Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on a location referenced in rp.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Kyriaki, Prosperity Quarter, Hope Falls, The Valkyrie's Diary, Adlerberg, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Glorious Conflict, Castle Maysaf, Yuuzhan Vong.
SETTING INFORMATION
Structure Name: Academy of the Scions of the Vader
Classification: Sith Academy.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: Humanist People's Party, Disciples of the Vader, Darth Eisen, Darth Lachesis, Tephrike.
Accessibility: The planet the Academy is located on, Tephrike, is rather remote and isolated. On Tephrike itself, the Academy is not unknown since it is one of Disciples' main educational institutions. However, it is difficult to reach because it is lcoated in a swamp filled with dangerous creatures and monsters of various forms. Reaching it is not impossible, but rather difficult. Moreover, the Disciples are an extremely racist, totalitarian group. The Academy has its own contingent of guards and both the students and faculty are Sith. If unauthorised personnel try to approach the academy, the guards have orders to shoot them on sight or detain them.
The only non-humans allowed into the Academy are slaves. Finally, the Academy is quite prestigious among the Disciples. As a result, it is not an Academy any Disciple can join. Selection for admission is quite rigorous. Students are chosen for their strength in the Force, 'pure' human ancestry, political reliability and physical fitness. Of course, having the right connections to a bigwig up high can bypass this process.
Description: The pompously named Academy of the Scions of the Vader is a Sith Academy that serves the cause of the Disciples of the Vader. This is a Sith cult that worships Darth Vader as a deity and believes humans are a master race. In the view of the Vaderites, mankind is destined to rule over the world. They hold alien Jedi and bankers responsible for the outbreak of the Gulag Virus, seeing it as a malicious conspiracy to decimate mankind and reduce the rest to a state of servitude. Likewise, it maintains that all original Force-Users were human and aliens 'stole' this power by breeding with pure humans.
But not all humans are equal. Within mankind, power belongs to those who command the Force, and do not let themselves be commanded by it. These are the Disciples of the Vader. Thus the Academy is supposed to mould, and train the next generation of Disciples. The goal is to teach them how to use the Force, and to indoctrinate them into the Disciples' Humanist ideology. It is the law that all human Force-Sensitives must receive training at such an institution and join the Disciples. Non-human Force-wielders, on the other hand, are exterminated.
The Academy is an imposing structure that is located in the middle of a dangerous tropical swamp. This serves multiple purposes. Its remote location makes it easy to keep attackers out, and impressionable students inside. Thus it impedes escape or infiltration attempts. Moreover, the swamps are filled with dangerous creatures the students can test themselves against. The Vaderites are Social Darwinists who believe in the rule of the strong.
Sithspawn creatures, crocodiles, dangerous mosquitoes, piranhas, leeches and mud are obstacles the students must overcome. The 'weak' must be weeded out. The Vaderites practice an extreme form of eugenics, which is focused on weeding out those with 'undesirable' physical or mental characteristics. This insane policy leads to a tremendous amount of waste. Inside the walls of the Academy, one finds multiple classrooms and lecture halls, alchemical laboratories, a medbay offices for the faculty staff and dormitories for the students. There are also training facilities and a special chamber that is used for the graduation of successful students. When a student graduates, their right hand is cut off in a formal ceremony and replaced with a cybernetic prothesis. This is supposed to emulate Vader's journey. Some particularly fanatical Vaderites take it a step further to be closer to their idol.
Before being inducted into the Academy, prospective students must prove their racial purity by submitting to an evaluaton of their physical traits and provide a documentation of their human genealogical ancestry. This must be 'untainted' by alien blood. Moreover, they must submit to a medical examination to ascertain their absolute health. These examinations care carried out by the Racial Health Department, an institution of the Humanist People's Party. In addition, they must excel in competitions of strength and courage, and successfully complete an essay on Humanist tenets. Ideally, their group leaders in the Imperial Youth Corps will have vouched for them. Some of these requirements can be relaxed or avoided by having the right connections. Nepotism is inherent to any dictatorial regime and the Vaderites are no different in that regard. The Vaderites conscript both male and female human Force-Sensitives for the Disciples, but there is still a good deal of sexism. Students wear grey uniforms that resemble those issued to members of the Imperial military. They are awarded proper Sith apparel when they graduate.
Training encompasses physical education, combat, Force training and academic subjects. The last are heavily focused on political education. For instance, students must complete courses in Humanism Studies. This included assignments and essays on questions such as why it is the duty of the government to concentrate aliens in ghettos and cull the 'weak'. Glorious Conflict is required reading. In addition, they must study the 'Testament of the Chieftains of Rylot'h and the 'Protocols of the Masters of Ossus'.
Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, so instead students are trained in the use of Sith Swords and Force-Imbued Blades. As part of their education, students are often taken on tours of alien ghettos. The appalling conditions the non-humans live in are presented as proof of their inherent backwardness and 'animal instincts'. Students are taught to regard non-humans and non-Force-Users as lesser beings. It is the natural right and duty of the Sith to take control. Equality is a myth perpetuated by alien Jedi to enslave mankind and deprive it of its rightful inheritance. Humans are a genius species, whereas aliens such as Twi'leks, Neimoidians, Mon Calamari and Rodians are parasites and Wookiees are savages. Indeed, one textbook teaches that Twi'leks change colour by eating human flesh.
Sometimes alien captives are released into the wilderness. The students are told that they are hunting dangerous criminals and must shoot them to save the community. The only non-humans allowed into the Academy are slaves, who perform menial labour. Slavery is a dirty word, so the Vaderites prefer euphemisms such as 'indentured assets'. Some of the students have organised themselves into an unofficial 'police' that keeps 'uppity' slaves in line. This is a good way for students to earn extra credit points. To make them 'as strong and tough as durasteel', the young students go through periods where they are intentionally underfed. Thus they are encouraged to steal in order to make up the difference. Indeed, their instructors expect this. However, they are severely beaten if they are caught in the act. Students who take pity on weak pupils are penalised. There are also ritual whippings at the Altar of Vader. This abuse is carried out by more senior students.
At the same time the students are integrated into the cult by fostering the belief that overcoming these hardships made them special. They must go through these trials to become as strong as durasteel. They are following in the footsteps of the Vader. All of this is supposed to produce a corps of fanatical adherents of Humanism who have become thoroughly desensitised to brutal violence. Assuming they make it too graduation, a student is welcomed into the Disciples and automatically made a member of the Humanist People's Party. Amid the glow of torchlights, solemn beating of drums and fanfare, the graduates swear a sacred oath, vowing unconditional fealty to the death.
Being a Disciple is very prestigious in the Imperium. They receive a variety of privileges and have commandeered the top jobs. As a result, some Humanist families have resorted to dubious alchemical or scientific procedures to grant their offsprings Force-Sensitivity. A full Disciple may have power over about ninety-five percent of the Imperium's people...but one word from the Supreme Leader and they could be dead. The Disciples claim to exalt the - human - individual, but they do so by chaining others and for many it is only the illusion of power.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Gateway to Glory: The pompously named entrance to the Academy. There is a bridge over the swamp, helping the guards control access and deter intruders. Large statues of Darth Vader and other Sith lords line the entrance and the reception hall behind it. Many of them are actually Sith Statues. They will attack intruders.
Halls of Primordial Wisdom: A fancy name for a library. Features a large collection of holocrons, Sith tomes and Humanist books. It is dedicated to spreading the Humanist ideal. Several librarians are always present to guide the students...and punish would-be thieves. To aid in this important task, the library has some Sith statues. The archivists also have the task of ensuring that no 'heretical' literature accidentally enters the library and clouds the minds of impressionable students. Many of the books are available in paper format, but a number have been digitalised. Tephriki computers, which are called cogitators by the natives, are very big and slow. Rumours say that the library is haunted by the spirit of a failed student.
"The stories are true. She was murdered as a sick test of loyalty. Her name has been struck from the annals. Now she haunts these halls, angry and mad. Her presence was frightening, but soothing in a way. It meant I was not the only one who thought the system was insane."
