Kyriaki
Dark Phoenix
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Flesh out Tephrike. Parody Speer's idiotic construction plans.
Image Credit: Here. Here. Here. Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Jedi Inquisition, Mace Windu Thought, Windian Jedi Order, Disciples of the Vader, Inheritors of the Light Father, Covenant of the Piercing Flame, Castle Maysaf, KEC, Darth Eisen, The Valkyrie's Diary, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Government of the Greater Sith Imperium, KEC Stormtrooper Corps, Glorious Conflict, Firemane, Amidala Corps, Adlerberg.
SETTING INFORMATION
City Name: City of Humanist Destiny. Nicknamed the City of Humongous Scaffolds or the City of the Dead because it is an underpopulated mega city filled with unfinished buildings looking like necropolis monuments.
Classification: Capital City.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: KEC, Darth Eisen, Government of the Greater Sith Imperium, Humanist People's Party, Darth Lachesis, Tephrike, Disciples of the Vader.
Population: Sparse, for a city of its size. Basically, it's a huge city that's meant to be inhabited by a large and thriving population, but instead only has scattered residents and slave labourers. Most buildings are unused, underused or under construction. The Vaderites' megalomania and asinine ideology have sucked all the life out of it.
Demographics: Overwhelmingly human. Non-humans are forced labourers, 'guest workers' or servants of human bigshots. To all intents and purposes, they are slave labourers, but slavery is a dirty word so the Vaderites use euphemisms such as indentured assets. They perform menial tasks and heavy labour and are often given work considered too undignified or dangerous for humans.
Aliens are under the yoke of an oppressive system that treats them as less than sentient and denies them even basic sentient rights. Many are transported to the capital in special segregated trains. Alien workers cannot change jobs, cannot leave their work sites without permission from their human bosses and live in cramped, dirty and unsanitary accommodations that are segregated from the rest of the population. They are often routinely subjected to beatings, harassment, intimidation and worse. They can be incarcerated and killed by the security forces under the flimsiest of pretexts. They are often fed starvation rations, barely enough to keep them alive. Hunger has even forced ghetto inhabitants to sell their children into slavery because the alternative is literal starvation. They are brought into the city as child slaves.
Alien servants fare a bit better, especially house servants who work in the households of wealthy human citizens. But they are still subjected to abuse and harassment, since they lack legal protection from the whims of their master. When the alien servant of a bigshot is sent away to say run an errand, they will be subjected to constant 'security checks' and be arrested if they do not have an ID that shows they are allowed to be in a certain area, and even then they can be easily accused of 'trickery'. Basically, the only thing protecting them is the favour of their master...if he or she cares to bother. They have no rights and cannot testify in court. The police is not there to protect them, it is there to serve as the boot stomping on their face.
Camp inmates deployed as labourers are forced to wrist manacles and leg irons. Indeed, chain gangs are a common sight, performing menial or physically dangerous work like repairing buildings or clearing away rubble. A system of racial stratification is in place. Human-like and near-human aliens serve as domestic workers or in other roles that will require a lot of contact with humans or work in the better parts of the city. For labourers the Vaderites use whoever they can get, but with an emphasis on tougher, stronger species such as Cathar, Zabrak, Gamorreans, Houk and Wookiees. Wookiees require more monitoring, but are considered great for simplistic tasks with high strength requirements.
Mirialans, Zabrak, Umbarans and to a lesser extent Gamorreans are treated a bit better and may be given jobs in the work camps that allow them to police the rest of the work force by serving as guards, overseers, clerks etc., but still heavily discriminated against. Twi'leks, Falleen, Zeltrons, Clawdites and Yuuzhan Vong are not allowed to be in the city at all. Entering it is is a capital crime for them. Alien 'guest workers' are recruited in impoverished ghettos, alien 'reservations' and settlements from the occupied territories. Recruitment agents lie about working conditions, exploiting their desperation. However, because voluntary numbers are insufficient, many alien workers have been pressganged into service. The local alien councils of ghettos and settlements are issued quotas they must meet, unless they want their families and everyone else to suffer. However, others were rounded up as labourers when their home settlements were destroyed for being 'terrorist nests'. In such a situation, all inhabitants deemed 'superfluous for labour purposes' are murdered.
Human children are taught to regard aliens as inferior, uncivilised and devious. Their movements are constantly monitored by the Vaderite security state. If a human and an alien get into an altercation, the police and the judiciary will always assume the human is in the right, regardless of circumstance. Under anti-miscegenation laws, romantic and sexual relations between humans and non-humans are criminalised. 'Offenders' are punished systematically by the legal system, the police and the community at large. Punishment for 'race defilement' for men is penal labour or prison. Human women found guilty of 'shaming mankind' have their hair shorn and are sent to 'moral decency centres' for 'immoral behaviour'. Aliens are always sent to a concentration camp or killed. From early on, students at school are educated about the 'dangers of defilement' through books, pamphlets, poems and lectures. They are taught to regard such relationships as a betrayal of mankind that causes 'genetic pollution', and inform the authorities if they discover 'immorality'.
Wealth: Medium. There are massive class disparities. The human elite lives a relatively cushy life because this is where the leeches and exploiters go. The human middle and working classes have to put up with various deprivations, and the non-human forced labourers live lives of poverty and misery. The Vaderites have the mentality of showing off your ill-gotten gains, and so the rich parasites converge in certain places. An ostensibly comprehensive system of welfare exists, but it is limited to humans. Moreover, its institutions serve to provide the illusion of welfare rather than the substance.
Strength through Joy vacation programmes, veterans' bonuses, marriage loans etc. are good for propaganda...but they are sorted between those considered 'deserving' and 'undeserving' of help. Beggars and homeless are not considered 'deserving'. Rather they are stigmatised as 'asocials' and rounded up for forced labour...even if they are poor, traumatised veterans. The rising costs in military production as well as the expenses generated by ridiculous monuments are a burden on the people. Many normal residents are still stuck in temporary accommodations years after being 'relocated'. During the construction boom, thousands of people left their villages and small towns to migrate to the big city in search of work, and now they find themselves stranded in a lifeless husk of a city with few opportunities.
Upper class individuals close to the regime receive superior rations and can purchase goods in special shops. Middle class people have to deal with rationing but can still buy the occasional luxury product. The poor have to deal with food passed out by rations and whatever else can be scrounged. How well-off someone is can be determined by whether they receive some of their payment in specie, since gold or silver have actual value, or whether it is solely in paper money not worth what it is printed on. Depending on their position and connections, citizens may also receive coupons and vouchers for food and clothes at the special shops. Cigarras are a popular means of barter.
Ironically, while the Vaderite state glorifies war, militarism and soldiers, veterans' care is terrible. Theoretically the Vaderites have welfare programmes. But it's practically an inefficient racket. Moreover, the Imperial military and health authorities deny that PTSD exists. As a result, veterans who have been traumatised by what they experienced or did during military service rarely get help. Though officially they are supposed to receive help, homeless veterans are treated poorly.
The Vaderites make ample use of forced labourers. Non-humans, political dissidents, 'vagabonds' and criminals are forced to work for the Imperium in factories, workshops, the households of the affluent or perform construction work. The programme provides plenty of opportunity for graft. Local businessman are quick to game the system. For example, a Party bigshot might lease an alien worker from the Labour Ministry to serve as a man-servant in his household, then loans him to a factory. He makes a profit, but doesn't inform the ministry, so he only pays the fee for a domestic worker and keeps the rest. The forced labourer is, of course, not paid anything, and still has to perform his domestic duties on top of back-breaking factory work. Forced labourers are stowed away in 'efficient housing locations', which generally border the factories they toil in and are surrounded by barbed wire and checkpoints manned by armed goons. Some forced labourers or 'guest workers' engage in minor acts of sabotage, and other forms of resistance. For example, some who toil in a factory try to demolish or otherwise sabotage machinery and military equipment.
The human working class hate the forced labourers because every job done by a forced labourer, especially an alien, is a wage-paying job taken away from a human. However, much of the human working class shares the Vaderites' speciesist beliefs. Thus bigotry trumps class consciousness. There are no independent trade unions; only a sham union at the beck and call of the Imperium and run by a ridiculously corrupt drunkard. Corruption is omnipresent on all levels of society. Wages are effectively frozen, and prices are fixed to combat inflation. This leads to market distortions. The purpose of a price is to allocate scarce resources. But price controls distort market signals, leading to an inefficient allocation of goods and services. It also contributes to favouritism by suppliers, which is no surprise given how incredibly corrupt the Vaderite state is.
Someone who wants to set up a small business will have to put up with numerous petty regulations and be ready to pay bribes to stay afloat. Sith are tax-exempt, so it is not uncommon for Non-Force-Using businessmen and bureaucrats to approach them for property-stacking schemes for the purpose of tax evasion. Moreover, the security forces owns their own businesses. These ventures are marred by corruption, smuggling, and profiteering problems, but generate substantial revenue for the generals. It goes without saying that this makes it a paradise for rent-seeking careerists.
A KEC officer, Party official or Sith with a private sector operation to repair luxury sport utility vehicles may acquire spare parts and access to expensive machinery for free, because they assemble and modifies many similar vehicles under official government contracts. Another officer may have a free villa in a resort area, granted to him by the government, which he can not only rent out, but also use to host foreign businessmen and potential investment partners. Sith enjoy disproportionate access to subsidies, insinuate themselves into political and economic transactions to extract value, and rotate in and out of public agencies and private companies to capitalise on personal connections and access to restricted information.
Sith, no matter their formal and practical qualifications, are often paid by private companies to serve in public relations or government affairs roles because they can expedite access to licenses, regulatory exemptions, and other government services. In essence, they form a predatory ruling class composed of rent-seekers. It is essentially impossible for civilian auditors to exercise scrutiny over their activities, thereby perpetuating Sith privilege. The rents they profit from, such as villas, bribes, below-market inputs and profits skimmed from contracts - create inefficiencies in the economy by diverting resources from areas they could be used productively, such as healthcare or education. In a nutshell, everyone steals, everyone knows everyone steals and it is only a crime if one ends up on the losing side and is too weak to defend one's ill-gotten gains.
