Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike and a city I subbed.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, The Republican Guard is the Strongest, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Red Coral City, Tephrike, Force-Dead, Firemane Industries, Elpsis, Aruunzeb, Raddus, Mace Windu Thought.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Vortanstad
Classification: Council. Revolutionary Junta.
Affiliation: Republican Guard, Vortanstad, Tephrike, Popular Front.
Organization Symbol: The Rebel Alliance Starbird is the official symbol of the Popular Front, but owing to the circumstances of its creation, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee has created a banner that has become increasingly popular among the Guard. The flag is blue and green. The blue is below horizontally, with a red circle in the middle. There a trident and a net are crossed. The trident represents their martial virtues. The net stands for their more peaceful side, but also their determination to catch their enemies.
Description: The Provisional Revolutionary Committee is the 'government' the Republican Guard has set up to govern its zone in Vortanstad. The city was founded as Vortanstad, named after a popular Tephriki prime minister from the Golden Age. The Dominion of Light renamed it the City of Harmonious Industry. The Republican Guard regards itself as the spiritual successor of the Rebel Alliance and Tephrike's old democratic government, so they have adopted the old name.
However, the city is split between both parties. Both zones are divided by a river. Periodic incursions take place, as both the Dominion and the Guard seek to usurp the over. Bombings and shellings are common place, many districts lie in ruin, food and medical supplies are scarce and electricity is unreliable or plain defunct. All this poses a special challenge for the Guard, which has never had to administrate an area this large.
While the Guard espouses democratic and often radically left-wing ideals, it presently operates as a military junta. But it maintains a politcal wing, the Popular Front, which is supposed to lay the foundation for a future Equalist Republic of Tephrike. The PRC was founded by the Popular Front and responsible for the Guard's zone in the city. It is supposed to guard against counter-revolution, mobilises the masses and provide public services. Vortanstad was long an industrial centre of Tephrike and so the PRC has a special interest in getting its factories, steel works and refineries up and running again. The PRC runs the various civil agencies that regulate public life. To this end its appoints commissars. One of its greatest challenges is ensuring the distribution of food for the people. To this end it has imposed strict rationing and dispatched flying food supply squads to other areas to carry out requisitions.
Moreover, it censors the press and mobilises civilians into work crews to clear away rubble, build up defences and so on. In addition, it controls the Territorial Liberty Guard, which is supposed to police the zone, act a a fire brigade and prevent looting. Firemane sends limited aid to the Guard and the PRC is responsible for distributing these supplies in Vortanstad. The severe damage to local infrastructure means that these deliveries of food and medical supplies can mean the difference between life and death for some of the city's inhabitants. However, corruption and theft have become serious issues. People who work for the PRC are called cadres.
The Provisional Revolutionary Committee has abolished the Dominion's religious courts and replaced them with revolutionary tribunals. Instead of a single judge they have juries which are quite large, but only need a majority for conviction. To balance this the leadership picks half of the members, while the rest are randomly selected. Moreover, the Republican Guard has a system of travelling judges, who travel from one place to another to hear cases and administer justice. The PRC has a variety of departments: supplies, agitation and propaganda, labour and mobilisation, security, transport, industry, justice, health and social services. The PRC includes social movements like the Old Guard, a veterans' group, the Young Guard, the youth movement of the Republican Guard, and the General Confederation of Labour, its labour organisation.
Economically, the stated goal is to do away with the statist command economy of the Dominion, in which private property had been abolished and the means of production were controlled by the state. However, there are divergent views on the PRC, ranging from syndicalism, where the means of production are owned by the workers, to market socialism or limited capitalism where the commanding heights of the economy are controlled by the state. During the course of the battle, many factories were destroyed, others were seized by the partisans or workers' militias. Moreover, looting was widespread. As a result, the situation is rather in flux and most economic initiatives are more focused on getting things running again than the finer points of theory. It does allow small businessowners and workers' cooperatives though.
Civil-military relations are complicated. While the Guard is committed to restoring republican governmet, in practical terms it operates as an elective dictatorship where the military is in the driver's seat. Aside from that, Vortanstad is still a war zone. All this means is that the local commander of Republican Guard forces possesses a lot of authority and has a representative on the PRC. The Republican Guard has spent most of its existence as an underground partisan movement that controlled some small holdings, but is not used to administrating a territory of this size.
Martial law is in effect and the military command has sweeping powers and can override the political wing. However, there is also a division of labour because the military cannot run the city on its own or allow itself to be burdened with micromanaging while there is a war to fight. However, the situation has led to disputes between the military high command and the civilian organs, though neither organisation is a monolith. Moreover, there are Vortanstad natives who support the Guard, be it out of opportunism or genuine belief, but resent the 'newcomers', their strange ways and their bossiness.
While the Guard is largely run as a junta, it does have an elected Senate, which is responsible for electing the Chancellor. The residents of Republican Guard-controlled Vortanstad are supposed to have a vote to elect representatives to the Senate as well as the Popular Front's congresses. There is tension between groups who advocate greater democracy and accountability and those who argue that the present situation makes this impractical.
