Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike by subbing another very unpleasant place where good and goodish characters (or just people who hate fascists) can help the downtrodden. It plays an important role in Kyriaki's story.
Image Credit: Here, here, here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard, Prosperity Quarter, Inheritors of the Light Father, After Darkness, Ruhewald, Kyriaki, Cordé Tycho, Shakka Tiatkin, Honna, Sibylla Laskaris, KEC Division Humanity's Blade, Doctor Jonas Menkales, Crimson Orb Trees, The Key Which Unlocks the Void.
SETTING INFORMATION
City Name: Hope Falls. Formally known as Special Agriculture Project 4 in Vaderite circles.
Classification: Rural Town.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: Disciples of the Vader, Darth Eisen, Government of the Greater Sith Imperium, Humanist People's Party, Darth Lachesis, Tephrike, KEC.
Population: Heavy. By the standards of a settlement of this size. Hope Falls suffers from overcrowding.
Demographics: The population is mostly composed of aliens. The only humans who reside here are administrators, security officials and guards. Officially, the humans are just here to 'guide', 'civilise' and 'educate' the alien residents. However, in actual fact they are the masters, while the non-humans are their serfs. Most of the aliens are Twi'leks, Houk, Rodians, Zabraks, Gungans, Duros, Togruta, Gamorreans or Mon Calamari. There are also some Cathar and a few Umbarans. Aliens that are seen as far removed from humanity such as Twi'leks, Nautolans Mon Calamari, and Rodians are treated especially poorly. Big, stereotypically brutish aliens such as Houk and Gamorreans are somewhat favoured by the Vaderites and dominate the Public Force. The Sith like them because they fulfil their warped views of what aliens are like - big dumb lugs. Duros, Mirialans and Zabrak also receive somewhat better treatment. The alien population also includes some Akrut mercenaries, who are part of the Public Force. These mercenaries are hated by the populace, which makes them more reliable in the eyes of the Sith.
There are also a number of near-humans, who live in a grey zone. Purists see Mirialans, Zabrak and Umbarans as a contaminant of the human species through alien blood. According to this view point, they came into being to bastardise the human species, thereby lowering its cultural and political resistance so that the alien might dominate. They call them 'half-bloods', though purists prefer the slur 'mudblood'. However, other Vaderites believe that in select cases, the human blood of a near-human might win out over his alien blood, allowing them to selectively breed out the alien traits. This is controversial though. Certain near-humans - generally from species that could easily pass for human - as well as mixed species children must wear an identifying badge. Mixed marriages or relationships between humans and non-humans are forbidden. Humans who transgress against this rule are seen as 'shaming their species' and will be sent to 're-education camps', while aliens are killed.
Wealth: Poor. Hope Falls is extremely impoverished. While the Vaderites claim that the community belongs to its non-human inhabitants, de facto they are essentially serfs. They are supposed to toil in the fields and fulfil production quotas set by their Sith overlords. The Vaderites do not pay them in Imperial credits. This is justified on the grounds that aliens do not possess the faculties to use money responsibly. Instead they are supposed to be compensated with goods and be allowed to keep enough of their produce to maintain themselves. However, in actual fact the quotas are so oppressive that the peasants are barely left with anything. Famine has been the result, causing many inhabitants to die of hunger or disease. This is exacerbated by the poor state of the public health infrastructure. Even easily treatable illnesses can be lethal.
Moreover, the methods employed are extremely primitive, leading to low productivity. As a result, the community is far from being the breadbasket the Sith planners thought it would be. The peasants are not allowed to manufacture their own machines, but must procure them from the state or businesses in good standing with the Sith. Freedom of movement is nonexistent, as the residents are not allowed to leave Hope Falls. In practical terms, they are forced labourers who are worked to death. Many basic services such as water, sewage, electrity are scarcely available. Children get sick and die because there is not enough clean water to wash with and in many homes there is no safe disposal of sewage. The lack of electricity also makes it dangerous to be outside at night.
Because aliens are deemed irresponsible and akin to savage beasts or parasites, they do not legally own the land they work on or indeed possess any forms of private property. The residents have to live in overcrowded, collective quarters. A select few receive better accommodations and more substantial rations. However, these privileges can be withdrawn at any time if their performance is judged unsatisfactory. It is pertine to note that the aliens who reside here are there because they or their ancestors were expelled from their homelands. They were only allowed to take a bare minimum of possessions with them, about as much as they could carry, and even that was often stolen. At first they were forced to live in tents and then had to build their own homes. The Vaderites' tyrannical policies and decrepit state of the infrastructure prevent Hope Falls from becoming a productive agricultural centre. Fascism is not efficient at anything except oppression and using total control over the media to make it look efficient. Another problem is Key.
Though officially illegal, human and some xenos bigwigs cultivate their own Crimson Orb groves and divert precious water away from crops. Harvesting the red fruit to manufacture Key is very lucrative. Workers are forced to go into the groves to harvest the red fruit. Those found eating the edible green fruit are punished by being forced to eat the raw seed of a ripe fruit. 'Productive' workers can be rewarded with Key across the town. Just enough to keep them addicted and to cause disharmony amongst the others who don't get it.
Stability: Medium, because it is imposed stability with a very heavy security presence. The population live in fear of the Sith, but will gladly murder any outsiders they believe are their agents if they can get away with it. The Sith rule through terror. Hope Falls is run as a tyrannical police state. Poverty is widespread, and the oppressive quotas force many 'residents' to resort to theft or smuggling in order to survive. There is no form of recourse against police brutality and tyranny. The Public Force and Vaderite troopers regularly conduct raids to carry out confiscations and arrest 'agitators'. There is a high degree of racial stratification in the town, and the infrastructure is in shambles.
The Republican Guard, an anti-Force-user revolutionary organisation, maintained a cell in the town, but it was decimated by recent events, and they are still in the process of rebuilding their network. Corruption is incredibly high in Hope Falls. The current council chairman is a Duros called Zal Vanwe. He is a good man forced to make dreadful moral compromises. However, many view him as an appeaser. Vanwe was appointed acting chairman after Nass' execution. The most influential councillor and rival is the Zabrak female Bri Kivok. She boasts about saving food by cutting rations. She cares deeply about her fellow Zabraks and tries to improve things for them...but is indifferent to everyone else.
Things are universally bad, but members of certain alien species receive somewhat better treatment. The Vaderites have propped Duros, Zabrak, Gamorreans, Mirialans and Houk up as a class of collaborators. The important council seats are monopolised by them, they receive better accommodations and a higher allocation of rations. But this can all be easily withdrawn. 'Disfavoured' species receive token council seats...because the little influence and ability to protect at least some of their people forces them to go along with measures that oppress them even more.
However, events such as the recent purge, the imposition of even more oppressive quotas and the hospital 'action', where many of the sick and old were deported to be murdered, have degraded stability. Morale in the Public Force has suffered. The people are not yet at the stage where they will rise in revolt. Right now most are understandably concerned with the daily struggle for survival. They are afraid, disunified, lack leadership and weapons. An open rebellion would be brutally crushed, and likely result in the entire community being annihilated. But the brutal system doesn't foster loyalty, and rumours are spreading that the Vaderites intend to destroy the community anyway through the slow death by starvation and disease. And the rebels are starting to slowly rebuild.
