Cytosq

The Cytosq (pronounced /ˈsaʊtɒsk/) is a secret organization active throughout much of Thorgh that aspires to take control over all the world's states and societies. The name is short for "cytoskeleton", the microscopic scaffolding found in cells, the conceit being that the Cytosq permeates all aspects of Thorgh like the microfilaments of the cytoskeleton permeate a cell—or at least, if they don't yet, they intend to be. (More specifically, it's actually short for "cytosquelette", the (slightly older) French word, hence the Q.)

History

The secretive nature of the Cytosq makes it something of a mystery just how long the organization has been around. There are at least four different mutually contradictory origin stories, one of which places the Cytosq's inception before Thorgh entered the Milky Way. While there's reason to believe that the stories that make it out to be the oldest involve substantial exaggeration, it does seem to be true that the Cytosq is several thousand years old at least.

Despite the contradictory nature of the organization's foundation stories, there are certain figures that recur in all of them. These individuals are now better known by titles than by their names—in fact, there's much disagreement about what their names were, and their real names may have been entirely forgotten (let alone their races, genders, or other characteristics). Each title gives a hint as to the part the person played in setting the Cytosq in motion. The Preacher expounded the philosophies the organization was founded on; the Shepherd recruited new members into the fold; the Architect was a planner and strategist; the Soldier dealt with the incipient movement's enemies. While it's unclear how much truth is in any of the accounts of the Cytosq's formation, or even how much the members of the Cytosq really believe them, it does seem likely that these figures are based on real individuals who did play a role in founding the organization, whatever semimythical status they may have acquired later.

Structure

The Cytosq has a distributed structure designed to minimize the damage that one traitorous member can do by exposing other members he knows of. The smallest organizational unit is that of the concourse, which typically consists of ten to thirty individuals. Each member of a concourse knows five to ten other members he has worked with before, not all of whom are necessarily in the same concourse as he is. The exception is the Node, the leader of the concourse; all members of the concourse know who the node is, and the node knows all members of the concourse. Messages that must be passed to an entire concourse, therefore, generally go through the node. The Node does not, however, know any members of other concourses—except for those he may have worked with in the past, before he became a Node, and except for his immediate superior, the Nexus, each of whom oversees eight to twenty Nodes. If a message must be passed between concourses, then, there are at least two methods by which it can be done: either through a network of members of different concourses who know each other, or through the Nexus that oversees both concourses (and perhaps passing to still higher levels if both concourses are not supervised by the same Nexus).

The higher levels of the Cytosq are, of course, envelopde in considerable secrecy, and accounts differ as to how many levels exist above that of the Nexus. Some would have it that the Nexus report directly to the organizations' leaders; others tell of a byzantine hierarchy of multiple levels above them. That many levels exist above the Nexus is unlikely; already a given Nexus may oversee several hundred members, and supposing that, say, four higher levels exist implies the existence of millions of members. It's extremely unlikely that the Cytosq's membership reaches anywhere near those numbers. One or two levels between the Nexus and the central leadership of the Cytosq seems substantially more plausible, though what names the Cytosq may have for these levels are not known to outsiders.

Regardless of what further intermediate levels may or may not exist, though, some information has been disseminated about the Cytosq's overall leadership. The Cytosq as a whole is led by a central body called, in something of a mixing of cytological metaphors, the Noyau (French for nucleus). Aside from the name, however, little is known about the Noyau; it has been established that the Noyau has at least five members (and possibly more, though not many more), who are at least nominally equals, but their identities and their positions in the organization (if indeed they have separate positions and the members of the Noyau are not fully equipotent) remain hidden.

Goals

The main goal of the Cytosq is nothing less than complete domination of Thorgh. This isn't to say that they plan to lead openly; their plan is to rule behind the scenes, through social manipulation and through control of the overt government leaders. Given their desire for secrecy, it's impossible to say exactly to what extent the organization has already succeeded. There are those who believe that the Cytosq already does secretly rule much or all of Thorgh, and perhaps has for many years already. Most people, however, dismiss these individuals as conspiracy theorists, and remain confident that the Cytosq still has a long way to go before achieving its goals, and doubt that it ever fully will.

If the Cytosq has plans beyond control of Thorgh, they remain an even larger secret than most else about the organization's methods. It could very well be, as is widely suspected, that much of the reason for the Cytosq's focus on Thorgh is because of the world's mobility, so that they can use it as a staging area for conquests elsewhere. Indeed, many of those who believe that the Cytosq already is in control of Thorgh hold that it's currently doing just that.

Relations

Given its goals, the Cytosq is not supported by any nation of Thorgh, nor would it want to be. Most nations ignore it, seeing it as beneath their notice (perhaps to their peril, if it's as powerful as some believe); those that do pay it any attention do so to oppose it. There are some international organizations, however, that do have warmer relations with the Cytosq. The Divulgary sees some common cause with the Cytosq, in that they both have reason to oppose and investigate the current governments, even if they have very different end goals. The Wakamah also have been known to work with the Cytosq, perhaps less concerned with the organization's ends than with the chance to put their skills into practice. Many members of the Church of Transcension belong to the Cytosq, and the two organizations often work together, the Church perhaps hoping it will have some influence over the Cytosq if it meets its aims—presumably one of the two organizations is tricking and taking advantage of the other, but it's hard to see which is which.

Nongovernmental enemies of the Cytosq include the Qaiot, which often works to throw a monkey wrench in the Cytosq's plans, and the Invisible Anchor, which opposes the Cytosq in more orderly ways.