You mean, like the plethora of detective novels out there?
The Witcher universe (especially the game) is full of intentional anachronisms. The organization and structure of the blue stripes seems a lot more modern than it should for the time period of the setting, so I doubt you will find something very similar.
I can think of another intelligence "agency" in a fantasy setting though. In Darksword, by Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weiss, there are multiple factions in a world governed by magic, where everyone is a wizard to some degree (except one person
/>). The clergy has immense amounts of power, and both them and the royal family of the capital city command units of Duuk-Tsarith, very high level wizards of the element of fire, who can cast powerful destructive spells and manipulate peoples minds. They are trained from childhood, are extremely skilled and disciplined. They normally do not speak and their touch feels like a cold chill. They wear black hoods and are basically watchers and perform intelligence tasks for the people in power. There is also a secret underground organization commanded by a Duuk-Tsarith witch, whose far reaching power and influence is not very well delimited in the books.
The Witcher universe (especially the game) is full of intentional anachronisms. The organization and structure of the blue stripes seems a lot more modern than it should for the time period of the setting, so I doubt you will find something very similar.
I can think of another intelligence "agency" in a fantasy setting though. In Darksword, by Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weiss, there are multiple factions in a world governed by magic, where everyone is a wizard to some degree (except one person
/>). The clergy has immense amounts of power, and both them and the royal family of the capital city command units of Duuk-Tsarith, very high level wizards of the element of fire, who can cast powerful destructive spells and manipulate peoples minds. They are trained from childhood, are extremely skilled and disciplined. They normally do not speak and their touch feels like a cold chill. They wear black hoods and are basically watchers and perform intelligence tasks for the people in power. There is also a secret underground organization commanded by a Duuk-Tsarith witch, whose far reaching power and influence is not very well delimited in the books.Thank you for the quick reply I will check out Darksword, the anachronistic nature of the blue stripes is what i find intriguing and original though.Volsung said:You mean, like the plethora of detective novels out there?
The Witcher universe (especially the game) is full of intentional anachronisms. The organization and structure of the blue stripes seems a lot more modern than it should for the time period of the setting, so I doubt you will find something very similar.
I can think of another intelligence "agency" in a fantasy setting though. In Darksword, by Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weiss, there are multiple factions in a world governed by magic, where everyone is a wizard to some degree (except one person
The blues stripes are certainly not anachronistic.alinciopi said:
Here's sort of a historical review on the matter: http://www.faqs.org/espionage/Ep-Fo/Espionage-and-Intelligence-Early-Historical-Foundations.html
I would compare Blue Stripes to US navy seals, or some elite black ops marines unit. They are not like a secret police, or intelligence gathering agency, but more of a combat unit. Sure, they infiltrate and use torture, but scouts and torture detachments were always part of a military practice.
Yeah, they are similar to modern Special Forces (particularly to USMC Force Recon or Army Rangers, who specialize in "reconnaissance in force"). But the point cmdr_flashheart made is that this is not a new form of military unit, but one at least as old as the Roman Empire and one that flourished under the rule of kings in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.vivaxardas said:
Oh yeah, I agree. In TW2 there are a lot of modern things (genes, mutations, magnetic fields affecting brain functions, theory of evolution and such), but blue stripes are not one of them. Nor Nilfgaardian imperial secret police mentioned by Letho. These organizations have a history as long as civilization itself ("civis" means cities).
Yeah, it's great. A bit lengthy around the fifth/sixth book - I had the impression Goodkind didn't really know what direction the plot should take at that time and wrote those sort of as fillers - and the last book rushed a bit to wrap aaaaaaall the parts of the story up at once, but overall I really enjoyed reading it.JillsToy said:
they feel anacrhonistic because they're refered to as "special forces", which has a very modern connotation.
There have been elite troops and spy organizations since the times of the Greeks and Persians. While not necessarily organized along the lines of todays Special Forces, SEALS, Mossad, Spetznatz, the job functions have existed for thousands of years, so I think it is only because the Blue Stripes seem organized along modern lines that they seem anachronistic.
All these comparisons of the Blue Stripes to real-world special forces and nobody's mentioned GROM yet?
Malazan Book of the Fallen
The first book of the series is Gardens of the Moon.
The first book of the series is Gardens of the Moon.
The Bridgeburners. That's the name of the unit in Malazan I think. And I'm not sure if they quite fit the bill. I mean, they were definitely sharper than the average set of grunts but the Blue Stripes were equally a covert intelligence gathering unit as they were a hoo-rah sromp you into the ground unit. The Bridgeburners were more of just the latter to my recollection. And in light of all the different entities in that series, it would be hard to distinguish themselves otherwise. I have to go back and finish that series one of these days. It feels daunting with the spinoffs though and the focal sidebooks with the necromancy duo (I refuse to look this up..I should know this damn it. They were Erikson's own Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser right? Bauchelain and something? Damn this is frustrating).
I'm hard pressed to think of a better example though.
Edit: So the Blue Stripes don't collect intelligence either? Is that just Roche and maybe Ves then? I'm concerned I've fabricated the whole thing. :\
I'm hard pressed to think of a better example though.
Edit: So the Blue Stripes don't collect intelligence either? Is that just Roche and maybe Ves then? I'm concerned I've fabricated the whole thing. :\
I wouldn't say the Blue Stripes don't collect intelligence. But they're more a reconnaissance in force unit than a cloak-and-dagger unit. Their informants have a tendency to end up dead under questioning that is more the badge of a unit suited to destroying enemy intelligence resources than of one consisting of the most subtle information gatherers.Calrabjohns said: