Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on a location described in a recently subbed submission. Sub a horrible place where good and goodish characters can help the downtrodden.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A
Links: Adlerberg, Tephrike, Into Darkness, Republican Guard.
SETTING INFORMATION
City Name: Prosperity Quarter.
Classification: Ghetto.
Location: Tephrike. Located in the city of Adlerberg.
Affiliation: Disciples of the Vader (tyrannical rulers), Inheritors of the Light Father (clandestine underground presence).
Population: Crowded for a settlement of this size.
Demographics: Prosperity Quarter is overwhelmingly populated by non-humans. Many of them are Gungans, Rodians, Twi'leks, Duros, Zabrak and Houk, though other common non-human species can also be found here. In that regard it is a bit of a melting pot, though all its residents are here due to compulsion instead of by choice. However, there are also some human residents. These tend to be people who for this or that reason have run afoul of one of the Sith's oppressive laws. They have labelled as having 'alien blood' and been thrown into the ghetto to 'live alongside their kin'.
Wealth: Poor. The population of the ironically named Prosperity Quarter is extremely impoverished and kept in a state of deprivation. This is deliberate on the part of the Sith masters who created the ghetto. It serves as a reservoir for alien 'forced labourers', in other words slaves. To the Vaderites, the local population only has value insofar as they can serve as hostages to ensure the good behaviour of the slaves or provide a labour force. The inhabitants have lost their property outside the ghetto. The Vaderite authorities are solely responsible for the arrival of food aid, which is insufficient.
As a result, many residents die of starvation. Thus the only real means of survival are the smuggling of food and bartering. Up to eighty percent of the food consumed in the ghetto is acquired illegally. Private workshops have been created to manufacture goods to be sold secretly on the human side of the city. Foodstuffs are often smuggled by children who have crossed the ghetto wall. Parents often die first, leaving their children alone in the streets. The Vaderite authorities have given private companies associated with them as well as prominent Sith free reign when it comes to exploiting the population of Prosperity Quarter.
Stability: Low. The population live in fear of the Sith, but will gladly murder any outsiders they believe are their agents. Resistance groups such as the Twi'lek Combat Organisation, the Covenant of Light, the Gungan Liberation Front and the Inheritors of Vader the Redeemed remain active. The Republican Guard has secret operatives and agitators.
Freedom & Oppression: Extremely oppressive. It is a totalitarian dictatorship. The inhabitants of Prosperity Quarter are at the mercy of an oppressive, speciesist regime. They tend to be aliens, while the Vaderites are human supremacists who regard them as lesser beings. From the standpoint of the Disciples of the Vader, the people of Prosperity Quarter have no value other than providing an exploitable force of slave labourers. Those incapable of being of use are designated as 'useless eaters'. The entire quarter is an overcrowded prison. In theory there is a Native Alien Council, a collaborative administrative agency imposed on the population by the Vaderites. Rather than being an organ of self-government, it serves the Vaderite administration for controlling the alien communities. It is responsible for the internal administration of the ghetto, standing between the Sith occupiers and the alien population.
The unarmed Auxiliary Police is responsible for maintaining order, preventing escape, and carrying out Vaderite policies of coercion. They are not allowed to carry guns, as the Sith fear that they could turn them against their masters, but have batons. The behaviour of the councillors and policemen varies. Some secretly try to undermine Sith rule or help the residents, others are defined by cruelty and greed. They find themselves in an awkward situation, as they must enforce the decrees of a régime that despises them and risk punishment if they are believed to have failed in their task. The Sith make use of surveillance droids to keep tabs on the population. Their mages sometimes reanimate corpses as undead servitors. Residents of the quarter are issued IDs. Not having the right papers is grounds for arrest.
Prosperity Quarter is closed to the outside world by a wall topped with electrified barbed wire. There are auto-turrets and electrostatic weapons in place. Residents who are caught outside the quarter without permission are subject to the death penalty. Resistance activities are punished with disproportionate retribution, as the Vaderites believe in collective punishment. Many residents also perish from rampant hunger and hunger-related disease. Indeed, the Sith use access to food as a means to control the population, rewarding those who collaborate or are the family members of particularly useful workers.
