Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Flesh out Firemane's organisation and document its anti-slavery efforts.
Image Credit: Here. 'Phoenix King'. Unknown artist. Found on www.freepngimg/fantasy/phoenix. Here.
Role: Humanitarian aid group, educational organisation, employment agency.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dahomey, Qadiri, Eldorai, Xioquo.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organisation Name: Firedawn
Classification: Anti-slavery agency, humanitarian aid group.
Affiliation: Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori, Kaylah Danton, Shazora Jai Vahal.
Organisation Symbol: Flat line with a half sun rising over it.
Description: Firedawn is an agency of Firemane Industries, dedicated to providing clothing, provisions, education and jobs to freed slaves within the Firemane sphere of influence. It also helps former slaves reunite with their families and trace lost relatives and children, as breaking up slave families is sadly very common.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Arx Aeternae. Maintains offices on various Firemane space stations and on planets Firemane operates on, such as on Arkas, Tygara and Dahomey.
Domain: Firedawn is a humanitarian organisation and does not control territory. It maintains offices in Tlaxqui, Zeheb, Freetown as well as in other cities and various worldships affiliated with Firemane. Firedawn strives to build a cooperative, beneficial relationship with local communities. Its goal is to provide aid to freed slaves and help them build new lives as free men and women. This includes protecting them against former owners who try to force them back into servitude, but also giving them the tools and education they need to forge their own destiny.
Notable Assets: No industrial assets per se. However, Firedawn runs a network of schools, orphanages, homes and safe houses for its charges. These are dispersed across Firemane's sphere of influence. It also works closely with other Firemane institutions to provide its charges with employment. Firedawn has access to Liorre Class Super Freighters, Elaris Class Medical Ships and other transport, cargo or medical ships.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: As a Firemane agency, Firedawn ultimately answers to Siobhan Kerrigan, who is the overall head of the corporation. Since running a business is quite time consuming, she does not direct the agency herself. Instead she has delegated this task to Brigadier Frida Veldtgan. Firedawn is divided into various bureaus, which each deal with a different aspect of policy, such as health care, agriculture, rations, schooling, legal affairs, education, accomodations and labour. The bureau heads report to Veldtgan, who in turn answers to Firemane. Day-to-day affairs are coordinated with Firemane's Department of Administration, which supervises Firedawn. Siobhan takes a person interest in Firedawn's work and often carries out inspections.
Membership: Due to the delicate nature of their duties, members are carefully vetted. All members of Firedawn are Firemane employees and must abide by the company's code of conduct and adhere to its principles. Individuals with ideologies or affiliations Firemane is hostile to are not accepted. Candidates must apply for a position, pass an interview and submit to a test to gauge their skills. Members include employment advisers, doctors, and other medical personnel such as nurses and midwives, teachers, linguists, agronomists, technicians and psychologists. Since many of Firedawn's charges are from more primitive worlds that had little contact with the outside worlds, language skills are essential. There are no racial or gender barriers.
Members are expected to become proficient in local dialects so that they can communicate with former slaves who do not know Basic. Some of Firedawn's members are Force-users. However, these tend to be healers and mentalists who specialise in mental relaxation, dealing with psychological trauma and the like. A good number of the group's Force-Sensitive employees are members of the Order of Fire Hospitallers who have been seconded to Firedawn. Others were trained by this corps of Force healers and combat medics. An increasingly large number of Firedawn's employees are former slaves, as they are best equipped to empathise with other slaves, win their trust and understand their needs. Firemane provides security for Firedawn facilities.
Climate: Comparable to the environment of a well-funded, humanitarian organisation. There are rules and regulations every employee is expected to adhere to. The culture stresses empathy for the people the group is supposed to help as well as empathy for their cultural traditions. Of course, this does not prevent certain Firedawn employees from being patronising or having unpleasant views, but the organisation itself stresses cultural sensitivity and awareness.
Employees receive reguler remuneration from Firemane, but can expect to work long hours and far from home. Flexible working hours and willingness to travel are expected. Moreover, Firedawn employees must acquire fluency in the local language of the area they are being assigned to. Firemane often operates on fringe worlds where the natives either do not speak Basic or only select strata of society does, and many former slaves lack a formal education. Firedawn welcomes people who want to sign up for a good cause to help others, but stresses that their efforts will be in vain if they have zero cultural awareness or empathy for the people they are supposed to be aiding.