Sith or military-owned firms enjoy competitive advantages over their civilian counterparts, including tax breaks and privileged access to land, capital and labour, which effectively handicaps civilian businesses unless they are part of the megacorps. Small businesses are effectively being strangled by the monopolistic practices and government connections of the corpos. This is awfully ironic since the Humanist People's Party used to depict itself as the defender of honest, human small businesses against 'xenos megacorps and high finance'. But in truth, the Sith and the Party were never for the people, and certainly never for the workers. This shouldn't really be a surprise, but there is never a shortage of people willing to bow to loud-mouthed, pompous demagogues who tell that the solution to all their problems is to give them absolute power and persecute imaginary enemies.
The Imperial finance ministry has devised an ingenious way to help fund exorbitant military spending. The banks take in deposits from ordinary citizens as usual, then the government politely explains to the banks that they should hand over those deposits of real money in exchange for promissory notes and bonds from the government. Thus the ordinary member of the public doesn't have to be involved at all, and the government is not seen as pushing war bonds on civilians. They just need to put money in the bank as normal, and then the banks generously handle the rest in cooperation with the government. This is rather underhanded, but we're literally talking about Sith fascists.
Power in the city is unreliable. The grid operators turn off energy for residential complexes if it's that or disable the lighting on the gaudy monuments to current and past leaders. The rich don't have to worry since they have their own energy sources. For a capital the city is unusually dim at night. Many citizens are used to dealing with fluctuating power supplies and load shedding is common. Businesses, major industries and homes of those who can afford it often have their own generators which kick in when the electricity is cut. However, while hospitals and larger industries may have bigger generators, other smaller organisations or private homes will not necessarily have enough power to last for many days. There are times when the government orders all shops, markets and restaurants to shut early to save energy.
Of course, the 'special shops' and luxury restaurants can often get away with ignoring such orders because they have powerful patrons. Supreme Leader Eisen famously issued an exemption for his favourite restaurant after the owner complained about a regulation issued by the Economics Ministry with the approval of the cabinet. The regulation declared that restaurants should be closed by 22:00 under a new energy-saving plan. Likewise malls and markets were required to shut by 20:30. However, a luxurious shopping mall that catered to the elite was given an exemption after Eisen's wife complained.
Many citizens rely on large-capacity, fuel-powered generators for electricity, subscribing to informal networks and paying each month according to how many amperes of electricity they consume. Officially, the government opposes this system, but de facto turns a blind eye to it. All those small-scale generators worsen air pollution substantially.
Stability: High. Large parts of the city have been depopulated to fill them with absurd monuments, and the remaining population is overwhelmingly human. Civic society has been atomised by totalitarian 'coordination'. There are overall few aliens in the city, and those who live there and toil as slave labourers lack leadership and a cohesive organisation to fight back. There are occasional terrorist attacks. There are areas in the city that still bear the marks of air raids and terrorist bombings, and have basically been forgotten about by the government. Moreover, thousands of people displaced by the construction spree still live in 'temporary accommodations'.
The secret police is not the omnipresent octopus it purports to be, but it largely doesn't have to be because Imperial society is, to a considerable degree, self-policing, enforcing societal norms and denouncing those who break them without orders being necessary. But for most residents the bigges threat is chaotic traffic or a building collapsing...so long as they are human and not a 'deviant'. Alien workers live under a pervasive system of terror and fear.
However, there are cracks showing. Corruption is incredibly high and has infested virtually all institutions and levels of society. At the same time, the city is permeated by fear of air raids, terrorism, of 'xenos uprisings' as well as internal discord. There is a garrison for soldiers to protect the city. It's a prestige posting because it's the capital and far away from serious fighting. Troops serving here are handpicked for loyalty.
This means there's often a rapid turnover whenever a new Supreme Leader takes the helm because naturally he wants to be guarded by his loyalists - and needs to reward them with favours. It's a cushy posting because the soldiers get to wear fancy uniforms and receive good pay without being in a lot of danger. In the past, the guards battalions were drawn from KEC prestige divisions, but Eisen has replaced them with Skyhammer Fleet ground troops. This has been the cause of considerable grumbling.
The secret police still stages raids to crack down on real and imagined dissidents and 'traitors'. They tend to come at nightime. Everyone knows their black groundcars. People look away when it happens and the victims are dragged out of their homes. It's easy to just play blind and go about your business. The extermination of 'enemies of the state' is carried out in places out of sight, out of mind. The Hearthguard, a militia controlled by the Party strongmen, has a presence at government checkpoints and roadblocks in the city. It supports the police and the security services, but is accountable to neither. Some Hearthguard units self-finance through smuggling, looting, and protection rackets.
The Vaderites have developed a surveillance network that extended far beyond the secret police. The countless block wardens the Humanist welfare system, the Imperial Labour Front and the Padme Vader League of Humanist Women are in place to deal with the tasks of control and surveillance. They observe known opponents of the regime, xenos and all those in contact with xenos, or those who are simply 'politically unreliable'. Beyond these roles, minor party functionaries are also important as contact points for denouncers. The same applies to the various police offices. The Order Police reports politically suspect events and turns in forbidden pamphlets. They make their infrastructure available to the secret police, deploy their staff cars and provide their own staff to cordon off areas for executions and arrests. The criminal police plays a decisive role in the fight against so-called 'asocials'. The number of those who lend a hand to uphold the complex of persecution and extermination extends far beyond the secret police and the Sith. This is what gives the system such staying power despite corruption, ineptitude and ruinous policies. Virtually an entire nation is implicated, and all too willing to 'work towards the Leader'. The secret police, and the Sith operate within a climate of willingness to consent and support, which
extends far beyond their helpers in the police, party, and administration. Even more than denunciations, this refers to the basic attitude of most Imperial citizens, which lie at the root of denunciation. The fate of the others does not interest the majority
In the glorious Humanist state, a university degree is unnecessary to join the civil service. Being the graduate of a Party school is enough. As a result, the municipal administration is composed primarily of individuals of impeccable racial pedigree and unimpugnable loyalty. One would expect nothing less in the glorious capital. This extends to the Imperial bureaucracy in the city. As a result, it's less efficient than more impure frontier administrations. Basically, they're mostly there due to their parentage and fanaticism, not skill - a bureaucracy of failsons. It explains the godawful infrastructure projects.
The Humanist People's Party and the Sith have hemorrhaged grassroots support and many citizens resent the bigwigs' privileges, but their hold on power is as tight as ever. It is pertinent to note that most of those humans who disdain the regime still do not support equal rights for non-humans.
Freedom & Oppression: The City of Humanist Destiny is governed by a totalitarian, fascist police state. There is no free press. Freedom of movement, and commerce are tightly restricted and freedom of religion is non-existent. Independent trade unions are banned. Citizens are indoctrinated from cradle to grave. There is no independent judiciary. The security forces possess sweeping powers to arrest, detain, torture and execute supposed dissidents, allowing them to engage in forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.
The secret police has the power to detain people indefinitely without a warrant or indeed any judicial review. This is euphemistically referred to as 'protective custody'. Those arrested. The criminal police employs a similar strategy by employing the power of 'preventive arrest'. This gives it limitless powers of surveillance and allows it to arrest anyone on mere suspicion of criminal activity. In both cases, those arrested are denied the right to appeal or access to a lawyer. Here it is pertinent to note that the judiciary has been thoroughly brought in line with Humanist values. Sometimes when the secret police is dissatisfied with a court verdict, it will simply arrest someone on the steps on the courthouse and place them in 'protective custody'.
The police and the military have set up security posts at the city's entry points. People entering or leaving the city will be stopped and searched. Membership in the Humanist People's Party is practically a requirement for social advancement. All other political parties are banned. Trying to form an independent trade union or an opposition party is ground for arrest.
The Imperial Labour Front operates as a sham trade union with compulsory membership, but is controlled by the regime and strikes are banned. Same-sex as well as mixed species relationships have been criminalised. Queer people as well as humans in relationships with non-humans are sent to 'moral decency centres' to be 'cleaned of vice'. In the process, they are subjected to physical abuse, slave labour, public humiliation and brainwashing. Marriage is defined by law as a union between a human man and human woman, with parenthood as a shared responsibility between both. Individuals deemed racially 'inferior', mentally or physically disabled as well as people with hereditary diseases are subjected to persecution. Women are expected to fulfil a traditional, subservient role. It is viewed as their duty to produce and raise children for the Imperium. Young human boys and girls must join the Humanist youth movement. The infamous People's Court is based in the city, with jurisdiction over 'political offences'. This is an incredibly broad category that can include anything from work slowdowns, black marketeering, 'defeatism', making a critical comment about the regime, distributing oppositionist pamphlets or plotting treason. Being brought before the court is generally tantamount to a death sentence. Defence lawyers are only a formality.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that the whole human population, save for the upper class, chafe under the dictator's boot and are waiting for a saviour. The system works because most Imperial citizens support the regime - and only humans can be citizens. Of course, they grumble about the police, corrupt bureaucrats, overbearing regulations, lack of opportunities and arrogant Sith. But by and large, such things are seen as aberrations, and the Supreme Leader is mostly exempt from criticism. And those who do see through the fog of lies have learned to lie because that is a survival mechanism in a totalitarian state. Would-be liberators and plucky rebels will be denounced, not welcomed with open arms by the human masses. This is not to say that every human citizen is an enthusiastic supporter of the regime. Disillusionment is spreading...but most citizens who aren't true believers just want to keep their head down and get on with their lives without getting into trouble. Only a tiny fraction of the population is actively engaged in opposition. They are an isolated minority forced to live a double life.
Most Imperial citizens share the speciesist, human supremacist beliefs propagated by the regime. Aliens being segregated, denied civic rights and enslaved is viewed as normal...and in most cases only causes grumbling because alien forced labourers 'drive down wages and are taking our jobs'. The Humanist security state could not function without a veritable legion of informants. And most citizens are all too eager to look away when the police comes for the 'work-shy', drug addicts, 'vagabonds', the 'heretics', the 'xenos lovers' and 'lesser beings'. They look away and go about their daily lives.
Ironically, the headquarters of the State Protection Police (SPP) - the secret state police - is understaffed and, for the most part, made up of bureaucrats and clerks. In other words, they are very reliant upon denunciations by ordinary citizens to monitor and control society. Ironically, this has led to the secret police at times being overwhelmed by denunciations because it cannot process them fast enough. In many ways, the secret police is a reactive organisation, constructed within Imperial society and whose functioning is structurally dependent on the continuing co-operation of Imperial citizens. Their activities help maintain the atmosphere of fear and terror. Denunciations are the cause of most prosecutions.