Despite the many hardships the people have to endure, Prosperity Quarter does have educational and cultural institutions. These are maintained by underground organisations. However, secret schools, libraries and so on are always at risk of discovery and closure, as the Vaderites wish to deprive the alien population of an education. This is supposed to make them subservient and keep them from getting ideas about their status. The Order Police and the Security Police often carry out raids and round-ups. They are fond of making examples to cow dissent. This can involve hanging or crucifying alleged 'criminals'.
Description: Prosperity Quarter is a ghetto for non-humans. Its official name is 'Alien Reservation in Adllerberg'. Life in it is defined by poverty, oppression and squalour. With the crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and very poor sanitation (coupled with insufficient medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease are a major feature. The Sith's propaganda department treats this as 'evidence' that the population is composed of 'unclean savages' and has made propaganda movies about the ghetto. Most of the inhabitants are reliant on smuggling and bartering as a means of survival. The only other option is to submit to de facto slavery. The 'lucky' will end up as house slaves of prominent bigwigs. Most just end up as labourers in factories, mines or the fields.
Private workshops have been created to manufacture goods to be sold secretly on the human side of the town. Foodstuffs are smuggled often by children who cross the wall. Despite grave hardships, life in the area has educational and cultural activities, conducted by underground organizations. Hospitals, public soup kitchens, orphanages, refugee centres and recreation facilities have been formed, as well as an underground school system. Due to their illegality, schools are often operated under the guise of soup kitchens. Overcrowding is a serious issue. People tend to be crammed together in small apartments that usually lack power or adequate sanitation. Thus diseases run rampant. Community organisations have established shelters for orphans. However, some of them are awful places, where children fight each other to get some porridge.
Inhabitants of the ghetto live in constant fear of police raids. They are conscripted to serve as forced labourers in human businesses. Many of these are operated by the government or the Sith, but private enterprises can receive the license to utilise slave labourers. These can be loaned to them by the state, or become their permanent serfs. Conveniently, companies run by Sith or in good standing with them can requisition police forces to round up ghetto inhabitants. The ghetto is administrated by a native council and has a native police force. The councillors are caught in a horrible dilemma, for they must enforce decrees that further the suffering of their people, or be persecuted by the state.
Some councillors are in league with underground organisations, others uphold the present system out of self-interest or because they believe that insurrection would only make things worse. The fact that the Sith carry out disproportionately brutal reprisals for every rebel attack gives this view some validity, though insurgents in turn argue that the conciliators are only delaying the inevitable. The Sith also exploit racial tensions between the inhabitants in order to prevent them from forming a united front. Those who remain in the ghetto are hostages for the good behaviour of the slaves.
A number of underground organisations are active in the Quarter. Some are focused on the preservation of their people's culture, run secret schools and an underground railroad to smuggle people out. Others are militant and determined to take the fight to the oppressors. The Inheritors of the Light Father are one of these groups. They seek to undermine and eventually topple the Vaderites, who consider them heretics for espousing the story of Vader's redemption and the equality of all species. Some forced labourers carry out passive resistance by committing minor acts of sabotage in the factories and mines they are forced to toil in. The Republican Guard and the Dominion both sponsor rebel groups. This is the cause of friction, though it is not unheard of for a rebel cell to play off both factions and switch when it is convenient. It is pertinent to note that due to the persecution their people have endured, a good number of rebels are very racist against humans.
Prosperity Quarter is plagued by gangs. Children as young as twelve or thirteen may be initiated into them. Some of the criminal organisations help alleviate the hardship by smuggling in goods. Many are, however, simply a blight. The overlords of Adlerberg make 'examples' to cow dissent. The Sith and their allies are very paranoid about revolts and this drives them to extreme action. At the same time, they maintain that they are superhumans and their servitors are inherently inferior. In keeping with the Vaderites' eugenics policies, the mentally ill and physically disabled are regarded as a burden on the state. They are rounded up to be murdered in killing centres camouflaged as clinics.
