The Curia

The Curia is a branch of the central Chælean government responsible for observing and maintaining its adherence to the Constitution of Chæmeron. However, during the nation's first wars outside of the Calderan peninsula, the Curia was forced to take charge of preventing dissenters and saboteurs from a nobility class that still clung to their old identities as autocrats of once independent states. The Curia was progressively granted more powers to accomplish their tasks, laden with more responsibilities, and then given more leeway to cope with their new charges. 
By the time Chæmeron's situation stabilized and the nobles had been fully integrated into the new system of governance, the Curia had grown so bloated it was unrecognizable. It had been completely transformed into the government's iron fist, responsible for all manners of covert operations, including espionage, sabotage and assassination. By the point where it was tasked with suppressing anomalous or divine entities, the Curia had accrued so much power and influence that it became impossible to disband, cut back or delegate its duties to other bodies of government. Fortunately, the Curia maintains a religious adherence to its founding principles, and is barely kept in line by the lack of central leadership and its open relations with the other branches of the Chælean central government, especially the Disciplinaris.
Presently, the Curia follows their duties of maintaining and policing abuses of the Constitution and sponsoring of the arts, and uses these as cover for their more covert tasks. These include espionage, sabotage, assassination, trafficking, propaganda, and subversion. Their offensive against the noble families and neighboring nations, namely the various city-states of Summerwall, makes up most of their activities. Aside from this, the Curia has also taken on the duty of recovering, apprehending and subduing anomalous/magical entities and artifacts.
=== Joining the Curia ===
Most agents of the Curia are recruited while they are very young, usually from Palatinates clans, and undergo extensive training and reconditioning before being admitted as Agents. Promising Legionaries and adventurers that catch the Curia's interest may be approached by members of the Curia after a period of observation and screened, becoming Exterior Personnel upon succeeding on their assigned trial. As the goal of recruiting these individuals is to add their prowess to less sensitive missions, loyalty is a secondary virtue to their specializations.
Finally, the Curia actively attempts to recruit friendly and neutral anomalous or divine entities into their Special Personnel program. In exchange for special privileges and a girthy income, these entities are expected to lend their services and undergo routine observation whenever promoted.
=== Ranks and Privileges ===
Hierarchy
Rank 	Rank 	Perks	Requirements
1 - Contact 	As a Contact of the Curia, you are expected to support their agents in the field, be it by providing information, a cover, or acting as middleman. 	
* Access to special missions.
* Ability to earn Reputation with the Curia.	-
2 - Operative 	A Curia Operative is mostly responsible for laying down the groundwork for future missions and undertaking safer, more trivial operations. Operatives do not have access to the identities of the Curia's manpower, including other Operatives, and rely on a series of signs and codes to identify a fellow member of the Curia. 	
* Awareness of low-level Curia secret codes.
* May spend an hour of downtime to learn the location of and access local hideouts.
* Access to internal Curia market.	
* 10 Reputation
* Ordinary in at least two favored skills
3 - Agent 	Agents are the backbone of the Curia. They are responsible for most covert operations, acting under the command of Special Agents. 	
* May apply for one Uncommon magic-item.
* May access information of C - class and below.
* May access up to C - class artifacts.
* May apply for training of a skill, spell or ability during downtime. 
* Base weekly salary of 10gp.	
* 100 Reputation
* Master in at least one favored skill, Ordinary in at least two.
4 - Special Agent	Special Agents are elite operatives responsible for leading a team of up to seven lower ranked Agents. They must regularly cooperate with other cells, and so have basic knowledge on most other lower and similar ranking members of the Curia. 	
* May apply for two Common and one Uncommon magic-item.
* May access up to B - class and below.
* May access up to D - class artifacts.
* May apply for training of a skill, spell or ability during downtime. 
* 10% discount on gold and Reputation costs for Curia services.
* Base weekly salary of 100gp.	
* 1000 Reputation.
* Master in at least two favored skills, Ordinary in at least one.
* 15 score in at least one favored Attribute.
5 - Chameleon 	Chameleons are the utmost elite operatives of the Curia. Their identities are known only to the council of Spymasters, to whom they answer directly. Most of the time, a Chameleon will perform as an active playwright, diplomat or artist, which serves as both an effective cover and an optimum mean of spreading propaganda. They are activated for only the most sensitive missions, or to cause extensive damage to the nation they are infiltrated in.	
* May apply for one artifact of D - class or lower.
* May apply for one Rare magic item, one Uncommon magic item, and two Common magic items.
* May access up to C - class artifacts.
* May apply for training of a skill, spell or ability during downtime. 
* May spend downtime learning the Chameleon spell.
* 10% discount on gold and Reputation costs for Curia services.
* Base weekly salary of 1000gp.	
* 10k Reputation.
* Master in at least three favored skills.
* Hero or higher Stratum.
6 - Spymaster 	The Spymasters form the leadership clade of the Curia. They are technically beholden to no one, but are expected to follow in toe with the Senate. The Spymasters are all equal in rank, and require a majority consensus when deliberating the Curia's actions. A Spymaster is only required to personally make a move when an event of B - class comes under the attention of the Curia. 	
* May apply for one artifact.
* May apply for one Rare magic item, one Uncommon magic item, and two Common magic items.
* May access artifacts on any class. 
* 20% discount on gold and Reputation costs for Curia services.
* Base weekly salary of 10kgp.	
* 100k Reputation.
* Grandmaster in at least one skill, Master in at least two.
* Saint or higer Stratum.
==== Member Traits ====
The inner members of the Curia tend to have their own opinions. The Agents are rather headstrong, and even with their inherent discipline and cohesion, they need a strong leader who can wrangle them together with their gravitas to properly function. The Chameleons are oddballs, but keep themselves together under a charming visage and undying loyalty to the cause.
==== Special Equipment ====
* Chameleon Cloak (Rare Magic Item)
* Chameleon (Food Tree Ability)
* Mindblade (Nóosmancy Spell)
==== Reputation ====
The following actions will net some degree of Reputation with the Curia:
* Surrender sensitive information to Curia operatives.
* Uncover evidence of corruption among the Great Houses.
* Free slaves.
Category:Faction