Igni Irae
"It is my choice to be here. I had a weak awareness of the law. I was influenced by terrorism and the dark side. A policeman in my village told me to get enrolled in school and transform my thoughts. I'm happy here. I'm very grateful to my teachers."
- An inmate in an interview with a Ministry of Enlightenment journalist.
"Resolutely refrain from doing bad deeds. Be upright and frank all your life."
- Inmates singing in a classroom.
"Some people have already shown themselves to be capable of killing someone before they commit a murder. Should we wait until they take an innocent life? Or should we prevent the crime from happening altogether, saving both them and their victim? When we identify someone who's on the edge of committing a crime, we take him aside and help him. We return him to society as a compassionate, law-abiding citizen. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. This is the chief aim of every good system of government."
- A Ministey of Harmony spokesman
“My hands bled from their beatings. Each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I could feel the pain in my veins.”
- A former inmate.
"The Jedi have made my people bleed. I will not forget that. I will not forgive that."
-General Aruunzeb
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: Can use Archangel stuff since I own the company.
Links: Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, General Aruunzeb.
SETTING INFORMATION
Military Base Name: Tranquility Vocational Education and Training Centre. Also called Transformation Through Education Centre IX.
Classification: Re-Education/Forced Labour Camp.
Location: Tephrike. It is located about 20km from Nexus City.
Affiliation: Dominion of Light, Battlemaster Mahtara, Tephrike.
Population: Heavy for its size.
Demographics: Tranquility is home to a variety of inmates as well as guards, teachers, administrative staff and interrogators. Obviously the prisoners are the largest category. Most of them are Mon Calamari. While the Dominion has an egalitarian ideology that embraces all species except Yuuzhan Vong, it is highly conformist. It regards the aquatic aliens with suspicion, as the Republican Guard has many followers among them. Humans as well as members of other alien species like Gungans or Mirialans can be found here, too. Ironically, some of the prisoners are from former Vaderite territory. This includes humans who supported the fascist, human supremacist regime or are accused of having done so, but also aliens who were persecuted by it.
Inmates include petty criminals, 'nationalists', 'agitators', 'defeatists', 'hoarders', vagrants and so on. The Dominion is a very conformist society, so simply possessing banned literature or bad identification papers can be grounds for arrest. The treatment of the prisoners is harsh. Surveillance is constant, even within their dormitories or washrooms. The rules are strict and infractions are punished harshly.
However, it is not a death camp. The goal of the facility is not to work the inmates to death through back-breaking labour, though working conditions are poor. There is also no round-the-clock torture or medical experimentation. Instead the goal is to break the inmates' spirits and rebuild them as obedient Dominion servitors. A lot of the torture that goes on inside these walls is mental rather than physical, though the latter also takes place. This distinguishes Tranquility from many camps run by the Vaderites. It is still a horrible place though.
Accessibility: Known on Tephrike, but mostly unknown in the outside world due to the planet's long isolation and general obscurity. Access is heavily restricted to outside personnel. In theory, the camp accepts visitors, but they must receive authorisation, pass through several checks and are never left unmonitored. In effect, any visitor will be presented with a Potemkin village. Inmates who receive visitors are given a script they must rigidly adhere to, lest they face consequences. The facility is walled, protected by armed guards and has a comprehensive surveillance system to deter escape or sabotage.
Description: Ostensibly the Dominion is an enlightened society. Governed by wise Jedi Masters, it arose to save Tephrike from a Dark Age. Its government is committed to good governance, harmony between all species and social classes and economic equality. It seeks to fulfil the principle from each according to his ability to each according to his needs. In the utopian society envisaged by the Dominion, no one will go hungry, be unemployed or suffer from discrimination.
