I've made plenty of characters who are members of this organization, so I thought I should finally write some notes for everyone to see on them! So, enjoy my little Lore-Dump on La Société for my furry headworld! -v-

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General Notes:

The "Société de recherche, de confinement et d'évaluation du paranormal", also known as the "Society of Research, Containment and Evaluation of the Paranormal" or "Gesellschaft für Forschung, Eindämmung und Einschätzung des Paranormalen", often abbreviated to simply Société Paranormal, La Société or The Paranormal Society is a a secret organization originating from France, before branching out to what would eventually become Germany and Britain; although they have smaller bases and guilds all over the rest of of Europe and even on other continents, with their second-biggest collection of bases being located in North America and eastern Asia. The details of its origins are murky, but apparently the organization was formed during the early Renaissance, and initially focussed on hunting vampires before branching out real fast. Constant exposure to world-shattering revelations and mythology from all over has lead to La Société to take on a very egalitarian mindset, recruiting members from all kinds of different cultures, religions and social classes.

This secret organization's main purpose is the assessment, research and, if they become a threat, containment and/or destruction of supernatural and paranormal artifacts, sites, and creatures, with a heavy emphasis on werebeasts, vampires, fae and the like. In the past they would also keep an eye on mythological creatures like dragons and gryphons, as well as people who had psychokinetic and magical-like abilities, but after a number of them started mingling with the more mundane anthropomorphic and human population in the early 16th century, they stopped actively keeping track of them.

La Société also store dangerous artifacts and objects within their warehouses and usually keep a close eye on them, so that they don't become harmful down the line; sometimes, should the need arise, they also use them themselves. Each of their bases also keeps track of the supernatural creatures and sites that exist in the sorrounding area; each notable creature or site has a file of its own.

The Paranormal Society are also fairly competent monster hunters, should the need to kill an exceptionally dangerous creature arise; but, as previously mentioned, their focus on is on werebeasts, vampires and fae, all of which they are properly equipped to fight, with both their standard silver- and fairy-magic supressing iron equipment. They also have to surpress some minor hellspawn and demons, like imps, sometimes times. However, back in the day and even today they tend to be quite underprepared if they were to fight an average or even major demon and often ask for help from a splinter-group of theirs that went rogue several centuries ago, the Brimstone Brotherhood.



Roles within La Société:

Within La Société, members tend to get assigned different, primary roles to perform. While many members do perform many different things at once though, there is often one thing that they do as their main role, that they excell at. The main roles are as follows:


Hunters: Hunters hunt dangerous creatures. This includes both unrepentant sapients, like evil vampires and werewolfes, as well as feral and mindless creatures that are a danger to society as a whole. Their membership-pins are in the shape of a circle.

Watchers: Watchers are basically the spies of La Société; they watch over their communities and report suspicious activity back to La Société, who then decide what to do. Their membership-pins are in the shape of a rhombus.

Scribes: The Scholars of La Société who do the bulk of the organisations research, writing everything down that La Société learns, while also making hypothesises and experiments. Their membership-pins are in the shape of a triangle facing up.

Archivists: A sub-group of Scholars that take care of their bases' archives. Basically La Société's librarians or, especially in the modern age, IT-Specialists. Their membership-pins are in the shape of a triange facing down.

Protectors: Protectors are those that are chosen to protect peaceful supernatural communities, like a friendly pack of werewolfes, gentle fae or a peaceful family of vampires. Often, they are either very close to such communities and families, or they're even part of them. Their membership-pins are in the shape of a square.

Branch-Leaders: The leader of local branches, which often have a seat in the overarching La Société council. They act as guides and help out the people working under them. Their membership-pins are in the shape of a Hexagon.



Major groups and organizations under the "La Société"-banner:

Although La Société is basically a global organization nowadays, there's plenty of sub-groups and organizations that work under their banner, that all work a bit differently. Some of them are as follows:


The Original Triad:

The original main three La Societé-groups that were formed when the whole organisation was brought into existence, by some nobles from France, Britain and the Holy Roman Empire, who wanted to protect the world from supernatural threats.

*The French society with its sub-groups is technically the first instance of La Societé and mainly operates in France, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux states.

*The German society and its sub-groups operates many bases in Germany, but also countries like Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. It has the most sub-groups and bases in europe.

