Association of Criminal Investigation

CATALOGUE: Economy, Guild

LOCATION: Mara

DESCRIPTION: Criminal Investigation is an associated guild based in Mara whose main duty is to investigate every sort of unexplained crime — literally the ‘crime investigation department’ if using the real-world term. Despite of its task, its mainly a neutral guild, dealing with clients from Federals until the Underworlders whose group is basically the min suspects of almost every crime cases. The name “criminal investigation” instead of “crime investigation” is due to the task of the guild mostly investigationg a ‘criminal’ instead of a crime, whether through distant observation in spying mission or a direct confrontation in an interrogation session.

Despite of its neutrality, Criminal Investigation is the most fearful guild in Mara (even surpassing Federation of Order or the Maralin Underworlders). There’s an infamous saying among the society about this guild: The Underworlder will attack you, but the Federation will protect you. Meanwhile, Criminal Investigation will hunt you. The word hunt is often associated with the guild’s job and also used between the people within: to hunt their prey, which the word “prey” means the criminal(s) whom they’ve been looking for in their investigation. Perhaps it came from their guild symbol; a pair of eyes of a predatory bird.

Strength requirement

Criminal Investigation belongs to the mono-clan guild. Only the Storageholders can oin the guild regardless of the position they’ll be holding later on — that means all their profesions belong to mono-Strength profession as well. Criminal Investigation is also one of the few non-government guilds in Variland that requires entrance exam to join in, be it for the Varrs in their first or second Badge. The entrance exam contains observational report on three random people in different attributes (these are the spies from the guild) and the result will be judged by the chief of the investigation station. So, a natural oservant and curiosity on looking for patterns is required to join the guild.

Main duty: deduction

Except the archivists, all the Storageholders in this guild are called as the emissary, and their main duty is deduction. Each of emissaries has at least one specialization of their deduction based on personal interest — although mostly it can be classified into two categories; specialty in field inspection among the spies, and specialty in human’s behavior among the interrogators. The knowledge required for their deduction is the information that they keep in their Storage.

Few examples on types of emissary’s deduction specialty:

• Field inspection

  This is a common deduction specialty among the spies, as their job demands them to work outside. This is one of the few specialties that extract a suspect’s information based on the environment instead of personal attribute. Every Federal officers who encounter a crime scene would call an emissary in this specialty to judge whether a crime is worth to be further investigated or not — usually either a crime comes from Maralin conflict or not. Emissary who has this specialty is the best concealer of their trace. Therefore, it’s mostly trained by a spy. Few interrogators, however, also possess this specialty. One of them is Emissary Mayya ul Navqi (Terijan, Western Mara) due to her first Badge from Journalism Guild.

• Human’s behavior

  On the other side, interrogators tend to train themselves in this deduction specialty because of their job mostly working indoors. The ability to notice the characteristics of their suspect through their gesture and facial expression helps them to extract as much information as possible for effecient interview. They’re expert in reading someone’s emotional state as well — this particular deduction specialty is what rumor likes to say as “emissaries can read people’s mind”. An emissary who has decades-long experience in their job can even statethe reason of a suspect’s emotional change, which Chief Tan Irana (Shang, Eastern Mara) is capable of.

• Belongings deduction

  This is the main deduction specialty of Emissary Jun Mito (Cyunshu/Bazukawa, Central Mara). Mito can pull a conclusion of someone’s professional background and characteristics only based on their visible belongings in the first encounter; from the appearance of their weapon sheathe until how their sholaces are knotted. People’s possessions have always been his personal interest since childhood; encountering his second mother’s clients as a fish merchant. Perhaps this leads him to be one of the most skillful spies in the guild — even his comrades who would see him for the first time won’t notice his concealment. Especially after Mito possesses a journal written by Janusz Piericzelsk from a case that he’s investigated with Retired-Chief Tan Irana — an emissary reports that he can “conceal his entire true personality”.

