Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Firemane.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Firedawn, Exodus from Kaeshana, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, Firetruth, Order of Fire.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Hearthfire.
Classification: Humanitarian Organisation.
Affiliation: Firemane Industries, Siobhan, House Kerrigan-Alcori, Kaylah Danton, Shazora Jai Vahal, Board of Control.
Organization Symbol: A red colour scheme with two hands surrounding and cupping a symbolic fire.
Description: Hearthfire is a Firemane department and humanitarian organisation that has been founded to provide aid to refugees and asylum seekers. Firemane is a megacorp, but in many it has assumed duties and functions normally associated with a government. It answers to no planetary or interstellar government. On worlds with little in the way of central government, Firemane offers alternatives to government services, such as anti-piracy and anti-slavery protection, education, planetary infrastructure and law enforcement. One of its tag lines is that it does what governments cannot and has remained stable throughout while galactic governments come and go. Its arkships are essentially mobile cities on the move and many residents live there on a permanent or long-term basis. In short, the line between citizen and employee is very blurred.
Thus it is only appropriate that Firemane pursue its own refugee policy. Given the many galactic wars, low-intensity conflicts, as well as the rise and fall of various galactic powers, it is no surprise that there are tons of displaced people without a home. These people are at risk of being harmed by slavers, forcibly conscripted into a warlord's militia as well as similar forms of exploitation. Siobhan Kerrigan, Firemane's paramount leader, fled her homeworld decades ago after it was occupied by Sith. Still a young girl, she ended up on crime-infested Nar Shaddaa as a penniless fuitive. Thus Hearthfire's work ties in with her own biography, though the initiative for its foundation did not come from her. Her life story is, however, taught to the group's charges as a way to inspire them and show that they can make it, too. Of course, the biography is somewhat idealised.
Hearthfire provides support to refugees who seek shelter within Firemane's sphere of influence. This includes refugees fleeing from war zones, victims of slavery, unaccompanied children and people seeking asylum. Hearthfire is responsible for admissions, provides aid in relocation and settlement and helps them find homes, get work and the necessary education so that they can integrate into their host society. This is supposed to turn them into productive citizens. It also aids refugees in locating and being reunited with lost family members. Hearthfire works with other Firemane departments and local governments to resettle refugees in safe areas. It also provides medical care.
Refugees who are processed and admitted are taken assigned initial housing. Hearthfire aids and advises them while they adjust to their new environment, get settled in and begin a new life. Of course, Firemane's motives are also self-serving...as with any organisation. Providing aid to those fleeing war and persecution looks good. Moreover, it is a way to get new workers. But then Firemane is a bit of a cultural and ethnic melting pot. The body has been founded at the instigation of Shazora Jai Vahal, Firemane's chief diplomat and a former slave.
Hearthfire is funded by Firemane's Treasury and answers to the Board of Control, Firemane's ruling group. Firemane's military has given Hearthfire access to a few old space stations that are no longer in use. These stations function as registration, processing and admission centres, temporary accommodations and field hospitals. The Hearthfire offices there also vet refugees in order to ensure that unsuitable elements are not granted admission and people with dangerous diseases are quarantined. The body works closely with Firedawn, Firemane's freedman bureau, which provides aid to manumitted or escaped slaves. Firemane security forces provide protection at Hearthfire installations.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: The administrative main office is on the Arx Aeternae, though most of the work takes place elsewhere.
Domain: Hearthfire does not control any planetary domains. However, it operates within Firemane's sphere of influence and has a presence on Arkas as well as on various Firemane worldships and the Celestial Vahana. Many of its employees are recruited locally, but it also accepts outsiders.
Notable Assets: Hearthfire owns a few Haven Class Medical Stations. These have been repurposed to serve as processing, admission and medical centres for refugees. In addition, it has access to a number of Liorre Class Freighters, which are employed as refugee transports, and a few Elaris Class Medical Ships.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: Hearthfire is headed by a bureaucratic official with the title of Director. This individual is appointed by the CEO or the Vice President of Firemane. They are aided by a Deputy Director. Beneath this level, there are various subject-,atter bureaus that deal with a different aspect of policy. The bureau heads are picked by the Director. The present bureaus are Administration, Information, Refugee Admissions, Refugee Support and Integration, Refugee Health, Resettlement and Children's Aid. Leaders on management level are chosen for their administrative skills and experience in running humanitarian projects. The individual bureaus are run by professional administrators who are experts in their specific subject matter. Below management level, one has the technical professionals and the rank and file. Hearthfire employs administrators, teachers, psychologists, medical professionals, psychologists, cooks, engineers, lawyers, translators and many more.
The Administration Bureau represents, as the name implies, the internal administration of Hearthfire. It is also the personnel office and handles finances. Information is the media department. It produces brochures and flyers, public service announcements, holodocumentaries and manages Hearthfire's holonet presence. In short, it informs both the public and Firemane employees about the work Hearthfire does. The Refugee Health Bureau carries out health checks and vaccinations, provides healthcare to refugees and quarantines those among them who have infectious diseases. It also provides psychological counselling and informs refugees about health issues. Admissions is responsible for gathering data, processing and registering refugees. This makes it the first bureau most refugees will come into contact with.
The Refugee Support and Integration Bureau arranges for refugees to get an education, job training and the like. It also provides them with funds to help them get back on their feet and educates them about Firemane laws. In that regard, it helps refugees integrate into their host country. It has partnerships with schools, local businesses and non-government organisations. It can also help refugees get scholarships. Fittingly, Firemane has set up its own education system.
The Resettlement Bureau is, as the name implies, resettling refugees, such as on Firemane arkships or on worlds Firemane has influence on, such as Arkas. It has also sponsored the creation of settlements for refugees. This enables the refugees to govern their own affairs, while at the same time Firemane maintains some influence. The Children's Aid Bureau looks after refugee children who are without a legal guardian. This includes running orphanages and children's shelters and giving them access to education. Moreover, it seeks to reunite children with their families.
Obviously, the duties of these organisations overlap to some extent, but then they are supposed to work together. There is also an office for the director of Hearthfire. This serves as a personal staff and coordinates the operations of the various divisions, but also runs a number of special programmes under the direct authorit of Hearthfire's boss. An example would be a programme to provide aid and counselling to victims of torture.
Presently, Shazora Jai Vahal is in charge of Hearthfire. This is a temporary post, as she has been put in charge to supervise the creation of the body. Shazora is already a member of the Board and thus dual-hatted, so once Hearthfire is on a secure footing, she will pass on the position to to a successor. A number of Firemane departments have appointed liaison officers.
Membership: Hearthfire employs people who have expertise in a variety of fields, such as asylum and refugee policy, languages, psychology, education, general administration and IT. The group publishes holonet advertisements when a job vacancy arises. However, prospective recruits can also apply for a position on their own initiative.
People interested in working for Hearthfire apply by answering a job ad within a certain deadline. Generally they must fill out a form and attach various documents that are relevant to the position, such as information about prior work experience in the field in question, certificates, recommendations and so on. Depending on the job in question, Hearthfire allows part-time work. There are no gender or species barriers.
A number of former refugees who have settled in Firemane's sphere of influence work for Hearthfire. This is beneficial since they have endured similar things as their charges and thus can relate to them best. However, the organisation is young and thus still in the process of growing. Several of its employees already worked for Firemane before its foundation and have been assigned to it from different departments or volunteered.
Climate: Hearthfire attaches great importance to an employee's ability to work in a team. Willingness to travel is also expected. The same applies to being flexible when it comes to work hours, including working on week-ends if need be. The lingua franca is Galactic Basic. However, employees are expected to be proficient in at least one common non-human language such as Twi'leki or Huttese. The working environment is multicultural and diverse. Employees are expected to follow the directives of their superiors. Many of their charges have endured horrible things in war zones and suffer from trauma, so it is best to show empathy to the refugees. After all, the objective of Hearthfire is to aid and integrate them.
Employees have a diverse, varied field of responsibility. This means they are always learning new things, which can give them avenues for a career in a different branch of Firemane as well as in the corporate world or bureaucracy in general. Hearthfire has opened a skills centre that enables employees to enhance their skills. It offers a twelve-week training programme, including management training, languages and workshops.
Hearthfire prides itself on allowing employees to balance family life and work. Depending on the position, it is possible to work part-time. Moreover, it runs a day care centre. However, the necessity to travel or come in outside of regular work days may separate employees from their families for an extended period of time, especially if they have to travel to a distant outpost or a refugee camp. They get paid vacations though. Employees of Hearthfire are paid by Firemane and are entitled to a benefits package, such as healthcare and a pension. Furthermore, they can receive a performance bonus if their work is particularly meritorious.
Reputation: Overall, the institution is quite well-liked. Its humanitarian efforts and support for refugees have won it support. However, there are also critics. These tend to be individuals who believe its work is too incrimental, or those who believe that while Hearthfire does good work, it also exists to whitewash Firemane, an organisation that is far from democratic or really accountable to anyone other than itself.
Curios: N/A.