That is the message. To a degree, it lives up to it. Unlike the Disciples of the Vader, it does not exterminate or enslave people on the basis of their racial makeup. It also does not murder children for being mentally or physically disabled and has elements of a welfare state. Citizens are taken care of from cradle to grave...whether they want it or not. It is also a stultifying, extremely conformist Jedi theocracy governed by collectivist principles. Opposition is not tolerated. The media is controlled by the state and there is no privacy.
For those who express dissent, be it in thought, deed or writing, there are re-education centres. This is an euphemism for concentration camps. The Dominion dislikes the term, preferring to call the process thought transformation. Tranquility is one of the more public ones. Indeed, it is regarded as a model camp and thus its existence is not secret, unlike more clandestine facilities maintained by the Inquisition. The facility is run by the Ministry of Harmony, not the Inquisition. However, this is a superficial distinction.
Officially it exists to cure individuals of 'bad thoughts' and provide vocational training, free of charge. Indeed, inmates are referred to as 'pupils', not prisoners. Here, errant minds can turn a new leaf and be cured by the enlightened state. Tranquility carries out psychological and behavioural correction to promote thought transformation of 'pupils' and help them return to society. After all, even the Dark Lord Revan could be redeemed under the guidance of the Jedi. This means that officially it is an educational centre, not a prison. The facility is surrounded by heavy walls. Vehicles approaching it must pass through two heavily guarded, reinforced gates. Watchtowers with machine gun nests have been set up. There are also turrets. Inside the camp, inmates are detained in nine buildings. These are surrounded by energised fences.
Each of these buildings has four floors with several dormitories and a couple classrooms each. Both types of rooms have been outfitted with double Turadium doors. Metal bars have been installed on the windows. Surveillance cameras have been set up throughout the buildings as well as the exit areas. They are able to comprehensively monitor anyone entering or leaving. The slogan 'heartfelt thanks for the cordial care of the High Council' has been written on the outer walls.
As for the interior of these buildings, each room has double heavy durasteel doors. The outermost door also has guard railing and can be magnetically sealed. The dorm rooms have their own washrooms. Naturally they also have surveillance cameras. Inspirational slogans and posters can be seen on the walls. 360-degree surveillance cameras have been set up in every floor of the buildings. This includes even washrooms. Aside from cameras and heavy blast doors, each of these buildings have a heavy gate made of Turadium. The windows have been sealed with tight bars and wire netting. Each day in class starts with reciting the Windian Jedi Order's Code and singing patriotic hymns. The doors of the dormitories are locked to strictly manage and control inmate activities to prevent escape during class, eating periods, toilet breaks, bath time, medical treatment, visits and so on.
Each of the nine buildings has a warden. This is an inmate who acts as a spokesperson for the other inmates and is responsible for their conduct. They have the unenviable task of enforcing the rules set by the administration. Some try to help their fellow inmates, others abuse their authority and become complicit in the abuses committed here. Wardens receive better conditions and being a diligent enforcer improves one's chances of being released or obtaining privileges, such as being exempted from odious work assignments. Wardens are obligated to report inmates who are displaying 'unwholesome behaviour' in word, deed or thought.
However, some wardens have also been lynched by the other inmates. The administration has established a hierarchical identification system and inmates are organised based on social background and grounds for incarceration. Inmates with a higher status within the camp are often rewarded with more desirable work assignments such as administrative positions within the facility. Those lower on the social ladder have more physically demanding tasks, such as factory work. Inmates also staff infirmaries, kitchens and so on. To this end, the administration has introduced a points-based behaviour-control system within Tranquility. Points are awarded by assessing an inmate's ideological transformation, study and training, performance in the workplace and compliance with discipline.
Among other things, the punishment-and-reward system helps determine whether inmates are allowed contact with people outside the facility, such as clones of the same line, where they work and when they are released. There is a three-tiered system in place, which classified inmates by degrees of security required. A central administration building houses the administrative staff and serves as headquarters. The senior administrative staff and the security officials responsible for surveillance can access any camera from the control room of this building. The inmates can exercise in the courtyard, but these periods of respite are also monitored. Armed guard are on patrol throughout the facility. The guards are housed in the barracks. There is a special building where inmates come together to perform self-criticism.