The PRC has disenfranchised locals who are seen as Dominion profiteers and collaborators. These tend to be bureaucrats, industrial managers, preachers of the Followers of Light etc. Their property has been confiscated and they are only allocated substandard housing. Many have been conscripted into work crews or deported. Some have been kept around as 'specialists' because the rebels cannot do without their skills, but they are closely monitored. Sometimes the partisans take hostages to ensure their compliance. The treatment of these so-called "former people" is justified with the need to remove the "insurgence base", since the Dominion has set up stay-behind cells and tries to infiltrate spies into the rebel zone.
One problem the PRC faces is the clone issue. The Dominion has long vilified natural reproduction and promoted growing people in laboratories in a medically sanctioned way, as normal procreation is 'messy and chaotic' and lust leads to the dark side. Thus a large number of the inhabitants in both sides of the city are clones. Indeed, the Dominion grew them in substantial batches to provide toilers for the factories, technicians, soldiers and so on. Naturally they were indoctrinated, but cloning is also a cultural thing. This has created a culture clash, since many Republican Guard partisans are naturally grown - or 'randoms' in Dominion language.
Rebellious clone troopers were among the founders of the Guard, which regards the clones as slaves. However, the Dominion also has networks of clones who managed to attain high positions and even create 'dynasties', which ran parts of the economy, such as a certain factory or the docks. As a result, the Guard faces a bit of a dilemma. Their present policy is to empower the low-level clones and provide the medical means for them to restore their lost fertility, but this does not work for everyone. The PRC has been forced to tolerate a certain degree of cloning. Some pragmatic Republican Guard officials are considering a system where DNA from several people is combined into a 'clone', so they are hybrids, rather than straight duplicates.
Vortanstad has long been an industrial centre and thus has a strong working class, though under the Dominion it was more of a caste since many had been specifically grown for this role. The PRC has made a special effort to win the proletarians over, as it considers itself the vanguard of the working men and women. However, the Guard derives a lot of its support base from rural areas and aquatic cultures and the fact that some groups of workers have seized important factories and production facilities on their own initiative has caused problems. The Communards, the anarcho-syndicalist wing of the Popular Front, agitate heavily among them, but their radical left-libertarian views have also produced a backlash. The PRC has introduced quotas to ensure native representation on the committees, favouring members of the lower classes.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Vortanstad. Based in 'Liberty Command', which used to be the 'Temple of Harmonious Radiance' of the City of Harmonious Industry.
Domain: The Provisional Revolutionary Committee is an organ of the Popular Front, an umbrella organisation for political and social movements that back the Republican Guard's revolutionary struggle. The Committee essentially acts as the municipal government of the half of Vortanstad that is controlled by the Republican Guard. The other half, still called the City of Harmonious Industry, is governed by the Dominion of Light. Both groups are at war. Within the Republican Guard 'zone, the PRC acts as a provisional administration. It does not see itself as a purely administrative body, but as an organ of people's power that has been charged with assuring the success of the revolution.
This means that it seeks to actively involve itself in the lives of the common people. It is charged with passing laws and transmitting the Guard's policies to the people, and to mobilise the masses to support the revolutionaries' goals. At the same time, it provides oversight over the partisans' activities, though its success in this field varies. Cadres are charged with remaining in close contact with the inhabitants of the zone and communicating their needs to the Committee.
Its runs the utilities, organises relief for those in need, especially orphans, sets up shelters, allocates housing and deals with the food crisis. Likewise, it publicises war crimes committed by the Dominion or the Vaderites. But it also conscripts civilians into labour battalions, and helps enforce the Guard's emergency laws, including round-ups of Force-Users and the execution of supposed looters, wreckers and sloths etc. The Commission for the Preservation of the Revolution is charged with acting as a state security force. The local director has been appointed by the Guard's central leadership.
The Committee exercises censorship. It has banned newspapers, journals and other publications that oppose the 'cause of freedom' and side with the 'Jedi oppressors' or seek to exploit the ongoing war to overthrow the revolutionary government. Editors and other staff members of these media organs who are capable of work have been conscripted to dig trenches, clear away rubble or perform similar tasks. This does not mean that it is illegal to criticise the government or individual leaders, but the general line sacrosanct. This means the only acceptable political discourse is about how to best accomplish the revolution's goals, not whether they should be pursued in the first place.
The Committee does seek to recruit its members from Vortanstad itself, but obviously the fact that the city was governed by the Dominion for centuries makes it hard to find trustworthy people. At the end of the day, the Guard might have had underground there, but it came to the city as an invading army. As a result, several of its members are outsiders trusted by the Guard. But it also includes underground activists drawn from reliable members of the local working class or defected Dominion soldiers.
Quite a few of its members are former political prisoners of the Dominion. Moreover, there are cultural tensions between the locals and Republican Guard occupiers. The city has been under the Dominion's control for a long time and the Jedi government sought to remould it in its image. For instance, cloning was common here, but the Guard dislikes the practice. The Dominion proclaimed that the Jedi had a mandate from the Light to rule, while the Guard views the Force as a disease and bans all Force cults.
