Vigiles Arcani
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| Active: | 3623 ASC - Present |
| Motto: | Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Rrakanychan B'algurd wgah'nagl fhtagn |
| In use by: | Ministry of Military Affairs |
| Part of: | Shirerithian Supplies Service, Imperial Forces |
| Allegiance: | Shireroth |
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| Type | Special Forces |
| Role: |
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| Size: | 24,841 |
| Nickname: | None yet |
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| Current Commander: | Dux Meng Po |
The Rrakanychan Watch is traditionally garrisoned in the town of Demonsfall in Goldshire, is tasked with the Defence of the Realm from perceived threats eminating from beyond the material universe. This entails the monitoring and containing the forces and avatars of Balgurd as well as less typical anomalous phenomena sometimes encountered in the provincial counties or overseas. It's primary concern is with the prevention of the End-Times, or at the very least the allowance of some prior warning.
Its earliest cadres were recruited from the dissenters and deserters of such luminous entities as the Piscatores Alexandrii and the Assayers (both organisations that tended to hold to the view that the obligations of membership only ended with death, and were proactive in upholding that particular detail). Those recruits who survived were at least resourceful when it came to self-preservation. In subsequent years a gentleman's agreement was reached to coordinate the activities of these particular enterprises, permitting secondments and information exchanges, thereby reducing the number of incidental stabbings and smeltings to an acceptable minimum.
Not to be confused with the Imperial Order of Technomaezji whose responsibility is to prevent an apocalypse that is anthropogenic in origin.
Organisation
- Director (Dux Meng Po)
- Headquarters Command Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- Headquarters Secretariat Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- Intelligence Directorate
- Headquarters Command Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- RrW1 Regiment: Counter-espionage (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW2 Regiment: Reconnaissance (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- Military Directorate
- Headquarters Command Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- RrW3 Regiment: Special operations group (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW4 Regiment: Kinetic intervention (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW5 Regiment: Hostage rescue (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW6 Regiment: Counter-terrorism (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- Political Directorate
- Headquarters Command Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- RrW7 Regiment: Population conversion & integration (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW8 Regiment: Counter-revolutionary warfare (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW9 Regiment: Political propaganda (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- Spiritual Directorate
- Headquarters Command Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- RrW10 Regiment: Exorcism (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW11 Regiment: Occult research (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW14 Regiment: Counter-Cedrist occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW15 Regiment: Counter-Treesianoid occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW16 Regiment: Counter-Zurvanite occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW17 Regiment: Counter-Catologian occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW18 Regiment: Counter-Minarborian occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW19 Regiment: Counter-Vanic occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW20 Regiment: Counter-miscellaneous occult phenomena (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- Scientific Directorate
- Headquarters Command Squadron (120 personnel; 600 points)
- RrW12 Regiment: Quarantine (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
- RrW13 Regiment: Applied biological and chemical research (1,200 personnel; 6,000 points)
Activities
As an organisation, the Rrakanychan Watch has somewhat outgrown its original counter-demonic mandate to become a special forces division in its own right, with some of its operational specialisms overlapping with areas that the military intelligence agency S.W.O.R.D. considers to be exclusively its own preserve. In spite of those recent outgrowths, the Spiritual Directorate remains the dominant section within the division.
For an organisation steeped in the mythology of Cedrism, the Rrakanychan Watch is remarkably pragmatic when it comes to dealing with the manifestations of hostile entities derived from alternative belief systems - a philosophy that was best summarised by Dux Meng Po in the remark "Just because we don't believe in it, doesn't mean that it won't try to kill us".
Rrakanychan Watch was instrumental in the collection of research materials from Kezan[1] that were subsequently to feature prominently in the deposition, disposal and transmutation of the late Kaiser Dominus during the Oustfest Massacre of 1644.
History
The Rrakanychan Watch was first created by order of the Khan of Vijayanagara, in 3623 ASC as Section A of MoMA Directorate of Anomalous Phenomena (Formerly Directorate of the Dark Arts). Known as the Rrakanychan Station by some of the more irreverent of its officers, the name stuck and remained associated with it over the years of its existence.
The recruitment of Piscatores
The Piscatores Alexandrii had abandoned their library in Bonedale (formerly Brookshire, now Lichbrook) after the events that had lead to the rise of the Lichgravine.[2] As a consequence of the actions of one rogue magus, the dead now roamed the continent of Benacia in such numbers that people came to see the sight of a shambling revenant as being completely unremarkable.
The Piscatores however remarked and remembered. What began, slowly at first, in 4565 ASC, with the zombots[3] soon proliferated throughout the lands of the machine god. Transhumanism had given way to the postmortal. From the vantage point of their new hiding place, the Piscatores watched as the dominion of the undead grew, first the old ancestral land of Brookshire, then in the forsaken, frankly forgotten realms of Cibolan, and then, latterly, by the doleful caravans of the dead processing westwards, in ever greater numbers to Minarboria, refuge of Malarbor's own schismatic shrub. For an increasing number of those who had watched these events unfold, it was clear that the time had come to take a stand once more against the coming of the night. For those who held this view, the persuasion had taken hold, ever more firmly, indeed to the point of conviction, that in the rising horde of necrorobotic workers, societally displacing humanity - or breathers as they were contemptuously known in the lands of the dead, were to be found the Dæmons and Descendi, the twisted soulless wretches that would serve in the armies of Balgurd as the end times approached. For a society dedicated to hunting down and rooting out the Demon Fish of Balgurd it would be a dereliction of duty to ignore such a peril.
Yet there were those who disagreed, a majority in fact, and those who would not embrace the Liches as fellow sentients, and thus as worthy of protection as any mortal human, were cast out from the Holy Order, with much in the way of mutual recrimination and anathema.
It was ironic then, that those who were expelled from the Piscatores for seeking to destroy the Liches found their first introduction to the Imperial Government courtesy of a revenant known as Laqi Hyrrion, who served as MoMA during the reign of Kaiser Aiomide. But he was only ever an imitation Lich, and, to be fair, blissfully unaware of their intentions.
