The Obsidian Order was formed in 1872 of the Earth calendar under the auspices of the Detapa Council. The Order was supposed to report to the Prefect of the Council and to be subject to the laws, financing, and regulations of the Council.

At first it did, but gradually the Order took upon itself more authority, and when funding was diverted more and more to the Military, it found its own funding and developed its own internal organization. Eventually it was completely autonomous, not because the Council changed the laws, but because anyone openly against the Order tended to disappear, be blackmailed into compliance or just plain scared into doing the bidding of the Order. The Order was above the law.

The Obsidian Order was a civilian agency, therefore not a true military order. But the name "Obsidian Order" instilled at least a small amount of caution, if not downright fear, into any Cardassian, civilian or military. As a civilian entity its offices were located underneath the Assembly building. (A Stitch in Time)

The Obsidian order was forbidden to own any weapons or ships, but they had the authority to place an "observer" on every vessel and to co-opt ships and personnel to carry out its missions. Due to its secretive nature, the Order accumulated its own wealth and constructed a number of secret bases and a shipyard in the Orias System, which they defended against all ships, including those of the Cardassian military.

The Obsidian Order was responsible for matters of security and espionage. The Obsidian Order and the Central Command frequently came in conflict with each other, particularly since the Obsidian order often did not share intelligence that the Central Command could have found vital to their own missions. (DS9: "Defiant")

The Obsidian Order was analogous to the Romulan Tal Shiar and the Federation’s Intelligence Department. As in many intelligence agencies around the known galaxy, certain operatives carried out clandestine operations that even the government would not officially approve of, nor would it claim any knowledge of should the operation be traced back to the Order. Assassinations, abductions, and sabotage all were a part of achieving the goal my any means possible.

As the Government of Cardassia lost political power to the military, the Obsidian Order became more powerful and more invasive into the private lives of the citizens. At the height of the Obsidian Order’s control, it had on record the DNA of every single Cardassian born on the homeworld from a tooth extracted at age 10. It also had undercover agents embedded throughout the military and government to report any hint of disloyal activities. Its database was unmatched by even the Tal Shiar or Starfleet Intelligence, containing detailed information on all its citizenry and all aliens the Order came in contact with. There is a famous saying "A Cardassian citizen can't sit down to a meal without each dish being duly noted and recorded by the Order." (DS9: "The Wire")

Cardassians suspected of any anti-governmental activity, speech, or sympathetic leanings would disappear into the interrogation rooms in the lower levels of the Order’s complex beneath the Assembly Building and "interrogated" until they confessed. Though the Order’s main concern was the loyalty of its citizens, its agents also went off planet to gather information on its alien neighbors, to conduct acts of theft of valuable artifacts, to kidnap an alien for questioning or to extract a formerly embedded undercover agent.

After the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion, the Obsidian Order's role was assumed by Dominion security and the Cardassian Intelligence Bureau, who by all accounts were just as efficient. (DS9: "Rocks and Shoals")

The Order acted with impunity until the Omarian Nebula Incident. After that disastrous failure and the Dominion’s retaliation upon the Cardassian Homeworld, the Order was nearly wiped out., its agents who would not bow to the Dominion were executed or fled off planet.

At the end of the Dominion war, and Cardassians resolutely began to rebuild, with the Detapa Council in control of the government. Meanwhile, the remaining Obsidian Order agents bided their time, and began to work from within the Government under another name, Cardassian Intelligence Agency.

However, there will always be Cardassians who crave the control, the secrets, and the power of the former Obsidian Order. The Order may officially be gone, but the agents are still there, slowly manipulating their government to bring about the rise of the Obsidian Order once again. (Speculative narration by Carol Thompson))

In Cardassian society, a citizen does not go looking for a job. The caste system pretty much lays out a person’s career from the time he is born, the particular area of expertise being determined by observing the child during his years of basic education.

Young students were chosen from the ruling elite who demonstrated the qualities the Order demanded in its trainees. Occasionally an exceptional student from the serving ranks would be singled out and monitored for suitability. After the student finished his basic schooling and his ceremony of emergence, around the age of puberty, a person who had been keeping track of him would step forward as his sponsor, approach his parents, and claim the child. The child would then leave his parents for nine years, entering the Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence.

Occasionally, the Order would approach an alien adult, but only to force that person into becoming a double agent. Usually the reluctant alien was abducted, being released only after chemical, physical, and mental conditioning. Many times the double agent was totally unaware of his treasonous actions against his own government, but operated subconsciously, followed by periods of amnesia erasing his actions from memory.

All new recruits attended the Obsidian Order's elite training facility, Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence. It was located in the highlands adjacent to the Mekar Wilderness, a hot and arid area with impressive rock formations and an endless network of subterranean caverns. It was headed by the "First Prefect" but first level students were trained by upper level students and only saw an adult Docent during lectures. (a Stitch in Time).

The complex had one guarded main gate at the front and an entrance on the north side that lead to walled off training areas and a garden which was in stark contrast to the bleak environs of the Institute. There were several training areas walled off from each other. The pit was an outdoor arena with a few benches surrounding it where first level students received their physical training and upper level students honed their skills. Both males and females were required to go through this training. Students trained in the pit during the hottest time of the day, testing their mental and physical endurance to their limits.

