Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here. Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permission: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Fortress Vader, Pius Dea, Amidala Corps, Castle Maysaf, Firemane, Republican Guard, Dominion of Light, Darth Vader, KEC Stormtrooper Corps, Camp Progress.
SETTING INFORMATION
City Name: Adlerberg.
Classification: Urban Centre.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: Disciples of the Vader, Darth Eisen, Humanist People's Party, Tephrike, Darth Lachesis, KEC.
Population: Moderate.
Demographics: Theoretically an allen majority, but the non-human population has been wholly disenfranchised and restricted to an overcrowded ghetto called Prosperity Quarter. A notable portion of it has been enslaved outright. Humans are more well-off and represent the economic and social elite of Adlerberg. As a result, daily life is defined by racism and xenophobia. 'Only for humans' style signs are common in certain shops, residential areas, restaurants and so on. The status of near-humans varies depending on how radical the regime is feeling at the moment. In some cases, they can pass for humans or at least as second or third class citizens. However, people who do not have a pure human ancestry but could pass for humans are required to wear an identifying badge called the Star of Luke. Mixed marriages or relationships between humans and non-humans are forbidden. Segregation is enforced through government legislation, police terror, education and social pressure. Aliens 'residents' include Twi'leks, Duros, Zabrak, Gungans, Rodians, Trandoshan and Houk.
Wealth: Medium. Adlerbeg is a major urban centre of the Vaderites. There is a lot of industry and it is located close to significant natural resources. However, only a select strata of the population benefits from any of it. Hence wealth would be Medium to High for humans close to the elite, Low for most common citizens, and Poor for aliens and near-humans considered 'impure' by the regime. Feuds between Sith, rebel attacks, the fact that it is a repressive dictatorship and a significant portion of the population is denied education, kept poor and enslaved means that Adlerberg is unable to achieve its full potential. Graft is a very serious issue. Party bigwigs and Sith use their power to enrich themselves, seizing businesses and resources and extorting favours. Contrary to popular belief, fascism does not produce ruthless efficiency, just ruthless inefficiency.
It is worth noting that the average human worker does not have a great life. Typically, he lives in a small apartment in a drab concrete block, and is not paid well. Moreover, he does not have the right to negotiate his wage or improvements in his working conditions or strike. He cannot change his job without permission and his working hours are very long. He eats potatoes, cabbage, ersatz meat, bread and jam, and drinks water, milk and ersatz coffee. Butter and bacon are particularly expensive. Meanwhile, the elite buys caviar in special shops. The only trade union is the Imperial Labour Front, which is a sham run by corrupt Party bureaucrats. It usually sides with the employer, rather than the workers. The Labour Front tries to keep workers docile by controlling their leisure activities. 'Model' workers can go on holidays to resorts. Very few workers ever enjoy such amenities.
However, the regime has successfully fooled many proletarians into thinking that the aliens, the Jedi, and the rebels are to blame for their woes and that they are racially superior to the alien slaves. Ironically, the slave economy means that many low-skilled human proles face unemployment because it is cheaper for the big conglomerates to work alien slaves to death. These unemployed are usually conscripted into the labour service or the military because social safety nets. Beggars are labelled as 'work-shy' and rounded up. There are actually parts of Adlerberg that must go without reliable electricity.
Private ownership of groundcars, speeders and other vehicles is low. Only a minority of licensed vehicle are primarily for personal use. The overwhelming majority of vehicles are owned for business purposes. The high price of fuel is a major impediment, so most use public transport or a bicycle. The Imperial Labour Front purports to provide common human citizens with affordable people's groundcars, but in truth it is a Ponzi scheme. Customers are required to make a weekly deposit of Imperial Credits into an ILF account on which they receice no interest. Once it has reached a certain amount, the customer is entitled to the delivery of a vehicle. The ILF receives interest for every groundcar. Only a tiny fraction of customers ever receive a vehicle. Sometimes it can be picked up ten years later and then construction errors mean that recipient rarely get to enjoy it for long. Most of the money paid into the scheme goes to building new tanks, palaces or yachts for the elite.
Tephrike is a war-torn, poor planet; corruption, irresponsible fiscal policies and mismanagement are endemic, especially in the Imperium. The planet is cut off from the galactic markets. A small amount of say a government bureaucrat's or officer's payment is in specie. This is helpful since gold or silver has actual value. The rest is in coupons and vouchers for food and clothes at the special shops and paper money not worth what it is printed on. Human citizens on the lower end of the totem pole will have to make do with vouchers and paper money. Alien workers get paper money or nothing at all.
Stability: Medium. The city is run as a totalitarian police state. Things are pretty stable in the gated communities where the humans live, but not in the ghetto - any stabiliy there is enforced at gunpoint. Moreover, the Vaderites are Social Darwinists who believe in rule by the 'strong'. A Sith who cannot defend his position is regarded as weak. This leads to a lot of waste. Moreover, there are strong racial tensions. A significant portion of the population has been enslaved otherwise disenfranchised. Unsurprisingly, this has led to resistance, terrorist attacks and passive acts of sabotage.
It also does not help that the Vaderites' power structure is a polycracy. Far from being a perfectly structured, orderly state, it is composed of competing groups and individuals beneath the Supreme Leader who vie for his favour. Sith, Party officials and officers push ahead, often in divergent directions, until the Leader picks a winner. Oftentimes, the more radical course has won out. Sudden pivots are far from unheard of. It is self-evident that this is not a recipe for stable or sane government. Fascism is not an efficient form of government.
The Humanist People's Party is the only legal political party and its various organisations exert a lot of influence. Essentially, virtually any professional group, from workers and artisans to students, lawyers and medical professionals, is organised in a Humanist league that is part of the Party apparatus. Children must join the Imperial Youth Corps. Women are encouraged to join the Amidala Corps, a labour and support group for the Vaderites. Officially the city has a mayor, but in practice the Moff, a Humanist Party regional leader, is the man in charge of the administration. The mayor is appointed by the Interior Ministry at the recommendation of the Party, and the city council is a purely advisory organ.
People associated with the Party and its sub-divisions are expected to perpetuate the regime's beliefs and reporting deviant behaviour. The Party's block and cell leaders carry out systematic surveillance of the population. Party officials in the lowest levels of the hierarchy are often seen as acting like 'little emperors' who lord over households. Here and there, the Party makes an example of an official who has overstepped his bounds, but no senior member is punished unless he has run afoul of a more powerful bigwig or his crimes have become too blatant to ignore. The Party is responsible for investigating the political background of someone applying for a career in the civil service or who is up for promotion. Even someone studying at university may be subject to a political evaluation. The secret police is fairly small and understaffed, but has a network of informants among the population.
The regime is totalitarian, but not unpopular - among the human population. Would-be liberators who come to Adlerberg expecting a popular uprising if they defeat a few villains, address the people and publicise the regime's war crimes will be disappointed. Most of the human population supports the government's measures against the evil 'other' - the aliens, the 'asocials', the interspecies couples, the liberals and so on. Deep down, the people know what it truly means when aliens are 'resettled'. But it is not talked about. Moreover, a concentration camp is located close to the city. What happens there is broadly known. Many camp officers have settled their families in villas that are part of the camp complex. There they are waited on by inmates. Furthermore, many businesses in the city use inmates as forced labourers. Many cases investigated by the secret police are based on denunciations from within the population, since the security agencies do not have the manpower to spy on everyone.
The Pius Dea cult is present in Adlerberg. The Vaderites' approach to it has vacillated between bemused tolerance, subversion and outright suppression. Fortunately, it is already humanocentric and regards most aliens as irredeemable. Supreme Leader Eisen tolerates its existence, as long as the believers know their place. A system of pure terror and oppression holds sway in Prosperity Quarter, a ghetto for the alien 'residents'. For all that the Imperium likes to trumpet that it is invincible, Adlerberg bears the scars of war. Many buildings have been levelled by bombings. Anti-aircraft guns are a common sight in the streets, and they are often manned by young boys and girls drafted from the Imperial Youth Corps. Some parts of the city are without reliable electricity and unexploded ordnance is a serious hazard in certain areas. Rationing causes grumbling because the Party elites can always get around it.
