Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike by subbing one of the main groups referenced in prior submissions and ongoing rp.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Sith cult. Antagonist.
Links: Tephrike, Into Darkness.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Group Name: Disciples of the Vader.
Classification: Religious Cult, Force-Sensitive Group.
Headquarters: Castle Maysaf.
Loyalties: Sith of Tephrike.
Group Sigil: Stylised symbol displaying Vader's mask.
Description: The Disciples of Vader are a local Sith cult on Tephrike. They were founded by rebellious Jedi who were disgruntled by how official Jedi dogma was infringing on their inalienable right to practice the Dark Side. Their first order of business was to subjugate the communities of exiles who had been driven into the wastelands, and seize a few minor settlements that had previously paid tribute to the Dominion. Their second order was to impose what amounted to chattel slavery by turning their new subjects into serfs.
The average subject of the Sith cult is an illiterate slave who gets worked to death and can be beaten or killed on a whim. His life is a hollow one, defined by fear and backbreaking labour. It is made more bearable by cheap liquor and drugs. Some serfs possess a higher status because they have much needed skills or work in the household of a Sith master, but in the end they are still serfs, unless they turn out to be Force-Sensitives. As feuds between Sith masters are common, serfs often change masters a number of times during their lifetime. They are also commonly traded as gifts, since they are considered to be property. The most unlucky ones end up as victims of primitive alchemical experiments performed by the sorcerers amongst the Disciples.
By contrast, the Force magi live like feudal overlords, lording it over the peasants. Needless to say this makes Sith society a powder keg. To reduce the risk of rebellions, the Disciples have employed stolen clone technology combined with Sith alchemy to create a servile caste of thralls engineered to lack independent will and be little different from beasts of burden. The Disciples propagate a dark side religion that idolises Vader, elevating him to the status of a Force God, the Son of Suns, for he was born of the Force and brought about the Darkness.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: Resembles a pyramid. At the peak stands the Dark Council, presided over by a Dark Lord. The composition of the Council varies, though it tends to have between five and eight members plus the Dark Lord. Each member presides over a Sphere, which handles specific aspects of policy. Officially the Dark Lord is merely the Vicar of the Vader and is often referred to as such. Beneath the Council are the Masters and Knights of the cult. In line with common Sith doctrine, Force-Users are regarded as superior to Non-Force-Users.
Between the Sith and the slaves there is a caste of trustees. This encompasses Non-Force-Sensitives who occupy positions of responsibility and are thus given greater freedom, such as military officers, engineers, doctors, bureaucrats, armour smiths and so on. They are given access to certain comforts to keep them content. This includes the ability to purchase and own slaves of their own. Without exception they are all human. Then comes the caste of slaves. They have no rights and are treated like chattel. The alchemists of the cult have tried to use their magic to breed a caste of mindless labourers that are incapable of disobedience. This would allow the cult to phase out slaves that might rebel. The Dark Lord maintains a cadre of cloned Noghri slave-soldiers. Bred to serve, they worship Vader and await the coming of his Scion.
Membership: Must be human and Force-Sensitive. Non-Force-Sensitives are slaves, soldiers or bureaucrats, but cannot join the cult. All Disciples must prove themselves by undergoing trials that mirror those of Vader. Once an acolyte has passed his trials to become a Disciple, it is time for him to sacrifice a limb like the cult's idol did. So he is taken to a special chamber, where his right arm is severed at the elbow by a lightsabre. Subsequently, it is replaced by a crude cybernetic arm. He's also given a dark mask. Some particularly fervent Disciples go a step further and sacrifice more limbs than just an arm, desiring to emulate Vader as closely as possible. A Darth name is bestowed upon a Disciple who has attained the rank of Master. This is done in a formal ceremony.
Dogma/Doctrines: The Disciples adhere to the Sith code. They believe in the supremacy of Force-users, that might makes right and that the Sith are the true masters of the Force. However, they deviate from standard Sith cults in a few ways. Taking the Sith's obsession with rule by the strong to its logical extreme, the Sith have dispensed with more rational means of promotion by allowing a Disciple to challenge his direct superior to combat to the death. The rationale behind this is that any man who cannot physically defend his position does not deserve to hold it. Moreover, one can only challenge one's direct superior. Hence an acolyte would be unable to walk up to a Dark Councillor and ask for a duel. Well, he could try, but it would end poorly.