SPP are civil servants, but not bound by the law. Or to be more precise, on paper they of course have to abide by all the laws and regulations, but de facto a a ton of laws and loopholes give them a near unchecked capacity to exploit their biggest weapon, protective custody. Without a conviction or a trial, or even an instruction by prosecutor or administrative court, the SPP can take an Imperial citizen to a concentration camp for a period of up to three months for 'protective custody', under the pretext that they are such scum that the Imperial people would harm them, so they have to be 'protected'. In fact, upon leaving the camp they have to sign a paper that they requested to be 'protected' themselves to avoid 'popular wrath'. While this isn't exactly the same as being sent to a camp proper, since camps have a special part for victims of 'protective custody', which have better conditions, it is nevertheless something nobody wants to experience. The primary victims of protective custody are 'professional and habitual criminals'. That is to say, people who have been convicted for a period longer than six months more than three times for various crimes. Another group of criminals who are often sent to protective custody are those who had been sentenced by court to prison terms deemed too short by the secret police, so when they get released from prison, a couple SPP officers will be waiting to drive them off to the camp. Other groups targeted for protective custody include 'anti-socials', political and religious dissidents, queer people, pacifists, and others.
Generally speaking, the secret police exercises a 'lighter touch' when dealing with Imperial citizens. For them, violence in secret police interrogations is very real, but not the first tactic. Verbal abuse, physical exhaustion tactics and psychological pressure is more common, while beatings are not utilised until a person has already been judged to be guilty. The mere threat of being sent to a camp, howevever, is sufficient to make the secret police feared amongst those guilty of 'political crimes', but also amongst the common citizens. The courts cavalierly dismiss allegations of torture during imprisonment. They routinely violate defendants' rights to fair trials, including the right to legal counsel during interrogation, the right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and through reliance on secretly sourced reports.
Far from being 'apolitical', the regular law enforcement agencies are fully steeped in Humanist ideology. Because the nation is regarded as a biological and pan-generational phenomenon, 'a living being that could sicken or be healed like an individual person,' Nebe, the criminal police specialists of the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations favour preventative policing because they perceive criminal police work to be 'hygienic'. Despite the manifold powers at the police's disposal, Humanist dynamism hasn't eliminated crime. The biggest criminals are in government and big business. But the police continues to perceive both 'asocial' and traditional criminal behavior as defined by genetic inheritance rather than environment. They work closely with the Institute for Criminal-Biological Research to identify criminal 'types', whose socially non-conformist lifestyles are 'breeding grounds' for future criminals.
The Imperium defines citizenship on the basis of blood. Only humans can be citizens and they possess some legal protection, as far as a totalitarian state acknowledges legalistic niceties such as rule by law. Non-humans, on the other hand, cannot be citizens and are considered assets and production factors at best, but never people with rights. The only non-humans permitted in the city are servants, slave labourers and indentured workers. Segregated from the human population, they are subject to constant abuse, harassment and worse. Even alien children can be conscripted for manual labour. Alien labourers are policed by the secret police. If one of them tries to escape, their family and the entire work crew will be punished.
Aliens who are the personal servants of a bigshot or skilled workers fare a bit better because they are considered more valuable, but they are nonetheless victims of mental and physical abuse and lack legal protection beyond what their master sees fit to grant them. Confined to their masters' homes, they are extremely vulnerable to abuse. The courts and the police will not protect them because the entire system is built upon systemic oppression. An alien cannot legally testify in court and will be denied legal counsel. Violence and abuse is a constant in their lives, and there is no legal penalty for abusing or murdering them. When it comes to them, the security forces drop all restraint. Many alien 'guest workers', forced labourers perish from exhaustion, malnutrition or disease. Their families are routinely denied compensation. Indeed, many aren't even officially notified when their loved ones have died or offered condolences.
As mentioned, the government strives to deny reproductive rights. While human women are encouraged to have as many 'pure human' children as possible through indoctrination, societal pressure and financial perks and denied access to abortion services, reproduction is strongly curtailed for aliens. Among other things, this takes the form of involuntary and often secret sterilisation, or secret implantation of contraceptive devices in women. It has also led to the bizarre situation that contraceptives are relatively easy for alien workers to procure, but very difficult for humans. The Vaderites routinely break up the families of forced labourers to 'prevent unproductive distractions'. The trauma of rupturing families lasts lifetimes for the enslaved.
All human Force-Users must join the Disciples of the Vader. Their families receive numerous economic and social privileges such as tax breaks, preferential treatment and priority service within society and public services compared to the average pleb. They are given the best of everything, whether it is housing, healthcare, or schooling for their children. Non-Force-Using parents whose union has produced a Force-Sensitive child will receive an award They will never have to stand in line in a queue - unless there's a Sith in front of them. A butcher will give them the best cut of the meat, and normal plebs will have to give up their seat for them on the train. But their children are indoctrinated into serving an evil cult. Alien Force-Sensitives are murdered.
Curiously, gun ownership laws are remarkably lax. The Tephriki Weapons' Act has deregulated the acquisition and transfer of rifles and shotguns as well as ammunition. The legal age of purchase is eighteen. Holders of annual hunting permits, government employees, members of the Humanist People's Party, and Sith are not subject to gun ownership restrictions at all. Of course, non-humans are banned from bearing arms. But 'pure' human citizens enjoy looser gun restrictions than during the days when Tephrike was a democracy. Imperial citizens do not refuse to rebel because they lack guns, they don't rebel because they are fine with fascism and genocide. Human males in good standing are encouraged to arm themselves to display their 'manliness' and 'defend home and hearth' against fictitious 'xenos hordes'. The Imperial Sporting and Hunting Association, a gun rights lobbying organisation, is a strong supporter of the Vaderite regime. It also supports posting armed gunmen in front of school buildings.
Description:
The city at night - the villas of the rich and gaudy monuments always have power though.
"If this city was ever known for its beauty, Vaderite architecture has destroyed whatever charm might have existed. There was the destruction of residences, and landmarks to make way for monumental Vaderite architecture which then was often only half-completed before corruption and bureuacracy took their toll, the mildewed concrete monstrosities of People's Housing, the buildings bombed in air raids and yet to be properly repaired, decades of terrorism with its minor incendiary devices, often causing more destruction in the security measures it provokes than in the actual explosion, the Nether Crisis, the structure of a parasitical State that exists everywhere and trusts no one.
Propaganda billboards with the familiar Vaderite symbol and a patriotic message hang from the walls of public buildings. People raise their eyes to sky as a super-sized hologram of the local Moff prattles on about the glory of the Imperium. My eyes stray from the police post on the corner of the street to the high, floodlit, barbed-wired-topped walls surrounding the local school, and my heart absolutely aches." - Kyriaki
The City of Humanist Destiny is the crown jewel of the Imperium, an architectural marvel the likes of which Tephrike has never seen. A 'racially pure' city of marble and splendour, fit for the greatest heroes of humankind. That is what the Ministry of Propaganda says. It is a testament to the Vaderites' megalomania. In a nutshell, the City of Humanist Destiny represents an environment whose intention is to negate individual will and stun the individual into complete submission to the Imperium's delusional rulers. The city is a surreal, wasteful showpiece. Armed soldiers, Party militiamen and policemen guard street corners. The city has been filled with grandiose monuments and statues of past Supreme Leaders and Sith Lords. Captured enemy tanks have been placed outside important public buildings.
Historic sites and residential areas have been demolished to make room for empty highways, kitsch monuments, government blocks and palaces of white marble. It's like walking through a ghost town where most of the buildings are unfinished. One of the buildings was so heavy it turned over and sank in the swamp. The city is a nightmare for urban planners. Roads have been closed for years, which has created a mess for communters. This has been exacerbated by the closure of many road lanes. There are special lane for special groundcars belonging to Sith, senior government officials, army officers etc. Normal cities have bus lanes, they have priority lanes. Anyone found in there without authorisation will have their license revoked.
There are construction projects left and right, some of them left unfinished. Construction crews improve their meagre salaries by selling building materials on the black market. Some areas have been entirely deserted as building blocs were demolished to make room for structures never completed or colossal monuments. The municipal authorities have to manage to manage finding temporary accommodation for tens of thousands, managing communications in the capital with constantly shifting plans, unfinished works which couldn't be removed, problems with utilities, and financial issues. Unfortunately for the municipal government, it has little to no power. Grand Constructor Lord Skaer regularly runs roughshood over them. The conflicting demands from Party bosses, Sith, business leaders and other notables have resulted in utterly chaotic urban development.
Moreover, there are still many displaced people who have been living in 'temporary' dwellings at the outskirts of the city for years, or in hastily raised, shoddily maintained housing complexes. In many cases, the forcibly evicted residents have received no compensation. There are also over two hundred thousand workers employed in the project. Many have stayed in the city, but now lack opportunities because economic woes have forced the regime to downsize the construction sector. All this means there is a lot of urban sprawl, fairly limited housing and bad planning and coordination. Meanwhile, the Sith, Humanist Party bosses, senior government bureaucrats and the corporate officials live in secluded neighbourhoods or in the environs, often rubbing shoulders with each other and aloof from the plebeians.
However, even high ranking officials, unless at the top, may have to cram into unsanitary and unsuitable accommodations because the actual hotels and palaces are...under construction. All in all, the city is nightmarish to live in: hostile to pedestrians, who are forced underground into a system of tunnels just to cross streets, and with a chaotic road system, as the Grand Architect Lord Skaer does not believe in traffic lights or trams. Public transit is a ramshackle mess, but groundcars and speeders are expensive and fuel is rationed unless one is wealthy enough to pay a bribe or black market contacts. The architecture has literally and metaphorically crushed the people.
Citizens are made to feel variously impressed and inhibited by the towering structures around them. Just like a bad kickstarter project its completion just around the corner. The Vaderites offer citizens 'model housing' in the world capital once it is...if they only sign here and make a donation towards its completion. They never see the house they've been promised. Officially, alien 'saboteurs' delay progress. It's amazing how many of them there are. And how they never seem to get caught. The rushed nature of the construction of many buildings means that several are unsafe. This has resulted in apartment buildings and other structures collapsing. Moreover, corrupt officials and construction workers often sell high-value construction materials on the black market and replace them with inferior substitutes. Lying and corruption are deeply entrenched. The system of pervasive lying and grifting works because most people are in on it. Sith don't pay taxes, so it is not uncommon for Non-Force-Using businessowners to approach them for property stacking schemes to avoid taxes.