The facility also serves an economic purpose. A large production complex has been set up next to the actual camp. It has nine factories. They include a textile factory, an electronics factory and a food processing plant. As part of their 'vocational training', the inmates are sent here to work. Security protocols are very strict in order to prevent escape or sabotage. The Dominion of Light has been able to secretly purchase Wasp Droids from Archangel Research and Design. They monitor both the camp as well as the production complex and outside areas.
The Dominion treats Tranquility as a model facility. Indeed, it is forbidden to refer to it as a prison camp. Thus the administration occasionally allows visitors. However, they must be approved in advance and are vetted. Moreover, the inmates must stick to a rigid script, assuring visitors that everything is fine and that the authorities are helping them. The consequences of noncompliance are severe and very unpleasant. The Ministry of Enlightenment, the propaganda arm of the Dominion's government, likes to send journalists into the camp to create propaganda reports. Sometimes inmates are in fact released back into society. They tend to be given a new name to symbolise their rebirth.
Local police stations continue to monitor inmates who have been released. Many have, however, been incarcerated for years with no end in sight. Numerous inmates have been subjected to or witnessed torture, physical and mental abuse. Inmates have endured beatings, starvation, electrocution, water torture and sensory deprivation, among other things. They are made to sing songs that praise the Dominion. Tranquility also uses drugs to control its inmates. There are drugs that amplify the pain felt by the recipient. These can be distributed in the food or water supply upon entry and as an inmate reacts properly, the drug is eased off. In other words, acceptance of the Dominion and its ideals literally eases their pain.
While many of the guards are Non-Force-Users, the facility staff has a cadre of Force-Users who belong to the Windian Jedi Order. These include 'mind healers' - mentalists whose skill set focuses on helping the inmates transform their thoughts. This is part of their journey to shed bad thoughts and become productive citizens who can released back into normal society and join the work force. Force-Sensitive prisoners tend to be held in more specialised institutions, though some weak or untrained ones may be held here for a while before being transferred.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Restitution of Rightful Thought Society: A building where inmates are 'encouraged' to take part in group activities of self reflection and critique their past errors with others. Self-criticism is an important aspect of Mace Windu Thought, the official ideology of the Dominion. Harmful cliques create cancerous thoughts. Patients are encouraged to discourse with all manner of others, making many acquaintances and shunning close ties with others.
At these meetings, inmates quote directives or teachings of Dominion leaders, which is usually a part of Mace Windu Thought that applies to their shortcomings. Then they must critique themselves on errors in word, deed or thought while addressing or analysing the cause. This must be done openly. Furthermore, a speaker must recommend corrective action and beg forgiveness. Then a few of the participants criticise that individual. Thus an inmate may be forced to stand up and criticise a friend, lest he fall under suspicion. All statements are recorded and then a suitable treatment is determined by officials.
Tranquil Education and Habitation Complexes: The nine buildings the inmates are housed in. Each building has four floors with about thirty dormitories and a couple class rooms each. Each room and corridor is under surveillance. Propaganda posters and slogans abound. The dorms have jail-like metal doors in front of them. Each of these buildings has a surveillance room and each exit area has three cameras apiece.
Each of these buildings has a Bodily Rejuvenation Centre, which is a fancy name for cafeteria. But the inmates have a schedule which rotates some of them to different ones at times. As opposed to such a grand name different kinds of gruel and slop are fed to the inmates. There is no dessert. Before the inmates are allowed to eat, they must recite the Code and thank the benevolent Dominion for its kindness. There is also a 'counselling' room. Particularly hard cases who have proved resistant to counselling are sent to the Special Care Facility.