In some ways, Firedawn attracts some of Firemane's most idealistic members. However, those who are too idealistic sooner or later end up having a reality check, as there are clear limits to what the organisation can accomplish. Moreover, stamping out slavery in pre-modern societies where the economy depends on it sometimes requires working with those in power and giving them incentives to agree to abolition. This reeks of rewarding them, but the alternative is waging brutal wars that will cost the lives of thousands, including the slaves one intends to rescue.
Aside from helping former slaves find work, giving them a roof over the head and an education, Firedawn also makes great efforts to help find find and reunite with lost kin, as many slave families are broken up. It also provides refuge for fugitive slaves. A number of Firedawn employees are ex-military, such as former Firemane soldiers, while others are civilians. However, it is not the type of group that goes in guns blazing to topple the slaveholders and set the slaves free. Instead it makes sure the slave are not left destitute and forced back into servitude after the 'breaker of chains' has left the scene. Because Firedawn's work is quite difficult and not the most glamorous, Siobhan has a tendency of assigning Firemane officials who have caught her eye, but still need to show what they've got. So if they do well there, it proves they might be qualified for higher office.
Reputation: Overall, the institution is quite well-liked. Obviously people who support slavery have a negative opinion, but Firedawn's humanitarian efforts and support for freed slaves have won it a lot of support. It is popular among many of those who have been aided by it. Many former slaves have been able to build a new future thanks to its aid. However, there are also critics. These tend to be individuals who believe its work is too incrimental, or those who believe that while Firedawn does good work, it also exists to whitewash Firemane.
Curios: N/A.
Rules: Slavery is a great evil. This is something many, though by no means all, sentient beings in the Galaxy can agree on. It is also inefficient from an economic standpoint. Especially in a high-tech society that can build droids en masse. Nonetheless, the practice persists, and not just on primitive worlds. Going on crusades to liberate slaves is a noble venture. However, oftentimes the crusaders in question give little thought about what will happen to the slaves after their chains have been broken and their masters have been put to the sword. Many slaves, particularly those who never received an education and might have even been born into slavery, often end up in circumstances not dissimilar to their old lives.
Firedawn strives to help former slaves that were liberated by Firemane or find themselves within its sphere of influence. The credo of Firedawn's employees is: Helping people achieve their potential. It also seeks to help them reunite with family members they might have become separated from. Education is seen as crucial. This covers the ability to read and write, but Firedawn also maintains various schools meant to help their charges catch up on their education so that they can succeed in the job market. It also seeks to provide medical treatment by maintaining several hospitals. A number of the group's employees are former slaves themselves, which ensures that they tend to be very invested in their cause.
Firedawn is funded by Firemane and falls under its chain of command. Thus it presents a positive image of the megacorporation and its leaders. Indeed Siobhan Kerrigan is the godmother of several orphans raised in Firedawn orphanages. Detractors claim that the rosy picture Firedawn paints of Firemane and its Dark Jedi CEO does not match reality. Presumably the truth is somewhere in between. Regardless, Firedawn is also dedicated to helping its charges fulfil their potential by providing them with jobs in Firemane, assuming they want those. If its charges elect to forego this option, Firedawn sees it as its mission to provide them with the tools to succeed independently.
Goals: Help freed slaves help themselves by endowing them with the tools and education they need to succeed in life and ensure they are not left destitute. Also provide Firemane with new potential employees. Good PR is a positive side-effect.
MEMBERS
Brigadier Frida Veldtgan: Frida is the Director of Firedawn. She took over after Kaylah received a promotion and got a seat on the Board of Control. Frida is a career officer and was born into a military family. Prior to her appointment, she was responsible for training Qadiri Sepoys in Firemane's services. She took an unusual interest in the plight of slaves and has a very empathic approach.
Her experiences on Nar Shaddaa, Arkas and Tygara, among others, motivated her to become a very outspoken proponent of the abolitionist cause. Indeed, some of her views on slavers were radical even by Firemane's standards. After Frida was wounded in the line of duty, she was assigned to Firedawn. Kaylah Danton had been promoted, which left the directorship vacant. Putting Frida in charge would keep her productive, but also temper her passions a bit. Though her new position has taken her away from commanding troops in the field, Frida has adapted well to her new position.
