| Elder Speech Pocket Dictionary | |
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 History of the Redanian Special Forces. | |
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Journal entry
- Which Northern Realm’s special forces are the greatest of them all? Once upon a time, the answer was clear: Redania. Its network of spies and informers was so vast that Tretogor knew which route the Nilfgaardian armies would take before they even left their barracks. No ruler kept any weakness or comprising secret from these astute spooks. Redanian intelligence had vast resources at its disposal, including the use of great sorceresses like Philippa Eilhart and shining stars from the world of culture. With their innovative interrogation techniques perfected in Drakenborg Fortress, its agents could extract vital information from even the tightest-lipped Scoia’tael guerilla, allowing them to reduce that organization on their soil to a hounded, desperate few.
- The golden days of the Redanian spy service ended, however, along with the disappearance of its head, Sigismund Dijkstra. His fate still remains unknown to this day. According to some, he departed for voluntary exile after falling out with King Radovid. According to others, he was captured by enemy agents. Still others hold that Dijkstra was murdered by sorceresses, and his body disintegrated into a fine dust.
- After Dijkstra’s disappearance, the royal council ordered a thoroughgoing audit of the spy corps. Radovid appointed a commission with a remit to search for abuses of power, root out double agents and suggest remedial measures. As usual, however, inserting civilians into the affairs of spies had the opposite of the desired effect. Shortly after the work began a list of agents and their sources leaked. Many on it were subsequently murdered or fell off the face of the earth. A few days sufficed to reduce to ashes an organization built over long years of hard work.