Freedom & Oppression: Extremely oppressive. Officially Hope Falls is a community by aliens for aliens. Here, the aliens govern themselves and live happy, content lives. Indeed, the Greater Sith Imperium claims that it is a reservation and alien preserve. The Vaderites are extremely speciesist, viewing humans as a superior life form. In practical terms, Hope Falls is an oppressive dictatorship. The alien 'residents' do not possess civil rights, the 'governing council' is a collaborationist oligarchy chosen by the Sith administration.
It exists to enforce the dictates of the Vaderites, especially the grain quotas. The residents are not allowed to leave the community or sell their land, which they do not legally own. Rather it is held 'in trust' by human 'trustees'. The Public Force, as the alien police is called, is an auxiliary organisation of the Vaderite security apparatus and is charged with using brute force to crush dissent. Should a resident attempt to leave the community without permission, they will be treated as a criminal. Punishments for perceived crimes range from corporal punishment such as flogging to execution or being deported to a concentration camp. Branding is also common. Failure to meet grain collection quotas is a capital crime, as it is seen as sabotage.
Moreover, the Public Force is expected to provide the hand of a victim as proof that they have executed someone. Thus quotas are in part paid off in chopped-off hands. 'Agitators' may also be fed into grain threshers. The Sith have their own agents, but prefer to use the collaborationist militia to do their dirty work. This allows them to keep their hands clean and claim that any 'excesses' are the work of the aliens themselves. Needless to say there is no free press. The Vaderites' Ministry of Propaganda treats Hope Falls as a model community, a shining example of the 'benevolence' and 'wisdom' of the Imperium's racial policy. Journalists from the Ministry often visit to take pictures and produce holodocumentaries.
Whenever this happens, the council is expected to clean things up, make sure that mutilated or malnourished looking residents are hidden away and everyone who appears on camera smiles and looks content. Residents who are interviewed are forced to express their gratitude for the 'kindness' of their 'wise masters'. The Vaderites believe in collective punishment, which means that a family shares the responsibility for a crime or act committed by one of its members. The Sith respond to uprisings and protests with brute force, mass arrests and executions, often forcing the local council and its militia to do their dirty work for them. Corruption, an inevitable product of totalitarian and authoritarian government, is rampant, as there is no accountability. Officially, the Public Force is the town militia and police force, but the alien council has no real control over it. Instead it answers directly to the Vaderite representative. Typically, the security forces don't even bother with a trial to give their criminal actions the figleaf of legality.
Although the Vaderites claim that the community was created to give the aliens a place to express themselves and live according to their beliefs, in actual fact their cultures are suppressed. Under the Vaderites' New Order, it is considered undesirable for a non-human to be literate or able to count beyond one hundred. Nonetheless, the people forced to live here try to keep the flame alive, and pass on the knowledge of the past, such as through underground schools.
However, this is extremely risky, as it is seen as sedition. The Vaderites do tolerate some forms of cultural expression, such as theatre plays, but these are censored. The Vaderites regard racial mixing as a pollution of the gene pool. As a result, relationships and intercourse between humans and non-humans is forbidden by law. The Vaderites believe that the Force is the birthright of humans and that aliens 'stole' their powers. Thus Force-Sensitive alien residents are removed from the community upon identification. They never return. The Vaderites practice eugenics. Physicians are authorised to select the incurably sick, physically or mentally disabled and murder them. Inspectors from the Department of Racial Health regularly visit Hope Falls to carry out selections.
Although the Vaderites are xenophobic in general, they hate certain alien species more than others. They particularly single out Mon Calamari, both due to the role of Admiral Ackbar in the Rebel Alliance of yore and the influential role of this species in the Republican Guard. They also really hate Gungans for some reason. Moreover, they utterly loathe Twi'leks, labelling them as vile temptresses who drink human blood and eat human flesh. As a result, there is a bit of a caste system. The administration does not represent the species that belong to the community equally, but is drawn from certain groups the Vaderites favour.
Description:
It looks more like this. This part is shown to authorised visitors because it can be easily cleaned up for sham tours.
"Poverty will always exist on Tephrike, but it seems that Darth Eisen has managed to overcome his dark inclinations in order to provide resources and hope for some of those within their borders. It is my opinion that he seeks what all right-thinking beings should; a fair and equitable balance for those in his jurisdiction.
The idea of the Sith government in establishing Hope Falls was prompted by the desire to create an alien community to be run by its self-government, which would serve as a practical experiment on a small scale, for the future alien state to which a certain strip of land should be allotted after the war. One state for the humans, another for non-humans.
The people in this settlement seem happy and prosperous and displaying all the cultural life and vigour of their homes. They are well-fed and content. It seems that they are forging with the Sith a new realm of possibility which leaves aside the old ways of the Dominion and the persecution of the rebels. Reports of abuse can only be considered wartime propaganda. There have been some deaths from disease, but these are due to regrettable shortages in medical supplies that exist across the Imperium."
Jedi Master Oto Lehnos of the Order of the Blessed Way.
"The xenos is devious, but also lazy. Without productive labour they will turn to indolence and plotting. We will provide work which benefits them and all the Disciples of the Vader. Work and honest toil will provide them with meaning and use of their otherwise neglected faculties."
Darth Eisen.
'The xenos are to work for us. Insofar as we do not need them, they may die. Therefore, compulsory vaccination and human health service are superfluous. The fertility of the xenos is undesirable. They may use contraceptives or practise abortion, the more, the better. Education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count up to one hundred. At best an education which produces useful coolies for us is admissible. Every educated person is a future enemy.'
Party Secretary Callistus Papadakis.
"To give the xenos a natural habitat, the Supreme Leader created a preserve where he can live in accordance with his way of life. Here the Neimoidian cannot swindle, the Mon Calamari cannot scheme and the Twi'lek cannot spread disease and licentiousness. They will learn the value of honest labour and repay their debt to human society. Blooming fields. Joyful xenos, grateful for the benevolence of the Supreme Leader. Racial bastards wear the Star of Luke with pride. That was what the Weekly News' holodocumentaries showed. The residents all stood at attention when we disembarked. They smiled when I approached them and pretty much tripped over themselves to attend to my most menial needs. When I gazed into their minds, I saw naked terror. Their quarters looked clean. Many areas were off-limits though.
Later, the Security Commander was asked about troublemakers. He showed us a basket full of severed hands. The xenos, he said, particularly the Twi'lek, was driven by animalistic urges and needed to be broken in like an animal. But the science of Humanism had found the correct recipe.
I wondered why the Vaderites would bother with this charade. Everyone knows the xenos is a slave here. But as I pondered this, I realised that while in their heart of hearts everyone knows what happens to an xenos who gets taken away at night and is never seen again, they do not want it shoved in their face. Better to believe a happy lie that the xenos is fine and productive. There was a mass grave at the edge of the fields. Hastily dug. Appease a man's conscience by making sure ugly things happen well away from his doorstep, and you can get away with anything."
- Kyriaki
The Disciples of the Vader are a Vader-worshipping, human supremacist Sith cult. Their ideology treats it as dogma that power belongs to those who command the Force and that humans are superior to aliens. The Gulag Virus is seen as a conspiracy of alien Jedi to exterminate mankind. The fall of the ancient civilisations of humankind is seen as the result of alien conspiracies and racial mixing, which diluted the strength of mankind.