Shazora Jai Vahal: Shazora is a Qadiri leader, a former slave and Firemane's chief diplomat. She is one of the patrons of Firedawn and works closely with it. Her people have given her the ceremonial title of High Liberator, though this is a sign of respect rather than absolute power or worship. Once a slave, then a rebel leader, and finally a respected politician and member of Siobhan's inner circle. Shazora hails from an island called Farsi. Her village was attacked by Xioquo raiders when she was very young. The drows enslaved her. En route to the Underealm, their ship was attacked by Khaimari raiders, who proceeded to take both the captured Qadiri as well as surviving Xioquo as slaves and sell them on the slave markets of Karahamor.
Shazora was purchased by one of the city's oligarchs and served as a slave scribe. However, her deferential, submissive attitude hid a cunning intellect. She became one of the brains behind a slave revolt that took control over the city. Though the freed slaves had to endure much hardship, incluidng the invasion of a hostile coalition of neighbouring city-states, they were able to weather the storm. Realising that the sky people could benefit her people and help them advance, Shazora made a pact with the humans of Firemane. In the years that followed, she became one of Siobhan's trusted agents, even joining Firemane's ruling group. Shazora tries to balance her responsibility to Firemane with those to her people, who have acquired their own worldship, the Void Seeker. She often visits homes and schools set up by Firedawn, encouraging education, self-reliance and independence.
Professor Sagacity: Sagacity is a Dahomian native and the head of the Bureau of Education, one of Firedawn's main departments. Sagacity lived through Dahomey's period of warlordism and foreign invasions. The Independent Mining Guild, a foreign corporation that sought to exploit Dahomey's resources and its people, strongly discouraged education for slaves. It feared that educated slaves would be able to organise and rise up in rebellion. The mounting insurgency against the exploiters prompted draconian restrictions. The slaves needed to be ignorant so that the slaveholders could sleep soundly. The owners were terrified by the spread of abolitionist and revolutionary ideas.
Though she risked arrest and worse, Sagacity secretly ran an underground school. Dahomey had regressed during a pre-modern state during the Dark Age, but she was educated by foreign missionaries. When the exploiters clamped down on education for slaves, she circumvented this decree by creating a floating school on an old water ship. In the aftermath of Dahomey's liberation, she worked with freed slaves and helped set up Dahomey's new education system. Elpsis got to know her during a holiday on the planet, and she was later hired by Firedawn on a full-time basis.
Karawn Amersu: Twi'leks have often been the victims of enslavement. Karawn is no different, but has decided to fight back. When he was a little boy, he and his sister were kidnapped and taken far from their home village, separated and sold to slave traders. After his owners changed several times, he happened to meet with his sister again, but they were separated once more. He was renamed several times while he went through various owners. One of them, a racist Imperial officer, gave him a beating when he refused to submit to a new name. Karawn tried to escape but he was caught and part of his right head-tail was severed.
One of his owners, a merchant who belonged to high society, allowed him to acquire an education. He set his slave to work on his shipping routes and in his stores. Eventually he allowed Karawn to buy his freedom. Once, shortly thereafter the manumitted slave was almost kidnapped back into enslavement. He managed to return to his home settlement, but found that it had been turned into a ghost town. Karawn became involved in the abolitionist movement, dedicating his life to ending the practive of slavery. To this end he founded a non-government organisation that would campaign against slavery and raise awarness of it. He was very fervent in the pursuit his mission. At first he largely focused on the plight of his fellow Twi'leks, but he soon branched out.
However, they were targeted by criminal organisations such as the Black Horn Buccaneers, who marketed themselves as 'bridal contractors'. Karawn earned their ire by exposing one of their front companies as sentient traffickers. In response, the mafia put out a hit on him. His campaign brought him in contact with Firemane. Realising that he could not pursue his crusade on his own, Karawn agreed to work for Firedawn. In return, Firemane provides sponsorship, a safe haven as well as education for freed slaves. Today he is acts as an advisor aboard the Void Seeker, a Qadiri worldship populated and led by former Qadiri slaves. His right lekku has been completely severed from his head below to a certain point. He has not suffered any permanent brain damage, and functions well with a prosthetic. However, the maiming has resulted in partial memory loss, occasional cognitive impairment and difficulty communicating with other Twi'leks.
Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori: Elpsis is not a full-time member of Firedawn, but works with it on a part-time basis. A lot of her work consists of being muscle, as she provides protection to fugitive slaves and Firedawn workers who may be endangered. She also teaches them a bit about self-defence. However, she also uses her empathic talents to help former slaves who have suffered severe trauma, acts as a medic and helps out in orphanages run by Firedawn. Moreover, she donates money from her trust fund.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Firemane has a long history of promoting abolitionism. To a degree, this has historical reasons. Siobhan spent some time as a slave in her youth, and this left marks on her. After escaping her servitude, she struggled to survive on Nar Shaddaa, where sentient trafficking is commonplace. She was saved from a violent gang by the Rogue Jedi Adril Tythorin, an Eldorai who had been abducted from Kaeshana by a gang of slavers. Much later, Siobhan joined the fledgling Omega Pyre. There she became a close associate and eventually wife of Tegaea Alcori, one of the paramilitary corporation's leaders. Their first mission together under the Pyre flag took them to Dahomey. The tropical planet had regressed during the Dark Age and come under the thrall of warlords and slavers. The Pyre was able to topple this regime and liberate the vast slave population. However, now they faced the problem of what to do with them - and how to ensure that they would not be left destitute.
As is often the case, winning the peace was harder than winning the war. These were just one of the many challenges the Pyre faced as it evolved into a galactic power, the Omega Protectorate. It took many years of trial and error, success and setback to get Dahomey on track and ensure its population had the tools to help themselves. However, it proved to be a valuable lesson. Many freed Dahomian slaves joined the Pyre and later Firemane Industries. The most prominent is probably Major Tempest, Siobhan Kerrigan's Apprentice. Flash forward more than a decade, and Firemane was confronted with similar issues on Arkas and Tygara.
For many years, Arkas had been plagued by off-world slavers and pirates who had enslaved and persecuted the local population. When they were finally driven off and the planet placed under the protection of the Levantine Sanctum the locals could finally breathe easy. Looking at the ideal tropical lands now freed from danger, Firemane and Nantaris’ Freespace Rangers came upon a plan. Their goal was to liberate slaves, but to do so responsibly. Simply freeing the enslaved but then leaving them in their current condition would actually be worse for those people.
Therefore they decided to create a new town on Arkas to house the manumitted people. This town was called Freetown. However, they were realistic enough to acknowledge that this would never be a utopia. Issues soon arose. Taking so many people from many different cultures, species and languages and putting them into one settlement was bound to cause friction. With so many of the people born into slavery or living on metropolis worlds, the transition to tropical farming was abrupt. What’s worse, although every person received an equal allocation of land, some naturally got better spots than others, or some tried to buy up the land of others and make themselves landlords.
Faced with growing dissent, Firemane had to help relocate groups apart and restrict acquisition of land by one person or group. Naturally others complained at this point that they were being forced into a plantation system little better than servitude. Though it took considerable patience not to throw up her hands and just let them sort it out themselves, Tegaea Alcori, with Tempest as her onsite agent, managed to reach some accommodations. Henceforth the farming would be undertaken on a voluntary basis, with the ability to buy other plots, but with debt relief and restrictions on buying the land of others. Other settlers would run other areas of town including fishing, entertainment and service industries. A volunteer militia composed of locals was created to provide security.
To oversee this process, Firemane created the Firedawn organisation. At first its operations were limited to Arkas. Moreover, it lacked sufficient funding, since Firemane was preoccupied with the Eldorai's Exodus from Kaeshana. Corruption was also an issue, as some officials took advantage of former slaves. After learning of this, Siobhan had several corrupt officials court-martialled. She also sacked the organisation's head and put her old colleague Kaylah Danton in charge. The new boss applied her usual no-nonsense attitude and organisational skills, introducing Eriaduan efficiency. Firedawn worked closely with Firemane and various humanitarian groups to improve the lot of the freed slaves under its care.
She also secured funds to operate Firedawn-run schools. Firedawn began to publish its own textbooks for freed slaves. They emphasised the bootstrap philosophy, encouraging their charges to believe that each person had the ability to work hard and to do better in life. Aside from practical and theoretical knowledge, the educational materiel also included a somewhat idealised depiction of the lives of Siobhan and Tegaea. After all, both had come from a life of abject poverty, but managed to rise out of the gutter and get to the top. The group also taught plantation works technical skills and sought to supply them with machines that could help them improve their output.
