Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, The Republican Guard is the Strongest, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Red Coral City, Vortanstad, House Kerrigan-Alcori, Firemane Industries, Crimson Orb Trees, The Key Which Unlocks the Void.
SETTING INFORMATION
City Name: Camp Sanctuary Refugee Facility
Classification: Refugee Camp
Location: Tephrike
Affiliation: Popular Front, Republican Guard, Tephrike.
Population: Crowded. It is a refugee camp, not a mega-city, but it is crowded for a settlement of its size.
Demographics: Being a refugee camp, it is a bit of a melting pot. Camp Sanctuary primarily has alien inhabitants, bit a smaller percentage. Alien species of note are Twi'leks, Nautolans, Neimoidians, Togrutas, Duros, Rattataki, Houk, Zabraks, Cathars and Mon Calamari, though one also finds more uncommon ones. One can even find a few Yuuzhan Vong. Most refugees are focused on survival, but there is some racial strife. Indeed, one can encounter xenophobia against humans. This often comes from alien refugees who fled the human supremacist Vaderites and thus have reason to be distrustful of humans. However, there are also divisions among the aliens. Jedi and Sith are both absolutely unwelcome and will be treated as hated enemies.
Wealth: Poor. It is a refugee camp and thus populated by people who have lost everything and could only bring with them what they were able to carry, which has left them impoverished. Many have suffered grievous lost during Tephrike's seemingly endless war. Moreover, Tephrike's isolation means that the camp receives little in terms of foreign aid and financial support. Its benefactor is an insurrectionary partisan movement.
This means that key needs such as nutrition, health, hygiene and shelter cannot be fully met. Indeed, there have been food crises and harsh rationing has been imposed. Many of the inhabitants are quite young, but there are only limited opportunities to learn a trade. There is a school, but many pupils have to work as well to provide for themselves and their families. Crowding and lack of infrastructure have led to unhygienic conditions. As a result, infectious diseases and epidemics are an ever-present threat. Resources to provide aid to sick or injured refugees are scarce. Many people who arrive at the camp are already malnourished. Refugees with disabilities are particular vulnerable. Pesticides and medicines to combat harmful insects, snakes, rodents, and scorpions etc. are in short supply. Children and pregnant women are particularly affected by nutritional problems.
Finally, the war shows no sign of abating, and so the camp keeps receiving an influx of fresh refugees. This further exacerbates the supply problems and leads to divisions between old and new inhabitants. Galactic credits are worthless in the camp, which instead maintains a barter economy. Cigarras are a generally accepted currency though. Some refugees have been able to establish shops and vocational training centres. The scarcity of electricity has motivated refugees to make use of solar lanterns. Recently, they have managed to build a solar power plant in cooperation with the Guard. Because access to solar power is intermittent, many homes use diesel generators as backups.
There are markets, bakeries and grocery stores, but many locals have turned to self-help to provide for themselves. An example would be creating multi-story gardens. These are quite easy to maintain and allow the residents to supplement an otherwise rather monotonous diet. Narcotics are another issue - but also an opportunity for some. Plants with psychdelic properties are quite widespread on Tephrike. Weed, mushrooms and the like are common. Crimson Orb trees grow not far from and also within the camp, and Key is rampant. An increasing number of people is involved in trading them or has become addicted. The Republican Guard has tried to stamp out the practice, but so far it is a Sisyphean endeavour. There is a lack of available jobs, and thus many residents face unpalatable choices to ensure their survival and that of their loved ones.
It is romantic to imagine that all the refugees need is for a saviour - such as Firemane or non-crazy Jedi - to swoop in, deliver a ton of aid and beat up ill-defined bad guys. However, this is folly. For one, a real solution that is not just storm and noise requires commitment and cooperation. At the end of the day, the locals are the ones who understand conditions and problems best and have the skills to improve their lives. What they need are the resources. Moreover, Sanctuary is one of many such camps on Tephrike and not even the worst-off. It is a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution.