In short, they are extremely racist. Tephrike has about an equal balance of humans and aliens, with strong Gungan, Nautolan, Mon Calamari and Quarren communities. It even has some Yuuzhan Vong, many of whom belong to the lost Krazhmir domain. The Vaderites view this as a problem. Particularly radical Vaderites want to carry out a war of extermination, and indeed certain species have been singled out. However, their economy is also based on slave labour. Aliens are enslaved, as are humans who have 'shamed' their species. Because it is not considered polite to call a spade a spade, the Sith prefer to call their slaves forced or corrective labourers. Many non-humans have been forced into sealed off ghettos, where they live an impoverished existence.
Hope Falls is both similar and different. The settlement is located near a waterfall and the Eilini River. It is surrounded by farms. Officially it is an alien preserve and a reservation. Indeed, it even has its own flag. The Vaderites claim that non-humans are devious and will inevitably seek to exert a corrupting influence on humans if they live alongside them. Because the Supreme Leader is 'benevolent', he has created Hope Falls. It derives its name from a nearby waterfall. Here, non-humans will be given the chance to redeem themselves for their many crimes against mankind.
When one approaches the settlement, one will see vast fields most inhabitants toil on to harvest grain. Many are dressed in rags or makeshift overalls. Much of the ploughing is done by ox rather than tractors. Public Force guards in khaki uniforms keep the workers in line...with batons and whips. Workers who collapse or are seen as 'lazy' are beaten. An official dignitary who drives further into the town may be greeted by a delegation of local leaders, along with aliens performing traditional dances and music in their honour. One may come across some barns and such for livestock. Some lucky natives are allowed to care for and live close to them. The initial residential areas aren't so bad. But soon one sees squalour, poverty and misery. The roads are in a bad state, sanitation is poor, and garbage is rarely collected. Sometims one sees a dead body hanging from a lamppost, with a placard around their neck proclaiming them to be a thief, Republican Guard or Dominion terrorist. Of course, these are taken away if a delegation happens to visit. Not because any Vaderite functionary would view it as immoral, but because it is an unseemly sight. Alternately, billboards display the names and crimes of the executed. Sometimes one finds a dead street urchin lying in an alleyway, another victim of Humanist evil.
Officially, the 'uncivilised xenos' have been brought here to live simple, honest lives as peasants instead of plotting and swindling in the cities. By regaining a connection with the soil and toiling in the fields, they will be transformed into honest workers. Based on its outward appearance, Hope Falls looks like a large, agricultural settlement. The majority of its inhabitants do farm work, labouring in the fields. Some take care of animals. Grains are the main commodity of Hope Falls. The administrators proudly show off the fields and silos. The Vaderites are reluctant to give the residents access to machines, so a lot of the work has to be done by hand and using primitive tools. Tractors and other machines are very old and dated.
In truth, the community is a farce. It has been set up as a 'model alien reservation', projecting an inaccurate view of the Sith's racial policies. The non-humans who reside here are forced to live an existence as peasants. Industry, even light industry, is forbidden. After all, otherwise they might be able to create the tools to fight back. The residents are not allowed to possess comm-links, save for those who are part of the administration. Due to its long period of isolation, Tephrike is cut off from the galactic holonet. Local, more primitive communications systems exist, but the residents do not have access to them. Freedom of movement is nonexistent, as the residents are not allowed to leave Hope Falls. Likewise, the inhabitants have not been given a choice on whether they want to live in Hope Falls or not. They have been forcibly removed from their homes and deported here. In many cases, their old homes have been taken over by human settlers. Thus the settlement is the product of ethnic cleansings, which facilitate the Sith's blood and soil policies. The Race and Settlement Head Office is responsible for organising the forced migration of aliens and the colonisation of their vacated homes by humans 'of good blood'.
To facilitate population transfers, the Sith have implemented some devious schemes to lull victims lull victims into a false sense of security. They advertise Hope Falls as a place where aliens can live in peace in accordance with their cultural traditions. The Supreme Leader, they claim, wants a homeland for the aliens just as he wants one for the humans. Aliens who possess assets are encoruaged to sign fraudulent home purchase contracts, pay 'deposits' for rent and board. Postcards show flourishing fields and nice houses. In truth, the prefabricated houses are in poor state and often overcrowded. In theory, the residents are allowed to receive mail and food parcels. However, any outgoing or incoming mail is censored by the authorities. Corruption is rampant in the Imperium, so parcels are often stolen. Equally, some members of the Public Force smuggle food and items in return for bribes. Healthcare is incredibly poor. Because of the unhygienic conditions and shortages of clean water, food and medicine, many residents fall ill. Sick residents often try to avoid going to the hospital because they fear they'll be reported as 'work-shy' or 'superfluous eaters', and try to get medication on the black market. But such medications are pricey, and they at risk of being exploited by charlatans, quacks and criminal gangs
Legally, the alien residents do not own any of the land they work on. Instead it is 'held in trust' and legally owned by Darth Eisen, whose office appoints trustees to manage it. The residents are forbidden from trading with other entities. Moreover, they can be evicted and deported to a concentration camp at any time. Indeed, in some ways Hope Falls is a waystation to the camps. The main vocation of the residents is as peasants. They are charged with repaying their debt to mankind by meeting quotas set by the Sith officials. Failure to meet them is treated as a capital crime, for the only reason could be sabotage. Residents are organised into labour units. Sometimes the residents are also conscripted for construction projects, such as building a road, canal or a monument. The Vaderite authorities responsible generally embezzle funds allocated to the project and blame the lack of progress on sabotage.
Punishment for misdemeanours is collective. Although Hope Falls is officially autonomous, Vaderite security forces and the secret police have a presence. This stands in direct contradiction to the claim that it has autonomy, but is justified on the grounds that the non-humans need a guiding hand to wean them off their base instincts. The Sith and many of their followers see themselves as 'members of the master race' and display this opinion ostentatiously. Humiliation, exploitation and maltreatment of 'xenos' is part of everyday life. Hope Falls' residents still try to maintain a form of cultural life in form of theatres, underground schools and libraries. However, those who try to keep their ancestral culture alive and give their people a reprieve from their miserable existence lead a perilious existence. The Vaderites and their collaborators clean up the place any time the propaganda ministry sends 'journalists', but scratch the surface, and anyone who wants to see the truth will see it.
The Skyhammer Fleet, the melodramatically named air force of the Sith Imperium, has an air base nearby. Thus Hope Falls is well in range of their bombers. It is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the community's head. Here and there, the Sith pilots conduct manoeuvres and training exercises. Their gunships fly over Hope Falls and drop leaflets. These warn the population of the consequences of disobedience, tell them about victories the Sith army has won and remind them of their duty to their masters.
It is not uncommon for groups of Sith acolytes from the Academy or even school classes to visit Hope Falls. Should this occur, the residents must assemble, greet them and express their gratitude to the Sith. Anyone who is not on their best behaviour is treated as a saboteur. These trips are supposed to reinforce the Sith's official narrative. Routes that will be visited are fixed up, and workers place new paint on the streets. Vacant buildings are disguised with fake doors and windows painted on the plywood panels used to close them up. Thus they look occupied. Residents who look sickly or show signs of physical abuse are hidden away. Old and ruined buildings are covered with posters. There is an enormous statue of Eisen in the centre of Hope Falls.
