The Protectorate

The Protectorate is a government-sponsored superhero organization that spans the United States of America and Canada. It works under the Parahuman Response Team.

Triumvirate
The Triumvirate, consisting of Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon, formed the core leadership of the Protectorate for most of the story, with Legend being the official leader. In addition to leading several teams, they were the first responders and de facto leaders of every fight against S-Class threats across the globe.

Due to sensitive information becoming public knowledge during the Echidna attack, all of the members of the Triumvirate retired from the Protectorate. While they still participated in all Class S fights following this, they no longer took leadership positions. Legend was eventually replaced by Chevalier.

Top Tier Heroes
These are the cream of the crop among the Protectorate. Typically powerful heroes who lead their own departments or have some other major presence in the community. In superhero team posters that advertise the Protectorate, posters will typically include the Triumvirate in front, followed by Myrddin, Chevalier, Cinereal, Narwhal (leader of the Guild), Rime, Exalt and Armsmaster, with Dragon (another member of the Guild) in the back represented by a Dragon suit with its wings extended.

Regional Protectorate Teams
Each PRT department has a corresponding Protectorate team. These teams operate out of the local Protectorate Headquarters (PHQ), maintaining regular patrols and responding to reports of villain activity. Leaders will have likely spend time with the Triumvirate before being trusted with their own teams. <!--

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Chop up the below and add In terms of responsibilities:

Crisis Points - New Protectorate members and Wards will go with other capes to visit locations of disasters, reported cases of assault, gang violence, hospitals, and such, with the intent to both show their faces, indicate they care, open avenues for communication for anyone who triggered, and/or just find people with powers. This is pretty mind numbing and a lot of stuff gets lost in the shuffle, but for new members it can play into serving the community and keeping an eye on what's going on. Older and non Junior/probationary Wards may go with police and no cape supervision. Experienced Protectorate members can go alone. Very rare that something actually happens.

Patrols - Loop through this area, look for crime, show your face, try to look cool. May work in conjunction with police, especially in areas where crime or problems are rampant - that one street downtown with tents set up side by side, homeless packed in, street corners where beefs over drugs are common. Just being around tends to reduce the crime rate. These are often tied into crisis points - half the workday might be just visiting one crisis point, talking to someone, going out on patrol, looping back to the site of another crisis point, going back to the department to write up any paperwork, then going home.

Contact - Ties into Patrols. Not all capes out there are heroes and villains. If you've got a group of teenage anarchist women's rights activist capes who hang around the College, the PRT is going to want to keep tabs, so they send a hero around once in a while, to watch, talk to one of the capes, check there aren't any problems. Same for other ideologues, mercenaries, rogues, the naive kid capes who don't know how to cape and end up fumbling around, the corporate teams, the monsters and dregs.

Intel gathering - more the province of experienced capes, others may be brought in when 24/7 observation is required (long stakeouts, etc -the rookies get the quiet/boring times of day). Can be a patrol with less roaming and more crouching on a rooftop & watching. Tends to be around points where a specific villain or gang is active. Intel gathering is often a prelude for...

Operations - Anywhere from once every few days to once a month, depending on the scene, there'll be a big operation where the team acts in concert. Information is gathered first, and then the villain HQ or supply line is raided at the most opportune time (most inopportune for the villains).

Emergency response - Something happens, capes go there. Fires, disaster, police.

Events - once every week or two, some capes will be doing something public-facing, with capes taking turns for the lesser stuff. Can be visiting a school, giving a speech, or playing a part in major festivals and events (Christmas, Easter, Pride, Marathons).

Out of Town Trips - Less for Wards, a larger department might send members out to smaller towns in the periphery to check in, train Police in classifications and typical responses, handle minor villains, do a compressed & very full schedule of all of the above. Given how intensive this is, is either a full time job for a specific cape of a certain skillset or is followed by vacations. For capes in smaller towns and events, the opposite may occur - they'd make a trip into the larger cities for training, Branding meetings re: costume and icon, and to help with the aforementioned stuff (especially as extra feet on the ground for major missions).

Paperwork: For all of the above.

