Black Hand

"When we are crushing the black hearts of our oppressors, we will find our hands blackened. We cannot cultivate our garden without digging in the dirt."

- Kane

The Black Hand is an organization within the Brotherhood of Nod formed with the blessing of Kane. Originally founded as a covert unit that enforced the teachings of the Brotherhood's charismatic leader and was responsible for the Brotherhood's wet work. The cult has since grown to become a powerful and influential religious group that, until recently, had operated mostly in secret. Though Kane has remarked that the Black Hand existed for "time immemorial" and had been among the first to follow him, the organization was only confirmed to exist in the First Tiberium War.

Background
In its formative years, its members were hand picked by General Gideon Raveshaw and given exceptional training, as well as the best equipment and body armor available, with the most notable being the Ezekiel's Cape chameleon suit and experimental portable Obelisk of Light modules, codenamed Firefly and Tarantula respectively.

The Black Hand proved to be an ample opponent to the Global Defense Initiative, as small groups of their operatives could infiltrate and easily destroy enemy bases. Also, they served as personal bodyguards to Kane and protected the various Temples with unparalleled religious zeal. The members are handpicked from the best and most faithful members of Nod. While many brothers are eager to join, the final decision is left to the current Black Hand commander. When accepted, the members undergo extreme indoctrination, resulting in nothing less than a lethal zealot, completely devoted to the Brotherhood.

Obviously, the organization is a major power within the Brotherhood. Within Nod itself, the Black Hand has its own political, religious, and military wings.

Formation
During the First Tiberium War, the Black Hand was founded as the personal guard of Kane by General Raveshaw. Built from the ground up as the most elite combat force in the Brotherhood, absolutely loyal to Kane, it soon became more than just a guard - they were deployed as special forces whenever the situation called for it. The Black Hand was constantly seeking new recruits among the finest Nod warriors. Those eligible underwent extensive additional training, with the first stage being the most brutal one - indoctrination.

The organization also served as a type of religious police within the Brotherhood, as the Black Hand were considered part-elite force and part-priesthood. Despite the rigid lifestyle and harsh discipline, many Nod soldiers wanted to join the organization. Before being accepted into its ranks, initiates were indoctrinated thoroughly with Nod's pseudo-religious teachings, and those that succeeded, became zealots placing unfaltering faith in Nod and Kane.

First Tiberium War
The Global Defense Initiative was at first oblivious to the unit's existence. However, disquieting rumours begin to rise when intercepted communications indicated that Far East Nod formations were communicating with an unknown Nod unit - the Black Hand. While most of the messages were still encrypted, GDI cryptologists managed to decipher enough to understand that operation Silver Saber was a success (possibly referring to the plan to capture GDI's top Tiberium specialists) and that the trap in Eastern Europe is springing as planned.

General Adam Locke dispatched Nick Parker to track the scientists. The commando encountered and killed many of the Black Hand and eventually killed Gideon Raveshaw, the first commander of the formation.

Prior to the last battle of the war, General Mark Sheppard debriefed the then commander James Solomon on Kane's main Temple, protected by Kane's "own crack militia". While there is no direct evidence, the "militia" protecting Kane is likely to the Black Hand.

Operations
The Black Hand had a radically different modus operandi from other Nod forces, as they cared little for civilian casualties - their deployments showed a 72% higher civilian casualty rate than that of mainstream Nod, which tended to avoid civilian casualties in order to more freely manipulate the media and cover up their operations. Other activites included sabotage, assassinations, kidnappings, and terrorism.

The Black Hand was primarily responsible for safeguarding the Project ReGenesis as well as capturing important GDI personnel, such as Dr.Ignatio Mobius, Dr. Sydney Mobius and Dr. Elena Petrova.

Operatives
Three most common Black Hand operatives included the snipers, support infantry and the Black Hand Chameleons. The Black Hand had their own designs for the light tank, flame tank, and stealth tank during this time.

Second Tiberium War
"Commander, we are the Black Hand of Nod. WE are the salvation of Nod."

- Anton Slavik to a Nod Commander.

It is unknown what became the commander of the Black Hand following the death of General Raveshaw at the hands of captain Nick Parker, but it is known that at the time of the Second Tiberium War the unit was commanded by Commander Anton Slavik.

Slavik commanded a substantial force of these men, which allowed them to become a significant player in the struggle for power prior to the Second Tiberium War and allowed the rebirth of the Brotherhood, stronger and more resilient than before. Members of the Black Hand served as officers, advisors and commanders and following the destruction of Kane's Pyramid at the last moment by Commander Michael McNeil and the rebellion of CABAL were called upon to fight for Nod in the field, as their elite cadre status made them formidable soldiers.

By this time, the Black Hand had expanded its jurisdiction to become the wardens of the Brotherhood's religion. Along with spreading the prophesies of Kane, they were also preserved the spiritual discipline of Nod, even by the use of force.

Aftermath
Following the Firestorm Crisis, internal strife began to rise, even within the Black Hand, as Slavik's prominence as a general drew unwanted attention to his status as a Black Hand prelate, as well as the organization itself. Many began to believe that Slavik was a traitor to the cult. Tension grew between the Slavik loyalists and anti-Slavik groups, led by Brother Marcion.

Following the assassination of Slavik by Marcion, the Black Hand separated from the Brotherhood and became a splinter faction. The bulk of the cult's followers went into exile in Australia. Soon afterward, Nod shattered into various subfactions.

It is at this period that Marcion began radical changes to the Black Hand, trying to reflect himself as a "pure" religious figure. The Black Hand became a fanatical religious cult with a lot of military potential, both far and close to the original covert unit. Where Kane was maintaining a myth, Marcion was creating a well organized, devoted religion.

Despite his claims that Kane was a pretender, Marcion was brought back into the fold by Kane. With Marcion's change of heart, the Black Hand rejoined the Brotherhood.

Third Tiberium War
After the internal conflicts were rectified, the Black Hand formed the core of the Brotherhood revival efforts, gathering support for them in the Yellow zones and procuring supplies and technology. They played a crucial role and soon their ranks expanded, to the point of them becoming elite infantry formations of the Brotherhood.

Black Hand infantry operate as shock troops, while supported by the numerous militia. Currently, the Black Hand wear full powered armor, fireproof cloaks masking their thermal signatures, and helmets with three horizontal visors. This equipment allows them to use their advanced flamethrowers effectively without harming their health as well as effectively clear out garrisoned buildings and decimate infantry. The Black Hand Chameleons were retired from service, the task of infiltration and sabotage granted to the elite Shadow Teams, who operated independently of the Black Hand.

Military Assets
Along with its infantry formations serving in the regular Nod forces, the Black Hand's influence allows the organization to maintain its own military branch, essentially being a distinct subfaction of Nod. Instead of poorly trained Militias, its main infantry consists of Confessor Cabals, introduced after Marcion's ascension to the position as the Black Hand's leader. Commandos are available to a greater extent to Black Hand Commanders, allowing two battle-hardened battle sisters to be allocated to their forces-at the cost of their cloaking abilities. Also available is the Purifier, a predecessor to the Avatar Warmech; lacking it's more advanced counterpart's ability to commandeer technology, but with flamethrowers and subliminal projectors already installed. This unit is a pure example of the Black Hand's combat doctrine-headlong and ruthless. Replacing the stealth tank, the Black Hand developed the Mantis drone for defense against airborne threats, despite the organization heavily disagreeing with robotics.

Exclusive upgrades and powers include improved flame weaponry and power signature scans, an intelligence-gathering ability that locates enemy power plants.

The Black Hand does not use aircraft, but is willing to use Armageddon bomber airstrikes.

Fourth Tiberium War
The cult survived into the latter half on the 21st century. Under Gideon, it has become more and more radical, up to the point where it broke off from the Brotherhood proper (again...) and rose up against Kane under the brother's name. The Black Hand still used flamethrowers which is effective against structures. The trooper explodes into a fireball every time the trooper gets killed.

Combat Doctrines
Black Hand forces, when deployed into the field as a combat force, choose aggression and swift, hard strikes against the enemy, and favor flame weaponry. The Black Hand infantry corps are superior to standard Nod troops: examples are the Elite cadre and the Black Hand infantry.

Despite their history of using Chameleons, under Marcion's regime, Black Hand forces currently shun the use of stealth and robotics, preferring to overwhelm the enemy head on. Interestingly, they still use the Mantis support droid for anti-air operations. Additionally, the Black Hand lacks air units, engaging enemies solely on the ground, though they are willing to call in airstrikes via Armageddon bombers.

Their Purifying Flame is so powerful it can prevent Commandos from going near Purifiers and bombing their legs and can even melt Mammoth 27s.

Events
After being brought back to Nod's path, the Black Hand first aided in destroying GDI's Liquid Tiberium research facility, sacrificing all the troops assaulting the lab in the process. During the Third Tiberium War, the Black Hand were then sent to secretly kidnap GDI's top tiberium scientist, Alphonse Giraud. In the aftermath of the war, the 2nd Armoured Regiment of the Black Hand aided the Marked of Kane to help retrieve the Tacitus, despite their oath of never using soulless machines.

First War

 * Gideon Raveshaw
 * Carlos Mendoza
 * Sakura Obata

Second War

 * Anton Slavik
 * Oxanna Kristos

Third War

 * Marcion
 * Lucius Bika
 * Othus Qatar

Fourth War

 * Gideon

Black Hand in real life

 * Look up wikipedia for the pan-Slavist group responsible for sparking the First World War

An organization named Black Hand has existed in real life, as a secret society in Serbia. It was financed by Serbia, as part of the Pan-Slavism nationalist movement, with the intention of uniting all of the territories containing South Slav populations (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, etc) annexed by Austria-Hungary. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria is considered to have been the main catalyst to the start of World War I. The assassination was carried out by a Black Hand member named Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, a key location for the Brotherhood.

Given the importance of Sarajevo to Nod and Anton Slavik's ancestry, the Black Hand in the Command and Conquer series may in fact be the real-life Black Hand continued.