Darth Eisen also owns an enormous mansiona few kilometres away from the settlement. He only visits it very rarely, but the quarters are luxurious. Sometimes he lets human children and Sith apprentices stay there, for he likes to be seen as benign and jovial. Needless to say the residents must provide the food for the feasts he is fond of having when he comes to visit. Meanwhile, the residents of Hope Falls live in poverty and struggle to survive.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Government House: Incidentally, the official residence and workplace of the Prime Minister of the defunct Tephriki Federation had the same name. This is a cruel joke on the Vaderites' part, for they despise their planet's period of relative democratic government, referring to it as the 'time of the system'. In their view, the federation was controlled by alien bankers. The 'Council of Elders' resides in this building, but it is a puppet organisation used by the Vaderites to control the alien community. It answers to a Sith administrator, who has an office here. To rub it in even further, the Vaderites have allowed Government House to have its own flag. It bears a strong resemblance to the tricolour of the Tephriki Federation, but incorporates Sith symbols.
The central building houses the communications gear, but all calls are monitored. The council organises food supply, work, medical care, education and cultural activities. Its situation is desperate. It only has very scarce resources, but has to take care of the community, while being in a permanent struggle with the Sith authorities, which have to approve almost all their decisions. At the same time, there is conflict between the officials and the 'normal' population. Many councillors argue that collaboration is necessary in order to prevent further exasperating the situation. However, this forces them to carry out the Sith's decrees, including choosing those residents marked for deportation. Facing an irrevocable dilemma, some councillors have committed suicide. The Vaderites encourage infighting by pitting the various races against one another.
Unity Farms: Surrounding the town are the farm plots where most of the people work. By galactic standards, the farming methods are quite primitive. Grain fields abound. The workers are bound to the land, but do not own any of it. Overseers and the Public Force are responsible for ensuring they meet the often impossibly high quotas. The Public Force feeds so-called agitators into grain threshers. Children must also be conscripted as labourers.
Unity Farms Fruit & Berry Orchards: Located close to the unity Farms. However, only Crimson Orb are grown here. Officially it's to harvest the edible green fruit, but in practice only the red fruit is harvested to create the addictive narcotic Key. Precious water has been diverted to the orchards from the actual farms.
Xenos Accommodations Sectors: The name makes it sound like a holiday resort, but this area is anything but. Instead it consists of overcrowded, poorly maintained, prefabricated buildings. This is where the 'residents' live. The really unlucky do not even get to live in one of the barracks, but have to sleep in tents, which are obviously kept out of propaganda movies. Those who live in the barracks have a roof over their head, but overcrowding is rampant; the conditions are very unhygienic and sanitation is extremely poor. The accommodations are under constant surveillance.
There is a bit of a stratification. Duros, Houk, Gamorreans and Zabrak who are considered favoured get actual apartment buildings. They are still shoddily maintained, the wall paint is faded and the hallways smell, but instead of bunk rooms they receive real apartments, and thus some privacy. However, 'favoured' aliens who offend the regime will be sent to the squalid, overcrowded barracks.
Many buildings do not have a proper darainage system. There is an insufficient number of toilets available, and those that exist are of poor quality or lack water. This forces residents to rely on outdoor toilets such as pit latrines, which are often devoid of cleaning and reek of dours. Locals may be forced to defecate into bags and throw the waste into the roads. It goes without saying that this can easily expose people, especially children, to infectious diseases during the rainy season, as the matter is washed into water-trapped gullies.
Highmeadow Pasture: an enclosed pasture where the locals who look after the animals such as nerfs and pigs live. This is a position of trust, as it gives them a better opportunity to 'steal' food from their 'rightful masters'. As a result only select natives can be chosen, which leads to competition between groups. Gamorreans and Zabrak are a frequent sight. However, it has barbed wire around it.
The Bar: an ironic name for what served as a Republican Guard hideout. To reach it one has to go down a water line and through a disused maintenance tunnel. The tunnel's dark and narrow, with a couple piles and dim lighting. Further down there is a rough table with a single chair. Actually the table consists of two barrels with a plank on top, and the chair is a smaller crate. A Zabrak rebel called Kinrath - the name is an obvious pseudonyme - directed Republican Guard operations from here. She was forced to flee during the crackdown, but managed to secure intelligence provided by Shakka, Kyriaki's slave. While another hideout was stormed, the Bar had been cleared out in time.
Field Office of the Race and Settlement Head Office: The branch office of a KEC department responsible for racial policy. One of its duties is performing racial examinations of near-humans and mixed species children. These can be a matter of life and death. Occasionally, a near-humans succeeds in persuading a racial examiner to improve their status in the racial hierarchy. Needless to say these categories are extremely arbitrary and corruption is endemic. The unlucky are lumped with the aliens or sterilised. The office is also responsible for kidnapping 'racially valuble' near-human children that are seen as 'pure' enough in order to resettle them with human families. The children's memories are manipulated with the Force so that they do not remember their birth parents. Eisen once said 'I decide who is a xenos' and the local examiners have taken that to heart. To aid them in this 'ethnopolitical struggle', the examiners have been provided with an extremely complicated racial chart. Their guidelines are convoluted, scientifically absurd and highly contradictory.
Darth Eisen People's School: Theoretically, this is a place of learning. However, the Vaderites believe that educated xenos could break their chains. Thus the residents are barred from higher education. The goal of the school is to teach pupils how to count to one hundred, write their name and learn that it is a divine commandment to be obedient to humans and honest, diligent and well-behaved. The ability to read is considered unnecessary and indeed dangerous. Although it is forbidden, a few teachers continue to teach clandestinely general education subjects, including history, mathematics, geography and the languages of their people. However, this is a dangerous endeavour not only for themselves, but their families, as the Vaderites impose collective punishment. The authorities pressure the staff to monitor one another and denounce wrongdoers. The children have to endure inadequate basic hygiene facilities.
Freedom Station: An old-fashioned train station. The Vaderites obviously have aircraft, but they prefer to bring new residents to Hope Falls by train. However, they are transported in dehumanising, crowded, and unsanitary cattle cars. When the first trains arrived, corpses had to be cleared out of many compartments and Hope Falls was still wilderness. Propaganda posters abound across the station, promising the new residents a better life, extolling the virtues of Sith-Humanism and exhorting the newcomers to serve their masters with unquestioning obedience. The posters show blooming fields and happy families. Reality is anything but. Armed guards patrol the station to make sure natives can't escape by smuggling themselves onto a train set to depart. Occasionally an escapee is able to take advantage of the fact that the guards are susceptible to bribes, but this is incredibly risky.
The Gate: The entrance to Hope Falls. It is guarded by the Public Force and a network of turrets. The gate has a sign bearing the words 'to each what he deserves'.
