Vissen Hexen
I remember the days of my youth, in summer my brother and I would fish in the stream on the western edge of our fields to pass the time as father and his men finished harvesting or wheat. I remember the smell of my mother's hair when she would tuck us in at night, I remember how the lantern lights from the harvest festival would list lazily over our fields as they were carried eastward on the wind. And I remember most vividly the day the black carriages came, autumn was at its end and winters ghost began to linger on the tail end of the wind, the morning was cold and grey. They came as specters, riding in on the last glints of fading night, they came bearing the king's sigil. The most ornate of them told us he was High Hexen Arthan and he was looking for any able bodied young man who would answer the king's call and be granted the status of true citizen by the empire. In our blind, youthful, naivete my brother and I jumped at the thought, a grand adventure full of wonder and mystery, serving the king's justice to those deserving and raising our family from the squalor of the frontier to the splendor of the heartlands. Not another word was uttered as we were loaded onto the black carriages with the High Hexen, the curtains were drawn and no light entered the interior except for the low burning oil lamp hanging loose from the top of the roof. The last I saw of home was my mother holding my father as they were ushered back into our home. The last I heard of home was a single loud boom followed by deafening silence.
There were almost a hundred of us, children from all across the empire, from Arbeit to New Sunterland, even some children from the Scorian colonies, all of us wide eyed and scared, the cold never subsided, not from the moment we entered into those cold halls, and never yielded throughout all of our training. We all had the same story, the black carriages carrying their strangely dressed figures appeared at our homes at first light and took us without another word uttered, we all had the same dreams more or less, the different reasons mattered very little. From the ages of twelve to sixteen we all shared one thing, we were all able bodied youths with a loyal imperial heart and a drive to become true children of the empire, if we only knew what that meant. The training was brutal and savage, much like the instructors themselves they gave nothing to us and demanded everything in return, those who couldn't keep up were left behind or died because of it. By the end of our first phase of training their were only thirty five of our number left, those who remained were gathered in a hall, the top ten of our number were given to one of the High Hexen to become one of the Vissen Hexen, the elite spies and insurgents of the empire, the king's most trusted pawns. The rest of us were taken deep below the school in which we were held to begin what we were only ever told was the Trial of Steel. The trial was much more of a series of experiments, augmentations, and conditionings that each of us had to weather alone in order to become what our tormentors called "The next great weapon of the empire", all that I know is that when the trial was done only five of us remained, my brother not among them. We were told we failed, but that we shouldn't worry, we had been chosen for a different purpose, we were to become the next line of Struker Hexen "Witch Hunters", a secret sect of the Vissen Hexen that specialized in rooting out and eliminating rogue mages and hiding witches within imperial territory. My old life is dead, who I was is no longer hold any meaning to me, my only purpose in life is to serve the empire and my king until my duty ends.
Structure
Eldric Wulf is the founder and current leader of the Vissen Hexen or "Knowledge Witches" as they are known to the citizenry, the hexen are designed to be the eyes, ears and dagger of the king and the empire at large, they are primarily tasked with espionage and spying upon both groups within the confines of the empire and abroad. They are the webbing that makes up the king's intelligence network, any and all information that can be found within the empire or by the empire is found or collected by the Vissen Hexen and if Wulf deems it important enough it is brought to the attention of the king. Wulf's official title is the Arch-Hexen he is the brain of the organization and is the first spy master to the king, through him all things are done within the hexen. Beneath Wulf are the twelve High hexen, they are his most trusted protégées and colleagues, the High Hexen are the nervous system of the Vissen Hexen and act as the instructors at the Clare Wright School, the central head quarters for the hexen. Below the High Hexen are the Hexes, they are the bulk of the Vissen Hexen, they are the eyes, ears and blade of the empire, they are loyal to a fault and are selected from the best of the best within the candidates of the hexen. Hexen Candidates are either tapped from the imperial military or volunteer youths from the fringes of imperial territory who wish to become true children of the empire by become one of the Hexen.
Public Agenda
The Vissen Hexen is not a public organization, their cover organization is the Crown Letter, a crown funded news organization that controls the mood and information of the populous, they for all intents and purposes are the voice of the king, and the filter through which his message gets brought to the masses.
Struker Hexen
The Clare Wright School is a place far to the northern fringes of imperial territory, it's location is considered the most carefully guarded secret within the empire and those who come from there are branded with a mark that physically stops them from uttering its location to anyone. Within the confines of this school are the proving grounds for the Wissen Hexen, the most elite among the forces of the empire. But beneath the school is a large patchwork of tunnels and chambers that makes the home of the Struker Hexen a secret branch of the Wissen Hexen that specializes in the rooting out and elimination of rogue mages and witches from the empire. The Struker Hexen also act as recruiters for the Wissen Hexen as well as for the Imperial Warforged Legions, the Struker Hexen are adept at finding the weaknesses of others and estimating the potential of warrior before such potentials have ever become foreseeable by themselves. The final duty of the Struker Hexen is to root out treasonous dissent and heretical malpractices within the confines of the empire, their cloaks are the last thing most people see.
Type
Secret, Governmental arm
Parent Organization
Location
Related Ethnicities
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