Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on a location referenced in rp. Another place full of terrible people for Elpsis and gang to visit.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: The Valkyrie's Diary, Kyriaki, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Glorious Conflict, Darth Eisen, Firemane, Amidala Corps, Orbask, Akrut, Adlerberg, Hope Falls, Caution and Control, What Goes Bump in the Day, At Home In The Cobwebs & The Lies, Sibylla Laskaris, Crimson Orb Trees, The Key Which Unlocks the Void.
SETTING INFORMATION
City Name: Sentinel's Rest.
Classification: Rural Town. Military Settler Colony.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: Humanist People's Party, Disciples of the Vader, Darth Lachesis, Tephrike, KEC, Greater Sith Imperium, KEC Stormtrooper Corps.
Population: Sparse
Demographics: The Governorate-General of Chios introduced a Human Chios Policy to systematically marginalise, eliminate and exclude people of non-human origin, with the aim of creating a human ethnostate on the ethnically cleansed island. Sentinel's Rest is dominated by humans. It was founded by the paramilitary organisation of a human supremacist movement to provide their veterans with a home, after all. Former soldiers, especially the sons of farmers, are encouraged to settle here and offered a fully equipped farm, on the condition that they marry a human woman of peasant stock. Speciesism and xenophobia are omnipresent. The only aliens allowed in the settlement would be 'indentured assets'. Darth Lachesis, ironically, does not even like having those around because she believes that reliance on alien slave labour makes mankind weak and effete and creates a security risk. The aliens that used to inhabit the town and the surrounding area were murdered, but it is considered bad form to mention that in polite company.
Wealth: Medium. Sentinel's Rest is mostly inhabited by the Vaderites' chosen, humanist, yeoman farmers. So they have the resources, serfs and expertise to make their farms work in a way 'alien reservations' such as Hope Falls cannot. Many inhabitants belong to the rural elite. They own the freehold in perpetuity and are responsible for maintaining it. There is obviously a lot of greasing of palms involved. The KEC intends for the town to be a model settlement and provides funding to assure this. The confiscated possessions of 'dissidents' and 'xenos' are often distributed among the families of the yeomen.
Their fortune is built on plunder, and genocide. However, not all farmers are equally wealthy. Political connections, rank and disparities in business acumen mean that some are more well-off than others, and some farmers have used aggressive or plain illegal means to expand the size of their landholdings. The land is inherited, instead of being transferred to some sort of collective redistribution upon the death of the freeholder. Land can be inherited, but not bought or used as collateral for a loan. This means wealth is stuck in a zero-sum environment, and creates a barrier against investment and commerce.
And, of course, their serfs get to work long hours and have to endure abusive, cruel treatment. A few years ago, the settlement was hit by an earthquake. This killed several landowners as well as their servants. The timing was particularly unfortunate since it occured during the Netherworld Event. Entire households were destroyed, but others were left unaffected. The physical damage has been repaired, but it has led to a further concentration of wealth. It's very well to want to have a strata of warrior farmers, but farming is hard work. Alien workers are not desired, so the settlers get around this by having some human criminals and 'deviants' to help plough and harvest. These convicts serve forced labour at the farms to 'pay off their debt to society'. They're forced to wear triangular, colour-coded badges to make them easily identifiable by 'proper Imperial citizens'.
Stability: High. Sentinel's Rest benefits from a high degree of conformity and social stability. For one, it is a settlement that has been built to provide KEC veterans and their families with a living. The KEC is not just any military organisation, but the praetorian guard of the Disciples of the Vader, a human supremacist Sith cult, and the Humanist People's Party, its political arm. They owe their livelihood to the totalitarian regime and are loyal to it. KEC officers and their families constitute the social elite of Sentinel's Rest and have commandeered many of the top jobs. Here, the butchers are 'honourable gentlemen' and respected fathers and husbands.
They have a strong of elitism, regarding themselves as a racial vanguard and akin to a knightly order. This, of course, does not actually make them an elite in the sense of being superior. They are, to put it plainly, thugs whose uniform gives them power. KEC members fall under the jurisdiction of the KEC and Police Courts, whose judgement takes precedence over that of civilian courts. Not all of the veterans who live here pursued a career in the KEC's Stormtrooper Corps. One can also find former policemen and ex-members of the Imperial Army, the regular military, for they are no less murderous.
The KEC has given veterans farms and estates - on top of the bodies of countless non-humans. Former camp commandants are lauded as respectable pillars of the community. Not everyone who lives here was involved in the horrible genocide. Decades have passed, and a new generation is being born that had no involvement in it. However, deep down, they know what really happened, even if the state-run media conceals it behind euphemisms such as 'resettlement' and 'pacification operations'. And they know they will face the vengeance of the oppressed should the Vaderites fall. This makes them loyal. The militia conducts regular drills that are mandatory for adult civilians.
All this also means that dissidents suddenly revealing the horrible atrocities perpeptrated by the Vaderites and their henchmen will not suddenly cause regime collapse. It will not make the people abruptly realise that they have been cheering for an evil regime. Naturally if the regime falls, they will deny any knowledge of its crimes, deny they ever happened or both. The government exercises tight controls over the media and does not allow for expressions of political dissent. However, while there is a secret police, it exercises a light touch, for this a town of people who have proved their loyalty.
The cult of personality that has been built around Darth Lachesis is also a stabilising factor. To the people of Sentinel's Rest, this genocidal tyrant is 'Auntie Lachesis'; a martial protector who does right by her people, regardless of class. Indeed, it can be said that her popularity eclipses that of the Supreme Leader, though he obviously also receives his due. Lachesis has a habit of sending presents to the children of the town on Imperium Day. Kids and their mothers may end up profusely thanking 'Auntie Lachesis' for clothes that just a few days ago were worn by prisoners, before they were forced to dig their own graves and shot. Some of the socks they wear were made by cutting victims' hair off and turning it into felt.
On first sight, Sentinel's Rest is a clean town of law abiding citizens. It just so happens that the laws they follow are those of a brutal, human supremacist regime. They view themselves as diligent, industrious warrior-farmers who do honest work. Here, it is said, any veteran can put down roots, found a family and live an honest life - provided he is loyal and a pure human. The streets are clean, crime is low and the garbage is collected in time. But if one digs deeper, one may find the place is cursed. Nobody goes out after dark or into the 'Bone Forest'. Social services provide for the - 'racially valuable' needy, especially wounded veterans. If these social programmes have been funded by plunder and genocide, so be it. If people considered impure do not benefit from them, so be it. The average citizen does not question this. All these benefits only apply to humans. Aliens are literally depicted as sub-sentient savages and are not welcome. The idea that say a Twi'lek, Bothan or Mon Calamari or any other non-human is equal to a human is regarded as a 'anti-human, xenos Jedi' propaganda.
Paradoxically, even though the Vaderites have 'purified' the island, Sentinel's Rest and settlements like it are simultaneously riddled with racially-based paranoia about how free 'xenos' will ravage 'peaceful human land'. The government actively fans fears of what will happen when the victims turn the table and get revenge. This is the glue that holds a society as nasty as this one together. Even citizens who are privately uneasy about the fact that they have built their homes on the blood and bones of others and admit that there were 'excesses' are fearful of gambling on it - or too cowardly. The bunker mentality of their fellow Humanists constantly presses on them, demanding support.
Sentinel's Rest is essentially governed as a KEC fief by Lachesis. In theory, the Imperial Food Estate, a government body, is responsible for regulating agricultural production and the transfer of farmland. In practice, Lachesis has been able to coopt this body using her position as Imperial Commissioner for the Strengthening of Humanism. In effect, KEC is responsible for every aspect of public life, from security to agriculture to administration to healthcare to education. It has even put its stamp on something as personal as marriage. If a couple wishes to marry, the prospective husband and wife must provide a certificate that proves their racial fitness and ability to have children.