Freedom & Oppression: Extremely oppressive, but selective about it. It is an evil dictatorship, but to a large extent based on the tacit consent of the citizen class. Adlerberg is run by a fanatical Sith cult that worships Darth Vader as a God and punishes dissent harshly. Moreover, it is extremely racist, for the Disciples of the Vader are human supremacists who have taken Human High Culture to the extreme. Aliens and near-humans are denied civil rights and restricted to certain areas or enslaved outright. 'Pure' humans fare better under the régime and receive preferential treatment, provided they follow the party line. However, they are still subjects of a totalitarian dictatorship and under pressure to conform. The very concept of civil liberties is nonexistent, the media and freedom of movement are tightly controlled by the government, there are security checkpoints and mandatory curfews. All human citizens must at least pay lip service to the cult of Vader. Likewise the Humanist People's Party is the only legal political movement. It maintains a network of block wardens, who are responsible for the political supervision of neighbourhoods, report on and censor the behaviour of the inhabitants.
The racist beliefs of the Vaderites also affect the daily lives of human inhabitants, for the government is obsessed with the concept of blood purity and believes that a lack of eugenics will cause social degeneration. As a result, inhabitants must prove that they are of 'pure' human descent and free of mental illnesses and genetic defects. To maintain 'racial purity', the government has condemned sexual relations and marriages between humans and aliens. Likewise, same-sex relationships are illegal and can be punished with jail sentences or even being sent to a forced labour camp. The government maintains an elaborate sterilisation programme, with the goal of eliminating what the Vaderites regard as diseases harmful to the human species. This has also led to the murder of individuals deemed 'defective'.
Near-humans exist in a legal grey area. Depending on how radical the government is feeling at the moment, they may be able to pass as second or third class humans or be condemned as polluting the gene pool and face persecution. Since they can pass for humans, they must wear an identifying badge that shows their racial heritage. Failure to do so is treated as a capital offence. Slaves - more commonly referred to as forced labourers or 'guest workers' - have no rights and are subject to the whims of their owners.
The government also persecutes so-called 'asocial elements'. This includes homeless, beggars, draft dodgers, pacifists and those who 'habitually' avoid work and employment. They are labelled as 'useless eaters'. The régime has an negative view of social security or welfare unless it goes to the 'racially deserving'. Those unskilled, poor, or plain unlucky enough to not find an appropriate job are drafted into servitude. Slaves or humans who have had intercourse with aliens are branded. Ironically, the Vaderites acknowledge that Anakin Skywalker was once a slave. According to them, after his Jedi training was complete he returned to Tatooine. There he slaughtered the Hutts, exterminated the Tusken Raiders and freed the slaves. However, then the former slaves begged him to enslave them again. They did not know what to do with their freedom and knew they would succumb to their base urges unless they had chains to keep them in check. It was then that he realised that some people were natural slaves.
The Humanist People's Party maintains cells in the neighbourhoods and workplaces and controls the only legal youth movement. On paper, economic freedom exists, but it is rather one-sided. Factory owners do not have to worry about having to pay attention to workers' rights. However, while the owner is the little king of his factory, he in turn is subservient to his Sith masters. For true power can only be wielded by those who command the Force instead of being commanded by it.
Humans may constitute the 'master race', but the Vaderites try to regulate every aspect of their lives from cradle to grave. One part of daily life that is tightly controlled is that of marriage. Marriage is seen as a sacred institution, so only marriages approved by the state and officiated by a Humanist official of the Disciples are seen as legal. Prior to the wedding, both the prospective groom and the bride must submit to an extensive background check. This investigation is meant to determine both racial fitness and and to prove that both have pure human ancestry. Moreover, the ability to bear children is viewed as pivotal. A medical examination is mandatory in order to determine that both prospective spouses do not possess any hereditary diseases or 'defects' and are able to produce children.
Otherwise divorce is frowned upon. Of course, the rules are different for the elite. The criteria are more relaxed for most Non-Force-Users, but very strict for Sith and the KEC. This is because the Disciples maintain a breeding programme, which is supposed to produce 'stronger Force-Users'. Every Sith who wants to marry has to obtain the permission of the Supreme Leader, as the primary goal of such a union is the conservation of 'good blood' and the formation of 'healthy human families'. Because the Leader has other things to do, he has a special office to process all applications as well as maintain the Family Book of the Disciples, which is supposed to contain the names of each couple that has been allowed to wed.
In certain cases, the Leader may take the liberty of 'arranging' a marriage. It is a bad idea for the lucky couple to say no. After all, the Supreme Leader knows best. It goes without saying that these regulations have produced a mountain of paperwork. Not only must every application be processed, it is often difficult for applicants to produce genealogical trees for themselves and their spouses stretching back several centuries. They also have to fill out a questionnaire and provide full-length holopics showing the applicant and future spouse standing side by side, as well as images of the families of both partners. The backlog is enormous, the 'race specialists' are overworked and judgements can be arbitrary. As a result, corruption has become endemic because it is simply more practical to get ahead by paying a bribe.
Divorce is promoted as desirable if a citizen has 'erred in judgement' and married a partner who turned out to be racially and/or ideologically unsuitable, so that they can form new, racially-approved partnerships and produce more children. Otherwise it is strictly frowned upon. All children are required to join the Imperial Youth Corps. Gender policies are sexist. The regime promotes the ideal of the working wife, as excluding women from the work force is impractical, but at the same time expects women to be subservient and produce many children for the 'Father State'. Things are more flexible for female Force-Users because it is obviously very difficult to tell a Sith Lady to stay at home. Particularly 'meritorious' male Disciples, soldiers and government officials are encouraged to take a second wife to pass on their genes. The opposite is not allowed.
Description: Located in a canyon near a sea, Adlerberg is one of the major cities in the territory controlled by the Disciples of the Vader. They call their state the Greater Sith Imperium. Before the Sith took over, it was a mixed species city and called Almopia. However, when the Disciples took over, they reshaped the city in their image. This involved renaming it, carrying out ethnic cleansings and forcing many of the original inhabitants into a ghetto or labour camps. Entire city blocks were demolished to make room for monuments or residential areas for human settlers.
Today, it is considered a model city. Key characteristics are oppression, racial segregation and religious indoctrination. The Sith are on top, supported by a caste composed of human administrators, soldiers, technicians and other individuals with vital skills. For a certain strata of the population, life is good...but can easily turn the other way if they fall out of favour with the Sith ruling class. For the rest, it is miserable. Power struggles between the Sith as well as between them and members of the citizen caste that resent their privileges, unrest among the slaves and underground activity threaten the stability of Adlerberg. Adlerberg is the city where the Humanist Party holds it big rallies, so it is a bit of a showpiece for the regime and features regularly in propaganda movies. Of course, they rarely show the parts of the city that were devastated by bombings except when it is useful for propaganda. Anti-aircraft guns are a common sight in the city.
Adlerberg is a highly stratified, racially segregated city. Aliens have been confined to the ironically named Prosperity Quarter, a sealed off ghetto, and Camp Progress, a concentration camp. Officially they have been separated from humans for their own good. The social and political elite of the city lives in Promise City, a residential area for relatively well-off humans. Those who are allowed to live here with their families are in good standing with the régime. However, meteoric rises can be followed by sudden falls. Some of the Vaderites view present policies as inadequate and advocate the dissolution of Prosperity Quarter.
However, they do not do so for humanitarian reasons. Rather they argue that it is a powder keg and a breeding ground for diseases. They also remember the uprising during the Netherworld War. In their view, the ghetto is a 'provisional solution'. Tying in with this, particularly radical humanists believe that reliance on alien slave labour is making humans weak. They claim it creates the risk of racial mixing, moral and physical 'degeneration', which they see as the reason for the fall of many past human civilisations. None of these groups criticise the present system because they see it as unjust or inhumane. In many ways, the city is a showpiece for the regime. It is considered a privilege for a human citizen to be allowed to live in Promise City. However, this privilege can be taken away, and the humans live in perpetual fear of an alien insurrection in the ghetto. The government's Ministry of Propaganda does its best to fan the flames to keep the people obedient. At regular intervals, the government exiles citizens who have run afoul of the regime.
Adlerberg is governed as a totalitarian, fascist dictatorship. There is no free press, trade unions have been abolished and forced to merge into the powerless Imperial Labour Front and Party membership is practically a requirement in order to attain an important position. Any attempt at nonconformist behaviour, be it in thought or deed, is supposed to be met with terror. The precepts of Humanism are the guiding principles of governance. Those who are believed to be at variance with it are defined as alien to the Humanist People's Community and must be eradicated.
The government strongly encourages human couples to have children. Women who have conceived and raised four or more children receive an award. Various privileges are bestowed upon the recipient, such as preferential treatment in hospitals and for other public services. Those who receive the highest class of the decoration are treated like local nobility. However, granting them an annuity has turned out to be unfeasible due to budget constraints. But they do not need to stand in line at shops and even old people must give up their space for them when using public transport. They also get a maid to look after the brood. Sith and members of the KEC are under orders to propagate their bloodline.
There is a lot of industry in Adlerberg, which makes the city important to the Vaderites. As a result, it is heavily guarded. Both the Imperial military and the Disciples have a strong presence. It is seen as a great honour for a humanist family if one their children is found to be Force-Sensitive. It is the law that all Force-Sensitive children must join the Disciples and be taught the ways of the dark side of the Force. This only applies to humans, as Force-Sensitive non-humans are murdered. It is pertinent to note that many humans do live well in Adlerberg, which has turned them into supporters of the regime. However, this comes at a significant cost. The Humanist state is essentially a looter's state and an enormous Ponzi scheme. Moreover, there is very little social mobility for the average low or low middle class human.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Imperial Museum of Natural History and Sentientology: Ostensibly a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, alien species, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. In actual fact its purpose is to spread Vaderite propaganda and help indoctrinate the youth to believe in Vaderite ideals. Here visitors learn that Twi'leks have worms growing out of their heads, Wookiees are savages who eat human flesh, Zeltrons are sexual deviants who use mind control powers to ensnare innocent humans, Gungans are inherently clumsy and mentally deficient.
It postulates that the inferiority of aliens can be determined by the shape of their skulls. They are also taught that that the first contact between the Mon Calamari and galactic civilization occurred during the reign of the Galactic Empire and that the fish people were uplifted by the benevolent Wilhuff Tarkin, but betrayed him out of greed. Likewise, his enslavement of the Wookiees was a benevolent act meant to uplift them, as they had existed in a bestial state before his coming. Aside from this, the museum has exhibitions about the flora and fauna of Tephrike. Many of these tend to be useful. However, it also propagates the long-discredted World Ice Theory.
Monument of the Great and Triumphant Sith'ari: An enormous, alchemised Vader statue, depicting him in his famous suit of life support armour. He stands next to a TIE fighter, which is supposed to resemble the craft he often flew into battle. He is flanked by statues of Darth Tyranus, for the Vaderites believe that Qui-Gon and Tyranus were the same person and that he preceded Vader as Dark Lord, and Darth Malitia, the first Supreme Leader. It is common for school classes to visit this place. Behind the statues is a moscaic mural depicting some of Vader's great deeds. Anyone who visits the site must bow before the statue and leave a wreath behind. Photos must capture the monument in its entirety.
Department of Racial Health: Located in Promise City. This government department is housed in a foreboding building in central square. It is nominally tasked with maintaining the purity and health of people of the Sith. It provides healthcare for veterans and other 'deserving' humans. One of its duties is providing certification of racial pedigree, which are necessary for marriages and for most top jobs. Anyone who applies to the Sith academy must provide an extensive certificate proving his pure human ancestry. To ensure everything is properly documented, the bureaucrats who work at the department have created complicated racial charts. It is not uncommon for Sith to accuse their rivals of having impure blood. Furcht was very fond of this strategy. His successor is a bit more relaxed.
This office is also responsible for the sterilisation or murder of citizens deemed to be 'defective'. Furthermore, it provides healthcare to veterans, their families and 'racially valuable individuals', though not to the masses as at large. It also publishes textbooks and propaganda brochures meant to educate subjects, especially children and adolescents, on the importance of 'racial hygiene'. The government treats habitual criminals and 'work shy' individuals as diseased, for it is believed that the corruption runs in the blood. Thus the department often sterilises them to, as they see it, cleanse the gene pool. The Department of Racial Health has a bit of a rivalry with the Race and Settlement Main Office, as a number of their duties overlap.
Altar of the Sith'ari:
Here the faithful congregate to worship the Dark God Vader. Fittingly, it is shaped like a giant Vader helmet. The temple was badly damaged during the Light Sith insurrection, but it was a priority for the Vaderites to fix. But you can by the different colouration of the material. Mosaics display the trials, tribulations and victories of Vader. The believer will learn about his youth as as a slave, his time as a Jedi and his ascension as Dark Lord. Vader slew Darth Tyranus to claim the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. The Jedi tried to stop him, but he annihilated them. It was Vader, not Palpatine, who was the true Master of the Sith. But the traitor Obi-Wan turned Vader's son against him.
However, though Luke and Palpatine schemed to betray him, the Dark Master ascended to godhood. The most fervent of the faithful seek to emulate the Sith'ari by shedding some of their flesh. This is usually done by losing an organic arm and having it replaced by a cybernetic. For this reason, the temple has an extensive laboratory and workshop. However, the most devout take it a step further by losing more organic parts and replacing them with machinery. The temple is guarded by cultists who wear stylised Vader helmets, black armour and have had most of their organic body parts replaced with cybernetics.
Rumour has it that they are no longer organic beings at all, but have had their brains transferred into mechanical bodies. This cannot be verified since they are never seen outside of their sealed armour. There is a huge hall where rituals are performed. Human wedding ceremonies are also held here. Indeed, it is a mark of prestige for a human family if the wedding takes place in the temple.
There are also naming ceremonies for new-born, human children. The birth of a child of the Disciples is celebrated in a solemn, propaganda-ladden ceremony. A large ceremonial sword is rested on the child's stomach while the Imperial March plays. A large Vader portrait gazes down sternly upon the attendees. A senior officer addresses the service, saying the following words over the baby: "we take you into our community as a limb of our body, you shall grow up in our protection and bring honour to your name, pride to your brotherhood and inextinquishable glory to your species."
Padme Vader Feminine Maternity Home: A maternity home run by the Well of Life Foundation, with support from the Amidala Corps and the Padme Vader League of Humanist Women. It pursues the goal of raising the birth rate of human children. Pregnant human women receive prenatal and postnatal care. This only applies to the offsprings of humans regarded as 'pure' and healthy. The Home aids unmarried human mothers and encourages anonymous births here. While the State prefers good humanists to marry, it also promotes the growth of the human population. Because abortion is illlegal in most cases, the programme supports women who will be giving birth out of wedlock...provided both the mother and the father are 'pure' humans. This must be proved with a racial certificate and every mother-to-be must undergo an examination by a KEC doctor.
The Home encourages 'racially valuable' women and KEC men to procreate. To this end, the Home serves as a nursery that allows mothers to give birth and stay with the children afterwards. Single mothers are offered the chance to give birth in secret. If need be it forges birth certificates for them so that they can categorised as widowed or divorced. The Foundation assumes guardianship of the child. Should the mother not be in a position to care for the child, it will arrange an adoption by an ideologically pure family.