In addition, this method of promotion is only permitted if the challenger makes an official challenge to his superior. Assassination, poisoning, a knife between the ribs in the dead of night - these are considered trickster tactics and proof of a man's weakness, not his strength. In line with their Social Darwinist beliefs, the Disciples offer Force-Sensitive slaves a chance to prove their might. Those who win enough battles in tournaments to the death can be set free and join the cult. However, this only applies to humans. By contrast, Force-Sensitive non-humans are regarded as abominations, who have stolen a gift that belongs solely to the master race.
Some near-humans who are able to pass as humans have taken great pains to hide their heritage and falsify official documents. Hence the Department of Racial Health is charged with monitoring the 'racial purity' of the populace. It also runs the cult's eugenics programme. Mixed species relationships are forbidden, for they are regarded as a pollution of the gene pool. Interestingly, the Disciples are dismissive of Sith Purebloods. It is common practice to murder 'unworthy' infants. The Disciples' speciesism has its roots in Tephrike's pre-Collapse history. Before the Dark Age, the planet was governed as a democratic federation. However, the party system was extremely fractured. When Zero released the Gulag Virus on Csilla, about forty forty political parties were represented in the Tephriki federal assembly. To illustrate, in the last fourteen years of its existence, the Tephriki Federation had twenty-one administrations under twelve prime ministers. This fragmentation of political power produced unstable coalition governments and undermined democracy.
At one point, a corrupt billionaire called Winston Stakes was elected as prime minister after an extremely bitter election. His Gungan rival Bolgara Zisk was discredited after inappropriate holonet transmissions were found on a personal datapad. She was accused of rigging the election where her party voted for its candidate, leading to a populist front runner being droppped in her favour. Stakes' brief term in office was characterised by an heavy increase in political divisiveness, civil unrest and racial tension, as well as being embroiled in numerous scandals. He never completed his term in office due to being impeached after allegations of corruption. Ironically, the Vaderites have a more positive view of him. Though a business mogul who employed fraudulent business practices, Stakes presented himself as a man of the people by using incendiary, pro-humanist rhetoric in his speeches.
High federal government turnover rates eroded confidence in the government, as did the divide between the rich and poor. It did not help that many of the parties were single species parties or only represented select ideological and economic strata of the populace. Elections were often characterised by gerrymandering. It was common for political candidates to vilify each other to score political points with their constituents. This fostered a dangerous 'us' and 'them' mentality. As a result, the compromises that are inevitable in order to achieve a workeable majority in a coalition were regarded as betrayals by a disillussioned electorate. The fault lines were particularly deep between urban surface dwellers and aquatic alien races. The Disciples adopted the beliefs of humanist agitators such as the Pan-Human Front, who claimed humans were the ones being exploited by aliens. Coincidentally, many of the aquatic alien nationalist movement, such as the Quarren League and the Gungan Homeland Movement, would be absorbed by the Republican Guard.
In addition to promoting human supremacist, magocratic views, the Disciples believe that Vader ascended to godhood and worship him. Time has distorted historical records, and so the Disciples have some rather odd ideas about their idol. While they agree that he was conceived by the Force, spent his childhood as a slave, won a pod race, became a Jedi and then embraced the Dark Side, crucial details differ. For instance, they believe that when he returned to Tatooine many years after his departure, he slaughtered the Hutts and Sand People, freeing the slaves. But then the slaves begged him to enslave them again. They did not know what to do with their freedom and felt lost without a master to free them from the burden of choice. It was then that he realised that some people are born to be slaves because they are not meant for freedom.
