Phantomlink959

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter

If you've got NPC mages or the like that's fine by me.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

Also I just realized if they're being placed under a mage for training that means Rost is gonna have like four students following him around.

He can probably pawn Amaya off on another agent with powers more similar to hers though; probably Richard or Argus as they're in that same "conduit of raw maagical energy" sort of class.

Mason, once his binding has been put up to the next level, can work with anyone since Rost won't have to constantly monitor it.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter

Some information you can gather from backstories;

For the moment at least Griffin, Rost, and Argus seem to be the highest ranked agents in play.

Rost theoretically holds the highest rank of those three as he is both a field agent with seniority holds a special title as the head of research and development.

Griffin is the most senior agent but holds no known special titles; he is a representative of the vampiric court but that does not seem to hold any specific weight within BOSA other than his presence as an agent being a deterrent of open conflict between the two groups.

Overall I would give Rost and Griffin a tie in term of chain of command with who is considered the most senior agent depending purely on context.

Argus has the roughly same level of seniority as Rost but falls at the bottom of the totem pole for senior agents because he was on working probation for the agency until recently.

I can't pin down when precisely Richard joined but he doesn't seem to be brand new; of the newer agents he is most likely the highest in seniority but has not been with the agency long enough to be trusted as the lead for more complex cases just yet. His prior military experience would make him a candidate for early promotion once he has undergone field evaluation by a more senior agent.

Amaya and Mason are both brand new additions to the agency and thus hold no seniority; they are rookie agents still within what you could call a trial period. They have no prior military or police experience and do not have many skills which would qualify them for specialist titles.

Basically, they're interns.

Astra is a special case as far as seniority goes; though she has only just been activated she was reprogrammed to be loyal to the agency and possesses skills and abilities that could easily earn her a specialist rank to bump her further up the ladder than those with comparable time served.

Digi's characters are new to BOSA but do have prior experience with a comparable organization. Under most circumstances this would put them in the same boat as Richard, but since they have ties to an active organization with which BOSA does not have a treaty or alliance they would likely be placed under the supervision of a trusted individual within the agency to determine whether they are spies or legitimate allies.

By the way I read WAY more military fiction than I probably should.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter

Something I've been musing about for a few days and figure I'd suggest, if you wanted to get a better sense of forward momentum for the story you could put together a formal in-universe ranking system for agents (similar to the organizational structures of real world organizations) based on specializations, seniority, and mission clearance ratings.

Not in any way a necessity, just thought it could be fun.

EDIT: for an example, the current CIA organizational chart:

example

Anything you put together could be simplified of course; BOSA isn't nearly as large of an agency as the CIA.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

Could even be a joint effort; one team keeping them alive while another tries to find out who sent it and why so they can stop it.

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Fine by me.

Agents being assigned to play incognito bodyguard for a civilian that's being hunted by some flavor of supernatural assassin could be interesting.

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Looks like we're all agreed then. With that, we can go ahead and get to the next round of missions I believe?

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It predates the current age and originates from a period where humans, angels, and djinn living in that region weren't on such... hostile terms.

As a species, the Djinn are quite good at keeping records; they rarely forget things.

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@KatherinWinter

Alright, so, ritual spells. Drawing from standard fantasy rules; ritual spells are generally performed for the purposes of casting magic which is for one reason or another outside the capacity of the casters. In the case of this ritual, Argus is treated as a material component like the white sand used to form the ritual circle, or the red candles used by some satanists and wiccans. Technically speaking Richard is the one doing the actual casting; Argus is simply acting as a conduit which targets the spell in a particular way.

He's the son of a military leader from a somewhat feudalistic society; sons are expected to take their father's place or at least serve in the same line of work. He was heavily educated in the capabilities of the magic used by Djinn and their allies with the expectation of eventually becoming a field commander or general.

He knows the spell because it was part of his childhood military education.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

FYI, I do have the entire spell worked out in my head but it's super complicated and I'm REALLY bad at writing down detailed scenes.

Explanation

It's really cool, uses a a spell circle made of white sand with the words for a spell written in Enochian forming a filligree pattern; The casters stand on each side inside a smaller circle which form part of the pattern and link hands with the person it is being cast on. The divine caster (in this case Richard) channels energy from himself, through the subject, and to the Djinn (in this case Argus) who passes it back through to the caster to create a sort of mana circuit.

This allows the Djinn to tap into the Divine caster's holy-charged mana while inside the subject's mind and use it to heal damaged memories and links from the inside; the healing mana will then trigger a physical response in the body and cause it to start repairing degraded neural tissue with complete accuracy to the original state.

Essentially it allows a Djinn to use healing magic (something they typically cannot do) and cast a precise, targeted spell on the inside of a person's brain.

My problem is, while I'm good at technical details, I'm bad at translating that into something which is fun to read.