The town's Burgomaster is appointed by the governor-general, which means that he is de facto a Lachesis appointee. The charter dictates that the town head must be be Party member and a former officer who was decorated with at least the Medal of Valour. In turn, the Burgomaster appoints Councillors to advise him and oversee certain portfolios. He holds the power to hire and fire them. There are no term limits. Unless he 'brings the office into disrepute', the Burgomaster remains in power until he retires, dies or transfers to a new job. The Vaderites claim that this guarantees responsible, courageous leadership unencumbered by the 'whims of a fickle electorate'. Democratic elections are, in their view, a farcical circus used by 'corrupt career politicians, the fake news media and xenos bankers' to deceive and rob people. Certain extraordinary individuals are born to lead and demonstrate their strength and fortitude in the trenches. Naturally this means that there is no accountability nor transparency. Or a rule of law.
Freedom & Oppression: Sentinel's Rest is governed by a totalitarian, human supremacist dictatorship. The government exercises strict control over the media. Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech etc. are nonexistent. There is only one legal party, the Humanist People's Party. Moreover, the settlement is dominated by the KEC, the praetorian guard of the Vaderite state. However, the population is very loyal to the regime. This is no surprise since the average citizen is a KEC or army veteran who has settled after completing his service and being given a farm to provide for himself and his family. This does not make every citizen a zealot, but they are invested in the regime. Every household is required to own a gun.
The racial laws of the Vaderites hold sway. 'Miscegenation' is prohibited and treated as a serious crime because the Vaderites are human supremacists obsessed with blood purity. Interspecies marriage and intercourse is banned. The same applies to same-sex relationships because those do not produce children for the 'fatherland' and are viewed as 'unnatural'. The regime embraces barbaric eugenics policies, persecuting those it deems 'unfit'. Individuals who express dissent tend to disappear. Sometimes they return, haunted and traumatised. Sometimes they disappear vanish forever. Families are required to keep track of their bloodlines via a genealogical chart of their ancestors, and to provide a copy of their clan history. The Vaderites have criminalised abortion. They treat it as a capital crime. People with physical and mental disabilities are framed as a danger to society and suffer from persecution. Their fate can range from sterilisation to murder. True to their eugenicist views, the Vaderites believe that society's ills such as crime, mental illness, alcoholism and ultimately even poverty are hereditary. It's the idea of selective breeding applied to human beings. In other words, it is not just barbaric, but stupid...but it has horrible consequences for innocent people. Queer people, beggars, vagrants and the so-called 'work-shy' are stigmatised as 'anti-social elements' and can be punished by confinement to a concentration camp. Quite a few of them end up as convict labourers or worse.
Civil marriage is forbidden. Religious authorities control marriage, divorce, and where children live after divorce. This is the law throughout the Imperium. Vaderite divorce laws are incredibly discriminatory. A husband can unilaterally divorce his wife without cause, but a woman can only petition a court to dissolve their marriage on limited grounds. Furthermore, she must 'establish the harm' that makes the continuation of marriage 'impossible' within those grounds. The law doesn't define what exactly constitutes 'harm' or what evidence is required, so it is up to the whims of the judge. In addition to being steeped in patriarchal sexist values, the Vaderite judiciary is incredibly corrupt. This is also the law on Chios, but things are, by Vaderite standards, more 'liberal' because women can and often do petition Lord Lachesis to give them permission to override an arbitrary court decision that traps them in an unhappy or abusive marriage. 'Auntie Lachesis' has been known to intervene - sometimes very forcefully.
Due to Tephrike's long isolation, inhabitants do not have HoloNet access. The Vaderites have a secret police, but it barely has a presence in the town. Indeed, the euphemistically named State Protection Police does not even have an office. Black-clad thugs rarely knock on someone's door in the middle of the night. The logic is that the inhabitants are veterans and their families. In other words, people who have already proved their ideological and racial purity. To a large degree, the community is self-policing when it comes to crushing or reporting dissent and 'asocial' behaviour. What keeps the machine running is not police terror, but the willingness of ordinary citizens to inform the authorities of alleged ideological deviation. Likewise, the press tends to be self-censoring.
'Antisocial' behaviour is often not punished by the authorities, but by the community itself. Sentinel's Rest is the kind of small town where 'everyone knows everyone'. Everyone is 'supportive'...as long as one does not run afoul of the written and unwritten laws about what constitutes 'acceptable behaviour'. Provided you're accepted as a member of the community, you never feel like a total stranger. Social events feel a lot more intimate. But when you fall from grace, you fall hard. And there is no tolerance for not conforming.
Ostracism is a powerful tool to punish citizens who have fallen short of the standards set by the Vaderites' barbaric ideology, even if they have not broken any laws. An example is the story of two men called Dilios and Pantites. Both had been absent from a battle that resulted in a KEC company being wiped out. However, they did so under orders. Pantites had been dispatched as a courier due to a communications breakdown, while Dilios had been sent away due to an infection. But when they came home, they were publicly shamed for not having died a 'hero's death'. Pantites hanged himself, while Dilios found 'redemption' by leading a suicidal charge at a subsequent battle that ended with his death. Falling out of the system means social death.
The Vaderites are obsessed with the asinine concept of blood purity and do not understand genetics, so they believe that a 'weak' man passes on his 'weakness' to his children. Pantites' wife and his family were shamed and she had to formally renounce her dead husband. When his oldest enlisted, he was given dead-end assignments because an official back home had given him a low rating for ideological reliability on account of his father's 'cowardice'.
Political indoctrination already begins at school. Children read textbooks that glorify the Disciples of the Vader, the KEC, Lachesis and the Supreme Leaders. 'Glorious Conflict', the holy book of the Vaderites, is required reading at school. It postulates that the Gulag Virus was created by an alien Jedi conspiracy to destroy mankind. They also learn that before the coming of intrepid human pioneers, 'xenos' greed had despoiled the fertile land of Chios. If it had not been for human intervention, it would have been turned into an arid wasteland. It was the noble human warrior farmer who brought culture to Chios and established a sustainable equilibrium between civilisation and nature.
Children start every day at school with reciting the pledge of fealty to the Supreme Leader and raising the flag. They join the Imperial Youth Corps, which is the only legal youth organisation in the Vaderite state. The Youth Corps indoctrinates them, provides leisure and sports activities and makes them undergo paramilitary training. The local chapter is closely linked to the KEC's Stormtrooper Corps. This applies in particular to the units commanded by Lachesis. The KEC considers the youngsters a military reserve and encourages them to sign up. The Imperium can always use more cannon fodder. Gun ownership laws are surprisingly lax in the Imperium. Chios used to be a frontier province, and still regards itself as that even after the end of the 'cleansing operation'. The acquisition of many firearms has been largely deregulated for citizens. Many categories of people, including holders of annual hunting permits, government workers and members of the Humanist Party, are not subject to gun ownership restrictions. Of course, only humans can be citizens. A man who doesn't have a gun in his household is regarded as 'emasculated'.
Like elsewhere in the Imperium, the people of Sentinel's Rest are subjected to conscription. The law treats conscientious objection as illegitimate. Furthermore, it is the law that all Force-Sensitive children must be inducted into the Disciples of the Vader to be trained as Sith. Trying to conceal one's Force-Sensitivity is a serious crime. Sentinel's Rest does not have a Sith academy, but the Disciples carry out standardised Midichlorian tests. It is considered an honour to have a Disciple in the family. A family whose child has been chosen to be trained as an acolyte gains prestige.
If the acolyte's training is successful, their parents receive an award. The benefits can include tax breaks, precedence and priority service in society and for public services. The government may assign a maid to help them out or give them more land. If their homestead is damaged by say a wildfire or a storm, the administration will make repairing it a priority. These benefits increase if the family spawns another Force-Sensitive child that becomes a Disciple. However, the other side of the coin is that the family is liable to be punished if the child rebels and say runs away from the Academy since that was obviously the result of bad genes. Thus the family is incentivised to make sure their child joins a murderous, evil cult that makes its members do horrible things. This is more efficient than having a Sith show up at their doorstep and steal the child.
If there is one area where Sentinel's Rest is more 'liberal' than the typical Vaderite settlement than it is in its treatment of women - provided they are human and loyal Humanists, of course. The Vaderites have not banned women from the workforce or the military since that would be extremely impractical. But they promote the concept of the 'working wife' as a feminine ideal and women are pressured to get married and be subservient to their husbands.