The Falls Stockade: The Public Force's main jail. The prison cells are notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary. Prisoners are locked in cells in insanitary, unhygienic and degrading conditions that pose a serious threat to their health. The sight of dried blood on the floor or the walls is not uncommon. Parcels sent by their families are usually stolen by the prison staff. Whenever a 'terrorist incident' happens, it is common practice to grab a bunch of prisoners at random and shoot them. The Vaderite also make use of prisoners as forced labourers. Their treatment is universally brutal. Some PF officers have been executed for corruption, as weapons kept 'disappearing'. But this hasn't made conditions any less horrid. Ironically, the lab for making Key is next to the stockade. There the prisoners are forced to work in poor conditions with chemicals.
Highroad Grove: The part of Hope Falls where the humans live. Essentially a gated community, i is located far away from the stench, the squalour and the poverty. Here, the humans live in nice houses and cottages, with perfectly manicured lawns and amenities such as a school, a bakery, a restaurant etc. The residents are human officials and officers and their families. Recently, a number of them were forced to vacate their homes after PF officers were purged for corruption. In several cases, the children have been taken away from their parents to be adopted by 'loyal' families. Bakios' house was located here. It has been claimed by Kyriaki.
The Spider's Web: An underground smuggler's nest that can be reached by crawling through a narrow well that has long stopped giving water in the tent city. Here, manifold goods can be acquired...for the right price. A Zeltron crime boss called Barah holds court. She s rather mercurial. Supposed spies are immediately killed.
Canvas Grove: The name is a play on the human settlement. The prorper name is 'Tranquility Crescent', an equally mocking and absurd name. The most unfortunate natives live here, for it is literally just a tent city. The city administration and the Public Force brand them as troublemakers and 'work-shy', and so the police regularly carries out raids. It's an easy way for the police to look like it is doing something about crime and terrorism by beating on the poorest.
Hopeful Prospects Manufactory: Located a bit outside the town near a forest, and surrounded by a wall, this is Kyriaki's garments factory. It mostly produces uniforms, boots and bandages and such for the military. Workers who toil here receive somewhat better treatment. Casual beatings are banned, they are actually paid, and Kyriaki has made an effort to provide rudimentary medical care for workers and their families. The factory uses child labourers, but gives them less strenuous tasks. This rosy image should not detract from the fact that it is still a sweatshop.
The workers must work long hours, their wages are low, strikes are banned and working conditions are still often unhealthy. The management is authoritarian and expects its orders to be obeyed without protest. Because Imperial currency is quite worthless unless it's in specie, they are mostly compensated in vouchers or foodstuffs. They also receive a badge that marks them as the personal workers of a Sith, which is supposed to exempt them from deportation. Because conditions in the town are so desperate and they receive slightly better treatment, they have become victims of jealousy. Sometimes other natives attack or try to steal from them. Moreover, while Kyriaki is quite honest about cracking down on abuse, they are still liable to be victimised by PF or Vaderite thugs in the town. Still, it is better than the alternative.
Like many bigshots, Kyriaki grows a few Crimson Orb trees in the factory yard. Unlike most bigshots, she harvests the edible green fruit for her staff, not the red fruit. The orchard is supposed to feed them. Other Vaderites find this behaviour bizarre.
Pillar and Spanas Brick Factory: recently set up as part of an effort to attract investors and make Hope Falls more profitable. Everyone dreams of having a lovely home. That's what Vaderite propagandists promise human settlers who boldly settle on land after the native owners have been murdered. However, they need building materials. Thus, brick kilns have been set up to bake the earth to form red bricks. The kiln is a big contributor to pollution in the town. The factory managers approach the impoverished townspeople, offering them gainful employment and a greater share of rations. Mistreatment, exhaustion, hunger and work accidents have already claimed the lives of many workers. Word has obviously spread, so the factory management has resorted to rounding up 'work-shy' and prison inmates because people are very reluctant to volunteer. So far the plant has failed to produce a single serviceable brick. Construction errors are to blame. However, it does have a profitable Crimson Orb orchard.
The Sorrow: Strictly speaking not part of the town, but close enough to be pertinent. This is a forest that is avoided by most locals, human and alien, as they consider it haunted. Years ago the PF, at the behest of the KEC, carried out a massacre of 'undesirables'. Many of the PF shooters were new, and so they were given copious amount of alcohol to get over inhibitions about murdering innocent people, women and children. However, the ghosts of the restless dead still haunt the forest. Sometimes people, especially PF thugs, who venture here go insane or don't return at all. Paradoxically, this has also made it a good place for secret meetings or criminal dealings...though this bears a lot of risk. Bakios hid a container of stolen grain here. It was discovered during Kyriaki's investigation. The neophyte acolyte and her party were assailed by ghosts of the Vaderites' victims.
Bastion of Order: The headquarters of the Public Force, the gendarmerie and security force inside Hope Falls. It is composed of aliens, so its members are only lightly armed. However, the commanders are humans. The Public Force is responsible for keeping order and enforcing the decrees of the Sith. This translates into crushing dissent, enforcing grain quotas and other forms of forced labour. The Public Force also contains human and alien mercenaries, who are considered more reliable than locals. The Sith regard aliens as inferior beings, and particularly locally recruited members of the force are under pressure to prove their loyalty.
Brutalisation during training is common. The Public Force often takes and brutalises hostages. The Sith encourage - and indeed demand - brutality, but also treat it as confirmation of their belief that aliens are savages and need the firm hand of Humanism and glorious humanity. This is obviously absurd since the Vaderites' ideology glorifies violence and is based on might makes right. However, there are members of the Public Force who try to secretly undermine Sith rule, using active or passive methods. These tend to be locals. For this reason, the Sith often hire mercenaries and have implemented a policy of favouring certain species, such as Houk and Gamorreans, and pitting them against the others.
The Redoubt: A bunker built after a 'terrorist' insurrection to serve, as the name implies, as a redoubt for senior officials while the security forces cleanse the town in the event of a revolt. Most recently, family members of Hope Falls council members were held here 'for their own protection'. Each councillor had to give up a child or, if they didn't have one, their spouse or a different family member if they were unmarried. When the Vaderites decided to 'cleanse' the hospital', the councillors were blackmailed into going along with it because otherwise the hostage would suffer.
Kylo Vader Sky Base: Strictly speaking this military installation is not part of Hope Falls. Indeed, it is located quite a bit away from it. However, it is relevant enough for life in Hope Falls to merit inclusion. It serves as a base for the Skyhammer Fleet, the branch responsible for all aerial and aerospace forces etc. Bombers stationed here often conduct manoeuvres and training exercises in the vicinity of Hope Falls. This is also intended as a demonstration of power to remind the inhabitants that the Vaderites could annihilate them with ease. The Skyhammer Fleet's in-house secret police force also has facilities here. It has far-reaching powers of arrest and exerts a high degree of influence over security policy and daily life in Hope Falls. The commanding general of the base was recently removed from command and exiled to a swampy hellhole for corruption.
Statue of the Iron Benefactor: An enormous statue of Darth Eisen. Iron is a reference to his Darth title as well as a nickname from his days as an ace pilot. He is called the Benefactor because he 'gave the xenos a homeland'. It is located in the centre of Hope Falls, not far from Government House. Anyone who works in the central building, seeks entrance to petition the councillors or has business in the centre inevitably has to pass it. Since Eisen has proclaimed himself Supreme Leader, humans must perform the Imperial Salute. By contrast, aliens must bow because the 'humanist greeting' is forbidden for them. Vandalising the statue is treated as a capital crime punishable by death or incarceration in a concentration camp.
