Shadow Broker's Information Empire
From FABT
| |
|---|---|
| Type: |
Private |
| Industry: |
Information and intelligence |
| Founder: |
Ceor Aveyma, 1st Shadow Broker |
| Dates: | |
| Owner: |
Liara T'Soni, 90th Shadow Broker (last) |
| Headquarters: |
Waystation ZERO, Wrill (559 BCE - 60 CE) |
| Area served: |
Entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy |
| CEO: |
Liara T'Soni, 90th Shadow Broker (last) |
| Key people: |
Feron Huul |
| Services: |
Information |
| Number of employees: |
1.7 million (at peak) |
| Subsidiaries: | |
- Shepard: "You're not going to turn into a recluse with creepy information on everyone in the galaxy, are you?"
- Liara: "I can understand the temptation. I've got all the secrets of the galaxy at my fingertips. Give me ten minutes, and I could start a war!"
- — Shepard and Liara discuss the latter's then-newfound status as the Shadow Broker in November 2185 CE.
Shadow Broker's Information Empire, also known as the Shadow Broker's Information Network, was a massive galaxy-wide information and intelligence gathering network spearheaded by the eponymous Shadow Broker and mostly headquartered onboard the Halcyon on Hagalaz (although this changed multiple times throughout history), serving as the single largest and most efficient information network in galactic history prior to its final dissolution in 2254 CE after operating non-stop for nearly three millennia. The existence of the organization dates back to 559 BCE, only twenty years after the Asari Republics first discovered the Citadel, and forty years before first contact with the salarians, with the network first founded by an asari intelligence officer named Ceor Aveyma of the RBI, who was a whistleblower who leaked intelligence documents pertaining to military operations on ten asari worlds: wanted by the asari government, Ceor Aveyma went off the grid, laying low on an uncharted world as she established the first of many bases from which would spawn the Shadow Broker's information empire, selling the intelligence she had gathered to interested parties, including the Salarian Union in a backdoor deal to learn more about their new allies: Ceor Aveyma effectively became the 1st Shadow Broker, the first of dozens to hold this title: the term "Shadow Broker" was a code name given to her by the asari government, and it would become her official title over the centuries, long after the asari government had ceased hunting her. As she continued to foster deals with both the asari and salarian governments to trade information on both parties to each other, the Shadow Broker continued to expand, setting up more and more bases, and obtaining information on politicians, military commanders, intelligence documents, corporations and their officials, and anything else worth knowing. "Information is power" was a mantra the Broker embraced, making it their sole business and trade, and one which proved extremely lucrative and effective, as the Broker quickly entered into infamy across the political spectrum and the entire intelligence community, known as a boogeyman who knew everything about you, right down to what you had for breakfast and the words you said to your children before heading to work. As time went on, the Broker became less and less feared, acting as a background figure who never got involved in the internal squabbles of national entities, possessing no racial or national bias beyond their own self-interest, willing to sell and buy information from whoever offered the most credits. Even then, the Broker never allowed itself to tip the fragile political balance of the galaxy, and if it gave one nation intelligence on a rival, it would always provide information to said rival in order to establish an equilibrium: neither side would gain, but the Broker would profit. Despite this, the Broker remained the most powerful figure in galactic history, possessing such enormous swaths of information that Liara T'Soni would jokingly say, upon attaining the position in 2185 CE, "give me ten minutes and I could start a war!"