Special Care Facility: A feared location on site. This is where inmates who have not been showing 'positive improvement' are taken for 'correction'. Those who experience this correction are usually left so afraid of being taken there again that they will do or say anything to escape it. It is heavily guarded. 'Mind healers' are employed here. They use advanced mental persuasion techniques to help inmates identify and abandon bad thoughts. Inmates are kept in solitary confinement. The staff makes liberal use of sensory deprivation.
Administration of the Five Harmonious Teachings: The main administration building. It derives its name from the fact that the Windian Jedi Order's Code has five lines. The senior administrative staff is housed here and it serves as the nerve centre of Tranquil. The director of Tranquil has their office here, as does the Inquisition.
This building houses what amounts to Tranquil's post office. Inmates are allowed to send and receive mail on a very limited basis. Letters written to and by inmates are heavily scrutinised. They must be written in Basic and are censored by staff. Essentially, inmates must restrict themselves to writing reassuring banalities. They are sent on special preprinted stationary. Sometimes sending packages is allowed, though this privilege can be withdrawn. Newspapers are permitted, but only if ordered through Tranquil's post office.
Although inmates can, in theory, send or receive two letters or cards each month, the regulations governing correspondence can be suspended arbitrarily and without notice. Some inmates have developed an intricate code to bypass censorship and inform people outside of the true conditions inside the camp. The building houses the communications gear, but inmates are not allowed to use it, so letters are their only way to contact people on the outside.
House of Restoration: A fancy name for the infirmary. Unlike the Vaderites, the Dominion does not experiment on the inmates. However, conditions are quite poor. Tephrike's centuries-long isolation means that medical technology is behind galactic standard, though the Dominion has Force healers. They have purchased kolto from Archangel, but this is expensive and limited to military personnel, government people etc.
The infirmary provides basic medical care, but is rather focused on preventing the outbreak of epidemics and restoring ill inmates to a state in which they are fit to work. Inmates who are allowed to work in the infirmary consider themselves lucky. Some take advantage of this by stealing medications. Inmates in good standing with the administration receive higher-quality healthcare than those who have not shown 'positive improvement'.
The windows and doors are secured in the same manner as those in the habitation complexes and there are cameras throughout the building. The infirmary is sometimes shown off for propaganda purposes, which paints a very reassuring image. Officially Tranquility's administration is required to ensure the health and safety of its charges. Nonetheless, detainees have died due to poor living conditions and lack of adequate medical treatment.
Centre of Diligent Labour: A production complex located adjacent to the camp. Within its walls, nine factories have been set up. They include a textile factory, an electronics factory, a food processing plant and a hydroponic garden. Inmates are used here as forced labourers. Most of these production facilities are run by the Ministry of Plenty, but some belong to the Ministry of Harmony.
Barrier against Unrighteous Ignorance: Perimeter security. It encompasses the fence, the wall, watchtowers and the two gates. The wall is dug deeply into the ground, making attempts to tunnel out of the facility extremely difficult. It is lined with watchtowers, on which heavy machine guns and E-Webs have been mounted, defensive emplacements and guard posts. Anyone seeking to enter the facility must pass through two gates and submit to extensive security checks. The wall is made of solid duracrete with heavy reinforcements.
Defenders of Propitious Enlightenment: The barracks. The guards are housed here. It has living quarters, an armoury, entertainment area, mess hall and a medical facility.
SECURITY
Maximum
- The facility is surrounded by walls. Visitors must pass through two guarded, reinforced gates and submit to security checks before being let in. Only authorised personnel is allowed to enter. Theses gates are also protected by turrets. Furthermore, watchtowers manned by armed guards have been set up.
- The buildings that house the inmates have been outfitted with double Turadium doors. Moreover, the windows are fitted with guard railings as well as a second layer of guard netting. Exit areas have three surveillance cameras each. The buildings have motion sensors and 360-degree surveillance cameras. Even washrooms and 'dormitories' are under surveillance. Concealed auto-turrets have also been set up. The same applies to concealed coma gas dispensers. These can knock out inmates in their dorms, which are close to prison cells. Each of the nine buildings the inmates live and study in has a surveillance room from which the place can be monitored.