The Tephriki Rehabilitation Organisation plays an active role in the camp. This self-help body is officially apolitical, but it is fairly transparent that it is a front organisation of the Republican Guard's Popular Front. A lot of its work is about aiding refugees. It carries out a variety of social programmes to provide displaced people and other victims with water, food, education, housing, child welfare, healthcare and so on. Its counsellors provide therapy, which is important given the trauma many inhabitants have experienced. It also mobilises activists to build shelters and the like. Many of the organisation's activists are volunteers from the Young Guard, the rebel youth movement. Older members are often come from the Old Guard, a veterans' organisation. The camp does receive foreign aid - mainly from House Kerrigan. However, it is very limited. Moreover, some of it is embezzled on the way and thus does not reach the people it is supposed to help.
Stability: Medium. The smallest administrative unit in the camp is that of an eleven-person cells. Camp Sanctuary is divided into numerous districts and blocks. Each district elects a community leader to act as a representative. Moreover, they are the main contact for both the inhabitants of their constituency and aid groups. These leaders form a representative council for the camp as a whole and work together with local community elders.
Local committees are supposed to organise the distribution of basic goods, water, food and so on. Larger concerns are the responsibility of district bodies, such as schools, medical services and so on. Thus there is a degree of direct democracy on the local level. Moreover, there are local courts to adjudicate in criminal and civil law cases. However, there is also a tendency for clans to seek arbitration from local mediation boards or, less civilly, take justice in their own hands. The fact that the people live in poverty is not conducive to stability. Desperate people will do desperate things when pushed in order to survive. There is a militia to keep order...but corruption is a big issue.
Another issue is the influence of the Republican Guard. It provides protection, but also seeks to exert control and local leaders are very dependent on it. This limits their freedom of action and has been the cause frustration. Basically, the Guard lets the camp have representatives who bring grievances and carry out administrative tasks, but they cannot overturn the rebels' policy.
The Guard has decent people, but also very ruthless or self-interested ones. There have been cases of arbitrary arrests and judicial sentences. Overall, stability is moderate. On the other hand it is under guard, but on the other hand the residents are frustrated by the lack of resources and progress. The Guard's partisans maintain a hidden outpost not far from Sanctuary. This is for the camp's protection, but also makes it clear who's calling the shots. The actual Republican Guard commandant is a Weequay male called Jhoram Ohnaka. He is trying to do his best to help the people, but is frustrated by the meagre resources at his disposal. These pose restrictions on what he is able to do and how many people he can help. Moreover, he has to deal with pressure from above.
His Mon Calamari superior Jesmin Baraka is rather paranoid. She is constantly suspicious of traitors and Force-Users sneaking in, and is always pressing the camp administrator to be vigilant against 'enemy agents'. The commandant is not enthusiastic about this, arguing that the Sith and the Dominion have better ways to hurt the Guard and that witch hunts only have the effect of making it more difficult to gain the trust of the population, let alone help them.
Freedom & Oppression: As mentioned above, there are democratic institutions on the ground level. But while these committees do have authority, freedom and oppression is tending towards authoritarianism. The camp is strongly regulated and there are plants and spies in there to make sure there are no Dominion infiltrators. The Guard has acknowledged reports of mistreatment in the past, but calls accusations of these not being isolated incidents enemy propaganda.
It is possible to criticise the Republican Guard, but not to form an active opposition against it. While self-help has born fruit in a number of ways, the residents are dependent on the rebels for protection and many of their supplies. The rebels have authority to conscript residents for service in the military or labour units. For some, this is their way out of misery, but for others tyranny. Camp residents are supposed to have representation in the Republican Guard's 'Senate'.
Moreover, the Guard tries to enforce its anti-Force-User policies, which mandates that all Force-Sensitives must be identified and isolated from society. This is obviously difficult to enforce in a refugee camp, but the attempt is made. Some Republican Guard operatives have outright murdered Force-Sensitives based on flimsy evidence...but others have ironically protected them from a violent mob, since their laws mandate that they must protect both groups from each other and treat Force-Sensitives who have committed no crime as people with a disease instead of enemies.
Description: Should someone try to reach Camp Sanctuay, they will come across a Republican Guard checkpoint on the main access road. Strangers will need to be vetted before they can proceed into Sanctuary. This is for the safety of the refugees, but can also be depressing for them. Then again, Tephrike is a war zone. The second checkpoint is run by the volunteer militia. Conditions are generally more relaxed here. The camp is enclosed.