Furthermore, the Disciples believe that Darth Tyranus and Qui-Gon Jinn were the same person. Tyranus was the Dark Lord of the Sith and Anakin slew him to claim the title. In his final living moments, Tyranus urged Anakin to fulfil his destiny and named him Vader. On Korriban Vader was tested by the spirits of the ancient Sith Lords, but he overcame all of their trials and devoured their souls. Obi-Wan, the nemesis of the Dark Messiah, betrayed him and corrupted his son Luke. It was Vader, not Palpatine, who was the ruler of the Empire, for the Emperor was a weak Force-user. Tales of Vader's redemption are dismissed as filthy lies by the dark acolytes. The Dark Messiah was betrayed by his son and struck down by the false Emperor, who embraced the Light. The Disciples consider the bloodline of Vader to be sacred. They are convinced that one day the Scion of Vader will appear. The Dark God will be reborn inside the Scion and he will lead them on a grand crusade to eclipse the light forever. Tying with these beliefs, they consider it vital to scour Tephrike's surface for what they consider to be artefacts of Vader. Quite why anything that had to do with the Dark Lord would end up on an irrelevant backwater planet that he had probably never heard of remains a mystery.
Curios: Cybernetics are quite common. Upon succeeding in his trials, a Disciple completes spiritual journey by losing his right arm. Thereupon it is replaced by a cybernetic arm that resembles the one Anakin Skywalker got after his first duel with Count Dooku. Some Disciples Vader takes thing further and sacrifice more limbs. Higher-ranking members of the sect receive a Vader mask. Select warriors wear suits of armour that resembles the one Vader was forced to wear after almost dying on Mustafar.
Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike. Thus the vast majority of the Disciples carry Sith swords or other melee weapons enhanced with Sith alchemy. Only the Dark Master is allowed to carry a lightsabre. The Disciples claim to possess the lightsabre of Vader. It is kept in storage until the Scion comes to claim it. Needless to say it is a forgery. The same applies to the all the other 'relics'. Indeed, with all the pieces of Vader's cloak, mask, lightsabre and armour they claim to possess, it would have been enough for several individuals to put together. This has not stopped the Disciples from continuing the search for relics. Every Disciple receives a copy of the Tome of the Sith'ari. This holy book purports to tell the true story of Vader.
Goals: To eclipse the light, conquer all of Tephrike and bring about the return of the Dark God Vader.
MEMBERS
N/A.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The outbreak of the Gulag Virus had a profound impact on almost every inhabited world in the Galaxy. Galactic commerce came to an end, billions died from the plague and many more due to internal strife. Galactic governments collapsed and many planets succumbed to anarchy. The repercussions for Tephrike were extreme. The planet's fragile democracy had already been under fire due to racial and social tensions. Moreover, the planet was highly dependent on galactic trade. Things turned from bad to worse as the survivors warred amongst themselves.
Tephrike's small Jedi enclave tried to impose order and fight the darkness, but ended up becoming the very evil they fought against, while insisting that they were righteous. Influenced by a debased, warped interpretation of the old Jedi code, they sought to bring the planet under the control of a radical Jedi theocracy, the Dominion of Light, which took totalitarian control to new heights. Inevitably, there was opposition. Heretical Jedi turned on their masters and declared a dark crusade, forming a Sith cult that worshipped Vader as a god and believed all Force blind should be enslaved and treated as chattel. Both cultist factions were opposed by the Republican Guard, a secularist faction that drew a lot of its support from aquatic aliens, escaped clone slave-soldiers and Yuuzhan Vong.
Like most Sith movements, the Vaderites were founded by a schismatic Jedi. As the Jedi grew corrupt and sought to impose their vision on society, some grew drunk on power. One of them was Cade Seward. Born during the Dark Age, he was thrust into the horrors of war at an early age. Jedi ruled over vast swathes of territory as Jedi Lords, seeking to impose order by any means necessary. They dispensed justice, requisitioned supplies to feed population centres under their control and commanded armies. For some the strain proved too much, and the siren call of the Dark Side could not be resisted. Reaching officer rank, Seward was part of a bloody campaign against rebels in Tephrike's jungles. These rebels considered the Jedi theocracy illegitimate and sought to restore Tephrike's pre-Gulag Virus Republic, though in practical terms they were another warlord faction. The campaign was not going well, for though the Jedi forces could deploy impressive firepower, they were harassed by guerillas and plagued by disease. Increasingly, food and clean water became scarce. Disease and malnutrition caused higher casualties on both sides than actual combat. Fast growing creepers grounded their transports. Morale was understandably poor. Some soldiers made the mistake of eating the wrong plant and suffered from hallucinations that a number of cases drove them mad. Jedi Knight Seward took command over a section of the forces after his superior was fragged by mutineers.