Meanwhile, many people have been displaced by the Vaderites' decrees to make room for absurd monuments, living in rather subpar housing; thousands of people were drawn to the capital from their family farms and are now wandering around without many job prospects. Small business owners have been strangled by the cartels, many of which are run by 'business Sith'. Beggars and homeless are criminalised as 'asocials'. The police regularly rounds them up to detain them in labour camps. A camp located in close proximity has been turned into a large - and incredibly inefficient - brickworks factory. Prisoners and forced labourers are housed in substandard conditions and must work around the clock and in all weathers until they collapse and die from exhaustion, disease, abuse or malnutrition. As always, alien slave labourers fare the worst because the Vaderites are virulent human supremacists.
Meanwhile, the narcissistic 'master builder' Skaer has his head in the clouds. Sycophantic acolytes feed his architectral delusions. His construction firm is contracted by the office of Grand Constructor. Of course, it's just a coincidence that he happens to be the Grand Constructor in question. The cityscape is dominated by the Hall of the Fatherland, an absurdly grandiose domed building looming at the end of an arrow-shaped boulevard. It was built to glorify the cleptocratic, inhumane regime. An army of construction workers and engineers has to work around the clock to keep it from sinking. Its dimensions are so ridiculous that it towers overy every other structure in the City of Humanist Destiny. To make room for grandiose avenues leading to the Hall and other official buildings, vast swathes of the city have been demolished. In vain one looks for a trace of life on many of the balconies of monolithic apartment buildings.
The core of the city is composed of two massive avenues running through the heart of the capital, flanking a vast array of official buildings and monuments. There is a north-south axis and an east-west axis. The avenues are broad enough to fit large numbers of marching troops. The seven kilometre long Avenue of Triumph terminates at a massive parade ground featuring the colossal Palace of the Supreme Leader, government buildings, the Office of the Grand Marshal, and the Hall of the Fatherland. Is southern end terminated in the Blades of the Sith'ari. The central axis is bracketed by enormous train stations to the north and south. The population of the city centre is essentially transient, and the daily lives of the city's actual residents have been rendered invisible. The Hall of the Fatherland serves as the terminus of the boulevard, which does not continue in a straight line following this monument, but veers off at a northwest angle. The boulevard comes to an end at its southern- and northernmost points in two massive new train stations. You can enter enter the city at either of these points, travel the length of the boulevard, stopping at the Hall of the Fatherland along the way, and ultimately leave at the opposite end. It becomes a pilgrimage, essentially.
The further you get away from the boulevard of splendours, the more decrepit and lifeless the city looks, and you see damage caused by Dominion aerial bombings. The city's builders boasted of its super-efficient sewage system. Indeed, it generally worked in the old days. Unfortunately, over the years it has grown significantly less efficient due to being re-routed to make room for the massive foundations required by the various monuments. The Hall of the Fatherland has proved especially problematic. Such a vast building needs a lot of toilets, but they're all crammed together in basements and thus prone to backing up. The high water table, shoddy pipes and subsiding ground mean there's a prevalent smell of sewage in the city. But people who want to move must deal with all manners of bureaucratic hurdles.
Here and there, one comes across anti-aircraft defence towers made of duracrete. These towers ward important areas from air strikes. These are actually competently designed, with their own freshwater wells, power station and underground facilities. Air-raid shelters are a common sight. Residents are issued gas masks.
The store window displays are neat and organised to more or less hide the fact that there isn't much on sale anywhere, except in the special shops acessible only for the elite. What's available looks cheap. Take the typical clothes store for instance - a mix of neo-folk costumes based on 'traditional' Tephriki and Naboo fashion and 'modern' designs. Perhaps a traveller will come across alien labourers clearing away rubble, or huddled together around a sandlbaster and a wall someone has sprayed anti-regime graffitti on. All of them wear jumpsuits with big black letters. GW - 'Guest Workers'. They may also wear manacles, even though they are officially 'free'.
In effect, the city is devoid of real life. It is a sterile theme park for a megalomaniacal cult. The city also has Tephrike's largest enclosed observation wheel, the planet's largest fountain, the largest mural of a star, an artificial waterfall and an artificial lake. Construction on a grandiose spaceport has been halted due to lack of resources. Ironically, even if the resources were available and were not immediately embezzled, the project would have been pointless anyway because no spaceships would ever take off or land. Moreover, Vaderite airlines have a lot of crashes; they're all blamed on sabotage.
When the spaceport was still under construction, an entire village was demolished because the Supreme Leader was worried that new arrivals would see the unattractive everyday life of ordinary people from the windows of aircraft coming in to land. People visiting the city can also look forward to empty parks and similarly empty high-rise buildings faced with white marble. The Imperium has invested in vast infrastructure projects, but not in the right specialists. Summers are hot on Tephrike, and so during the hot summer months several neighbourhoods must go without water, and electricity for days or even longer...and endure bitter cold during winter because the heating does not work. Meanwhile, in the city centre a massive fountain flows around the clock, and light burns brightly. The authorities knock down ancient trees to make room for empty roads.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Blades of the Sith'ari - a pair of triumphal arches that mark the southern entrance to the central boulevard that contains the Hall of the Fatherland and various government offices. Consists of a pair of outstretched arms with giant hands that resemble Vader's gauntlets. The gigantic arms look like they are bursting out of the ground and each hold a sword. Both blades are made of stainless steel and meet at a central point. A flagpole rises from the point where the swords cross.
Hall of the Fatherland - The most important, impressive and absurdly wasteful building in a city full of grandiose, pointless monuments. Theoretically, it houses various government offices, but its most important function is to serve as a shrine to the Humanist ideology. The Leader rarely conducts official business from here. The great dome of the Hall of the Fatherland is said to be visible from far beyond the city, rising from a massive granite podium to soaring heights. On top of the dome's lantern is a massive fist of Vader, clutching the globe of Tephrike. The dome is just over three hundred metres high. Covered in copper, it looms mountainously over the surrounding resplendence. Ninety-four parcels of land had to be cleared to make room. The structure is surrounded by broad avenues, a capacious plaza, and expansive areas for parades.
Inside, one finds a marble-walled interior of frankly absurd dimensions. Instead of walls and floors with large geometric inlays of marble specimens, the interior of the structure is clad in white marble. The ceiling is coffered. The dome of the hall rests on a zone of shallow recesses above the pillars. The heart of the structure is a vast amphitheatre meant to host rallies of more than 200,000 people. The Leader can address his audience from a massive podium. Ironically, due to the scale of the structure, the figure who stands before the crowd dwindles to an optical zero. To resolve this problem, the designers resorted to projecting the glorious leader as a massive, gaudy hologram standing directly behind and above the podium. The hologram flickers like crazy due to the number of projectors involved.
A complex network of underground railways is connected to the public transport network to accommodate such gatherings. Alas, said transport network often experiences breakdowns. Unfortunately, there are other problems. Construction was overreliant on slave labour, and Lord Skaer wanted it to be completed as fast as possible to please his master. Thus the builders cut many corners and ignored numerous safety regulations, resulting in thousands of deaths. Moreover, the Hall was built on an unsuitable foundation. Within the first months of laying the massive concrete base, the entire structure slowly started to sink into the ground. Billions of Imperial credits had to be spent on concrete alone to reinforce the sagging foundation.
Even today, construction teams have to work around the clock to maintain the Hall of the Fatherland. Secret tunnels have been dug solely to hide convoys of cement trucks that drive here every week. Maintenance is a massive drain on the Imperium's treasury. But Skaer excels at hiding the expenses through shell corporations, fraudulent accounting, bribes, and intimidation.
The Hall of the Fatherland has its own microclimate because the breathing and perspiration of visitors precipitates in the domed ceiling, resulting in constant light inside inside. This is kind of the opposite of what the Vaderites wanted, but they can't admit failure. Moreover, the ventilation system does not work well. This is a problem because gathering a massive crowd of people in the amphitheatre for multi-hour rallies produces an...awful lot of methane. In addition, such a vast building needs a lot of toilets...but they're all crammed together in basements and thus prone to backing up.
Wilhuff Tarkin Technical School - high, floodlit, barbed-wire topped walls surround this Vaderite 'model' school. A 'necessary' precaution against 'xenos Jedi terrorism'. The school is boys only because the Vaderites are misogynists and think they're the only ones worth educating properly. It is a technical school which teaches students skills like metalworking, physical education, medicine, engineering and 'practical' sciences.
St. Padmé School of Feminine Excellence - Vaderite society is deeply sexist, and patriarchal. In the Vaderite utopia, women are relegated to being wives and homemakers. This school is one of several institutions that have been created to train young women for their roles as 'ideal Humanist brides'. It is located in a former villa, which has been set up to replicate a model household. Here, they are indoctrinated into Humanist tenets and taught about their 'wifely duties'. The future fiancées of senior officials and officers are sent here. It is considered an 'honour' that increases a woman's chance to find a 'worthy suitor', so bigshots from the provinces try to send their daughters here. All students are required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Supreme Leader, pledge to raise their children as Humanists and only marry a 'racially pure' husband. Ironically, even the Vaderites have to occasionally acknowledge that this happy utopia where men are warriors and women stay in the kitchen is not just stupid, but unfeasible...because labour crises have forced them to employ women in munitions factories, and other roles normally considered 'masculine'.
Girls sent here learn about housekeeping skills such as cooking, gardening, sewing, and child care, gardening, 'proper Tephriki fashion', history, Tephriki folk songs, dancing and the tenets of the Church of the Dark Father. Since they are supposed to marry members of the elite, they are taught to control and 'discipline' servants. Courses on 'racial hygiene' teach them that only the 'racially valuable' deserve care...and all who do not meet this criteria must be 'eliminated from the gene pool'. They must also accept it if their husband takes a lover and sires bastards to 'spread his superior genes'...provided they are 'pure'. The 'noble example' of St. Padmé features prominently in the curriculum. There is a statue of her in the courtyard, and students wear outfits modelled on what the Vaderites think her handmaidens wore. The real Padmé would be horrified because what the Vaderites think she believed in has nothing in common with what she stood for. Women who graduate go home with a certificate stamped with an arcane rune of the tree of life. Dropouts are refused permission to marry or have children. This has led to petty, bureaucratic idiocy when say a student had to leave before graduation because she was being conscripted for war-related work, but the school board spitefully refused her a certificate. The bureaucratic nonsense goes the other way round if the person is sufficiently well-connected.