The barracks were spartan, each section housing a group of ten students, under the care of an older student of the third level. Upon arrival, new students were separated by gender, striped of personal possession, then given a uniform of scratchy swamp green and black. First and second level males and females were housed apart from each other to avoid distractions as they became sexually mature and began to respond to their hormones. They did share lectures and some training facilities, however, so there was some contact between them.

Each group was known by a codename, and each student was given a number. That student would be known only by his group name and his personal number, for example, Elim Garak was known as Ten Lubak. Presumably the numbers were given according to ability, but children of prominent families generally got the lower and more prestigious numbers, even if they demonstrated a lack of talent for intelligence and espionage.

Training was split into three levels of three years each. The first level consisted mostly of physical training. Second level students got proportionally more classroom training. Third level students were called Interns.

Every part of the day was regimented. Students were variously assigned cleaning duties or as part of a punishment for failing a session in the Pit or Wilderness. If the students were out in the Wilderness, they carried survival rations and ate when they could. In the evening students would be gathered for Assembly, where presumably there were lectures and speeches.

Physical sessions in the pit consisted of "stratagems," a series of martial arts and meditative exercises designed to focus one’s senses and test endurance to its limits and beyond. Should an agent find himself in a situation where he had to defend himself or eliminate an enemy, he could use any number of methods to kill or severely disable an alien.

Another lesson besides perfect control of the physical body was "keeping one’s place," that is, one’s sense of the moment, no matter the hardship or distractions. Another lesson students picked up without it having to be said was to achieve the goal by any means without divulging to others how one achieved it. The fierce competition between groups and members within one’s own group forced students to find ways to achieve their goals, and keeping the secrets of how they succeeded gave them advantages over their competitors. And of course, the ability to keep secrets was a necessary attribute among future agents of the Order.

The desolate terrain of the Mekar Wilderness was used to train and test the student’s survival skills. Groups would engage in "hunts", the goal being to avoid capture by the older students. For the older students these "hunts" were to practice their ability to search out and retrieve a targeted victim. The hunts lasted until all those hunted were found, and so could go on until nightfall.

Classroom instruction included methods to sabotage equipment and computers, information on how to subdue an alien or kill it quickly and quietly, and methods of interrogation and torture.

The Archival Center

The Archival Center was a library like facility for student research. First Levels were only permitted to enter use the facilities of the center with the special dispensation of a member of staff.

The Obsidian Order is organized into "branches," each specializing in a particular aspect of intelligence work. It is assumed that the Order has branches and divisions analogous to Starfleet Intelligence, but to date, only a few have been mentioned in episodes, movies, and novels.

Known Branches
Branches (http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/Obsidian_Order)

Applied Science Directorate

The Applied Science Directorate was a branch within the Obsidian Order of the Cardassian Union that was charged with making experiments on new technology. During the Occupation of Bajor, the Bajor Division of the Applied Science Directorate was responsible for two thousand Bajoran deaths through the use of medical implants.

Bajor Division - The Bajor Division was a branch of the Obsidian Order's Applied Science Directorate that were charged with operations on Bajor during the Cardassian Union's Occupation of Bajor. (DS9 novel: Millennium The Fall of Terok Nor) (Retrieved from "http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/Bajor_Division")

Special Investigations Unit

The Special Investigations Unit was a branch of the Obsidian Order. Garak claimed that a member of the Special Investigations Unit came into his shop for a suit and taught him some special interrogation techniques. (DS9 - Millennium novel: Inferno)

Agents involved in field work were separated into semi-autonomous cells, which were insulated from each other so that the capture of any particular operative had a limited potential to compromise the organization. (DS9: "When It Rains")

The mission of the Special Investigations Unit was to identify, target, investigate, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations and individuals engaged in disloyal activities against the Cardassian Union. Once the evidence was collected by the agents in the field, the criminals would be apprehended.

Research Department (A Stitch in time)

This department developed all the Obsidian Order technologies. The head of the Department is an aged scientist named Mindur Timot.. The Order also placed its own research agents into the civilian Science Ministry to watch for and claim any alien technology and scientific discoveries that could be used by the Order.

Internal Affairs (Various DS9 episodes)

Internal affairs "took care" of the folks at home. It aided the Detapa Council in maintaining order and law. At its height, the Order held sway over both the Detapa Council, the courts and Central Command.

In its archives, it kept files on every single Cardassian born on Cardassian Prime for centuries. It had DNA obtained from a tooth extracted at age 10 from every citizen. When possible, it also had DNA extracted from aliens. Among the alien artifacts stored in the archives were 6 of the Bajoran Orbs. (Terok Nor Trilogy)

Its fanatical mission to root out dissident or treasonous citizens kept all Cardassians in a state of fear, for some people charged by Internal Affairs mysteriously disappeared into the Obsidian Order complex, never to be seen again.

After the Order’s humiliation in the Omarian Nebula Incident and the civilian takeover of the government, Internal Affairs no longer has the far-reaching power it once did.