- Kyriaki
Aside from espousing the belief that humans are the master race, the books here also teach that it was Vader who was the true Dark Lord of the Sith. However, he was betrayed by his traitorous son and the false Emperor, who was a weak Force-Sensitive. But in death Vader ascended to godhood, becoming more powerful than his enemies could have possibly imagined. Moreover, a student will learn that Qui-Gon and Darth Tyranus were the same person and that he was Vader's predecessor as Dark Lord. Interestingyly, the Disciples do not really acknowledge the Sith Purebloods, as they regard humanity as the apex species.
Procession of the Chosen: A flowery name for a hall that serves as the reception area. This is the hall one finds oneself in after entering the Academy. It is a grand hall built to awe a prospective acolyte - and impress their insignificance upon them. This is where new students are received. Turbolfits and corridors lead to other areas of the Academy.
Alchemical Laboratories: No Sith institution would be complete without facilities dedicated to the study of sorcery and alchemy - as well as experiments. Thus this is the perfect place for students to learn the paths of a Sith sorcerer. Like the ancient Sith, the Disciples' practice of sorcery is steeped in ritual. This area incorporates a beast den as well as cells for test subjects. The Academy has an arrangement with the secret police to provide its researchers with the occasional concentration camp inmate. Professor Konstantina Kalchev, a Sith Master, teaches classes in advanced alchemy and sorcery. She also teaches Humanism Studies.
"I actually liked Kalchev, insofar as one can like an instructor here. She preached the Vaderite gospel, of course, but she was fair in her judgement. She recognised that cunning and intellect are more valuable traits than brawn."
- Kyriaki
Hall of Glorious Ascent: A cavernous hall that is used for important ceremonies, such as the induction of successful students into the Disciples of the Vader. The ritual consists of two parts. In the first stage, a student's right hand is cut off by a lightsabre, just as the young Anakin Skywalker lost his hand. After a student has undergone the necessary medical procedure to receive a cybernetic prothesis, they have a graduation ceremony here.
This is a formal ceremony where the cloak of a Disciple is bestowed upon a student by the Headmaster. Moreover, they receive a Party membership card and a Vaderite mask. Usually, the family of a student is invited to witness the ceremony. On certain occasions, the Supreme Leader himself will attend. Famous statues of past Sith line both sides of the hall. Imperial banners and portraits of Vader, Darth Malitia and Eisen feature prominently. The Altar of the Vader can be found in this room. It features prominently in Vaderite religious rituals.
"There was no family in attendance for me. No mother and father to heap expectations on me, no siblings to stare jealously as their sister joined the Black Order. I have had to make my way without the benefit of a prestigious bloodline - and without the leash on my neck. As for the cybernetic arm, it is ugly and gives me phantom pains."
- Kyriaki
Storehouse: Essentially a storage area for supplies, such as medical supplies and food or raw resources. This helps the Academy provide for its inhabitants if it is besieged or cut off from shipments. Of course, one's worth to the Disciples will determine what rations one receives. The doors are code-sealed and only a select number of people know the access code. It changes on a regular basis.
Dormitories: The dormitories provide the bare necessities, but are fairly Spartan. Each student has their own, rather small room. It features a desk, a book shelf, a bed and a footlocker. It is an open secret that the rooms aremonitored. After being welcomed into the Academy, the students are assigned to one of several 'houses'. Each house is named after an important Vaderite leader or past Sith Lord. Assignment to one house does not determine a student's abilities. In short, there is no one house for all the alchemists and another for the Sith warriors. However, some houses are more prestigious than others. This applies in particular to those whose former members have gone on to become important players in the Vaderite hierarchy. Each house has its own hierarchy and is overseen by a senior Disciple, who has broad authority to discipline wayward students.
Forge: Here acolytes receive opportunity to forge Force Imbued Blades or Sith Swords. Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike and their use is heavily restricted among the Disciples. Thus forging an enchanted sword is a rite of passage for the aspiring Sith. The process is heavily steeped in religious ritual - sometimes accompanied by blood sacrifice.