Soldiers' Hall - the apotheosis of Imperial militarism. The builders called it a 'cathedral'. The hall faces the north-south axis over a total length of 250 metres. The floor area is 25,000 square metres with a total height of 75 metres. Front wings 75 metres long have created a large forecourt, which means that the actual hall is directly on the street. It is therefore have been perceptible to the viewer on the street as a whole. The administrative buildings for Ministry of War lies directly behind the Soldiers' Hall. Soldiers' hall and the building complex for the military are to be seen as a unit. As a connected unit, the administration building is also intended to be a 'symbol of eternity' through the radiant power of the soldiers' hall.
The hall looks very monolithic, as if hewn from a large piece of granite. The abandonment of small-scale ornaments and round columns in favor of angular double pillars underlines this impression. If the observer stands at the edge of the forecourt, he will see left and right the wing structures facing the street, each with a relief 18 metres wide and six metres high, and an equestrian figure projecting into the forecourt. They showed a procession of warriors designed in heroic poses. If the viewer crosses the forecourt, he will come to an outside staircase that leads to the left and right of the wings as well as frontally to the actual hall. Once at the top he will have faced a series of double pillars between which he could have entered the hall.
A massive Vader helmet rises above the pillars as the only wall decoration in the hall; beyond that, only the Imperial banner appears as an ornament. The openings are supposed to be five metres wide, but in relation to the other dimensions they appear 'like narrow slits', like 'lattice work'. Inside, after walking through a vestibule, the observer will first have the great emptiness of the main hall developed, which would have been 220 metres long, 50 metres wide and 63 metres high. Double pillars carry the entablature, while round arches were to span the barrel vault. This tremendous emptiness in combination with the staging of natural incidence of light and, as can only be assumed, braziers and flags is intended to evoke a reverent and solemn, basically sacred atmosphere.
The 'Conqueror' statue stands the south wall, flanked by two eagle sculptures and raised by a staircase and base. Without the base and steps, the sculpture is 14 metres high. If the reliefs on the wing structures are to tell of the march into battle, the 'conqueror' announces the glorious outcome. If the viewer has turned away from the 'conqueror', his gaze falls on a huge staircase that leads him down into the three-aisled crypt. The groined vault with a peak height of seven meters is mesnt to give the viewer 'a feeling of heavy heaviness and thus an expression of pathetic mourning' Here the sarcophagi of 'great' soldiers are be laid out. The viewer should be made aware that war is the 'high point of human self-realisation'. In other words, there is nothing more 'glorious' than to die for the fatherland and he should follow their noble example and sacrifice himself for a fascist cleptocracy - and maybe commit a couple atrocities in the process. The sole purpose of the Soldiers' Hall is propaganda.
Outlook of Humanist Glory - There are very, very serious doubts about this tower's practicality. It was meant to be a massive structure of glass and steel. Gigantic amounts of steel. The tower is shaped like two intertwined helixes, which cradle four suspended structures. Each was meant to have its own purpose and shape. For example, there would be a cube, above it a pyramid and above it a cylinder. Around it visitors were meant to be transported by various mechanical devices. The tower was originally meant to serve as a grand observation point over the city. What happened is that the foundations and first 'layer' were built, but now are just rusted stubs. Humanist Glory is a rusted, unfinished, unworthy pile of rubble.
Grand Imperium Hotel and Residence - a massive, pyramid-shaped hotel with no guests. Construction was abruptly halted when the Imperium went through an economic crisis and the money stopped flowing. Mocked-up images of the completed hotel appeared on Imperial stamps, but the Imperial government basically ignored it after shrinking the construction sector.
Indeed, the government went so far to manipulate official photos to remove the incomplete building from the skyline. To this day, it cannot be found on official printed maps of the city. The building has no windows or interior fittings. Essentially, it is a giant concrete shell, with a rusting construction crane on top. People have nicknamed it the Phantom Hotel.
Meanwhile, the hotel is decaying badly. At the moment it's on an eleven degree tilt due to sinking foundation. Rumours say that the secret police used the basement and some unfinished rooms as torture sites after construction was halted, but abandoned the hotel when it was judged structurally unsound. Homeless children have settled inside, but often get into altercations with the local authorities.
Grand People's Forum - a grand plaza surrounded by various public buildings, namely the residence and headquarters of the Moff, a bell tower, a meeting hall, a Party museum, headquarters for the Imperial Youth Corps, the Racial Health Office, and the Imperial Labour Front. Unsurprisingly, the complex has monstrous dimensions - tens of thousands of square metres. The city had to acquire vast plots of land and demolish over a hundred houses. Officially, any pure Imperial citizen can at any time address a petition to the Moff and the Party will give him a fair hearing. This is obviously a lie. There is a big centrepiece on the plaza where the dome fell in...crushing some people at the dedication. Of course it was blamed on terrorist xenos...when really it was poor quality metal and bad concrete pouring.
Presidium Paper and Parchment - a paper mill that is part of a holding company called the Grand Knights Commissariat Exchange of the Ebon Claw...which administers the KEC's business empire. Why does the secret police operate its own businesses? Supposedly the revenue helps cover operating costs and pensions. Regardless, the paper made by them is of such poor quality that people can always tell KEC paper from the good stuff because it is coarse and rough and irritating. Nonetheless, Presidium Paper and Parchment enjoys a variety of tax exemptions, including exemptions on corporate tax. It may have something to do with the fact that it's run by the people who have files on everyone and run the concentration camps.
Naturally most of the work force consists of forced labourers. Alien workers are segregated, subject to constant surveillance and given the most unpleasant tasks. They eat in a separate canteen and must live in a building next to the mill. Abuse is rampant, and working conditions are unsafe due to numerous health risks the management doesn't bother to mitigate, such as hazards posed by chemical substances, unsafe or faulty machinery and combustible dust. The factory is equipped with watchtowers, police guard posts, razor wire and inward-facing barbed-wire fences.
Great Promise Aqueduct - an aqueduct system created to bring in water in a grandiose way. The system was meant to deliver water from the Stateira River Valley in the eastern mountains. However, there were complications because building the aqueduct was controversial from the moment it was conceived. Diverting water to the Humanist Destiny meant the Stateira River Valley would no longer be viable for farming communities. So much water was diverted from the valley that life became difficult for the farmers, who were organised in a local branch of the Imperial Food Estate.
Angry farmers tried to sabotage the aqueduct. However, the municipal authority prevailed. Dropping water levels threatened the valley's ecosystem for migrating birds. The authorities didn't care about the birds, but the farmers and ranchers did. Young farmers who saw no prospects at home migrated into the city. But when reckless spending, and ruinous warmongering caused an economic crisis and the construction boom ended, they found themselves shackled by debt and robbed of opportunities. The aqueduct was targeted by Dominion bombers, and can no longer be used. Ironically, the severe damage done to it has allowed farming to resume.
Padmé Falls - a large artificial waterfall inspired by Theed architecture. While the capital has some lakes, it is far from any real river. But this did not stop the architects whent hey conceived this landmark. So far they have avoided flooding, but water shortages are an issue. In their wisdom, the Vaderites would rather cut water to the poor than shut down their vanity project. Naturally it is named after the patron saint of Humanism.
Greystone Building - this bland office building serves as the headquarters of the State Protection Police. Administrative bodies of the Security Police, which comprises both the SPP and the criminal police, are also housed here. On first sight, it looks very mundane. Most of the people who work here are clerks and bureaucrats. Officers are expected to be 'proper' in dealing with Imperial citizens because the police is supposed to be 'friend and helper' of all 'law-abiding' human citizens.
The prison is on the top floor, but it has no windows, so most prisoners think they are being detained in the basement. Security cameras are omnipresent. Solitary confinement is routinely employed to isolate and break prisoners. The house prison comprises prison cells, lavatories and sanitation as well as rooms for the guards. Prison cells lie adjacent to the interrogation room. They are euphemistically referred to as trams. The lower basement of the building has a house bunker. As a rule, prisoners are not taken there during air raids. Thus inmates left behind in the prison cells have to suffer additional torment during air raids. Prisoners try to stay sane by making inscriptions on the cell walls containing information for families, calendars, prayers and such.
The secret police routinely uses torture during interrogations, but is more 'restrained' about it when dealing with human prisoners who are Imperial citizens. They prefer more 'refined' methods in that case...unless their superiors have already decided that a prisoner is guilty and just needs to be beaten until they sign a confession. There is no restraint when 'breaking in' alien prisoners. Perversely, the city's largest toy shop lies adjacent to the building.
Oculus of the Dark Vision - the headquarters of the Eyes of the Dark Father, the Sith inquisition that monitors all other security and intelligence agencies. The building is an extravagantly ornate, gothic structure. Moreover, it has a looming clock tower and a second, smaller octagonal-shaped tower. The building has multiple floors, but the lift's efficacy is...variable. The basement level is used as an underground detention facility. Cells are often flooded with hurlothrumbic gases to amplify a prisoner's fear and disorientation. There is no canteen for prisoners. Water and nutrient tubes have been installed to remove the need to deliver food, thereby minimising sentient contact.
All prisoners are kept in solitary confinement, and are compelled to sit motionless in darkness. Inmates are confined to single person cells for 23 hours a day, and are only removed for one hour per day at most under restraint (handcuffs, shackles, or straight jackets) for their exercise period which can occur at any point, even in the middle of the night. Sometimes they never leave the cell for days or even weeks on end. The cells are tiny, have a cement bed, white walls, security cameras, no windows and barred doors. Toilet, sink and water fountain are combined into one unit. Their primary contact is with guards and they are never left alone with another inmate. Abuse of prisoners is the norm. The Eyes are particularly fond of torturing them with mentalism and illusions.
Acropolis Tower - a tall tower on a nearby hill to view the 'glory' of the city...but because they decided to make it of stone it's uncomfortable and crumbling. They should have just used concrete. The elevator never works so you have to walk up the stairs.
Iossif Tolakis Street - a major thoroughfare in the city centre. The street's name is often used as a metonyme for the Imperial government administration as a whole. Named after a domestic terrorist, conspiracy theorist and human supremacist who was shot by an officer from the Parliamentary Security Detachment for being part of the illegal assault on Parliament building prior to the Gulag Virus.
When Winston Stakes lost the parliamentary election, he made fraudulent accusation of vote rigging. Fired up by his incendiary rhetoric, an armed mob tried to storm Parliament to prevent the new government from taking office - and hang legislators they considered 'treasonous'. The comically inept coup collapsed within hours, but there were casualties and it ushered in the Years of Lead. Vaderite propaganda has imbued the dead domestic terrorists with the aura of martyrs.
The street houses various government offices of marble and sculpted concrete. Their immense facade dwarfs the pedestrians outside their walls, reducing them to tiny cogs of state. Security is incredibly tight in this sector. Any citizen who approaches a government office can expect long queues, multiple security checks and would be well-advised to have a bribe handy. Originally the Supreme Leader's residence was located here in what used to be the Old Chancellery, but it was deemed to be not grandiose enough. Several public buildings have been damaged or destroyed by bombing raids and fighting, forcing ministries to relocate much of their staff.
The War Ministry building, built in neoclassical Coruscanti style, has grand martial courtyards, but has sustained damage. Among other things, there was fighting in the war room when a cabal of officers tried to stage a coup during the reign of Supreme Leader Hyperion. The poorly planned putsch was an abysmal failure. Four of the plotters were shot by firing squad in the War Ministry's courtyard.
Fortress of Destiny - a very pompous name for the barracks that houses the guards units. As decrepit as it is, the City of Humanist Destiny is the Imperial capital. Control of the levers of power is important for any Supreme Leader to stay in power. The garrison is heavily fortified, and houses prestige Imperial guard units. It's a prestige posting because it's the capital and far away from serious fighting. Troops serving here are handpicked for loyalty, though not necessarily ability.
In the past, this was the home of the 1st KEC Tank Division Darth Vader. Traditionally, the honour guard for providing security at the Supreme Leader's residences, his public appearances and during Party rallies was drawn from this unit. However, the soldiers of the Darth Vader Division opposed Eisen during the Vaderite Civil War, swearing fealty to Lord Achilles, the psychopathic boy-king and son of the dead Supreme Leader Furcht.
They gave up the fight after Achilles' death. Eisen 'magnaminously' pardoned them, but the new Supreme Leader has relieved them of their bodyguard unities. Now the Imperial Legion Darth Tyranus is based there. It's closer to regiment sized than a true legion, but has a lot of firepower, especially by Tephriki standards. Rather than being part of the KEC or the regular army, the legionaires belong to the Skyhammer Fleet's ground forces. This has led to considerable grumbling. A special detachment of the Legion called the Life Guard accompanies the Supreme Leader and guards whichever residence he happens to be staying at.
City of Humanist Destiny Mayoralty Building - as the name implies, this is nominally the chief administrative building for the municipal government. However, city hall is far less powerful than it might appear on first sight. The mayor is appointed by the Interior Minister upon the suggestion of the local Party strongman. While he was 'perfecting' the city, Skaer routinely ran roughshood over anything the city government had to say that he didn't like. The building is in need of renovation, both due to age and war damage. But Skaer constantly denied resources out of pettiness because the mayor committed the unspeakable sin of suggesting that a different architect oversee some building projects. Skaer is an incredibly petty and arrogant man.
Southarch Station and Northall Station - the two massive train stations. One is located to the south of the grand boulevard with all the major monuments and government buildings, the other to the north. They derive their names from the landmarks they are close to. In the case of the first it is near the Blades of the Sith'ari, while the second is near the Hall of the Fatherland. Public transit in the capital is a mess. Skaer does not believe in traffic lights or trams, so pedestrians have been forced to retreat underground and rely on the chaotic underground subways.
Moreover, both train stations have been designed to accommodate a massive broad-gauge railway system meant for gigantic double-deck trains that top seven metres. They are part of the Grand Imperium Overland Railway. The massive carriages are the size of an average sub-urban semi-detached house, stretching for half a kilometre. It's supposed to connect all major cities of the Imperium, buth in truth the mega-trains only reach three of them because the infrastructure does not exist. The City of Humanist Destiny is one of their main stops. Fittingly, the capital features two massive train stations. One is located to the north of the grand avenue, the other to the south. The southern one is in a state of disrepair though.
The monster trains trundle back and forth, often breaking down. They move on uncertain schedules because fascism has failed to make the trains run on time. The railway is not only ambitious due to the wide gauge. It operates on ballastless tracks. The point of this is to ensure that they can serve as roads for military vehicles. Somehow, no one thought about just building a road next to them. Or rather people did but their claims were dismissed. The rails themselves are notoriously hard to maintain and form a barrier for pedestrians and numerous injuries have occurred from people scaling the concrete tresses and then falling the other side.
Lake Triumph Penitentiary - a prison facility that has become notorious as an execution site for people sentenced by the People's Court. Thousands of people have been executed here. Initially the condemned were beheaded with an axe in the prison's courtyard. However, the Vaderites have advanced a bit and installed a guillotine in the backyard work shed, a brick building near the prison walls. Occasionally, victims are hanged. For this purpose, gallows have been set up in the same area as the guillotine. Regardless of method, the bereaved must pay a fee for each day the detainee has spent in prison. They must also pay for the execution. The bodies of the dead are given to an anatomist employed at the medical college of the local university. He and his studentd dissect the corpses and write academic papers about their findings.
The prison is run by the Ministry of Justice rather than the KEC. People who have been executed include humans who have committed espionage for the Dominion, the Republican Guard or the Inheritors of the Light Father. Other victims are conspirators among the Imperial officer corps who attempted to assassinate Supreme Leader Hyperion and overthrow the Vaderite regime, feminists, queer rights activists, liberals and socialists. Students have been guillotined here for the crime of distributing pamphlets calling for an end to war and dictatorship. Aliens have been murdered, too, such as Zabrak, Togruta, Gamorreans and Wookiees. This includes both resistance fighters and people who were deported to the Imperium for slave labour.
Imperial Diet Building - the Vaderite state is very open in its contempt for democracy, and popular sovereignty. Yet it theoretically has a unicameral legislature. There is one delegate for about 60,000 constituents each. People mockingly call them 'a thousand nodding heads' and 'two thousand clapping hands' because clapping and nodding are their only powers. Voters are presented with a single Humanist Party list of candidates they can approve or reject en bloc. All 'elections' are referendums on the Vaderites. Delegates must swear allegiance to the Supreme Leader. While a parliamentary seat is insignificant, it provides an extra source of income.
Long-serving and distinguished Party officials and Sith are rewarded with a seat. It doesn't increase their workload because the Diet meets extremely infrequently and never decides anything. Instead, Humanism prefers to demonstrate the 'organic bond between the Leader and the masses' by holding plebiscites. Supreme Leader Eisen is particularly fond of those. The delegates convene in the formrer Karaliades Opera House. A new building was planned, but it wasn't a priority and the Vaderites never got around to building it because parliament is irrelevant anyway.
Purity Rise - a fancy name for a suburban gated community on a hill overlooking the 'splendour' of the city. The people who live here are high-ranking Party functionaries, civil servants, Sith or corporate bigshots and their families, who moved away from the city centre to be amongst themselves in a neighbourhood untouched by the reconstruction and urban chaos. Here they have shiny villas with perfectly manicured lawns and the Labour Ministry assigns them forced labourers for a fee...but during the summer the waft of the bad sewerage systems rises up the mountain. Moreover, the protection fees are high. The secret police keeps a watchful eye on the residents.
Destined Rest Habitat and Gardens - one of the most horrible places in an utterly horrible city. It is literally an alien zoo. Here, aliens from 'beast' races such as Gamorreans, Wookiees, Cathar, Bothans and Gungans are put on display in their so-called 'natural, primitive state'.
Some have been lured here by false promises, others have been outright forced to come here. Regardless, they are forced to present themselves to the gawking spectators as villagers in 'traditional xenos costumes' like loincloths and headdresses. They have to perform tricks, act for the cameras and guests or they get shocked. In addition, they are repeatedly forced to publicly undergo humiliating medical or 'racial' examinations. Even children are forced to participate in these 'ethnological expositions'.
Because they are 'savages', they must eat raw meat. The entire purpose of these repulsive 'exhibitions' is to emphasise the supposed inferiority of the 'primitives' and affirm the humans in their 'superiority'. This provides justification for the subjugation of non-humans. The 'zoo' regularly draws large crowds of visitors. Children visit the exhibits with their families or on trips with the Imperial Youth Corps.
Cliffs of Doom - not an official name, but it's what the locals call it. A storm caused a landslide here. Naturally it was blamed on xenos saboteurs when it was in reality a combination of shoddy building practices and an ignored engineers report which warned about this could happen.
Laskaris and Tzikes Bank of the Imperium - naturally the headquarters of the largest bank of the Imperium is located in the capital in close proximity to major government ministries. The bank is housed in a twin skyscraper complex, with direct access to an underground station. The Laskaris and Tzies Bank has profited from the 'Humanisation' of alien-owned businesses, provided banking facilities for the secret police and loaned the funds to build death camps and factories using slave labour. The bank has accumulated vast profits from government projects and investments in slavery and laundered ill-gotten gains from the shadow economy. Its most powerful director Dionysus Laskaris has been a major beneficiary of organised theft, slavery and genocide. He also had one of his daughters lobotomised for 'hysteria'. He is known in the Imperial corporate world as a model executive.
Lord Vader Grand Imperator Colosseum - A massive football stadium that has received commendations for its 'green design', construction management and 'energy efficiency'. The main reason it was built was because the Supreme Leader at the time wanted a bigger stadium than his predecessor. Thousands of alien 'guest workers' were worked to death during construction. Indeed, most of the stadium was built by slave labourers or 'guest workers'. They were subjected to beatings or deportations if they complained about the appalling working conditions.
Recruitment agents made false promises about the salary workers would receive in order to find recruits in the alien ghettos and settlements. Their families were effectively held hostage to keep the workers from running away once they realised the truth. Thousands of 'guest workers' died in the lead-up to the Imperial Cup. The authorities and the Imperial football association failed to protect guest workers from extreme heat, greatly increasing the risk to their safety. The families of the deceased were denied compensation and often not even informed of their loved one's death.
Every Imperial citizen knew about this, none cared. Instead they gushed about the 'beautiful games'. The stadium was badly damaged by bombings during the Nether Crisis. The damage has yet to be repaired and the stadium is unlikely to be used ever again. But the Imperial football association, its sponsors and construction firms made vast profits. Sith and government officials benefited from kickbacks. Crony capitalism at its finest.