The Home has sixty beds for mothers and one hundred for children born here. Life in the Home is not particularly pleasant. Women living here must help out in the household and the kitchen. They must give birth without painkillers. Breastfeeding is mandatory. The KEC carries out an absurd naming ceremony for newly-born children, where the mother swears to raise the child as a good Humanist and a KEC member becomes godfather - and in turn swears an oath to make sure the mother abides by hers. Ironically, despite the Humanists' obsession with cleanliness and purity, conditions in the Home are pretty bad. For one, the Home is crowded. There are two and a half times as many children as intended. As a result, they receive inadequate care and diseases such as pneumonia are common, causing tragic and unnecessary deaths among the vulnerable children. Many children get sick; diapers and bed clothes are dirty. At the same time, staff members are often unqualified and those who actually care about the children are overworked.
The Home also has a very purpose. It kidnaps children in occupied territories who are deemed 'racially valuable' but whose families are judged impure. As one of their sponsors says, "It is our duty to take the children with us to remove them from their environment ... either we win over any good blood that we can use for ourselves and give it a place in our people or we destroy this blood." Those seen as desirable are given to families in the programme to be raised as good humanists. They are forced to forget their birth parents and receive new names. All records of their heritage are erased. The Foundation runs a boarding school outside of Adlerberg. Older children are sent there.
Jason Kasadares High School: Located in Promise City. Here human youths learn how wonderful it is to be under the thumb of the Sith and how grateful they should be to the Dark Lord. It is named after a former pupil of the school. Jason was the son of a high-ranking official in the Vaderite security apparatus. He was loyal to Vaderite ideals, striving to be like his father. However, unfortunately for him, he was diagnosed with a congenital disease which would slowly weaken and paralyse him. After discovering for himself that he was incurably ill, Jason self-reported himself to the Department of Racial Health and willingly left with its doctors to be purged as a 'defective'.
Publicly, Jason was praised for his devotion to the Vaderite ideal and was even the subject of a propaganda film that was broadcast in cinemas across the Sith domain. A high-ranking Imperial general gave a speech in his honour. The high school he attended was renamed after him in remembrance of his devotion. Today, portraits of him can be found in the school and there is a small statue. Ironically, his father had tried to prevent him from being reported. Naturally he had no problem with persecuting other parents who tried to protect their 'defective' children. The long-discredited Protocols of the Chieftains of Ryloth are required reading for all pupils. This book is a piece of rubbish that places the blame for the Gulag virus on Twi'lek Jedi trying to destroy humanity. It has long been debunked as a forgery, but is treated as gospel by the Vaderites.
Glory Towers - an apartment building for mid-level bureaucrats, Sith acolytes and other people who are favoured by the regime, but still middle class. The building has a block warden to make sure everyone displays suitable enthusiasm for Humanist clap trap. Kyriaki's apartment is located here. Her place is pretty austere, though not neceessarily by philosophy. More like she doesn't spend much time there so it's just got the basics. She had furniture provided but it was poor quality so she had the bed replaced with something better. There are two lifts, and one is always broken and the other one is perpetually in use...meaning she has to use the stairs a lot which isn't good for her heart. Blackouts are not uncommon. Especially the lights sometimes switch to those annoying emergency lights. Unexploded ordnance is still a hazard in the city block the building is located in.
Grand Imperium Station - a big domed public building which used to serve as the central train station. It was a grand showpiece, but took a hit during a major Dominion aerial bombing. Years have passed, but the dome is still broken. Repair efforts are underway...and have been for years. The funds that are officially allocated to reconstruction are routinely embezzled. The subway line was bombed which in turn brought down a lot of this central station and its dome. Part of the city here collapsed onto the subway tunnel when some pillars were blown up. This damage has also not been fixed. The Vaderites have put up big impressive scaffolding around it. The rail hub has been shifted to another station until this one is fixed.
Grand Arena: A massive amphitheatre for gladiatorial combat and other public spectacles. Some gladiators are convicted felons, while others are free citizens who make a living this way. It is not uncommon for spectators to place bets on gladiators. The Vaderites have a strong love of big show competitions and team sports. They have leagues for Force-Users and Non-Force-Users. The two do not play with each other because it would not do to have a Force-User beaten by a squib. Gladiatorial battles against wild animals and non-humans are a form of entertainment.
Alien gladiators may be pitted against wild animals. Of course an alien might occasionally win, but they are probably so handicapped and placed against Force users that it's rare. Perhaps it might even be welcome for five percent of aliens to win because it means the human who conquers them is truly a superior being to overcome there savage beast. There are no gladiatrixes. Such a thing goes against the conception of human women. There was once a Supreme Leader who performed in the arena as a gladiator. Naturally all 'fights' were heavily rigged in his favour. The arena was the site of a slave uprising during the Netherworld Crisis. Many slaves died during it or in the subsequent fighting, but some were able to escape into the wilderness.
Starkiller Mustering Grounds: An area reserved for mass rallies and marches of the faithful. Each rally transforms the area into a sea of uniformed columns from the Party, the KEC, the military, the Imperial Youth Corps and otherorganisations marching lock in step. The rallies are a huge waste of money, but calling them that can put a person in prison and make them lose their job. Huge structures have been erected to facilitate the spectacle. These include the Congress Hall, the Hall of Honour, the Great Road, the Malitia Arena and the Veers Field, a deployment area. During Vaderite rallies, deployment of thousands of soldiers and Sith take place in the arena.
The Malitia Arena is a parade field. It is shaped like an altar, with enormous banners and twin eagles made out of alchemised gold. These can be found in the side wings of the grandstand. Here, the Vaderites honour their 'martyrs'. The field is large enough for over one hundred thousand Humanist warriors to deploy here. One of the central relics is the so-called Blood Flag, a banner that was supposedly carried by Malitia's bodyguard into battle. New standards of the Knights of the Ebon Claw are "consecrated" by touching their guidons wih it. The Hall of Honour is an arcaded hall with an adjacent cobbled stone terrace with two rows of pedestals for fire bowls. Here the Vaderites honour their fallen champions. The rallies are traditionally initiated by the Dark Lord. At the climax of reach rally, the Supreme Leader walks over the long granite path from the main grandstands to the Hall's terace and salutes.
The Altar of Ascension features a huge grandstand and a smaller stand. It has a parade ground, ramparts and towers with flagpoles for spectators to sit. The complex is centred on an monumental grandstand with a golden hall. It features the podium of the Supreme Leader. The spectators' grandstands are a lot smaller. The interior has room for a massive number of people. Mass parades take place here. The official pictures carefully edit out any decay in the grandstand's stonework. A large number of searchlights are used to provide spectacular illumination during nighttime events. These searchlights could be put to better use by the city's air defence force, but officers and soldiers have learned not to complain. The rallies are characterised by speeches, perfectly choreographed marches and the occasional announcement of new policies. The late Darth Furcht, the former Dark Lord, was not much of an orator and dislikes giving speeches because he had a very high-pitches voice. This was a cause of embarrassment for him, so he used brainwashed doubles in his stead.
Republican Guard partisans and Inheritors of the Light Father have bombed rallies a few times. There used to be a crescent-shaped tribune of honour - a huge grandstand - but rebel agents blew it up. One of the monuments at the Starkiller Grounds is the New Colossus. This is essentially a massive walker that resembles an AT-AT...but is so large it cannot move. This was not the plan, but the designer claimed it had been. The Supreme Leader can use it to address the faithful and look on his legions of followers.