Classes & Training: Depends on the department, but yeah. The best capes are ones who improve over time, oftentimes by studying law, psychology, powers, civil service, etc.

expand all of this section using these links

Information on Patrol routes https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/dth19j/how_do_patrol_routes_work/ So to get into how, you have to look at why. A protectorate hero wants to do a few things:

Establish a presence - there's something of a push-pull with local villains, and by establishing a presence, heroes discourage the villain 'brand' while encouraging their own. This involves being known to patrol an area, walking in visible locations at higher-traffic times. This is very different from the kind of patrolling you do when trying to impact crime rates. At best, it makes villains scramble to run and take a lower profile, and makes it harder to run protection rackets. Repairs the impression of 'broken windows' (as per broken windows theory).

Community - This is more 'feel good', but just conveying the image of hey, we're around, we're doing stuff, we're yours. Works to combat the 'I.T.' phenomenon of "If we do our job right and get rid of criminals, then we're seen as unnecessary, but if we do our job badly then they wonder why they keep us around"; if there's a 'sports team' feeling or a 'if you hang around downtown at rush hour you might see Cavatina or Semifinal' kind of attachment.

Gather Information - Applies both in the sense of getting to know an area and getting to know the people in that area. Can apply to both the 'riding down main street' and the 'patrolling back alleys at 2am' patrols - in the former it's the chance for the barbershop owner to say they've seen more trouble around their neighborhood. In the latter it's a chance for a guy to walk up and volunteer information, becoming a C.I.

Stopping Crime - Organized criminals will tend to have people who can call or report to the higher-ups when a hero is in the area, keep an eye out, or whatever. Then they pack up shop or make themselves scarce. Having to do this is kind of a pain (playing into the first bullet point, above), but also means heroes won't run into serious gang activity in a regular patrol unless an area is doing really badly. Most of the time the criminals a cape runs into while patrolling are going to be the dumb and reckless ones. Chalks up wins for the good guys, keeps villains on their toes.

Reassurance - Areas that have recently seen crime might feel vulnerable. Showing your face and being active can both reassure the populace and prevent follow-up predation.

Building Rapport with law enforcement. Ride-alongs with police let the hero get info, help with the tougher stuff, and just build goodwill with the locals. This also helps tie the hero to the image of law and order.

Patrols will tend to be fairly public during the day hours (and may favor active downtown areas, commercial areas), while targeting the back alleys, rooftops, and other places where crime might happen during the quieter times. Teams will organize (typically using computer programs that track other member's patrols, their previous patrols, and stick them over a heat map of recent incidents) to shake things up. Having too much of a routine can be self-defeating, as can sticking to the same routes.

Patrols may start, stop in at, or end with a few crisis points - these are recent incidents which fit the criteria for trigger events happening, and tend to be the newsworthy stuff, but also include cases where nursing staff at hospitals or teachers might signal that they're worried about one case or another. Kid reportedly had a bad experience at a party and stopped going to school for a while? Heroes pay a visit under the guise of a 'stay in school' sort of thing, maybe a bit more personal. Pastor mentions a woman is having a really hard time after accidentally killing her husband and infant twins, heroes swing by. These might interrupt a patrol: an attempt to emulate a sciencey internet personality leads to a kid being scarred with chemicals, heroes get called out of patrol to make a detour and see how he's doing.

They may also go to places where weirdness is reported, or where villains are reported as having been seen/being active. They tend to know what to look out for.

Patrols will also vary depending on the cape. Front-facing capes with good public rapport and impressions might get more of those daylight-hour moments, while the less likable or niche capes might get the 'patrol the dark alleys and rooftops' things. -->

Parahumans could request transfer to specific locations, or simply be transferred to a new location.

Known members include:

Wards
The Wards are a parallel organization to the Protectorate that underage parahumans can join. If a cape is still in the Wards by the time they reach eighteen, Wards can be reassigned to a Protectorate team, but are generally kept in one city.

PRT Response
The PRT administrates and reins in the Protectorate. They will withhold persecution of villains who join the Protectorate, though this was not a fact that was well known to the public.

