Talechasing Topic of the Week ~ Espionage
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yrae
Talechasing Topic of the Week ~ Espionage
Who spies on whom? Are any governments in your world particularly renowned for their spies? How are spies trained and recruited?
Thought this might be an interesting one for me to shoot at, since it seems Raykin's spy network is making a bit of an appearance in Tarnish.
Raykin
Raykin calls their spies the Eagles, and their police-type-people are called the Talons :D I'm so smart. Anyway yes. Eagles are trained in Ni-Aneka, which is about 150km upstream of Ni-Yana. Not trained in the capital cos that's where military training happens. The spies do all have a private meeting with the king/queen in Ni-Yana when they begin and when they've finished their training, though, so the said monarch can be certain they're trustworthy, and also see where they'd best be suited to work. I wouldn't have a bloody clue what Eagle training involves, but DAMN I'm tempted to make one. Watch me make up an Eagle for NaNo this year or something >> I know they'd have to be absolutely fluent in all languages, though. This includes accent. Nol would make a crap spy.
As far as recruitment goes, Raykin takes anyone, really. It's kind of hard for a Raykinian to blend in anywhere outside his/her kingdom, so they'll accept expat Kazinians or Llayans to do work in Kazin or Llayad, but they'd be sent with a Raykinian partner to make certain they're not playing both sides. Kazinian expats tend to be pretty reliable, though, because unsurprisingly there are a lot of them who can't stand their empire and just want out.
They get a pretty good deal out of it, too. Raykinian government pays their way almost entirely--buy them a house in wherever they're posted, horse/camel/zebra/other form of transport, and pay equivalent to Second Company in the army... course, if they get caught, Kazin tends to kill them before Raykin's even found out, but yaknow. If you get caught it's your own bloody fault for not remembering your training =/
As for what they actually DO, it's mostly just making sure everyone's keeping on the straight and narrow. If they suspect someone of, I dunno, a murder plot, then they'll watch that person very closely, maybe bring them in and hand them over to the Talons. Internationally, it's more dangerous. Knowing exactly what's going on with regards to all Kazin's internal wars and how that affects trade routes, changes in foreign government, finding out where important Raykinians are being held prisoner and how to get them out, anything like that. All the Own's missions come from what the Eagles find out.
Kazin
Kazinian spies tend to be... freelance. They prefer to keep information to themselves and then sell it for an appropriate price to the appropriate people. Some are more loyal to one province than to another, but for the most part, money talks. Messed up empire <3
If any spy in particular come to the Empress's attention, then she'll order their arrest, throw them to the dungeon for a night or two, then subsequently promote them to her Bouquet, complete with codename (always some kind of leaf for the spies part of the operation) and full protection. The threat of the Assiraz dungeons is generally enough to keep them honest. Mostly the Bouquet spies work through connections rather than actively spying on meetings and such themselves. Shizaaqa pays them shitloads with the expressed intent of half of that being spent on buying information from the freelancers.
Raykin doesn't know about the Bouquet at all. As far as they can tell, Kazin's spies are all freelancers.
Kazin doesn't tend to send a lot of spies internationally. FAR too much intrigue going on in their own empire to bother with anyone else. Raykin and Llayad don't really pose much of a threat, anyway. Occasionally Shizaaqa will send out one or two, just to make sure. More recently, she's been doing so to make sure she's definitely got the upper hand if she decided to declare war on Raykin.
All Kazin's official spies are exclusively Kazinian. No Kazinian queen, certainly not their empress, would believe a foreigner to be that trustworthy.
Llayad
I don't even know what they'd spy ON. Steal winemaking methods to get a better vintage? I don't know oO I can't see Llayad doing anything particularly sneaky. If someone wanted to be one, they'd likely just go to Raykin and be an Eagle.
Tsayth
They don't have an organised spy network, but they know everything that's going on. Since Tsayth is effectively a nation of traveling towns that bump into each other on the ocean, they tend to have a big community spirit between boats, so they'll gladly pass on any information they think useful. If it's vitally important stuff that they reckon the king and queen should know, they'll make a beeline back to Ryas, the capital, telling the same information to every other ship they pass on the way.
When a ship makes port, often most of the crew wanders around finding the local goss, then if there's anything big they might look into it more deeply to see if it has any impact on Tsayth as a whole. New taxes, suspicious death of a prominent merchant, discovery of a jewel mine, potential invasion of Llayad, whatever.
Who spies on whom? Are any governments in your world particularly renowned for their spies? How are spies trained and recruited?
Thought this might be an interesting one for me to shoot at, since it seems Raykin's spy network is making a bit of an appearance in Tarnish.
Raykin
Raykin calls their spies the Eagles, and their police-type-people are called the Talons :D I'm so smart. Anyway yes. Eagles are trained in Ni-Aneka, which is about 150km upstream of Ni-Yana. Not trained in the capital cos that's where military training happens. The spies do all have a private meeting with the king/queen in Ni-Yana when they begin and when they've finished their training, though, so the said monarch can be certain they're trustworthy, and also see where they'd best be suited to work. I wouldn't have a bloody clue what Eagle training involves, but DAMN I'm tempted to make one. Watch me make up an Eagle for NaNo this year or something >> I know they'd have to be absolutely fluent in all languages, though. This includes accent. Nol would make a crap spy.
As far as recruitment goes, Raykin takes anyone, really. It's kind of hard for a Raykinian to blend in anywhere outside his/her kingdom, so they'll accept expat Kazinians or Llayans to do work in Kazin or Llayad, but they'd be sent with a Raykinian partner to make certain they're not playing both sides. Kazinian expats tend to be pretty reliable, though, because unsurprisingly there are a lot of them who can't stand their empire and just want out.
They get a pretty good deal out of it, too. Raykinian government pays their way almost entirely--buy them a house in wherever they're posted, horse/camel/zebra/other form of transport, and pay equivalent to Second Company in the army... course, if they get caught, Kazin tends to kill them before Raykin's even found out, but yaknow. If you get caught it's your own bloody fault for not remembering your training =/
As for what they actually DO, it's mostly just making sure everyone's keeping on the straight and narrow. If they suspect someone of, I dunno, a murder plot, then they'll watch that person very closely, maybe bring them in and hand them over to the Talons. Internationally, it's more dangerous. Knowing exactly what's going on with regards to all Kazin's internal wars and how that affects trade routes, changes in foreign government, finding out where important Raykinians are being held prisoner and how to get them out, anything like that. All the Own's missions come from what the Eagles find out.
Kazin
Kazinian spies tend to be... freelance. They prefer to keep information to themselves and then sell it for an appropriate price to the appropriate people. Some are more loyal to one province than to another, but for the most part, money talks. Messed up empire <3
If any spy in particular come to the Empress's attention, then she'll order their arrest, throw them to the dungeon for a night or two, then subsequently promote them to her Bouquet, complete with codename (always some kind of leaf for the spies part of the operation) and full protection. The threat of the Assiraz dungeons is generally enough to keep them honest. Mostly the Bouquet spies work through connections rather than actively spying on meetings and such themselves. Shizaaqa pays them shitloads with the expressed intent of half of that being spent on buying information from the freelancers.
Raykin doesn't know about the Bouquet at all. As far as they can tell, Kazin's spies are all freelancers.
Kazin doesn't tend to send a lot of spies internationally. FAR too much intrigue going on in their own empire to bother with anyone else. Raykin and Llayad don't really pose much of a threat, anyway. Occasionally Shizaaqa will send out one or two, just to make sure. More recently, she's been doing so to make sure she's definitely got the upper hand if she decided to declare war on Raykin.
All Kazin's official spies are exclusively Kazinian. No Kazinian queen, certainly not their empress, would believe a foreigner to be that trustworthy.
Llayad
I don't even know what they'd spy ON. Steal winemaking methods to get a better vintage? I don't know oO I can't see Llayad doing anything particularly sneaky. If someone wanted to be one, they'd likely just go to Raykin and be an Eagle.
Tsayth
They don't have an organised spy network, but they know everything that's going on. Since Tsayth is effectively a nation of traveling towns that bump into each other on the ocean, they tend to have a big community spirit between boats, so they'll gladly pass on any information they think useful. If it's vitally important stuff that they reckon the king and queen should know, they'll make a beeline back to Ryas, the capital, telling the same information to every other ship they pass on the way.
When a ship makes port, often most of the crew wanders around finding the local goss, then if there's anything big they might look into it more deeply to see if it has any impact on Tsayth as a whole. New taxes, suspicious death of a prominent merchant, discovery of a jewel mine, potential invasion of Llayad, whatever.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 08:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 11:25 am (UTC)*ICON!*
(I still love the idea of the Bouquet and Flanny's letters ... you need an excuse to write more ...)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-10 03:49 pm (UTC)The Bouquet is so much fun~ <3 Flannel Flower is set to make an appearance in Tarnish, have no fear X3