Thomas Hawkins (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rageangelic) wrote2010-11-12 11:38 pm
rageangelic) wrote2010-11-12 11:38 pm
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Tarnishedverse 101: The Last Line of Defense
The Last Line of Defense is a top-secret paramilitary organization within the United States government with the stated purpose of monitoring, policing, and controlling supernatural activity that threaten American interests and the safety of humanity at large. It is the sort of organization that many conspiracy theorists believe to exist. President Theodore Roosevelt secretly signed the LLD into service in October of 1902. In the beginning it was intended only to prevent immigrants from bringing supernaturals with them, and thus the LLD was a glorified customs service. Over the years, as it became apparent that there were therianthropes and vampires already in the United States, the LLD began to hunt them down.
The LLD made its first vampire kills on Halloween of 1912. Agents of the LLD found a nest of an estimated twenty-eight vampires hiding in a decrepit mansion in the Pennsylvania woods. They burned the mansion to the ground after determining that there were only vampires inside - and that the vampires were sound aslumber in their coffins - as a not very subtle warning to all supernaturals. This began the shadow war that had been relatively calm since the Middle Ages. In retaliation for this massive murder of their species, vampires began to prey upon humans. When the LLD and vampires came to direct conflict, though, the vampires almost always lost. One spectacular example to the contrary was a vampire raid on the Capitol Building that the LLD just barely managed to avert. Newspapers never caught wind of the attack.
Though the LLD had occassional conflicts with therianthropes, the LLD's Director Justin Glascow and several therianthrope leaders eventually reached the Compromise of 1945 in July of that year. Glascow became Director in June of 1945. The Compromise held that therianthropes who registered with the LLD and reported to holding facilities at least an hour before sundown every night of the full moon would be deemed suitable for cohabitation with humanity. This was a major step towards achieving equal rights for supernaturals, although it was by no means everything therians could have hoped for. The holding facilities were essentially prisons, and although no therianthrope had ever escaped from them, rumors persist that several died in LLD custody - especially during the early years. Things gradually improved for therianthropes as more facilities were added to the initial New York, Chicago, and Seattle complexes. By 1967 there were Therian Holding Facilities in every major city across the country and the therians within them were treated as well as the patients of any other disease of the body, for the most part.
In 1983 the LLD became aware of anti-human nephilim activity in the United States. Agents Dominic DeSana and Jane Seymour led the early investigation and were the first agents to fall, casualties of mankind's newest shadow war. The anti-human nephilim tracked them down to the hotel room they were using to monitor surveillance equipment that the agents had placed throughout the nephilim's meeting hall in Johannesberg, Pennsylvania. The remains demonstrated signs of brutalization the likes of which no man has any business being able to inflict. Director Justin Glascow expanded the shadow war to include the anti-human nephilim, though it never had the focus vampire-hunting did during his reign.
The LLD's first therian agent and first supernatural agent is the werewolf Benjamin Franklin Chamberlain. He joined in 1977 and has remained with the LLD to present day, a career spanning twenty-nine years. After having proven himself time and again, Chamberlain finally ascended to the Director's office when Justin Glascow retired on December 25th, 1999. Glascow named Chamberlain as his successor, a decision President Bill Clinton ratified in his final hours of the presidency. Glascow was a legend in the LLD and the supernatural community at large for having served as an agent of LLD for six years and then Director for another fifty-four. Benjamin Franklin Chamberlain had quite a bit to live up to.
One of the first things Benjamin Franklin Chamberlain as Director did was take pressure off of therianthropes unwilling to enter the Registry. Recognizing the potential danger of the anti-human nephilim, he ordered an in-depth investigation. Unfortunately, just as agents were starting to uncover promising leads, fallout from the 9/11 attacks greatly reduced the LLD's budget to make room for the new Department of Homeland Security. Forced to downsize, the LLD was unable to go on what President George W. Bush called "Wild goose chases" after theoretical dangers in the face of "More immediate and far more dangerous threats to national security and humanity at large." Chamberlain found out President Bush's opinion when he confronted the Commander-in-Chief in the Oval Office about the budget slashing. While the LLD had not done spectacularly under the Clinton Administration, Chamberlain couldn't help but fume about the overspending in the military. To further complicate matters, the agents he had placed on the anti-human nephilim's trail turned up missing, presumed dead.