The Towers of Elysium - disgruntled residents nickname it the Asylum Towers. It's a residential area that provides 'temporary' accommodations for people displaced by the construction spree. The 'temporary' residents have lived here for years, and still there is no end in sight. When the Vaderites unleashed their megalomaniacal architectural vision on the city, little thought was giving to housing those whose home were in the way. As a result, when the authorities belatedly realised that something needed to be done to avoid public outrage, the new apartment buildings were built in a rush. The concrete buildings are rather ugly. The frenzied pace led to slipshod construction and workplace accidents.
When a couple human workers died during construction, 'patriotic martyr' commendations were sent to their families. The families of dead alien 'indentured labourers' or 'guest workers' got nothing. There are serious issues with quality and safety of construction, since an overemphasis on speed led to questionable workmanship. Accidents involving falls, cave-ins, and collapses are prevalent in the construction of these high-rises. Moreover, residents must often go for days without electricity and running water during summer time...without and heating during winter. On top of that, the 'super-efficient' sewage system is...not working out well.
Moving is difficult because one has to put up with a lot of red tape. Few people can afford their own groundcar and even if they could, fuel is expensive and rationed, so they must rely on the capital's inefficient public transit system...which means getting to work and back takes ages.
Office of the Grand Marshal - Skaer's design for the Office of the Grand Marshal was a palace intended more for pleasure than business. In it, Skaer's architectural vision has reached its hysterical apogee. It is a stone colossus of unparalleled ostentatiousness, a parvenu's palace in bloated baroque. An elaborate staircase dominates the entrance hall, but Skaer has prudently provided for an elevator to save Eisen from hauling his massive bulk up this imposing obstacle. The roof is protected from air raids by earth four metres deep, planted with trees and a schrubbery to provide a pleasant setting for garden parties. The three acres of park to the rear of the building accommodate a massive swimming pool, tennis courts, pavillions, pergolas, bowers and fountains. Furthermore, it includes a sizeable outdoor theatre.
Palace of the Supreme Leader: The Leader's palace is a pompously ornate design, with a five hundred metre long gallery and a nine hundred square-metre study. Fifteen thousand square metres are provided just to entertain his guests. Those granted access to the tastelessly opulent building will be led through
rooms of astonishing luxury, plush furniture, deep plush carpets and expensive chandeliers, rare artwork and ornate crystals.
The Supreme Leader's ornate study is so large it resembles a throne room. The office's dimensions are breathtakingly absurd, with a columned portico in front of a large terrace pointing into the garden of the building. The 'workroom' has a floor area of 900 square metres because it's supposed to be a place for showing off.
The palace is a place to awe and browbeat lesser mortals. The Supreme Leader rarely makes use of the vast staterooms, though the head of his chancellery has his office here. The cabinet almost never meets in the cabinet room. There are over a hundred windowless rooms in the cellar, originally designed as storage spaces, where most of the staff have to work and some even live. The palace has hundreds of offices, but most of them are tiny cramped spaces because the designers were obsessed with massive corridors, wasting precious space. The air-conditioning is unreliable, and the two escalators need constant attention. The maintenance costs are ridiculous.
The dining hall seats more than a thousand visitors. There is a theatre seating up to a thousand visitors, with a special box for the Leader. The palace is connected to the Hall of the Fatherland by a cryptoporticus. Welcoming ceremonies for visiting dignitaries take place in the central hall of the palace, which is called the Golden Hall. Ironically, Supreme Leader Eisen is rarely there. A Vader statue stands in the courtyard. The palace has an underground bunker, heavily reinforced against nuclear attack. It can serve as a sanctuary for the Imperium's supreme master.
The Galactic Panoply - the mural of a star and actually quite nice to look at. Basically, it shows an idealised and incorrect location of 'important planets'. You can see Coruscant, Mustafar and Naboo from this place! (You can't and you don't).
Darth Malitia Intergalactic Spaceport - despite the name, the spaceport complex is an empty shell of unfinished structures. No aircraft or spaceship has ever taken off from here. Construction on the grandiose spaceport was halted many years ago due to lack of resources. It would've been a vanity project anyway. Moreover, Vaderite airlines have a lot of crashes; they're all blamed on sabotage. When the spaceport was still under construction, an entire village was demolished because the Supreme Leader at the time was worried that new arrivals would see the unattractive everyday life of ordinary people from the windows of aircraft coming in to land.
Destiny Plains - this was supposed to be replaced by the Darth Malitia Intergalactic Spaceport, but then they ran out of resources. Rather than admit failure, the authorities have simply decided to proclaim the port that actually exists to be one of the greatest wonders of the world. In truth it is a massive concrete wishbone. The service is brusque in the best tradition of Imperial stereotypes, and half the people in the airport have uniforms on.
Between the Skyhammer Fleet, the Imperial airlines, the aviation police, the Order Police, the Hearthguard, the KEC, and the railway police, there are more people in uniforms than without. The dimly lit hallway from the gate to the central terminal is lined with propaganda and tourism posters in equal number.
Intercontinental Superway - a pomous name for a massive, controlled-access highway, leading to and from the capital. The Vaderites love grand construction projects and promote motorisation, viewing both as a sign of Humanist progress.
However, private vehicle ownership is low. The Ministry of Propaganda never fails to heap praise upon the regime for connecting the Imperium through a network of highways. But few civilians ever get to use them, despite being encouraged to put money into a weekly saving scheme for their People's Groundcar. It almost never arrives, and when it does it has numerous construction errors.
If someone drives across the Superway, they will traverse a largely empty road. Most of the traffic they see will be military in nature. Ironically, the military value of Vaderite highways is limited because large-scale military transportation is often done by train to save fuel. Strangely, it still takes a lot of time for help to arrive if there's an accident on the Superway.
The Golden Lantern - a luxury restaurant popular among members of the elite. Its founder, a wine merchant, had excellent connections to major Vaderite leaders. A small intimate restaurant with nine tables and eight waiters, it gives patrons a high degree of privacy. The staff are exempt from conscription. The restaurant was closed following the enactment of 'total war' measures in the lead-up to the Netherworld Crisis.
The Golden Lantern was the favourite restaurant of Eisen, who dined there free of charge and considered its closure a personal insult. He assisted the owner with moving the restaurant. Its new location became a collecting and distributing point for Vaderites who had to flee when the Imperium teetered on the brink of collapse. Now it has made a 'triumphant return'. The owner Vasso Papadakos is nicknamed 'Eisen's chef' because his restaurants and catering businesses host dinners which Eisen attends with dignitaries and business partners.
The Humanist Cascade - a grandiose fountain in the city centre. It works...mostly. Due to blockages and poor design some of the jets stop working at random intervals.
Eye of the Vader - a massive enclosed observation wheel. The Eye frequently gets stuck whilst in operation. This is touted as a good thing sometimes as it allows people an uninterrupted view for up to an hour. Unless you're near the bottom in which case you see nothing.
Hierophant's Lake - an artificial lake. Sadly, it's not very nice. It's got an algae problem and is choked with invasive weeds. Swimming is not advised due to leaching heavy chemicals from dumps and construction sites. All of which has added to the algae problem and has made the lake a sickly green colour. It was supposed to attract tourists as well as rich people who'd set up lakeside villas, but this plan has been an utter failure.
Great Antiochine KEC Barracks and Training Ground - a military base located about seventy kilometres to the south of the city. While not directly part of the capital, the forces posted here are expected to defend it and due to its closeness it merits inclusion. The base is a dilapidated mess. Billions of Imperial credits been allocated for the base, but most of the money is gone and virtually none of the work has been done. The barracks are unfinished, with debris strewn across the floors, large holes in the ceiling and half-built cinder-block walls. A tangle of electrical wires hangs from a skinny pole.
The base is meant to house a whole tank division...but is so rundown it can only actually house a battalion. But the officers retain soldiers who don't actually exist on the rolls so they can pocket their rations and pay. The soldiers are underpaid, and improve their income by cannibalising parts from tanks and other vehicles on the base and selling them on the black market. Whenever a senior official visits the base on an inspection tour, the base command cleans it up and parades the couple tanks that still work. The inspectors are always steered away from barracks that are too decrepit to clean up. The inspector from the Ministry of War knows they're lying, and they know he knows. Corruption works best when everyone is in on it and everyone agrees to substitute reality with their own in order to profit from graft.
SECURITY
High. As the Vaderite capital, the City of Humanist Destiny is heavily guarded, but its defences are not without systemic flaws. Checkpoints and roadblocks guard all access ways, and there are security checkpoints throughout the city. Militarised police units from the Order Police 'keep order', supported by the secret police. There are also Party paramilitary forces, but they do not cooperate well with the security services and the regulars. A task force from the Eyes of the Dark Father, the Sith Inquisition, is permanently stationed within the city.
Drones, probe droids and helivehicles are used to monitor the population, relaying everything they see back to the secret police. Certain alien species are forbidden from entering the city entirely, and those who are granted entrance live under a tyrannical regime characterised by servitude, rampant abuse and constant surveillance.
Moreover, the city is protected by several legions from the regular Imperial army and the KEC Stormtrooper Corps. However, certain 'elite' guard units are actually understrength and riddled with corruption from top to bottom. There are also dark side adepts from the Disciples of the Vader, with varying strength and abilities. Clusters of anti-air towers have been strategically distributed through the city. The city is protected by a shield generator.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The monument of Vader Nikator will always remain lit, even when the homes of commoners suffer from power outtages.
Originally, the city was founded by a group of mixed humans and aliens 50 years or so before the Galactic Civil War. The settlers were there with a logging company which sought out the tropical hardwoods for sale to rich coreworlders to whom real wood is a luxury. Back then it was named Dasostad (forest city). When the Empire arrived they broke up the company and put down a garrison in this location as it provided a good base of operations for partisan 'suppression'. The current fortress is built on those foundations.
The Imperial governor built a summer home here near the garrison, the first big construction project for this place. The current palace stands too on its remains. The Imperials named it Cliffwatch Outpost. However when the New Republic provided aid a coalition of external support and rebelling locals stormed the garrison and drove out or killed them. The palace was burned to the ground but the fort was kept as a police centre and defence force place. The old name was reclaimed by the locals for the city and it became built up perhaps as a vacation spot for people from Palmyra and other places in the lowlands. In the summer it's a bit nicer because of its elevation.