One may across some trees and fruit gardens. Camp Sanctuary is a sprawling city-camp, with unplanned streets and improvised buildings. The layout resembles that of a large circle drawn into quarters. Several of the quadrants correspond to the species of the refugees, who are assigned tents or prefabricated shelters. Several tents have a concrete floor and a brick base, but not all of them. Some inhabitants have put up signs that detail their village or town origin. The camp's sectors meet at a central area composed of administrative buildings, the courthouse, schools, a shrine, the clinic and a cafeteria. This functions as the main public square. New arrivals are brought to a transit centre outside the camp, where they are processed by the aid workers, registered and assigned a place to stay.
Heavy rainfalls and floods may make it difficult to reach the camp. The land is dotted in tents and makeshift houses. Tents are easy to provide, but lack privacy and insulation, so refugees try to build their own shelters, including shacks. During winter, heavy rain means that water can leak into a tent. There are communal hygiene facilities like washing areas and latrines. These are separated by gender. Many who come here believe their stay will be temporary, then find themselves still stuck here years later. Camp Sanctuary has endured Tephrike's perennial civil war, surviving bombings and drone strikes. A number of buildings are marked by slug rounds and shrapnel.
Word travels fast when a stranger arrives. The camp is surrounded by a high wire fence. When one takes the road from the main gate, one comes across market stalls that sell various goods, including food and clothes and household items. Here and there, one can see Republican Guard slogans on buildings. Examples would be "Liberty or Death" or "We will not allow them to take us like sheep to the slaughter." One can also see crudely sprayed Starbirds on walls. However, some of the grafitti is critical of the rebel movement or openly mocks it.
Heavy rainfalls can turn roads into rivers of mud. The camp has existed for a while, and the refugees have learned to improvise, because ultimately no one is going to rain down mana to save them. For the refugees and other displaced people who live here, it is the closest thing to a safe haven, but living conditions are poor. Many struggle to find work and there is a shortage of medical supplies. Many of the inhabitants are children, who have often been orphaned. Many of them have been traumatised by the horrible things they saw and endured. A growing number of children has grown up in the camp and not known life outside of it. There is a school, but many children have to work to support their families or simply to survive on their own. Providing clean water is also a problem. At this point the camp is more like a city, but it suffers from overcrowding. Space is restricted and opportunities for privacy are limited. While prefabs have been erected, many refugees still live in tents and those who get to move into a prefab will have to share a room and furnishing may be limited to a couple mattresses.
It is not uncommon to see long queues in front of the clinic. Key concerns of the inhabitants are water, sanitation, health and shelter. The locals have tried to take the initiative to improve conditions on the ground, as far as their meagre resources allow it. Necessity is the mother of improvisation. Several refugees have rigged up their own electricity. Some of the makeshift homes have running water and toilets. Those who do not must use public latrines. Speeder ownership is extremely rare, and so people must often use more primitive vehicles, bicycles or beast of burdens to transport goods or do so on foot.
As many refugees have been sadly stuck here for several years, life has moved on, and new generations have been born. Usually each family has three children, but there are also those who have six or even eight. Of course, there also families who do not have children...or children who do not have parents because they were murdered, lost or conscripted. But since each family generally gets one tent, this can easily lead to cramped living conditions. Despite the very harsh and often depressing conditions, not everything is doom and gloom. To be sure, there are unscrupulous or corrupt elements, but their shared suffering has also created a sense of solidarity among certain refugee communities, which share joys and difficulties like a big family. Since institutions have largely failed them, the residents have devised ingenious forms of self-help and mutual aid. Those who have multi-storey gardens provide fruit or vegetables, those who have goats give goats, those who have currency give what they can. Others collect firewood or prepare food. Weddings, religious and cultural events are celebrated together. In spite of the daunting odds, the refugee communities endure in the face of incredible hardship.
Tephrike is a war-torn planet that never emerged from the Dark Age. Three groups vie for supremacy: the totalitarian Jedi theocracy called the Dominion of Light; the Vader-worshipping, human supremacist Sith cult called the Disciples of the Vader; the revolutionary Republican Guard, which sees itself as the champion of the common people against the tyranny of Force-Users. Camp Sanctuary is under the protection of the Republican Guard. The local council set up by the refugees cooperates with the Popular Front, the Guard's political wing. The relationship between both groups is wrought with tension. The Guard provides protection to the camp and escorts the supply convoys that provide aid. Moreover, it provides job opportunities and its medics take care of the sick, as far as they can. However, it has also conscripted refugees into labour units or the partisans. Corrupt Republican Guard cadres have been accused of withholding supplies to sell them on the black market for inflated prices.
Moreover, some of the refugees have suffered due to the rebels - directly or indirectly. The Guard is an insurgency and while rebellions may be built on hope, they are fought with viciousness. Both the Dominion and the Vaderites use collective punishment. When the Guard carries out a raid or bombing, either group launches savage reprisals. These often target villages that just happened to be in the general area where the partisans were hiding - or were forced to provide tribute and manpower. When these villages have been burnt down by the tyrant's minions, their inhabitants - assuming they have not all been murdered or deported - join the refugees.
Other inhabitants have directly suffered from Republican Guard operations and terrorist attacks. Several others, however, have been saved by it. This includes refugees fleeing Dominion purges and Vaderite ethnic cleansings. For instance, some have been rescued by the Guard when it attacked Dominion 'reeducation centres' or launched raids to free people from Vaderite ghettos or the chattel wagons the Vaderites use to transport 'undesirables' to concentration camps.
The rebels have noble aims, but their methods are often ruthless. Moreover, the Guard demands that the local authorities follow its anti-Force-User policies. The camp provides the rebels with a pool of recruits and people to tax. Having a steady pool of fighters is essential for the rebellion, but this also makes the refugees targets. There have been cases of forced recruitment and arbitrary arrests.
Foreign aid is extremely limited. Tephrike has been isolated for many centuries. Firemane has an accord with the Guard, but it is an uneasy one. The megacorporation delivers shipments of food, armaments and medical supplies. But the Guard is engaged in a war to the knife, and so military needs are prioritised over civilian ones. Moreover, to put it plainly, Tephrike simply is not a priority for Firemane. It aids the Guard because it is hostile to the Dominion of Light and because the rebels provide raw materials and valuable minerals in return, not out of generosity. The partisans accept foreign aid, but are very suspicious of potential spies. And Firemane has recently reduced its aid since it is unhappy about the Republican Guard not being a compliant minion...and busy with conflicts closer to home.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Transit Centre: This is the first building new arrivals will visit. It is located outside the camp at the entrance. Refugees are processed, registered and assigned a living area here. New arrivals are ushered into the camp intake room, where they sit on plastic schoolroom chairs. If there are many new arrivals, some may have to sit on the floor. Some may have brought blankets with them. Aid workers hand out bottled water. When their name is called out, a refugee leaves the room and is brought to an office. There a camp employee will take their details and assign them a place to stay. Most end up being assigned a tent.
Administrative Headquarters: The camp has existed for so long that it needs a place where officials can coordinate services and maintain contact with benefactors. Thus this buildig serves as the administrative hub of Sanctuary. Various offices are located here, including the office of the camp administrator.
Voice of Sanctuary Radio Station: Tephrike is not connected to the HoloNet, though more primitive forms of communications exist. The Four Hundred Year Darkness was not conducive to maintaining interstellar communications. The refugees do not have access, but this radio station is supposed to provide them with information about local and planetary events as well as offer programmes that give them some reprieve from their often miserable existence. Sanctuary's administration uses it to spread awareness about new regulations, job opportunities and so on. It also has nonpolitical content such as comedy programmes.
Courthouse: Located in the centre of the camp along with most public buildings. It includes a court room, chambers and offices. Its purpose is to facilitate the administration of justice and give refugees access to legal services. In the past, refugees had to travel far away for this. This is time-consuming, expensive and often dangerous. Cases that go to court are adjudicated by a single judge, but by large juries. However, only a simple majority is required for a conviction.