*The British society and its sub-groups meanwhile operates mainly in Britain (Including all of England, Wales and Scottland), Ireland but also parts of northern Europe, as well as Australia and eastern Canada.

These three groups often work together as one, share a database and many operations and closely work together, underneath a council consisting of members from all three societies. They also operate some individual bases outside their usual spheres of influence; usually to better help out sub-groups that work under the La Societé banner without being part of the main triad. They make up the backbone of the global Paranormal Society.


The Paranormal Society of North-America

A sub-organization of La Societé that mostly operates in the USA, Mexico and most of Canada, while still working underneath the La Societé-banner, closely working together with the other groups. It's less centralized, the individual bases tend to have more autonomy and independence, and there's less contact and agreement in certain things between the individual bases, but whenever there's a major threat, it's very common for the bases to work together; also together with the Original Triad at times. While they often deal with quite a few european threats, they also deal with many problems unique to north america. Because of this, quite a large part of their members are of native american heritage.


The Paranormal Society of Africa

A vast collection of sub-organizations that started out in South Africa and Maghreb, and then made their way northwards and southwards, until meeting in the middle. The Paranormal Society of Africa is, like the North-American sub-organisation, a lot less centralized than other branches and sub-groups. It's also worth noting that, despite having juristiction over the most land of all sub-organisations, they have the fewest members. However, most countries on the continent have at least one small group of members, that study the paranormal and keep it in check. Due to the sheer diversity of the continent and its cultures, religions and mythologies, these Paranormal Societies don't specialize on anything in particular and deal with most anything. Groups often work together in cross-border missions when necessary, but besides that, there isn't exactly a "main base" or centralized administration for any of them; just a lot of cross-border help, and guidance from the Original Triad.


The Asian Paranormal Society

Sub-organization with bases in east- and southeast-asia. These are unique because there are multiple "main bases" for each of its sub-groups.

* The Chinese group can't work as openly as the other bases in their home territory, since the power of the chinese government makes it hard to work within a secret society. Despite this, there are a few high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party that know of it, and try to keep it secret from their superiors, due to the fact that their mere presence helps in keeping the people safe from supernatural threats. Despite political issues, it's been known to often work with the other groups and to be probably the most competent of the bases in Asia, despite beeing comparatively secretive. It has jurisdiction over all of China, but also parts of Nepal, Bhutan, Taiwan and some eastern parts of India and Myanmar.

* The Japanese group was founded during the Meiji-Restoration, when many local organisations dealing with Yokai were incorporated under the La Société-banner, and specialises a lot on Yokai and native japanese supernatural threats. Nonetheless, they also deal with the occasional ghost and imported western threats.

* The Korean group was split during the division of Korea. It's currently unknown if the bases in the north even still exist, since contact has broken down since the division.

The group responsible for most of south-east asia has its headquarters in the Phillipines, but also has bases in countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.


Notable Splinter-Organisation:


Groups that used to be part of La Société, but then broke off from them, either due to disagreements or different goals, eventually creating their own organisations.


The Brimstone Brotherhood

A group that split from La Société in the early 17th century over a difference in believes on how demonic objects and creatures should be used by the organization. While La Société tries, or at least tried, to stay clear of any demonic influences and is very inexperienced with infernal threats, the Brimstone Brotherhood deals with demonic threats very frequently and is very well equipped to deal with them. However, on the flipside, they are also more lenient on using demonic artifacts and creatures themselves, and this leniency almost cost them their entire organization a couple of times. The current Nightfather of the Brimstone Brotherhood however seems to have made several changes that made the group, overall, more effective and careful around demonic threats. So, no major fatal incidents have been recorded in a good while.

The Witnesses of Ragnarök

A universalist, neo-pagan, nordic splinter group that looks for mythical artifacts, places and creatures that are found in nordic mythology. Despite their name, they don't actually want to bring about the apocalypse, but rather prevent it. Wether or not Ragnarök really DOES happen like it's foretold in nordic mythology doesn't really matter, because to them, the possibility always persists. It doesn't have a bad relationship with La Société, sometimes even working together, but usually keeps to itself. They have a lot of knowledge on Fae.

Las Voces del Cielo

A failed attempt at creating a spanish base for Lá Société. It was infiltrated by the Spanish Inquisition and used in an attempt to use the Paranormal Society's knowledge and secured magical and holy artifacts for their own gains. This group destroyed itself in the late 17th century when an experiment with a certain blessed artifact went wrong.