With the Bush Administration budget cuts, the LLD was down to three thousand agents. This was barely enough to run the Compromise, much less undertake hunts that could absorb hundreds of man-hours in order to track down a handful of renegade therians or a lone vampire. The LLD sat on the back-burner for three years until George W Bush won re-election in 2004, at which time he uncharacteristically reversed previous budget cuts. The LLD is still in the process of training new agents and recalling old ones to build its numbers back up to the levels it had during the Clinton era. Chamberlain has ordered that his agents keep their ears to the ground, ready to respond to any crises requiring their expertise.
The LLD is currently composed of nine thousand, eight hundred and forty-three agents, with roughly two support personnel per agent. It works closely with Her Majesty's Huntsmen to monitor supernatural activity in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa, while the Demon Corps rarely, if ever cooperates with the American and British agencies. The Corps' fiercely-protected jurisdiction includes Asia and most of the Middle East, though they think nothing of pursuing a target (who they refer to as demons) into another agency's jurisdiction. The LLD is encouraging the development of native agencies within governments known to have a sizeable supernatural problem, as an uncontrolled outbreak could be disastrous for the entire world.
The LLD is composed of eight departments. The bulk of it is composed of Department-7, which provides the work force for the other Departments as well as the field agents.
Department-1: Administration. Also called Control, it regulates and coordinates the activities of the other Departments with each other and with outside factions.
Department-2: Research, Recruiting, and Training. Also called Personnel, this is the Department that finds suitable candidates with the right amount of skepticism and open-mindedness already within government agencies.
Department-3: Archives. Also called the Library, this is the smallest of the Departments. Working with Personnel, it is trying to find a method of combating Blutkult nephilim as well as newer, better ways of killing and subduing therianthropes and vampires.
Department-4: Armory, Acquisition, Munitions and Supplies. Also called the Warehouse, this Department ensures LLD agents have whatever they need to get the job done.
Department-5: Communications and Public Relations. Also called the Face, these are the spin-doctors who tell you the lies that help you sleep at night. This department keeps tabs on agents in the field, registered therians, suspected vampires (confirmed vampires are either underground or dead), launches cover stories, and keeps the shadow war under wraps in order to protect the public from itself.
Department-6: Internal Affairs. Also called the Spooks, these guys monitor the other departments.
Department-7: Field Unit Investigation. Generally called the Agents, or less positively (usually by the Eighth) the Grunts. This is the Department that does almost all of the dirty work.
Department-8: Extreme Response Team. Second-smallest, Dept-8 consists primarily of heavily-trained human and therian commandos with the focus on eliminating extremely risky targets. Called the Heavy Brigade, they are usually only called in as a last resort. Chamberlain instituted Dept-8 in 1983, though it disappeared altogether during George W. Bush's first term in office.
The LLD's motto is "Nos Obsto Nox Noctis" - "We Stand Against the Night". Informally, there is also "We are the ones who bump back."
The LLD made its first vampire kills on Halloween of 1912. Agents of the LLD found a nest of an estimated twenty-eight vampires hiding in a decrepit mansion in the Pennsylvania woods. They burned the mansion to the ground after determining that there were only vampires inside - and that the vampires were sound aslumber in their coffins - as a not very subtle warning to all supernaturals. This began the shadow war that had been relatively calm since the Middle Ages. In retaliation for this massive murder of their species, vampires began to prey upon humans. When the LLD and vampires came to direct conflict, though, the vampires almost always lost. One spectacular example to the contrary was a vampire raid on the Capitol Building that the LLD just barely managed to avert. Newspapers never caught wind of the attack.
Though the LLD had occassional conflicts with therianthropes, the LLD's Director Justin Glascow and several therianthrope leaders eventually reached the Compromise of 1945 in July of that year. Glascow became Director in June of 1945. The Compromise held that therianthropes who registered with the LLD and reported to holding facilities at least an hour before sundown every night of the full moon would be deemed suitable for cohabitation with humanity. This was a major step towards achieving equal rights for supernaturals, although it was by no means everything therians could have hoped for. The holding facilities were essentially prisons, and although no therianthrope had ever escaped from them, rumors persist that several died in LLD custody - especially during the early years. Things gradually improved for therianthropes as more facilities were added to the initial New York, Chicago, and Seattle complexes. By 1967 there were Therian Holding Facilities in every major city across the country and the therians within them were treated as well as the patients of any other disease of the body, for the most part.
In 1983 the LLD became aware of anti-human nephilim activity in the United States. Agents Dominic DeSana and Jane Seymour led the early investigation and were the first agents to fall, casualties of mankind's newest shadow war. The anti-human nephilim tracked them down to the hotel room they were using to monitor surveillance equipment that the agents had placed throughout the nephilim's meeting hall in Johannesberg, Pennsylvania. The remains demonstrated signs of brutalization the likes of which no man has any business being able to inflict. Director Justin Glascow expanded the shadow war to include the anti-human nephilim, though it never had the focus vampire-hunting did during his reign.
