Raven
Raven is an interstellar regulatory body and security agency that acts as the regulator for humanity's reality-altering sciences, and focuses on preventing potentially reality-ending scenarios. It is headquartered at a complex known as Black Mountain, inside the Northern European International Zone. Two other facilities serve its complex needs; Red Mountain in Canberra, Australia functions as the headquarters for its covert intelligence section, and Silent Mountain in Shenzhen is responsible for research and development of weapon systems as well as specialist vehicles and spacecraft.
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| Organisation overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 18 June 2101 |
| Preceding Organisation |
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| Type | Treaty organisation |
| Jurisdiction |  The Coalition |
| Headquarters | Black Mountain, Dunwich City, Northern European International Zone 52°16′40″N 1°37′57″E / 52.27774°N 1.63261°E |
| Motto | We hold the line between order and chaos. |
| Employees |
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| Annual budget | Increase U€13.3 quadrillion; FY 2273 |
| Child agencies | |
| Website | raven |
The organisation works closely with the Interdimensional Research Treaty Organisation (IRTO), which exists to foster collaboration in exophysical science. In contrast to IRTO's relatively open approach to the scientific community, Raven is opaque and secretive, reflecting the sensitive nature of its work. Many consider it to be the most powerful government body in the Solar System; it maintains its own defence fleet and starbases across the system and beyond. Its budget is immense, consuming approximately 12% of humanity's collective GDP.
History
Creation
Raven was originally created in 2053, when the Einstein-Rosen Accords granted the Regulatory Ethics & Oversight Department of CERN independence, renaming it "Raven". It was intended to act as an independent oversight body for IRTO, but in reality its effectiveness was hindered by both a lack of funding and a reluctance from private corporations and governments to contribute to the oversight process, reinforced by the lack of a formal enforcement policy for the process at the time. It acted only in an advisory capacity and possessed little power of its own.
Transformation
When the First Incursion occurred in 2100 and IRTO proved unable to manage the crisis, the Aegis Institute possessed the technology to stop it, but lacked the funding and credibility of a government body. Aegis approached the Raven council, which at the time consisted of a small number of theoretical physicists and ethicists, including Prof. Raven. Their plan was to let Raven take the credit for defending Earth, and to guide its transformation into an organisation capable of using Aegis' technology to protect humanity, in exchange for the appointment of Aegis agents on the Raven council and the feedback of useful scientific information to Aegis itself.
When Raven deployed defences against the anomaly at scale using Aegis engineering, it was met with global praise, immediately painting it as humanity's saviour through scientific prowess. Almost unanimously all world leaders agreed that it would be a better idea to entrust the response and regulation of dimensional physics to scientists rather than politicians, and the passing of the Dimensional Security Accords the next year transformed it, granting it both significant funding and political power. No longer was it to be a passive observer; it would be the singular, worldwide authority to enforce the Reality Law codified in the Security Accords, entrusted with the responsibility to protect humanity from itself.
Shortly after its creation, however, Aegis realised the organisation was growing out of control, and into something they never intended: a largely authoritarian scientific police force. Anti-corruption scrutiny of the organisation by intelligence agencies brought in by world governments to build Raven's own intelligence apparatus forced Aegis away from Raven out of fear they would be discovered, and this resulted in the planned sharing of additional Aegis technology with Raven being cancelled.
Growth
The first departments of the newly empowered Raven were Adjudication and Reality Control, intended to serve the requirements of the Dimensional Security Accords. A plan was subsequently developed to structure the organisation as it grew, with dedicated divisions for research, security, and intelligence. Its army was built up and trained primarily by member countries of the European Defence Alliance (EDA), whilst its intelligence divisions were trained by ASIS and NZSIS.
Governance
Raven is governed directly by members of its High Council, which are elected by the Coalition from all member states. However, Internal Security and existing council members retain veto power over any candidate, which means the process is not democratic, and remains to this day highly controversial. In crisis situations, Raven also has the controversial authority to temporarily assume absolute control over the Coalition; this is an authority which has not, as of yet, been invoked.
Departments
Raven is a highly complex organisation and is divided up into a large number of departments, including Reality Control (RCON), which is responsible for authorising dimensional experiments and expeditions, as well as licensing personnel; Anomaly Detection (ADR), which provides proactive monitoring of worlds for anomalous activity; Internal Security (INTSEC), its personnel security and counterintelligence arm, and the Strategic Intelligence Office (SIO), its foreign intelligence arm. Black Research, the existence of which is not publicly acknowledged, investigates, contains, and occasionally exploits anomalous artefacts to Raven's advantage, and is by far the organisation's most enigmatic division.
Its armed forces consists of both Armed Services, a general-purpose military that is divided into different roles, and Calamity Mitigation (CMI), a highly trained and heavily armed emergency response unit with the goal of halting dimensional incursions or potentially world-ending scenarios. All departments are overseen by Adjudication. Support departments include Compliance & Legal, Logistics, Engineering, Personnel, Public Relations (PR), and Technical Systems (TechSys). The largest of Raven's departments have grown so large and so immensely compartmentalised they began to act akin to their own fiefdoms - especially Black Research and the SIO. This has led to internal instability within the organisation.
Demographics
A large majority of Raven's rank-and-file employees are recruited from the surrounding areas of facilities, such as RFPD officers and site management staff. However, the more skilled roles recruit from all over humanity. There is no scope for how far Raven will look for skilled candidates; as long as they are able to pass the clearance and licensing processes (if applicable) and are able to prove themselves in their field.
Other dimensions
Raven exists in its full form exclusively in Sagol. In other dimensions, it is either subservient to IRTO (in the case of Ikechol), or entirely nonexistent (in the case of Tachlat). This places it in a unique position of power across the local dimensional community.