History

MI8 was formed during World War II on the request of Prime Minister Churchill. Originally a two man research team it was tasked with investigating reports of occult usage by the Nazis. Whilst researching the background of the Thule society other events were flagged for later study. Eventually they presented the Prime Minister with there findings.

They believed that the Thule society of themselves had no mystical powers but they had been present at certain events or Haemorrhages where the membrane between our reality and others had ruptured allowing things through. After a vigorous study of mission reports from both the ongoing war, the great war and earlier records these Haemorrhages had been occurring for almost 100 years. In most cases the event lasted for a short period of time but a person trapped in the area was often afflicted by mild to severe delusions and nightmarish visions. The team recommended further study with the goal to discover what was causing these effects and how to protect the populace from them.

The Prime Minister agreed but, understanding the public reaction to the news of a government body studying the occult, ordered the utmost secrecy be employed. This secrecy is still in place currently only the heads of MI5 and MI6 know of the existence of MI8.

Intelligence

Since it’s creation the Ministry has found out more about the nature of the Haemorrhages and their effect on the world and it’s inhabitants. Possibly the most worrying of which is the knowledge that the events are increasing the strength and numbers as time goes by. Many events are now of the type known as anchored, in these cases an organic construct from the alternate reality, known as a Fistula, appears in our reality. Until the Fistula is destroyed the Haemorrhage will continue slowly growing in size and strength. Luckily Fistula are not particularly hard to destroy, if you can get to them.

Studies of the location of Haemorrhage events shows they are centred around the South of England, a more specific location has yet to be determined although the Ministry is actively searching for it. A number of different alternate realities have been determined and are detailed below but in due to differing data retrieved from event study it would appear there may be many slightly different versions of the same reality. In every case so far detailed the reality seems to be a horrific twisting of our own. In many of them the laws of physics seem to have been broken at a fundamental level. When the events finishes, either naturally or by destruction of the tethering Fistula most materials brought through from the alternate reality are destroyed.

Survivors of a Haemorrhage fall into three groups. Most simply blank the event from their memory suppressing what happened except in fleeting nightmares, if these victims are unfortunate enough to suffer through a second event they will only ever react in this way or from the more damaging mental damage detailed below. Some become permanently mentally ill from their experiences the psychoses of these survivors is usually in the extremes of psychotic behaviour, the Ministry runs a number of secure facilities caring for survivors but if a non anchored Haemorrhage effects someone the Ministry may not know until it is too late. Finally a very small group of survivors survive the event with their minds unscathed possessing full memories of the events they have been found to be immune to the mental damage a Haemorrhage event can cause. Where possible the Ministry will induct these rare individuals as Operatives.

One worrying facet of peoples reactions to a Haemorrhage event is that knowledge of what is happening increases the likelihood of an insane reaction to the event. Before the discovery of people unaffected by their experiences the Ministry was at a severe disadvantage as it’s most competent field agents went insane with alarming regularity the only safety from the effects is ignorance. As yet there is no way to ascertain in advance if someone is a potential Operative not can any link be found between the Operatives who have been found. The Research wing continues to study the effects of the Haemorrhage events but currently the Ministry has to accept the situation as is.

The following realities have made incursions into our world on a number of occasions. Information on them are sketchy and mostly based on reports from Haemorrhage event survivors and what can be gleaned from surviving items. The realities are referred to by the informal code names they have been given by Ministry Operatives and Researchers.

Dead Trenches

As far as can be ascertained this reality is still fighting World War 1. At some point in the past the dead soldiers on both side of the war rose from their graves to continues fighting. The zombie soldiers have some memories of their former existence, enough to use weapons and who the enemy is. The Ministy has yet to determine who to permanently stop a Dead Trench zombie, high levels of damage will knock it down for a period of time but whatever animates them also ‘heals’ their wounds.

Clockwerks

From studies of a small cache of newspapers that survived a Haemorrhage from this alternate Napoleon conquered Europe after being given the technology to build ‘clockwork soldiers’. Study of destroyed soldiers reveal there central power and control system to be a red crystal structure embedded within them. The main requirement to manufacture this material is apparently human blood. On at least three occasions ‘clockwork soldiers’ have demonstrated the ability and desire to create factories able to produce more.

Ubermensch

Whilst there have only been two Haemorrhage events from this alternate both have caused major devastation. In this alternate people with super human powers appear to have been revealed during World War 2. Whether this was a ‘natural’ event or military experiments is not known. From questioning of 64456, a citizen of this alternate who survived the destruction of the Fistula anchoring her here for a number of hours, the Ubermensch, both German and Allied, after fighting each other for a number of years turned on an enslaved the human race. The powers demonstrated by the Ubermensch who have entered our world are extreme and their attitude towards humanity if callous to the extreme.

Tentacles

As far as can be ascertained American Military research in the early 60′s brought about the fall of humanity in this alternate. Controlled breeding of squid in extreme mutagenic environments led to the creation of the ‘Death Squid’. Able to survive out of water for short periods of time they can extract the hydrogen from water internally and store it in pouches allowing them to hover, controlled puffs of air allowing for extremely fast yet silent movement. The original ‘Death Squid’ seem to have been trained as infiltration and assassination experts, they excrete a toxin that can paralyse a full grown man in minutes. While they make limited use of tools themselves they have a good understanding of them, and are particularly adept at rendering vehicles and communications system useless.