The LLD's first therian agent and first supernatural agent is the werewolf Benjamin Franklin Chamberlain. He joined in 1977 and has remained with the LLD to present day, a career spanning twenty-nine years. After having proven himself time and again, Chamberlain finally ascended to the Director's office when Justin Glascow retired on December 25th, 1999. Glascow named Chamberlain as his successor, a decision President Bill Clinton ratified in his final hours of the presidency. Glascow was a legend in the LLD and the supernatural community at large for having served as an agent of LLD for six years and then Director for another fifty-four. Benjamin Franklin Chamberlain had quite a bit to live up to.
One of the first things Benjamin Franklin Chamberlain as Director did was take pressure off of therianthropes unwilling to enter the Registry. Recognizing the potential danger of the anti-human nephilim, he ordered an in-depth investigation. Unfortunately, just as agents were starting to uncover promising leads, fallout from the 9/11 attacks greatly reduced the LLD's budget to make room for the new Department of Homeland Security. Forced to downsize, the LLD was unable to go on what President George W. Bush called "Wild goose chases" after theoretical dangers in the face of "More immediate and far more dangerous threats to national security and humanity at large." Chamberlain found out President Bush's opinion when he confronted the Commander-in-Chief in the Oval Office about the budget slashing. While the LLD had not done spectacularly under the Clinton Administration, Chamberlain couldn't help but fume about the overspending in the military. To further complicate matters, the agents he had placed on the anti-human nephilim's trail turned up missing, presumed dead.
With the Bush Administration budget cuts, the LLD was down to three thousand agents. This was barely enough to run the Compromise, much less undertake hunts that could absorb hundreds of man-hours in order to track down a handful of renegade therians or a lone vampire. The LLD sat on the back-burner for three years until George W Bush won re-election in 2004, at which time he uncharacteristically reversed previous budget cuts. The LLD is still in the process of training new agents and recalling old ones to build its numbers back up to the levels it had during the Clinton era. Chamberlain has ordered that his agents keep their ears to the ground, ready to respond to any crises requiring their expertise.
The LLD is currently composed of nine thousand, eight hundred and forty-three agents, with roughly two support personnel per agent. It works closely with Her Majesty's Huntsmen to monitor supernatural activity in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa, while the Demon Corps rarely, if ever cooperates with the American and British agencies. The Corps' fiercely-protected jurisdiction includes Asia and most of the Middle East, though they think nothing of pursuing a target (who they refer to as demons) into another agency's jurisdiction. The LLD is encouraging the development of native agencies within governments known to have a sizeable supernatural problem, as an uncontrolled outbreak could be disastrous for the entire world.
The LLD is composed of eight departments. The bulk of it is composed of Department-7, which provides the work force for the other Departments as well as the field agents.
Department-1: Administration. Also called Control, it regulates and coordinates the activities of the other Departments with each other and with outside factions.
Department-2: Research, Recruiting, and Training. Also called Personnel, this is the Department that finds suitable candidates with the right amount of skepticism and open-mindedness already within government agencies.
Department-3: Archives. Also called the Library, this is the smallest of the Departments. Working with Personnel, it is trying to find a method of combating Blutkult nephilim as well as newer, better ways of killing and subduing therianthropes and vampires.
Department-4: Armory, Acquisition, Munitions and Supplies. Also called the Warehouse, this Department ensures LLD agents have whatever they need to get the job done.
Department-5: Communications and Public Relations. Also called the Face, these are the spin-doctors who tell you the lies that help you sleep at night. This department keeps tabs on agents in the field, registered therians, suspected vampires (confirmed vampires are either underground or dead), launches cover stories, and keeps the shadow war under wraps in order to protect the public from itself.
Department-6: Internal Affairs. Also called the Spooks, these guys monitor the other departments.
Department-7: Field Unit Investigation. Generally called the Agents, or less positively (usually by the Eighth) the Grunts. This is the Department that does almost all of the dirty work.
Department-8: Extreme Response Team. Second-smallest, Dept-8 consists primarily of heavily-trained human and therian commandos with the focus on eliminating extremely risky targets. Called the Heavy Brigade, they are usually only called in as a last resort. Chamberlain instituted Dept-8 in 1983, though it disappeared altogether during George W. Bush's first term in office.
The LLD's motto is "Nos Obsto Nox Noctis" - "We Stand Against the Night". Informally, there is also "We are the ones who bump back."