The history of the Shadow Broker and their empire was left entirely unknown until Liara T'Soni's famous disclosure and public leaks of the organization's activities in 2254 CE, shortly after she had dissolved the organization. Before then, the very identity of the Broker was entirely anonymous, with even the asari government only privy to the identity of the first Broker, with all subsequent brokers left unidentified. The species, gender, and whether the Broker was even an individual or rather a group working under one identity, was a subject for debate for the millennia the Broker operated, as even the Broker's most stalwart operatives and handlers weren't privy to this information. Most operatives were never allowed to speak with the Broker directly or in person, and those few that did only did so over communicators, and with the Broker using a voice changer and identification scrambler to hide their appearance and voice, making ID tracing impossible: the few that did see the Broker in person were those summoned for punishment, and thus never left that office ever again. Such was the restricted nature of the security of the Broker's identity that even when a Broker was overthrown and replaced by a successor, as was often the case with every Broker, nobody in the network even knew a coup had taken place, and the new Broker would slip into the new role seamlessly, with nobody ever the wiser. This, coupled with the Broker's very location being a secret only known to the elite and loyal troops who protected their headquarters, meant the Broker was virtually untouchable, an intangible shadow that played the intelligence and political game but could never be retaliated against. Their identity a mystery and their location unknown, the Broker was able to effortlessly build a network that, over centuries, reached the furthest rims of the galaxy, with information on every government, military, PMC, corporation big and small, and even the lowliest citizen. Whether acquired from agents or bought from third-party sources, nobody could compete with the Broker in the information business, and even intelligence agencies like the STG bought information from the shadowy entity. Despite largely committed to the information business, the Broker maintained a small but effective paramilitary force, established in 82 CE, to protect their interests far and wide, defend their facilities and, in the case that force was necessary to protect their own business, engage in wetwork and special operations. In 1657 CE, the Broker arranged for the theft of a prototype storm cutter known as the Halcyon to be mysteriously stolen from drydock, taking it to Hagalaz where they proceeded to use it as their new headquarters, using Hagalaz's storm fronts and the ship's ability to survive inside them as the perfect hiding spot, as sensors could not penetrate Hagalaz's atmosphere.
Over the information empire's nearly three thousand year history, there were a total of ninety Shadow Brokers to hold the position of the "kingpin of galactic information", as the Broker was otherwise known. These ranged from various species such as asari, salarians, turians, quarians, volus, hanar, at least one drell and even a few krogan. In 2170 CE, two years after faking her death, Meru'Zorah managed to infiltrate the Broker's organization and assassinated the 88th Shadow Broker in a coup, taking over to become the 89th to hold the title, using the network in the hopes of protecting Tali, but in the process succumbing to the temptation of the position and ultimately adapting to become a fully fledged Broker. During her coup, she had enlisted the assistance of the 88th's secretary, a yahg named Heht;mag, who had been abducted from his homeworld of Parnack sixty years prior to be used as a trophy and a pet: promising him a position as her equal and assistant, Heht;mag agreed and they both overthrew the 88th Broker, with Meru'Zorah keeping her promise. Despite this, in 2184 CE, Heht;mag went behind her back to sell Commander Shepard's body to the Collectors despite orders from Meru to sell it to Cerberus for Project Lazarus, aware of the Reaper threat and wanting to prepare for it. Heht;mag continued to act behind her back and waged a secret war with Liara T'Soni until finally being discovered by Meru: he proceeded to overthrow her, locking her in her office and holding her prisoner while he assumed de facto control over her empire. This would be short-lived, as Liara would finally locate the Broker's base and raid it with the Normandy Squad in 2185 CE: mistaking Heht;mag for the real Broker, they engaged him in battle and killed him, but even after Meru was freed and revealed as the actual Broker, she resigned her position, allowing Liara to take over as the 90th Broker. Now in control of the entire empire, Liara dissolved her own network and began preparing for the Reapers. While the Halcyon was discovered by Cerberus in 2186 CE and destroyed, Liara would continue to operate the empire from the Mars Archives, then finally the SSV Normandy during the Reaper War. After the war, Liara set up a permanent new headquarters at STINGRAY Base on Therum. A year after the Dominion Civil War, Liara finally revealed herself as the Shadow Broker, the first Broker in history to reveal their identity, and subsequently signed an agreement with the UGR to dissolve her organization and its assets. With this agreement ratified, the Shadow Broker's information empire, operating for nearly three thousand years, was finally dismantled and broken apart, although only because the Broker chose to do so, a testament to its staying power and the inability to destroy the organization from the outside.