The discovery of Tygara caused its remit to expand. However, the situation was a good deal more complicated on the lost elf world. Firstly, the planet was split between various, often internally divided races; the Qadiri, Vashyada and the Xioquo. All practiced slavery to a varying degree. While slavery was very rare among the Vashyada, who deemed it inefficient and generally only applied it as a punishment for felons unable to pay reparations to their victims' families, it was a way of life for the other two. Indeed the Xioquo's entire society was built upon the bedrock of slavery. The Xioquo were also led by darkside cultists who abused their slaves and often worked them to death. It was also part of Qadiri culture in all main states and regions. While some slaves could eventually purchase their freedom, most were exploited by their owners until the day they died. Secondly, Firemane was engaged in helping the Eldorai to establish a new home on the planet. Thirdly, Firemane soon found itself at war with the Xioquo, who menaced the new settlements with raids to secure slaves, and allied itself with the Amikarase Empire, the largest Qadiri state on the planet, ruled by Shahbânu Semiramis.
Thus abolitionists could not go in guns blazing. Using force to compel the local rulers to abolish slavery might free the slaves, but it would cost many, many lives, collapse the planet's economy and cause widespread devastation. All things considered, the slaves would probably be worse off than before. So Firemane elected to pursue a policy of gradual abolition. The Xioquo, being the most aggressice race and led by dark despots, would be subdued, the others encouraged to give up the practice. In the long term, technological progress and machinery would render it inefficient and self-defeating. However, Firedawn would continue to aid escaped slaves. Thus if a slave managed to escape from say the Amikarese Empire, reach Firemane or Eldorai territory and spent a night on free soil, he or she would be considered free. Over time, this would trigger an exodus and cause tensions on the planet.
Kaylah moved on from Firedawn after receiving a promotion. She was charged with helping organise the Eldorai Exodus from Kaeshana, which would earn her a seat in the Board of Control, Firemane's ruling group. She was succeeded by Brigadier Frida Veldtgan. The career officer had been responsible for training Qadiri Sepoys in Firemane's services and took an unusual interest in the plight of the slaves. Firedawn had its work cut out for it after the defeat of the Xioquo and the death of their 'Demigoddess' Mystra. The conquest of the Underealm had triggered a huge slave revolt, as slaves rose up against their hated mistresses. Thus there would be no gradual abolition here, as the slaves had been promised that Firemane and the Eldorai would break their chains. Providing the vast number of slaves with all the essentials was a huge task. Much work had to be done to avert a humanitarian crisis.
Later Frida got to work with her predecessor was Kaylah dispatched to the Xioquo capital to serve as the Firemane adviser to the new Queen Liavondra. Fortunately, despite the challenges and continual intrigue from unreformed Xioquo matriarchs, cooperation with the Xioquo actually worked better than with the Qadiri because their new, farsighted Queen wanted to break with the destructive past and lead her people into a better future. Though primitive by galactic standards, the Xioquo have a knack for tech or, as their enemies put it, minds of metal. Several former Xioquo slaves found jobs with Firemane, often working in technical professions. Firedawn continued its work even after Firemane and the Eldorai Matriarchy grew estranged. It dispatched aid teams to Kessel in the aftermath of the Silver Sanctum's short-lived liberation of the planet, though their record on the spice moon was mixed as the agency was not able to maintain a long-lasting presence.
Slavery among the Qadiri came to an end within the context of the exodus. This was a condition on Firemane's part for providing the Qadiri with advanced technology - and a chance to join the other races by moving into the stars Of course, practices such as sharecropping, indentured servitude and so on persisted. Change would take time if it was supposed to be sustainable. As a result Firedawn's duties increased considerably. The agency moved its headquarters to Firemane's mobile hub, the Arx Aeternae. When the elves started using worldships and arkships to move into space, Firedawn helped newly liberated slaves take their first steps into a new world.
The agency's work is far from over, but Firemane continues to fund it. It maintains a strong presence in a number of Firemane installations. As Siobhan takes a personal interest in its work, being a diligent member of Firedawn can be good for one's career, should one catch the eye of the Lady. The same obviously applies to the former slaves the group takes care of. A number of the members of Siobhan's personal guard or staff started out under the care of Firedawn. Firedawn is a civilian agency and does not teach people how to play with guns. However, it can direct its charges towards Firemane's paramilitary forces and military academy.
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