Keleres
Across the galaxy, planetary governors compete for trade opportunities, the Great Civilizations joust for superiority on the battlefront, and still other, more insidious, factions play at shaping galactic history for their own ends. In a galaxy fraught with so many agendas, it’s no surprise that the Galactic Council took it upon itself to assemble a force of its own to manage its affairs. The Keleres of the Council are that force, but they are also something more. They are a ragtag army of bureaucrats, soldiers, and spies, often at odds with themselves and not always appreciated by the galaxy they serve.
Though the Keleres are born of the Galactic Council, they are often left to their own devices, traveling the galaxy brokering peace, intervening in conflicts, and tackling threats to galactic civilization as a whole. They even act without the consent of the Tribunii or the Galactic Council when timeliness is a factor, only to be censured by the Galactic Council after the fact.
The member states of the Council send recruits, who are selected according to the traditions of each individual planet or system, to serve in the Keleres. The Great Powers have learned, since the Keleres’ founding, that the Keleres are a useful tool for furthering their own designs. Rather than sending their best operatives away to the Keleres, many send political opponents, incompetents, dangerous prisoners, and other individuals who are difficult to do away with and undesirable to have around. On the other hand, a few Great Powers find it prudent to send highly competent personnel, sometimes out of respect for the Galactic Council but more often than not to clandestinely advance their own goals. The Keleres, then, are a strange and difficult order to manage.
Structure
The Tribunii
The Galactic Council elects three of its own to be the Tribunii of the Keleres. Members of the Council treat the responsibility with mixed sentiment: as both an honor and a burden. The Tribunii have the power to command the Keleres and to implement the designs of the Galactic Council in a concrete way. However, the mixed quality of the Keleres means having to accept no small number of failures, which, in turn, can hurt the Tribunii when members of the Galactic Council seek accountability. Canny Tribunii, such as Tribunii Kuuasi Aun Jalatai, learn when best to use the Keleres, when to set them aside, and who among the ranks are right for the job.
The fraught political environment means that most Councilors don’t serve as Tribunii long. In the five years since the Keleres’ founding, there have been seven Tribunii, including the current holders of the office. Two were forced to resign in disgrace, one was killed on a mission, and one was assassinated in an internal power struggle. For those Tribunii who meet and overcome the challenge of utilizing the force of the Keleres, however, the fruits are significant indeed. It requires much talent for this to happen, but when it does, it can tip the balance of the Galactic Council itself.
The three Tribunii who currently serve are in delicate balance, and therefore the future of the Keleres and the Imperium itself may be at a tipping point. Kuuasi is oldest and wisest among them. Harka Leeds is as ambitious and cunning as she is ruthless in her schemes. Odlynn Myrr, though new to the role, brings a fresh perspective and hope for unity and stability in the Imperium.
Members of the Organization
The Keleres is a fairly amorphous organization, still trying to define itself after its recent formation. This means that rather than possessing discrete ranks and reporting structures, those who work for the organization are divided into several broad groups based on their duties.
Field Agents
Originally, individual Keleres agents reported directly to the Tribunii. However, that soon proved unworkable, and groups of agents began to organize under the direction of team leaders. These may be appointed by a Tribunii or elected by their fellow team members. These team leaders are responsible for making reports to the Tribunii and, in theory, are also responsible for the actions of their team.
In the last two years, a few Keleres have gained enough clout in the organization to be considered senior field agents. At the moment, the title is entirely informal, but they have begun to be assigned greater responsibilities, sometimes directing multiple teams to deal with a single problem. Eventually, these senior agents may coalesce into a sort of middle management that takes on more day-to-day responsibilities from the Tribunii.
Desk Agents
A number of those seconded to the Keleres have proven unfit for fieldwork. However, many still have useful skills they can contribute. These agents handle a number of important tasks, such as intelligence analysis, networking, working informant networks, research and development, supply and procurement, and courier duties.
The line between desk agent and field agent is extremely blurry. While there are some Keleres who have not once left the headquarters since they joined up, there are others who served in the field for a time before injury or close calls pushed them to take a safer posting. Some Keleres even rotate between duties on Mecatol Rex and assignments in the wider galaxy. And of course, the Tribunii often punish wayward field agents with desk assignments (and sometimes eliminate troublesome desk agents by ordering them into the field).
Support Staff
The final third of the Keleres consists of support staff who maintain the headquarters facility. Their responsibilities range from cleaning, maintenance, and food preparation to armory and spacecraft maintenance and security. What complicates their standing in the Keleres is that most of the support staff actually work for the Winnaran Custodians (and many are Winnaran themselves). As outlined in the decree that founded the Keleres, the Winnaran Custodians work with the Keleres, but not for them. This adds an extra layer of complexity to even simple tasks like maintenance requests and means that often the best equipped and supported Keleres teams are the ones with the strongest personal relationships with key support staff.
Public Agenda
Duties of the Keleres
While the Tribunii lead the Keleres from the Galactic Council, the members of the Keleres must take action on their own initiative using the guidance they received during training. By necessity, a Keleres cohort has to possess a wide range of skills across its members. Diplomacy, military acumen, communication skills, street savvy, and technical expertise allow the Keleres to address the diversity of conflicts they encounter.
Even with these skills, the Keleres must navigate obstacles that are challenging to address at the best of times. The most successful cohorts are ones with the wit and adaptability to find creative solutions to the problems they encounter. However, while a unit’s agency and general freedom to approach missions according to its own plans can be boons, at other times, they can be its undoing. Since the Keleres are just as riven with factionalism and diverse goals as the Council they represent, their freedom can simply enable different Keleres to work at cross purposes from one another.
Galactic Peacekeepers
The Keleres represent the Galactic Council and, as such, must embody the unity of the galaxy. The Great Civilizations, however, frequently compete with one another in trade, war, and politics. Though some conflict can cement the bonds of a society, too much can just as easily rip it apart. Thus, the diverse skills of the Keleres are brought to bear on missions of peace and negotiation.
At times, the Keleres act as a neutral party or temporary ally among factions at war. They broker peace on the one hand, but join battles on the other, especially when violence seems to be the only means to stability. Negotiation, knowledge of history, and familiarity with alien species likewise pave the way to peace and prosperity for the galaxy.
Representatives of the Galactic Council
The Keleres represent the Galactic Council in everything they do. Their actions reflect on the Galactic Council, and when the Keleres draw attention from the Great Civilizations, they risk censure or earn reward. The Tribunii can only devote so much attention to each of their Keleres agents, so individual agents have broad discretion to determine their course of action while completing a mission.
The combined might of the Great Civilizations far outstrips the capabilities of the Council. As such, the Galactic Council must engage in careful political maneuvering to strengthen the bonds of its member states. One false move on the part of the Keleres could rend the Council’s delicate ties asunder and undermine its authority for generations to come.
The Thin Line Against Destruction
The most important task assigned to the Keleres is to defend the member civilizations that make up the Council against threats that could tear the entire galaxy asunder. Existential crises such as the return of the L1Z1X and the Mahact gene-sorcerers, the emergence of the Vuil’raith Cabal, and the unleashed Nekro Virus are all too dangerous for any one faction to address. At best, the Keleres serve as a secret organization that blunts or even eliminates these threats before they grow too large. At worst, they at least provide intelligence that would hopefully unite the Galactic Council in common cause against them.