This is the first the time Republican Guard has had to administrate a city this big, so the shortages in manpower have forced it to continue employing many officials who used to serve in the Dominion's local administration. Revolutionary purists view these 'specialists' with distrust. While officially accountable to the common people, the PRC presently operates under wartime emergency laws. It is supposed to pave the way for the restoration of civil government. However, there is disagreement about what form that government is ultimately supposed to take.
Notable Assets: Half of Vortanstad is under the control of the Republican Guard and thus the Provisional Revolutionary Committee. Vortanstad is a heavily industrialised city. Indeed, it is one of Tephrike's industrial centres. An example would be the Bouzara Manufacturing Works, which was taken over by the workers there. Thus in theory the rebels can count various civilian and military factories among their assets.
However, several of these industrial facilities are in a state of disrepair due to having been damaged during the fighting or may have lost many qualified employees. There have alos been cases of theft and sabotage. Some are already up and running again. The movement practices a combination of state socialism and workers' self-management. Aside from this, the PRC operates various orphanages, clinics and shelters for the homeless and displaced persons. The city's former Jedi temple has been converted into the group's headquarters. They call it Liberty Command.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: In principle, the Republican Guard is committed to the restoration of republican, democratic government. However, it has been centuries since Tephrike had a functioning democracy. The Guard is a rebel insurgency fighting for survival and victory. Thus in practice Free Tephrike is governed by a military junta, with democracy largely being limited to the local level. Moreover, Vortanstad is a divided city and a war zone. The partisans came to the city as an invading army, with some support from local activists and underground groups. This has had repercussions for the way the PRC is organised.
The members of the Committee are picked by partial representation. Half of them are elected by those citizens who live nearby or serve in the city. Voting is done by secret ballot and monitored by an electoral commission. Voters are organised into blocks. An example would be the workers of a enterprise, or the soldiers of a barracks. Dominion collaborators, members of its ruling class and Force-Users have been disenfranchised.
While the Committee has been set up by the Popular Front, it has at least one independent member who is not a member of the latter. The Popular Front is a broad tent and officially subscribes to the belief of having competitive elections within a united framework. The leading factions of the rebel movement enjoy representation. This ranges from the militarist Vanguardists to the anarcho-syndicalist Communards and the moderate Federalists.
But because the Republican Guard is still a junta the central leadership assigns 'half plus one' of the leadership committee. That ensures that there is no chance of things being done that are against the will of the centre, but it is still more democratic than elsewhere since the people do get to vote for at least some of their leaders. The chairperson is not necessarily an appointee of the centre. Indeed, it looks better if they come from the elected portion of the committee, but they obviously cannot go against the unelected one. Different portfolios are assigned to members of the leadership committee, and they have officials working under them. The remit of the Committee is broad, ranging from labour and supplies to healthcare, emergency services and security.
Membership: Must be a Tephriki and swear an oath of loyalty to the Republican Guard. The rebels prefer long-time activisits and revolutionary veterans, but have been compelled to allow some hold-overs of the old regime to stay in managerial and bureaucratic positions. However, they are closely monitored for signs of sabotage. Many low-level cadres have been drawn from the Young Guard.
A concerted effort is being made to recruit cadres from among Vortanstad's proletarians and lower middle class. Two established members of the Popular Front must vouch for a new cadre. There is a vetting process before one can work for the Committee. Force-Users are not accepted into the movement. The Guard believes that they can only be trusted after they have been freed from their curse. By contrast, the Force-Dead are held in rather high regard.
To make up for shortages in manpower, the rebels have adopted the practice of secondment. This allows an officer of the Republican Guard to be given leave from their regular duties to take up an assignment with the Committee, such as an administrative job. This is supposed to introduce revolutionary, military discipline and put reliable people in positions of authority. However, it has also been criticised because it can open the gates of croynism and give corrupt officers opportunity for graft and extortion.
Moreover, it may concentrate power in the hands of individuals seen as outside occupiers. There are no racial or gender barriers. Indeed, the rebel movement encourages members of minorities to join. People who work for the Provisional Revolutionary Committee are called cadres and assigned a department organisation to work in. Commissars head a department or are special plenipotentiaries charged with carrying out important assignments such as organising food distribution.
Climate: There is a strong atmosphere of revolutionary fervour. This is paired with fear and insecurity. The Republican Guard and the Popular Front regard themselves as the chosen vanguard that is meant to lead the masses to freedom and equality. This is a general mind set for them, but it is particularly strong in the PRC because they are right at their frontlines. The Guard may only control half of Vortanstad, but this is the largest urban area it has ever taken control of.
This has given the cadres a special sense of mission and perhaps an elevated sense of importance. However, it also puts a lot of pressure on them. The group is dominated by career rebels and underground activists who received their training in a world of conspiracy, and soldiers who endured Tephrike's killing fields. Many have suffered painful personal losses during the war have some sort of military service background, be it in frontline combat troops or support roles. Emergency rationing is in effect and while senior cadres have ways to get access to better rations, their lives are far from luxurious.
