Department of Armament Reclamation and Examination

As the crafters of House Reticulum take their art seriously and with much reverence, the creation, distribution, and provenance of Reticulum weapons is meticulously tracked both in order to keep a tight lock on the faking market, and to keep them from falling into ill-prepared hands.

Procedure and Organization of the Department

In the event of required maintenance, it is the right of the original artist to be given the first look at the weapon, to perform any tuning necessary, or in the freak case of damage, effect any repairs. This right is absolute, seldom waived in even the most dire of circumstances. In the event of the original artist’s death, their right to maintenance passes in accordance to their inheritance.

Should the weapon be stolen, misplaced, or otherwise lost, the registered owner may call upon the reclamation branch of DARE to investigate and recover the weapon in question. Senior agents rely on their web of contacts to drum up information, and once the location of the weapon is ascertained, more junior agents are dispatched, always lone operators, to recover the weapon.

Although the new owner is seldom left time to invoke the Right of Challenge before their ill-gotten weapon is reclaimed, some precious few manage it. By agreeing to be put subject to the same grueling analysis by the Heuristic as the original owner, the new owner risks penalty in exchange to prove that they are more worthy of the weapon’s ownership, and in so doing, keep it.

The second branch of the department is the Examination branch, whose principal purpose is to rebuild the vast portion of the registry lost to the Scream. As a consequence, this branch is essential to validating claims of newly found Reticulum weapons, lest the market be overwhelmed with weapons of fraudulent make.

Unfortunately, due to the chaos of the War Against the Artificials, the fraudulent market has grown massive outside the core worlds. DARE agents attend these markets to find these pitiful attempts at true craftsmanship, to deliver reminders of what happens to those who make a mockery of Reticulum’s craft.

A DARE office on Tiber, associated with the Insigne Nobilitatis Ducum, is essential to tracking the path of the weapon through the complex noble estates in the Empire, facilitating the updating of the owner’s signature whenever necessary.

Standard Equipment

All D.A.R.E. agents are given an identification tool, usually disguised in the form of an innocuous trinket (such as ring or medallion) that is capable of reading the weapon’s embedded SIGNET signature. This device works in conjunction with a datapad linked to the department’s database, facilitating cross-referencing, analytics, and projections to either aid the agent in identifying the true owner or track the weapon’s path through existing records.

Current Situation

The War Against the Artificials has lead to the largest influx of untracked weapons since the Imperial Civil Wars and the reign of the Blood Eagle. Nigh every battlefield a veritable treasure trove of lost Reticulum armament, accompanied by the reclaimed weapons that were once part of Cygnus estates.

Although the department has worked tirelessly to recover as much weaponry as possible, the sheer volume has lead to an explosion in black market trade of Reticulum weapons, capitalizing on the scramble to reassert control. Utterly overwhelmed, DARE has had to begin working with a number of partners to rapidly expand their reclamation operations.

Deathless Conflict Solutions

DCS has long held an official policy that any Reticulum weapon recovered from the battlefield must be surrendered to House Reticulum. Curiously, the Deathless have never reported recovering a Reticulum grade weapon.

The Orthus Initiative

Before their dissolution the volunteers of the Orthus Initiative , as part of their battlefield reclamation operations, were essential to the recovery of Reticulum weapons, surrendering a consistent supply to DARE for catalog.