The Cryptid Research Institute

What is the C.R.I?

The Cryptid Research Institute (CRI) is a network of various facilities globally that are dedicated to the capture, detainment, and study of all Cryptids. The CRI is built up of several different branches: The Board of Directors, the Analytical Team, The Direct Research Team, and the Detainers. Each of these branches have a pivotal role in the acquisition and research of Cryptids.The Board of Directors
The founders of the CRI who have complete control of each facility. Each director represents one of the seven continents in which several Cryptid Research Institutes are based. These are known as the Seven Continental CEO's. These figureheads of the CRI tend not to deal with the Institutes directly, though some are more hands-on than others.The Analytical Team
This branch is responsible for researching Cryptids on a callular level, studying their microbiology and genetic makeup. The Analytical Team spend their working day behind the lenses of microscopes, breaking down samples aquired from the Direct Research Team.The Direct Research Team
This branch study Cryptid behaviour in their enclosures, collecting direct samples from subjects to send to the Analytical Team. The Direct Research Team (also known as the DRT), do their own research on Cryptids, though this is primarily regarding physical attributes and behavioural patterns.The Handlers
Not an official branch, but an offshoot of the DRT, Handlers interract physically with the Cryptids in detainment that have been deemed safe or subdued. A Handlers job is to attempt communication and more familiar interactions to the more sentient Cryptids. Handlers are regarded as having the lowest quality job in the CRI, as they oversee the mucking out and more day-to-day care of Cryptids. This in itself is an essential job.The Detainers
A specialist team trained specifically in capturing and detaining newly emerged Cryptids from their Millennium Portals. The Detainers are responsible for capturing and transporting Cryptids to the nearest Institute for processing and permanent detainment. Many of the Detainers come from military or mercinary backgrounds due to the high risk of the job.

What are Millennium Portals?

At the turn of the millennium, a bizarre phenomenin occurred where portals began to open up and appear seemingly from thin air all around the globe. There was no warning given as to how, why, or when the portals would appear, only that they initially began to appear the second midnight struck, heralding the end of 1999 and bringing in the year 2000. Millennium portals appear to be temporal rifts, linking Earth to another planet in another galaxy. These rifts only open for a few minutes, sometimes mere seconds, but the one constant regarding them is that something always comes out of them. The Millennium Portals bring anything and everything with them, from gushes of extraterrestrial water and rock, to more organic matter.The impending arrival of a Millennium Portal is always punctuated by a complete loss of function in mobile and smart devices and haze-like shimmers in the area the portal will appear. The portals themselves look like neon pink and purple rings of pure energy. These portals can vary greatly in sizes depending on the size of the Cryptid coming from them.

What are Cryptids?

The term "Cryptid" was coined by the CRI, an umbrella term for all sentient life forms that come from Millennium Portals. Cryptids were and are every-changing. No two Cryptids are the same, given that each one comes from a different Millennium Portal, and as such, a completely different planet in the universe. Though many of the Cryptids that emerge from the portals are driven by pure base instinct, the more sentient Cryptids undergo an odd ability to absorb the dialect of whatever primary language the portals open in.For example: a portal opening in America that unleashes a more sentient Cryptid will automatically speak and understand English, right down to the local accent associated to the area it appeared. IE: A Millennium Portal opening in Texas will cause a sentient Cryptid to have a Southern American accent if it speaks. A seperate Millennium Portal opening in Leeds, a city in England, will cause a Cryptid to speak in a rough Northern Yorkshire accent, and so on.