[Under construction]

Every kingdom and most high-ranking nobles employed some type of spymaster. This person’s identity usually was disguised by placing them as an assistant in some other household office or by allowing a qualified family member to fill the role.

In some cases, such as the Southern Republic’s Council of Ten, the directors of spy networks, or at least some of them, might be known to attentive observers, but their agents and networks of hirelings and informants were unknown quantities. The secrecy added difficult dimensions to the study of diplomacy, trade, and war. If an ambassador dies in an upscale brothel in Kimmelsport, did his heart prove unequal to the demands of his desires, or did a spy administer a toxin that caused the ambassador’s heart to fail? If pirates capture a ship carrying an important payment from the Tiberian Empire to one of its lackeys in the Seven Kingdoms, did a pirate crew gain a valuable prize, or did a spymaster achieve a strategic objective for the Republic? If a knight attacks another lord, is the knight attacking on his own initiative or on a directive from a spymaster?