The town became a headquarters for a medical company which trecked into the jungles and into the mountains to find exotic specimens. The area was much more forested than it once was, many tens of thousands of hectares have been cleared since for farmland, building space and for wood. During the plague outbreak the city managed to quarantine itself for the most part. Its somewhat remote location and lack of access, plus lack of permanent residents allowed it to survive on local provisions for the most part. However, a convoy of hungry and desperate people broke in and looted the town, spreading the virus with them. Survivors holed up in the fort and survived a blockade for six weeks before the invaders dispersed. Thus Dasostad had a group of people who survived unaffected by the plague...but with the companies and tourists gone they had to survive on what they had there and it shrunk
When Jedi Master Zaras Dant staged her coup against the federal government, Dasostad was barely inhabited by that point and so when a pacification team went through they found nothing of interest. So after looting the old fort they moved on. During the Sith war Darth Vengeance led the remains of the Sith on the Arduous March. They stopped in Dasostad and found it hospitable and briefly stayed there before eventually moving on to Castle Maysaf. However, it was not forgotten. Soon after it became a base of operations and once things settled down it became a retreat for the high ranking people, just as it once had during the days before the Plague. The city was the site of a political purge that went down in history as the Blood Purge. Using fraudulent claims of treason, Darth Vengeance rid himself of oppositionist figures in the Party. One of its most prominent victims was General Secretary Gregorius Straso, a former officer, Humanist theoretician and Party strongman. The Supreme Leader's public standing was strengthened by this act of state terrorism. It contrasted sharply in the minds of many with the disorder and radicalism that had characterised internal Party disputes.
As the Sith Imperium, it soon transpired that governing the nation from Castle Maysaf was impractical. The nation needed a proper capital to house the apparatus of government. There was fierce competition between Adlerberg and Dasostad until the dispute was resolved in favour of the latter. The new capital was renamed the City of Humanist Destiny. Under the Vaderites, the city's history was rewritten. The participation of aliens in the city's foundation was written out of the history books. Instead the founders had all been human and 'valiantly' defended it against barbaric alien hordes. In the early days of Vaderite rule, public protests took place against the 'euthanasia' of mentally and physically disabled. Back then their controls were less ironclad. However, significantly, the protestors only condemned the killing of humans. Sensitive to public outrage, the government backpedalled. But no one complained when they continued to murder aliens who were considered 'useless eaters' and 'drags on the state'.
Successive Supreme Leaders had done their part to 'beautify' the city, but the construction spree really took off under Supreme Leader Hyperion, who came to power several years before the Netherworld Event. Both Eisen and Skaer began their rise under him, and he was a distant cousin of Lachesis. Skaer began his career as Hyperion's 'master builder'. Commissioned to turn the capital into a monument for Humanist glory, he forged close links with industry and the KEC - and grew wealthy from kickbacks. His clique became known as the Architect's Mafia. According to gossip, Finance Minister Tasos Remiades suffered a stroke when he realised that his department would have to foot almost the full expected bill.
The relationship between the building craze sparked by the City of Humanist Destiny and the concentration camps could hardly be closer. The demand for labour and materials led to several camps being built very near to quarries. One was built nearby to a planned brickworks. The Vaderites' architectural dystopia was all too real for the tens of thousands who died in the task of quarrying stone or baking bricks for it, not to mention the many prisoners of war who made up a one hundred and fifty thousand strong workforce in the city.
During the construction boom, demand for labour was so great that the police were ordered to round up any male beggars, 'tramps' and 'vagrants fit to work. Many of the forces were so delighted at the opportunity that they provided far more 'social misfits' than had been required, including hundreds of homosexuals. Many thousands of ordinary citizens were forcibly rehoused to make way for the new city, the government buying up much of the property that was to be destroyed. The capital was altered beyond recognition. Broad swathes of the city were swept away – including between fifty thousand and one hundred houses – and old structures were swamped by new building compositions of massive proportions. The main buildings were completed. However, there were (and are) many unfinished buildings lying around, building skeletons etc., mainly due to lack of funding, resources or conflicts between services. The construction of the Hall of the Fatherland turned into a massive money sink. It soon became apparent that the absurd building was unsustainable. However, Skaer would go to any lengths to conceal the truth from the Leader so that he could continue to aggrandise himself.
The problem was that the economy was distorted way too much by the construction boom and its scale: on the one hand, the price controls system was being stretched to its limit, because so much productive capacity (ie labour, equipment, factories, resources) was committed to that activity that supply didn't keep pace with demand. Also, between the state directing a lot of investment to these projects and large corporations tying down considerable amounts of capital in problematic ventures, funding was crowded out in many cases. Things were also disrupted by renewed war with the Dominion, as well as a health crisis that caused many slaves to die off. Moreover, the Dominion staged air raids during the war, causing some areas to be abandoned due to the damage. When faced with the suffering said air strikes caused the civilian population, Skaer displayed a characteristic lack of empathy. In his view, the Dominion bombers were assisting him greatly by demolishing buildings he wanted to tear down and dehousing people he wanted to evict because they were in the way.
However, ultimately the war got in the way of his megalomaniacal plans because resources had to be reallocated to the war effort. Following his appointment as minister of armaments, Skaer's focus lay on convincing the Imperium that he was an industrial miracle worker who could single-handedly create an armaments miracle. His grand plans for the capital were supposed to resume full throttle following final victory. At no point did anyone wonder what it was supposed to cost. The absurd assumption was that the conquest of all Tephrike would provide the Imperium with an infinite supply of materials, labour and capital. As the war started to turn ill and became a bloody meat grinder, a group of Imperial officers plotted to stage a coup and unseat the Sith. Of course, these officers did not want democracy. Nor did they have a problem with wars of aggression and racism. They were not 'honourable men doing their duty who just happened to be on the other side'. Several had been involved in atrocities. Their putsch was naive and inept.
The putschists managed to manipulate contingency orders to make Imperial army troops take over key districts and government buildings in the city. Officially the Supreme Leader's train had been blown up by traitorous Sith during a visit to the front. However, they failed ton confirm he was actually dead or seize control of communications. When it was confirmed that Leader Hyperion was alive, the troops turned on them. Several of the ringleaders were executed in the courtyard of the War Ministry since one of the generals who had initially backed them wanted to cover up his involvement. Others were later sentenced to death by a tribunal and hung up on piano wire.
An impressive storm and landslide caused some impressive cliffside buildings to slide down to ruin. A Dominion air raid hit the giant dome of the Hall of the Fatherland, causing some of it to collapse in. Dominion pilots called it 'the giant target' to aim for...but thus far no one has repeated such success.
The Netherworld Event was cataclysmic for Tephrike. The mass raptures caused mass hysteria across the Imperium. Moreover, the discovery of a book that told the true story of Vader's fall and redemption triggered a civil war. A faction of Light Sith rose in rebellion, promising freedom to the slaves. At the same time, a group of Sith cultists disavowed Vader and declared that Sidious was the true Sith'ari. Both rebel factions were opposed to by Hyperion's conservative loyalists, but they were weakened by infighting. Xenos workers rose in rebellion in the capital. At this point there were still many slaves in the City of Humanist Destiny, so they rose and tried to escape. Scattered forces managed to kill or disperse them, but afterwards it was decided fewer Xenos would be kept in the city.
The Sidious cultists briefly managed to take over. The local governor was sympathetic to them and the city was occupied by their forces. However, they got out of hand and looted and burnt some of the buildings. The great Vader statue was demolished and replaced with a monument to Sidious, which says a lot about their misplaced priorities. Their actions made the city seem even more deserted and derelict than before. It is also why some things are still so messed up now because the authorities had spent so much on new projects and fixing damage that regular upkeep had been neglected.
When Furcht managed to take control and crush the Light Sith and rebellious slaves, he restored 'law and order'. This meant purges. Furcht was a purist and used an anti-corruption drive to sideline or eliminate perceived rivals. He was also fond of accusing dissidents of secretly having alien blood. The racial laws were drastically tightened under his regime. Furcht did try to do something about the mess the city was, in order to facilitate an expansion of the roles of the KEC's business arm and its construction role and start pushing back on the entrenched cliques in the Party and big business. Moreover, it was a way to to eliminate potential public order threats and show a more pro-people profile, since he was not exactly a charismatic public performer and distant from the public.
Furcht's high-pitched voice made giving speeches awkward. Thus he tried to avoid public embarrassment by giving short speeches or not attending some events at all, delegating to more talented Party speakers. However, though the Supreme Leader remained an enigma, the thought police was seemingly omnipresent. This was, of course, a massive exaggeration. The secret police was understaffed and heavily dependent on informants. However, it succeeded in creating an atmosphere of fear. It helped that Furcht had more blackmail material on politicians, military leaders and the business elite than anyone else. Skaer managed to avoid consequences for his mismanagement, though he had to throw some members of the Architect's Mafia under the bus.
After Firemane's bombardment of Castle Maysaf killed Supreme Leader Furcht and much of his inner circle, riven Vaderite factions fought a brief civil war. Tan Gerasimos Althanou, commander of the Chevaliers, secured the capital to 'keep the peace' and 'maintain law and order until the rightful Supreme Leader' could be chosen. Officially this showed his apolitical stance and commitment to the fatherland. In truth, it probably had more to do with the fact that Gerasimos, who also happened to be a brutal slaver, wanted to see the way the wind was blowing before committing to anyone.
In the aftermath of Skywalker City's fall, the city opened its gates to Darth Eisen, the new Supreme Leader. Several days of celebration followed his ascent. The gregarious, greedy and narcissistic, Supreme Leader was the ultimate schmoozer, able to reimagine himself as a powerful Sith Lord (he was), great businessman (he wasn't, he grew rich from bribes and graft), put upon hard working middle class burgher (he hadn't worked a day in his life, but knew middle class people and their concerns), hero pilot (he was), or or even if it called upon it a working class hero (he grew up privileged, but he could speak 'street'). Thus Eisen wined and dined the 'great and good of society', and provided free bread, beer and games for the proles. And there were grand parades of soldiers, tanks and missiles for people to feel patriotic about. Such spectacles could, however, only paper over the system's myriad contradictions and mismanagement. Factor in the Netherworld Crisis and the large-scale disruptions caused by it, and the economy was a mess. The City of Humanist Destiny was and is essentially a parasite, sucking up resources and producing nothing of value.
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