So the Gray is an alliance between the worshipers of the five Gray gods: Life, Order, Fate, Chaos, and Death. It’s evolved and grown, but at its heart, that’s what the Gray is. Mortal alliances mean nothing against the gods. Do you really think that the Gray alliance could survive if the Gray gods decided to break up their super-group and either make new friends or enjoy solo careers? Maybe for a few days. No more than that.
There are elected officials who make local laws and take care of daily issues, blah blah blah, they have no real power. There are fifteen people in the Gray who matter: the five Admirals, the five head priests, and the five senators.
I don’t care about the five head priests. They sit in their pretty temples and make religious decisions and sing praises. Fuck them, and fuck everyone else who dedicates their lives to one of the gods. Maybe the Gray head priests get something in return for their prayers, but nobody else in the Gray does, so fuck them.
The senate is deeply stupid — it’s set up to be stupid. I mean, what do you expect, when they need a simple majority to pass new laws and a 2/3 majority to repeal old laws or pass censures? The Gray, the Light, the Dark, and the Neutral all have exactly the same number of votes on the senate, and it’s a rare sight to see more than half of those twits agree on anything.
The Admirals, though, they’ve got power, and I mean that in multiple senses. They control the Gray military — which, because the Neutral is so closely allied with the Gray, means they have undue influence on the Neutral military too. The Gray military isn’t just warships and soldiers — it’s the law enforcement officers too, and they’re the ones who usually deal with the rest of the galaxy.
Fair enough that Gray law enforcement bullies people on Gray worlds. That’s what the police is supposed to do. And I’ll admit that most Gray officers are good about taking in criminals alive; the Gray court system is also a damn sight better than the Light or the Dark, so things could be worse. But the Neutral worlds allow Gray law enforcement on their worlds too.
The Neutral is chronically under-funded, under-manned, and under-armed. Even if they wanted to take care of all their issues on their own, they can’t. An individual world can usually take care of its own problems, but a problem that goes beyond a single world? The Neutral freaks out and calls for the Gray to help. And since a good portion of the Gray’s power comes from their close alliance with the Neutral, they are happy to agree and send out whatever the Neutral needs.
Gray law enforcement officers never work alone, because that’s a good way to get killed. The Gray has Death in their alliance, but most Gray paths don’t seek out Death. Death worshipers sometimes do, but let’s put aside those crazies for the moment. Gray officers will travel through Neutral worlds and minor Gray worlds and sometimes Unclaimed worlds, helping when requested and sticking their noses into things even if no one’s asked for their help. They are the worst busybodies. Teams of law enforcement officers also work with strategists, who are people who sit back home on Diresi and never get close to danger. They help coordinate teams (with other teams and local law enforcement), look up the information that teams need, and generally act as a catch-all tech support. They also nag officers about writing reports, because most officers are shit at that part of the job.
When a team of Gray officers arrive at a world, they must register their presence and report if they are currently on a case. Local officials are expected to give the Gray officers whatever help they can. That’s sometimes fuck all, but the thought is nice. Once a Gray officer arrests a criminal, they must then take that criminal to local law enforcement or, if the criminal is taken off-world for their trial, the Gray officers must report on all the details of that. For both the Gray and the Neutral, every criminal gets a public trial before they can be punished for anything.
So that’s the life of a Gray law enforcement officer: travel the galaxy, meet interesting people, put them behind bars. There are worse jobs.