In truth, the Starkiller Mustering Grounds are not entirely finished. The Kallimarmaro is supposed to accommodate more than four hundred thousand visitors and be the site of the Humanist Games - essentially a Tephriki version of Galactic Games. The colosseum is supposed to rise over four hundred feet into the air, but it remains unfinished. Only the foundation stands. Most of the construction materials come from Camp Progress, an enormous concentration camp. There the prisoners have to provide the building materials under horrible conditions that often result in their deaths.
Admiral Piett Docks: Despite the name, this area has acquired a reputation for being a tough part of the city, even though the Order Police frequently sweep the area to round up the 'usual suspects'. Widely considered to be infested with criminals, smugglers, squatters and alien fugitives who have managed to sneak out of Prosperity Quarter or Camp Progress. Several buildings show signs of damage from bombings. In the old days it was a place of trade between Almopia and the Mon Calamari and Gungan settlements. However, these underwater habitats no longer exist. The waters also suffer from pollution. Ships still come and go, but traffic is nowhere near pre-Gulag Virus levels. Some of the local crime bosses nesting here have under the table agreements with the Sith overlords.
Skywalker House: The headquarters of the Humanist People's Party, the only legal political party in Vaderite territory. It has been modelled on what the Party's founders thought Vader's palace looked like. Of course, it is not only a tiny scale version but also wrong. The Supreme Leader is acclaimed here. The Vaderites despise democracy, so they do not even pretend to have elections. Instead a candidate must win over the most powerful Sith and Party bigwigs - or purge them. Coups are not uncommon. The Party Chancellery has its offices here. The building is adorned with a giant sculpture of Vader's helmet.
Camp Progress: A massive slave labour camp. Located outside the city proper, but closely connected to it. Most of the inmates are non-humans and are drawn from the population of Prosperity Quarter. Their families are kept in the ghetto and live in fear of punishment if the labourers do not complete their tasks. Rather than being a single camp, it is a larger complex with various ancillary work camps located outside of it. There the inmates toil in the mines, stone quarries and factories. Various private companies have set up outposts here to exploit the forced labourers in return for a fee. There is an underground complex where 'special projects' are pursued. Conditions in the camp are extremely poor. The guards and administrators are provided by the Knights of the Ebon Claw, who control the police force. Some members of the Amidala Corps serve as overseers, clerks and guards.
The inmates are tattooed and receive triangular badges to identify them. The 'disobedient' are branded. These poor unfortunate souls receive extremely meagre rations, live in fear of the whip and tend to be worked to death. The Vaderites are not worried about attrition rates, but the mining process is very primitive and reliant on manual labour, which is performed by people who have few incentives. As a consequence, it is quite inefficient. Terror is used to keep the slaves in line and suppress dissent.
The complex has watch towers with machine gun emplacements, a central building, barracks for guards and prisoners, workshops, production centres and execution grounds. Aside from the threat of death, prisoners also live in fear of being selected for alchemical experiments practiced by the sorcerers among the Disciples. Abuse is standard policy and indeed encouraged. A guard who does not punish an 'uppity' prisoner may be seen as soft. Camp guards are taught to regard the prisoners as the scum of the earth, as savage beings who are less than sentient and who would murder them and their families if not kept on a leash. The slogan 'Work sets you free' appears on a sign erected over the entrance to the camp.
Promise City: Residential area for relatively - by Tephriki standards - well-off humans, such as administrators, Party officials, doctors, businessmen, KEC officers and their families. The Altar of the Sith'ari is one of the major structures of this area. All inhabitants belong to the citizen class, are members of the Humanist Party and must have proved their loyalty to the régime. Promise City has its own schools, amenities, restaurants and special shops where those favoured by the régime can buy rare goods. Various government offices and businesses are located here. The garbage is picked up on time, there is a green park and the houses are clean. Menial jobs are performed by 'indentured labourers'. A resident of Promise City is considered strange if he does not have a servant. He would be seen as even stranger if he did not make a habit out of putting his servant in his place at regular intervals. Alien 'servants' have substandard facilities.
However, while all humans are superior to 'alien filth', they are not equal. Force Blind are inferior to Sith and must defer to them. Even the lowliest Sith acolyte must be addressed as 'my lord'. Sith are not shy about using their privileged position to extort favours. After all, in the end everyone is supposed to serve them. Nonetheless, this is a strata of society that supports Sith rule. Ideological fervour varies and there is a good number of people who are cynical about religious matters. But they are invested in the present system. The Humanist People's Party has a headquarters here. It was targeted by speeder bombs during the uprising. The Party has established cells in companies, the national trade union, universities, ministries and municipal offices. Their job is to ensure that the Party permeates and controls every aspect of daily life. The Party Secretary is one of the most powerful politicians in Adlerberg.
Beggars are not allowed in Promise City. Individuals caught begging or squatting will be arrested as 'work shy' and conscripted into the forced labour force. There is not much of a social safety net in place for people who fall through the cracks. In the eyes of the Sith, it would only subsidise the weak and lazy. The sole exception are 'racially valuable' individuals and their families. Thus the government only provides welfare in accordance with its eugenic policies. Promise City is protected by walls, turrets and security forces. Every resident is under surveillance and residential areas are bugged, though the devices used for this purpose may suffer glitches here and there. Life is 'pleasant', but stifling and heavily ritualised. There is an enormous pressure to conform.
It is the law that all Force-Sensitive children must be inducted into the Disciples of the Vader. Furthermore, they may only marry other Force-Sensitives, as the Vaderites believe that this will produce offsprings particularly strong in the Force. Some Sith believe that they can create the next Sith'ari through selective breeding. And naturally all marriages require a certificate from the Race and Settlement Main Office. All Non-Force-Sensitive children must join the youth movement of the Humanist Party. The Sith depend on Non-Force-Using administrative, scientific and military professionals to run their realm, but see them as inferiors. Moreover, rules and regulations are at odds with the Sith's belief in rule of the strong. The Imperial District is located in Promise City. Aside from being the seat of municipal government, this district houses some government ministries. Adlerberg is not the Vaderite capital, but some ministries have relocated here while 'The City of Benevolent Providence' is being rebuilt. They may be here for a while.
Odeon of the Triumphant Will: A large theatre located in Promise City. Minstrel shows are also popular among human inhabitants. These shows are performed by humans in makeup, costumes or Durosface for the purpose of playing the role of aliens and mocking them as lazy, buffoonish, barbaric and dim-witted. Twi'leks are depicted as sexual deviants and evil plotters; Rodians and Neimodians as greedy and shiftless, Hutts as perverted; Zeltrons are depraved creatures of lust who use their pheromones to enslave humans and taint the gene pool; Houk are dumb muscle; Twi'leks change colour by eating human flesh and Gungans are clumsy and inarticulate. Some Sith dislike the shows though, considering 'humans prancing around as inferiors' to be "disrespectful" of social norms. Sometimes real aliens are used. In those cases the plays are made even more humiliating. The lyrics and dialogue are always racist and human in origin. Songs about alien serfs yearning to return to their masters abound. The message is clear: do not worry about the aliens, they themselves think they are better off this way.
Imperial Youth Command: Located in a historically Twi'lek neighbourhood. The former residents have been 'resettled' - or rather murdered. Vaderite propaganda spreads lies about how this used to be a site of a 'temple of debauchery'. Adras Kasidiaris, a young Humanist thug, was buried in a nearby cemetery after being killed by Dominion militia. Thus the leadership of the Humanist Party's youth wing can make plans to indoctrinate and drill its charges in the vicinity of the martyr's grave. The building features a firing range for rifle practice. Membership in the Imperial Youth Corps is mandatory for human boys and girls. The group organises summer camps, weekend trips, and leisure activities and provides paramilitary training. It has its own police force called the Krypteia, which punishes 'bad behaviour' and 'uppity' xenos. Members of the corps often aid the army by providing anti-aircraft flak crews. The building features all manners of propaganda, including a recruitment office for a KEC division whose junior enlisted are all members of the youth group.