Rules: Members are expected to obey the rules of Firemane and be loyal to the megacorp. They must treat members of different species and cultures without bias and be professional while discharging their duties. This includes not having dealings with individuals or groups Firemane is hostile to, such as Sith or slavers. All documentation must be properly filed and all expenses must be accounted for. Hearthfire is set a budget by Firemane's treasury and must operate within its parametres.
Hearthfire members are expected to adhere to ethical and legal standards. Many of the people who will seek Hearthfire's aid have endured traumatic events, as they tend to be refugees fleeing war, poverty and political or religious persecution. Hearthfire have a responsibility to treat them fairly and empathically. However, they must also follow the rules. Loose cannons and the like are not welcome in the group. Hearthfire's credo is that it wants to provide aid, but in a sustainable way. Accepting refugees helps no one if they are left out in the cold. Where possible, it works with humanitarian organisations to address the cause of the flight, so that refugees are not driven from their homelands in the first place.
However, its primary focus is on organising the vetting, admission and settlement process and in general aiding refugees who have reached Firemane's sphere of influence. Its work is supposed to help refugees achieve their full potential and in the process facilitate their integration into society. Hearthfire does not operate in a vacuum, but is part of a larger organisation. Its employees must display integrity and professionalism when representing the group to other Firemane agencies, as well as to local government institutions. At the end of the day, Hearthfire is tied to Firemane and its interests. This also means making sure that fugitives are not a potential threat.
One of Firemane's rules is that Force-Sensitives in its sphere of influence must receive training to learn how to control their powers. This does not, however, force them onto a set career path. Force-Sensitive refugees are given the option to join the Order of Fire, Firemane's Force-Sensitive branch. Unlike the Jedi Order of yore, the Order does not conscript little children. Indeed, there are strict rules against that. Thus the Order does not have younglings. Hearthfire works with the Order to carry out Midichlorian tests in order to determine Force-Sensitivity. Obviously some of the refugee groups have their own Force traditions. The Order does not supplant them, but offers further training and monitors them.
Goals: Provide aid to refugees, help them find homes, integrate into society and build new lives. Naturally it also seeks to promote the interests of Firemane, which can manifest in arranging for its charges to get jobs with the megacorp. Moreover, it work helps ensure that refugees in Firemane's sphere of influence are vetted and steered towards productive endeavours.
MEMBERS
Shazora Jai Vahal: Shazora is a Qadiri leader, a former slave and Firemane's chief diplomat. She is one of the patrons of Firedawn and works closely with it. Her people have given her the ceremonial title of High Liberator, though this is a sign of respect rather than absolute power or worship. Once a slave, then a rebel leader, and finally a respected politician and member of Siobhan's inner circle. Shazora hails from an island called Farsi. Her village was attacked by Xioquo raiders when she was very young. The drows enslaved her. En route to the Underealm, their ship was attacked by Khaimari raiders, who proceeded to take both the captured Qadiri as well as surviving Xioquo as slaves and sell them on the slave markets of Karahamor.
Shazora was purchased by one of the city's oligarchs and served as a slave scribe. However, her deferential, submissive attitude hid a cunning intellect. She became one of the brains behind a slave revolt that took control over the city. Though the freed slaves had to endure much hardship, incluidng the invasion of a hostile coalition of neighbouring city-states, they were able to weather the storm. Realising that the sky people could benefit her people and help them advance, Shazora made a pact with the humans of Firemane. In the years that followed, she became one of Siobhan's trusted agents, even joining Firemane's ruling group.
Shazora tries to balance her responsibility to Firemane with those to her people, who have acquired their own worldship. Shazora serves as acting director of Hearthfire. Her role is not supposed to be a permanent one, as she has many other responsibilities. Instead she is supposed to get the department up and running and then pass it on to a suitable successor. The fact that she is a member of Firemane's governing board helps give the fledging organisation some clout.
Chruaat (NPC): Chruaat is the most unorthodox of Wookiees, for he is neither a former slave nor has he sworn a life debt to someone. He is also not rebel pilot. Instead he has degrees in business administration and accounting. He is a bit fussy, but good at paperwork and a sentient resources specialist. Hence he is in charge of the Bureau of Administration.
Chruaat's grandfather was a Wookiee who left his tribe to go on adventures with a Jedi he had sworn a life debt to. For this, he gave up a promising caereer as an engineer. The life debt was hereditary and was passed on to Chruaat's father. However, Chruaat's mother rightly saw this as serfdom made sure her son got an education instead of being trapped in servitude. She fostered in him the ambition to make something out of himself instead of being someone's gopher. He understands Basic, but obviously cannot speak it, so he has a protocol droid to act as a translator in case the person he is talking to cannot understand Shyriiwook. He is not rude to the protocol droid even when it starts rambling a bit.