Bitten by a nasty mosquito, Seward was afflicted with malaria. Suffering from the effects of the diseases, which caused headaches, fever and uncontrolled seizures, he experienced bizarre visions. Even as a child, he'd received Force visions, but now these were more intense. In his fever dreams, he saw a towering warrior clad from head to toe in black armour, with his face covered by an imposing mask. The figure handed him a scarlet lightsabre and, in a cold, gruff voice, ordered him to break the chains the Jedi had placed upon him and eclipse the light. It took some time, but eventually Seward succumbed. Drawing upon his somewhat incorrect knowledge of history, he deduced that the masked man in black had to be the legendary Darth Vader. He shared his revelations with a few subordinates. Some refused to heed his bold vision. They were put to death. The rest swore allegiance to him. Secretly reaching out to the rebel forces, he struck a deal with them, and led the Jedi loyalists into an ambush. Holding his own troops back from the fighting, he proceeded to turn on the rebels. Conveniently, they were in a poor state as well and so a good number of their soldiers joined his cause when he promised them revenge and booty.
After taking over a few settlements and assimilating various militias and bands of marauders into his army, he began his dark crusade. At first dismissed as a mere bandit, the Windian Jedi Order eventually realised that this rogue, who'd begun to call himself Darth Menace, was an actual threat. War ensued, but after winning a number of victories over the Dominion forces, his army was decimated at the Battle of Palmyra. The battle left Tephrike's already ruined old capital devastated by use of chemical and nuclear weapons. Forced to retreat into the jungle, Menace led the remainder of his army on a Long March, performing scorched earth tactics on the way. Still obsessed with his destiny, he plotted revenge on the Jedi, but some of his generals had enough. And so they did the classic Sith thing and turned on him. His apprentice Darth Vengeance, who had once been known as Cleon, challenged him to a duel and defeated him in mortal combat.
It was Vengeance who led the remnants of the 'Dark Legions' to the ruins of Castle Maysaf. Here, high up in a mountain that lay on the border between jungle and desert lands, he planted his standards. From this moment on, it would be the new base of the Disciples of the Vader. Its ground was consecrated through the ritual sacrifice of several captives. While Menace had been slain, many of his principles remained alive, though the order he'd founded changed over time. The Disciples continued to claim that it was their goal to cover Tephrike in darkness and exterminate the Jedi. Vengeance was less of a fanatical Vader worshipper than the cult's founder, but intensified the cult of Vader in order to provide a unifying ideology that could keep the cult together. It was he who ushered in radical Year Zero policies to wipe the slate clean and break with Tephrike's 'decadent' past.
In line with his vulgar Social Darwinist ideology, the Sith Master decreed that the old, mentally ill and infirm should be killed due to being 'useless eaters'. Nearby towns were required to pay tribute, which was extracted via brute force if they did not comply. But he also realised that at least some subjects needed to receive incentives. So he created a caste of trustees, who occupied a position between the Sith and the slaves and could be considered middle management. They became the overseers, bureaucrats, officers and devotees of the Cult of Vader. Having been given some power over the mass of slaves, they were dependent on the Vaderites for their social standing and survival. Non-humans were enslaved and often subjected to large-scale deportations.
Standing in a public square of Pellas, soon to be renamed Skywalker City, Vengeance addressed a crowd, declaring the beginning of Year Zero. To usher in the new, Tephriki would have to tear down the old. Anything that anchored them to the 'decrepit ideologies' of the past had to be done away with. The Vaderites demolished several important landmarks and monuments that they identified as representing old Tephrike. They came to celebrate the outbreak of the Gulag Virus as a glorious act of cleansing. According to them, it had swept away a decadent galactic order and ushered in a heroic age where the strong would rule. Interestingly, Vengeance also tried to put an end to poppy production, for he regarded the sale of 'happy pills' with disdain. However, his war on drugs was a total failure. The apparatus he had created was simply too corrupt. Moreover. Many peasants had become dependent on the practice and there were too many merchants and bureaucrats who could profit. Hence his successors decided they would be better off with simply taxing it.
