"Davdi Silverrock" <davdisil at gmail.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 04/13/06 04:08 PM To "Dragaera List" <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject Re: Third Floor Relic vs the Special Tasks Group? >On 4/13/06, Jon_Lincicum at stream.com <Jon_Lincicum at stream.com> wrote: >> Given that the Dragaeran Empire apparently has several different >> intelligence services, I was curious if the several we know about have >> real-world equivalents. >> >> "Division Six" seems to be a direct reference to "MI-6" (British Secret >> Service) >> "Imperial Surveilence Corps" might be the FBI (Operates domestically, >> substitute "Federal" for "Imperial") >> "Third Floor Relic" didn't make any sense, until I noticed that the logo >> for the Mossad (Israeli Intelligence) features two steps, on top of which >> (on the "Third Floor") sits a menorah (a sort of Relic). > >That seems to be way too much of a reach, to me. Third Floor Relic is >a *small* group, that reports directly to the Empress, and works on >very specific and narrowly defined objectives. None of that >description really works for the Mossad. Well, I was more going just for where the *names* came from. Certainly, the Mossad seems to operate a bit differently than the "Third Floor Relic", but it seems to me that the menorah on the third step may well be where the *name* came from... At least, I have been unable to come up with a better theory. I could be wrong. Only Steve knows for sure. >> I was trying to find a direct reference for "Special Tasks Group", but >> this is less clear, it seems more like the CIA, Or maybe "Special Forces" >> or the Secret Service. >> >> Can anyone think of any clues from /Orca/ that might nail this one down? >> > >Well, consider who they report to: Khaavren is head of the Imperial >Guard. That seems to make them an analog of the Secret Service and/or >Military Intelligence. Or so I might guess, anyway. Well, again, looking at just the names, the SAS (paramilitary branch of the CIA) seemed to me the closest match. In this case, it actually does seem to be fairly close in how it operates and behaves, as well. Majikjon