Celestial Intelligence

As formulated by the Council of Know at the 975,312th meeting on Knowledge and Other Things that can be Known. Any comments expressed in this transcript are not endorsed by the Council of Know and may be considered opinions only.

Officially created over two millennia ago, Celestial Intelligence has been actively collecting information on the Lower Planes and, more specifically, fiends since the beginning of known time. Carefully divided into six sections, the gathered forces of CI are charged with making sure that the celestial races learn the plots of any fiends before they are enacted. As the Blood War continues to rage, their work grows ever important in the battle to limit the spread and influence of evil.

OverviewCurrent methods of intelligence gathering fall into two main categories: highly trained individual beings and specifically created magical items. As its name indicates, planar-source intelligence, or field operatives, requires considerable selection and training in individuals to obtain the desired results. In contrast, the magical items and sophisticated spells that yield enormous amounts of darks are themselves extremely costly to develop and operate.

The organization is divided into six distinct sections: Administration, Planar Operations, Strategic Analysis, Chant Resources, Weapons & Defenses, and Research & Development - each of which is headed by a Zenon, which acts as a section director that reports directly to the Arch-Penitar, Zora Sebirati. The number of personnel within the entire organization is believed to be approximately 21,481 at the current time. However, the numbers reached a peak 110 cycles ago and supposedly have been falling since.

The bulk of the organization's staff are housed on the second layer of Mount Celestia in a fortress that was completed 1400 cycles ago. They have a secondary complex on the first layer of Mount Celestia, which is made up of three buildings, the largest being completed 1100 cycles ago. Although the base on the second layer houses the majority of the enormous staff, there are outposts spread out across the multiverse. The exact number and location of these remote bureaus has yet to be confirmed.

At the end of last cycle the Arch-Penitar announced the beginning of an overhaul of a number of key structures, programs and procedures within CI, as part of a comprehensive strategic plan that was decided in secret by the Parliament. Her statement, at that time, provided further indication that CI is undergoing some type of major internal change. This change has been rumored about by several key sources, but has never been precisely described.

AdministrationThis section provides personnel and support services, which supply the foundation for the collection and analysis of intelligence by other sections. The section's training facility lies somewhere on Mount Celestia at an unnamed location. The training center provides such clandestine skills as spellcraft, weapons combat, movement stealth, language detection, appearance deception, clairvoyance, clairaudience, ESP, bartering & negotiation, and several useful thieving abilities. Approximately 1,000 individuals serve at this top-shelf academy.

This section also operates a large office within a mountain complex on the first layer of Mount Celestia. This center serves as a facility for recruitment, payroll, personnel allocation, and records maintenance, as well as operating a very dark magical coding unit. It has been reliably reported that the section contains some 5,000 individuals, with most of the staff supporting the ongoing activities of Planar Operations.

Planar Operations This section has primary responsibility for the clandestine collection of planar intelligence, including the placement of field operatives. The section is responsible for conducting covert procedures, as well as direct spying. Planar Operations is divided administratively into several divisions based on current trouble spots and operative locations.

It is reliably reported that of the 6,000 individuals, field operatives outnumber clerical and support personnel by two to one. The clandestine service is estimated to have grown from 3,000 to 5,000 in the last 100 cycles, and this growth almost certainly was to support covert activities. Current estimates run as high as 8,000 individuals posted across the planes. This reportedly includes 1,800 to 2,000 so-called "fiend case" officers, responsible for running several hundred agents on the Lower Planes.

Field operatives are deployed at stations of varying sizes on individual planes, as well as "special" agents in Sigil, on the Outlands, and several Prime worlds. Each of these stations may include 200 to 300 personnel. There are also training facilities on Arborea, Arcadia, Bytopia, and Mechanus that number several hundred apiece as well. Given recent events and the current high priority attached to field intelligence, it may be assumed that many staff positions previously dedicated to covert actions have been reallocated to spying.

Strategic Analysis This section produces the bulk of the organization's finished intelligence products. They also act as the agent for meeting the organization's responsibility to produce current intelligence for the Parliament. CI produces a wide variety of finished intelligence. Its substantive scope covers the entire multiverse. It covers functional as well as planar issues, and its work ranges from quick-reaction, informal oral briefings to complex, long-term research studies that may take cycles or centuries to complete. Virtually all of the finished intelligence is designed to support the policy deliberations of the Parliament.