The cadres have to work very long hours. Trying to manage a war zone is not conducive to getting sleep. Moreover, the conditions tend to be poor. Electricity is often unreliable, the challenges facing them are daunting and the threat of being murdered by a Dominion assassin or dying in an air strike is very real. It is common for a cadre to carry a pistol and senior members have guards. Indeed, gangsters once stopped the vehicle of a senior commissar and robbed him. Later an Ashlanite insurgent fired shots at the chairperson during a speech.
Some cadres are in poor health because they have literally worked themselves to exhaustion. A commissar may be expected to act as a troubleshooter, organising emergency responses to aerial bombings, rallying a workers' militia or overseeing the distribution of vital supplies. Indeed, cadres have fallen in combat. The ideal Committee worker is not a pen-pusher stuck in an office who only acts when given a direct order, but a mobile, ideological troubleshooter who can quickly adjust to a new brief and get things done. The Republican Guard is not radically anti-individualist and collectivist like the Dominion, but against exalting any individual in case it makes them stand out too much. The organisation has adopted the practice of referring to even civilian endeavours as campaigns.
The allegiance of the proletarian strata of society - cadres who started out as soldiers, workers and peasants - matters a lot to the group. In theory at least, a cadre must be a model to the masses, for the rebel must be able to move among the people like a fish swims in the sea. These programmes and the abolition of the Dominion's de facto caste system has increased social mobility. Of course, the new oligarchy has also led to the creation of new patronage networks.
As one cadre put it, the indispensable prerequiste for a role in this group are iron discipline and energy. However, the group also has its share of corrupt individuals who abuse their position for graft and extortion, as well as as brutal zealots. The Guard strives to build a better future, but it is far from pure, though still grey compared to its foes. Many Dominion collaborators and Jedi have been summarily executed by the partisans and associated militias.
All this has produced a very tight-knit community. However, the other side of the coin is a deep suspicion of spies and enemy agents. At the end of the day, while it does have domestic support, it is an occupation government. There is tension between a more populist strand that wants to empower the people and a more authoritarian, militarist one. The question of whether to employ former Dominion functionaries is also a matter of fierce debate. Ironically, the authoritarian wing tends to be more pragmatic - or cynical, depending on one's point of view. Cadres who used to work for the Dominion are in a particularly awkward position. On the one hand they are closely monitored by their new comrades for signs of subversion, on the other they know that they are done for if the Dominion reclaims the city and punishes them for collaborating with the enemy.
There is also a bit of a culture clash between cadres who grew up in the city under Dominion rule and those who were in one of the Republican Guard's liberated zones - or might have grown up in Vaderite territory and fled to the Guard. Dominion rule is highly collectivist. Many cadres who used to be part of it are clones and have not known a family name. Indeed, they were denied family names and were defined by their caste. While the Guard has a socialist economy, it has not banned private property, and citizens would have experiencd an actual family life. It also lacks the Dominion's radical puritanism. The city is highly industrialised, whereas the Guard's zones tend to be rural or underwater settlements. This has forced the 'foreign' cadres to adapt, which is by no means an easy process. For instance, people in the Dominion grew up with a different calendar and their life is steeped in religious ritual, which the rebels see as superstition.
Reputation: Mixed. Elements of Vortanstad's population have embraced the rebels as liberators from the Dominion's tyranny, but others view them as foreign invaders whose coming has brought ruin to their city. This is understandable since the battle has devastated much of the city. There is also fear of Dominion reprisals, should the Jedi manage to win the battle. Moreover, there is a bit of a culture clash since many senior cadres are outsiders.
However, the PRC also has willing supporters, whose motivations range from survival instinct to genuine belief in its principles. The organisation is generally respected among the Republican Guard. The Dominion obviously views them as foes. The Jedi government does not regard the Republican Guard as a legitimate actor, but as a group of terrorists and bandits. The Vaderites are too far away to interact with the PRC, but view them as 'mudblood' and sub-humans.
Curios: There is no clear uniform. However, cadres favour semi-military attire, namely trousers and a military tunic or soldier's shirt made of cotton, and practical boots. This is supposed to show solidarity with the troops. Moreover, these clothes are easy to make and maintain. Cadres receive an ID badge with the Starbird emblem. It is something simple which can be easily stamped out of brass for the Republican Guard.
They also receive an abridged version of the Green Book. Normally, this book serves as a manifesto and tactical manual for partisans. But this version only contains the Guard's central tenets. For this reason cadres have nicknamed it the 'Small Green Book'. Its contents amount to a crash course in Republican Guard history and beliefs. Because the city is still a war zone, it is common for cadres to carry pistols.
