Starwatch
Coverage
all of Absalom (interjurisdictional including exterior towns, unguarded districts, and outlying areas (see Overview)Headquarters
Starwatch KeepCaptain
Asilia of GyrOverview
The Starwatch enforces Absalom’s laws throughout the whole city, formally given directives by the Grand Council. Their primary focus is preventing citywide crimes or those spanning multiple districts since district watches lack the authority to investigate outside their jurisdiction. They focus their limited numbers on high-profile, large-scale, and high-impact crimes, as well as on neutralizing spies within the city. The Starwatch is also technically responsible for law enforcement in parts of Absalom that lack paid district guards, including the Precipice Quarter, the Puddles, Azlanti Keep, Pilot Island, the towns around Absalom’s walls, and the Flotsam Graveyard. Except during sieges, they have a standard policing rotation in Azlanti Keep, Copperwood, Dawnfoot, Shoreline, Westerhold, and Pilot Island. They mostly leave the Puddles to the Muckruckers and only investigate other minimally populated areas with good cause.
History
(Under construction, please mind the scaffolding.)
The Starwatch claims to be the original city watch of ancient Absalom, before the town had grown large enough to split off into districts.
The Starwatch lost numerous low-ranking members to the Silent Tide during the Black Echelon Uprising. This has forced the organization to spend precious resources recruiting and training new members while already stretched thin. As a result, Absalom is rife with unsolved mysteries and unsolved crimes.
Identification and Insignia
Uniforms
When on patrol or posted as a guard to discourage trouble, members typically wear light armor with a white tabard and teal cape bearing the Starwatch emblem.
Badges
The Starwatch most often operates undercover. When they wish to be known, they simply display their infamous iron badge, a shield with six engrailed tips that depicts a centrally placed five-pointed star surrounded by a nimbus of brilliant, blue fire.
Public Opinion
Most Absalomians have few dealings with the Starwatch and thus regard it as enigmatic. The clandestine nature of most Starwatch officers' presence in the city is often only noticed when an undercover or plainclothes officer flashes their iron badges.
Corruption and Misconduct
Captain Asilia’s reputation for exposing corruption no matter the offender’s station (especially in Absalom’s notorious Navy) has been vital to maintaining public trust in the city’s government. As such, if the Starwatch is accused of misconduct, they, in turn, are investigated by independent agents (often First Guard officers, private investigators, or adventurers) appointed by the fourth lord of laws.
Affiliations
District Guards
To access the city proper, Starwatch officers must commute through the Postern Gate, so it strives to maintain good relations with the Post Guard in order to avoid bureaucratic hang-ups or travel delays. With the advent of the Radiant Festival, Starwatch happily extended some level of inter-jurisdictional authority to the newly formed Edgewatch in response to the enormous tasks involved with policing the city-wide event. As a part of maintaining Absalom’s internal security, the Starwatch investigates alleged abuses of power by the First Guard, Navy, varlokkur, and district watches. This has, perhaps inevitably, led to bad blood between the Starwatch and anyone they investigate.
Government Entities and Others
Grand Council members have the authority to direct Starwatch forces to investigate politically sensitive criminal cases; in the past, unscrupulous councilors have manipulated the Starwatch into furthering their own political aims, which has generated some long‑held animosity between the two organizations.
Transportation
Lying at the far point of Absalom's bay, Starwatch Keep provides stabling and maintenance of many magebred axebeaks to its numbers, to aid in the hastened movement between the city's widespread and sprawling districts. Grondponder Corral provides sheltering and care for the axebeaks, camels, and horses for Starwatch, including the rare monstrous mounts.
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