Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephriki lore. Mock Nazism, the most reprehensible and idiotic ideology to have ever existed.
Image Credit: N/A.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard, Prosperity Quarter, Inheritors of the Light Father, After Darkness, Darth Eisen, Tephrike.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Media Name: The full is 'Tome of the Glorious Conflict Against the Inhuman Threat'. This is absurdly long, even by Tephriki standards, so it is usually shortened to 'Glorious Conflict'.
Format: Most copies are in book format. Turning it into a holobook is possible, but a lot less common on Tephrike. The Vaderites' propaganda ministry often plays audio recordings that quote extracts from the book.
Distribution: Planetary
Length: Long
Description: The melodramatically named Tome of the Glorious Conflict Against the Inhuman Threat, or Glorious Conflict for short, is the political manifesto of the Disciples of the Vader and the autobiography of their founder. While not a master plan by any means, it details the ideological aims of the Humanist movement. It draws heavily upon the Testament of the Chieftains of Ryloth and the Protocols of the Masters of Ossus. These are anti-alien pamphets that purport to expose a Twi'lek and alien Jedi conspiracy to enslave mankind. Though long exposed as a hoax, the Testament continues to be extremely popular in far-right, human supremacist circles on Tephrike.
Glorious Conflict postulates that an alien conspiracy was responsible for unleashing the Gulag Virus as part of a bid to achieve galactic domination by decimating the human species. It holds a conspiracy of Twi'leks, Mon Calamari and Yuuzhan Vong responsible for this. The narrative is characterised by an obsession with a 'galactic xenos conspiracy'. It blames this conspiracy for the downfall of the Galactic Empire and attributes Tephrike's woes to the planet's old democratic government, the aliens, the Jedi, the liberals and the banks. The book taps into Tephrike's bloody history of racial tensions. It depicts humans as victims of a system dominated by alien interests, Jedi, high finance and an alien-controlled media that spread fake news. It promotes the conspiracy theory that wealthy aliens had pursued a secretive agenda to 'rule the galaxy through vaccines'.
However, the narrator also posits that all these disparate interests are working for the same master, namely alien puppeteers. Indeed, it claims that the Republican Guard and the Dominion of Light are under the thumb of the same conspiracy, even though both factions are fundamentally opposed to one another. The parliamentary system is derided as being inherently corrupt. Of all the aliens, the Twi'leks are regarded as among the most dangerous.
The author claims that they have been waging biological warfare against the human species, with the aim of breeding it out of existence by seducing humans into entering relationships with Twi'leks rather than members of their own species and spawning near-human 'bastards'. Mon Calamari are also singled out as devious savages. The Empire uplifted them, but they repaid its benevolence with betrayal. Yuuzhan Vong - and Force Dead in general - are demons because they stand outside the Force. It also singles out spews vitriol against Bothans, who are all devious politicians and spies who collaborated with the Vong. These four species are often called microbes, parasites or devils. The implications are clearly genocidal. It is claimed that all cultural, technological and scientific innovations were almost entirely the product of human effort. Alien species are incapable of creating on their own; they can only imitate or undermine the achievements of humans.
The book rejects the idea of equality between the different species, asserting that it is beneficial for other species to be subjugated by humans. Intermarriage with members of other species is treated as a sin that was responsible for the downfall of the first, pure human civilisation. The book glorifies warfare and the ideology of Social Darwinism. Life is seen as an eternal struggle between superior and inferior species. Since humans are seen as a superior species, they are entitled to use force to acquire more land for themselves. This land will be used to cultivate food and provide land for the expanding human population, at the expense of the alien. Their inherent superiority grants humans the right to rule over other nations and species.
The book also explicitly endorses eugenics. Indeed, it posits that in primordial times all humans were Force-Sensitive. However, the 'god-men' committed the original sin of interbreeding with inferiors, which is how aliens were able to wield the Force. Vader was the first man to achieve the state of enlightenment mankind's ancestors had possessed. Mastery of the Force is the hallmark of a superior being.
Thus it is the duty of the Vaderites to reclaim the original state of grace by breeding superior humans - and weeding out 'undesirables'. In the Vaderite view, this makes all Force-Sensitive aliens thieves who stole their power from the 'elect'. Claims that the first hyperdrive spacefract were created by aliens such as the Duros are dismissed as Jedi propaganda. Incidentally, the book makes no mention of Sith Purebloods. Indeed, the Red Sith are virtually unknown on Tephrike, where Sith are seen as synonymous with Disciples of the Vader. The tome serves as an ideological justification for the Vaderites' eugenics programme, which includes the murder of the mentally or physically disabled.
However, not all humans are born equal. Power belongs to those who can commend the Force, and so Force-Sensitive humans stand at the peak of the pyramid. They must become Sith and be trained as Disciples of the Vader, for Vader was what the tome calls the Apex Man, a higher being who achieved apotheosis. In that regard he is treated as a divine being. It was he, not Palpatine, who was the true Galactic Emperor. By contrast, Jedi and the Rebel Alliance are vilified. The Jedi, the author claims, have poisoned the 'human soul' with the evils of altruism and equality. Democracy is treated as a mummer's face controlled by alien bankers, who pull the strings of the unthinking masses.