Vengeance was not shy about using terror tactics, including deploying chemical weapons and weaponised viruses against population centres to enforce his will. To direct the energies of his fellow cultists towards an external foe – and thereby keep them from having the chance to collude against him – he invaded the homelands of the Tephrike's Yuuzhan Vong communities. Regarding the Vong as abominations, he ordered them to be put to the sword or enslaved. Their land, he decreed, would be settled by human colonists loyal to God Vader. However, these murderous policies drove most Vong into the arms of the nascent Republican Guard. The secularist rebels would come to be a thorn in the Vaderites' side, carrying out several attacks on their bases and slave camps. Thus an uneasy stalemate developed. The Republican Guard, the Dominion and the Vaderites all vied for supremacy, along with a plethora of smaller factions.
Unsurprisingly, the history of the cult has also been characterised by power struggles and internal schisms. Their might makes right ideology only encourages this. Of particular note is an episode during the reign of Darth Impaler. As the name would imply, this Dark Lord was fond of impaling those who disagreed with him. Or just plain annoyed him. Indeed, his crass cruelty was even considered extreme by other Sith. It helped that he was extremely paranoid and convinced that his fellows were plotting against him. In all fairness to him, they actually were, so he wasn't that far off the mark.
Aside from the usual backstabbing, two heretical movements reared their head. A group of cultists had discovered what they believed to be 'a sacred text' from the Jedi. Said text was actually a 'Galactic Civil War for Dummies' sort of book, which told the story of Vader's redemption. Thus one group proclaimed that since Vader had embraced the Light, it was their duty to do so as well as the true disciples of the Chosen One. In doing so, they would finish what he started by bringing balance to the Force. The other group claimed that since Vader had fallen to the light side, Palpatine was the true Dark Lord and it was their duty to destroy the false Sith. Civil war ensued. Impaler hoped to pit both factions against the other, but the leader of the 'Light Sith', Darth Krieg, was able to rally a number of rebellious slaves to his cause by promising them freedom.
In the end, Impaler was slain in a duel. The Sidious zealots were purged and Krieg took control. Despite ostensibly being a lightsider, he saw nothing wrong about ruling as an autocrat. To be fair to him, he attempted to reform the cult from the inside and impose liberalisation from above. But many Sith resisted his attempts to overturn the old ways. So in order to maintain his power, he had to rule like a totalitarian despot. The slave economy was so deeply ingrained in Vaderite society that it was impossible to do away with overnight. It soon turned out that lofty ideals were easy to preach, but difficult to put into action. Many Sith who had pretended to convert continued to sabotage reforms. His own attitude was staunchly autocratic and he soon became began to believe that he was a messianic saviour who could do no wrong.
He reached out to the Dominion of Light to reunite the orders, but they rebuffed him. So he declared that the faux Jedi had fallen to the Dark Side and must be purged. Cannily, he arranged an secret alliance of convenience with the secular Republican Guard, launching a joint campaign against the mutual enemy. But the secret pact soon broke down, not the least due to intrigues of Dominion Battlemaster Mahtara. However, while Krieg was campaigning, his enemies in the cult seized control of the castle and upon his return he was poisoned. This was justified with the argument that he was an unbeliever, and so the normal code did not apply. The old order was restored and the 'heretical' text was burnt. But some of the 'Light Sith' survived and were able to go underground. They call themselves the Inheritors of Vader the Redeemed. It should be noted that this sect still has a lot of ideological baggage. Moreover, survival on a post-apocalyptic planet such as Tephrike requires making compromises many mainstream Jedi might consider unpalatable. A sect of Sidious believers has also managed to escape extermination. Both schismatic groups wage a guerilla war against the orthodox Vaderites. At least when they are not busy fighting each other.
Presently, the leader of the Vaderites is a Sith Lord called Darth Furcht. He came to power as a result of the disruptions caused by the Vaderite Civil War and the deposition of Darth Krieg. When outsiders arrived in Tephrike's orbit, the Vaderites took notice. Some wondered whether the Scion of Vader had shown himself. They soon learned that this was not the case, for the outsiders were part of Firemane's exploration corps. However, their coming was still fortuitous because the outsiders soon ended up embroiled in war with the Dominion. The Disciples seek to take advantage of this. The crumbling of the Dominion leaves a vacuum they are intent to fill.
