The Federal Bureau of Control has four primary missions: Investigate paranatural activities, Research anomalies and their properties, Contain errant phenomena, and ultimately Control them for the safety of the United States and her citizens.
The Bureau is first and foremost an organization with jurisdiction over domestic paranatural matters. However, the FBC will operate outside of U.S. borders from time-to-time — with the help of friends and allies in our endeavors to understand the inexplicable. Learn more about paranatural Groups of Interest on our FBC Resources page.
Investigate
When anomalous activity occurs within the borders of the United States, the FBC immediately deploys response teams to intercept and contain the fallout. We employ a multitude of highly-trained professionals that range from Perception Management and combat personnel to seasoned special agents with intimate knowledge of the unknowable.
Every year, the FBC investigates roughly 1,100 instances of anomalous activity across the U.S. While many of these investigations do not result in injuries or casualties, some paranatural events manifest dangerously-unstable energies. The Bureau refers to prolonged and sustained anomalous activity as Altered World Events (A.W.E.). These events are sometimes the result of extradimensional activity that are themselves responsible for the creation of Altered Items (A.I.) — objects with anomalous properties. Conversely, some Altered Items and Anomalous Entities (A.E.) are capable of triggering a full-scale A.W.E. These A.W.E.s often require us to neutralize the aberrant object(s) before the paranatural activity will subside, which demands swift response from our [DATA EXPUNGED] department.
Research
In order to understand and predict these other-worldly forces, the FBC is staffed with skilled and experienced researchers to crack the paranatural code. Like most employees at the Bureau, our brave researchers risk life and limb to deepen our understanding of these mysterious elements. Our current research staff specializes in a wide variety of fields ranging from theoretical sciences to experienced testing experts.
Scientists at the FBC are encouraged to deploy any available means to further our current models and theories. Our researchers often are the first to coin new vocabulary and terminology to help us understand the paranatural, communicate these concepts, and share our knowledge internationally with like-minded colleagues. Among the many breakthroughs achieved by our staff was the discovery of Objects of Power (O.o.P.), which reflect the same aberrant properties of Altered Items, but display more volatility and carry with them more utilitarian possibilities. Typically the first to stumble upon new and exciting developments, as well as dangerous properties, our researchers are integral to the FBC’s third mission: to contain anomalous forces.
Contain
Ensuring the safety of FBC employees, the United States, and humanity as a whole is a monumental task. To that end, containment of paranatural forces is of utmost importance to the Bureau. While containing these forces is a primary goal, we remind our employees that no singular mission of the FBC is prized above the others. Without highly-trained investigative teams to capture anomalies or expert researchers to reveal their effects, containing the anomalous would be nearly impossible.
The employees of our Containment Sector are among the most disciplined and experienced in the Bureau, as one small mistake can lead to security breaches resulting in the loss of hundreds — potentially thousands — of lives. These staff members put their own lives on the line every day to keep America safe and for that, we are eternally grateful. Containment duties range from the preparation and cleanup of cells to designing and constructing new chambers. However, the vast majority of containment personnel are station at Panopticon, the primary site of paranatural containment for the FBC.
Control
Investigating, researching, and containing anomalies serve as foundational objectives to achieve our final goal, which is to develop reliable methods of controlling paranatural forces. Every department within the FBC implicitly works towards this goal. Investigating, researching, and containing anomalies helps us understand their unique properties, their mysterious origins, and how to manage them. Gaining this knowledge about a paranatural object gives us greater control over them; it is in this way that the FBC inches ever-closer to mastering and unmasking the unknown.
As a government organization, our jurisdiction over the paranatural is contingent upon furthering our goal to control anomalies for the benefit of the United States. However, over time, the FBC has developed new theories and approaches to the unknown that necessitate a degree of removal from our subjects of study. This has resulted in the FBC operating with more autonomy outside of direct Executive administrative supervision, which has been accelerated by the Bureau’s increased operational secrecy. Controlling the uncontrollable is extremely dangerous and, as such, we take small steps towards this goal to ensure that humanity does not relinquish agency entirely to the unknown.