Hall of Proving: A training facility for teaching martial skills, but also formal duels. The Vaderites believe in survival of the fittest and natural selection. They apply these tenets of sentient beings and take them to an absurd extreme. They believe that if a Sith cannot physically defend their position, they do not deserve to hold it. Thus formal duels are allowed. However, the challenger must make a formal challenge. Assassination, poison and a knife between the ribs in the night are considered trickster tactics befitting lesser beings. Of course, this does not stop trickery from happening. The Vaderites consider physical fitness and strength in the Force more important for young people than memorising 'dead facts' in the classroom.
"And yet I won by poisoning Headmaster's pet in advance of the duel."
- Kyriaki
Classrooms: When they are not honing their raw strength in the Force or their physical prowess, the students must attend classes like in any school. Courses include History, Mathematics, Humanism Studies and 'Humanist Physics'. Humanist ideology is even integrated into ostensibly non-ideological subjects. For instance, a student may have to calculate how much money the government saves by getting rid of 'undesirables'.
An example for an essay in Humanism Studies would be ‘The Force is the key determinant of a being value’s to the Fatherland. Discuss'. The obvious answer is that the statement is correct. However, it is actually a trick question. The correct answer is to say that the key determinant is belonging to the human race. There are small classrooms as well as larger ones for big presentations. A portrait of the Supreme Leader hangs in every classroom.
Biology is used to teach lessons about eugenics and stress the importance of 'racial hygiene'. Furthermore, students are instructed in the duty of every 'racially pure' human to breed. Getting married and having as many children as possible is presented as a national duty for the 'racially fit', whereas those deemed hereditary 'less valuable' should not be allowed to reproduce. It is drilled into their skull that a Disciple should only marry another Disciple because somehow this will result in an offspring who is not just 'pure', but stronger in the Force.
"A male Disciple is taught that is fine for him to have multiple wives. The opposite is treated as deviant. I imagine that whoever made this law only asked the males. Numbskulls. As much as the frailty of my body vexes me, I am happy that the Dominion's faulty cloning has rendered me unable to conceive."
- Kyriaki
The Headmaster's Chambers: As the name implies, this is where the Headmaster resides. Aside from a bed room and private refresher, this section features a kitchen, private library, office, meditation chamber and an office. It also has its own holocommunications network. In contrast to the humble student dorms, these quarters are quite luxurious.
"The abode of a petty little tyrant. Who, irony of ironies, has a few drops of alien blood and spawned a son who grew so disgusted with his cruelty that he killed himself."
- Kyriaki
SECURITY
High.
- All students and members of the faculty are Sith. Moreover, the Academy is guarded by Sith troops and Sithspawn. Examples for creatures used for guard purposes would be Harrowers and Jurgorans. Sith Statues and Stone Guardians also serve as guards.
- The Academy has a CCTV network, motion sensors, and security scanners. Critical areas are warded by blast doors and layers of biometric security.
- Approaching or conversely escaping from the Academy is also difficult because it is in the middle of a swamp filled with monsters and dangerous animals.
"These swamplands used to be home to people other than Sith. When the Disciples moved in and erected the Academy, the swamp people...disappeared. When I enquired about their fate, all I got was a shrug and vague allusions about them being 'resettled' in distant lands. Apparently these lands are the Dune Seas of Tephrike. The inhabitants of the swamps were Quarren, Nautolans, a species of frog people I cannot identify and even some 'savage humans'. What no one wants to openly admit but everyone knows is that they would have perished all in the desert. How many? Thousands? Even more? The swamp lands have devoured their settlements. These very swamps have claimed the lives of many students. The Vaderites call this a culling; I call it waste.