Background
The formation of the Protectorate was initially suggested by Alexandria to Eidolon, Hero and Legend as part of a larger plan to integrate parahumans into the United States society.May 1st, 1988 [...] “No. Because I’d like to propose a solution. A way to assert control. I want to band together. Form a team.” Legend leaned against the wall. “There are teams forming already. Yes, we’d be powerful, influential, but I don’t see how that addresses the problems.” “Simple. We do what the government’s been pushing for. We regulate. We bend to the government’s yoke, all four of us together. We follow their stipulations and regulations.” “That sounds like a horrendously bad idea,” Eidolon spoke. “Why?” “Because if it was us four, together? We could afford to push back if they pushed too hard, and they’d know that. And just by being there, we could make the project attractive enough to bring others in. [...] The post-baby boomer generation is growing up. Couple that with the explosion in parahuman numbers, and this situation threatens to get well out of control. We need structure and organization if we’re going to keep things intact.” “There’s no guarantee your plan will survive contact with government,” Legend said. “There’s one guarantee.” “What’s that?”  “I’m estimating that it will take at least five years to establish this plan nationwide. In that span, we’ll start with only a few groups in the largest cities, we’ll gradually and gratefully accept involvement and oversight from government and law enforcement. We’ll also create a sub-group for minors with powers, so we can strictly structure their environment and development. Those are the key points. [...] I expect we’ll be able to employ the remainder of the plan, the eight-stage integration of parahumans with the public, because I will be in a position of power in the government. I, my civilian self, can be in charge of the government-sponsored superhero teams within eight years. [...] I will content myself with working to guide legislation to where we need it.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z Alexandria herself had outside backers for the plan, who influenced the development of both the plan and subsequent organization.

After the appearance of Behemoth, the formation of the organization was hastened.

On January 18th, 1993 Alexandria, Eidolon, Hero and Legend were sworn in by the President of the United States under the PRTCJ as the founding members of the United States' Protectorate. It was the first in a long series of steps that led to the formation of the PRT, the Protectorate, and the organization of heroes worldwide. In exchange for government funding and legitimacy, the members agreed to follow a special set of laws laid out for capes, to accept bureaucratic oversight and cooperate with local authorities.

During this period the four and others operated out of a singular city, traveling to trouble spots as they appeared. This was presumably New York.

Following Hero's death, the remaining founders became the leaders of smaller teams based in different cities. Before PRT Departments were an established presence in most major American cities, the Protectorate maintained several strike teams to deal with problems that appeared around the country in the background.

The Protectorate and immediately related teams make up 25-50% of the defending side against Endbringers outside of North America.

The Protectorate also gives out training funding and resources to hero teams around the world who also fight Endbringers.

Story Start
The Protectorate would eventually expand to cover Canada as well as the United States of America, with talks of covering Mexico.

Strike teams that were previously used before current departments solidified are only being maintained by Alexandria and Eidolon.

The group deployed in force to Brockton Bay to save the city from total destruction by Leviathan.

Post-Leviathan
The combined members of the Protectorate came out of the battle with Leviathan with the lightest casualties from any Endbringer fight.

Legend took a detachment of the New York Protectorate to deal with the Slaughterhouse Nine in Brockton Bay. While there the group followed Miss Militia's lead. The Protectorate was unsuccessful but were able to remove several prominent members.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine
Started committing resources seriously to the hunt for the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Deployed in vast numbers in Brockton Bay to deal with the S-class threat, Echidna. Several heroes, including leaders such as Myrddin, were killed in action. There was severe damage to morale when a clone of Eidolon, Ignis Fatuus, revealed the Protectorate's history with the shadow-organization, Cauldron.

Post-Echidna
Following Legend's resignation, the group went through a reshuffling. The Protectorate shifted to a joint leadership, with Chevalier, Alexandria and Prism each dealing with different crises.

Chevalier would head up a new Protectorate edgier and more honest.

Post-Timeskip
Had recovered from losses and had weathered the two years leading up to the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand. They scrambled to deal with multiple strikes throughout the United States by the Nine.

Gold Morning
The Protectorate were a vanguard in the early days of the event, leading the first attack on Scion. They then coordinated evacuation efforts throughout North America.

The Protectorate and other groups were systematically attacked by Scion over the four days following the start of his rampage. During the final battle in New York, the forces of the Protectorate and others were rallied by Chevalier. When Khepri rose, the majority of the Protectorate forces were likely subsumed into her swarm.

Post-Gold Morning
The organization effectively dissolved after Gold Morning, with its members joining multiple successor groups.

Trivia

 * Taylor on Triumvirate, a biography about the Triumvirate: "Biographies weren’t my thing, and they were especially not my thing when I was suspicious it was all made up." This was possibly the earliest piece of clever foreshadowing in the series.
 * Members who are cleared for and attend Endbringer fights and other S-Class threats gain a substantial pay raise. Attendance is strictly voluntary, however.