Angelos Bookbinders and Sellers - secretly called the Underworld Library by those in the know. It has an underground reading room for 'divisive' literature. The Vaderites burn books they disapprove of. A group of non-violent, dissident students called the Blue Rose meets here. They have tried to conduct an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign to stir up resistance against the regime. But the human population is not very receptive. Anyone who visits the underground library lives in risk of denunciation, arrest and torture.
Adras Kasidiaris Martyrs' Cemetery: A cemetery whose namesake was a petty thug, but Humanist propaganda has been imbued him with the aura of a saint whose 'sacrificial death passionately inflamed millions who followed'. He is one of the most well-known Humanist 'martyrs' and has his own cult of personality. He has been interred here in a mausoleum. It is considered an honour to be buried in this cemetery. The mausoleum was wrecked by a bomb blast caused by the Republican Guard during a ceremony. It was eventually rebuilt, but it is likely that the deceptively perfect corpse on display is not actually that of the real Adras. The cemetery features an alchemised statue of the fallen 'martyr'. He stands tall and in full uniform, giving the dead the Humanist salute.
Prosperity Quarter: A ghetto for non-humans. Life in it is defined by poverty, oppression and squalour. With the crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and very poor sanitation (coupled with insufficient medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease are a major feature. The Sith's propaganda department treats this as 'evidence' that the population is composed of 'unclean savages' and has made propganda movies about the ghetto. Most of the inhabitants are reliant on smuggling and bartering as a means of survival. Private workshops have been created to manufacture goods to be sold secretly on the human side of the town. Foodstuffs are smuggled often by children who cross the wall. Despite grave hardships, life in the area has educational and cultural activities, conducted by underground organizations. Hospitals, public soup kitchens, orphanages, refugee centres and recreation facilities have been formed, as well as an underground school system. Due to their illegality, schools often operate under the guise of soup kitchens. The Sith do not want the inhabitants to receive an education because that could make them dangerous. This means that teachers and librarians risk their lives.
Inhabitants of the ghetto live in constant fear of police raids. They are conscripted to serve as forced labourers in human businesses. Many of these are operated by the government or the Sith, but private enterprises can receive the license to utilise slave labourers. These can be loaned to them by the state, or become their permanent serfs. Conveniently, companies run by Sith or in good standing with them can requisition police forces to round up ghetto inhabitants. The ghetto is administrated by a native council and has a native police force. The councillors are caught in a horrible dilemma, for they must enforce decrees that further the suffering of their people, or be persecuted by the state.
Some councillors are in league with underground organisations, others uphold the present system out of self-interest or because they believe that insurrection would only make things worse. The fact that the Sith carry out disproportionately brutal reprisals for every rebel attack gives this view some validity, though insurgents in turn argue that the conciliators are only delaying the inevitable. The Sith also exploit racial tensions between the inhabitants in order to prevent them from forming a united front. Those who remain in the ghetto are hostages for the good behaviour of the slaves. Vaderite companies have set up textile manufacturing plants and other small businesses, where the workers labour in sweatshop conditions.
A number of underground organisations are active in the Quarter. Some are focused on the preservation of their people's culture, run secret schools and an underground railroad to smuggle people out. Others are militant and determined to take the fight to the oppressors. The Republican Guard and the Dominion both sponsor rebel groups. This is the cause of friction, though it is not unheard of for a rebel cell to play off both factions and switch when it is convenient. It is pertinent to note that due to the persecution their people have endured, a good number of rebels are very racist against humans. The overlords of Adlerberg make 'examples' to cow dissent. The Sith and their allies are very paranoid about revolts and this drives them to extreme action. At the same time, they maintain that they are superhumans and their servitors are inherently inferior.
Protectors' Tower: Located in Promise City. Headquarters of the security forces. The Order Police and the Security Police are based here. The former constitutes the uniformed police, fire brigade, civil defence and riot control troops. By contrast, the Security Police consists of the secret police and the criminal investigations police. Both agencies are under the control of the Knights of the Ebon Claw, who are also based here. "Protecting our species" is the official maxim of the security forces. The part-time militia has barracks nearby.
Darth Furcht, the late Supreme Leader of the Imperium, was the leader of the KEC, which gave them a lot of influence. However, his recent demise has sparked a purge.The tower is heavily guarded by paramilitary forces as well as Sith. The basement is used to torture and often murder prisoners. There is an bunker below the surface, which the leadership can seek refuge in should an emergency arise. It was constructed to withstand nuclear strikes.
White Eagle Manor: A huge, opulent mansion owned by Darth Eisen and his family. It has been built near the edge of a considerable cliff overlooking Adlerberg. The building has a magnificient view of the city below and sits high above ground. It is one of the many fine pieces of real estate owned by the Dark Lord. Eisen is one of the greatest art collectors and art thieves in Tephriki history. The art gallery inside the manor is not as extensive as that in Sophiahall, his country residence, but it is a close second.
The Dark Lord is classic esthete and a passionate collector of artworks and beautiful objects. This is reflected in the luxurious interior. The manor has its own hangar and incorporates its own shield generator to resist bombardment. Vaderite propaganda claims that the servants are 'grateful guest workers' from Hope Falls. Back in the early days of his career, Eisen acquired the building by expropriating the original owners, who had been 'unmasked' as having alien ancestry. The owners were evicted and the manor was 'Humanised'. This allowed him to purchase the building far below market price. After becoming a Sith Lord, Eisen expanded it, using slave labour.
Battlefleet Sith'ari Command Spaceport: A gigantic spaceport for the glorious Sith fleet...which doesn't exist. But anyone who asks why it is empty or where the ships are is clearly too nosey or possibly a spy. And of course, the official answer is that they are in space, fighting against the hated Jedi. The crews are sworn to secrecy. Anyone who claims that the ships do not exist has succumbed to Jedi lies and deceit. 'Crews' are regularly paraded across the space dock, 'transports' and 'next generation TIEs' take off for 'space', but in reality just go high into the air and come down elsewhere.
During the ghetto uprising, some Vaderite followers tried to seek refuge in the port, hoping they would find ships that could take them to safety. But they were rather disappointed. The rebels pursued them, killed the Sith supporters, then discovered the place was empty. The few ships in it were just for show. Indeed some were literally museum pieces. So the rebels left mocking graffiti. The Vaderites have not discovered all of it because people enter the port very rarely. When questioned about what the grand fleet did during the bombing of Castle Maysaf and the death of the Dark Lord, the Sith will claim they destroyed many of the invaders' ships but were prevented by traitors from stopping the attack.
Destiny Sector: 'Forging a Future for Humanity' is their motto. Destiny Engineering is a major business in Sith-controlled territory. Destiny started as a construction, infrastructure and logistics company, but has branched out and become a sprawling, vertically integrated conglomerate. Destiny Sector is a special district in the city. This was a concession by the government as a reward for Destiny Engineering's unwavering loyalty to the Sith. Some of the factories and construction yards have been bombed by the Dominion or sabotaged by the Inheritors of the Light Father.
Company culture is authoritarian and corruption is endemic. The company receives forced labourers from the government to utilise as a work force. Squatters, beggars, refugees and 'deviants' may also be rounded up and conscripted. Pro-business and pro-Sith propaganda features heavily throughout facilities owned by Destiny Engineering. The company is run by Lord Skaer. His detractors call him a 'Business Sith' because he is not martial enough for their tastes. But he has embraced the moniker.
Skaer has a talent for organising, but also for public relations. The silver-tongued conman is not shy about cooking the figures to promote the myth of himself as an industrial miracle worker. Meanwhile, slave workers are starved and worked to death. He has also used them to build grandiose monuments, as he considers himself to be a great architect. He was responsible for building the Battlefleet Sith'ari Command Spaceport.
SECURITY
High.
