Federal Bureau of Control

Federal Bureau of Control
Formed	200+ years ago
Headquarters	Oldest House Manhattan, New York, New York, U.S.
Motto	Invenio, Investigatio, Imperium
Goals	To contain, study, and control paranatural items and phenomena
Director	Jesse Faden

“	Our mission is to expand the limits of human understanding and contain those elements we cannot yet control.	”
— Zachariah Trench

The Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) is a clandestine United States government organization that deals with phenomena which lie outside of scientific understanding. The agency's main goal is to investigate, contain, and study elements which violate the laws of our reality, all while keeping the public safe from these elements. Their headquarters is the Oldest House, a location in New York City which exists outside of our ordinary reality.

The true motivations of the FBC are not known. Implied by its name, the FBC takes it upon itself to contain, study, and ultimately gain control over pararnatural elements. This entails the investigation of Altered World Events, events wherein natural laws are violated by extradimensional forces, and the containment of anomalous Altered Items, ordinary objects with unique paranatural properties. While the FBC justifies its actions as protecting humanity from hostile forces, the organization's ulterior motives for controlling the paranatural are not known, and they have been described as a morally ambiguous and sometimes amoral organization.

Jesse Faden is the current Director of the Federal Bureau of Control. The position was previously held by Zachariah Trench. The current head of research is Dr. Casper Darling.

History

File:The Oldest House (2).png

The Oldest House, headquarters of the FBC.

It is unknown when the Federal Bureau of Control was created, why it was created, or whether it preceded the formation of the United States of America. According to Director Zachariah Trench, the FBC has existed for centuries, taking it upon itself to study Altered World Events and similar unexplainable phenomena, protecting the nation (and possibly the entire planet) from these elements.

In 1964, while investigating an AWE in New York City, the FBC discovered an anomalous location called the Oldest House, a shifting Place of Power existing outside of the laws of spacetime and connected to numerous alternate dimensions via rooms called thresholds. The FBC eventually converted the Oldest House into its global headquarters, using it as a containment facility for Altered Items, objects acted upon by paranatural forces.

Over the years, the Bureau's infrastructure slowly began to collapse, and in the modern day, the Oldest House was suddenly invaded by a hostile force called the Hiss, resulting in Trench's death. On the same day, Jesse Faden, a woman with past experience in the paranatural, acquired the Service Weapon - an Altered Item and Object of Power once held by Trench - and through a ritual became the FBC's new Director. Jesse and the FBC then began to fight back against the Hiss in order to regain control of the Oldest House.

Purpose & Goals

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Zachariah Trench speaks to Jesse Faden about rituals

The true motivations of the Bureau are not known. According to Trench, their ostensible goal is to expand the limits of human understanding and contain elements that cannot yet be controlled by humans, including forces which lie outside of current scientific understanding. However, it has been strongly implied that both Trench and the Bureau have more sinister motives.

The FBC studies a broad range of objects and phenomena, including various forces originating from other realms or dimensions, such as the Hiss. The Bureau actively seeks out Altered World Events around the world, and will relocate Altered Items and Objects of Power to the Oldest House in order to contain, study, and ultimately control and manipulate them to their own ends. It is not known why the Bureau seeks to control paranatural phenomena, or what their intentions are once such control is gained over these elements. It has been stated that the FBC is morally ambiguous and sometimes "downright amoral" in its methods and goals.

The FBC is a scientific organization, and seeks control over paranatural phenomena using empirical, objective methods. However, these methods may not always apply, as many paranatural phenomena are not bound by logic and causality, but rather operate based on emotion and symbolism. Rituals are processes which the FBC has developed that can alter reality in certain reproducible ways, akin to mystical or occult magic. The FBC attempts to use these rituals to control and manipulate paranatural forces, some of which may not be controllable. The FBC has also researched various forms of protection from paranatural phenomena, including combinations of science and ritualism that shield employees.

The Black Pyramid appears on the logo of the FBC and in numerous locations in the Oldest House. It is unknown what the Bureau's connection to the Black Pyramid or the Astral Plane may be, but it is clear that they are in some way associated with one another.

Divisions & Departments

• Parapsychology Division
• Ritual Division
• Department of Unhuman Affairs
• Dimensional Sciences
• Parakinesiology

Known Members

• Jesse Faden - Director
• Dr. Casper Darling - Head of Research
• Emily Pope - Researcher
• Helen Marshall - Parapsychology Division
• Frederick Langston - Panopticon Supervison
• Phillip

Former Members

• Zachariah Trench† - Director
• Malcolm Rooney† - Head of Security

Trivia

• The Federal Bureau of Control is partly inspired by the SCP Foundation, a fictional organization from the eponymous online "New Weird" collaborative fiction project. Like the FBC, the SCP Foundation is a morally ambiguous organization responsible for containing supernatural phenomena. The FBC's containment files for Altered Items are directly inspired by the SCP Foundation's SCP files.
• An Easter egg in the video game Quantum Break (a title by Control developer Remedy Entertainment) mentions a "Bureau of Altered World Events." This organization is said to have had ties with Monarch Solutions, the antagonist organization of Quantum Break.