Rules: The cadres must conduct themselves in accordance with the doctrine of Equalism, the ideology of the Republican Guard. It mandates that the purpose of the Guard is to safeguard the liberty of the common people - especially from the tyranny of Force-Users. Their goal is to create a government of Non-Force-Users, by Non-Force-Users for Non-Force-Users - and of course Force-Dead. Cadres should be loyal to the Republican Guard, serve the common people and be an example to them. It is their duty to educate and rally the masses.
Discrimination on the basis of species or gender is forbidden. The duties of a cadre are outlined in the 'Small Green Book'. Cadres must be mobile and ready to obey their superiors. The Guard likes to say that freedom is never free, for it is purchased in blood, and this is regarded as particularly true in Vortanstad. After all, the cadres just need to look out the window to see the ruins and they often awake to the sound of sirens warning them of an incoming air strike. Stealing from the common people is forbidden and cadres are supposed to compensate civilians for anything they have to requisition.
The Committee follows the principles of democratic centralism. Based on this, disagreements and free debate within the group are permitted, but once a decision has been made, each member must abide by it. This it not always easy since the Guard has many divergent factions. They agree on waging war to liberate the people from the tyranny of the Force cults and on a egalitarian, republican form of government, but disagree on what form it should take. Thus there is a struggle between those who postulate that unity of action requires uniformity in thought and those who proclaim that this runs counter to the principles of Equalism, and that a serious evaluation of political conditions becomes impossible without a clash of opinions.
Vortanstad is a war zone, so the cadres must be vigilant and abide by security protocols. Treason is punished with death and cowardice can be punished with demotion, penal labour or similar. The Guard is fighting a war to the knife and more concerned with victory and survival than constitutional niceties. Force worship and use are banned. Force-Sensitives, if discovered in the Republican Guard zone, must be reported and isolated. Likewise, Force-User texts and artefacts must be handed over to the authorities so that they can be destroyed or sealed away.
Goals: Their general goal is to govern the Republican Guard zone of Vortanstad in accordance with Equalist principles, and provide its citizens with equitable, revolutionary government by the people for the people. The long-term goal is to expand the Republican Guard's control to all of Vortanstad, rebuild the city and use its industrial potential to support the war effort.
For the most part, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee concerns itself with a more localised agenda of getting the utilities and factories running again, keeping the population fed and employed, rebuilding infrastructure, providing security and combating Dominion spies and incursions. These goals are difficult enough to achieve in a divided, war-torn city where many areas have been reduced to ruins. Naturally, it also seeks to convince the population of the righteousness of the Guard's cause. Beneath the veneer of unity, the Republican Guard is a disparate bloc of revolutionary forces with different priorities and competing visions for the future of Tephrike. This obviously affects the soals by the Committee, as it is not a monolith.
MEMBERS
Nyrgal Krez (NPC): A Quarren male and an authoritarian sort who takes the position that the Republican Guard is the vanguard of the revolution and thus knows best. While not a totalitarian fanatic, he is definitely of the belief that the people require tutelage, guidance and boundaries. The Guard must win the war before anything more far-reaching can be established. His life has been shaped by deprivation, hardship and Dominion and Vaderite terror bombings.
He was a submarine commander until suffering severe injury. He transitioned into politics, with a focus on security and ideological education. He participated in the Republican Guard's campaign during the Netherworld Crisis. However, the fact that the expected general uprising did not materialise, the rebels were routed and many of his comrades paid with their lives. It has left him cynical and suspicious. He is no friend of ideological deviation and upholds orthodox beliefs.
Nyrgal has a rivalry on methods with General Aruunzeb, but otherwise they are on a similar line. Latent racial tension between their species may also play a role. He is responsible for policing and security in the city. His web of connections and expertise in security make him well-suited for the role. Moreover, he is Force-Dead, which means he cannot be mentally manipulated with the Force. Nyrgal dislikes Force-Users and will not allow Force use. He discriminates against them, but is legalistic about it. This means he will follow the Guard's policy of isolating Force-Sensitives to the letter, but he expects clear evidence to be brought against a mage accused of crimes instead of hearsay.
Yareska (NPC): A Bothan female and the chairperson of the committee. She is responsible for administration and has a knack for organisational matters and agitation. In contrast to some of her comrades, she is an idealistic, revolutionary firebrand type. who takes the Republican guard's demand for popular sovereignty seriously and wants a progressive government accountable to the people. Yareska loots lie in a Bothan group that lived on the frontier and were 'integrated into the harmonious society of the Dominion'. As a child, she was one of those who were separated from her family so that they could be 'civilised' and identify potential candidates for cloning. Gifted and smart, she was resettled in Vortanstad. However, 'rustic randoms' counted for less than 'pureborn' clones. She ran afoul of the authorities when a starving sibling was caught stealing food. The Dominion followed the principle that the misdeeds of an individual called into question the loyalty of the entire family unit. She eventually became an underground activist and organiser. She spent many years in prison.
For her, the return to Vortanstad is a homecoming and a liberation. She addressed the people from a captured communications station while fighting was still going on nearby. She believes Tephrike must embrace a form of Equalism that is accountable to the masses, so that people can stand up as free citizens and overthrow their oppressors for good. Yareska has written many ideological tracts, expounding on her theories about the 'collective mastery of society'. She believes the Guard can be the torch to light the flame of freedom. Her progressive convictions genuine, but at the same time she is nonetheless willing to use coercion to ensure that no one can stop the revolution from coming to fruition.
