'Special Agents' in fantasy

[Genth]

So in my campaign, there is going to be a 'special agent' style organization. Somewhere in between the Dai Li from Avatar, the Blades from Elder scrolls and the Assassins from Assassin's Creed. I was just wondering if people knew of any other 'fantasy secret agents' in fiction that I could have a peek at and draw some inspiration from.

The idea is that the two-person teams are supposed to be almost self-sufficient, one being a Kith (Animal person) trained in ferocious melee combat and stealth/tracking, the other a Kind (Human..ish) trained as an investigator and spellcaster, though no slough in combat themselves.

I was wondering if people had ideas on how such an organization/group might work, what skills they ought to have, how 'secret agent' should they be? (I'm more of a Dai Li opinion here, where they're quite obvious with a uniform, but their internal workings are quite secret)

(So to sum up; any other fiction pieces that involve a special agent style organization in high fantasy, and given my seed of an idea, what would YOU do with it?)

((Oh, and by and large, they're good guys))

(((OH, and it's Pathfinder based, in case anyone wants to use rules! ^_^)))

[Yora]

Dragon Age 2 has the Seekers. They are a branch of the church separate from the clergy and the templars. I'm not entirely certain about their duties, but they seem to be a kind of Inquisition that investigates supernatural corruption within the church and gathers intelligence for the central leadership. While priests are exclusively female and templars almost entirely male (there have been a few exception) the Seekers in DA2 seem to be all female as well. Kind of implies that they are more a branch of administration than guards. They work in the open wearing their own type of armor. Though they should't have any problem working undercover and one of the few known seekers is a former freelance spy and assassin who worked in very high political circles.
It doesn't seem like they would bother with breaches of liturgy, heretical preaching, or embezzlement. They are apparently primarily witchhunters. Templars also hunt demons and witches, but don't seem to lack cunning and are easily blinded by zealous dogma. The seekers seem to be much more about results.

The Witcher 2 has the Blue Stripes, a special unit loyal to the king of Tymeria. They seem to be primarily a team of elite mercenaries who take care of tasks where a small team would have better chances than an army. They also do investigation and hunting high value enemies, but they act much more like police than intelligence officers. They don't infiltrate, they raid.

And there's of course the Harpers from Forgotten Realms, who are independent but provide information for good rulers and governments about evil conspiracies in their realms. Occasionally, they try to make targeted strikes against high value targets of evil organizations to cripple their opperations. However, they usually try to coordinate with good rulers so they can create openings for their armies to exploit.

[LibraryOgre]

And there's of course the Harpers from Forgotten Realms, who are independent but provide information for good rulers and governments about evil conspiracies in their realms. Occasionally, they try to make targeted strikes against high value targets of evil organizations to cripple their opperations. However, they usually try to coordinate with good rulers so they can create openings for their armies to exploit.

Really, FR has done a lot with secret and semi-secret organizations. You've got the Harpers, which are up front. On the bad guy side, you have 3e's innovation with the Red Wizards... you know the Red Wizards when you see them, but they keep a lot of their motives obscured. Then you have the various varieties of Zhent*; Zhentarim, Zhentilar, etc. The Zhentarim are a semi-secret organization who acts to enforce economic and eventually political hegemony on behalf of Zhentil Keep.

Lots of good things to look at in that vein.

[VoxRationis]

So in my campaign, there is going to be a 'special agent' style organization. Somewhere in between the Dai Li from Avatar, the Blades from Elder scrolls and the Assassins from Assassin's Creed. I was just wondering if people knew of any other 'fantasy secret agents' in fiction that I could have a peek at and draw some inspiration from.

The Dai Li are the epitome of Lawful Evil and the Assassins are Chaotic Good (in theory; III and IV make them more Chaotic Stupid, in my opinion). The Blades are Lawful Good bodyguards/Secret Service in Oblivion and Lawful Neutral dragonslayers/MI6 in Skyrim. What exactly are you envisioning for something that's "somewhere in between" those factions?

[Genth]

The Dai Li are the epitome of Lawful Evil and the Assassins are Chaotic Good (in theory; III and IV make them more Chaotic Stupid, in my opinion). The Blades are Lawful Good bodyguards/Secret Service in Oblivion and Lawful Neutral dragonslayers/MI6 in Skyrim. What exactly are you envisioning for something that's "somewhere in between" those factions?

There's more to life than alignments. I'm looking at the structure, the aesthetic, their place in society.

[VoxRationis]

That's what I mean. Obviously, those organizations don't have listed alignments, as they come from works without the alignment system. But their "aesthetic" and their place in society are very different. The Blades work to support the hereditary monarch; the Dai Li work to undermine him; the Assassins probably just kill him.

[mr_odd]

Their notoriety depends on A. how you want the PCs to interact with them and B. what their goals are.

Also, do they have a leader? Do they have code of conduct?

[jqavins]

It's probably of little use, but you asked for any examples from other fiction, so...

"Spy," even rarely "secret agent," is one of the many roles taken on by the Heralds of Valdemar. Their "mind magic," i.e. psionics, is a natural for secret agent stuff. They are usually very public and working in decidedly non-spy capacities (think of an Old West marshall and circuit judge rolled into one.) I guess there might be something useful in the two-face aspect, but you might want to change the balance, as the Heralds are in their public roles 99% of the time. Finally, even though you stated that your agents are by and large the good guys, you probably don't want them being too much like the Heraldic paragons of virtue. (Or do you? Undercover paladins? Hmm...)

[Super Evil User]

It should be noted that the Blades are a religious organization as well as a secret agency. They're dedicated to protecting the Dragonborn at all costs, although Skyrim's Blades certainly don't seem like it. The Penitus Oculatus are closer to the secret agents you're thinking of.

This creates fun opportunities in worlds where gods are totally a thing. Why not have a gaggle of clerics who also double as James Bond types?

[Knaight]

It's also worth taking a look into history and more historical fantasy here - the idea of secret police are pretty old, and just about any major city tended to have them. Places with lots of major cities (e.g. China) were often pretty loaded with them (again, China stands out here for most of its history).

In short - take a look at some wuxia. Secret police that are connected to the emperor, hosts of secret societies, so on and so forth. It's all there. To list a particularly visible example, there's the House of Flying Daggers from The House of Flying Daggers.