Christian Bible.
At the moment, the members of the Cult of Sitrax are living contently with their lives, but recent events (such as the Siege of the Citadel) have spurned a newly added variance to the dream. One with an angry Sitrax spurring its members for preparations against what they call the 'Adversary' (another point of similarity with the human Abrahamic religions). While the Reapers may come to mind as to the identity of this 'Adversary', there is a new and notable distressing accompaniment to their dreams recently as well, that of an unidentified figure in a red gown, dancing under a cracked, red sky and falling black rain.