Mlatar Ryn (NPC): The towering Togorian is a survivor of the first massacre carried out by the Sith against the people of Togoria. This has given him a lot of empathy for fugitives fleeing persecution and oppression, as well as a strong hatred for Sith and Imperial groups. He has a lot of experience working in humanitarian aid organisations, having been part of a group of refugees who organised themselves to provide relief in a Togorian refugee camp after the planet's liberation. This is a form of self-help he continues to promote. Though his appearance might suggest otherwise, he is a scholar. To be precise, he is an expert in xenobiology and medicine. In keeping with this skill set, he is in charge of the Health Bureau.
Dana Arakalyn (NPC): Head of the Refugee Support and Integration Bureau. This may be one of the most important bureaus, as it is supposed to help the refugees get settled socially and economically. This is a complex process that requires empathy for the refugees, but also a willingness on their part to integrate into the host society and accept its legal norms without abandoning their own identity. In short, it requires long-term investment. The Zeltron is a former slave and now runs courses on how to retrain and aid those caught in exploitative work. In contrast to the Zeltron stereotype, she is not licentious or a hedonist. Dana uses pheromones to help set people at ease, but not for seduction. She also dresses professionally.
Kora (NPC): Kora is a Selkath who is an expert at engineering on, above and below water, and on land, too. Her mother was an adept of the Order of Shasa, but Kora lacked the Force affinity to pursue that path, so she studied architecture and urban planning instead. She is in charge of the Resettlement Bureau, which takes advantage of her knowledge of engineering and urban planning. Selkath have a reputation for neutrality and isolationism, but she has broken with that. One factor was the sinking of Ahto City during a battle between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. This event has also given her a fairly low view of Jedi.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Much is written about the great and terrible battles that have taken place throughout galactic history. The ugly and less glamorous aftermath is explored less frequently. One of the consequences of the various galactic conflicts and natural disasters are large refugee populations. Millennia ago, the Mandalorian Wars triggered mass migrations, as refugees fled the worlds the Mandalorians laid to waste. This was exacerbated by the devastation caused by the Jedi Civil War. Crime-infested Nar Shaddaa became host to a large refugee population, who were subjected to exploitation at the hands of the crime syndicates that dominated the Smuggler's Moon. After the Galactic Empire destroyed Alderaan, thousands of Alderaanians found refuge on New Alderaan.
In more recent memory, one could name the Exodus from Kaeshana as well as atrocities such as the asteroid bombing of Dromund Kaas, the massacres of Togoria and Mandalore, the destruction of Atho City and many more. Conflicts such as the war between the Galactic Republic and the One Sith and later the First Order and the Galactic Alliance affected many worlds. Various organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, exist to provide aid to refugees. Hearthfire is one of them, though it is a fairly new group. Strictly speaking, Firemane is a for-profit corporation, not a government. However, it does not answer to any planetary or interstellar government entity. Moreover, it has assumed several functions normally associated with governments. Its arkships are effectively cities on the move and it wields significant influence on a number of worlds on the galactic fringe.
Moreover, its paramount leader Siobhan Kerrigan views herself as a queen in all but name. Inevitably, it has had to come up with a coherent policy when it comes to dealing with refugees. This became apparent when several Firemane military and civilian agencies tried to pursue their own policies, leading to them acting at cross-purposes. Firemane essentially acted as its own government, but lacked coherent laws about refugees and especially the process of admitting certain groups. This caused some refugee groups to be admitted with little fuss, while others were effectively interned on space stations and refugee camps or even turned away.
At a board meeting chaired by Acting CEO Kaylah Danton, Shazora Jai Vahal proposed the creation of an agency that would be responsible for processing legitimate refugees and settling them in productive locations. There was precedent for this, as Firemane had a history of facilitating mass migrations. When the Eldorai learned that their homeworld Kaeshana was doomed to be hit by a massive asteroid that would cause tremendous devastation, Firemane built an exodus fleet that was able to evacuate most of the elves before the calamity.
Later Firemane built large, mobile stations that could move vast populations into a better future if needed to escape war or natural disasters. More recently, Firemane settled a group of Tephriki fugitives and former political prisoners fleeing the oppressive conditions on their homeworld within its sphere of influence. These fugitives called themselves the Unchained. Firemane's relationship with them was a somewhat complicated one. Moreover, Firemane already had a bureau that provided aid to freed slaves. Thus Hearthfire was conceived as an off-shoot of this organisation. After some debate, the plan was greenlight by the Board of Control. Firetruth, Firemane's media arm, was mobilised to spread awareness of it and inform the public about Firemane's new efforts.
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