Le Directoire d'Éclipse

The Eclipse Directorate was founded, under the name la Garde d'Éclipse, during the Reign of Terror, to defend against the plague of wrathful ghosts released by the mass executions. The Kerdeans believe that many techniques of the ghost trade were developed or became much more widely disseminated under la Garde d'Éclipse. La Garde continued under the Directory government, renamed le Directoire d'Éclipse, controlled by the Eclipse Director.
The Eclipse Directorate was disbanded at the end of the Republic but reinstituted by Napoleon. It went underground or rogue when Napoleon was exiled, but continues to function to this day, recruiting from French espionage networks. As with the Department of the Ulterior, it is a department most French presidents don't even know they have. The current Director is Emil Lonvelin.
Very shortly after its inception, the Eclipse Directorate found itself up against l'Armée du Soleil, the French Circle, which would have put a Bourbon on the throne of France if the Directorate and les Chevaliers de Charlemagne had not jointly opposed them. In this way, the Directorate learned of the existence of les Chevaliers, whom it regards as an organization similar to itself, a precursor dating back to the early Middle Ages (which explains their religious overtones). Since that time, the Directorate and the Chevaliers have been distant allies against l'Armée. The Directorate thinks somewhat more highly of les Chevaliers than Greenwood does of Logres.
During World War II, the Directorate fought der Ahnenerbe in an occult spy-war. It joined forces with les Chevaliers, and Geroldseck, the Teutonic Order, in hunting down and wiping out the last remnants of der Ahnenerbe at the end of the war. Since then, aside from "routine" ghostbusting and the occasional werewolf- and vampire-hunts, the Directorate's main job has been thwarting the activities of the CPPU in France.
Category:Organizations
Category:Le Directoire d'Éclipse