The Negotiators

[Radius]

The continent of Vaor. Two great nations lie to the north and south, occupying all corners of their respective areas. The north lies the polar denizens calling themselves the Argonal. They sculpted great cities out of wood and stone, paved their road of conquest with blades and spears, bows and arrows. They pride themselves the most numerous race on the continent, having annexed all other tribes and communities under their flag. That is not enough for the mighty Argonal, their ever-grasping hands now vie for the domination of the land. An ever-growing and ever-hungry war machine stopped only by the denizens of the barren south.

The Kuupen, or the southerners, are the much more sophisticated. The Kuupen Empire were founded on a vast barren land. A race much larger than the Argonal, the adults weigh twice, thrice as much as a northerner of their size. Their hands crush stones and their leaps scale cliffs. Brawn is not the only strength they have, as their intellect allowed them to easily climb over their competitors in term of knowledge, giving birth to an advanced civilization standing many decades ahead of all others. They desire to grow rivaling that of the north, where a clash was inevitable as both sides met at the center of the continent. The conflict was then known to all as the Dominion War.

The Argonal expended a grand number of their people in the beginning, dragging the fight out while holding their lines with sheer willpower. Their sacrifice paid off when they managed to reverse-engineer the weaponry of the Kuupen Empire. Coupling that with the abundance of their natural resources, they managed to tip the scale to their favor with their still-greater number despite of their initial heavy losses. Even then, the defensive lines to the south can never seem to break, their tanks held strong against the primitive firearms of the north. This seemed to go on forever until a day when the cries and roars of the battlefield were finally silenced. Both sides called for a conference and talks of peace were known to all.

The talk ended with an agreement from both sides - an end to all aggression and the construction of a autonomous, neutral area at the initial point of conflict. For once, the Argonal and the Kuupen mingled and erected a city unlike all others. The City of Garamede, also known as the Gray Zone.

The City of Garamede is the most advanced dwelling on the continent of Vaor. Where the Kuupen Empire were the founder of the various industries that were adopted by both the Argonal and various civilizations outside of the continent, the City established the basis for the Industrial Age in the world. A place to gather the brightest minds and greatest talents from all over, advancements made here will eventually find their ways outward. A superpower on a scale never seen before by mankind.

Multiple generations after its founding, Garamede still upholds the peace and order in the continent. The populace are at ease and there have never been a bloodshed since the last gunshot fired on the eve of the conference. At least that is how it seems to all. Not everything that happened in the city get out to the masses. Racial bigotry exists and as the City is a gathering place of all sorts of races in and out of the continent, racial and faction-based violence and conflicts are common place. Wars between gangs are frequent and the police forces are not nearly enough to prevent the fires of hatred from burning to the extent of a blood bath. The City founded many sectors to face the issue, but none are as successful as the independent organization known as the Negotiators.

An independent organization formed by people to uphold the order of the City. They are made of people of all ages, genders, status and of course, races who can influence the violent nature of the City and prevent any large-scale conflicts to come to fruition. Their main goal is to preserve the City as the existence of it has quelled open hatred else where and all over the world.

Individual Negotiators operate on their own to initiate talks with opposing gangs or factions to try to work things out at the best they can. Sometimes, they are hired by smaller gangs, weaker factions or even corporations to solve their plight at the mercy of other larger, stronger organizations. When things go awfully wrong, they can and will band together to fight for a common cause.

While they talk most of the time, things do go sour in the midst of a negotiation and they have to resort to violence themselves. Every operatives are capable of defending themselves and dispatching opponents far more numerous than they. The Negotiators are trained to combat forces much more well-armed than they and their combat doctrine is based on threatening or taking out key personnel within a faction in hope to calm or weaken it so that it can't act effectively. Literally cutting off the head to kill the snake.

While the government sectors see them as illegal vigilantes, they do their best to tolerate their presence as they are undoubtedly the best at what they do, sourly admitted as better than the legal forces as a whole.