The Academy was consecrated in blood and blood has not ceased to be spilt in its halls - or in the swamps and forests outside of it. Unlike many modern-day structures of the Disciples, this one was erected during the reign of Darth Malitia, the first Supreme Leader. Once a Jedi Knight of the xenos Dominion of Light, he had an awakening experience during a campaign against rebels. The Vader appeared to him in a dream, handed him in a sword and commanded him to eclipse the Light and save mankind. Or perhaps he was just power-hungry and having fever dreams. Personally, I doubt Vader cares much about this accursed planet.
Regardless, Malitia needed legions of Sith and the Academy would provide them once the natives had been...extinguished. The great war with the Dominion demanded a steep price in blood. Many Acolytes were rushed through training and then thrown into the meat grinder. Those who died in a dramatic enough way were called martyrs. The smart ones let them die their heroic death, then picked up the pieces after his great crusade was brought to an end at the Battle of Palmyra. In all fairness, by the battle's end, Tephrike's former capital was a dark side nexus. Both sides had produced a hellscape.
The Disciples call the retreat - note, it is never called a retreat in their history books, just a strategic repositioning or a bold manoeuvre - the Arduous March. By the time it was over, Malitia was dead and the Vaderites had set up their headquarters at Castle Maysaf. But the Academy, too remote to be immediately targeted by the Dominion, remained in their hands. Some bloodletting was needed to 'persuade' the faculty to swear allegiance to the new Supreme Leader. Supposedly the headmaster had schemed to defect to the enemy.
Here, the Humanist movement sent its 'best and brightest' to learn the ways of the Force. Or simply those who were the most brutish and had the right connections. The logic of training has been very simple over the centuries. Students are brutalised, but at the same time spoon-fed the idea that they are higher beings. They are given xenos and 'undesirables' to brutalise in turn. Our system is savage, and the people it produces are savage. Then were are sent out to fight and die for the glorious Fatherland. It's all a fanciful illusion. Make a lie big enough and repeat it enough times, and people will swallow it. A token few of us attract not only attract the attention of a powerful Master, but actually reach the top. Then we have nothing better to do than to keep the machinery of death going because it is what has moulded us.
Darth Eisen, the present Supreme Leader, is one of them, as are Darth Lachesis and the late Darth Furcht. Centuries have passed since Darth Malitia was struck down, yet the First Supreme Leader's absurd gabble is still sacred, still Holy Writ. Despite its remote location, the Academy has been the site of Republican Guard and Dominion incursions. Our records inevitably state that these always ended in victories for the Disciples. But if this were so, why would the enemy not cease their attempts?
Time and again, the Academy has been at the forefront of doctrinal disputes among the Disciples. The losing party is inevitably wiped from all records, up to having the names of its members removed from the list of alumni and their images edited out of pictures, as if they never existed. The greatest controversy was during the time of the rapture. Millions vanished in the blink of an eye. I know not what caused these raptures. Sometimes, I wonder whether they were limited to Tephrike or affected other worlds in the galaxy. Regardless, chaos broke out. Beneath the Supreme Leader, the Lords vied for power. A heretical movement arose, proclaiming that Vader had embraced the Light and that the Disciples must follow in his footsteps.
They promised slaves and xenos equality - a truly bizarre, naive thought. I can only assume it was a propaganda ploy. Their leader was a graduate of the Academy, Darth Krieg. As elsewhere on Tephrike, the Academy's halls ran red with blood. When the war against the Dominion went ill, the old order was restored. Andronikos Thalakes carried out a purge at the behest of Supreme Leader Furcht, ridding the Academy of heresy. For this Thalakes was made headmaster. Ironic, that he had some xenos blood from his distant ancestor...a Jedi Master. I came here after Furcht perished in Firemane's bombardment. After Eisen seized power and freed me from the clutches of Furcht's vicious, stupid son. I was not meant to leave as a Disciple, let alone alive.
The sickly clone of the space woman whose people had rained hellfire upon the Disciples' headquarters. Someone who had no prestigious name or bloodline to prop her up - and was frail of body. A 'defective' Sith. I should have died in the dungeons, the duels or on the many quests we were sent on to prove ourselves. But I endured - through guile, trickery and blackmail. Knowing the Headmaster's secret helped.
- Kyriaki
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