Investigator

Investigators were the field agents of the Celestis, responsible for carrying out missions in the outside universe. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

Description

"Investigator" was a job in the Celestial Intervention Agency; The hermit was Investigator Four before becoming a Celestis. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) However, after the CIA became the Celestis and moved to Mictlan, (PROSE: Alien Bodies) "Investigator" became a special role in the Investigation Section, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) referring specifically to specially-bred detective-assassins, born in Mictlan's crechess and primed through their short harsh childhoods for total, psychotic obedience to their masters. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

As multidimensional creatures, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) Investigators could shapeshift at will: while their default appearances were usually featureless humanoid gaps in history, when threatened they regularly took on the infamous Investigator battleforms. Memetically-implanted aperture technology allowed Investigators to move through space, time, and other dimensions.

Due to their traumatic upbringing, Investigators were prone to violence; most Investigators would be killed by their colleagues or superiors rather than on missions. Another side effect was early mental burnout, which was protected against by forced personality reboots. At least one Investigator kept his spare personality woven into the fabric of a matchbox in his pocket.

The most senior Investigators were given the smallest numbers: for instance, after a promotion, Investigator Ninety-Eight became Ninety-Six. (PROSE: The Book of the War) Investigator One once told Two that she shouldn't have risen past Four Hundred Seven. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

Individual Investigators

Investigator Thirty-One was one of the only Investigators to be recruited from the dead instead of being taken from Mictlan's creches. During his life, he was the Great Nobodaddy, but he was marked by Lord Halved Birth to become an Investigator. As an Investigator, he maintained a retinue of gypsy servants tailored to his own needs. On a mission to Tirgoviste, he allegedly killed Vlad the Impaler.

Lord Foaming Sky planned to use his worldofme device to conquer a District of the City of the Saved and fill it with Investigators-Martial, but he was stopped by the Rump Parliament and the Order of the Iron Soul. After Foaming Sky's death, it was the Investigators who discovered that he was killed by Dauphine Malacasta.

Investigator Eighteen often escorted recently-dead servants into Mictlan from the worlds being monitored by the Great Houses. As a cruel joke, he would put each new slave on trial in front of a simulation of their world's most famous dead, then deliver them to Hell regardless of the outcome. (PROSE: The Book of the War) Eighteen was later promoted to the rank of Investigator Two in order to monitor One on a mission.

The fearsome Investigator One eventually fell under the influence of former Investigator Four and unleashed the Fendahl Predator to destroy Mictlan. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)