- There is a substantial garrison composed of Stormtroopers, part-time militia and secret police assets as well as a contingent of Sith Warriors and Inquisitors of varying skill and abilities. Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, and so Sith Swords, Force Imbued Blades and weapons with Electro-Plasma Filament heads are typical weapons for Sith. They also have a force of tanks such as the Occupier combat assault tank and the T3-B, as well as other combat vehicles. A few cybernetic Sithspawn comparable to Sith Knights are assigned to guard the Altar of the Sith'ari.
- A notable portion of Adlerberg's population is kept in near-slavery, so the area is heavily militarised to keep them from breaking their chains. Of course, this also creates a security risk if the oppressed are able to arm themselves. Prosperity Quarter is surrounded by a wall manned by Sith troops to prevent escape. The constant guarding of the ghetto by the security forces requires disproportionately large resources of manpower.
- The Vaderites have several watercraft that patrol the waterways. This includes Missile Destroyers, Advanced Scout Frigates, and very few Aquatic Terrain Armoured Transports.
- There is a network of turrets, sonic cannons, and a shield generator. However, the shield generator only covers the Protectors' Tower, Promise City and Destiny Sector. This would leave Camp Progress, Prosperity Quarter and basically any area inhabited by people deemed non-essential exposed. The Vaderites consider this a feature, not a bug.
- Promise City has its own walls with emplacements, checkpoints, machine gun nests and troops guarding the 'great and good' of society. There are security checkpoints in key areas of Adlerberg. Strangers are liable to be stopped and frisked by the security forces. It is a totalitarian dictatorship, so the police is not bound by the rule of law. Individuals deemed 'anti-social' or a threat to the regime will be detained without trial, shot or subjected to forced labour. Simply being caught without the right papers is grounds for arrest.
- Strict racial segregation is enforced throughout the city. Non-humans and near-humans who could pass as humans must wear an identifying badge. Tattooing is used to identify inmates of Camp Progress. Forced labourers are required to wear identifying armbands with their numbers. Triangular badges of various colours are used to identify the various categories of prisoners. For instance, green is used for criminals, red for political prisoners and black for 'asocials' and 'work-shy' such as pacifists, vagrants, mentally ill and alcoholics.
- Electrostatic weapons, similar to the one in New Adasta on Ziost, have been set up in all major squares and by the 'alien residences', including the camp. The divide between rich and poor, between slaves and free men, is a great risk factor. Due to fear of air strikes, flak cannons have been set up and members of the militia, army reservists and the Imperial Labour Service run regular drills. There is also a network of air raid shelters for humans. Key government buildings have bunkers designed to resist bombardment. However, Tephrike has been isolated for many centuries, so a lot of the equipment used by the soldiers is older. Slugthrowers, flechette weapons, pulse-wave weapons and the like are more common than modern blasters. Their vehicles are also older than galactic standard. Generally the best is reserved for the Sith and elite forces. Adlerberg is located in a canyon and some of the access ways in the mountains have been mined.
Though difficult to imagine now, there was a time when Tephrike was not a war-torn hellhole. The planet was discovered and colonised five centuries before the twilight of the Old Republic. Its many seas attracted aquatic aliens such as Gungans and Mon Calamari, while its bountiful wild life, timber and raw materiels enticed corporations to set up shop and build colonies. When Palpatine inaugurated the New Order, the planet came under the control of the Galactic Empire, which led to a period of tyranny that was eventually ended with the help of the Rebel Alliance.
Though the planet suffered during the Yuuzhan Vong War, it emerged from it in well enough shape. However, though united under the banner of a democratic federation, the planet was increasingly wracked by instability. A fractious party system and racial tensions led to political gridlock and divisiveness. It was the outbreak of the Gulag Virus that broke the camel's back and sent the planet spiralling into chaos. The Jedi assumed a protective stance, trying to restore order. But power corrupted them and the Dominion of Light they founded turned into a totalitarian police state.
The Vaderites were one of the factions that rose in opposition to the Jedi theocracy. Forcer supremacism, Dark Side worship, human supremacism and slavery form the bedrock of the Vaderites' society. Today, Adlerberg is one of their strongholds. To the Sith, it is a model city. Here, the Dark God is worshipped by the faithful, the lesser beings know their place and the strong rule. There is a strong urban divide between rich and poor, between humans and non-humans, between Force-Users and Non-Force-Users. In the old days Adlerberg was known as Almopia. Before the Disciples of the Vader took control and remade it in their image.
Almopia was founded during Tephrike's period of expansion. The first organised settlement of Tephrike was carried out by corporate prospectors attracted by the discovery that the area was rich in diamonds and valuable ores. They founded the town of Synorostad, exploiting a labour force composed of convicts and debt slaves. Corporate abuses led to workers' strikes, which led to Jedi intervention. The first settlement near Almopia was set up by Gungan and Mon Calamari colonists, who established an underwater city. Almopia itself was founded by former corporate debt slaves as well as Twi'lek and Duros colonists. Its location at the sea made it a locus for trade. Much of the surrounding forest vanished to make room for settlements and sell the timber. There was tension with the Gungans, who tried to impose tolls on shipping and took umbrage at waste being dumped into the waters. There was also conflict over the resources that could be found beneath the sea. Tephrike's federal government hashed out a compromise, though bad blood remained. Almopia suffered during the Yuuzhan Vong War, as it was targeted by raiders. After the end of the conflict, some refugees from devastated planets were settled here.
This made the town more cosmopolitan, but also produced nativist tensions. Integration into the galactic markets triggered economic growth and expansion, but there were also strong class disparities. At the time of the outbreak of the Gulag Virus, Almopia was largely dominated by its non-human population. Twi'leks and Duros formed an important bloc in the town and tended to enter coalitions. Human supremacist parties had capitalised on this. Winston Stakes, a highly divisive human politician and billionaire, presented himself as the advocate of poor humans. This was absurd since, despite his best attempts to portray himself as the voice of the people, he was notoriously corrupt and a creature of the swamp he claimed to want to drain. One of the failings of Tephrike's democracy was the fragmentation of the party system. Not only was there an excess of political parties, many were single issue parties or represented a single species. Federal governments tended to be unstable coalitions and local political and business oligarchs held a disproportionate amount of sway.
Still, it was a far cry from current conditions. The outbreak of the Gulag Virus caused a great conflagration across Tephrike. Law and order broke down, countless beings died of disease, starvation and civil war. Almopia was not untouched. Rumours that the federal government was hoarding a cure led to domestic unrest, riots and lynchings. Martial law was instituted to keep order. With no cure for the virus in sight, an entire district was sealed off to prevent its spread, leaving infected to their fate. Shortages compelled the government to introduce rationing. The People's Social Democrat Party took power after the establishment liberals were rocked by scandals. The government imposed harsh measures to try and contain the pandemic. Unlike certain other local governments, such as in Synorostad, it did not downplay the crisis. But paramilitary forces and militias used the chaos to settle old scores, leading to the rise of gated communities. Following a failed rightist coup, the government initiated a crackdown. Though the government itself was not radical, it had to work with leftist militias. The town's leadership remained loyal to the increasingly beleaguered federal government after it was toppled by the Jedi.
However, when the Alliance of Democratic Forces was defeated and the forces of the Dominion of Light approached Almopia, its leaders submitted. This saved them and their people from being destroyed. At the time the Dominion was still wearing a 'personal face'. It was at pains to depict itself as the friend of the common citizens. Nonetheless, Jedi General Mahtara took hostages and left a garrison behind. This was before the Dominion had completed its descent into total madness, but their takeover was accompanied by purges. The Dominion could not tolerate anyone who didn't acknowledge its monopoly on power. Its dictatorial policies triggered a general strike backed by leftist parties. The Dominion used this as an excuse to carry out a crackdown. Bizarrely, it accused them of supporting Humanist, Corpo oppression. An inquisitorial tribunal was convened to stage show trials. However, external threats focused the Dominion's attention elsewhere. Mahtara would go on to fight the Vaderites at the Battle of Palmyra. Almopia was untouched by this. For now, it was under the control of the victors. However, Dominion rule grew more and more repressive. Soon the Jedi theocracy began to enforce its purity laws. Attacks by rebels and economic crises caused it to tighten its grip. What is now known as Camp Progress was originally established as a Dominion concentration camp.