In short, her idealism is tempered by a pragmatic appreciation of the political realities. She made herself a name fighting corruption in the bureaus of the Popular Front - sometimes rather ruthlessly. Some of her friends draw comparisons between her and Vortanes, a Bothan Tephriki prime minister from the golden age and the woman the city is named after. She is one of the few pre-Dark Age politicians most Tephriki like. Vareska has been accused of bourgeois vanity, but the comparison is not ineffective, though Vortanes was a figure of stability rather than a revolutionary firebrand. However, so much time has passed since her death that she can be tweaked to fit almost any political agenda.
Tarod Worker (NPC): The worker's champion, albeit unwillingly. Tarod is a blue-collar Houk clone and a Vortanstad native who grew up in the Dominion's de facto caste system. His path was set for him before he was even born. He was just one of many clones produced to toil in the factories. The Dominion gave him life and knowledge of its enlightened ideals, so it was only fitting that he spend the rest of his life repaying the great nation for its benevolence. Tarod became a leader among the workers, showing ingenuity and finesse.
He tried to use his position to protect fellow workers from exploitative managers and secret police informants, without running afoul of his bosses. Life was not good, but bearable as long as he kept his head down. Then the war came, and he was forced to make a choice. Tarod played an important role in occupying the Harmonious Factory of Bountiful Production and getting it running again despite Dominion sabotage. He organised a workers' militia to protect against looting and sabotage.
He is not super enthusiastic about the Republican Guard and distrustful of the foreigners, but appreciates workers having more rights and not being locked in a caste. He is not interested in glory and sceptical of 'rebel missionaries', but committed to his people, so he has agreed to assume a position in the General Confederation of Labour. He is one of the elected members of the leadership committee. He has an everyman, down-to-earth approach to things. The radical revolutionaries do not like him, but know getting rid of him will turn the workers on them. His main strengths are a command of language and a commitment to people, which is genuine. Tarod has kept his Dominion surname, which denotes his occupation. He has been urged to change it. Perhaps that is the main reason why he hasn't.
Myrisha Tanan (NPC): A female Cathar from Republican Guard territory. She is a political commissar who has been sent to Vortanstad to ensure there is no counter-revolutionary behaviour. And possibly to get her out of Red Coral City. She is nicknamed 'the Tigress' for her ruthless ability to identify and get rid of enemies of the people. She keeps very detailed files and has an excellent memory. Myrisha is from a rural village and was raised on the frontier. As someone who grew up in the underground, organised a Young Guard chapter and a peasants' militia. Later she served as a commissar at the front, so she has the right social and political pedigree for the job.
She is firm in her conviction that the revolution is threatened by enemies within and without. She is master of personnel politics and bureaucratic trench warfare. Those who get her offside rarely survive long. More moderate members of the leadership have tried to have her investigated or reassigned, but have so far have met without success. Myrisha excels at her job and is no coward, but has a very dark side. Indeed, she is a zealot with a sadistic streak in her personality who very much believes the ends justify the means. The 'specialists' fear her. Her claws are sharp and she is prepared to use them, both literally and metaphorically. Of course, the Tigress can be placated for a while, but she will always come back.
Orrin Administrator (NPC): A human male who used to work for the Dominion as an engineer and manager. He has been reluctantly kept around by the Republican Guard because they lack the manpower to replace the entire apparatus. This has forced them to utilise people who served the ancien régime and are not entirely on board with the new agenda, but are pragmatic enough to make compromises. Orrin has depicted himself as an apolitical technician. His new bosses do not really believe him, but recognise his. Nonetheless, he is closely monitored by the security police and his status has diminished, but he has kept his head. A young clone from his line, with whom he had a father-son relationship, has been taken in by the Guard and sent to a village in their heartland. This keeps him safe from the fighting, but has also made him a hostage to ensure Orrin's cooperation.
Orrin has testified against former Dominion collaborators and played a vital role in rebuilding infrastructure, clearing away rubble rubble and so on. He did most of the planning for the airfield Firemane uses to bring in supplies. He wants to survive, and knows he is done for if the Dominion retakes the city. His fate has made him a bit of a servile snarker. He often provides sarcasm-filled critique when Republican Guard dogma clashes with the actual conditions on the ground.
Drakka Orada (NPC): A female Zabrak soldier and the commanding general of all Republican Guard forces in Vortanstad and the surrounding area. She is not a member of the leadership committee per se. But in practice she is above it because the Guard is still a military junta in many ways. This can be a source of tension. Vortanstad is still a war zone, which means martial law is in effect. She does not like getting involved in daily politics, but will lay down the law when needed.
