The Federal Bureau of Control is a secret U.S. government agency tasked with studying, containing, and controlling paranormal phenomena — objects, locations, and events that defy normal physical laws. Their mission is to "secure, contain, and protect" reality from being warped by paranatural forces. Its official motto is "Better days through containment."
If that motto sounds a little like SCP Foundation, it's because the concept shares a similar tone: a bureaucratic organization documenting and containing supernatural weirdness — but Remedy's version is much more psychological, reality-bending, and metaphysical.
Headquarters
The FBC's headquarters is called The Oldest House, a massive brutalist skyscraper located in Manhattan, New York City.
It's not visible to ordinary people unless they're looking for it in the right state of mind.
A shapeshifting structure — rooms move, corridors change, and architecture obeys supernatural rules.
It houses various sectors like Research, Containment, Maintenance, and the mysterious Black Rock Quarry deep underground.
The building itself is an Object of Power, meaning it's alive (in a sense) and connected to higher-dimensional entities.
Key Terms
Objects of Power (OoPs): Everyday objects (like a floppy disk, a light switch, or a service weapon) that have been infused with paranatural energy. The FBC contains and studies these.
Altered Items: Similar to Objects of Power, but without direct resonance to the Astral Plane; they cause strange effects but aren't usable by humans.
Altered World Events (AWEs): Large-scale reality disruptions (e.g., entire towns disappearing or gravity behaving weirdly).
The Hiss: A hostile resonance that invades the FBC during Control, spreading like a psychic infection.
Departments and Divisions
The FBC is organized into divisions, much like a real agency, but each deals with something increasingly bizarre:
Research Sector – Studies the nature of paranatural phenomena, "Objects of Power," and interdimensional energy.
Containment Sector – Houses dangerous artifacts and creatures. Like SCP's containment wing.
Maintenance Sector – Keeps The Oldest House functioning (cleaning, power systems, etc.), led by a mysterious janitor, Ahti, who's… not exactly human.
Executive Sector – The administrative center, where the Director and top staff operate.
Panopticon – A massive containment vault for the most hazardous objects and entities.
The Director
The FBC is led by the Director, a person who can wield the Service Weapon — a transforming Object of Power that only chooses one user at a time. Once chosen, the user becomes the new Director, gaining authority (and responsibility) to command the Bureau and resist extranormal forces.
Jesse Faden, the player character, becomes the Director at the start of Control after being chosen by the weapon.
Key Game Connections
This is where things get fascinating:
1. Control (2019)
Main game about the FBC.
You play Jesse Faden, who becomes the new Director after entering The Oldest House in search of her brother Dylan.
The game explores the FBC's operations, its strange bureaucracy, and the metaphysical concept of the Astral Plane — a higher dimension from which power and resonance originate.
2. Alan Wake (2010) and Alan Wake 2 (2023)
The FBC appears here indirectly and later directly.
The events of Alan Wake (set in Bright Falls, Washington) are classified by the FBC as an Altered World Event — the "Bright Falls AWE."
Alan Wake 2 further cements the crossover: the FBC actively investigates the supernatural events linked to the "Dark Place" and the Writer himself.
3. Control: AWE Expansion (2020)
This DLC officially connects Alan Wake and Control.
Jesse Faden explores a sector of the Bureau dedicated to investigating AWEs — specifically Bright Falls.
Alan Wake communicates from within the Dark Place, confirming both worlds exist in the same continuity.
4. Future Projects
Remedy has announced that Control 2 and an Alan Wake–Control spin-off codenamed Condor are in development — both expanding the FBC's role in the shared universe.
Other Entities & Influences
The Board: A mysterious, extradimensional entity (or entities) communicating with the Director through the Astral Plane. They speak in distorted, double-meaning language — like two overlapping voices.
The Service Weapon: The Director's gun, an Object of Power that can transform into different firearm forms. It's linked to the concept of authority and identity — whoever wields it becomes the Director.
Thresholds: Rifts between reality and other dimensions that open within The Oldest House. These often lead to bizarre or dangerous realms.
Games in the Remedy Connected Universe (RCU)
The Remedy Connected Universe (RCU) currently includes several games that share the same world and timeline as the Federal Bureau of Control. It all started with Alan Wake in 2010, which introduced the supernatural events in Bright Falls, later classified by the FBC as the "Bright Falls AWE." That game established the first hints of the paranatural forces the Bureau would later investigate.
In 2019, Control became the centerpiece of the universe, fully introducing the FBC, its headquarters known as the Oldest House, and the new Director, Jesse Faden. The story dug into the Bureau's experiments and its dealings with other dimensions.
Then, in 2020, the Control: AWE expansion officially linked the two series. Jesse explores an FBC sector that had been sealed off after the Bright Falls case, and Alan Wake himself appears, showing that his story and the Bureau's investigations are directly connected.
Later, in 2021, Alan Wake Remastered was released, adding updated visuals and subtle FBC references that made the connection even clearer.
In 2023, Alan Wake 2 deepened this link: the FBC now appears directly in the story, working to contain and understand the paranormal events surrounding Alan and the "Dark Place." The events of Control and Alan Wake 2 occur in the same continuity, confirming that both worlds are part of one shared universe.
Currently, Remedy is developing two more projects within the RCU: Control 2, which will expand on the Bureau's story and Jesse's role, and Condor, a multiplayer spin-off set in the same world where players will experience life as FBC agents dealing with paranatural outbreaks.