Gendarmerie pour la Destruction de L'Occulte
The French organization designed to deal with the supernatural, the Occulte Gendarmerie (as they are more commonly called) is most equipped to deal with humans who have dealings in dark magics and shadowy pacts. Those that which to deal with the devil both figuratively and literally.
Specifically trained in hermetic magics, those divorced from the more sinister occult influences, they are recognized around the world as the foremost in their field. Of course, such intensive training tends to weed out potential candidates, and makes it hard to replace losses, so they do fill out their ranks with less skill, but still effective, practitioners and agents.
The day of the Grand Reveal was a hard day for France, and one it won't soon forget. While Tunguska burned it's way across Siberia and the States were reeling from the assassination of their president, France found itself under siege from the inside.
Hundreds, if not thousands of Sorcerers, Witch Doctors, and Necromancers revealed themselves in order attempt to overthrow the government. In what is now called Le Jour de la Feu Vivant or ''The Day of Living Fire", citizens got the first taste of magic unleashed. Many citizens of Paris still have nightmares about the shear volume of screams that then turned into unearthly moans, before being replaced by raucous gunfire from rifles and cannon.
For three days the military clashed against magic practitioners, constructs, and undead. Disorganized and split at both the fundamental and logistical level (they also had to contend with the spread of the Black Forest, no one really knew who was supposed to report to who, and the entire conflict descended into one big murderous fist fight. The two sides slugging away at each other because they didn't know what else to do.
On the fourth day the tide finally turned against those that had risen up, partially because they had started to run out of resources but more so because a sect of Wizards and Magicians, the Order of the Tri-Hue Dawn, had revealed themselves and pledge their services in putting the rebellion.
Three more days of street to street fighting ended the insurrection, but the victors didn't cheer much. Most of Paris lay in ruins, with many iconic places and structures needing vast repairs or total replacements. A famous photograph of the aftermath surfaced soon after, the Genet photograph, that captures the feeling of all of France on that day quite keenly. To this day magic users of any kind, including foreign wizards and magicians, are closely monitored and have to apply for special paperwork and visas to get into and move around the country. Magical based crimes that would be misdemeanors in other countries are punished harshly, and often result in prison, maiming, or execution.
The seal of the department bears the words "Terror belli, Decus Pacis". Terror in War, Ornament in Peace. The words once printed on the baton's of Napoleon's marshals. Meant to epitomize their task. They will pursue those that seek to twist natural law through magic to the ends of the earth, for god and for country.
Culture
There is a strange dichotomy in how the world see the Gendarmerie.
On one hand, they are seen as a competent organization that has a pretty lax policy on the supernatural. Only pursuing creatures that are dangerous or at risk of becoming so, and making use of many artefacts and anomalies that they find.
On the other, they have a reputation to match the Puritans of Salem, from all those years ago. Should they even catch a whiff of someone using magic in a way that they deem distasteful, they have been known to fly into a metaphorical and literal frenzy. Pursuing the perpetrator in question as far as their authority would let them
Sometimes farther.
Assets
One of the largest corps of hermetic magic users and experts in Europe, as well as a plush and ever expanding list of volunteer agents.
They do lack, often, in magical and supranatural equipment, choosing to focus more on the deployment of their wizards and magicians.
Terror belli, Decus Pacis
Type
Government, Secret Service
Alternative Names
Witchbane, Mage-Hunters
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Demonym
Gendarmerie
Leader
Neighboring Nations
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