Drakka grew up far away from Vortanstad. One of her early memories consists of Vaderite troops being abusive to her family and confiscating their cattle. This fostered a strong hatred for the oppressors. Against her mother's wishes, she was conscripted by Republican Guard partisans as a child soldier. Drakka experienced manifold Dominion and Vaderite atrocities and the suffering they inflicted on the common folk. Against all odds, she survived the killing fields. Most of the members of her platoon did not. What she went through and did left her scarred.
The Zabrak is very much a grim, dour soldier. Drakka has no illusions about the subjects of the Dominion and the Vaderites suddenly rising up in revolt. In her view, the Guard must shed these illusions and definitely crush their enemies' economic, mental and military ability to wage war. She gained notoriety for scorched earth tactics, with a focus on destroying enemy infrastructure and depriving them of sustenance. If Drakka had had her way, the Guard would not be holed up in the city. She would have preferred to just wreck and loot Vortanstand's industry and leave the Dominion to clean up the mess. She negotiated high command down to just holding half the city after trying to take it all did not work. She wanted to cause some serious destruction in the half they now control but was told no.
She has no truck for idealism and squabbling, but a clear view of what she believes needs to be done and damn anyone who gets in her way. For this reason, she strongly resents meddling from above trying to push urnealistic goals. She can get very acerbic when someone in high command or the Guard's political wing meddles. She is sceptical of Firemane's commitment to helping the Guard win the war and is not enamoured with the 'space people'.
Niiriit Sh'roth (NPC): Niiriit is a Yuuzhan Vong female and - most anomalous for members of her species on Tephrike - a follower of the Integrationists, or Progressivists as they prefer to call themselves. She is descended from one of the Vong tribes that was persecuted by by the Vaderites and the Dominion. The former wanted to wipe them out, while the latter regarded them as demons who needed to be 'freed from their curse'.
This drove local Yuuzhan Vong survivors to join the Guard. Serving the rebel movement in varying capacities was a tradition in her family. Niiriit used to be involved in quarantining Force-Users. She was a senior official responsible for enforcing the Guard's Force-User regulations. Where possible, the rebels used persuasion and education. But if that did not suffice, they resorted to coercion and force. However, forcefully separating young children from their families and locking them away on the basis of their genetic makeup took a psychological toll on her.
Niiriit still rejects Force use and does not believe Force-Sensitives should be allowed to practice their sorcery willy-nilly. She feels deep revulsion for Jedi and Sith. However, she believes that the Guard's measures have become self-defeating and they have lost sight of their original goal, which was to protect both the common people and the Force-Sensitives instead of repression and abuse. When a group of Force-Users deemed 'too dangerous to be contained' was shot en masse without trial, Niiriit tried to get the officer responsible for the massacre punished. However, he was given a slap on the wrist for political reasons.
However, the Integrationists are a small, barely tolerated group and their theories are seen as dubious. She has been shunted off to do humanitarian work with refugees in Vortanstad. There she has been given a highish position in the Tephriki Rehabilitation Organisation. The battle between the Guard and the Dominion has devastated vast swathes of the city, leaving many civilians homeless. Thus there is plenty of work to keep her busy.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Vortanstad has long been an industrial centre of Tephrike. Established during the Golden Age, it was named after Prime Minister Asyra Vortanes, a Bothan and one of the few Tephriki politicians who is almost universally liked, save by the Sith and human supremacists. When the Gulag Virus broke out, dark times fell upon the city, like virtually everywhere on Tephrike. Following the Jedi putsch, Vortanstad's city government tried to stay out of the conflict and preserve its freedom, but it was overthrown and the city was occupied.
At first the Dominion was relatively lenient, but it soon grew more dictatorial. Moreover, the Vaderites, a human supremacist movement that worshipped Darth Vader, instigated an insurrection. Militias and terrorist groups sympathetic to the Vaderites carried out brutal anti-alien pogroms. Ultimately, the uprising was suppressed. It contributed to the Dominion establishing a totalitarian system of government. Vortanstad was renamed into the City of Harmonious Industry and turned into a model city. Every citizen had a place...provided they stayed in it. Increasingly, much of the city's population was composed of clones, who were specifically grown for a specific role. While many clones remained at the bottom of the caste system, a select few were able to create clone 'dynasties' that dominated the city's highly industrialised economy.
Vortanstad was always a tempting prize for the Republican Guard. Leaving aside the fact that its capture would have great symbolic value, it would allow the rebels to overcome their weak manufacturing basis. However, the grave disparity in power made it impossible for the Guard to muster the forces to take the city, though the rebels established underground cells. Things changed when the Dominion went to war with Firemane and the Republican Guard found an unexpected ally in the stars.
Firemane dispatched a delegation to its capital to initiate negotiations. However, an extremist faction in the Dominion's regime regarded this as heresy. It was led by the Grand Inquisitor and the Grandmaster. Firemane's delegation came under attack. Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori, one of its members and the adoptive daughter of Firemane's ruling couple, was captured by the Jedi Inquisition. She would be tortured in a Dominion black site.