Innocence Orphan Home: The orphanage has has no windows. Instead it has small holes with thick iron gratings. Officially it's for 'security' to keep the kids from 'falling out'. In other words , running away. The orphanage's new slogan is 'iron for iron, donated by the Iron Man'. There's a statue of Eisen in the courtyard. Even from outside the building looks run-down. The rooms are crowded, there are few beds, and orphans are lucky if they get fresh clothes.
Sometimes a human comes along and makes a kid sign a 'contract' full of words it has no way of understanding. After all, the contract is in Basic, and most are illiterate. Then they're told they've signed away their life to become an 'indentured asset'. The human makes a 'donation' that amounts to pocket money and the whole orphanage has to praise them for their kindness. The orphanage does have honest workers who try to help and shield the orphans and even secretly teach them, but they're trapped in a bad system. Some kids make ends meet by working as couriers. Two such children, a Rodian called Vexa and a Cathar called Ollia, passed along Shakka and Firith's secret message to the Republican Guard. Presently they are working as servants for Kyriaki.
Licensed Tenant Playhouse: A theatre and the centre of culture in Hope Falls. Notwithstanding the efforts of their Vaderites to eradicate their cultural life, the residents do their best to keep it alive. It helps that there are a number of former musicians and actors in Hope Falls. The Vaderites allow them to stage plays and play music. However, the work of the theatre has also been exploited by the Vaderites for propaganda and it has been forced to stage plays for their masters that affirm Vaderite propaganda. But the artists sometimes manage to mock and satirise their overlords via coded language. This can be very dangerous though. Incidentally, Eisen actually find some of the jokes about him funny.
The Happy Sparrow: A bar where the residents can gain a brief respite from their existence and drown their sorrows in firewater. Black market dealings take place in the backroom. However, the cantina is more than that. The Sith do not want the residents to be educated because they might develop ideas, but some fight to keep the culture of their people alive and provide them with an education. The owner of the bar has secretly allowed them to hide books in a hidden basement where the barrels are stored. Sometimes they are used by underground educational circles.
Rising Hope Medical Facility: The name is deceptive. The clinic suffers from overcrowding, shortages in space and medical supplies. The guards often steal food and medications. Overall, conditions are extremely poor. The Sith usually suspect that sick residents are just pretending in order to avoid labour. As a result, those who do not work receive far less than food than heavy labourers, leading many to starve. Many of the nurses are untrained and overworked. Tephrike is largely cut off from galactic markets, and the Vaderites would not give the natives access to advanced medication or medical equipment anyway. Thus bacta and kolto are unavailable.
Recently, the hospital was 'cleared' of 'superfluous eaters'. This was an euphemism for the deportation of many sick and elderly, as well as mostly healthy patients who happened to be from 'disfavoured' species, in order to murder or conduct horrible experiments of them. A bomb placed by the Republican Guard exploded in the courtyard, killing or injuring many Vaderites as well as condemned patients. The wounded patients were murdered on the spot by the Vaderites. Ironically, the hospital's shoddy equipment worked against the Vaderites since it meant it couldn't provide adequate care.
Greystone Manor: Located a fair bit away from the town so that its owner doesn't have to see the squalour, poverty and murder going on. Admittedly he's almost never there. Regardless, this is a mansion for Darth Eisen. The luxurious villa has an inner wall, and courtyard. The grounds and surrounds of this place are magnificient, standing in stark contrast to the misery Hope Falls' people live in. An outer wall is guarded by soldiers and there's barbed wire on top of it. The gate is monitored by cameras. Trees reach up to the wall.
The courtyard features a Vader statue, ab extravagant fountain and naturally a perfectly manicured lawn. The garden is beautiful and must be kept that away, even though Eisen barely ever visits the place. The mansion itself is absurdly opulent and luxurious. When Lachesis arrived to 'clean up' Hope Falls, she used the mansion as her command headquarters as well as an improvised hospital for wounded KEC soldiers. On the night before the hospital 'action', the KEC carried out executions outside the villa and then celebrated. Lachesis gave a speech justifying genocide, soldiers received presents from 'Auntie Lachesis', then her apprentice Sibylla and Menkales played music.
There is a staff building next to the main building, where the alien employees live. 'Pure xenos' and 'half-blood' servants receive separate rooms and showers. The half-blood shower gets some soap, is mostly clean and actually gets new towels. The shower for the pure xenos is in a terrible state. It took bullying on Kyriaki's part to get Mr Goren, the slimy butler, to give them soap. Recently, Goren lost his job because his Umbaran assistant showed Kyriaki evidence that he'd been embezzling funds.
SECURITY
High.
- Though ostensibly the residents are there of their own free will, this is a sham like everything else in Hope Falls. The waterfall and river are swift flowing and treacherous - made more so by the installation of underwater spikes and hooks to catch boats and people who might try and slip away.
- More, there are only three entrances into the town's narrow streets, all of which are strictly guarded by the Public Force, who carefully check all people entering or leaving. Auto-turrets and heavy machine gun nests have been set up. Nexu and kath hounds have been trained to patrol the perimeter. Outsiders who approach Hope Falls without authorisation are to be shot on sight. The settlement and the surrounding area are monitored by surveillance droids. An electrostatic weapon has been set up in the town square for 'crowd control'.
- Should a resident manage to escape a concealed masonry fronted ditch twelve feet deep has been dug and partially flooded and filled with hidden caltrops. This ditch is constructed in such a way that entering it is easy, but escaping it is nearly impossible. Allegedly this ditch is to protect the settlement from wild animals, but the fact that it faces inward gives lie to this statement.
- Finally, the roads out of town pass over this ditch which can be raised and lowered like a drawbridge to prevent easy egress. Moreover, a Sith military base, the Kylo Vader Sky Base, is nearby, with a garrison of Sith troopers and bombers.
A year after the Netherworld Event, the Xenos Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Propaganda commissioned a movie called 'Hope Falls: A Documentary Film from the Xenos Settlement Area'. Its unofficial name was 'The Grand Marshal Gives a Home to the Xenos'. The Sith propaganda movie was filmed in the settlement. The Xenos Affairs Bureau initiated the filming of the movie at the behest of Darth Eisen. This Sith Lord was one of the heavyweights of the Vaderite regime. Rightly regarded as one of the giants of jurisdiction, he had his fingers in many pies. Governor of Paeonia was one of his many titles.
The propaganda movie depicts the creation of Hope Falls as a humanitarian venture. Aliens cannot live alongside humans, for they will inevitably exert a corrupting influence, spread crime, disease and pollute the gene pool. However, Sith-Humanism has given them a homeland where they can redeem themselves through a life of honest labour, guided by the spirit of the Supreme Leader. The film gives the impression of a happy, industrious community that produces a surplus of grain and other agricultural products for the benefit of mankind. The truth is very different.
Hope Falls is close tied to the story of Darth Eisen. Prior to being discovered to be Force-Sensitive, he had been called Alec Dragoumis and made himself a name as an ace pilot. However, then he joined the Sith Order. Rising through the ranks of the Protective Squadron, he became a spymaster and an accomplished illusionist. After challenging and defeating his mentor Lord Acholus in a Kaggath, Alec joined the inner circle of power. Darth Impaler, the Supreme Leader, conferred the title of Darth Eisen upon him.
The new Darth had a talent for scheming and ingratiating himself with the Dark Lord. Soon he was supreme commander of the Legions of Dusk, Moff-Governor of Paeonia and economic supremo of the Imperium. His greed and lack of scruples made him one of the richest men of the Imperium. Much of his wealth was built on the backs of slaves. He cultivated the image of an affable dandy, which made him popular among the Imperium's human citizens. However, then his relationship with the Supreme Leader cooled. His forces suffered defeats at the frontlines and he was blamed for Dominion bombing raids against Sith-controlled cities.
Soon he lost ground to Darth Furcht, the menacing leader of the Knights of the Ebon Claw. Depressed and frustrated, Eisen failed to pass on intelligence about heretical movements in the Disciples. One of them had come across a tome that told the story of Vader's redemption. Eisen hoped he could use these Light Sith, but they slipped from his grasp. The Netherworld Event sparked a civil war, out of which the rebels emerged victor. Impaler was killed and Eisen went into exile. The new masters had gained support from aliens by promising them greater rights.
However, the reign of the 'Bright Lord', Darth Salus was shaky and he was soon embroiled in war with the Dominion. When the campaign went ill, he was toppled. Rebel aliens took over Prosperity Quarter, an alien ghetto. Eisen returned to stake his claim, but Furcht outplayed him by crushing the slave insurrection. Eisen had to swallow the bitter pill and bend the knee. Furcht rubbed salt into the wound by bestowing the hollow title of Grand Marshal upon him. The title sounded grandiose, but did not give him any additional command authority.
The new Supreme Leader was a purist and initiated a series of pass purges. The Netherworld Event and the Light Sith takeover, however brief, had disrupted the social order. For the first time, aliens had tasted freedom. They had even taken control over a Vaderite city. Acolytes had questioned orthodoxy and risen up against their masters. Strict orthodoxy would be the order of the day under Furcht. Eisen had no moral qualms about the bloodletting that followed, but questioned its efficacy. Moreover, he rightly feared that Furcht would try to take away his slave labour empire from him. Furthermore, Furcht's fanaticism unnerved the old guard, especially when he initiated an anti-corruption campaign.
Eisen wanted to distinguish himself as a policymaker and statesman, for he still desired to claim the throne one day. Of course, human supremacism and tyranny were the foundation of Sith power. But though the secret police was seen as necessary, thought policemen were not liked by 'polite society'. People wanted aliens gone, but they did not want torture and murder shoved in their faces. Moreover, as the Prosperity Quarter revolt showed, setting up ghettos in close proximity to human cities was unsafe. Many slaves had escaped and needed to be caught. Grisly examples were made of supposed dissenters.
Thus Eisen initiated the creation of Hope Falls. The settlement would serve several purposes. It would counter Dominion and Republican Guard propaganda about the cruel treatment of non-humans in Sith territory, which included accusations of genocide. It would serve as a dumping ground for aliens, allowing the Sith to clear out ghettos, which were breeding grounds for diseases and thus put human towns at risk. Once the deportations had been carried out, several ghettos could be torn down. This would make room for humans, especiallly families who had lost their homes to Dominion bombing raids.
Moreover, the aliens could be used as serfs. This would have the convenient side-effect of keeping them in Eisen's hands. As most of the administrative tasks would be handled by the aliens themselves, this would cut costs for the state. The non-human administrators and militia would be completely dependent on their Sith masters and have every reason to collaborate. Not only could they be deported any time, the resistance would see them as traitors and target them. Having overcome institutional resistance to the proposal, Alec summoned various alien community leaders and forced them to cooperate with them. The process was accompanied by a propaganda campaign that obfuscated its brutal, coercive nature. Furcht's reign of terror acted as the stick to Eisen's supposed carrot.
Violence was inherent to it. The deportees had to assemble, and then selections were carried out. Many deportees were driven from their beds before dawn. The Sith Lord's henchmen searched their meagre belongings as well as any hiding places in their clothes. They kept threatening to shoot the deportees. Those deemed superfluous - the old and the infirm - as workers were weeded out. They were told that they would be taken to a retirement home, a spa of sorts. Instead they were murdered. The deportees were transported in trains normally used for chattel. The weather was very hot and there was no protection from the terrible heat. Mortality rates were high. When they arrived at their destination, they found that very little had been prepared for them. There were a few prefabricated buildings, but most of the deportees had to live in tents. Indeed, they had to build virtually everything by their own hands. The weather was stormy.
The delivery of construction equipment, food and medical supplies was delayed by logistical issues. The deportees had to fend for themselves and subsist on meagre riots. The new 'residents' were former ghetto inhabitants and forced labourers and thus destitute. Escape attempts were punished harshly by the guards. Many of them had previously been posted in concentration camps and were accustomed to seeing non-humans as savages. Eisen ordered his minions to proceed with alacrity. No matter the cost, Hope Falls had to be completed in record time. If they had to cut corners, he did not care.
They succeeded in this task. The future residents of Hope Falls were conscripted as slave labour to build their new 'home'. Several of them did not live to see the day it was opened. However, Eisen could always find aliens to replace them. On the day a delegation of Sith dignitaries came to visit Hope Falls, residents that looked too sick or malnourished were kept out of the public eye. On this day Eisen formally granted Hope Falls 'autonomy'. From now on it would be governed by a 'council of elders'. The 'xenos homeland' even received a flag.
Many died when the centre imposed oppressive production quotas. Come what may, they had to be met. For a while Eisen's minions had kept up the pretense that Hope Falls' residents would own the land they worked on, but then this was revealed to be a lie. However, they were legally bound to the land, could not leave it without permission and were required to provide labour. The residents were so 'grateful' to Eisen that they built a mansion for him. Failure to meet the quotas was blamed on saboteurs. Escape attempts were treason. To provide security, Eisen ordered the creation of the Public Force. It was conceived as a gendarmerie and paramilitary force that would be composed of aliens.
The first Commandant of the Public Force was one of Eisen's cronies from his time in the military. She was fond of feeding supposed agitators and 'work-shy' individuals into grain threshers or flogging them with a leathery whip. Incidentally, Eisen reportedly disapproved of dismemberment because it harmed his economic interests. Indeed, he was quoted as saying: "Cut off hands—that's idiotic. I'd cut off all the rest of them, but not hands. That's the one thing I need in Hope Falls."
The Inheritors of the Light Father, an underground movement that represented the remnants of the Light Sith, tried to infiltrate Hope Falls and stir up dissent as well as help labourers escape. But unrest were brutally suppressed, as were attempts to escape the 'xenos homeland'. When members of the Public Force mutinied, unwilling to carry out such brutal acts, the Commandant brought in mercenaries and regulars. The borders were cordoned off by watchtowers and patrols. Needless to say the Xenos Affairs Bureau's propaganda movie made no mention of any of this. For a while the community was pacified. Life was oppressive, but the residents managed to maintain a cultural life. It helped that the Sith officials were very corrupt.