Since the organization's beginning, the section's analysis of planar and fiend-specific topics has been performed in five divisional offices. Each of these offices generate multi-planar studies encompassing military, economic, political, and other factors and produce a full range of finished intelligence. These offices are: Office of Orderly Analysis (Acheron, Arcadia, Baator, Mechanus, Mt. Celestia) Office of Conflict Analysis (Beastlands, Bytopia, Carceri, Elysium, Gehenna, Gray Waste) Office of Chaotic Analysis (Abyss, Arborea, Limbo, Pandemonium, Ysgard) Office of Concordant Analysis (Sigil and the Outlands) Office of Outside Analysis (Astral, Ethereal, Inner, Ordial planes and the Prime)

It was reliably reported that the section included some 3,500 personnel at current. The Arch-Penitar has previously stated that a total of 2,500 personnel are currently assigned to the section as intelligence analysts. It is believed that the size of this section has remained essentially unchanged over the past two hundred decades.

Chant Resources This section provides support to all of the sections of CI in the collection, processing, and exploitation of intelligence from all sources. These sources include, but are not limited to, spellcraft, field operatives, open-chant sources, astral projection, and other forms of intelligence data collected by clandestine and magical means. The support includes research, development, acquisition, and operations of technical capabilities and all sources of planar information. For field operatives, the section provides a wide range of technical support, including agent communication.

Section personnel include sages, mages, clerics, druids, herbalists, alchemists, greybeards, mathematicians, scribes, and numerous linguists. It was reliably reported that the section included some 1,300 personnel as of 125 cycles ago. This number has most likely doubled since that time.

Two offices in the section provide support to ongoing analysis projects and to other sections of the organization. The Office of Tome Services provides all-source library and reference services within CI and is charged with storing and retrieving all CI documents. It supports the resource needs of Planar Operations and is developing a secure method of records collection from the numerous field offices. The office also develops methodologies to support situational projection and analysis calculation.

The Office of Analytic Production publishes current intelligence for the use of the Parliament and presents all official warnings and alert functions for the entire organization. They also coordinate intelligence propaganda activities with any factions and sects and oversee all cartographic, design, and editorial expertise.

Weapons & DefensesThis section is essentially the armory for the entire organization. They provide all equipment for operatives within the Planar Operations section. The section gathers and prepares the precise requirements necessary for each field operative. Also, each member of CI receives certain magical items upon entry into the organization. A special dagger and broach is provided to each new member after they complete their initial training. It is believed that the dagger causes triple damage to beings of evil and the broach is believed to provide superior protection to the individual wearing it.

The section carefully crafts all the equipment, weapons, and armor that are used by CI. Any items that are damaged in the field are immediately investigated and repaired by the section. A recent disclosure by the Arch-Penitar indicated that the section currently numbers 2,000 in personnel. It is unknown how many actually forge weapons and if the actual designing of items is performed within the section itself.

Research & DevelopmentThis section produces assessments of new and enhanced magical items, and also concentrates on specific projects as directed by the Parliament. This section is charged with staying one step ahead of the fiends. The current personnel of the section is believed to only number 1,000, but it has the largest amount of jink per cutter in the entire organization.

The weaknesses and strengths of thousands of metals are researched and measured. Some have suggested that the section has explored every possible shape and form in an attempt to provide an even greater use for known objects. It is quite, even likely, that the section has created various new objects, perhaps even unknown to the celestial agents using it.

Spellcraft has reached a new level within the section as thousands of spells are initiated and enhanced. It is believed that an alliance with the Fraternity of Order was formed several hundred cycles ago and the section is able to obtain any spell from the vast scroll warehouses of the Guvners. It has been said the R&D section has experimented with every known magical item. While this can surely not be confirmed, it is obvious that CI would make every attempt to find any and all use for magic in the ongoing battle against evil.

Section 7While officially not existing, the Arch-Penitar uses the resources of Section 7 to gather selected information from across the planes and eliminate "special threats" to the Upper Planes. An unknown number of individuals operate in this section and the direct chain of command has never been learned.

What is known is that the members of Section 7 are unlike "normal" celestial operatives, the agents of CI7 (as it is known internally) are able to use any means necessary to carry out their mission. It is not known how many of the celestial races are aware of Section 7, but it is certain to be a source of controversy once its presence becomes known.