Les Témoins
Les Témoins are the Southern Republic's ultimate paradox. Renowned for highly visible acts of repression against its own, the Estates General's - or more precisely the Order of the Falcon's -true power flowed from an organization drowned in secrecy. Any who understand the difference between power perceived and power achieved, however, realize that it is Les Témoins who maintain the stranglehold over everyday life in the Republic.
Assigned to monitor the activities of Republican citizens, Les Témoins is among Terra Nova's largest intelligence operations. Formed by the Estates General's access to information act of TN 1618, Les Témoins draws its membership from all walks of Republican life. Potential agents are recruited at an early age, often while still in primary school, and are slowly indoctrinated into the organization. Treated with kindness and love, these children are led deeper into the group's web, their new duties revealed to them a piece at a time. Many who begin the process never finish it, but those who succeed at learning the subtlety of surveillance become full-fledged members of the society at the age of seventeen cycles.
The task of agents is simple - they are charged with becoming normal Republican citizens. They are expected to build a life, maintain friendships, have a regular job, even fall in love and have children, without ever calling undue attention to themselves. Beneath this carefully constructed facade, they are required to gather information on those within their assigned zone of operations, and pass it on to the agency's central unit. Here, the data is collected and analyzed, as examiners search for any sign of disloyalty to the state. It is the Ministry of Justice that ultimately benefits from this information. Les Témoins are officially a sub-branch of this ministry, and data provided by the agency is considered admissible and reliable evidence in criminal trials.
Despite its reputation for fanatical loyalty to the state, Les Témoins has recently come under fire from some within the Estates General. The argument is fairly straightforward and the implications frightening. If Les Témoins maintains dossiers on every Republican, and these same files are considered inviolate, critics ask why groups like the SPFI continue to plague the Republic. A study commissioned to find an explanation for this incongruity turned up no solid answers other than vague findings that Les Témoins are not so omnipresent as many believe. This report was rapidly suppressed as a state secret. It is quickly becoming apparent that Les Témoins consider themselves far beyond the grasp of any authority. This proposition is doubly disquieting because nearly one in 1,000 Republicans are alleged to swear fealty to the group, and only a select few know exactly who they are. The Estates General has recently ordered Minister of Justice Francois Gauron to open the organization's books. To date, however, nothing has been done, and many are beginning to suspect that Gauron, in an ironic twist, may be a Témoin himself.
Structure
Covering the whole Southern Republic Republic, Les Témoins follows an organizational pattern that befits Terra Nova's most secretive agency. Each Témoin is assigned a number of citizens to monitor, and is paid in accordance to the number of citizens surveyed. Agents transmit their information to a regional controller, who is responsible for anywhere from ten to fifty agents. These regional controllers are generally unaware of the identities of agents under their direction, further obfuscating the organization. Regional controllers, in turn, hand over their data to central units, one per city state. Here, data is analyzed and compiled before it is sent to the headquarters unit, located in the Ministry of Justice building in Port Oasis. The agency is officially run by the "Conseil du Peuple," ten senior Témoins who are officially "out" of the loop. The Conseil oversees the cross- Republic activities of their agency, and are the only ones permitted access to the personnel files of the organization. Many reports are also handed in by regular citizens recruited later in life, simply making weekly or seasonal reports on activities around them. These reports are then verified by dedicated agents.
Public Agenda
Les Témoins is fractured along multiple, ever-shifting lines of loyalty. Some agents have questioned themselves and their motives. They form powerful bonds with their fellow citizens and are beginning to feel moral ambiguity toward their task. A second concern regarding the agency stems from the influence held over it by outside influences. Any who have access to even a limited number of Témoins, has a wellspring of information against a number of Republicans, both prominent and not. Some suggest that Etienne Durocher used his position as a member of the Conseil du Peuple to cement his nomination as Lord Chancellor of the Mekong Dominion. Still others believe that the Dark Fox is a Témoin assigned to overview the Estates General. The truth of these accusations may never be known and for the moment occupy only the realm of speculation.
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