Dark Wings

"The creed of the Dark Wings."

- We are the shadows of Helman...

About
The Dark Wings (闇の翼, yami no tsubasa) are a large assassination group that operates within the Helman Republic.

A highly secretive organization that is largely unknown to the general public, the Dark Wings regard themselves as being living manifestations of the twisted desires lurking within the hearts of the people of Helman, and are a leading force in much of the country's criminal underworld. Key information pertaining to the group's innermost workings, including its origins, is passed down exclusively through its leaders, meaning that it is known by no more than two people in the world at a time.

Assassins of the Dark Wings are trained in the arts of stealth and espionage, and possess expertise comparable to those of the Ninja of JAPAN. They have no personal ambitions beyond ensuring that their organization will continue to exist into the future, and will diligently perform any task they are given regardless of its content. While this ethos often causes the group to be branded as malevolent, as it is most frequently called upon to commit deplorable crimes such as murder, abduction, and sabotage, it is neither inherently good or evil, and simply acts as it is ordered to by those that hire it. In this sense, the heinous behavior the Dark Wings regularly engage in is more a reflection of the corruption deeply rooted inside Helman than any genuine villainy on their part. As the preservation of the nation as a whole is vital to the prolonged existence of their organization, the Dark Wings will always rise up to defend Helman when it is pushed to the brink of collapse; further demonstrating their intent to embody the wills of the country's people rather than simply perform immoral tasks.

Membership within the Dark Wings is divided between eight distinct divisions, each specializing in a specific form of assassination. Anonymity plays a central part in inter-group communication, with all members concealing their faces in some way and referring to themselves exclusively by codenames derived from various species of birds. High-ranking members are given distinct codenames, while those of lower ranks are universally referred to as Dark Sparrows (闇雀, yami suzume). All assassins of the organization are expected to be willing to give their own lives for the sake of the success of their assignments no matter their rank, with the unique codenames being passed down through the chain of command in the instance of a high-ranking assassin's death. Thus far, only two of the eight divisions have been explicitly referenced: the close-range assassination squad, led by Dark Crow, and the long-range assassination squad, led by Dark Duck. The leader of the Dark Wings goes by the name Black Swan, and rarely interacts with the other members of the group in order to maintain as much secrecy as possible. To compensate for this rule, a single high-ranking member is given the name Dark Heron and the duty of acting as a proxy for Black Swan, relaying commands from them to the rest of the organization. Those who are given the name of Dark Heron are unable to ever be appointed as leader of the Dark Wings, possibly as an additional means of limiting access to the group's innermost workings.

Though not officially affiliated with the Helman Government, the Dark Wings have been engaged in a business partnership with the imperial family and Council of Eight since around the time of their foundation, and are thus often informally recognized as an additional branch of the Helman Army by the nation's leaders. As the political sphere of Helman has been historically steeped in greed and duplicity, the Dark Wings have had no shortage of work given to them throughout their time acting as agents of the government, and are often called upon to eliminate potential threats to the ruling power before they are able to fully emerge. This arrangement is done purely at the Dark Wings' convenience, however, and they are perfectly willing to act in direct opposition to the government should they perceive doing so to be in their best interests.

In the fifth year of the Blank Era, the Dark Wings entered into a formal business relationship with the DX Association, the largest criminal enterprise on The Continent. The details of this arrangement are vague, making it unclear whether one group was absorbed by the other or if the two became equal partners.

Trivia

 * In Rance VI, Patton Misnarge, the errant prince of Helman, claims that all Helmanian assassins are female in reference to a group of female assassins sent after him by the Helman government. This is directly contradicted by the presence of several male members among the ranks the Dark Wings, who are revealed during their debut in Rance IX to have been the source of said assassins. It is unclear whether this was a planned setting idea that was ultimately scrapped prior to the formal introduction of the Dark Wings, a suggestion that one of the organization's six unseen divisions is composed entirely of women, or a simple misconception on Patton's part.
 * The names and appearances of the Dark Sparrows, as well as of the close-range assassination squad leader Dark Crow, are directly lifted from the members of the Dark Crow Assassination Squad and its leader from the Alicesoft game Mamatoto.