Perversely, Prosperity Quarter has become a tourist attraction for visiting humans. Sith bigwigs sometimes go on a tour of the ghetto. School classes from the human part of Adlerberg are often taken to the wall or, in some cases, flown over the quarter in a transport. Their teachers tell them that the primitive, filthy conditions the residents live in have been inflicted on them by themselves and are proof of their inherent inferiority.
A Sith propaganda movie has been shot inside in the quarter. It depicts the inhabitants as savage, filthy and inclined to criminal behaviour. The quarter, it claims, was a gift from the benevolent Sith to allow the aliens to live in peace in their natural habitat without intruding upon human living space. Alas, their blood keeps them from living as civilised beings, so a firm, human hand is needed. It portrays old Almopia as a dystopia controlled by predatory alien profiteers who exploited innocent humans and were plotting to wipe out the human species through miscegenation. The movie is often shown to school classes.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Alien Habitat 9: One of many residential areas in Prosperity Quarter. It shall be used as an example to give an overview of what to expect. The apartment complexes are characterised by severe overcrowding. Four people sharing one room is considered a luxury. It is not uncommon for ten families to share a house or more than twenty people a room. Density of population is extreme. The apartments are small and as Adlerberg expands, the residents must face the threat of being forced to vacate their apartments. Sewerage, sanitation and electrical infrastructure are in dire need of repair. The sewerage system within the habitat is in a poor state. Lack of space between houses also results in poor access for maintenance activities. It is also difficult to get enough water for a household. The police often carries out round-ups to seize dissidents, malcontents and 'asocials'. The inhabitants do what they can to make life a little bit bearable. People try to trade in the streets and one can even find makeshift cafes and an improvised theatre. At the same time, children and elderly are dying in the streets. Only a small percentage of the residents have any kind of regular source of income. Officially the forced labourers are supposed to be able to send some money or goods back to support their families. But it is often pocketed by corrupt officials or never sent in the first place. As a result, street trading has become a necessity for many and anything can be a subject of exchange.
Council Building: Residence of the 'Native Council', which in theory is responsible for administrating the quarter. It is a collaborative organ that exists to maintain what they Vaderite consider 'law and order'. It is supposed to register and report the alien population, clear and turn over residences, present workers for forced labour, confiscate valuables and weapons, collect and turn over tribute. Councillors who fail in these duties risk punishment. It is meant to weaken any potential for resistance, allowing the Sith to cut down on administrative costs and manpower. Some Councillors secretly collaborate with resistance movements. Others cooperate with the Vaderites, though their motivations for doing so vary. Officially the Council is supposed to represent the entire population of Prosperity Quarter. In practice the Sith have made it policy to favour certain species, applying a policy of divide and rule.
Labour Office: A Sith institution responsible for ensuring a steady flow of forced labourers to Sith enterprises and projects. Its most important duty is providing slave labourers for the mines and factories of Adlerberg. Private companies as well as Vaderite agencies can address their requests to this office. Residents of Prosperity Quarter must report here for assessment. Those deemed able to work are conscripted. This can include children. The Vaderites view beggars as 'drags on the state' and thus round them up for labour service. The Labour Office often calls upon Auxiliaries to search the quarter in order to acquire new labourers. It works closely with Destiny Engineering, a Sith-affiliated company that rules its own quarter in Adlerberg. The building is guarded by Sith troopers.
Prosperity Quarter Judiciary: Headquarters of the Auxiliary Police. It answers to the Order Police Members of the Auxiliaries typically do not wear uniforms. Instead they just have a badge, hat and identifying armband. The Vaderites are hesitant to give them proper armour. The best they get are blast vests. They are not allowed to carry guns, but are equipped with batons. Some policemen are corrupt, swindling food rations and extorting residents to provide services to them in exchange for food. Others are secretly working for the resistance, though they may be forced to commit acts of brutality against their people to maintain their cover. Many are somewhere in the middle.
