Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike by subbing one of the main groups referenced in prior submissions and ongoing rp. Also an antagonist for Elpsis and gang.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permission: N/A
Links: The Valkyrie's Diary, Kyriaki, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Glorious Conflict, Firemane, Amidala Corps, Adlerberg, Hope Falls, Caution and Control, Castle Maysaf, Academy of the Scions of the Vader, Sentinel's Rest, Palmyra's Wail, Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori, Knights of Ren, What goes bump in the day.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Disciples of the Vader.
Classification: Force-Sensitive Organisation, Totalitarian Religious Cult.
Affiliation:Humanist People's Party, Darth Lachesis, Tephrike, KEC, Darth Eisen, Government of the Greater Sith Imperium
Organization Symbol: Stylised symbol displaying Vader's mask.
Description: The Disciples of Vader are a human supremacist, Sith cult on Tephrike. They were founded by a rebellious Jedi Knight called Cade Seward, who was influenced by fever dreams and visions that made him believe he was the Chosen of Vader, charged with overthrowing the Dominion and ushering in a Sith Golden Age. They regard Vader as a God, whom they call the Dark Father. Moreover, they believe that only Force-Users are fit to rule and regard aliens as inferior to human. The Disciples imagine themselves as a patriarchal, spiritual warrior aristocracy composed of the most 'pure-blooded' humans. The Disciples and their minions are guilty of manifold crimes against sentience, including xenocide, enslavement, deportation, use of child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansings, and the murder of civilians and prisoners of war.
Alien subjects of the Sith cult are generally slaves - though the Vaderites prefer euphemisms - who are worked to death and can be beaten or killed on a whim. Their lives are hollow ones, defined by fear and backbreaking labour. It is made more bearable by cheap liquor and drugs. Some non-human serfs possess a higher status because they work in the household of a Sith master or as skilled workers in a factory that is vital for the war effort. But in the end they are still serfs. Force-Sensitive aliens are killed outright if their powers are discovered. As feuds between Sith masters are common, serfs may change masters several times during their - often short - lifetime. They are also commonly traded as gifts, since they are considered to be property. The most unlucky ones end up as victims of primitive alchemical experiments performed by the sorcerers amongst the Disciples.
Not all aliens are enslaved outright. Indeed, the Vaderites have created 'autonomous xenos reservations' and ghettos to allow the non-humans to 'live among their own kind'. But in practice their lot differs little. These 'free settlements' are anything but free, for life is defined by squalour, poverty and terror. The alchemists of the cult have tried to use their magic to breed a caste of mindless labourers that are incapable of disobedience. This would allow the cult to phase out slaves that might rebel. Unlike the alien serfs, the Force-blind humans receive privileges such as access to education and the ability to rise in the military, bureaucracy and business, though Sith are always on top. The Disciples teach their human subjects to regard themselves as part of a master race, hate and fear the 'xenos' and view the Sith as their Force-given saviours. The Humanist People's Party is used to control them and organise all aspects of public and private life.
The Force magi live like feudal overlords, lording it over the peons. Needless to say this makes Sith society a powder keg. To reduce the risk of rebellions, the Disciples provide loyal human subjects with various benefits and privileges. All humans, they say, are superior to 'xenos filth', but Force-Using humans are superior to the Force-blind. The Disciples propagate a dark side religion that idolises Vader, elevating him to the status of a Force God, the Son of Suns, for he was born of the Force and forged an Empire of Man. In death, he saved the purest humans from being killed by the Gulag Virus, which, per Vaderite dogma, was created by a cabal of alien Jedi and bankers.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Tephrike. The Disciples used to be based in Castle Maysaf on Tephrike. After Firemane bombed it to smithereens, they realised an archaic castle is not a good idea. They have taken up residence in a bunker complex in the mountains called the Keep of the Eternal Knights of Vader.
Domain: The Disciples hold sway over part of Tephrike. They have given their domain the pompous name 'Greater Sith Imperium'. This is silly since it is limited to one planet, and they do not even rule most of this world. They subjugate the local population, using a combination of fear, terror, incentives and propaganda to keep them obedient. Due to their racist ideology, humans fare better than aliens and constitute what amounts to a middle class, while also being incentivised to become complicit in atrocities. They are the 'great ruling stock and brave warriors of our noble race', but still subservient to the Disciples. According to Humanist ideology as described by Glorious Conflict, the Sith are the purest of the purebloods, for they wield the divine flame that once belonged to all of mankind alone before it committed the 'original sin'. The spoken chant 'Praise Vader!' is a mandatory greeting for all human citizens. It has superseded traditional greetings such as 'good morning'. Interestingly, aliens are forbidden to use it.
A human family that produces a Force-Sensitive offspring is rewarded with various financia benefits and privileges. However, only Forcewielders can hold supreme authority. Freedom of speech, assembly etc. are nonexistent. The Disciples believe in rule by the strong and that might makes right. Sith leaders have no qualms about abusing their position to seize financial assets, property, businesses and villas under flimsy pretext in order to enrich themselves. Particularly powerful Sith masters field their own private armies and are able to commandeer state resources. This obviously needs to administrative chaos, corruption and inefficiency in command.
Corruption is endemic at all levels of their government. Successive Supreme Leaders have been happy to indulge their subordinates' nigh-insatiable hunger for wealth, mansions, government positions and other trappings of power in return for their obedience. It has ensured the Imperium's transformation into a collection of private fiefdoms bound by personal allegiance and ideology. This has opened the doors to mismanagement, corruption on an enormous scale and personal feuds.
At the same time, the Disciples' propaganda mouthpieces bloviate about how the Sith have restored clean, honest government. The Disciples conceive the state as a means to an end. To them, it is a tool to carry out racial struggle and uplift the 'master species'. And the strongest is always right. If a man cannot defend his position, he is weak and does not deserve it. Overlapping bureaucracies are in constant competition with each other. This undermines coherence of government, but at the same time reinforces the Supreme Leader's position at the top of the pyramid, since he is the sole source of legitimacy.
While the Disciples revile all aliens, they have a particular hatred for Twi'leks, Bothans and Mon Calamari, whom they regard as shadowy puppet masters scheming against mankind. They also despise Yuuzhan Vong, reviling them as demons that have been at war with mankind since the primordial age. Individual Sith leaders have armed alien groups such as Gamorreans, Trandoshans, Houk, and Akrut. They view them as extremely primitive and thus less of a threat, and use them as a auxiliaries to keep 'order' in the ghettos and reservations. They give them some token autonomy so they can be useful oppressing other aliens, but still treat them as lesser beings. Alien auxiliaries are poorly equipped, receive inferior pay - or sometimes none at all - and are given unglamorous, dangerous tasks such as combing swamplands for partisans.
Notable Assets: The Disciples control numerous towns, concentration camps and Sith academies on Tephrike. One of their primary temples is the Academy of the Scions of the Vader. One of the most prominent cities under their sway is Adlerberg, which has been conceived as a 'model Humanist city'. The Disciples have a temple there. It is not a Sith training institution, but a place of worship that propagates the cult of Vader for both Forceful beings and Non-Force-Users. An example for a forced labour camp that doubles as an extermination site would be the ironically named Camp Progress. It is run by the KEC, the Disciples' praetorian guard and secret police.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: Resembles a pyramid. At the peak stands the Grand Council of Humanism, presided over by the Supreme Leader. The composition of the Council varies. Officially the Leader is the Vicar of the Vader and Dark Lord of the Sith. He is not only leader of the Sith cult, but also head of state of the Imperium and commander-in-chief of its armed forces. Beneath the Council are the Lords, Masters, Knights and Acolytes of the cult. The Grand Council unifies the leadership of the Disciples, State and the Party. How powerful this body is varies. Some Supreme Leaders have been mere figureheads and convened the council regularly; others did not convene the Council a single time throughout their reign. Some Leaders with an insecure hold on power have tried to dilute its importance by enlargening the body and partitioning existing spheres, at the cost of weakening its cohesion and encouraging infighting.
Supreme Leader Eisen dislikes convening the council or the Imperial Council of Ministers Instead he prefers to have one-on-one meetings with important bigwigs. This allows every principal to cut his own private deal with the Supreme Leader without regard for the greater whole. Naturally, it encourages infighting, as the principals vie for the Leader's favour. Typically, a Sith Lord will also occupy a high position in business, the government, Party, military or police - or all at the same time. For example, Lachesis is a general in the KEC, the praetorian guard of the Vaderite movement, and simultaneously a kind of super-minister for racial affairs and 'settlement'.
The way a Supreme Leader is chosen is somewhat unusual for many Sith groups. The rules for the election of a new Supreme Leader are deliberately opaque, and intransparent. On first sight, they seem strangely democratic for a Sith state since Non-Force-Users get a vote, too. Generally speaking, the members of the Grand Council of Humanism are supposed to come from the highest levels of leadership of the Party, the Sith Order and the State. However, this comes with many caveats. Just as Lords of higher standing have more voting power than lesser Sith lords, every Sith has more voting power than a Non-Force-User, regardless of rank or position. Moreover, while every Sith lord is entitled to a seat, Non-Force-Using councillors are appointed based on their 'personal achievements' and not based on positions they otherwise hold. As a result, the size of the body can vary greatly from that of a very compact body that could also serve as an advisory council to a massive, unwieldy body that includes leading Party officials, governors, marshals of the empire, senior civil servants, government ministers, industrialists, and even people who have made large contributions to culture. Non-Force-Users of a particularly high rank and prestige have more voting power than their less elevated comrades, but a Sith will always have more votes.
The body is typically divided into 'colleges'. There is one college for normal Sith Lords, and a special college of High Lords for those of Darth rank. However, Non-Force-Users do not vote en bloc, but are divided into various smaller colleges. This has the effect of further diluting their voting power. Supreme Leader Eisen has massively expanded the Grand Council, transforming it into a large convention of about 500 people drawn from the various sectors of society and power centres. This makes it too large to serve as an advisory body and potentially check his power, which is very much in his interests. The Supreme Leader has done his best to prevent any one block from monopolising power. He has also established a process of choosing those serving in the Grand Council that lets him to fill it with people under his influence. In theory, this allows him to stack the deck in favour of his preferred heir.
However, such an arrangement has its limitations because while he has significant sway to invite or disqualify Non-Force-Users, any Sith Lord is an ex officio member unless he is judged to have brought the Disciples of the Vader into disrepute or committed treason. However, the Supreme Leader has find ways to meddle in the Sith colleges by exercising his power to grant lordships and even Darth titles to fairly weak Sith. This has had the effect of reducing the homogenity and collective power of the body and cultivating a class of Sith councillors who lack the respect of their peers, making them reliant on him. But Eisen has been forced to negotiate deals with power brokers. Moreover, he doesn't have an official heir at the moment. Eisen has been grooming his nephew as a crown prince, but he is young and untested.
Only a Sith is eligible to run for election. Ballots are not secret, so everyone knows where everyone else's loyalties lie. Whoever the previous Supreme Leader named as a preferred successor (if there is one) starts with an advantage (10%) but often there are debates over claimants for that title, since its rare that a public announcement is made. Finally, during the debates, duels may take place. The winner of the duel adds the loser's vote to their own, causing the older, more political but less powerful Sith to build powerbases which include champions to represent them in such duels. And if an old Sith Lord chooses his son to fight as champion in his stead, that is not considered cowardice because his son carries his genes, so it is a proof of his fitness as much as it is proof of his son's. Particularly skilled duelists who lack political influence spend most of the debate period fighting lesser Sith lords to gather up votes for their benefactors. This allows martially talented but not very politically astute Sith to build up patronage networks, acquire wealth and status because it means their skills are in high demand.
These duels are governed by rules that were supposedly codified by Darth Bane. An official challenge must be made, and both duellists must face each other in single combat in the arena, observed by the other councillors. Assassination, poisoning, a knife between the ribs in the dead of the night and similar tactics are considered tricker tactics that disqualify a contestant. Of course, this doesn't stop the use of dishonest tactics. After all, in the game of thrones you win or you die, and the only currency is power. Trial by combat autocracy is not a recipe for reasonable government.
The election takes place over the course of several days, thereby allowing power brokers to make last minute deals. By tradition the commander of the Chevaliers of the Black Helm exercises overall responsibility for security. The councillors are supposed be locked in, with no access to any outside information so it would be 'true' elections and not influenced by 'propaganda'. Vaderite ideologues claim the 'armed plebiscite' of the Imperial movement embodies the virtues of Sith tradition.
Membership: Must be a 'pure' human Tephriki, Force-Sensitive, an adherent to the dark side and a believer in Humanist ideology. Disciples must be trained at one of the cult's academies. Training is characterised by brutality and ideological indoctrination. Disciples will have to submit to a medical examination and undergo harrowing physical and mental trials. Students at the academy are systematically brutalised, as well as encouraged to brutalise racial 'inferiors'. Moreover, they are graded on the basis of their understanding of Humanism. Glorious Conflict is required reading.
Finally, Disciples must undergo trials that mirror those of Vader. Once an acolyte has passed his trials, it is time for him to sacrifice a limb like the cult's idol did. So he is taken to a special chamber, where his right arm is severed at the elbow by a lightsabre. Subsequently, it is replaced by a crude cybernetic arm. He's also given a dark mask. Some particularly fervent Disciples go a step further and sacrifice more limbs than just an arm, desiring to emulate Vader as closely as possible. A Darth name is bestowed upon a Disciple who has become a senior Lord. This is done in a formal ceremony.
There is a sub-division within the Disciples called the Knights of Ren. These are darkside Force adepts who serve the Disciples and have received some rudimentary Force training, but are not considered Sith themselves. Indeed, the Disciples look down on them and treat them as a dumping ground for anyone who does not quite meet their standards for purity, but is useful and 'pure' enough to serve. The Ren consist of failed acolytes as well as people who have the Force, but whose pure human ancestry is considered questionable. Enough human blood to avoid being murdered or sent to the ghettos or a labour camp, but not enough to be a proper Sith. The Ren aren't allowed to wear Sith apparel or wield alchemised or imbued weapons. They are indoctrinated into believing that if they strive hard enough, the stain of their impurity will be washed away and they will become proper Sith. This contradicts the Humanist belief that one's worthiness - or inferiority - is determined by one's blood and thus immutable, but the Vaderites have never been one for consistency.
Climate: Defined by terror, fear, corruption and propaganda. Terror is used to cow those who resist, while propaganda depicts anyone who opposes the Sith order as a dangerous terrorist who threatens the natural order. Force-Users are superior to Non-Force-Users and so any mundane subject has to defer to the Sith. Disobedience is punished with enslavement, death, forced labour or being subjected to alchemical experiments. Sith training is extremely brutal and abuse is common. Young neophytes may be ritually whipped at an altar to toughen them up and starved, which forces them to steal. If they are caught, they are punished. Moreover, they will be 'blooded' by being ordered to execute prisoners. It is not uncommon for a group of acolytes to be told that dangerous terrorists have escaped prison and that they must stop them by any means necessary. The terrorists in question are simply starving forced labourers.
Disciples are taught to regard themselves as an elite, racial vanguard, detached from legal and bureaucratic bonds. Becoming a full member of the cult is rewarded with various perks - not just for the Disciple, but also their family. A family whose child has been chosen to be trained as a Sith acolyte gains prestige. If the acolyte's training is successful, their parents receive an award. The benefits can include tax breaks, precedence and priority service in society and for public services such as healthcare. The mother of a Disciple will never have to stand in line in a shop or bakery and the butcher will always give them the best cuts of meat. Old people even have to give up their seat on the bus or a train.
The government may assign a maid to help them out and will make it a priority to rebuild their home or provide them with a new one if it destroyed by say a fire or an airstrike. These benefits increase if the family spawns another Force-Sensitive child that becomes a Disciple. The family of a master is akin to royalty. However, the other side of the coin is that the family is liable to be punished if the child rebels and say runs away from the Sith Academy since that was obviously the result of bad genes. Thus the family is incentivised to make sure their child joins a genocidal, evil cult that makes its members do horrible things. This is more efficient than having a Sith show up at their doorstep and steal the child. Rising through the ranks among the Disciples requires cunning, ruthlessness and an ability to navigate quasi-feudalist, patronage networks. One's formal rank matters less than closeness to the Supreme Leader. Infighting is common, and regarded as a feature rather than a bug. This is in keeping with the Vaderites' Social Darwinistic views, which dictate that the strongest is always right because existence is an eternal struggle.
Society is characterised by religious fervour, fear and suspicion. Acolytes are educated in the belief that Vader is a God, that the Disciples are his chosen instrument and that they are the rightful rulers of Tephrike. The Gulag Virus is depicted as an alien conspiracy to destroy the pure master species. In keeping with their barbaric Social Darwinist ideology, the Disciples murder people with mental or physical disabilities, regarding them as 'useless eaters' who 'leech off society'. The Disciples believe that Force-Users who conceive children with Non-Force-Users dilute their bloodline. Force-Sensitive children of families that are considered disloyal are abducted for adoption by loyalists.
While non-humans are enslaved, a good number of humans constitute what can be described as a middle class and possess citizen rank. They are the bureaucrats, accountants, musicians, doctors, overseers, soldiers, police and military officers, armourers and bureaucrats who keep the machinery running. In exchange for their services, they are granted privileges and a better life. They can also purchase and own slaves. However, these privileges can be withdrawn and no matter how far they rise, they are always beneath their Sith masters.
The Disciples preach that humans are superior to aliens, but human Force-Users are superior to mundane humans. The Disciples are obsessed with the concept of blood purity, so accusing a rival of having 'tainted blood' is a useful way to discredit him. The Disciples have been able to acquire some of the Dominion's cloning tech. They regard clones as inferior parodies of mankind, and thus do not use it to clone themselves. However, they have conducted experiments that combine cloning technology with Sith alchemy to breed more obedient servitors and monsters.
Because the Disciples see themselves as the rightful rulers of Tephrike, anyone who fights against them opposes the natural order. Thus prisoners of war are treated extremely poorly, often starving to death and wasting away while being forced to perform heavy labour. House slaves who are the personal servants of a Disciple fare better, but are still often abused. Forced labourers are required to wear at all times identifying armbands with their number. The Disciples' economy relies on slave labour and they regard brutality as par for the course. They see these policies as natural, so anyone who visits their territory would not be able to remain ignorant.. Criminals, prisoners and dissidents are often thrown into arenas, where they are pitted against one another in gladiatorial combat. These fights are to the death and often broadcast by the Vaderites' propaganda department.
Given that they require substantial education to perform their tasks, this schooling comes with a heavy dose of brainwashing, drilling into their heads the glory of the Sith, the rightful place of subservience for mundanes, the misguided nature of all those reject the authority of the Sith, and an appreciation for their masters. A healthy dose of bigotry against slaves is part and parcel of this indoctrination, to the point of treating them as a separate, inferior race of lesser beings. This even applies if the slave in question happens to be a human.
The activities of clandestine Dominion and Republican Guard rebel cells have created a very paranoid environment. Partisan attacks on Disciples or their minions are punished with disproportionate violence. It is common policy to 'round up the usual suspects' and slaughter them. The taking of hostages, the publication of their names, and their subsequent murder in retaliation for rebel activities is standard. Retaliatory destruction of entire villages and their inhabitants is widespread. Fear that without the Disciples, the slaves would rise up and butcher them binds many human citizens to their Sith masters. Officially Disciples are expected to present a friendly face to loyal human citizens of the Imperium. The key determinant for someone's value to the fatherland is one's race, not the Force because mankind is the only civilisation-builder. Of course, in the end the Force-Users form the genetic aristocracy.
Sith who have graduated from the academy receive a government salary. For a Sith knight, a small amount of their 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. Sith do not have to pay taxes in the Imperium. It is not uncommon for Non-Force-Using businessowners to approach Sith for property stacking schemes to avoid taxes. How this works is that they found a shell company with the Sith as nominal head. The Sith is well compensated for this via bribery but it still works to the advantage of the Non-Force-Users with big portfolios. There is the danger of the Sith trying to seize it despite legally being unable, but political power would come to their aid since everyone does it and other Sith don't want their golden cows to get butchered. It goes without saying that such a corrupt system is ideal for rent-seeking careerists.
Every Sith, no matter his rank, must be addressed as 'my lord' by a Non-Force-User. Senior command roles in the military are often monopolised by Sith, as it is believed that Force-Sensitivity makes them superior to mundanes. Feuds between individual Sith are not uncommon. If a Disciple has a quarrel with any other, the accuser and accused may fight in an arena. In most petty cases, these battles are only until the other party gives in, but in serious matters, the combat may be to the death.
Sexism is very common among the Disciples. Padmé Amidala has a cult of personality, but she is still depicted as subservient to Vader, for it is claimed that she sacrificed herself to allow him to fulfil his destiny. They do not exclude female human Force-Users from membership in the order - or the military or civil service, for that matter. But there is the expectation that they will marry a male Disciple, have children and take on a secondary role. Male Disciples are encouraged to take more than one wife to 'spread their superior genes'. The opposite is not allowed though. It is, of course, not easy to tell a Sith Lady to be subservient, and there are women who buck the trend and have risen to positions of power. The most prominent example is Darth Lachesis, a powerful Sith Lady and general. But in many ways the Disciples are patriarchal and feudalist.
Reputation: Tephrike has been isolated for many centuries, so very few offworlders know about the Vaderites. Firemane has a very hostile stance, so do the Unchained, a group of Dominion prisoners freed during Firemane's campaign. Both the Dominion and the Republican Guard despise them. The former views the Vaderites as pure evil and servants of Darkness. The Republican Guard sees them as vile slavers and tyrants and will often shoot captured Disciples out of hand.
Many people on Tephrike fear and loathe them, especially aliens. However, the Disciples are not without supporters, as their population is heavily indoctrinated. This applies to their human citizens, as they been raised in the system, benefit from it and uphold it. Human Force-Users who find the harsh laws of the Dominion too restrictive have joined the Disciples, adopting their maxim that only the strong should rule and that it is their inalienable right to oppress 'inferior species'.
Curios: Cybernetics are quite common. Upon succeeding in his trials, a Disciple completes his spiritual journey by losing his right arm. Thereupon it is replaced by a cybernetic arm that resembles the one Anakin Skywalker got after his first duel with Count Dooku. Some particularly zealous Disciples take thing further and sacrifice more limbs, replacing flesh with machinery. Higher-ranking members of the sect receive a Vader mask. Select warriors wear suits of armour that resembles the one Vader was forced to wear after almost dying on Mustafar. As with the Dominion's Windian Jedi Order, Force imbued armour is popular.
Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike. Thus the vast majority of the Disciples carry Force Imbued blades, Sith Swords or other melee weapons enhanced with alchemy. Only the Dark Master is allowed to carry a lightsabre. The Disciples claim to possess the lightsabre of Vader. It is kept in storage until the Scion comes to claim it. Needless to say it is a forgery. The same applies to the all the other 'relics'. Indeed, with all the pieces of Vader's cloak, mask, lightsabre and armour they claim to possess, it would have been enough for several individuals to put together. This has not stopped the Disciples from continuing the search for relics.
Every Disciple receives a copy of the Tome of the Sith'ari. This holy book purports to tell the true story of Vader. In addition, they receive a copy of Glorious Conflict, the ideological manifesto of the Humanist movement. It claims that the Gulag Virus was created by a conspiracy of alien Jedi and bankers to decimate mankind. Non-Force-Using officers and bureaucrats who serve the Disciples wear uniforms that resemble those of the Sith Empires of yore. Disciples are automatically members of the Humanist Party and will receive a Party uniform and a membership card. Those who wear Sith apparel will add a Party armband to denote their membership.
Rules: The Disciples adhere to the Sith code and the doctrine of Humanism, as laid down in Glorious Conflict. The Disciples are a Sith cult, so practicing the light side is banned. They believe in the supremacy of Force-users, that might makes right and that the Sith are the true masters of the Force. However, they deviate from standard Sith cults in a few ways. In line with their Social Darwinist beliefs, the Disciples believe that power belongs to the strong, but they are also extremely speciecist. Force-Sensitive non-humans are regarded as abominations, who have stolen a gift that belongs solely to the master race. Indeed, they believe that this was the result of racial mixing, which is why they have banned it. It is treated as dogma that the first forms of civilisation arose when the first Humans came into contact with 'inferior species', and subjugated them. The members of the 'inferior species' became the 'mechanical tools' in the service of a flourishing civilisation. To the Vaderites, it is nature's law that the 'strong' must conquer and dominate the 'weak', but not 'mate' with them. The Vaderites regard the multiracial nature of the Dominion's Windian Jedi Order or the Republican Guard as a sign of degeneracy.
Some near-humans who are able to pass as humans have taken great pains to hide their heritage and falsify official documents. Hence the Party's Department of Racial Health is charged with monitoring the 'racial purity' of the populace. It also runs the eugenics programme for both the Disciples and the State. Mixed species relationships are forbidden, for they are regarded as a pollution of the gene pool. Hence they are treated as capital crimes. Sexual relations between humans and non-humans are punishable as 'race defilement'. As laid down by Glorious Conflict, Vaderite doctrine posits that in primordial times all humans were Force-Sensitive. But the 'god-men' committed the original sin of breeding with lesser beings. Twi'leks and other devious aliens stole the human species' divine flame, which is how non-humans learned how to use the Force. That is why 'miscegeneration' is a grave sin.
A Disciple is expected to be a devout Humanist and overcome 'slave morality'. The Disciples believe that Force-Users should only marry other Force-Users - human ones, of course. So while a Disciple marrying a non-Force-Sensitive human is not banned per se, it is regarded as bad form. It is common for members of powerful Sith families to have arranged marriages. Interestingly, the Disciples are dismissive of Sith Purebloods. It is common practice to murder 'unworthy' infants. In addition to promoting human supremacist, magocratic views, the Disciples believe that Vader ascended to godhood and worship him.
Time has distorted historical records, and so the Disciples have some rather odd ideas about their idol. While they agree that he was conceived by the Force, spent his childhood as a slave, won a pod race, became a Jedi and then embraced the Dark Side, crucial details differ. For instance, they believe that when he returned to Tatooine many years after his departure, he slaughtered the Hutts and Sand People, freeing the slaves. But then the slaves begged him to enslave them again. They did not know what to do with their freedom and felt lost without a master to free them from the burden of choice. It was then that he realised that some people are born to be slaves because they are not meant for freedom.
Furthermore, the Disciples believe that Darth Tyranus and Qui-Gon Jinn were the same person. Tyranus was the Dark Lord of the Sith. Anakin slew him to claim the title. In his final living moments, Tyranus urged Anakin to fulfil his destiny and named him Vader. On Korriban, Vader was tested by the spirits of the ancient Sith Lords, but he overcame all of their trials and devoured their souls. Obi-Wan, the nemesis of the Sith'ari, betrayed him and corrupted his son Luke. The Vaderites preach that Padmé Amidala did not die of a broken heart, but sacrificed herself so that Vader could fulfil his destiny. Indeed, she was a Humanist before Humanism even existed and taught him that mankind is the master species. Her rule insulated Naboo from alien influence.
It was Vader, not Palpatine, who was the ruler of the Empire, for the Emperor was a weak Force-user. Tales of Vader's redemption are dismissed as filthy lies by the dark acolytes. The Sith'ari was betrayed by his son and struck down by the false Emperor, who embraced the Light, but ascended to godhood. The Disciples consider the bloodline of Vader to be sacred. They are convinced that one day the Scion of Vader will appear. The Dark God will be reborn inside the Scion and he will lead them on a grand crusade.
Tying with these beliefs, they consider it vital to scour Tephrike's surface for what they consider to be artefacts of Vader. Quite why anything that had to do with the Dark Lord would end up on an irrelevant backwater planet that he had probably never heard of remains a mystery. But to preach anything that contradicts their odd view of history is heresy and thus a capital crime. It is worth noting that while there is a general ideological consensus among the Vaderites, not all are particularly dedicated to its occultist views. Certain Sith Lords are fanatical believers in Humanist racial doctrine, but have no truck with the idea that some day a prophesied saviour with the blood of Vader will show up.
Goals: The eclipse of the light, conquest all of Tephrike and establishment a human supremacist, magocratic slave state. The extermination of the Force-Dead and the subjugation and enslavement or - in the case of some groups - eradication of non-human species on Tephrike. Acquisition and colonisation of 'living space'.
MEMBERS
Darth Eisen - the Supreme Leader of the Disciples of the Vader. In his younger days Eisen was a daring pilot. At times his sybaritic excesses and jovial attitude have given rise to a misleading picture of him being an amicable 'moderate'. Although obese and morbidly unhealthy in terms of appetites, he is an extremely cunning man, but also devoid of moral scruples. He has an immense drive for self-gratification. He wears flamboyant uniforms of his design that are bedecked with medals.
The lurid picture of his person clad in fine togas and jewel-encrusted sandals with pet kath hounds by his side, owning a castle filled with stolen art works, is completely accurate. Eisen is a jovial man who knows how to act at dinner parties and has a gift for schmoozing. He can reimagine himself as a nobleman (he isn't), a man of the people (he grew up privileged, but can talk like a commoner) or a hero pilot (he was). He is the most self-indulgent and corrupt of all the Vaderites. Eisen is a Sith, a humanist and a reflexive racist. But he is no zealot. Zealotry requires too much work that could be best spent elsewhere. Like going on hunting trips, procurring precious art works, planning extravagant construction projects or accumulating an absurd number of titles. He is a very intelligent man, but inconsistent and lazy.
Eisen pays lip service to Vaderite ideology, but cares little for it when it gets in his way. When it was brought to his attention that one of his top minions might have some alien blood in him, he is said to have declared: "I decide who is an alien." He treats his personal slaves better than the typical Sith Lord. This has not stopped him from authorising atrocities and profiting from slave labour camps. Bombastic, good public speaker, and prone to bluster. He is a superficially charming sociopath with a distaste for heavy lifting. He maintains a private signal intelligence and cryptanalytic spy agency to keep tabs on his foes. Purists are disgusted by his corruption and eccentricities, but he is popular with the human masses.
Kyriaki - the clone of Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori and reluctant Disciple. Created by a Dominion splinter group, she was captured by the minions of the sadistic Lord Achilles, who delighted in tormenting her. She played the role of the obedient little bird, but got her revenge when Eisen came knocking on her tormentor's doorstep and she sabotaged the defence shield. Now she's Eisen's ward and apprentice. Kyriaki treads a fine line between obedience and heresy. Frail and plagued by health issues, she risks running afoul of the Vaderites' eugenics laws should she lose favour. Instead of brawn, she relies on guile, cunning and deception.
Though somewhat xenophobic, she feels sympathy for the downtrodden and is disgusted by the Vaderites' cruelty. However, she can only mitigate evil and punish certain evildoers, not bring down the system. Recently, she investigated corruption in Hope Falls, an agricultural 'xenos reservation' and has initiated a project to build her own sweatshop where the natives will be given fairer treatment and less strenuous work. As of now her template does not know of her, though Kyriaki yearns to meet and see the stars.
Sibylla Laskaris - Lachesis' apprentice. Her KEC rank of Crusader is mostly a matter of courtesy and to give her some heft, but she is involved with them on the research side of things. Sibylla is a reformer, but not in the way it is commonly understood. She criticises the present system not because it is evil, but inefficient. Slave labour is wasteful. Far better to utilise machines powered by the Force and the souls of undesirables. Sibylla is contemptuous of Humanist ideology due to its rampant misogyny, wastefulness and lack of logic. But morality doesn't enter into the equation for her.
Born to a rich family headed by a greedy, sexist banker who profited from slave labour, she was discovered to be Force-Sensitive and started to be trained, but then was severely injured in a bombing at a training site. Her family forked out the money to get the 'best' medical care. She is required to permanently wear a mask and a proto-Vader style breathing apparatus. This makes her look like a devoted Vaderite which is something which gets respect. It also does not make her a desirable 'mate'. So despite everything it is in many ways a good thing for her autonomy. Sibylla is asexual. If they/them were acceptable pronouns to the Vaderites she'd use them. But she feels she's freed herself from the weakness of organic desires.
Sibylla has been trying to design an entechment knockoff to harvest the souls of the condemned to power machinery. She is with the Vaderites for the power and expedience rather than any great adherence to 'Righteous Humanity'. She is still harsh even devastating to xenos because they are enemies. Sibylla maintains an unlikely friendship with Menkales, who saved her life when he noticed the doctors were botching her surgery. She returned the favour when she saved him from Light Sith assassins. A talented inventor, she has been responsible for many alchemical devices due to her ability to think outside the box.
Her relationship with her father is...very poor. Angela, one of her older sisters, was rebellious and wanted to pursue a career in academia. She even had an affair with a near-human servant. When she kept 'acting out', Sibylla's father had Angela lobotomised and locked away. Sibylla was able to rescue her and she's now living under her protection, with Lachesis' blessing. She hasn't yet been able to settle the score because her father is a major player...for now.
Constantine Dragoumis (NPC) - one of the little 'princelings' of the regime, Constantine Dragoumis is a younger relative of none other than Supreme Leader Eisen. Being the closest thing the Imperium has to royalty has its privileges. While corrupt, Eisen is not purely nepotistic, so Constantine still had to demonstrate some talent. Still, the lad has caught the Supreme Leader's eye. Newly graduated from the Academy, he has been fast-tracked for promotion and put in charge of the Humanist Party's youth movement. Their credo is that youth should be led by youth and become the next generation of warriors for the Imperium. Constantine has taken this dictum to heart, and clashed with the ministry of education and the Party Chancellery over control of youth education. He has gathered around him a clique of young Corps leaders who hope to rise to the top on his coattails. He is still in the training wheels stage, but is already learning how to best utilise his powers of patronage and navigate the corridors of power.
For a while he worked in Eisen's military bodyguard unit. Taking the rank of major, he bickered frequently with its commander, who accused him of trying to undermine his authority. Having grown up privileged, Constantine is accustomed to luxurious living. As a child, he would don military garb, and bark orders at people. He is a fan of sports, carousing, cigarras and movies. He is said to own a massive collection of films, including some that have been banned by the Imperial State. Constantine likes to force guests to drink large quantities of alcohol at parties. However, he has cunningly recognised his powerful relative's desire for self-aggrandisement and is eager to capitalise on it. Constantine lived through the 'disruptions' caused by the Netherworld Event. It has imprinted its mark upon him. He has a vicious streak that his patriarch lacks.
A passionate movie buff, he has taken an interest in filmmaking and procured his own studio. The little princeling exhorts writers and directors to 'grasp the seed' of a work. That is to say, choose a clear theme that can be expressed in just a few words and stick to it. Moreover, they should stick to the facts if fabrications could be easily detected - but if a lie would serve the perpetuation of the regime, they should tell the lie and overcome the audience's incredulity through dramatic force and constant repetition. It is the Big Lie in a nutshell. He has been credited as the producer, director and screenplay writer of his own movie. Not content with merely telling the staff what to do, he personally supervised the shooting. At one stage, he worked late in the night, scissors in hand, to edit the movie after determining that the director had not truly grasped the seed of the work. Naturally, the director was 'deeply moved, overcome by a surge of emotion.'
Constantine has founded his own sports club and been rather aggressive in getting good players to sign up for it in order to corner the market. He isn't the type to work behind a desk all the time. He wants to be someone who always engages with the common people - or be seen as that, at any rate. He visits government offices, steel mills, farms, barracks, youth camps and so on to talk to people, carry out inspections and deliver on-the-spot guidance. Quite what the people make of a young man barging in to lecture them and throw his weight around is another question. But his hagiographers depict it as a sign of his boundless energy, attention to detail and concern for the common man. In the pattern of 'noblesse oblige', it has become a habit of his to present gifts - sometimes wildly extravagant - to somewhat less fortunate people who happen to be his friends, supporters or underlings, or are otherwise known to him. Constantine is married, and his glamorous wife has recently given birth to a son.
Ironically, Constantine's father Mathios is despises Humanism and all it stands for. He helps Twi'leks and others persecuted by the evil regime whenever he can. Eisen is a bit annoyed by his brother, but overlooks his activities and bails him out when he gets into trouble because he still feels a familial bond. For his part, Constantine is disgusted by his father. Mathios is a bon vivant and a womaniser with a string of affairs and a chaotic private life. Constantine is illegitimate, which has given him an inferiority complex and a trigger for his rage. Eisen took notice of the boy and allowed him to take the family name. After all, he has the Force, so he is worthy.
Darth Thrul (NPC) - a member of the Vaderite old guard. He claims he to be a descendant of one of Malitia's companions. His rivals like to quip that his ancestor was the first Supreme Leader's cupbearer. Thrul is lecherous, sexist, cruel and vicious, but hides it behind a thin veneer of civility and honour. In that regard he is not unlike Eisen, though in that case it's to lure people in with the extravagant buffoon trick to catch them out. In Thrul's case it's to get them to lower their guard so he can betray them. He has a downtrodden female Ren apprentice who hates him but lacks the strength to defeat him. She is suspected of having some alien ancestry, which he uses as a way to keep her line. He treats her cruelly. Unlike some of his peers, Thrul takes the mystical aspects of Humanism very seriously. He considers himself a master alchemist.
Thrul's power base comes from his ownership of a large array of mines; gold, silver, copper, iron etc. He's able to siphon off funds of course, since corruption is endemic. He also therefore has a large force of KEC, auxiliaries and other soldiers to 'supervise' the xenos. He supervises the manufacturing or refining of the ore, too. So there are steel mills near the mines and railcars to take the ore to the weapons factories. Thrul has a carefully crafted reputation for military skill. However despite this he never seems to be involved in the big campaigns. Why bother actually going and getting into the battle where your reputation might be lost? Better to rest on your laurels and say how important you are to the home front.
Lachesis thinks him a coward and greedy for staying back with his fortune whilst also being unwilling to put his military reputation to the test. That said, Thrul is no slouch in combat and personally brave. He is also more than willing to duel someone to prove his honour, but lacking that ruthless edge. In his case it's less about human concerns of sacrificing his soldiers and more about not wanting to threaten his ego and reputation. As a younger man he had a good reputation as a lower level battalion and brigade commander and also did some operations against rebels and feints where he was assured of victory. But he's never faced a proper enemy in battle.
Andronikos Thalakes (NPC) - Headmaster of the Academy of the Scions of the Vader. Thalakes came to power following the turmoil caused by the Netherworld Event. At the behest of Supreme Leader Furcht, he carried out a purge to rid the Academy of heretical elements, especially those who secretly followed the Light. He is known for his commitment to orthodoxy and cruel teaching methods. Under his orders a class of acolytes pursued and shot a group of fugitive 'terrorists' who had fled into the forest. When they examined the bodies, it turned out that they'd shot children. Thalakes praised them for proving their toughness. However, his son was so disgusted he committed suicide.
Kyriaki was tortured by him when her frail constitution made her collapse during a forced march. Ironically, Thalakes has some 'xenos' blood from a distant ancestor...a Jedi Master. Kyriaki used this to blackmail him into letting her graduate. He deeply resents this. Within the halls of the academy, Thalakes is a king, but fundamentally he is an overly ambitious, up-jumped petty middle manager. He was one of Furcht's cronies, so his power rests on an insecure foundation.
Darth Talos (NPC) - a Sith Lord who has taken the cult's obsession with Vader to the ultimate extreme so that he's now almost all machine, just the head and chest organs are organic. He is now truly more machine than man. He lives in a castle modelled on Darth Vader's old residence - or at least what Talos thinks it looked like. Talos has had his voicebox replaced to emulate 'the Voice of the Vader'. It sounds impressive...but also to anyone who actually knows...wrong. For one, the accent is quite different.
Talos is outraged by the mere suggestion that his idol felt the pull to the Light and rejected the dark side. To him this is blasphemy. Hence he feels particular antipathy for the Inheritors of the Light Father. Eisen is amused and confides to Kyri: "So dedicated is good Lord Talos to being the embodiment of the Vader that he has practically forgotten everything else. Even his ambitions are on hold in his quest to scarify himself further to prove his devotions."
While his Vader obsession has made him the subject of mockery, he possesses considerable strength in the Force, and is a formidable warrior. Like his role model, Talos has a low tolerance of failure. He is married, but unable to procreate the conventional way. This suits him just fine because has no interest in actual intercourse. However, because he needs heirs, and unlike some Vaderites he understands science, so he has resorted to artificial insemination. He put some of his sperm on ice a long time ago. He regularly has his wife implanted so she can give birth. She has been given a medal for conceiving a prodigious number of children.
His wife Tahlia Lykstratos is a Force-Sensitive, but a fairly weak one. She has consented to wearing clothes that resemble the outfits Padmé wore. She even styles her hair the same way and imitiates the Naboo's makeup. On first sight, her identity has been subsumed by Talos' absurd fantasies. She appears obedient, with no ambition other than to serve him and bear his children. However, there are rumours that she's just putting on an act and is the true power behind the throne. With Talos otherwise occupied, she manages the family's affairs on a day-to-day basis and seems to have a mind for politicking. Some Vaderites have tried to seduce her in order to drive a wedge between the two, but she's too smart to fall for such transparent schemes.
Lord Megaera (NPC) - the daughter of Darth Erlösung. Lachesis once said: "And here we have a general disgrace to all us ladies. It's like she took a look at at the clap trap those insecure ignoramuses say about 'hysterical' women and decided it would be her life goal to live up to it." Megaera has reasons for her actions though, though this doesn't excuse them. She suffered under his neglectful or abusive treatment, while being simultaneously encouraged to regard anyone who didn't share their blood as a lesser being. Erlösung married her off to another Sith Master to secure a political alliance, smiting her when she protested. Megaera eventually poisoned her husband. She is a victim of her father's machinations, but has become a cruel narcissist with little impulse control.
She imagines herself to be an astute mastermind, but is vindictive, emotionally immature, bound to her whims and complexes, tempestuous, incredibly petty and prone to making political blunders. Her insecurity makes her very susceptible to flattery and thus easily manipulated by savvier players. It does not help that she has become an alcoholic. She has some low cunning and manipulative talent. But while she can successfully execute schemes, she lacks the ability to anticipate long-term consequences. In other words, she has tactical skill, but is a bad strategist. Unsurprisingly, Megaera disavowed her father after Eisen took the helm, but still lives in fear of him. Erlösung never bothered to prepare her for Sith politics, so she is in over her head. So far she has managed to bluff the Council into thinking that she is privy to his secrets.
Darth Erlösung (NPC) - A Sith Lord considered extreme even by the standards of the Disciples...which says something. Erlösung is strangely 'egalitarian' because he advocates slavery for poor humans as well as aliens. He has promoted the view that those without the Force should be lobotomised because they don't need to think; that makes them unproductive. A moneyless society is the true dominion of the dark side. A Sith takes what he needs from those who are not Sith. Power is the only currency among the Sith, and those with strength reward with honour those who serve them faithfully. He feels that spreading terror to all the world is the manifest destiny of the Sith. Erlösung opposed Eisen's power grab and was excommunicated by the Council, but still has followers. Erlösung has written a long, rambling manifesto that is even more unreadable than Glorious Conflict.
As he puts it, "the xenos slaves of the Imperium are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm, work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are opposed neither by care nor labour. An Imperial farm is a sort of joint stock concern, or social phalastery, in which the master furnishes the capital and skill, and the slaves the labour, and divide the profits, not according to each one’s input, but according to each one’s wants and necessities. People are not ‘born entitled to equal right! It would be far nearer the truth to say, ‘that some were born with saddles on their backs, and others booted and spurred to ride them’—and the riding does them good. Liberty and equality are not only destructive to the morals, but to the happiness of society."
Lord Akakios Alesandro Skaer (NPC): Skaer is not a Humanist. He wasn't involved in war crimes or crimes against sentience, though he will say he is sorry for what his colleagues did, even though he did not know anything about it. He is a respectable architect from an upper middle class family who just happened to work for an evil government. He had no choice; the Imperium's war economy would've ground to a halt without his expertise. For some reason, prolonging a horrible regime is something to brag about. But he is an apolitical technician and an artistic soul who only wants the best for his people. He has never instigated the forced eviction of alien tenants from their homes or the construction of forced labour camps. The alien workers who toil in his factories and construction sites are not slaves; they are merely being given 'vocational training'. He has 'sabotaged' criminal orders. That is what he will tell a judge if he is captured and put on trial. He is a silver-tongued, remorseless liar.
Skaer is an architect, construction supremo and one of the most powerful figures in the Imperium's economy. He heads the Ministry of Industry and War Production and is on the board of directors of Destiny Engineering, a construction parastatal. Many government public works' projects are contracted to this company, and material firms are required to cooperate with its requests. This gives him incredible influence over materials, transport, armaments production, and forced labour. Skaer has made himself a name for building grandiose - and often impractical - monuments for successive Supreme Leaders. One time he had his designers build a walker so huge it could not walk and became a large statue essentially. The Supreme Leader could give a speech standing on top of it. Skaer has grown rich through kickbacks from material and munitions suppliers. He is just as corrupt as his peers, but better at hiding it.
He projects an appearance of bourgeois respectability. But he is incredibly ambitious, vain and power-hungry. His position has allowed him to
build a close relationship with the military-industrial complex and a cadre of young Party officials who desire a more efficient, streamlined government that still abides by Humanist principles. Skaer has a talent for organisation that matches his knack for self-promotion. He has managed to improve productivity, but his endeavours are built on the blood of slave labourers. He is utterly indifferent to their suffering. Skaer has actively encouraged the myth of himself as an industrial miracle worker who can achieve the impossible through sheer force of will. His rise to power is the product of ambition, sycophancy and the ability to delegate to more talented minions. He treats Tephrike as a massive engineering project that he can tweak and modify as he pleases in order to 'perfect the Humanist dream'. If the alien population of an entire city must be deported and said city demolished to to transform it into a 'model city', then so be it.
Darth Lachesis - Holds the rank of Lord Commander of the KEC. Lachesis is one of the few women in the senior leadership of the Disciples and the KEC - and particularly feared. Born into an impoverished junker family with little prestige, she was its first Force-Sensitives in generations. This earned her a spot in the Sith academy, where she got a reputation for deceit. Upon graduation, she was put in charge of managing the estates of a more successful branch of the sprawling clan. When alien slaves rebelled, she brutally crushed the uprising. So vicious was her suppression that it unnerved her clan, but it gained the attention of the KEC's Stormtrooper Corps.
Joining their ranks, she became a daring, capable commander. After helping her cousin Darth Hyperion seize power, she spearheaded the extermination of the alien population of Chios, her home island. In their place, she settled discharged veterans and poor humans. To them the genocidal butcher is 'Auntie Lachesis', and they have built a cult of personality around her. She favours natives of her home and is effectively a general and a governor on the move. At the same time, she is a kind of super-minister for racial affairs, giving her broad powers to 'Humanise' new territories by forcibly deporting the native, non-humans and replacing them with human settlers. Lachesis is a Humanist fanatic, but not afraid to disobey irrational orders. When Hyperion ordered her to hold a city at all cost against a Dominion army, she recognised this was a futile waste of human lives personally led a breakout. For this reason, she has the trust of her soldiers, who view her as someone who shares their hardships and cares about their lives.
Lachesis has allied herself with Eisen, though she views him as a corrupt sloth. But one Supreme Leader was better than chaos. She finds the Imperium stagnant and has cultivated a following among the regime's war hawks and social populists. Unlike many Disciples, she does not look down on Non-Force-Users, provided they are loyal, capable and 'racially pure'. But she also finds the regime's anti-alien policies do not go far enough. She is positioning herself to eventually take over, either directly or through a puppet.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The outbreak of the Gulag Virus had a profound impact on almost every inhabited world in the Galaxy. Galactic commerce came to an end, billions died from the plague and many more due to internal strife. Galactic governments collapsed and many planets succumbed to anarchy. The repercussions for Tephrike were extreme. Even before the outbreak, Tephrike had been a troubled planet. A few decades prior, a corrupt billionaire called Winston Stakes was elected as prime minister after an extremely bitter election.
