The Whisper

The Whisper is a secretive group of group of spies and assassins that acts as the covert arm of House Nechtan. Their primary and most infamous duty is protecting the Travelling Ensembles employed by House Nechtan, watching over them and arranging unpleasant "accidents" for anyone who messes with them, a practice kept so consistently quiet that most just accept that it is bad luck to cause problems for travelling performers, or perhaps that some temperamental god watches over them. They also gather detailed information on noteworthy figures of society, and pass it on to their masters and by extension the Abizin Loyalists, as well as performing other missions for them as needed.

Structure

The Whisper does not use formal titles, but there are 4 major roles in the organization, all working under a single spymaster. Most plentiful are the watchers, agents living and travelling throughout Kinilan, including a number of agents who work among the performers they protect. They keep their hands clean of trouble as much as possible, merely watching and reporting back to their contacts anything that might be considered relevant. Conversely, there are the assassins, agents specializing in active roles. Their missions are more varied than simple assassination, ranging from infiltration to steal secret information to arranging accidental injury to those who merely inconvenience performers under their protection, but all are ready to kill at a moments notice, and most are skilled enough to find a way to kill their target such that it looks like a tragic accident, or at its most blatant, a simple robbery.
Another set of agents run businesses throughout Kinilan that double as safehouses, and they act as coordinators for the field agents, collecting reports from the watchers and giving instructions to the assassins. They also work closely with the final group of agents, messengers who take on roles that allow them to travel speedily without raising suspicion, who carry messages to the spymaster of House Nechtan as well as conveying instructions out to coordinators and assassins as needed.

Culture

Trigger Warning: this is an organization built around manipulation and control of its agents. If this is an issue for you, skip this section.

The Whisper is an organization of absolute paranoia. Every agent is expected to preserve the secrecy of the organization above all else. Each member wears a cursed piece of jewelry, often a piercing hidden under the clothing, that will kill the agent if they are knocked out or if it is removed without the correct countercharm, in order to prevent capture or desertion, and they are expected to check in with coordinators regularly. Coordinators are supplied with a truth serum that they are to use on any agent who seems like they might be lacking in loyalty. The messengers subject the coordinators to the same observation, and they in turn are monitored by the Nechtan spymaster.
These conditions breed a strange form of loyalty among its members: they exist in ordinary society posing as ordinary citizens, but they dare not relate their experiences to anyone outside the organization for fear of being discovered and executed, and the cursed jewellery they are forced to wear keeps them from leaving.

Type

Secret, Military

Demonym

Whispers, Whispered One