Office of National Investigations

Office of National Investigations
Banner
Caption	The black banner of the ONI.
Status	Active
Headquarters	Ereben
Founded	761 BY

The Office of National Investigations (“ONI”) is the smallest and most recently created Office of Bormar. Based in the city of Ereben, the ONI is responsible for investigating any matters deemed worthy of such focus by the First House. While its agents have no formal powers in relation to Bormar, its nobility, or its holdings, they still receive substantial assistance in accomplishing their tasks, typically in the form of financial assistance and discretion. A curious fact is that the Office has no true headquarters, with its First Investigator having a space within the First House itself from which they coordinate with their agents scattered across Bormar and the world.

History

The Ereben Molir Detective Agency

Before the establishment of the ONI, Bormar’s First Lords and Ladies would often hire personal investigators and assistants to discover or confirm various pieces of information. Most members of the First House had teams of private investigators to assist in the intelligence-gathering process in the name of that Lord or Lady’s agendas, whatever they may be. For many centuries this was little more than a peculiar facet of Bormar’s government with little consequence.

However, that was changed in 731 BY with the founding of a business known as the Ereben Molir Detective Agency (“EMDA”). This group of ambitious Dwarves sought to revolutionize the intelligence-gathering process and provide far greater services to the First House than any group before it. While they first struggled to establish themselves, the EMDA’s breakthrough came with their solving of the murder of First Lady Yurabel in 752 BY. Initially ruled as an accident while traveling through the Koreggi Mountains, it was the EMDA who revealed that the First Lady’s carriage was deliberately sabotaged by a spurned business associate.

The EMDA was from then on flooded with work from the First House. It would not be long before numerous competitors sprang up with similar business models. Each of these agencies was in direct competition with the next, leading to many First Lords and Ladies claiming one thing as fact while another would have information saying the exact opposite. The competition between the detective agencies began to compromise Bormar’s entire system of intelligence gathering.

The First Act of Investigations

In 761 BY, thirty years after the EMDA was created, the First House passed the First Act of Investigations which nationalized the various intelligence agencies that had developed and combined them into a formal structure, creating the Office of National Investigations (“ONI”). While the vast majority of the agency’s staff would be dismissed, their contacts across the nation and beyond were what was truly valuable.

From this point on, nobles of the First House could task the ONI with investigating whatever issue was needed. The ONI would then task its agents with investigating the issue, and those agents would draft Investigative Reports for the First House to review. It would be a small department whose records could always be examined by a First Lord or Lady upon request, regardless if they were the ones to request the information in the first place.

Notable Investigations

Lord Voman Stoutheart

The ONI was vital in the discovery of First Lord Voman Stoutheart’s traitorous actions in his pursuit of the fabled All-Gem. after The Fate Of Zietal Mar. A dozen EMDA agents traveled to Zietal Mar to collect evidence and were successfully able to release the refugees of Zietal Mar, capture Lord Voman, and deliver a guilty verdict.

Gemfeld

Extensive investigations into the riots of Gemfeld were performed by the ONI due to the beginning of the city’s ruin. By 805, the Office concluded in their investigative report that the great fire began in a warehouse parallel to Lord Amig Andosk's private warehouse, but no single culprit was ever found.

Jolvis Volt

A team of ONI agents performed a long-term investigation into the disappearance of legendary human redstoneer, Jolvis Volt. Through these reports the destination of the missing genius would be discovered, leading to the events of the Outpost of Thornheim.

Organization

The ONI is a very lean office, with very few full-time employees in its ranks aside from the First Investigator and a dozen or so attendants. The vast majority of its workers are in the form of its agents, but these agents typically exist only on paper through their investigative reports.

The exact number of ONI agents scattered across the nation and the world is known only to the First Investigator, while their general location is known to the nobles of the First House through their investigative reports. While it is easy to assume that most agents are Dwarves, there are rumors that some of them are actually humans.