His Gungan rival Bolgara Zisk had been discredited after inappropriate holonet transmissions were found on a personal datapad. She was accused of rigging the election where her party voted for its candidate, leading to a populist front runner being droppped in her favour. Stakes' brief term in office was characterised by an heavy increase in political divisiveness, civil unrest and racial tension, as well as being embroiled in numerous scandals. Though a business mogul who employed fraudulent business practices, Stakes presented himself as a man of the people by using incendiary, pro-humanist rhetoric in his speeches. Stakes courted human supremacists and Imperialist apologists, who glorified the tyrannical regime that had governed Tephrike under the Galactic Empire.
Stakes lost the election following a devastating accident in a fusion power plant his administration had championed. It transpired that the designers had cut corners and Stakes had kept quiet about it in return for kickbacks. However, Stakes' refused to concede the election, falsely claiming it had been rigged. Fired up by his incendiary rhetoric, his followers tried to storm Parliament building to lynch the new government. While the rather inept coup failed, it ushered in the Years of Lead. Economic woes and political fractured the party system even further. When Zero released the Gulag Virus on Csilla, about forty forty political parties were represented in the Tephriki federal assembly. Many of these parties were divided along racial lines, which increased political polarisation. To illustrate, in the last fourteen years of its existence, the Tephriki Federation had twenty-one administrations under twelve prime ministers.
Thus the planet's fragile democracy had already been under fire due to racial and social tensions. Moreover, the planet was highly dependent on galactic trade. Things turned from bad to worse as the survivors warred amongst themselves. Tephrike's small Jedi enclave tried to impose order and fight the darkness, but ended up becoming the very evil they fought against, while insisting that they were righteous. Influenced by a debased, warped interpretation of the old Jedi code, they sought to bring the planet under the control of a radical Jedi theocracy, the Dominion of Light, which took totalitarian control to new heights. Inevitably, there was opposition. Heretical Jedi turned on their masters and declared a dark crusade, forming a Sith cult that worshipped Vader as a god and believed all Force blind should be enslaved and treated as chattel. Both cultist factions were opposed by the Republican Guard, a secularist faction that drew a lot of its support from aquatic aliens, escaped clone slave-soldiers and Yuuzhan Vong.
Like most Sith movements, the Vaderites were founded by a schismatic Jedi. As the Jedi grew corrupt and sought to impose their vision on society, some grew drunk on power. One of them was Cade Seward. Born during the Dark Age, he was thrust into the horrors of war at an early age. Jedi ruled over vast swathes of territory as Jedi Lords, seeking to impose order by any means necessary. They dispensed justice, requisitioned supplies to feed population centres under their control and commanded armies. For some the strain proved too much, and the siren call of the Dark Side could not be resisted. Reaching officer rank, Seward was part of a bloody campaign against rebels in Tephrike's jungles.
These rebels considered the Jedi theocracy illegitimate and sought to restore Tephrike's pre-Gulag Virus Republic, though in practical terms they were another warlord faction. The campaign was not going well, for though the Jedi forces could deploy impressive firepower, they were harassed by guerillas and plagued by disease. Increasingly, food and clean water became scarce. Disease and malnutrition caused higher casualties on both sides than actual combat. Fast growing creepers grounded their transports. Morale was understandably poor. Some soldiers made the mistake of eating the wrong plant and suffered from hallucinations that a number of cases drove them mad. Jedi Knight Seward took command over a section of the forces after his superior was fragged by mutineers. By then Seward was already a Humanist disgruntled with the Dominion.
Seward was afflicted with malaria. Suffering from the effects of the diseases, which caused headaches, fever and uncontrolled seizures, he experienced bizarre visions. Even as a child, he'd received Force visions, but now these were more intense. In his fever dreams, he saw a towering warrior clad from head to toe in black armour, with his face covered by an imposing mask. The figure handed him a scarlet lightsabre and, in a cold, gruff voice, ordered him to break the chains the Jedi had placed upon him and eclipse the light. Drawing upon his somewhat incorrect knowledge of history, he deduced that the masked man in black had to be the legendary Darth Vader. He shared his revelations with a few subordinates. Some refused to heed his bold vision. The rest swore allegiance to him. Secretly reaching out to the rebel forces, he struck a deal with them, and led the Jedi loyalists into an ambush. Seward allied himself with the extremist Humanist factions he was supposed to eliminate. One of their leaders became an ideological mentor for him.
After taking over a few minor towns and assimilating various militias and bands of marauders into his army, he began his dark crusade. At first dismissed as a mere bandit, the Windian Jedi Order eventually realised that this rogue, who'd begun to call himself Darth Malitia, was an actual threat. War ensued, but it was not a conventional war between states. The Vaderites viewed it as a racial war of annihilation that could only end with human dominance or the end of humankind. Criminal orders passed by Malitia's generals targeted Twi'leks and Bothans explicitly as racial enemies to be murdered, regardless of location. Captured Dominion conscripts were systematically starved to death in prisoner-of-war camps or used for alchemical experiments, while alien Jedi - even Padawans and Younglings - were executed outright. The Vaderites mobilised human collaborators to support them. The Dominion also radicalised, unleashing a campaign of terror against perceived dissidents, setting up blocking squads and carrying out a scorched earth campaign.
After winning a number of victories over the Dominion forces, Malitia's army was decimated at the Battle of Palmyra. The battle left Tephrike's already ruined old capital devastated by a nuclear weapon, turning it into a radioactively contaminated hellscape. Forced to retreat into the jungle, Malitia led the remainder of his army on the Arduous March, performing scorched earth tactics on the way. Still obsessed with his destiny, he plotted revenge on the Jedi, but some of his generals had enough. And so they did the classic Sith thing and turned on him. His apprentice Darth Vengeance, who had once been known as Kleon, challenged him to a duel and defeated him in mortal combat. It was Vengeance who led the remnants of the 'Dark Legions' to the ruins of Castle Maysaf. Here, high up in a mountain that lay on the border between jungle and desert lands, he planted his standards.
From this moment on, it would be the new base of the Disciples of the Vader. Its ground was consecrated through the ritual sacrifice of several captives. While Malitia had been slain, many of his principles remained alive, though the order he'd founded changed over time. The Disciples continued to claim that it was their goal to cover Tephrike in darkness and exterminate the Jedi. The Humanist Party, which had started out as a cult under Malitia, was turned into a totalitarian state party to control all facets of public and private life. Vengeance was less of a fanatical Vader worshipper than the cult's founder, but intensified the cult of Vader in order to provide a unifying ideology that could keep the cult together. It was he who ushered in radical Year Zero policies to wipe the slate clean and break with Tephrike's 'decadent' past.
In line with his vulgar Social Darwinist ideology, the Sith Master decreed that the old, mentally ill and infirm should be killed due to being 'useless eaters'. Nearby towns were required to pay tribute, which was extracted via brute force if they did not comply. But he also realised that at least some subjects needed to receive incentives. So he created a caste of citizens, who occupied a position between the Sith and the slaves and could be considered middle management. They became the overseers, bureaucrats, officers and devotees of the Cult of Vader. Having been given some power over the mass of slaves, they were dependent on the Vaderites for their social standing and survival. Non-humans were enslaved and often subjected to large-scale deportations.
Standing in a public square of Pellas, soon to be renamed Skywalker City, Vengeance addressed a crowd, declaring the beginning of Year Zero. To usher in the new, Tephriki would have to tear down the old. Anything that anchored them to the 'decrepit ideologies' of the past had to be done away with. The Vaderites demolished several important landmarks and monuments that they identified as representing old Tephrike. The Vaderites blamed the outbreak of the Gulag Virus on an alien Jedi conspiracy, but simultaneously proclaimed it had swept away a decadent, galactic order. The Disciples had cast off the shackles of the 'galactic xenos Jedi conspiracy' and would usher in a heroic age ruled by the strong. Interestingly, Vengeance tried to put an end to poppy production and the profitable trade with magic mushrooms, for he regarded the sale of 'happy pills' with disdain. However, his war on drugs was a total failure. The apparatus he had created was simply too corrupt. Moreover, many ordinary people had become dependent on the practice and there were too many merchants and bureaucrats who could profit. Hence his successors decided they would be better off with simply taxing it.