Things came to a head during the Cultural Revolution. The Blue Guards, a paramilitary movement composed of fanatical Padawans, young Jedi Knights and students, went on a bloody rampage to purge the Dominion of the 'Four Olds'. 'Enemies of the Light' were publicly humiliated, beaten and in some cases killed. People suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, hard labour, sustained harassment, seizure of property and sometimes execution. The Blue Guards' zeal led to clashes between them and local army units. Eventually order was restored when the Grand Army crushed the Blue Guards because the Cultural Revolution was destabilising the nation.
But Almopia fell under the control of the Vaderites. The Sith had been licking their wounds since the failure of their first attempt to eclipse the Light. They had largely restricted themselves to slave raids and marauding. But now they sensed opportunity. Almopia was a tempting prize, but far enough from the Dominion's heartland that they might be able to hold on to it even if their enemy recovered. Clandestine Vaderite agents had been active among secret societies and terrorist groups in the city. Following their takeover, the Sith would claim that the humans had risen as a fifth columns to throw off the Dominion's yoke and opened the gates for the stormtroopers. This is untrue. There were some terrorist groups that supported the Sith, but their role was marginal and their militia rather incompetent.
Moreover, the Vaderites sacked the city. What followed was a wave of violence and looting. Countless civilians were massacred in the streets or robbed of their possessions. The Vaderites used a native 'self-defence force' to carry out ethnic cleansings. With the backing of the Sith, local Humanist activists instigated a pogrom. Many alien homes burnt in full view of local firefighters, who had received orders only to intervene to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby buildings. Shattered glass from the homes of aliens and alien-owned businesses, plundered and destroyed during the violence, lined the streets. Still, the people of Almopia fared better than those beneath the sea. Continued resistance from Dominion soldiers who had managed to go underground provoked reprisals from the Sith.
Still, the Vaderites did not have a uniform policy for how to govern their new conquest. The first Sith governor was a dedicated Vaderite, but focused on getting Almopia running and 'Humanising' it as quickly as possible. Thus he was more lenient towards non-humans who, in his words, 'know how to dress and wash themselves' and was unenthusiastic about discriminating near-humans. However, they were turned into second class citizens, expropriated and forced to wear a badge that displayed their lesser status. But they were spared from deportation. Camp Progress was turned into a slave camp. Select non-humans who were skilled in technical professions and thus vital for the maintenance of production were often allowed to keep their jobs, albeit under human supervision. The governor also distrusted the local humanist leaders, viewing them as being incapable and venal. He criticised the extensive material losses produced by the anti-alien riots. However, this governor eventually fell out of favour and was replaced with a more militant hardliner. The new strong man promoted the local humanists as a means of gaining a useful prop and stood for a rigid enforcement of the racial laws. Almopia was renamed Adlerberg.
The Prosperity Quarter was established as a ghetto. Aliens such as Gungans had already been locked up there, but now Twi'leks, Rodians, Zeltrons and so on followed. Racial charts were introduced to categorise the population. Collaborators were encouraged to take on 'alien labourers' of their own. This rewarded them for their loyalty, but also bound them even further to the Sith. The governor's death in a terrorist bombing led to brutal reprisals. An uprising in the ghetto was brutally crushed. For those humans who collaborated with the régime, there were benefits. But their privileges could be easily withdrawn by the Sith, whose style of government was arbitrary, corrupt and capricious. For a while the regime cooperated with the Pius Dea church, whose humanocentric beliefs meshed well with Humanism. However, in the long run Humanism could not tolerate any rivals.
Both the Dominion and the Republican Guard sought to infiltrate agents into the city, agitating among the disenfranchised. The Sith responded to terrorist attacks with more repression. Adlerberg was a major target of Dominion aerial bombings. In retaliation for Vaderite air strikes against civilian installations in Dominion territory, factories, power plants and entire city blocks were levelled. The Netherworld Event did not leave Adlerberg untouched. Indeed, the rapture caused a schism among the Disciples of the Vader, which led to a small but bloody civil war across their territory. This was connected to the discovery of an ancient tome that told the story of Vader's redemption. In actual fact, it was a Galactic Civil War for dummies type book. Contratry to Vaderite dogma, it stated that Vader had turned away from the Dark Side and given his life to save his son. The forbidden text circulated among the discontent and the disenfranchised.
A faction of 'Light Sith' sided with rebellious slaves and inhabitants of Prosperity Quarter, promising them freedom. Their leader Darth Krieg became the new Dark Lord, toppling Darth Hyperion. He renamed himself Darth Salus and sought to spread his new religion. However, it turned out to be easier to give speeches about breaking the wheel and freeing the oppressed than actually turning it into practical policy. The Light Sith's takeover of Adlerberg had been bloody. Allowing non-humans to join the order proved controversial. Soon they began to backpedal on many reforms, especially after the Sith went to war against the Dominion. A radical faction tried to seize power, accusing Salus of betraying his revolution. But the Dark Lord was murdered by traitorous Vaderites after the Dominion had triumphed on the battlefield.
Darth Furcht, a doctrinaire fanatic and leader of the Knights of the Ebon Claw, marched on Adlerberg. He got the support of the local humanists, who had never reconciled to the idea that the non-humans should be their equals now. What followed was a bloody pogrom. Emancipated slaves fought on to the death, knowing what fate awaited them. The Sith had to level parts of Prosperity Quarter through firebombings. The Republican Guard had advised its cells against backing the uprising, rightly believing it was a lost cause, but many partisans disobeyed the order. Furcht re-established Sith power, which helped him become Dark Lord.
Promise City was rebuilt, for he wanted it to become a model city. Prosperity Quarter grew even more squalid and run-down than before. Since so many had perished, forced labourers were brought in from other areas under Vaderite control to refill the stock. However, Furcht also initiated a campaign to unmask 'closeted aliens and Jedi worshippers in high places' - a thinly veiled attempt to get rid of people who did not belong to his power base. His zeal caused disquiet among a number of human collaborators, but he chose lieutenants who shared his beliefs to govern the town. The Protectors' Tower was built to serve as a headquarters for the organs of repression.
Adlerberg remained a stronghold of the Vaderites. Resistance groups such as the Twi'lek Combat Organisation, the Covenant of Light and the Inheritors of the Light Father remained active, but were divided. Adlerberg remains heavily militarised. The flak cannons posted in various areas are not for show, as the city has been targeted by Dominion air strikes. The ironically named Prosperity Quarter remained a place of poverty and oppression. However, while what passed for the upper class derived its power from the subjugation of the disenfranchised, the ghetto was also a threat to the community. Apart from the danger posed by rebellions, disease could be spread despite there being a wall. Poor sanitation and insufficient food made the ghetto a breeding ground for epidemics. Moreover, the constant guarding of the ghetto by the police required disproportionately large resources of manpower.
Recently, the Vaderites' power structure experienced significant upheavals. Before leaving Tephrike after the conclusion of its punitive campaign against the Dominion, Firemane bombed Castle Maysaf, the headquarters and spiritual centre of the Sith cult. Darth Furcht and his closest cohorts tried to strike back with preternatural means, but perished. However, his rival Darth Eisen was smart enough to flee the moment the orbital bombardment began. Eisen has been able to secure Adlerberg and proclaimed himself Supreme Leader, but there are other Sith who contest his claim. Opposition forces have taken notice of the convulsions, but it remains to be seen whether they will be able to take advantage of them.
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