In response, Firemane declared war. It proceeded to enter an alliance of convenience with the Republican Guard. A short, but intense campaign followed. After heavy fighting, the allied forces were able to seize Fortress Purity. Meanwhile, Elpsis was able to overcome her brainwashing, kill the Grand Inquisitor and defeat her captors with the aid of rebellious prisoners and a Firemane rescue force. The Dominion had been humbled, but was not beaten. Instead the Mad Grandmaster was assassinated by the Council and a junta of hardliners and pragmatists took power. Their leader was Battlemaster Mahtara, who had been declared a traitor by the Grandmaster.
Unwilling to get bogged down in a conflict far from home and with allies it distrusted, Firemane decided to be satisfied with measured gains. The Jedi Lord of Vortanstad was an ally of the Grand Inquisitor, who had been branded a traitor by the new government. He denounced the new regime as illegitimate, but was unable to get support. Many Republican Guard leaders feared overstretch. But morale was high after storming one of the Dominion's most vital fortresses. The Guard was wary of getting bogged down in a siege, but its leaders did not want to let an opportunity to weaken the Dominion's industrial strength pass. The fog of war made it difficult to discern how long the the split in the Dominion would last.
When the Guard's partisans assaulted the city, their underground cells sprung into action. Jedi Lord Jarix made a desperate bid to defect to the Guard before the Dominion could get its hands on him The Republican Guard took his staff into custody and paraded Jarix' story as a sign of corruption and infighting in the Dominion. Then they put him away under protection 'for his own safety' against retribution. He was later found dead, 'murdered by a Jedi assassin'.
But the fighting was fierce. The Dominion was throwing considerable military forces at the frontlines. Even criminals, deserters and political prisoners were released from concentration camps and put into penal battalions. Many died, but the Republican Guard assault faltered. Indeed, the Dominion managed to regain lost terrain. After centuries of bloodletting, neither side was inclined to offer quarter to the enemy.
After heavy fighting that left much of the city devastated, the battle ground into a stalemate, as rebel engineers blew up the bridge connecting the western and eastern halves of the city. This left the east under Republican Guard control. The rebels lacked the manpower and resources for a prolonged siege, so instead they would aim to tie up a large force of Dominion troops. At the same time they would try to make their zone productice again so that it could fuel their war machine.
At the very least, they would be denying these resources to the Dominion. It went without saying that this calculus accepted that the civilian population would suffer considerable hardship. The rebels promptly renamed their zone Vortanstad. Meanwhile, the Dominion secured its zone. The rebels imposed a revolutionary, populist and militarist regime in their sector, aiming to win over and mobilise the population for the final struggle. The new regime was called the Provisional Revolutionary Committee. Set up by the army high command, it was called the supreme organ of state power. It was created to guard against counter-revolution and insurrection and govern rebel territory.
Fittingly, the Committee chose the city's former Jedi temple as its headquarters. The Jedi statues were publicly demolished and the Jedi texts burnt. Dominion propaganda was replaced with statues and posters exalting the common toiler and soldier and the brotherhood of races. However, symbolism was the least of the Committee's concerns. One of its most urgent tasks was providing food to the civilian population and the soldiers, as the stocks of grain were insufficient.
Indeed, Dominion saboteurs had been able to destroy and contaminate some. Firemane sent aid, but it was a drop of water on a hot stone, so the Committee imposed emergency rationing and dispatched requisition squadrons to neighbouring provinces. Draconian rules were introduced to combat black market trading. Another serious concern was getting utilities up and running again, as well as restoring productivity in the factories.
Many prisoners who had languished in Dominion cells were released and censorship was loosened, though the rebels soon tightened it again. The old police force was disbanded and replaced by a militia. However, there was a lot of continuity in the lower ranks. However, the new government's hold was far from secure. Criminal elements tried to take advantage of the chaos. For instance, armed gangs sought to infiltrate the militias so that they could 'legally' harass and extort people.
The Dominion had organised stay-behind-cells and militias that carried out acts of sabotage and a series of assassination attempts. Fear of saboteurs and closeted Force-Users produced a climate of suspicion, which could range on paranoia. Witch hunts were organised to track down and eliminate or capture Jedi suspected of having managed to go underground in the eastern half of Vortanstad. This also targeted apprentices who had been lost in the city and tried to hide. In some cases, they received help from the local population, whereas in others they were denounced.
It became common for rebel cadres to carry pistols, while the more senior members received bodyguards. Volunteer militias composed of Popular Front cadres and irregulars were mobilised to clear away rubble, rescue survivors of aerial bombings and even saw combat against Dominion incursions. Following Ashlanite terrorist attacks, the Committee introduced new security regulations and the Commission for the Preservation of the Revolution organised several raids to track down and arrest suspected enemies of the people.
In addition, the Committee organised trials for Dominion war criminals. Many alleged collaborators were, however, summarily executed by partisans and militias. Gradually, the city settled down in an uneasy equilibrium. Despite continuous Dominion bombardment, 'Free Vortanstad' held its first elections. Of course, one half plus one members of the Committee remained appointees of the central leadership, but the other was voted in by the people.
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