Vengeance was not shy about using terror tactics, including deploying chemical weapons and weaponised viruses against population centres to enforce his will. Entire Twi'lek villages were wiped out, with the survivors being forced into servitude as forced labourers. To direct the energies of his fellow cultists towards an external foe – and thereby keep them from having the chance to collude against him – he invaded the homelands of the Tephrike's Yuuzhan Vong communities. Regarding the Vong as abominations, he ordered them to be put to the sword or enslaved, initiating a genocidal campaign. Their land, he decreed, would be settled by human colonists loyal to God Vader. However, these murderous policies drove most Vong into the arms of the nascent Republican Guard. The secularist rebels would come to be a thorn in the Vaderites' side, carrying out several attacks on their bases and slave camps. Thus an uneasy stalemate developed. The Republican Guard, the Dominion and the Vaderites all vied for supremacy, along with a plethora of smaller factions. The alien population of Adlerberg, as the Vaderites renamed a conquered Dominion city, was deported to the ironically Prosperity Quarter, an overcrowded, impoverished ghetto. Many were forced to toil in forced labour camps.
Unsurprisingly, the history of the cult has also been characterised by power struggles and internal schisms. Their might makes right ideology only encourages this. Of particular note is an episode during the reign of Darth Hyperion. He waged a long, bloody war against the Dominion of Light and the Republican Guard's partisans. A purist, he conceived it as a war of racial purification and renewal. After initial successes, it began to turn against the Sith. When a cabal of officers staged an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow him, he repsonded with a brutal purge. Things came to head during the Netherworld Crisis. Aside from the usual backstabbing, two heretical movements reared their head. A group of cultists had discovered what they believed to be 'a sacred text' from the Jedi.
Said text was actually a 'Galactic Civil War for Dummies' sort of book, which told the story of Vader's redemption. Thus one group proclaimed that since Vader had embraced the Light, it was their duty to do so as well as the true disciples of the Chosen One. In doing so, they would finish what he started by bringing balance to the Force. The other group claimed that since Vader had fallen to the light side, Palpatine was the true Dark Lord and it was their duty to destroy the false Sith. Civil war ensued. Impaler hoped to pit both factions against the other, but the leader of the 'Light Sith', Darth Krieg, was able to rally a number of rebellious slaves to his cause by promising them freedom and better living conditions.
In the end, Hyperion was slain in a duel. The Sidious zealots were purged and Krieg took control. He called himself Darth Salus now. Despite ostensibly being a lightsider, he saw nothing wrong about ruling as an autocrat. To be fair to him, he attempted to reform the cult from the inside and impose liberalisation from above. But many Sith resisted his attempts to overturn the old ways. So in order to maintain his power, he had to rule like a despot. The slave economy was so deeply ingrained in Vaderite society that it was impossible to do away with overnight. It soon turned out that lofty ideals were easy to preach, but difficult to put into action. Many Sith who had pretended to convert continued to sabotage reforms. His own attitude was staunchly autocratic and he soon became began to believe that he was a messianic saviour who could do no wrong.
He reached out to the Dominion of Light to reunite the orders, but they rebuffed him. So he declared that the faux Jedi had fallen to the Dark Side and must be purged. Cannily, he arranged an secret alliance of convenience with the secular Republican Guard. But the secret pact soon broke down, partly due to intrigues of Dominion Battlemaster Mahtara. However, while Salus was campaigning, his enemies in the cult seized control of the castle and upon his return he was poisoned. This was justified with the argument that he was an unbeliever, and so the normal code did not apply.
The old order was restored and the 'heretical' text was burnt. But some of the 'Light Sith' survived and were able to go underground. They call themselves the Inheritors of the Light Father. It should be noted that this sect still has a lot of ideological baggage. Moreover, survival on a post-apocalyptic planet such as Tephrike requires making compromises most mainstream Jedi might consider unpalatable. A sect of Sidious believers has also managed to escape extermination. Both schismatic groups wage a guerilla war against the orthodox Vaderites. At least when they are not busy fighting each other.
Darth Furcht, the head of the KEC and the secret police, emerged victorious among the Disciples. He forced his rival, the corrupt Darth Eisen, to bend the knee and brutally crushed the uprising the of the starving alien inhabitants of the Prosperity Quarter ghetto. He had been a key architect of the Disciples' genocidal policies, supervising deportations, mass killings and a network of forced labour and extermination camps. His network of spies allowed him to gather dirt on his rivals.
In contrast to many of his peers, Furcht had an ascetic life style. In a pack of ferocious wolves, he must always prove himself the strongest. His subordinates viewed him with a mixture of dread and admiration, and he went to great lengths to appear as the perfect embodiment of the Sith 'superman'. Furcht was disgusted by what he perceived as Vaderite society sliding into decadence and heresy and sought to return it to a 'simpler, nobler life'. Ironically, he had a very high-pitched voice. This was a cause of embarrasment for him and so he rarely gave public speeches, often using doppelgangers conditioned to obey him.
When outsiders arrived in Tephrike's orbit, the Vaderites took notice. Some wondered whether the Scion of Vader had shown himself. They soon learned that this was not the case, for the outsiders were part of Firemane's exploration corps. However, their coming was still fortuitous because the outsiders soon ended up embroiled in war with the Dominion. The outsiders and the Republican Guard proceeded to take Fortress Purity. Word spread that the Dominion's Grandmaster was dead and that part of the army was in open revolt. The Sith leaders were in the midst of planning a great offensive to take advantage of the turmoil, when suddenly the outsiders bombarded Castle Maysaf.
Furcht ordered the Council members and sorcerers present to conduct a ritual with him. They struck back by summoning demons aboard the Firemane flagship. But one of his rivals, Darth Eisen, was not among the Sith who joined the ritual. Instead he had used the chance to sneak away. This turned out to be a wise choice, for while the Sith's ritual was successful and Firemane had to fight to take its warship back from the eldritch entities, Castle Maysaf was levelled. Furcht died in the bombardment. He and his cohorts perished when a missile vaporised a fifty metre sphere, shearing through rock and metal cleanly. When they died, a wave of dark side energy was released from their bodies. It fed the gateway, and kept it open.
Eisen witnessed Maysaf's destruction from afar. He was both awed and intimidated by the 'magnificient desolation'. His musing about what the Sith could accomplish with such power was cut short by the realisation that the Council had been decimated. He sent his minions to the castle to verify that Furcht was dead. This turned out to be the case. However, the ritual Furcht and his cohorts had been performing had repercussions beyond what the Sith Lord had imagined.
The destruction caused by the bombing was cataclysmic. The Sith sorcerers had been harnessing the power of the void to summon malevolent spirits from the depths of the Nether. This had created a minor tear in the fabric of reality. On its own, this would not have done much. However, the mass deaths caused by the Firemane bombardment allowed the Nether energies to spread, and the gateway remained open. In short, there was a Netherworld Rift inside the ruins of Castle Maysaf. Eisen, himself a powerful Sith Sorcerer, immediately had the area placed under lockdown. A nearby town called Honourstad was also affected by the cataclysmic event.
Incidentally, Furcht had not entered Chaos. Though the Supreme Leader had shuffled off the mortal coil, he had been able to tether his black soul to the rift. Like many Sith Lords, he had sought immortality. Of course, his present existence was not to his liking. Eisen had no desire to help his rival and former boss return to a corporeal existence. He found the former Leader's plight extremely amusing, but unfortunately for him, there were Vaderites who regarded Furcht as a martyr and him as a traitor.
Furcht's death led to a civil war. Eisen emerged as victor after defeating the armies of Achilles, Furcht's young son. The boy-king was slain in battle, and Eisen seized his realm. He also took possession of a young girl called Kyriaki, a clone of a Firemane officer called Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori. Originally created by a rogue Dominion faction, she'd fallen into the hands of Achilles' men. Recognising her intelligence and seeing her as a bit of a puppy needing guidance, Eisen made her his ward.
Last edited:
