Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on a location referenced in a submission. Further flesh out Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, The Republican Guard is the Strongest, Tephrike, Yuuzhan Vong, Force-Dead, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Mace Windu Thought, Windian Jedi Order.
SETTING INFORMATION
Structure Name: Museum of Industrial Progress. Called the Centre for the Exaltation of Harmonious Labour and Industry by supporters of the Dominion of Light.
Classification: Museum.
Location: Vortanstad, Tephrike.
Affiliation: Republican Guard, Tephrike, Popular Front for a Democratic Tephrike, Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Vortanstad.
Accessibility: Difficult to reach. Tephrike is a very remote, isolationist planet...and the museum happens to be located in a divided city that is still a war zone. One half of Vortanstad is controlled by the totalitarian, Jedi-led Dominion, the other by the anti-Force-User Republican Guard. Fighting is still ongoing. Artillery bombardments, air strikes, unexploded ordnance, trigger-happy, paranoid patrols and such are serious hazards. The museum itself is not a military installation, but a propaganda showpiece and located near areas that are of importance to the rebels. As a result, it is guarded by rebel militia. Citizens are encouraged to visit it to educate themselves about the evils of the Dominion. It is to be noted that the Republican Guard is suspicious of and indeed hostile to Force-Users.
Description: The Museum of Industrial Progress, known to followers of the Dominion as the Centre for Exaltation of Harmonious Labour and Industry, lies on the eastern side of Vortanstad. This is the part of the divided, war-torn city that has fallen under the sway of the Republican Guard, a revolutionary vanguard movement opposed to the tyranny of Force cults. An old steel mill and run-down housing lie not far from the museum.
Several buildings in the neighbourhood have been damaged or reduced to ruins by relentless shelling and brutal fighting. Likewise, the huge permacrete building has seen better days, bearing the scars of battle. A visitor must be on their guard, and take care to heed the sound of the air raid sirens. The presence of flak cannons on the streets and in the courtyard is a stark reminder of this. Many of the rebels operating said anti-aircraft guns are teenagers. Here and there, one hears the rumble of artillery in the far distance. The denizens have grown used to it. Sometimes a mobile patrol passes by on a speeder, a groundcar with weapons mounted on it or even on horseback.
Shattered vehicles can be found in the courtyard. Republican Guard militia from the Territorial Liberty Legion, dressed in fatigues, flak vests and helmets and armed with slugthrowers, are on patrol, sometimes backed up by regular partisans. A super heavy Dominion tank stands guard at the entrance. The tank is immobile, but serves as a trophy for the rebels. Inside the museum, bullet holes and scorch marks are not an sight. Visiting the museum is free of charge. The museum purports to tell the true history of workers and labour, featuring various exhibits about technology, living conditions, industrial policy and such.
Several exhibitions have been damaged, items have been stolen by looters and propaganda posters ripped. One can also find mocking grafitti and messages, but the rebels have also pinned photos of victims of Dominion atrocities to the wall. Electricity in the building is unreliable. One cannot rely solely on power for illumination, so the occupants have candles on hand. This makes it difficult to take advantage of the holographic, digital eyewitnesses, interactive media walls and other digital exhibits. The rebels have made a virtue out of necessity by introducing more conventional ways of conveying information that do not rely on digital technologies, such as posters, wallpapers, paintings, exhibits of artefacts, audio recordings etc.
Founded centuries ago, the Museum of Industrial Progress was conceived as a museum about Vortanstad's industrial revolution and document all important aspects of industrial history, though it has expanded to cover other topics as well at the behest of ever-changing political masters. Thus it was turned into a propaganda centre for the Dominion of Light, a totalitarian Jedi theocracy. In that capacity, it celebrated the glorious Five-Year Plans and the Heroes of the Light. Visitors learned how the Dominion had exalted labour and liberated the common toiler from capitalist exploitation, fulfilling the ancient promise 'from each according to his ability to each according to his needs'. Wallpapers celebrated innovations in technology. Several of these still remain, though they might have been tattered, besmirched by graffitti or simply lost much of their colour.
The museum was funded by the Ministry of Plenty, which controls the Dominion's command economy. Many of the items, industrial and agricultural machinery that used to be on display have been looted, but enough endures, enabling the museum to provide information about Vortanstad as an industrial city, albeit in an often distorted manner. One may still come across displays of machinery, vehicles, tools, diaries and other relics. Perhaps even from the time before Tephrike fell into darkness.
Today, the agitation and propaganda department of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Vortanstad is trying to use the museum to educate the citizenry of its zone about the lies of the Windian Jedi. As a result, visitors are encouraged to tour the exhibits, whether alone or with the help of an official museum guide. Some of the halls in the museum have been converted to functions deemed more socially useful at the moment because space is at a premium in the war-torn city. True to form, the Republican Guard have renamed the building back to its original name. First the rebels looted the museum for parts. Some of this looting was official, but a good deal of it was unofficial because the rebels are poor.
Some of the Committee's cadres are a bit embarrassed by the vandalism, since it doesn't benefit their efforts to win over Vortanstad's population. Then the partisans put up monuments, captured enemy propaganda and shattered vehicles. Rather than remove everything, the rebels have piled up the Dominion propaganda and left mocking messages to discredit the Windians' official narrative. A new exhibition called 'The Jedi Paradise' shows photos of the real thing, displaying images of poverty, oppression and misery. Among other things, this includes photos of emaciated famine victims, who starved to death during the Great Famine. The Dominion vehemently denies that this ever happened, claiming that only a few people died and that this was the result of sabotage.
The situation is quite awkward for old museum employees. Not only do they have to adjust to an entirely different political and social system, they cannot be sure that the Dominion might not regain control and punish them for 'heresy'. There is also the danger of terrorist attacks by Dominion militias. In a number of ways, living under the rebels is freer and less repressive, but Vortanstad is still under martial law. The rebels have replaced a few of the more senior people, arresting or firing those deemed too politically suspect. Lower level employees have been allowed to stay if they can prove they have abandoned Windian beliefs.
Clones from the same template forming networks that dominate public and economic institutions are a fact of life in the Dominion, and the museum was no different. The new regime has tried to break up the network that ran the museum by trying to ban multiple clones from the same template operating in the same place and bringing in more 'Randoms', as people conceived naturally are disparagingly called in the Dominion. The Communards are encouraging museum employees to unionise.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Pioneer Tradition - this is actually the original name. Features sections on the discovery, settlement and expansion of Tephrike, with a special emphasis on the use of technology to build civilisation in the often harsh conditions of the planet, much of which is covered by forests populated by all manners of danger, such as poisonous plants and metal-eating fungi. Special focus is placed on the foundation of Vortanstad and its transformation into an industrial hub. There is an implicit anti-corpo message. A section that details the poor conditions Tephriki workers had to toil and live in until a general strike brought the corpos to their knees has remained throughout the eras because neither the Dominion nor the Republican Guard are fond of capitalism. One can also find some groundcars and other pieces of technology built by Tephriki workers. The heroes of this exhibit are the engineers, workers and scientists. It was obviously a puff piece, but nonetheless this exhibition is probably the least propagandistic, though some bits about the old Jedi have been embellished or removed.
Hall of the Descendants of Tephrike - another holdover from the original museum, displaying notable Tephriki peoples and their achievements on and off the planet. It was badly damaged during the Vaderite insurrection, as KEC soldiers destroyed sculptures and images of prominent alien Tephriki such as Rubara Haerl, a Cathar explorer who founded the first settlement on Tephrike. The Dominion renamed it the Hall of Virtuous Paragons of the Ashlanite Ideal. Some uncontroversial Tephriki from before the Dark Age continued to have displays, though these were tweaked to fit the new narrative. The Republican Guard wrecked displays glorifying Windian Jedi, but has kept some around and instead provided texts and recordings to 'correct Jedi falsehoods'. The very positive image of Tephrike's Bothan Prime Minister Vortanes remains, after whom Vortanstad was named. Both the Windians and the rebels like her, albeit for different reasons. To both she is a figure of stability and unity who stood up for the common citizen. But the new section on her stresses tensions with Jedi and minimises or doesn't mention cooperation with them.
Monuments of the New Age - art, technological artefacts and machinery of Tephrike. It used to have have devices from space, but by now these are gone. This section was damaged and looted during the fighting. Unfortunately, the most usable devices are those the Republican Guard had good reason to requisition.
The Glorious Jedi Paradise of Plenty and Obedience - used to bear the name Hall of Peace and Tranquility under the Benevolent Care of Ashla. Back then it was an unironic Jedi paradise exhibit depicting life, economic and technological progress, peace and prosperity under Jedi rule could be found here. Rather than get rid of this and remove everything, the Republican Guard has renamed it, piled up Dominion propaganda and expanded on the exhibitions by showing images of things the Windians would rather keep hidden.
A mural that shows content, industrious workers, and a flourishing city might be accompanied by photos of emaciated famine victims, starving to death in the streets or the countryside. Other images show soldiers beating strikers or the wretched conditions the clone worker drones lived in. An image showing near empty shelves in a shop is contrasted with relative affluence in a special shop only accessible for Jedi and members of the elite. Screenings of a documentary of the Great Famine are shown here. The Republican Guard compares and contrasts displays of their - from their perspective - superior labour system with the Dominion's.
One can also listen to audio recordings of defectors and escaped prisoners. This is contrasted with the showing of a movie praising the success of the Five-Year-Plan as well as posters glorifying model worker drones. This exhibition is a common destination for visitors, and the guides employed at the museum obviously focus on it a lot. Some cartoonists have made caricatures of the Windian Jedi leaders. They have scratched out the dead ones like the old Grandmaster.
The Rise to Rebellion Against Force Tyranny - exhibit about the foundation of the Republican Guard, their struggle for freedom and their mission. The displays showcase historical relics, documents, weapons, flags and other items of the revolutionary war. Plaques written by Twi'leki and Basic provide information and context. The exhibits show off examples of weapons used by the Republican Guard as wel as those captured from the enemy, including an old tank.
No members of the present Republican Guard leadership are portrayed, as the rebels frown upon the cult of the individual. However, there are photographs and recordings of past leaders, ordinary soldiers and toilers. In addition, there is an area devoted to a group of revolutionary martyrs who tried to foment rebellion in the City of Harmonious Industry during the Netherworld Crisis, but were betrayed and executed by the Inquisition. It includes photos, interrogation transcripts and personal effects.
Above all, sculptures and murals show the importance of the participation of the masses in the war of liberation.The exhibits also try to connect various dissenting groups of clone labourers and other dissidents in the city with the Republican Guard. This is not really correct, since many of them had nothing to do with the rebellion, but the rebels want to convey the message that they are not a foreign element in the city.
The Greater Mission of the Guard and the Insidious Evil of the Force - Used to be called 'The Wickedness of the Dark Side and their Deluded Acolytes With Instructional Pictures', featuring some pretty accurate depictions of Sith atrocities. The Republican Guard has retained the anti-Sith content, and expanded on it with displays that denounce the Windian Jedi's evil as well as Force worship as a whole.
A visitor will see pictures of Force abilities such as Force Lightning, choke and blind in action, though these tend to be recreations. There are also images of people afflicted by Force attacks, such as people who were scarred by lightning, blinded by withering blasts of light or subjected to mind control. There are recordings of interviews with survivors of acts of violence perpetrated by Jedi and Sith, along with images of villages destroyed through Force usage. There is also information on cloned Force users.
To contrast with this, there are images of the free races working together against the tyranny of Force-Users, fighting shoulder to shoulder in a common struggle. There are recordings of interviews with Padawans who were indoctrinated by the evil Jedi, but will now be give care. The message is that the Force is evil, but the children are victims of an evil cult and deserve care...though they will have to be sent to a special home for now until they have been freed from their curse. Visitors can see the testimony of those who went through the programme to cure them and say that everything has become much clearer for them now, as they don't have the nagging voices.
The Museum Cafeteria - located where the original museum once had one, though that was an overpriced caf shop that belonged to a big caf company and cafhouse chain. There was a big ruckus when the workers demanded the right to unionise. The company was nationalised by the Dominion. The cafeteria's present incarnation is much less grand, and used as a soup kitchen for the poor and homeless free of charge. Intact space is rare in a wrecked city, and so the rebels appropriated the hall for a socially useful purpose. Staffed by volunteers from a social aid organisation associated with the Popular Front.
Special Containment Area 3a - Unofficially called the 'Vault of the Mirage' because it hints of things and a history the Dominion does not accept. A vault located on the lowest levels and contains various items from the actual galaxy. This includes a commlink that is better than anything on Tephrike, but doesn't work because they don't have the right batteries anymore, as well as an old hyperdrive from the Clone Wars era. The Dominion tried to recreate it, but failed and stuffed it in the vault. In addition, it contains a starship engine and a really old holonet transceiver that doesn't work. Somewhere, there is a datacron lying around that contains heterodox information. Ironically, both the Dominion and the Guard would disapprove of it, albeit for different reasons.
SECURITY
Medium.
The Museum of Industrial Progress is not a military installation, but a propaganda showpiece and the Provisional Revolutionary Committee has appropriated some of its halls. Hence it is protected by Republican Guard militia. These are generally not the most high-quality or most well-equipped troops, as they have to make do with what the frontline troops can spare. But they have combat experience and are motivated. If need be, they can call upon support from other Republican Guard troops in the general area.
Patrols in the streets use speeders, groundcars or even equines. Roaming patrols maintain vigilance on the grounds while the museum is closed. Some of the nearby buildings have been appropriated to house rebel soldiers.Regulars who are recovering from injuries sustained in combat may be sent here to oversee the guards until they are fit for active duty on the frontline again. Vortanstad is a war zone, so flak cannons have been set up to protect against aerial bombardment. The building has some security scanners, security cameras and an alarm system.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
There was a time when Tephrike was not a war-torn planet divided between riven factions. And there was a time when Vortanstad was an industrial hub and not a broken husk. The Museum of Industrial Progress was founded about a century prior to the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. It came into being as one of those museums every city has where they take school classes and such to. In order to build the future, one must know the past. Of course, as would become apparent over time, various factions had a vested interest in controlling the narrative.
The museum came into being to display the settlement and development of Tephrike, with a special focus on Vortanstad's industrial revolution. To that end it sought to document important aspects of industrial history, including technological developments, working and living conditions for industrial workers as well as their struggle against corpos and Imperials. The museum celebrated the pioneer spirit, though here and there it also had critical exhibitions. Regardless, it became a major tourist attraction.
The Gulag Virus changed everything. As Tephrike spiralled into chaos, Vortanstad was not spared. The number of visitors first declined drastically, then the museum was closed as the local government imposed harsh quarantine methods. Unlike some state governments, the provincial government and the city council responsible for Vortanstad did not downplay or deny the pandemic. The measures imposed by them were harsh and the death toll was appalling, but it helped keep the worst at bay. The museum was subject to looting and vandalism though.
When the Dominion of Light took control over Vortanstad, they imposed what soon became a totalitarian religious theocracy. The still defunct museum became a battleground when the Vaderites, a fanatical human supremacist cult led by Sith, staged an uprising in the city. By then much of the tech that could still be salvaged had been looted. . Much of the original building was badly damaged during the fighting. Indeed, Vaderite militia systematically destroyed exhibits that contradicted their narrative, which was based on the fradulent claim that Tephrike had originally been a pure human world until the 'galactic elites' flooded it with 'hordes of aliens' to 'replace' mankind. The savage pogroms caused untold loss of life, but the uprising ended in bloody failure.
Now fully in control, the Dominion invested considerable resources into rebuilding Vortanstad, aiming to turn it into an industrial centre. However, it was renamed the City of Harmonious Industry. To the Jedi leaders the city and indeed all of Tephrike was a blank sheet, upon which the teachings of Ashla would be written. The museum was reopened under a new name: the Centre for the Exaltation of Harmonious Labour and Industry. Some of the skeleton staff that had maintained the old museum were still alive. A few of them were employed again and adapted to the new order. Several of them were eventually 'replaced' by converts whose faith could not be questioned, for they could not feel attached to a past they didn't remember.
