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Designation 01 · Primary protector

The Sentinel holds the line so everyone else can think.

You put yourself between the unknown and everyone else, and you do it before anyone asks. This file covers what that instinct does in the first minute, where it goes wrong, and how to train it.

What a Sentinel is.

The Sentinel is defined by position, not aggression. When something unexplained happens, a Sentinel turns toward it and puts themselves between it and the people nearby. They rarely freeze, and they are usually the first to set a simple rule in a room that has none: stay behind me, stay together.

That makes the Sentinel the most physically present role in the first minute, and the one most likely to raise the temperature by accident. A Sentinel is measured by what they let happen safely behind them.

Civilian designation fileDSC-R01 · Page 1 of 1

Sentinel

Moves toward the edge of danger and puts their body between it and the people behind them. The instinct is right. Untrained, the execution is not.

Role
Primary protector
First-minute priority
Count heads, find the gap, stand in it.
Blind spot
Reads stillness as a threat and escalates first.
Pairs with
The Diplomat, who needs safe ground to speak from.
Training focus
Restraint: holding the line without starting a fight you cannot finish.

Field note: Strength is not the signal. Composure is.

Exemption (b)(6) Released in part

The first minute, as a Sentinel.

Five moves, in order. None of them is an approach.

  1. Count heads.

    Know who is here, who is missing, and who cannot move on their own.

  2. Find the gap.

    Pick the one spot between the light and your people, and stand in it.

  3. Give one order.

    “Stay behind me.” One short line, said once, at a normal volume.

  4. Keep your hands visible.

    Open palms, held low. Nothing sudden, no pointing, nothing in your hands that looks like a weapon.

  5. Hold. Do not advance.

    Your job is the line, not the approach. Let the Diplomat speak and the Survivor move people out.

What a Sentinel gets right.

  • Turns toward the problem while other people freeze.
  • Takes a position without waiting to be asked.
  • Brings order fast: one rule, one line, everyone knows where to stand.
  • Stays upright under pressure that sends other people to the floor.

The blind spot.

The Sentinel’s instinct fires before the facts arrive. Stillness looks like a threat, a sudden light looks like an attack, and a raised voice or one step forward can turn a strange minute into a dangerous one.

How to train it

Rehearse restraint until it is automatic: hands open and low, weight back, one step behind where your instinct wants to be. Practise holding a position for a full minute without moving toward anything. A line only works while it stays a line.

Working with the other three.

Somebody holds the space, somebody speaks, somebody records, somebody gets people out. No role outranks another.

A man holding still under hard green light while a monitor beside him tracks his heart rate.
Composure trial, still frame

Exhibit S1 · Field photograph

The first one between them and everyone else.

Sentinels never wait to be asked. The training is learning when not to step forward.

Released in part

What the app will train.

DISCLOSURE is a phone app in development for iOS and Android. These are the parts of the field kit built for a Sentinel.

  • Don’t FlinchSudden sound and light while the phone scores how still you stay, and your crew gets a number to beat.
  • Headcount, your signFingers rise one to four: the count you give without a word, checked by the phone.
  • CrewPractise the head count and the line with the people you would protect.

No release date is set. Everyone who finds their role and claims a card hears first.

Questions about the Sentinel.

What is the Sentinel role in DISCLOSURE?

The Sentinel is one of four civilian contact roles. It is the primary protector: the person who puts themselves between something unexplained and the people nearby, and holds that position calmly without escalating.

How do I know if I am a Sentinel?

Take the ten-question classification. Each answer leans toward one of the four roles, and the role you lean toward most is yours. Sentinels tend to choose the answers that stand in front: nobody goes alone, stay behind me.

Is the Sentinel the strongest role?

No role outranks another. A Sentinel without a Diplomat has a line and nothing to say through it. A Diplomat without a Sentinel is standing in the open. The four only work together.

Related intel files.

Plain answers for the situations a Sentinel is most likely to face.

Open the archive
  1. File 01What to do if a UFO lands nearbyDistance, safe documentation, and managing the people around you.Protocol
  2. File 02Mass panic and first contactHow crowds respond to uncertainty, and why calm roles matter.Psychology
  3. File 03UFO sighting family protocolKids, pets, roles, and keeping a household from panicking.Protocol
  4. File 04How to prepare for alien contactA household plan, a role, and training in plain civilian terms.Field guide

Find out if the line is yours.

Ten questions, answered the way you would at 11:47 pm with the power out. Your role comes back with an iris print nobody else carries.

Find your role All four roles