- Armed guards patrol throughout the facility. Most of the guards are Non-Force-Users, but the contingent also includes a number of Force-Users. Wasp Droids keep an eye on inmates as well as on anyone entering the premise.
- Energy fences placed ahead of the walls of Tranquility.
- An electrostatic weapon, similar to the one in New Adasta on Ziost, has been set up in the courtyard.
- The production complex, where various factories have been set up, is similarly guarded. Each factory has heavy blast doors, a contingent of guards and a comprehensive surveillance system with cameras, motion sensors and the like.
- Access to key areas throughout the entire complex requires a biometric scan. The retina scanners are able to determine whether the retina being scanned belongs to a living person. A tracking device is implanted inside the body of every inmate.
- Base Shield Generator.
In one way or another, virtually every world in the Galaxy was affected when the terrorist Zero released the Gulag Virus on Csilla. The plague spread like wild fire, bringing galactic civilisation to its knees. The so called Golden Age came to an end. Governments crumbled, galactic trade collapsed and trillions of beings perished. Historians would call it the Four Hundred Year Darkness. Tephrike suffered greatly during this period. However, the light never returned to this benighted planet.
Isolated from the rest of the Galaxy, the planet regressed. Though rich in raw materiels such as precious ores and alloys, the planet had been dependent on trade to sustain itself. Now there was no one who could buy their ores and sell them food. Countless died due to starvation, ecological disasters, riots and civil war. Tephrike's fragile democracy collapsed as the federal government proved unable to resolve the crisis. Its party system was fractured along lines of class and species.
The Jedi of Tephrike were forced into a protective role. Believing themselves to be the last Jedi in the Galaxy, they seized power to save Tephrike from anarchy. However, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Their seizure of power produced further conflict. In response, they tightened their grip, believing that only they could save the planet. The result was a totalitarian theocracy they called the Dominion of Light. Tranquility is one of the many detention centres the Dominion's security agencies have set up to detain, and indoctrinate supposed enemies of the state.
The camp was set up in the aftermath of a campaign led by General Kennobi, who became one of the foremost battle commanders of the Dominion. When the Dominion of Light began a campaign of expansion to recover ground lost in past conflicts with the aim of uniting all of Tephrike under one banner, it turned its eye towards a neutral Mon Calamari settlement called New Ackbarea. Republican Guard and Vaderite terrorist attacks had intensified the militancy of the Dominion. Its leaders regarded the war as a holy crusade. From their point of view there could be no middle ground.
They were Tephrike's sole legitimate government and all those who denied its claim were their enemies. Those who had remained unaffiliated until now received an ultimatum: Bend the knee to the Dominion of Light and submit to its laws, or face the consequences. There was only the shining Light and the darkest abyss. Regarding New Ackbarea as a terrorist haven, they employed gunboat diplomacy to cow the natives.
The Dominion laid mines to cut off the city's trade links and sent boats with depth charges to bomb 'terrorist camps'. In all fairness, partisans were operating in the area and some of the local authorities did look the other way or take bribes from them, though not with official sanction. Protests from the local government were brushed aside. The same applied to the civilian casualties caused by the strikes. Some argued that it would be best to bend the knee. There were outrages against refugees, who were blamed for the maledictions heaped upon the town. The Dominion began to deploy submarines and contingents of troops.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, the Mon Calamari tried to fight back. Aruunzeb, the mayor of the town, led his men in strikes against Dominion troops. But they were outnumbered and outgunned. Attempts to rally other Mon Calamari settlements to their side met with a little success, as the Dominion was good at picking off its foes one by one. The Jedi offered peace talks and Aruunzeb accepted. But the negotiations turned out to be a trap. Instead of offering an olive branch, the Dominion unleashed depth charges and submarines on the settlement. Purely underwater settlements turned out to be a bit impractical, for the invaders used a mixture of telekinesis and explosives to blow up some overhanging rock trenches to bring down a seaslide on the settlement.
Aruunzeb and a band of fighters survived and fled into the swamps to carry on the struggle. The Dominion forces carried out mass arrests. Lots of impure thoughts needed correcting, after all. Repression intensified when Aruunzeb and his partisans started rallying other Mon Calamari to their cause. Settlements that had hitherto been offered lenient terms now found being forced to accommodate Dominion garrisons and with harsh laws being enforced. At the same time, they had to deal with protests and agitators.
On their own, the partisans could not win the war. They could only harass Dominion troops, who responded in the way they know. In order to bring the region better under control, the Dominion began carrying out population transfers by 'resettling' entire communities into areas they could control. It also implemented a comprehensive surveillance system. This was justified on the grounds that the region was infested with bandits threatening the lives of peaceful citizens.
To accommodate supposed dissenters, the Ministry of Harmony created a 're-education camp' twenty kilometres away from Nexus City. This was far away from New Ackbarea and thus out of the reach of the partisans. The rebels could attack convoys in an attempt to free prisoners, but not the facility itself. Repression intensified after Aruunzeb and his followers joined the Republican Guard. Officially, however, Tranquility was not a detention centre.
Instead the Dominion called it a transformation through education centre or a vocational training centre. Here, citizens who had gone astray were being cured of bad thoughts and being taught about their duties as responsible, law-abiding citizens. They were also taught a trade. Indeed, a Dominion official went on record saying that the centre offered free programmes such as nutritious meals, dance contests, sports, computer labs, and movie screening rooms. “Many trainees have said that they were previously affected by extremist thought and had never participated in such kinds of art and sports activities, and now they have realised that life can be so colourful.”
The reality was far less rosy. The 'trainees' were kept under around-the-clock surveillance, often abused and subjected to constant indoctrination. All contact with the outside world was heavily limited and subjected to censorship. They were detained without trial and denied the right of appeal or even seeing a lawyer. Psychical and psychological abuse was constant feature of daily life in the camp. The facilities also suffered from overcrowding.
Security measures were further tightened after a few inmates were able to escape with the help of a sympathetic guard. The Dominion, while committed to an egalitarian society, is also highly conformist, so speaking Mon Calamarian was forbidden. The same also applied to other languages other than Galactic Basic. For instance, a Mirialan wearing the tattoos of her people would be accused of dangerous nationalism.
In order to control the inmates, the Ministry introduced a complex system of rewards and punishments. This was supposed to incentivise prisoners to cooperate and prevent them from cooperating with one another. Moreover, state-owned businesses were allowed to set up factories in an adjacent production base and use the inmates as forced labourers. As time passed and the camp expanded, members of other species were incarcerated in it. It is a key characteristic of a totalitarian state that it always finds more thoughtcriminals to persecute. Moreover, the Dominion's ideology has a strong focus on 'reeducation', 'self-criticism', and 'rectification'.
The facility was conceived as a model institution. In keeping with this, the Ministry of Enlightenment made a propaganda movie that lauded Tranquility's staff and guards for their 'kind' and 'compassionate' treatment of the 'pupils'. Of course, it is an open secret that inmates held without trial, tortured and abused. Just like it is an open secret in Vaderite territory that the Vaderites exterminate or enslave aliens and murder the physically and mentally disabled. But while the people know what is actually going on, it is easier for them to believe that people are simply being 're-educated'...or sent somewhere far away to 'be among their people and not bother us'.
Naturally, once a totalitarian faction falls from power, people claim they knew nothing...even in cases when this is blatantly absurd, such as when the person in question was also a personal friend of the tyrant. The Dominion was a highly repressive institution, but it could not have endured without the willing or tacit collaboration of many of its citizens. The Inquisition was powerful, but far from omnipresent. While it liked to project the image of watching everyone everywhere, in reality it was very understaffed, reactive organisation that left the vast majority of ordinary citizens alone and relied heavily on local informants. Sure, theoretically a tracking device was implanted into every citizen, but this was impossible to carry out practically.