The Invisible Cadre (A Stitch in Time)

The agents brought into the "Invisibles" had no families, no social connections and no set base of operations. These were hand-picked by Enabran Tain himself to operate under total anonymity. They would conduct illegal interrogations, perform delicate sabotage, or carry out high-level assassinations.

If we assume that the office of the Director of the Obsidian Order is analogous to command branches in Terran Intelligence agencies, we can assume that the Director had a complete staff with department heads that received reports from the various branches of the Order. Such positions would be highly sought after by aging field agents, for one seldom retired from the Obsidian Order. There were too many secrets at stake to allow former operatives to rejoin the general population as retirees.

The Command branch would oversee all functions, though not necessarily micromanage. However, if the Prefect of the Detapa Council or the head of Central Command would make a "request" of the Obsidian Order, it would be passed down to the appropriate people for action. No one cared how the request would be carried out, only that the goal was achieved.

The current head of the Obsidian Order is Corbin Entek who took over when Pythus Lok , the successor to Enabran Tain (2348 - 2368), was gravely injured in the Dominion attack on Cardassia prime (A Stitch in Time).

Enabran Tain, being the most famous of the Order’s directors, was the only director who lived long enough to retire. Even after retirement, he kept his hand on the Order through his vesala, getting the Order to approve his scheme to destroy the Founder’s homeworld in what would be called "The Omarian Nebula Incident."

It is assumed that the Obsidian Order (now operating under the name Cardassian Intelligence Bureau) has an internal organization every bit as detailed and bureaucratic as any other Intelligence Agency in the known Galaxy. The following is a brief explanation of possible branches and their functions.

ANALYSIS – Analysis is charged with analyzing and compartmentalizing information that comes in from the field. Being that the amount of information is very large, there would be divisions or bureaus devoted to single races or topics, even certain important people. Information thus processed would be stored in the Archives.

ASSASSINATION – Assassins are highly trained to take out specific targets by a number of ways such as obscure poisons, genetically engineered viruses, engineered equipment failures and accidents. They are also trained not to be seen or to get caught.

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE – Counterintelligence is creation of false intelligence. Its agents construct cleverly woven stories with enough truth to be believed and untruth to send the enemy on a wild goose chase. They also work with cryptography to broadcast false messages back to the targeted groups.

CRYPTOGRAPHY – Cryptography is the art of coded messages. The Cardassians have the best encryption and decryption algorithms known to the Federation. They are impossible to break, except by a trained Cardassian, again because of his renown memory and aptitude for mathematics.

They are masters at breaking codes and often keep that information to themselves so as not to alert foreign powers that their messages are being intercepted. They can also send out forged messages (in concert with counterintelligence) to track foreign movements and locations.

INFILTRATION - The Infiltration Branch of the Obsidian Order is responsible for short-term penetration, infiltration, and extraction missions. Their main types of missions are reconnaissance, theft, and extraction of personnel.

Penetration missions are for collecting intelligence, that is reconnaissance, with the field agent remaining hidden. Sometimes the agent was tasked with sabotage. He was to penetrate the facility/ship, disable the equipment to fail later in an apparent malfunction, and get out without being seen.

Infiltration may be into a Cardassian dissident group or as a citizen in a crowd on a Federation space station. Generally such a mission was requested by the Special Investigations Unit. This type of agent is "seen but not seen" and is tasked with reconnaissance.

An extraction mission is to bring a long-term undercover agent back to Cardassian Space, to steal a piece of equipment, data or artifact (like a Bajoran Orb), or to abduct an alien of interest to the Obsidian order.

Some agents undergo chemical and psychological treatments to implant false memories of the person they are taking the place of.  Other agents going in as Cardassians may have a device implanted to give pleasure under torture or a suicide chip or pill to suicide with in case of capture. Suicide drugs killed quickly and disintegrated the body to prevent identification. (DS9: The Wire)

INTERROGATION – Every intelligence organization has an Interrogation branch, and the Obsidian order was no exception. Its agents were masters at questioning, psychological manipulation and physical torture.

During the Bajoran Occupation, military specialists in torture would mutilate (Orta) and torture to death Bajoran detainees (Ro Laren’s father) in order to extract information about the resistance. (TNG: Ensign Ro) They often bragged to their victims about the merits of this or that pain-giving device and felt that torture was an art form of which they were very proud.

However Obsidian Order interrogators were more skilled in instilling fear by psychological means. The Order didn’t appreciate the brutish and clumsy way the militia interrogated political prisoners. Elim Garak got information out of Dr. Parmak, Enabran Tain’s personal physician, by simply staring at him for four hours. The poor man broke down and confessed to being a part of an illegal political group, he was so unnerved by Garak’s intense reptilian and unswerving gaze. (DS9 episode: "The Die is Cast")

This is not to say the Order didn’t use physical torture, but it was more refined than that of the Military. The pain-giving device that Gul Madred used on Captain Picard was of Obsidian Order design. The anti-changeling device was designed to induce pain on a shapeshifter by interfering with his shifting abilities. As the need for a shapeshifter’s regeneration came closer, the emissions of the device became more painful.

Heads of the Order