The Vaderites do not trust the Auxiliary Police much, and so policemen are often called upon to provide their loyalty. Members join in the hope of being spared punishment from Vaderite officials, as well as to leverage additional favours. Some join in the hope of protecting their communities, but quickly resign when faced with rampant and corruption and violence in the force. Underground members constantly target Auxiliaries, who fear being accused of collaborating with the resistance. A shadowy organisation called Special Section Twelve also has an office nearby. Sanctioned by the KEC, it acts as a secret police and vies for control of the quarter with the council. It is composed of alien policemen who are supposed to combat the black market and infiltrate the underground. While officially subordinate to the Commissioner of the Auxiliary Police, in practice it reports directly to the Knights of the Ebon Claw.
Statue of the Great Emancipator: A statue of Darth Vader, whom the Vaderites worship as a God. The name is darkly ironic. The Vaderites believe that after being trained as a Jedi, Anakin returned to Tatooine to overthrow the Hutts and slaughter the slavers. He succeeded in this task. But after his quest was complete, the freed slaves begged him to enslave them again, for they knew not what to do with their freedom. Without a firm hand to guide and discipline them, they fell back into bestial savagery. It was then that Anakin realised that some people were born to rule, others to lead. Thus he freed the slaves of the burden of free will and took it upon himself.
This tale is described in the inscription of the statue. There is also a mural which shows it in graphic detail. It is pertinent to note that it depicts the slaves as being almost universally aliens. Inhabitants of Prosperity Quarter are often forced to bow before the statue and thank their 'emancipator' for giving them 'discipline' and 'order'. There is also a smaller statue of Kylo Ren. It is postulated that young Kylo saw through the lies of the Jedi and the grand delusion of democracy and equality. Vowing to finish what his grandfather had started, he tried to make imperialism great again and avenge his grandfather's death. They probably give him too much credit. Both grandfather and grandson are depicted in martial pose. The monuments are often the victim of vandalism and desecration. They have also been blown up more than once. The Sith punish this very brutally.
The Wall: The means by which Prosperity Quarter is closed off from the outside world. The wall is very high and topped with electrified barbed wire. Auto-turrets are in place and there is a contingent of Sith soldiers from the army reserve and Order Police battalions. Heavy machine guns and sonic cannon emplacements have been set up. Escapees are shot on sight. There is a heavily guarded gateway that connects it with the human part of town.
Sawbones Corner School: A clinic for those in need. The doctors and nurses are dedicated, but the building is overcrowded and medical supplies are scarce. This has forced them into black market dealings to get what they need. Corrupt officials exploit this. Despite the best efforts of the staff, conditions are poor for many patients.
The Tree: Called this by some residents as one of the few trees in the settlement grows outside. An abandoned building that serves as an unofficial school. It is maintained by the resistance. Most of the pupils are children, but it also teaches adults. It is meant to help them rise above the degradation imposed on them by the Vaderites so that they can retain some dignity. It aims at preserving the culture of the species forced into the quarter. There is also a secret, underground library. It contains many books and datacards that the founders of the library were able to save from being destroyed by the Vaderites.
The Hearts of Mercy Orphanage: Orphange for little kids. Many of them are children who were found on the streets after their parents perished or were taken away for forced labour. Some were also given up by parents who knew they could not care for them. Suffers from overcrowding and has to deal with gangs.
Unity Collaboration Factory: In classic Vaderite tradition, the name is darkly ironic. It is a textile manufacturing plant run by a pair of war profiteers. The people who toil in the plant are essentially forced labourers, though the owners coyly insist that they are giving value to people whose lives would otherwise be devoid of it. A lot of their time is spent making clothes for soldiers, Sith and members of high society. Those who work here are protected from deportation to a degree. However, this 'privilege' can easily be revoked. The plant used to be the site of a semi-clandestine workshop run by the natives, who had organised themselves in order to survive. The Sith officials looked the other way in return for bribes. Ironically, the factory was a lot more efficient when the natives were in charge. However, they were betrayed. Today, the working conditions are those of a sweatshop and many workers are children. Safety is poor and accidents are common. Any 'theft of company property' - trying to escape - is taken from the 'wages' of everyone else. A long list of 'perks' and deductions means that none of the workers ever receive payment, but are 'fully provided for'. Suicide is considered irreparable vandalism of company assets.
The Black Scowl: A bar where the residents can gain a brief respite from daily life. The Sith allow alcohol as it dulls the senses and distracts the people. The same applies to 'happy pills'. Black market dealings take place in the backroom. It is one of the smuggling centres of the quarter. The police has sometimes carried out raids, but several senior policemen are corrupt.
SECURITY
High. Prosperity Quarter is essentially a huge prison. However, the security in place is meant to cow a starving civilian population and prevent revolts, not deal with a serious attack from without.
- The police force exists to suppress dissent and facilitate the Vaderites' oppressive rule. While the policemen are denied guns, they are backed up by Sith security forces. Surveillance droids are used to keep tabs on the population. Patrols are also carried out by armed security droids.
- The quarter is sealed off by a wall. There are armed soldiers, an auto-turret network, heavy machine gun and sonic cannon emplacements. The wall is topped by electrified barbed wire. The soldiers are under orders to shoot intruders and escapees on sight. The guards tend to be member of the Order Police Battalions and army reservists. However, Sith Acolytes may be stationed there as well. Moreover, the guards can count on the assistance of the Adlerberg garrison if need be.
- Electrostatic weapons, similar to the one in New Adasta on Ziost, have been set up by the 'alien residences' and at the wall.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
There was a time when Adlerberg was called Almopia. Back then it was a multicultural city. It was dominated by an oligarchy with a strong Twi'lek presence. When the outbreak of the Gulag Virus plunged Tephrike into chaos, Almopia stood with the old government. Later it was occupied by the Dominion of Light, the Jedi-led theocracy that had toppled the old regime. The Jedi proceeded to implement their peculiar policies, which can be described as a hybrid of religious fundamentalism and communism.
When the fanatical Blue Guards launched the Cultural Revolution and plunged Tephrike into chaos, Almopia was left vulnerable. It was conquered by the Disciples of the Vader, a fanatical Sith cult that venerated Darth Vader and regarded non-humans as inferior beings. Almopia was a tempting prize, but far enough from the Dominion's heartland that they might be able to hold on to it even if their enemy recovered. Clandestine Vaderite agents had been active among secret societies and terrorist groups in the city. Following their takeover, the Sith would claim that the humans had risen as a fifth columns to throw off the Dominion's yoke and opened the gates for the stormtroopers. This is untrue. There were some rebel groups that supported the Sith, but their role was marginal.
After the Vaderites sacked the city, there was a wave of violence and looting. Countless civilians were massacred in the streets or robbed of their possessions. The Vaderites used a native militia to carry out ethnic cleansing. Still, the people of Almopia fared better than those beneath the sea. Continued resistance from Dominion soldiers who had managed to go underground provoked reprisals from the Sith. However, the Vaderites did not have a uniform policy for how to govern their new conquest.
Lord Decimus, the first Sith governor was a dedicated Vaderite, but focused on getting Almopia running and 'humanising' it as quickly as possible. Thus he was more lenient towards non-humans who, in his words, 'know how to dress and wash themselves' and was unenthusiastic about discriminating near-humans. However, they were second class citizens, expropriated and forced to wear a badge that displayed their lesser status. Suspected enemies of the state were interned in Camp Progress, a slave labour camp. Select non-humans who were skilled in technical professions and thus vital for the maintenance of production were often allowed to keep their jobs, albeit under human supervision. Aliens deemed insufficiently 'civilised' were deported to a walled off section of the city that later became known as Prosperity Quarter.
He also distrusted the local humanist leaders, viewing them as being incapable and venal. However, this governor eventually fell out of favour and was replaced with a militant hardliner. The new strong man promoted the local humanists as a means of gaining a useful prop and stood for a rigid enforcement of the racial laws. Almopia was renamed Adlerberg. By official decree, the Prosperity Quarter was established as a ghetto for non-humans. Setting up ghettos to concentrate the non-human people of their domains was becoming a general policy for the Vaderites. Prosperity Quarter became their largest. Its people were brutally preyed upon and taken for forced labour.
Aliens such as Gungans had already been locked up there, but now Twi'leks, Rodians and so on followed. Racial charts were introduced to categorise the population. The aliens were only permitted to take a few personal items with them into the ghetto. The homes and property they had been forced to left behind was confiscated by the Sith or given to human citizens. This helped bind the human population of Adlerberg to the Vaderites. The quarter was surrounded by walls the natives had built with their own hands. They were under strict and violent guard. Thus the people of Prosperity Quarter were cut off from the outside world. Within their confinement, their lives were defined by a desperate struggle between survival and death from disease or starvation. The fact that the quarter was overcrowded only exacerbated these issues.
Human collaborators were encouraged to take on slaves of their own, which bound them even further to the Sith. When General Nikolai Mexatas, the Sith governor, was killed in a terrorist bombing, the Sith carried out brutal reprisals. Their brutal repression sparked an uprising, which was repressed, though some of the natives trapped in the quarter managed to breach the wall and escape into the wilderness. Realising that they needed native collaborators, the Sith strengthened the auxiliary police force, employing a system of favours and penalties to force compliance.
A native secret police department was set up to monitor the black market and infiltrate resistance cells. It turned out that most of the members of the native council had collaborated with the resistance, helping them acquire weapons and smuggle people out. The Sith carried out a brutal purge, executing council members along with their families. The new council was a lot more compliant.
With Adlerberg having settled down under humanist rule, the Sith government allowed private companies run by human citizens in good standing with the regime to acquire forced labourers. At first the slave economy was supposed to be restricted to government projects, factories and so on, but soon individual Sith and rich private citizens were able to purchase serfs for a fee. Ironically, this led to criticism from some hardline Vaderites, though not for ethical reasons. Instead they feared that reliance on slave labour would make humans go soft, which was at variance with their Social Darwinist beliefs.
Critics also argued that cutting a spatially significant part of the municipality out of the municipal body had left the remaining part a torso. The ghetto as a neighbourhood within the urban community made it a threat to Adlerberg. Disease could be spread, despite there being a wall. The constant guarding of the ghetto by the police required disproportionately large resources of manpower. A further objection to the ghetto's existence arose from economic considerations: the urban ghetto was unable to supply itself with industrial goods, or with raw materials and fuel, or with food.
The possibility of a quid pro quo existed only in the use of the ghetto's inhabitants as a labour force, but the economic result would be doubtful, because the manpower utilised was impelled solely by coercion. However, these objections were brushed aside. Slavery was one of the pillars of Vaderite ideology. Their hunger for labourers was insatiable. Both the Republican Guard and the Dominion tried to infiltrate agents into the quarter. They encouraged the formation of rebel cells, smuggling in arms and supplies. But the animosity between both groups impeded attempts to mount an effective resistance. Indeed, both groups actively conspired against each other, for they were mortal enemies.
At the same time, the people of Prosperity Quarter had to fight against starvation, and find creative ways to get enough food to survive. The walls of the quarter could not entirely silent the cultural life of its people. Despite the dreadful conditions, artists and intellectuals did their best to continue their creative endeavours. Secret libraries were created to preserve the lore and culture of the people confined to the ghetto. This was a risky endeavour, as the Vaderites sought to deprive their victims of any education, knowing that it could give them ideas. Nonetheless, books, study, music and theatre were a means of escape, however brief. They also founded welfare organisations to help their people and rise above the degradation and humiliation that was inflicted on them.
But the crowded quarter became a breeding ground for epidemics. At one point, the situation grew so bad that the government was forced to intervene because, despite the quarantine, diseases were spreading to the human side of the city. However, the Vaderites were loath to make lasting improvements. They preferred to seal off the homes of plague victims and leave them to starve. Or burn the homes and the people inside.
However, the system was destabilised by the Netherworld Event and a civil war among the Vaderites. The rapture caused a schism among the Sith. This coincided with the discovery of a tome that told the story of Vader's redemption. A faction of 'Light Sith' embraced it as gospel. It also found its way to Prosperity Quarter. With their oppressors weakened, the inhabitants of the ghetto rose in revolt. The Light Sith allied itself with the Underground, promising them emancipation. Darth Krieg became the new Dark Lord and took the name Darth Salus. Resistance members took revenge on their tormentors. Th wall separating the ghetto from the rest of Adlerberg was torn down.
However, Salus was soon distracted by his war against the Dominion. When his followers abandoned or watered down many of the reforms they had promised, the Underground and some radical Light Sith rebelled. They managed to take control of Prosperity Quarter and of some of the adjacent districts. However, they clashed with humanist forces. When Dominion bombers dropped bombs on Adlerberg, the rebels were able to gain the edge and overrun loyalist positions. Camp Progress was liberated. But when their forces seemed on the verge of triumphing, Sith reinforcements arrived.
Darth Furcht, a doctrinaire fanatic and leader of the Knights of the Ebon Claw, marched on Adlerberg. He got the support of the local humanists. What followed was a bloody slaughter. Many rebels fought on to the death, knowing what fate awaited them. Sith troopers were ambushed by insurgents firing and tossing Molotov cocktails and hand grenades down from windows, alleyways and sewers.
The Gungan Liberation Front and the Twi'lek Combat Organisation had taken the Altar of the Sith'ari, a Vader temple, and raised their flag upon it. An enraged Furcht ordered the KEC commander to take down the flag at any cost. Unwilling to destroy the temple, the Sith had to storm it, which led to heavy casualties as the rebels fought bravely and lured the attackers into kill zones. The Sith had to level parts of Prosperity Quarter by setting them aflame. As Vaderite forces pushed into the quarter, the atrocities committed by them mounted. Patients at one of the few functioning hospitals were massacred by the Sith.
The Republican Guard had advised its cells against backing the uprising, rightly believing it was a lost cause, but many partisans disobeyed the order. This bought the people of the quarter time and probably allowed more to escape, but it was not enough to turn the tide. When organised resistance collapsed, surviving fighters and many remaining civilians took cover in the sewer system and in many hideouts that had been dug in the quarter's ruins. The Sith used Kath Hounds to look for such hideouts, then dropped smoke bombs or used fire to flush the people out or flooded them.
Enormous firestorms consumed whole streets. Suffocating inhabitants had no choice but to flee their hideouts. Some managed to escape the arson was by fleeing from one bunker to the next. For several days the Sith could not feel safe moving through the streets of the quarter while it was dark, so aliens used the night hours to escape. But they could not stop the burning or beat back their enemy. A number of captured fighters threw hidden grenades or fired concealed pistols after surrendering. When the Sith discovered and surrounded the Underground's hidden command post, many of the leaders fought on to buy time for their comrades to escape, then committed mass suicide by using cyanide. Furcht eventually ordered a halt to the killings because the Sith still needed slaves. He had re-established Vaderite power, which helped him become Dark Lord. In the aftermath of the battle, compliant journalists were flown in to report that human civilisation had triumphed over 'barbarians'.
What was left of the Resistance fragmented. A remnant of the Light Sith and their allies formed the Inheritors of the Light Father. This cult went underground, dedicating to toppling the Vaderites and finishing what Anakin started. However, they lacked the strength to topple the Dark Masters, so they had to operate in the shadows. Another group of escaped rebels formed the Butchers of Serenity Reach, who largely composed of Houk and allied themselves with the Republican Guard. Conditions in Prosperity Quarter became even worse than before. Since so many had perished, aliens were brought in from other areas under Vaderite control to refill the stock. Furcht also initiated a campaign to unmask 'closeted aliens and Jedi worshippers in high places' - a thinly veiled attempt to get rid of people who did not belong to his power base. This led to humans being thrown into the ghetto.
The people of Prosperity Quarter have not encountered any of the offworlders who recently visited Tephrike and clashed with the Dominion. However, they have seen the strange lights in the sky. The Sith have done their best to cut off the ghetto from all sources of information save for their own propaganda broadcasts, but every wall has cracks. Rumours have spread, and some natives have come to the conclusion that the Tephriki are not alone in the Galaxy. Some have also learned that the Sith's citadel was recently bathed in flames by hellfire raining down from the sky. The Inheritors and other rebel groups have started agitating.