It short, the terror machine functioned as well as it did because many people collaborated with it. Some were blackmailed into doing so, others did it for ideological reasons or to enhance their social status. The Inquisition functioned differently in dealing with select groups. It was near-omnipresent for certain groups, but intermittent and partial for others. It did not just enforce its will, but asked ordinary citizens to police dissident behaviour. Regardless, once a citizen entered Tranquility, their life were fully in the hands of the state. Everyone is aware that the authorities recruit informant among the inmates. This strains relations between the prisoners. Distrust becomes a fact of life, which inhibits joint action. The goal of Tranquility was to break its inmates down, then remake them.
Interrogators received carte blanche to utilise 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. In typical Dominion fashion, this was masked with euphemistic doublespeak. They also used techniques such as feigned executions, loud noises throughout the night and solitary confinement to keep inmates off-balance. The level of harshness was also affected by the Dominion's fortunes on the frontlines. Some inmates were actually allowed to leave Tranquility. They transferred from the camp to job sites chosen by the authorities. However, they continued to be monitored by the police. When an epidemic broke out inside the camp, the authorities covered it up.
Like virtually every place in the galaxy, Tranquility experienced disruptions during the Netherworld Event. After all, tons of people suddenly vanished and the Force was thrown out of balance. With half of the guards removed, the prisoners took their chance to try and escape in the chaos. But some of their comrades, either out of fear of punishment or brainwashing or thinking of reward, betrayed the plan. This earned them the enmity of the survivors.
The Republican Guard launched a great offensive against the Dominion. The Vaderites launched an offensive of their own after a brutal civil war that ended with the temporary ascent of a faction of Light Sith. However, though it lost a lot of ground initially, the Dominion was able to rally under the leadership of Battlemaster Mahtara and defeat it foes. General Kennobi routed the Republican Guard's forces at the Battle of Fortress Purity. This meant that the rebels did not reach Tranquility.
Given their total isolation, the inmates knew little of what was going on outside. However, the camp's population soared again as the Dominion cracked down on dissent. Some of the new inmates were captured rebel agitators. A few had even once supported the Vaderites, who had meanwhile gotten rid of the Light Sith and returned to their old, barbaric ways. The economic aspect of the camp assumed greater importance. After all, the inmates were a convenient labour force. This led to changes that improved conditions a bit, but they were incrimental and did not alter the nature of Tranquility.
Firemane's brief war with the Dominion has not changed Tranquility much. While Firemane troops bombarded strategic locations in Nexus City and seized Fortress Purity in concert with Republican Guard forces, Tranquility was not one of the camps they liberated. After all, Firemane went to war to punish the Dominion for betraying and attacking its diplomatic delegation and to rescue the captive Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori. She was not being held in Tranquility and the camp did not contain any leads, so they ignored it. In all fairness, they only had limited forces at their disposal and did not want to get bogged down in a protracted war on a planet far from home, with their only ally being a rebel faction they distrusted.
Some of the prisoners they did rescue had once been held in Tranquility before being transferred. The camp did receive new inmates as the security agencies arrested 'defeatists' and 'rumour-mongers'. The Dominion's new government, led by Mahtara as de facto paramount leader, is in some ways less brutal than its predecessors. Informants are supposed to provide evidence and its terror apparatus is more selective. A number of prisoners have been released, especially those arrested for petty crimes. However, this has streamlined the terror machine and made it more efficient, but not changed the nature of the system. It is a response to the fact that the Dominion has suffered a major setback and is now engaged in a war to the knife with an emboldened Republican Guard. General Aruunzeb, who led the rebel forces in the Second Battle of Fortress Purity, is quite determined to take Tranquility, but it is still far from the frontlines.
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