Some residents prefer to resolve disputes by taking them to community elders and meditation boards instead of court. This means that the court largely concerns itself with criminal law cases or civil disputes that could not be arbitrated. One problem is the lack of trained legal experts. This can lead to arbitrary judgements, and the refugees have few ways to appeal against an unjust settlement.
New Hope Hospital: The main medical facility of Camp Sanctuary. Many of the refugees have physical, mental or addictive conditions that necessitate treatment. Unfortunately, the hospital is understaffed and the doctors and nurses are overworked. Poor and cut off from the galactic markets, Tephriki do not have access to many of the remedies the rest of the galaxy takes for granted. Most of what the Republican Guard can acquire from Firemane goes to the army or the settlements in its heartland. This means the medical staff has to resort to conventional medicine and traditional remedies. Shortages of medical supplies are common, and smuggling and theft are an issue. Moreover, the rooms are often overcrowded.
Sports Grounds: A recreational area, especially for children and teenagers. It is used for various team sports. One example is a game that is about kicking a goal to secure a goal. The team that gets the most goals wins. Sometimes Young Guards who are doing national service at the camp play against one of the camp's teams.
Accommodation Areas: There are many of these throughout the camp, which is divided into various sectors and blocks. Most of the inhabitants live in tents, but there are also prefabs and makeshift houses. The fortunate twent dwellers have a concrete floor and a brick base, but the less lucky have gravel floors made of soft nylon. Conditions can get very cramped and privacy is a virtually unknown luxury. In many cases, families have set up multi-storey gardens so that they can grow their own food. There are rudimentary hygiene facilities, but these have to be shared.
The residents have access to prefabricated units, each of which consists of six bathrooms and is equipped with an unhealthy, temporary technical guard, two electric power plates and a solar energy panel to heat the water. However, these are insufficient to meet the needs of the large number of refugees. Long waits and flawed technology can cause unclean conditions and diseases. Prefabricated units have been set up to provide toilets, but these suffer from various issues, which has led to the spread of diseases and pests. Officially there is supposed to be one shower for every fifty people and one communal latrine for every twenty. However, in many cases they are more cramped than this and the distances are not always within recommended parametres. The facilities are segregated by gender. There are also areas for water collection and waste disposal.
The Agora: A somewhat fanciful name for a street that hosts an informal market. The shops are small and mostly just tents, but they have been set up by the refugees to support themselves and their kin. The shops cannot feed the people alone, but provide services that are not covered by what one can purchase with a ration card. This can lighten the spirit of a resident after a bad day. However, there are obviously divides between those who have some means and those who don't. Credits are worthless, bartering and haggling are expected, though cigarras and Key also serve as an informal currency. The opportunities have attracted smugglers and other unsrupulous elements. The camp administration tries to enforce accountability, but this is not easy. However, several traders have also organised themselves into association to protect their interests and enforce certain business standards.
Food Distribution Centre: The current distribution plan is a walk-through process. The beneficiary - usually the head of the family - is given a time to appear to collect their monthly rations of food and other basic necessities. They walk to the verification area where they present their ration cards to a staff member. The staff scans the card and compares the details with the registration information. Then the beneficiary goes to the collection area, where they collect their rations and depart. A large banner inside the centre informs visitors about how to avoid being infected by various diseases. However, overcrowding is a problem and the quantity of food is insufficient for many refugees. The same applies to the lack of variety. For this reason, refugees are exhorted to grow their own food in multi-story gardens.
Sanctuary Air Field: A small landing field with a control tower located near the refugee camp. Its main purpose is for transports to land to drop in supplies. Air traffic is quite limited since Tephrike is very isolated and the Republican Guard has few external friends and old aicraft. Firemane and aid organisations associated used to drop off supplies, but the flow of aid has slowed down to a tricle.
Central Command Tower: The Republican Guard uses this tower to oversee the camp, coordinate defence and emergency services and direct the guard contingent. It is located close to the centre of the camp. The Guard encourages able-bodied residents to sign up for service so that they can 'fight back against the oppressors'.