Lachesis holds such views in disdain. With her support, Sentinel's Rest has a higher than average proportion of female landholders and a number of women hold prominent roles in the local administration. A day care centre has been set up and Lachesis has provided support for loyal women trying to put down roots and run their own business instead of being forced into a domestic role.
Officially, the possession and sale of Key, a highly addictive narcotic, is illegal. The government is not shy about making 'examples'. Drug addicts are rounded up, physically beaten and sent to prison, where they are forced to go cold turkey among murderers and other career criminals. Drug traffickers may be executed. However, this doesn't stop several of the wealthier farmers from cultivating Crimson Orb orchards. They say it is for the green fruit, but most just want to harvest it to transmute it into Key. Harvesting these groves is a menial, difficult and often dangerous task. For this reason, as well as secrecy, prisoners, or indentured workers are used.
Description:
"For the organisation which had to execute this task, it was the most difficult and terrible which we had ever had. In this circle, I may say it frankly with a few sentences. It is good that we had the severity to exterminate the xenos in our domain. I believe, gentlemen, that you know me well enough to know that I am not a bloodthirsty person; I am not a woman who takes pleasure or joy when something rough must be done. However on the other hand, I have such good nerves and such a developed sense of duty – I can say that much for myself – that when I recognise something as necessary I can implement it without compromise. For the protection of future generations, the matter of the xenos of Chios has been resolved. I did not consider myself entitled to allow future generations of xenos to become the murderers of our children and grandchildren. That would have been cowardly. Consequently, the matter was resolved without compromise."
- Darth Lachesis to 'honourable' army generals at a conference. The audience responded with applause.
"The xenos and their lying, liberal lackeys hate us because we're a civilised people. We believe in traditional Tephriki values; we believe in family; we believe in law and order; we believe in property rights. The Jedi say we stole the xenos' land. Folks, when we came here, there was no government. Just uncultivated wilderness and packs of savages. They ate humans - and each other, by the way. Sick and twisted. If you haven't visited it, check out our museum. They had neither laws nor a proper language. If there are no local laws then there are no rights of property to respect. We found a wild jungle and turned it into a place where decent folk can make an honest living.
Honestly, folks, the one thing we did wrong was that was being too kind. We humans are a compassionate people. We don't like to be rough and heartless unless absolutely necessary. We have always had a decent attitude towards the beasts of the world. When we saw the squalour these creatures lived in, we felt sorry for them. It moved our hearts. We thought it was our duty to uplift them. But when we extended our hand in friendship, they showed themselves to be rabid dogs.
But we brought peace. And we brought infrastructure. We built Chios' first and only roads. Now an unescorted maiden can travel from one end of Chios to another. We did something the xenos-loving, human-hating liberals never managed: give those men and women who'd sacrificed everything for the fatherland a home and a livelihood. Do you think the xenos Jedi Dominion looks after human veterans? No, sir. First they use them as cannon fodder, then when they're too injured to fight they let their Twi'leks eat them.
Sentinel's Rest is a clean town, where children can play in the streets. Here, the farmer is honoured, not treated as a cog in a machine. None of this collective farm nonsense. You get a farm; it's your land."
- A local politician
“All galactic culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the human. Only he can be considered a founder of culture. The xenos cannot innovate, only crudely imitiate what the creative genius of mankind has created. If the human ever surrenders his purity of blood, he will lose his cultural capacity, until he mentally and physically resembles the beast-man more than his ancestors. Blood mixture is the root cause for the extinction of ancient cultures."
- Darth Malitia
On first sight, Sentinel's Rest is a model rural town. The roads are paved, the air is clean and the neighbourhoods are safe. There is a school, a playground, shops, farms and so on. There are many green areas to make sure the locals do not lose their connection to the soil. Compared to the typical town on a Core or even a well-developed Rim world, traffic is low. Groundcars are more common than speeders. Rugged wheeled vehicles are cheaper and more easily accessible on Tephrike. However, one can also find more archaic forms of transportation, such as bicycles and Orbak mounts. A traveller may see mural depicting a brawny, 'pure' human male with his wife and children, bearing Humanist slogans. Or of 'heroic' Stormtroopers. The inhabitants may not be the richest, but they are content, industrious and friendly. If the visitor is a human and a devout Humanist, that is. Liberals, socialists, aliens and so on are not welcome. For devout Humanists, the town represents an utopia of blood and soil, populated by warrior farmers who perform the noble task of cultivating the land and protecting it against 'barbarians'.
While there is some small-scale, light industry, most of the town is agrarian. This is by design, as Sentinel's Rest is supposed to remain predominantly rural. Peasants, so Humanist ideologues posit, have a closer connection to the soil and nature thus to true Tephriki spirit. The settlers who dwell here are supposed to be of pure human stock, embrace the Humanist Party and be willing to be both soldiers and farmers. While the Vaderites are not Luddites, many of their ideologues are hostile to urbanisation, believing that big cities are the downfall of the human species because they lead to racial mixing and produce weak, 'effeminate' specimen. By contrast, a healthy peasant stock is the salt of the earth due to being endowed with a strong 'racial consciousness'.
The settlers are mostly drawn from the ranks of combat veterans of the KEC Stormtrooper Corps as well as members of the Universal KEC. The land the settlement has been built on is dotted with farms. Other points of interest include a Party headquarters, manor house for the KEC commander, hospital, cinema, day-care centre, marching and parade ground, a bell tower, and a community hall. It is common for a house to flag pole with the Imperial flag. Indeed, a family that does not show the flag would be regarded with suspicion. Some settlers display - often invented - clan symbols and family coats of arms. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a well-off family to bribe a genealogist to 'discover' a glorious lineage with an appropriate heraldic symbol for them in order to raise their status in the community.
The teachers at school tend to be former non-commissioned officers, which has fostered a very militaristic climate. Pupils stand at attention when the teacher enters the classroom. A KEC officer is chosen on the basis of merit and political loyalty to serve as the political leader of the community as well as the commander of its defensive militia. After twelve years of military service, a farmer-soldier is supposed to receive the right to a land grant. This is called blood and soil in action. Lachesis comes from a family of landowners, and regards 'pure' humans of peasant stock as the basis of humankind. Thus they have been charged with both forming the land and defending it by force of arms. To this day the settlers commemorate the anniversary of Chios' liberation from the savage xenos hordes' with parades, and festivals.
Sentinel's Rest was not always a model village for Humanist fighters. Once it was called Gorkana and was inhabited by a non-human community. Sentinel's Rest was built on top of the old town's remains. The original inhabitants are gone. They have been deported, enslaved and murdered - men, women and children. There used to be an extermination camp, but it has been dismantled. Some of the land it used to stand on is now an informative museum that details the attempts of the 'wicked xenos' to carry out acts of terrorism against innocent human settlers who only wanted to civilise the island and live in peace. The media and school textbook about their evil plots to murder innocent human children in their sleep, but tip-toe around what was actually done about them. They use euphemisms such as 'resettlement', 'pacification' and 'special treatment'. People know what this means, but they do not talk about it.
Despite her atrocities, Lachesis is very popular among the people, many of whom regard her as one of the Imperium's greatest heroes. Her portrait hangs on the wall of every good human home and posters bearing her image gaze down benevolenty from public buildings. Likewise posters depicting heroic Stormtroopers defeating beastial aliens or Jedi are ubiquitous. Festive occasions such as Veterans' Day, Imperium Day, the Harvest Festival or the birthday of Lachesis or the Supreme Leader are celeberated with great pomp. It is custom for veterans to don their uniforms and participate in parades on these occasions.
The Amidala Corps, an all-female auxiliary unit, has a presence in Sentinel's Rest. Lachesis is dissatisfied with the Vaderites' misogyny and has granted members of the Corps who served in a military or paramilitary capacity the same benefits as veterans. The group was heavily involved in the 'cleansing' of Chios. A notable number of women were direct accomplices and perpetrators, serving as clerks, camp guards, plunderers and organisers of deportations. The concentration camp had a sub-camp that was reserved for female inmates. There women served as camp guards and overseers. Some nurses administered lethal injections. Today, the Amidala Corps plays an important role in education, healthcare and providing other social services. It also provides support for women who are going to give birth out of wedlock or whose partner has refused to step up and support them.