The museum celebrated the fulfillment of the glorious Five-Year Plans of the Ministry of Plenty, and carefully glossed over inconvenient events such as the Great Famine. One particularly notorious exhibition was the Hall of Peace and Tranquility under the Benevolent Care of Ashla, an unironic Jedi paradise exhibit depicting life and peace and prosperity under the Jedi rule. It glorified industrial and technological achievements that only a select few of the Dominion's citizens would be able to enjoy, and glossed over the often poor conditions ordinary workers lived in. Initially, there was a degree of openness, but this changed during the Cultural Revolution.
The Blue Guards, a radical revolutionary movement made up of students, Padawans and young Jedi knights, declared war on the 'Four Olds'. All that was of the past had to be destroyed in order to build utopia. The museum was sacked and looted. Many displays were badly damaged. This included pieces of tech Dominion scientists wanted to recreate. Museum employees were beaten or forced to participate in struggle sessions and confess their sins. Some of the halls were repurposed by the Blue Guards to exhibit items confiscated from alleged enemies of Ashla and spread 'true Ashlanite virtues'. Order was eventually restored when the army stepped in to put an end to the Cultural Revolution, lest it totally destabilise the nation.
A special exhibit glorifying the Dominion's success at combating poverty was bombed by Republican Guard terrorists. Five guests were killed in the blast, and over a dozen wounded. The Jedi Inquisition carried out an investigation that resulted in mass arrests. Most of the people who were arrested and incarcerated in a detention camp for interrogation, and torture had had nothing to do with the terrorist attack. Vortanstad did not become a battleground during the Netherworld War. However, the rapture caused a mass panic, leading to riots. When the authorities restored order, there were further arrests, as it was discovered that a few museum employees had been hiding unsanctioned items, such as a datacron that showed a very different past.
In the aftermath of a brief war with Firemane and an internal coup, the Dominion was weakened. Flush with victory after the conquest of Fortress Purity, the Republican Guard decided to take advantage, knowing their enemy would soon recover. Thus they marched on Vortanstad. The Dominion governor had reached out to them after ending up on the wrong side of a power struggle. However, the Dominion rushed loyalist troops to the city.
Ultimately the brutal battle ground into a stalemate. Republican Guard saboteurs blew up the bridge connecting both halves of the east, taking control of its eastern part. Thus the museum found itself under new management. The museum had been damaged and looted during the fighting. Partisans and looters had also been injured or killed by booby-traps left behind by Dominion defenders. However, the building was reasonably intact. Radical voices advocated for simply destroying all the Dominion propaganda, but the Provisional Revolutionary Committee elected to maintain the museum and use it to discredit the Dominion's narrative.
This was the cause of controversy, as many officers and cadres deemed it wasteful. It was a sign that the Republican Guard was in for the long haul, which did not meet with unanimous agreement. The commanding general of the rebel troops would have preferred to just wreck and loot Vortanstand's industry and leave the Dominion to clean up the mess. The agitation and propaganda department of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Vortanstad organised clean-up efforts and set about remodelling the museum to educate citizens about the lies of the Windian Jedi and the truly progressive system that was upheld by the rebel movement.
The abrupt transition was not easy for the museum employees - those who had not fled or died during the fighting in the city. The rebels viewed them with suspicion, but lacked the personnel to replace them below the top ranks. A few of the more senior people were arrested or simply lost their jobs and were allocated for the labour service. The remaining employees found themselves in the awkward situation of being simultaneously encouraged to 'embrace their freedom' and yet being seen as suspicious elements. Lower level people, especially non-humans, were able to stay if they could prove they were not wedded to Windian beliefs. Clones were not automatically suspect, but the Republican Guard tried to stop multiple clones of the same template operating in the same place because it was hard to tell them apart. Revolutionary artists were brought in to help fix up the place. Thus the museum was reopened, albeit with serious security measures in place.
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