Den of the Mirage/The Vision Tent: Sadly, abuse of the highly addictive narcotic Key is rampant. The traumatic events many refugees have experienced put them at increased risk of substance abuse. Others, desperate to make ends meet, participate in the trade. This is a black market tent where 'aid packages' are distributed for low or free for first timers...but then once they're addicted up goes the price.
Solar Power Plant: Frustrated by perennial lack of electricity, the residents first built solar lanterns. Eventually, the Republican Guard managed to set up a solar plant. It can theoretically can provide electricity for up to twelve hours a day. It has made camp life safer and more bearable. Building and maintaining it has also allowed some refugees with technical skills to find employment. Sunlight is one of the few resources the camp definitely does not lack, but the plant is expensive to maintain. For this reason, it is heavily guarded around the clock. One issue is that presently power lines do not connect all of the makeshift homes, which means that some residents are still without power.
Perimeter Wall: The camp is enclosed by a wall. This provides a measure of protection against raiders and the like, but also makes it feel a bit like a large prison. Republican Guard militia stands guard and checks the credentials of people trying to gain entrance.
SECURITY
Low
- It is a refugee camp, not a military base or mega-city. However, access to the camp is controlled. The main access road is controlled by the Republican Guard and the camp is enclosed. Outsiders can only enter after passing through a security check at the gate. Republican Guard soldiers and militia members have a presence in and outside the camp. Sanctuary does not have much in terms of heavy firepower. The camp lacks a shield generator, surface-to-space weapons or similar.
- Inside the camp, there are various checkpoints, often set up at key intersections or the boundaries of a quadrant. The camp administration has organised a police force, though its weapons are old by galactic standard.
- Underground shelters have been set up to provide protection for the residents in case of say an air strike, but these cannot accommodate the entire population.
- The location of the camp is rather remote and freak weather patterns can make it difficult to reach, which can impede deploying large forces to attack it.
On Tephrike, the Four Hundred Year Darkness never ended. It is a broken planet, characterised by impoverishment, superstition and strife. Three large factions vie for dominance, the Jedi-led Dominion of Light, the slavocratic, human supremacist Disciples of the Vader and the anti-Force-User Republican Guard. The Dominion of Light is a radical, totalitarian Jedi theocracy that believes only total control and the guidance of those who can divine the will of the Force can save Tephrike.
They are the dominant faction on the planet and view their struggle as a conflict between Light and Dark, a war of total annihilation which there can be no compromise. The Vaderites are an extremist Sith cult that espouse an extreme form of Social Darwinism, worship Darth Vader as a Dark God and endorse human supremacism. Non-humans are enslaved or exterminated in their territory.
The Republican Guard rose in opposition to both these groups. It regards itself as a progressive, egalitarian force that fights to rid Tephrike of the tyranny of Force-Users and restore power to the people. Ironically, it is ruled by a de facto military junta. It is radically opposed to Force-Users, regarding their powers as a curse. Tephrike's perennial conflict has been cause of a huge refugee crisis. Millions of civilians have been displaced, after their homes were bombed or they were deported by the Vaderites or the Dominion. Forced population transfers have been a way for the totalitarian powers to secure their grip on their territories and punish supposedly disloyal or impure populations. Many more civilians have been forced to flee after their home towns and villages turned into a war zones and were reduced to rubble. It is a massive humanitarian catastrophe. Tephrike is extremely isolated from the rest of the galaxy, so foreign aid is few and far between. Naturally, all three parties exploit the downtrodden to varying degrees.
This particular refugee camp was set up as a result of the Netherworld Crisis. Like virtually every world in the galaxy, Tephrike was strongly affected by Akala's madness. In the blink of an eye, countless people across the planet vanished. Those who had not been raptured were left to pick up the pieces. Many believed it was the end of days, resulting in outbursts of millenarian violence, riots and civil war. However, the fact that Force-Users could no longer reliably call upon the Force presented an opportunity for the one faction that opposed space mages and did not utilise them, namely the Republican Guard. Seeing their opportunity to knock out their hated enemy, the Republican Guard launched a grand offensive against the Dominion.
The surprise attack was directed against the command and control centres and the government infrastructure of the Dominion. The rebels had hoped that it would trigger a popular uprising against the tyrannical regime. However, the expected rebellion did not materialise. The Republican Guard was able to make notable territorial gains and temporarily seize several cities. This was helped by the fact that the Vaderites launched their own attack after a civil war saw the temporary ascent of a 'Light Sith' faction. However, while the initial attack caught the Dominion by surprise, its forces regrouped and routed the rebels at Fortress Purity. The offensive became a debacle, though fighting would continue for months as the Republican Guard rebels retreated into the jungle and fought delaying actions to evacuate their people. Camp Sanctuary was set up during this time. Initially it was a place to send people to who had been displaced by the fighting and the loss of their homes.
When the Republican Guard was forced into a retreat, it became a refuge for many of its sympathisers who were fleeing Dominion retribution. An increasing number of refugees were aliens fleeing Vaderite ethnic cleansings following the brutal suppression of the Prosperity Quarter uprising. The Guard's local cells had supported the doomed revolution against orders from the centre. The Vaderites crushed it without mercy, but the local rebel groups were able to buy time for some comrades to escape the massacres. At first Sanctuary was supposed to be an assembly and transit camp. Its existence was supposed to be temporary. However, as the years dragged on and the war showed no sign of ending, it grew and grew until it had evolved into a city-camp. From the start, malnutrition, dehydridation and lack of resources were serious concerns.
Moreover, the electrical grid and water system of the region had also been damaged by the conflict. Dominion militants sabotaged the original electrical grid. Several water pipes were still intact, but many areas could only receive water from tanks. Much of the water was contaminated, leading to health problems such as dysentery. Many refugees who came here were already malnourished, and thus vulnerable. Only a small number of them had been able to bring any belongings with them.
The rebels struggled to accommodate the massive influx of refugees. The approach of the Republican Guard could be quite heavy-handed, arousing the justified anger and frustration of the residents. In the early years, the tents lacked a sewage system. Unsurprisingly, the results were polluted water, the spread of insects and an incease in cases of various diseases. Moreover, heavy rains caused flooding in the camp. Over the years, the camp administration has managed to improve the sewage system, but the ecological impact of untreated sewage continued to remain outside the daunting list of priorities.
Moreover, the camp attracted smugglers and black marketeers eager to make a profit at their expense. Public protests from the refugees, and the realisation that they could hardly sway people to their cause in conditions like this compelled the Guard to act. The camp's residents formed local committes to propose solutions, take over food distribution and other tasks. Some escaped prisoners who had managed to escape a Vaderite death camp during a rebel raid found their way to the camp. But Dominion militants also tried to infiltrate the camp, smuggling in arms and propaganda materials. Several refugees and Republican Guard cadres were killed in a bombing outside Sanctuary. This led to a brutal crackdown.
Reliable access to electricity was another problem. Most residents were forced to rely on expensive diesel generators. Located in a remote area controlled by partisans, they were effectively shut out of the electricity grid. The residents struggled to devise ways to meet their energy needs. Largely left alone by their protectors, they were forced to improvise by gathering firewood and using oil lamps. Women and children were mainly responsible for collecting firewood, and often had to travel up to twenty kilometres into unsafe areas to do so. This left them vulnerable to being attacked by wild beasts, as well as assault and robbery. Moreover, lack of lighting made the camp unsafe at night, especially for the elderly, women and children.
Sanctuary was bombed by the Vaderites, who had labelled it a 'terrorist camp'. Many innocent civilians died in the bombardment. The rebels retaliated with a series of terrorist strikes against Vaderite settlements and set up underground shelters for residents. Despite meagre resources, the camp administrator was able to secure the means to build a solar plant. This provided both electricity and job opportunities for refugees. Moreover, it was a morale boost, though the residents are still very poor.
The camp has received new supplies since the Guard's accord with Firemane, but renewed war has also produced an influx of refugees. The authorities do as best as they can, but the new wave has also heightened fears of spies and closeted Force-Sensitives. Moreover, it has increased the Guard's need for soldiers and workers. Elpsis used her authority as family head to send aid, but while some actually reached its intended destination, a lot didn't. In addition, Firemane's commitment to humanitarian ventures has turned out to be a mirage.
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