While primarily a rural town, Sentinel's Rest also attracts tourists. The Imperial Labour Front and the KEC have set up a resort and offfer subsidised vacations to 'model workers'. Very few workers ever go on such a cruise, but it makes for good propaganda. Party bigwigs and Sith like to go here on vacation. Indeed, Sentinel's Rest advertises itself as a place where humans live in accordance with the 'traditional way of life' of the Sith of old. Here it is pertinent to note that the Humanists do not acknowledge or really know about Sith Purebloods. Tephrike has been isolated for centuries after all and the idea that the first Sith were aliens would clash with their dogma.
The Imperial Youth Corps organises summer camps and trips for members from other areas under Vaderite control. It is compulsory for members to complete a year of service in rural areas. One of the ways to do that is ti work on a farm. This is supposed to toughen up boys and girls from the city and give them an understanding of the Vaderites' blood and soil beliefs. Sentinel's Rest is a popular destination to complete such service.
The horrible atrocities that took place here have left their mark. Sentinel's Rest used to be a mass killing centre. No one talks about what happened here; no one ever goes into the Bone Forest. Even though it officially does not exist. Lachesis is aware of the curse, but does not consider it a bad thing per se. In her view, it will ensure the locals do not grow soft and forget that existence is defined by constant struggle in which only the 'strong' can prevail.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Homesteads of the Patriots - Surrounding the town are the farmplots and farmhouses. Each settler is supposed to be entitled to land, home and hearth. The settlement's farmhouses tend to be spacious and solidly built. The KEC prefers a somewhat anachronistic housing style. It is a long, narrow building that combines the family home and the barn. The front half has a downstairs parlour and a roomy kitchen, allowing small children to roam freely. Moreover, there are a couple bedrooms upstairs.
The family stable and barn can be found in the back half. There the farmers raise pigs, cattle, chickens etc. It is not uncommon for a family to display their - real or more often invented - coat of arms on their door. It is pertinent to note that while all humans are equal in the sense of belonging to the 'superior species', they are still unequal among each other. As a result, some landholders have more land than others. Several farms have orchards to grow apples. Sentinel's Rest has been nicknamed the 'apple capital' of Chios.
The size of a land grant is determined by factors such as rank, reward, size of the family and political considerations. The idea is that the land grant is supposed to allow the veteran to feed himself for the rest of his life and provide for his family. And, of course, some fields are better than others because of the variability of agriculture. The KEC justifies this with the argument that they are creating a warrior aristocracy of merit. In short, equality is a myth. Sometimes there are quarrels about the size of a farm allotted to a settler. The Vaderites will not admit it, but several estates are dotted by Crimson Orb orchards. Officially the settlers are only cultivating fruit orchards since the green fruit is edible. But in truth most are harvesting Key, a highly addictive drug. Officially, the Vaderites prohibit this.
Trident Manor - A grand, rural estate that dominates the settlement. Visitors pass through an ornamated iron gate onto a road that leads to a circular drive as well as various stables, chicken coops and quarters for the servants. The staircase and the veranda have been decorated. The balcony runs along the whole outside edge of the large house. The estate has a beautiful garden. The flags of the Imperium and the KEC proudly billow in the wind. The manor has a large engraved bronze trident in the forecourt. The 'servants' are expected to polish it every day so it never corrodes or tarnishes. Here the Burgomaster, Sperthias Belev, lives with his family. He is simultaneously the commander of the local KEC chapter. Belev's eldest son died during the Netherworld War while serving as a tank driver.
He lives the life of a 'country gentleman' - riding Orbasks, holding feasts and hunting game. Needless to say he is the biggest landowner. The lord of the manor is a butcher who was an enthusiastic participant in the Vaderite 'pacification operation'. He constantly drove his men to overfulfill their kill quotas in order to please Lachesis. He and other officers stood in competition with each as to their 'scores'. He knew how to herd people, murder them in large numbers and cover it up.
But Belev was also something of an 'innovator'. Concerned about the mental health of his men, he devised new ways to kill large amounts of prisoners that would be less stressful for the killers. In the eyes of his superiors, he displayed the 'hardness' that is expected of the commanders of KEC units. He became Burgomaster during the Netherworld cataclysm. The official history credits him with holding the town together during the crisis. They do not mention that he had a rival - a fellow KEC veteran - murdered,
Kitara Arleos Memorial School - named after an Amidala Corps member who was killed during the 'pacification operation'. To quote a teacher, "The fake news media focuses on the few instances of human mistreatment, but what about the case of the innocent maiden Kitara Arleos who was murdered by xenos scum! I bet the Dominion and xenos loving 'Republican Guard' won't report on that." Said maiden was killed by one of her prisoners who'd suffered prolonged physical and emotional abuse from her.
The authorities see education as a tool to create obedient, patriotic citizens who embrace the Humanist ideology. Teachers are required to join the Humanist Teachers' League, and swear an oath of allegiance to the Supreme Leader. They must educate children to love the Party, the fatherland and Humanism. School textbooks are filled with quotes from Lachesis and other Vaderite leaders. The educational goals stress the importance of eugenics and physical fitness. Because Lachesis is the sponsor, the curriculum is less sexist than is typical for the Vaderites. This means girls aren't just supposed to focus on being wives and homemakers. Each day at school begins with the class reciting the pledge of allegianct to the Supreme Leader and the Humanist state. Portraits of Vader are a standard fixture in classrooms. The children sit at iron-framed desks, which are bolted to the floor in rows facing the front of the classroom. The floor of the classrooms are tiered.
All aspects of education are steeped in ideology, even ostensibly non-ideological subjects such as maths. For example, a maths problem might be presented with speciesist connotations. Thus a pupil might be asked how many children a family must produce in order to assure the quantitative continuation of the human species. Alternately, a maths problem might be presented from the standpoint of eugenics. A student will be told that a mentally unfit person, a cripple or a convicted criminal cost the public a certain amount of Imperial credits per day and asked to determine how many marriage loans for 'genetically worthy' couples could be financed from the funds allocated for the wellbeing of the 'undesirables'.
Discipline is very harsh. Children must stand up when the teacher enters the classroom. Teachers are supposed to cane pupils if they misbehave or play truant. Lessons focus on rote learning. The classes tend to be big, so everything is very regimented. A teacher writes things on the blackboard, and the children have to copy it into books and learn. Glorious Conflict is required reading for all pupils.
There is little group work and very little chance for pupils to discuss their ideas. But pupils are encouraged to report teachers whose lessons stray from Humanist orthodoxy. Children who are slower than the rest during lessons are shamed. Vaderite pedagogy does not acknowledge the idea that children might have legitimate learning difficulties, attributing their problems to laziness, lack of effort or inferior genes. Children have to write with their right hand even if they are left-handed.
Cemetery of the Humanist Martyrs - A place where the living can honour the dead. The entrance to the cemetery is marked by an imposing gate made of alchemised alloy. The alchemised bronze statue of a heroic stormtrooper stands sentinel, holding a flagpole. The cemetary is reserved for veterans and features heavily in Vaderite propaganda. School classes are brought here to teach them about the 'heroic sacrifice' of their forebears and remind them of their 'solemn duty to fight for their Leader, their species and their fatherland'. In short, they are taught not to look back in sorrow or regret, but in triumph at what the 'glorious martyrs' achieved to feel a sense of responsibility to follow in their footsteps. To the Vaderites war is glorious.
Bastion of the Young Corps - a youth camp run by the Imperial Youth Corps of the Noble Vader. It caters to local kids, but also accepts children from outside the settlement. The Corps' officers claim that it enables poor children to have a holiday and gives city kids the opportunity to experience the countryside. Here, children from all strata of society can mingle, learn and play, breaking down class barriers.
On the outside it looks like a summer camp, and one could easily mistake it for a youth adventure holiday. The Corps encourages physical fitness through outdoor activities. The kids learn about nature and enjoy wholesome activities such as hiking, sports, woodcraft and camping. But veteran KEC NCOs also give them basic military training. Moreover, they must attend lectures about racial hygiene. The purpose is to prepare them for war, cultivate obedience and aggression.
Sentinel's Rest Societal Health Centre - a cheery name for a very dystopian place. The 'health centre' serves the purpose of increasing the number of new-born children who meet the Vaderites' absurd standards of genetic purity. Unmarried, pregnant human women deemed 'genetically desirable' are encouraged to give birth to their children at the home. Applicants can be denied on the basis of their alleged 'impurity' or health issues. The home mediates adoption of the infants by 'racially pure' parents. Ostensibly it is a pleasant space where women can live comfortably while they receive prenatal care, deliver the babies and recover from labour. However, the centre also facilitates the abduction and brainwashing of 'racially worthy' orphans whose parents have been murdered by the Vaderites. Moreover, children who manifest 'aberrant traits' disappear - it's an open secret no one talks about.
Chios Amphitheatre of Physical Mastery - An open air complex where young men and women are trained in a variety of sports and gymnastics. The Vaderites consider sport the perfect means to make the individual strong and tough and teach them to bear hardship. In the words of the first Supreme Leader, the youth must be swift as a kath hound, as tough as leather, and as hard as durasteel. Competitive games are encouraged. Physically weak or infirm individuals are shamed for 'weakening the species'. The Vaderites are a culture of bullies.
Sanctuary of the Sisters of Padmé the Valorous - a facility for the local unit of the Amidala Corps, an auxiliary and support organisation. It provides many social services. Lachesis thinks their Amidala cult is silly since it tells women to be subservient to men, but still supports the Corps. Or rather cherry-picks women who want to hold positions of responsibility instead of being relegated to only being mothers and homemakers. A clinic has been attached to it, and is staffed by Corps members trained as medical practitioners.
Monument and Instructive of the Perfidious Xenos - This used to be part of the concentration camp. Today, it is a 'museum' that purports to tell the true story of human colonisation and pacification. It informs the visitor about how the savage Togruta, the demon-worshipping Nautolans and the cannibalistic Gungans committed horrible atrocities against innocent human settlers who only wanted to live in peace and uplift them.
The humans had no choice but to cleanse the island to avert genocide. This is, of course, nonsense. It is also claimed that Togruta are the product of breeding between humans and Twi'leks in ancient times. They are proof of the degeneracy of such offsprings. There is a collection of Togruta, Gungan and other alien skulls that was donated to the museum by a former camp doctor. He liked to use them for his lectures on phrenology until he was abducted by survivors and burnt alive on live camera.
One exhibition postulates that the Gungans and frog people that used to dwell on the island and in its seas venerated a tentacular eldritch abomination. There are rumours of the museum being haunted. But surely that is just a tall tale. The exhibitions do not outright state that the natives were slaughtered to the last man, woman and child...but the implication is obvious. A mural shows triumphant human pioneers building 'civilisation'.
Chapterhouse of the Valiant Knights of the Ebon Claw - A KEC recruitment centre. For added irony, the facility is attached to the museum, which used to be part of a death camp. 'Join up and one day you too can kill innocent civilians' is not written on the gates, but it would be a lot more honest than the actual brochures and propaganda posters. Unsurprisingly, the facility focuses a lot of its resources on acquiring recruits for the stormtroopers for Lachesis' personal troops, but recruitment officers from other branches of the KEC are also present. While the stormtroopers are a volunteer unit, there is a lot of unofficial pressure for the son of a KEC veteran to follow in his father's footsteps.
Takras & Angelos Pesticide Company - a pesticide supplier that caters to the many farmers who live here. Mr Takras is a respected businessman with a degree in chemistry and considerable expertise in exterminating...'vermin'. A pesticide sold by the company has been used for fumigation...and to murder concentration camp inmates. The company also helps fund farm safety programmes.
Faded Dawn Hospice and Remedial Care Centre - originally this was a psychiatric hospital built by the Togruta. The people isolated here were viewed as 'untouchables'. Still an effort was made to help and care for them. After the Vaderites levelled Gorkana, they rounded up the surviving patients and murdered them with carbon monoxide. For a while the KEC used the building as an office, then as a sanatorium for officers who had suffered a mental breakdown because all the killing got to them.
Today, it is supposedly a hospice for the incurably sick...but people know better. Its true purpose is to serve as a killing facility. Here, people deemed mentally or physically unfit are quietly murdered. The building lies outside of town. Patiens from outside Sentinel's Rest are also brought here to be murdered. Usually they are killed with overdoses of medication or sometimes starvation. The murders are carried out by ordinary doctors and nurses. For most of the staff killing the 'feeble-minded' and 'unworthy' has become routine. They justify it to themselves as an act of 'mercy'. The families of the victims are incentivised to hand over family members deemed 'unworthy of life' through a mixture of social pressure, financial perks and coercion. Meanwhile, the 'genetically defective' are stigmatised and reviled by society, which pushes them to 'turn themselves in for the greater good'. People who ventured into the Bone Forest and were driven 'insane' by the experience has also been murdered here. Officially the 'hospice' is run by the Public Service Foundation for Institutional Care.
Chios Paradise Gardens Resort Complex - a holiday resort that caters to military personnel, Party members, 'model workers' and their families. Run by a division of the Imperial Labour Front, the Vaderites' sham trade union. It includes, among other things, a sauna, a golf course, a swimming pool and fitness facility, a bar and 'frontier' style cabins and lodges. The cabins tend to have hot tubs, fireplaces and game rooms. The local media likes to trumpet that here even a common factory worker can enjoy the same holiday and leisure opportunities as a captain of industry.
Of course, only a tiny number of genuine proletarians will ever visit the resort. Moreover, the resort has government spies who report any sign of dissent. The workers' holidays are very regimented and controlled from above. Some farmers have diversified their portfolio by expanding into agritourism. Visitors are discouraged from asking about the Bone Forest. The food is purchased from local farmers.
Recently, the happy times of the resort were disrupted when it was attacked by the spirits of alien children who had been cruelly murdered by the Vaderites during the genocide. Madness spread through the hotel, as the guests were forced to experience the horrors they had inflicted on the children. Unfortunately, the attack was repelled when Sibylla tested her Netherbane Cube, a device that traps spirits. Kyriaki was able to warn the spirits, but one was captured. Still, several guests perished or had to be locked away.
Agnakos Bees and Honey - a startup that sells honey and provides pollination services to local farmers in need. The location is surrounded by blooming trees, ample greenery, farms and crops, which makes it an ideal location. Mr Daniel Agnakos is an expert in honey bee breeding, and a respected pillar of the community, with a wife and four children. Sometimes he contributes articles to the local newspaper where he likens breeding bees to breeding humans with genetically desirable traits. Surely there is nothing fishy about this. Everyone knows he served 'honourably' during the war, and is just fulfilling his dream.
Pantheon of the Humanist Glory - A large building at the heart of Sentinel's Rest. Ostensibly based on the ancient Tephriki practice of an assembly of free (human) citizens. But this is not a democratic assembly that actually debates public affairs or elects a leader. The settlers' families come together to hold torchlight rallies, celebrate solstice, and stage propaganda plays. The building includes a gallery featuring busts and sculptures of 'heroes of mankind'. The hole in the roof is symbolic of the 'light of glory' shining down on them.
Chapel of the Dark Father - a church building dedicated to the Holy Church of the Great Father's Communal Teachings of Purity and Human Glory, which worships Darth Vader. A large, stylised Vader helmet stands as a shape over the altar. Moreover, there is a statue of Vader holding a sword. There are also images of the Virgin Mother Shmi and St. Padmé. There is strong social pressure to become a member of the Church, and attend sermons. Weddings, and naming ceremonies also take place here. Secular marriages are banned. Men and women are segregated during prayer. Bizarrely, the women get the better end of the deal because the 'weaker sex' is allowed to sit down, whereas the menfolk have to stand during sermons.
Priscotis, Condas & Co - a gun manufacturing plant. The fortresslike brick Priscotis building rises up off a road on the outskirts of town. The plant is surrounded by barbed wire fences, video surveillance and no trespassing signs. Semiautomatic rifles, assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns and small arms are manufactured here. In the old days, this used to be a tractor and farm tool factory, which made it easy to change over to firearms. The factory had been built by the natives.
After Gorkana was destroyed and the Vaderites set up their extermination facilities, the factory was initially kept around. The workers were promised a stay of execution for themselves and their families if they worked 'obediently'. Working conditions became more and more abusive. Eventually some of the realised they were doomed as well and tried to flee. Those who failed to escape were murdered as well. The workers pushed their cruel manager into a machine press as a last act of defiance before being killed. No one talks about the genocide though. Priscotis offers employees a nearly fifty percent discount. Moreover, it has donated weapons to the local security forces. Sometimes the plant customises guns and paints Imperial flags on them. Priscotis employees get discounts in several bars and shops.
The Armed Patriot - a gun store. Contrary to what outsiders might expect, the Imperium's gun ownership laws are extremely lax. It is very easy for Imperial citizens in good standing, especially Party members, to purchase lethal firearms. Of course, only humans can be citizens. The Vaderites aren't worried about a citizens' army of patriots rising up in revolt...because those patriots support the Imperium. A male citizen who doesn't own a gun is scorned for being 'emasculated'. Photos of 'heroic' Vaderite soldiers adorn a store packed with boxes of firearms. Located right in the town centre, the shop is hard to miss. It advertises itself as a patriotic business that has helped build a safe community and helps the brave farmers keep those 'damn xenos hordes' out. The clerks are all too eager to show the world of guns to outsiders. An indoor shooting range is attached to the shop.
Freedom Station - the name is darkly deceptive. The Vaderites did not use Camp Purity solely as a mass killing facility for the natives of Gorkana, but for aliens from across Chios. Many came by train...for they were transported fully enclosed, windowless cattle wagons. A scant few managed to escape. Many died in transit due to starvation, dehydration and abuse. Those that survived were murdered, often upon arrival. Today, Freedom Station is a train station like any other. It is the town's most important connection to the outside world. No one questions why the infrastructure is so extensive even though the size of the town does not merit it.
Bone Forest - No one ever goes into the Bone Forest - especially not at night. No one talks about what happened there. Because absolutely nothing important ever happened there. Indeed, it is wrong to even say the name. This used to be a large part of the extermination camp. After dismantling it, the Vaderites planted trees to hide their crimes and because they wanted a forest. The Imperial Youth Corps used to go on holiday trips here, and Vaderite landowners liked to hunt game. This all abruptly stopped.
The forest is a dark side nexus haunted by the ghosts of the people who were murdered to build Sentinel's Rest. Their corpses were incinerated in crematoria, their home is gone, their names have been wiped from history and the humans have built their own town on their ashes. But many of the ghosts still linger. And they are very angry at the humans. The spirits have formed a vengeful gestalt entity that preserves the memories and the hate of the murdered.
Sacred Aegis Against Treacherous Spirits and the Unhallowed Dead - an experimental shielding device constructed by Sibylla Laskaris to keep the spirits of the Bone Forest ouf of town so that the murderers can sleep peacefully. Powered by enchanted crystals, the device can manifest a barrier to keep out demons, spirits and Netherworld beings, though it does nothing against normal people.
Mrs. Espers' General Thrift - a general store, but with livestock, feed, and farm equipment available. Mrs Espers is everyone's favourite grandma. This kindly oldly lady has never hurt a fly. Her business got started in the early days, and was a valued commercial partner of the KEC authorities when the camp was still operational. They appreciated having somewhere to offload those hand made soaps (made from camps bones), thrift old clothing, and sell whatever the camp inmates were making before they are killed. Mrs. Espers was one hundred in on it.
Back then she occasionally went to the camp and took 'acceptable' xenos children to help her around in the store. This was a way for the authorities to force compliance from the children and their parents...since they had a ray of hope that at least the little ones might be able to survive. However, she only liked 'helping' little children, so she took them back once they had grown older. Her last alien workers were murdered after the camp had been dismantled, and the authorities wanted to dispose of witnesses. Today, she occasionally hires the children of 'asocials and deviants' as well as kids who have been sent to 'good behaviour camps'. On the surface she is kind to them, but if they displease her she reports them to the authorities.
SECURITY
Medium.
Sentinel's Rest has a militia of able bodied men which can be called to defend, plus a small garrison. It's also far enough from the front lines to be hard to reach. Each family is required to keep a weapon secured at their home and adult civilians must participate in training and musters to keep skills sharp. The militia makes use of armoured groundcars and speeders with anti-personnel weapons mounted on them. The members of the Imperial Youth Corps receive training in basic tactics and weapons' use and the indoctrination they undergo teaches them to regard a 'heroic death' as glorious. It goes without saying that since the security forces are the enforcers of a totalitarian dictatorship, they do not care about sentient rights conventions or fair treatment of prisoners of war.
Some defences have been put in place case of attack, including turrets and flak cannon emplacements. A bunker has also be excavated for the people to take shelter in if required. Moreover, the settlement will receive support from the KEC's military base on the island if it faces a larger attack. There are strict security controls for anyone leaving or entering the town. The island is an ethnostate and the inhabitants of Sentinel's Rest do not take kindly to non-humans who have not been 'made safe' by being enslaved and equipped with a slave collar. They are also not friendly to humans not from the Vaderite lands. This makes infiltration difficult. The town features a shield to keep Netherworld beings and such out.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Disciples of the Vader and the so-called Imperium they rule over do not like to talk about the old history of Sentinel's Rest - or of Chios in general, for that matter. Once the settlement was called Gorkana, but it is forbidden to say this name. Sometimes school children at the Kitara Arleos Memorial School get to look at maps of what Chios was like before the Vaderites 'pacified' it. Regardless of the time period they depict, all these maps have one thing in common: they only show human settlements. Settlements of non-humans are not shown. Their teachers tell them that there used to be aliens on the island, but they were all illiterate, barbaric tribes of sub-sentients that were incapable of reason and had no culture.
Thus the Vaderites used the old excuse of colonizers and 'settlers' across time and space: "Well, they didn't have a proper government so they didn't own the land." In keeping with this, mixed species settlements did not exist either because the entire history of humans and non-humans must have been one of endless antagonism. In truth, Gorkana used to be a majority Togruta settlement. It is unclear when they settled, but the area had abundant wild life that allowed them to put their hunting skills to good use. Moreover, it was very defencible. The outbreak of the Gulag Virus sent Tephrike spiralling into chaos. The planet's federal government collapsed, and riven factions vied for power. Gorkana's people were left to fend for themselves.
The Togruta clashed with other groups that inhabited the island, such as Gungans, Nautolans and frog people. Ironically, the first human settlers on the island may have been shipwrecked refugees fleeing the devastation caused by Tephrike's descent into chaos. The Togruta provided aid to them. Their descendants probably wished they had not. By the time the Vaderites arrived, the Togruta of Gorkana had carved out their own 'kingdom' that was in conflict with a Nautolan-Gungan alliance that controlled the seas and swamps. They practiced slavery, but slaves could own property and potentially buy their freedom from their owners and become citizens.
With characteristic hypocrisy, the Vaderites justified their war of conquest by proclaiming they had come to put a stop to the slave trade. It was a 'civilisational mission'. This was absurd since the Vaderites enslaved 'lesser beings' and had banned manumission. The Vaderite general who led the campaign was a human supremacist, but pragmatic enough to apply a strategy of divide and rule that relied on cooperative aliens doing the grunt work. After a period of brutal low-intensity warfare, the Togruta were subjugated, though not before inflicting a bloody defeat on an impetuous Vaderite commander. Nautolan resistance continued and Chios' forests and swamplands were filled with dangers.
Thus the Togruta were used as an intermediate class and a force of auxiliaries to keep the other aliens in line. Their local leaders in Gorkana received shinies and baubles and some limited autonomy. Timber companies moved in with their workers to get lumber and Togruta auxiliaries made a livelihood providing security against raiders. However, non-humans had to pay tribute, provide 'indentured labourers' and give up land to human 'settlers', for the Vaderites had earmarked the island for colonisation. The best land was divided up among human landowners. For a while the Togruta went along with it, as successive rulers tried to appease their human overlords in order to avoid losing what remained of their freedom. They participated in round-ups instigated by the Vaderites to deal with food shortages through the acquisition of slave labour. Gorkana received a 'human quarter' that would house human advisors and their families along with a garrison. It was deeply unpopular. Non-humans were forbidden to enter it.
As time went by, the settlers' demand for land and labourers grew more and more rapacious. The Vaderites would never admit it, but they also stole water to facilitate the growth of Crimson Orb trees, and harvest Key. Despite the protests of Togruta leaders, Vaderite merchants sold the drug to natives in order to turn them into addicts. Feeling cornered, bands of rebels attacked settler families and their homesteads. This led to Vaderite 'reprisals'. A group of doctors from the Communicable Disease Centre duped low class inhabitants of Gorkana to participate in a scientific study, promising them money. The purpose of the experiment was to observe the effects of a dangerous disease if it was left untreated. The scientists left their 'volunteers' in the dark about the true nature of the experiment, and most died. When a reformist became king of Gorkana and tried to improve the lives of his subjects by clamping down on corruption and the narcotics trade, modernising its industry and emancipating the slaves, the Vaderites conspired with reactionary Togruta at his court to have him murdered. One of the Vaderite families that had put down roots on Chios was the House of Manatos, a family of landowners from the Junker class. While privileged, they had little prestige among their peers. They had alien 'servants' - a fancy word for slaves - and a run-down estate that was dependent on financial support from their wealthier relatives. But they were faithful to the glorious Sith cause. Isidora Manatos was the family's first Force adept in generations.
Upon leaving the Academy, she was put in charge of running some of the clan's estates on Chios. Her cruel treatment of alien workers caused unrest. The 'queen' of Gorkana unsuccessfully tried to petition the authorities about the illegal murders and the public humiliation of a family member. She also wanted the humans to honour their promises and restrain their farmers from illegally seizing land and building an irrigation canal that would redirect water from Togruta farmland to Crimson Orb groves. When she met the Vaderites under a flag of truce, the alien leader and her retinue were illegaly seized. This was the last straw, triggering a rebellion that crossed species lines as several Gungan and Nautolan groups joined the cause. The chieftain's sister took up arms. The revolt was backed by Republican Guard partisans, who provided the rebels with arms, volunteers and training. Gorkana's Human Quarter was burnt down and its inhabitants were massacred.
The war lasted for over a year. Isidora probably welcomed it. She brought in poor, low class humans and veterans, promising them land. These 'Free Corps' fought with great zeal, and brutality. So crass was their behaviour that it unnerved even the slave-holding landowners. Of course, they did not have a problem with murder, but were worried about losing their labour force. Vaderite death squads were charged with murdering the 'xenos' social and political elite to decapacitate the natives. Gorkana was shelled with artillery fire, and the Vaderites resorted to using gas. To break the rebels' stiff resistance on the island, captured rebels and supposed collaborators were to be killed on sight.
Males fifteen and older who were found outside plantations or designated 'xenos zones' without 'due cause' were to be executed on the spot, while males younger than fifteen and any women caught under such circumstances would be taken to camps. The clearance of civilians was not only supposed to deprive the rebels of a support network, but to permanently uproot demographics on the island. Though brave, the rebels were fighting a losing battle. In desperation, one of the Togruta leaders turned against the alliance in the hope of amnesty for himself and his people, many of whom were sick and starving. But the Vaderites' promises were a cruel ruse.
The town was bombed, its people's token autonomy was rescinded, and the survivors were forced into a reservation. Isidora left the island to pursue a career among the KEC's stormtrooper corps, partly because her methods had aroused the ire of the landowner class. She returned many years later, after helping her cousin Darth Hyperion ascend to the position of Supreme Leader. Now she called herself Darth Lachesis, governor-general of Chios. In the meantime, the situation had deteriorated further. Vaderite latifundia owners and corporations exploited the natives as slave labour, while settlers demanded more land and accused the bigwigs of stealing their spoils. Many settlers were poor squibs and had been promised land and riches, but they lacked the political connections and capital of the elite. And the junkers preferred slave labourers they could use and discard to human workers they needed to pay. Meanwhile, poverty was endemic in the 'reservations'; they were breeding grounds for diseases and rebellion. Members of the Krypteia, a secret police institution of the Imperial Youth Corps, and the Free Corps roamed the countryside.
They lynched alien labourers they caught at night or simply murdered those they considered 'uppity', which was a fancy word for being too brave, independent-minded or strong. A few natives had taken from the island and exhibited in zoos like animals. Many of them died because of abusive treatment. Some of their corpses were mummified and sent to a museum in Adlerberg. Certain of the support of the dogmatic Supreme Leader, Lachesis aligned herself with the settlers. The Vaderites initiated the Extraordinary Pacification Operation. It was a cover for a campaign of xenocide. Chios would be 'cleansed' by outright murdering the natives or working them to death. To bolster their manpower, the Vaderites brought in Gamorrean and Houk auxiliaries. They encouraged them to commit atrocities, then declared said atrocities to be proof that the xenos could only be 'civilised' through the sword.
But the operation was haphzard. Multiple agencies competed with one another. At first the Vaderites planned large-scale deportations off the island so that the natives could be 'put to work'. But the transport capacity did not exist, and local governors in the earmarked territories resented their fiefdoms being turned into 'dumping grounds'. And Lachesis did not want them to be herded in a closed area on her island. The Ministry of the Interior, rich landowners and the economics ministries promoted mass sterilisations as a way to preserve the labour force before it died a 'natural death'. Racial purists decried this method as not being reliable enough. They settled for extermination.
The Vaderites took advantage of the outbreak of a pandemic. A mass detention facility was set up near Gorkana's ruins. It was an industrialised killing centre that soon spawned various sub-camps. The inmates were starved and given backbreaking labour to whittle down their numbers. Famine was the inevitable result. Vaderite forces imposed a blockade of the island to prevent fugitives from escaping. The Amidala Corps helped carry out deportations, provide guards and confiscate the belongings of natives. The Vaderites' regular Imperial army, far from being an apolitical organisation of 'honourable' professionals, helped carry out massacres and organise round-ups. Moreover, they provided crucial logistical support. Some of the experiments conducted in the ironically named Camp Freedom happened at the military's request. Unsanitary conditions, rampant overcrowding and hunger caused contagious diseases to spread among the prisoners, who were herded together in primitive, unhealthy barracks. These barracks were fully exposed to Chios' hot summers. Moreover, they lacked a bathroom. Instead there was only one bucket for the hundreds of residents of each block.
The KEC forced a group of prisoners to perform special tasks that supported the murderous process. They had to deceive the victims into thinking that they were being taken for medical check-ups and would soon be resettled. After the victims had been killed, the 'special task force' searched them for hidden valuables, incinerate their bodies and dispose of their ashes. To hide evidence, the special task groups exhumed the corpses from the mass graves and burnt them. Members of the special task group were given better better rations and housed in separate barracks, but murdered every few months and replaced by new arrivals. They knew too much about what the Vaderites were doing and could not be allowed to alert the other prisoners or escape and testify.
Corruption was just as endemic as disease in the camp. The guards and their overseers embezzled the prisoners' property. This was a crime because according to Vaderite law it belonged to the state. Sometimes corruption worked to the prisoners' advantage, and a few managed to escape. One camp commandant was executed after it came to light that he was in a secret relationship with a prisoner. But the murder factory kept running. Corruption was a feature, not a bug. To make up for manpower shortages, the Vaderites brought in Gamorreans and Akrut. Ironically, many of them had once been prisoners in a different concentration camp before being given a 'choice' to starve to death there or serve their oppressors. At the same time, thousands of natives were taken from the island to work in Vaderite cities as forced labourers until they were no longer capable of work. One special task group member managed to smuggle out images of what was going on in Camp Freedom. Several special task groups spearheaded revolts and breakout attempts in the camp.
The Vaderites began building Sentinel's Rest while Camp Freedom was still operating. This was supposed to be the living space for the 'bravest' and most 'loyal' who had proved their commitment to Humanism. To the Vaderites, it made perfect sense to discuss the plan the construction of playgrounds, schools and homesteads in the same breath as the annihilation of those they deemed 'unworthy of life'. Sentinel's Rest started out as a small settlement for the families of officers and soldiers engaged in the 'ethnic cleansing' of Chios. After dismantling Camp Freedom, the KEC built a museum and a recruitment centre on part of its premises and planted trees over the rest. But families were soon discouraged from visiting said forest after people who ventured into it did not return or came back with strange stories about ghosts.
Having their families close would motivate the knights of Humanism, and help them cope, for mass murder took a psychological toll even on hardened killers. When at long last, Lachesis could report that Chios had been 'cleared', the camp was dismantled. All records were burnt. Of course, one could not conceal an operation of this magnitude. But total secrecy was not the Vaderites' intention. The settlers who were brought in to build homes upon the remains of Gorkana would know that if the 'xenos' returned, they would exact retribution. The Ministry of Propaganda's broadcasts painted a reassuring image. They showed blooming fields, and happy families. No mention was made of rumours of the settlement being cursed.
Sentinel's Rest was the first of many 'pearls of settlement' that would be built during the 'Humanisation' process. Inevitably, the distribution of the spoils caused rivalries. Older girls and boys from the Youth Corps supported the 'reconstruction'. First they had assisted in the eviction of Togruta, Nautolans and so on, then they made organised a local Youth Corps chapter, provided help on the farms and assisted the authorities. The ideologues in the KEC and the Imperial Food Estate conceived Sentinel's Rest as one of several bastions against the moral decay they attributed with cities. Urbanisation, they proclaimed, caused man to grow degenerate. But farmers retained humanity's mystical connection to blood and soil. The adoption of rural values and the transformation of veterans into a class of warrior farmers would ensure the purity of the racial stock. Moreover, rural areas were regarded as an ideal source of soldiers. KEC agricultural specialists doled out parcels of land to the new arrivals and notified each family of the KEC's quotas of milk and produce that they would be required to meet.
While the best land went to the officers, common soldiers received their share of the spoils. Thus the murderers of yesterday became farmers, small businessmen, teachers, veterinarians, aldermen etc. - respected pillars of the community. They married, had children and passed on their evil ideology to the next generation. Like every other Vaderite settlement, Sentinel's Rest had to contribute soldiers to the Supreme Leaders' wars. But the grumbling was muted, even as casualties mounted. Deep down, its people, even those who had settled long after the 'pacification', knew what awaited them if the Vaderites lost. Lachesis remained personally popular even after she gave up her post as governor to reassume a frontline command. She was applauded when she gave a speech to the first class of high school graduates who had been raised in Sentinel's Rest and had no memories of the 'decadent past'. The Vaderite authorities took hardline eugenicist stance against those deemed mentally and physically unfit. As they had purged Chios of the 'xenos hordes', they would purge the 'weak vines of the master race'.
While far from the frontlines, the town was still targeted by rebels and vengeful survivors. A few were sponsored by the Republican Guard or the Dominion. In one memorable incident, a commando of Nautolans and Togruta abducted a notorious camp doctor, tortured him into signing a confession and executed him on live camera. Vengeful rebels targeted human landholders and their families as punishment for all the innocent blood spilt by the Vaderites. Given how they had suffered, it should be no surprise that many attacks were indiscriminate. After all, all settlers had built their fortune on the blood and bones of aliens. Setting fire to farms and lynching individual settlers could not bring down the colony, which was too far away for a major offensive. But it kept the settlers in a state of paranoia. Rumours about hauntings also contributed to this. People who ventured into the Bone Forest often did not return...or came back changed and had to be locked away 'for their own good'.
Their Humanist utopia was disrupted by the Netherworld Event. The mass rapture caused public turmoil. Law and order collapsed. Given the conspiratorial, paranoid world view of the settlers, it should come as no surprise that they carried out a purge. But they had no alien force to unite against, so they purged each other. This was also a convenient way for residents to settle old scores, some of which stretched back to their wartime service. Settlers who had been left behind used the chance to enrich themselves and expand their holdings - at the cost of families that had been broken up by the raptures. The Humanist revolution was eating itself. The calamity coincided with an earthquake, which destroyed entire households. This accelerated the concentration of wealth, exacerbating social tensions.
However, news from the mainland forced the community to get itself in order. Lachesis had sent troops to secure her holdings. The Imperium was in a state of civil war. A group of cultists had discovered what they believed to be 'a sacred text' from the Jedi, which told the true story of Darth Vader. Said text was actually a 'Galactic Civil War for Dummies' sort of book, which told the story of Vader's redemption. Thus one group proclaimed that since Vader had embraced the Light, it was their duty to do so as well as the true disciples of the Chosen One. In doing so, they would finish what he started by restoring the balance of the Force. They promised emancipation to the slaves.
The other group claimed that since Vader had fallen to the light side, Palpatine was the true Dark Lord and it was their duty to destroy the false Sith. Civil war ensued. Hyperion hoped to pit both factions against the other, but the leader of the 'Light Sith', Darth Krieg, was able to rally a number of rebellious slaves to his cause and took control. The new leader called himself Salus. Chios became one of the bastions of the reactionaries. Lachesis made Sentinel's Rest her base of operations, and rallied the veterans to continue the fight against the Light Sith. The rebels fell from power after becoming embroiled in a destructive war with the Dominion of Light. Militia from Sentinel's Rest participated in the brutal assault on the Prosperity Quarter ghetto, where the downtrodden had risen in revolt against their Vaderite oppressors.
In her new position as Imperial Commissioner for the Strengthening of Humanism, Lachesis was able to provide additional funding for the reconstruction of Sentinel's Rest, using plunder from her conquests and the confiscated assets of supposed enemies of the state. The residents never talked about the 'blood purge' that had transpired during the rapture. There were no official acts of remembrance. Instead the town praised itself for having overcome a 'xenos Jedi plot'. Sentinel's Rest remained loyal during the tenure of Darth Furcht, a notorious KEC butcher, as Supreme Leader. Following his demise due to Firemane's bombardment of Castle Maysaf, it followed Lachesis' lead and transferred its allegiance to Darth Eisen, the new strongman.
But the Vaderites' barbaric actions during the 'cleansing' of Chios had had consequences. The dead do not rest easily. Hauntings were a pervasive problem, Human settlers turned catatonic, their faces contorted into expressions of agony; perpepetrators of the genocide committing suicide; settlers suddenly disappearing into the haunted Bone Forest, never to be seen again. Because this doesn't fit the narrative, Vaderites are inclined to downplay the problem or brutally lash out. Often by blaming vile xenos sorcery and rounding up the usual suspects for murder. Within the bone forest, the spirits of the Vaderites' victims had formed a vengeful gestalt entity of sorts.
And the nexus struck back against the murderers. At first it began with hauntings and suicides, then an attack on a KEC hotel by the spirits of murdered children and finally an all-out assault. When Sentinel's Rest was menaced by the spirits of the victims of genocide, as well as demons from the Nether, Sibylla Laskaris constructed a called the Sacred Aegis Against Treacherous Spirits and the Unhallowed Dead that would serve as a spirit shield. It would keep the ghosts out so the murderers and their families could rest easily...but also preserve the Bone Forest for study.
The first field test of the Sacred Aegis coincided with a battle. Hordes of spirits and Nether demons assailed the Vaderite soldiers and Sith. The initial activation of the machine was disrupted, forcing Sibylla to drain herself to jumpstart. Ultimately the archdemon was slain by her 'partner' Kyriaki, thanks to a convenient lightsabre that seemed to appear in a dark cloud, as if summoned by the Dark Father to aid her in the darkest hour.
Almost simultaneously the machine activated, manifesting a barrier that repelled the treacherous spirits. Sibylla had deep suspicions about Kyriaki suddenly being 'blessed'...but her machine had succeeded in its first test. Moreover, Kyriaki helped her approval for further funding from the Supreme Leader. The soldiers present haled Kyriaki a hero, who had been blessed by the Great Father. Little did anyone know that the incident had been stage-managed by her and an enigmatic Shadow.
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