• Familial bond

  One of the unique deduction specialties that comes from Chief Liu Renata (Nori, Western Mara). The Chief can notice a blood-related bon through a picture of two suspects (whether a photograph or face sketch). She has keen observation toward someone’s physical features (usually face and hair) and pull a conclusion if those two suspects share the same bloodline or not, from as close as parent-child bond until the far one such as aunt/uncle-niece/nephew one. In every case related to child abduction or the missing parental figure in Western Mara, Chief Liu would be contacted for an advice. According to her comrades, her unique specialty comes from her parent who used to work as a Hospital archivist and she liked to visit frequently her parent’s workplace in her childhood.

• Human’s background research

  This is perhaps the quirkiest deduction specialty that can only be done by Emissary Alan Svericzelsk, coming from his first Badge from Scholars of Sorcery and the “extreme rare case” condition of his Strength. It also comes from his work ethic to build an acquaintanceship to every clients and enemies of him. His speedy reading pace as once a Scholar archivist (who is known for this task) and the amount of interviews he would hold toward his suspect’s connections leads him to have an “efficient” interrogation methode and handle every cases quicker than the average. “An excessive research”, Chief Tan Irana has ever described — he would include questions that aren’t related to the case but somehow can influence the suspect’s behavior to lead him to the sought clues. This investigation methode therefore makes him as the only emissary in the guild who can deal with Scatterer criminals.

Rank & position

Every investigation station in the city is held by an emissary’s leader, being referred as the Chief. Otherwise, Criminal Investigation only contains three different positions: spy, interrogator and archivist.

• Spy

  The spy is an emissary who takes surveillance mission. The mission mostly comes directly from the government, so the spies have the most contact with Federation of Order. They’re trained to disguise themselves which only their comrades would notice it — they like to call it as “concealment”, and usually they use two until three personas for their concealment (a chief-rank emissary use four, also Emissary Mito in the search of the hideout from the Sect’s Water Mindbenders in Southern Mara). Their Storage is also trained for photographic memory, the reason they’re good in face sketching. However, they have weaker control toward their suspects when it comes to long-form interrogation session.

• Interrogator

  The interrogator is an emissary who takes investigation mission. They’re needed the most when it comes to a difficult case on a crime scene. They’re the most active emissary who request for copied documents in all over the guilds including the government one for their research. Underworlders who need for the guild’s service would usually contact an interrogator. They’re also good in persuasion, but not confrontation especially in the field. Their Storage isn’t trained for photographic memory (unless if their deduction specialty requires to), but easier to train themselves in multiple deduction specialties. That’s why most of the chief-ranked emissaries are interrogators.

• Archivist

  Aside from documenting every emissary’s worktime and taking care of all the guild’s archives, Criminal Investigation archivists are trained to detect falsified guild document (and fabricate Badges for the spies’ concealments).

Lying detection license

This aspect is the famous trait of Criminal Investigation that even the people outside of Mara acknowledge. Storageholders in the guild are trained to recognize a dishonesty from someone’s behavior. The emissaries detect it by recognizing facial expression, gestures and voice tone, whereas the archivists through someone’s penmanship. It takes several months for average emissaries to gain the license.

This license can be acquaired by Storageholders outside the guild as well.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

• The emissary wears a distinct uniform:

  • a black hat (that never falls down even during combat)

  • a simple white shirt with sharp collar

  • a black sleeveless vest as an outergarment, on the back decorated with guild symbol in gold yarn

  For the archivists, instead of black vest, they wear a black cloak, waist-length, decorated with guild symbol on the back (also in gold yarn).

  The chief-rank emissary has golden stripe around their hat.

• In the guild, there’s a term ‘second brain’ when it comes to solve difficult investigation case. It means that more than one emissary is required to solve the case. The one who involves must be coming from two emissaries who have opposite investigation methode. They refer it as an emissary with offensive approach (field investigation, witnesses interview) and the other one with defensive approach (suspects interview, research).

• Like in Federation of Order, a combat exam is required for every trainees in the guild to gain their Badge for a self-defense skill. Most of emissaries carry firearms as their weapon for a practical reason (with non-lethal ammos as well).

• To hold a position as a chief, an emissary is required to master a certain interrogating methode that is called as ‘hypnosis’. It’s a methode where the emissaries will manipulate the suspect’s emotional state through the interview until the suspect is no longer aware with their own feeling and surroundings. The emissaries then give a physical pain that leads the suspect into shock and half-conscious. It’s effective even against someone without sanity, but not against Scatterers.