Eisen invited representatives of the Order of the Blessed Way, a pacifist Jedi sect and humanitarian group based in the Ruhewald. In preparation for the visit, Hope Falls was 'beautified'. Streets were renamed and cleaned, residents received a larger allotment of rations as well as fresh clothes. Several prominent residents were rehoused and the locals were encouraged to conduct musical and theatrical performances. Residents considered unpresentable were locked away.
Some residents were allowed to speak with the delegates, but it was made clear to them that they and their families would suffer if they contradicted the Vaderites' narrative. Eisen personally received the delegation and entertained them at his mansion. A Blessed Way representative wrote a favourable report of the settlement, and dismissed allegations of maltreatment, undernourishment and enslavement. He also denied claims that residents had been deported to be murdered or subjected to alchemical experiments. A train packed with 'useless eaters' had left Hope Falls a few days before the delegation's arrival.
Chairwoman Augura Nass was forced to deliver a Sith-written speech. In it, Hope Falls was called a normal country town and she referred to herself as its mayor. She provided the delegation with fabricated statistica data. Augura had a black eye and was bruised from a beating administered by a Sith. She tried to warn Jedi Lehnos, the leader of the delegation, that there was no way out for Hope Falls residents, but to no avail. When the Republican Guard publicised the testimonies of Hope Falls fugitives, Lehonos disputed their veracity, claiming that the supposed eyewitnesses had undoubtedly been forced to make these statements. Moreover, the rebels denied the will of the Force, so they were clearly untrustworthy.
Meanwhile, the Vaderites decided to conduct an experiment in agriculture. Lysenkos, an alchemist, agronomist and biologist, had managed to gain the favour of the Supreme Leader. He was appointed head of the Sphere of Biotic Science, earning him a position on the Dark Council. His pseudoscientific ideas were termed Lsyenkoism. They were the sort of mystical clap-trap that was popular among the Sith. He claimed that he could improve crop yields through use of alchemy. This earned him the support of the Supreme Leader, especially following the famine and general loss of productivity as the result of failed economic policies in several regions. Lysenko rejected genetics, and considered scientists who refused to renounce it in favour of Lysenkoism to be small-minded reactionaries. He was a quack who was completely ignorant of the elementary principles of genetics and plant physiology, but he was a Sith and so his word trumped that of actual experts.
Needless to say anything that had been written by a non-human scientist was rejected out of hand. The same applied to scientific theories tainted by 'liberalism' and the 'Jedi spirit', which seemed to apply to most things from before the Dark Age. However, the experiment backfired. The food produced by the alchemisation process was tainted. Indeed, people who ate it were turned into zombies. Since most of the food produced by Hope Falls was meant for humans, only a few aliens fell victim to it. However, in order to cover up the failure, they were accused of sabotaging it. Moreover, Lysenkoism had resulted in entire harvests being lost to contamination, which produced famine. Eisen covered up the debacle by pinning the blame on the alien residents. Lysenko was later murdered.
When Furcht perished in a Firemaneo orbital strike on Castle Maysaf, Eisen proclaimed himself Supreme Leader. However, he faced rivals, who declared his claim to be illegitimate and mustered their forces against him. Eisen quickly crushed Furcht's son Achilles. Hope Falls remains under Vaderite control, as the settlement is under tight lockdown. Inevitably Hope Falls fell behind the oppressive quotas. With the Imperium in an economic crisis, Darth Eisen sent Darth Lachesis, the 'Butcher of Chios', and his apprentice Kyriaki to investigate along with a unit of KEC soldiers. On the way their convoy was attacked by Dominion bombers. Lachesis was a notorious speciesist, and treated the mission as a power play. Her response was brutal when she arrived. The Gungan chairwoman Nass was arrested after being accused of stealing grain.
Major Bakios, the leader of the local Public Force, schemed to ingratiate himself with the Sith...and cover up his own criminal activities. Kyriaki, however, felt sympathy for the alien labourers after realising how bad things were. Using her Twi'lek slave Shakka, she began to investigate the smuggling ring to find the real culprits. Smuggling was taking place and the aliens were stealing grain...but that was because they had no other way to survive. Moreover, they would've been incapable of stealing such large amounts.
Her efforts soon revealed that there was a smuggling ring encompassing the PF, the local military garrison and the provincial administration. Prefect Kollias, the local Vaderite administrator, was placed under house arrest, General Myhailov removed from command and Bakios shot. Lachesis used this to increase her influence in the province and secure large amounts of stolen grain for her troops. Bakios had tried to cover up his involvement by framing his accomplices, but his Togruta servant Tara was able to find and hide coded documents that proved his complicity. Kyriaki had promised her freedom and revenge on her tormentor. However, the young Disciple failed to protect her, and Tara paid for her bravery with her life. Despite not being part of the cabal, Chairwoman Nass was still shot, as were many alien prisoners accused of 'terrorist activity'. Naturally, everything was blamed on a xenos conspiracy that somehow encompassed all of the Vaderites' enemies. Moreover, the quotas were drastically increased and the rations reduced. 'Performance-based' feeding would be imposed on the town. Those who could not work or failed to meet demand would not eat.
Kyriaki schemed to build a garments factory where those who would otherwise not make it could work under her supervision. But she also entered into numerous devil's bargain, participating in a hospital 'clearing action' led by Doctor Menkales, a notorious concentration camp doctor. The council was intimidated into signing off on the operation after their children were taken hostage as 'guests' of the Imperium 'for their own protection'. The councillors of the favoured species were allowed to preserve many of their old and sick, whereas those of 'disfavoured' species such as Twi'leks, Rodians and Nautolans were to be deported and murdered. Kyriaki made a deal with Menkales to secure some patients for herself, especially children, so they would be spared. Shakka and her cousin Firith were tipped off by Kyriaki and were able to warn residents to stay away from the hospital.
But many sick or wounded patients were seized by the security forces. Moreover, several patients from disfavoured species who were actually healthy were claimed by Menkales for his experiments. The Zabrak councillor took part in the operation to give it a veneer of legitimacy...and force her to see what she had signed off on. The sadistic operation was interrupted by a Republican Guard bombing. It coincided with a bomb attack at Eisen's villa, which had been repurposed to serve as a KEC headquarters. The attack was a cover for Shakka to escape with her family and the help of the Republican Guard. She and Firith, who had aided the investigation, had offered the rebels information on secret caches used by the smugglers in return for safe passage for themselves, Firith's wife Lena and their son.
The escape attempt almost succeeded, but was foiled by Kyriaki and KEC minions at the last minute. Having grown suspicious of her slave, she had monitored her calls. The intelligence acquired after the fight enabled the KEC to locate a Republican Guard hideout and kill or capture several partisans. However, the cell leader escaped, along with crucial intelligence provided by Shakka. The Twi'lek slave was 'rewarded for her loyalty' by being given a special brand that marked her as a 'favoured' slave, tainting her in the eyes of the rebels. Kyriaki was able to receive approval from Eisen for her factory. Using lists created by Shakka, her secretary Cordé Tycho and local leaders, she began putting together a labour force. It was a mixture of 'favoured' and 'disfavoured'. The factory was set up near a forest a bit away from the town. Time will tell whether it will be a 'haven' for the victims of this awful regime, and whether the natives will one day be able to throw off the yoke of their tyrannical oppressors.
Last edited:
