Deputy is primarily a defunct position within the leadership of the PPC; it existed from the founding of the Organisation until the Reorganisation. It is also a title used for the Yertis in the DIA.
Deputies in the Organisation[]
The Organisation was founded with three departments: Exploration, Admin, and Infrastructure.[1] Each of these departments was headed by a deputy: Captain Dandy for Exploration, the Marquis de Sod for Admin, and Hornbeam for Infrastructure.[1]
During the Civil War on Origin, the Department of Intelligence was created from Admin, with the Sub Rosa being made Deputy for Intelligence.[2]
Deputies in the PPC[]
Following the restructuring of the Organisation into the Protectors of the Plot Continuum, the Department of Infrastructure was broken up into a number of departments under what was then known as the Infrastructure Division.[3] Rather than heading each new department with a deputy, the Sunflower Official created one Deputy for Infrastructure, with authority over a number of Department Heads.
The other three deputies were downgraded to Department Heads. Only after the recruitment of the first human agents, when the Department of Action began to be broken up similarly to Infrastructure, was the position of Deputy for Action re-instituted along the same lines. The two deputies were responsible for the various Departments and Divisions under their respective jurisdictions, and reported directly back to the Head of the PPC.
While the Admin Department was also later broken up, it was under different circumstances: the actions of several of its agents during the 1992 insanity epidemic led to Admin being deliberately downsized into the Department of Personnel. No deputy was created for Admin.
Deputy for Action[]
The PPC's first Deputy for Action was the Poppy, Head of the Department of Mary Sues. Following her death, the Sunflower Official took over both these roles.
Deputy for Infrastructure[]
The PPC's original Deputy for Infrastructure was likely Hornbeam, carrying the post forward from the Organisation.[1] At some point, the position passed to the Evermind, head of the Department of Finance. It stayed hers until her death, and was then transferred to the Bindweed until the Reorganisation.
End of the System[]
The roles of the deputies were removed from the hierarchy of the PPC with the creation of the Board of Department Heads, during the Reorganisation. The nine Flowers on the Board fulfilled the roles of the two deputies and the Head of the PPC, rendering both of those positions redundant.
Deputies after the Reorganisation[]
'Deputy' as a title is still sometimes used in the PPC; the Tiger Lily has a Deputy—the Yertis—who runs the DIA's New Caledonia division, and two lieutenants who help run the HQ branch of the department. The term no longer denotes a high-ranking position within the PPC as a whole, however, and in the DIA might or might not be used interchangeably with lieutenant.