The obsession with conflict and strife is fundamental to the doctrine laid out here. Thus it glorifies violence and naked strength over reason. Indeed, it calls Humanism a 'doctrine of action'. This makes the ideology inherently anti-reason and anti-peace. A nation that remains at peace grows stagnant and loses its virility. Thus eternal strife is necessary to ensure the constant regeneration of the nation. As the author puts it, the Imperial youth must be hard as durasteel. The book admonishes its reader to always think terms of 'strength', 'vitality', 'will to act', 'domination' and 'purity'. The doctrine encourages conflict, because only the strongest has any rights at all-- and those are derived from his power.
The elaboration on the Vaderite's ideology is intermixed with an autobiography of their founder, detailing his youth, his time as a Jedi, eventual apostasy and eventual rebellion against the Dominion of Light. It claims that he became conscious of his special destiny after the spirit of Darth Vader visited him in a dream and commanded him to conquer Tephrike and end the Jedi. The Supreme Leader depicts himself as a messianic figure who was chosen by providence to bring about the palingenetic rebirth and regeneration of Tephrike, and with it the galaxy. The author presents himself as someone who started out as a cog in the 'alien-controlled' Windian Jedi Order, but who was able to enkindle the 'spark of greatness' by connecting with his 'race soul' and break the shackles the forces of the Light had used to chain him.
The tome is required reading throughout the lands controlled by the Vaderites. It is often quoted in other publications. It is given to newly wed couples and soldiers for free. Moreover, schoolchildren have to read it at school and must pass tests on it. Every loyal human household is strongly encouraged to own a copy. Every school child receives one upon graduation and a household that does not own a copy would be viewed with suspicion. Moreover, it is mandatory reading at Sith academies and military colleges. The Vaderites also try to smuggle copies of the book into Republican Guard or Dominion territory in order to 'awaken the racial consciousness' of humans ruled by their rivals. Needless to say the Glorious Conflict has been banned by both the Guard and the Dominion, who treat possession of it as a crime.
Leaving its reprehensible ideology aside, the book is not a good read. The writing is clumsy, pretentious and full of rambling. The beliefs expressed in the book consist of commonplace clichés, rather than anything truly original. And the vision outlined in it is one of endless struggle, for conflict it not a means to an end, but an end in itself. Without it a nation succumbs to degeneracy and loses sight of the 'ironclad law of nature', namely that the weak must be ruled by the strong. Aliens are consistently called xenos throughout the book. Although it glorifies the human species, it is scathing of the idea that common humans could decide their fate themselves. It repeatedly uses terms such as 'the masses' or 'the herd' when referring to them. Common humans may be superior to aliens and 'racial degenerates' but they cannot think for themselves. Instead they require the guidance of the Supreme Leader. Thus the only possible form of government is a totalitarian state based on the 'leader principle', which posits that the leader is unbound by written law.
The book repeatedly hammers the reader with the same argument over and over again, but its ceaseless repetition of its message can have a powerful effect on those susceptible to its beliefs. For all its pretensions of making Tephrike great again, its vision of the future is woefully inconcrete. This is particularly apparent when the author addresses economics, as this a subject the Supreme Leader had a poor understanding of. Ironically, it has been used to justify both collectivist and capitalist policies, since while the author preaches fire and brimstone against 'xenos plutocrats' and 'xenos finance capitalism', he extols the virtues of 'productive capitalism'. It is popular among the Sith and human supremacists because it validates what they already believe. It is common for Vaderites to display the book and chant lines from it during rallies. Moreover, sentences from the book are a common sight on propaganda posters.
While Malitia is the author of the book, he never actually sat down and wrote it. Instead he dictated it to one of his acolytes, who later edited it for him and put it in a readable format. It has been the canonical text of the Humanist movement ever since and no Supreme Leader has been able to replace it. Various Supreme Leaders have made their own additions to the text in order to make it suit their interests, but the core message has remained the same.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Author: Written by Darth Malitia, founder and first Supreme Leader of the Disciples of the Vader.
Publisher: Disciples of the Vader.
Reception: Mandatory reading in the Greater Sith Imperium, which is controlled by the Disciples of the Vader. Schoolchildren are required to read the book and write essays on it. It is given freely to every newly wed human couple and every soldier fighting on the front. The Vaderites have based their legal and political system on its message and treat it as holy writ.
By contrast, it has been banned by the Republican Guard and the Dominion of Light, who both see it as racist hate speech and enemy propaganda. This is one of the very, very few things both factions agree on. Human supremacists on Tephrike tend to love the book, everyone else hates it. There are human supremacists who like the book, but think a human supremacist empire should be run by Non-Force-Users, not dark mages. Of course, there are also human Tephriki who think it is garbage.
Critics have called the book turgid, repetitive, illogical and rightly criticised it for presenting obvious hoaxes as fact. The first edition was riddled with grammatical errors. However, Glorious Conflict possesses tremendous demagogic power. It has successfully appealed to many disgruntled sections of Tephrike's human population by rallying human supremacist, anti-democratic, anti-liberal, militarists and Sith around the Vaderite banner. In that regard, Glorious Conflict accomplished its goal. The book is all but unknown outside of Tephrike. Hopefully it stays that way.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Usually hardback with a big elaborate and excessively dramatic cover with the image of the Vader ascending over figures representing the Twi'lek, the Jedi and the Force Dead.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Glorious Conflict is part autobiography, part ideological manifesto. The book described how Cade was inducted into the Windian Jedi Order and then became a humanist and a Sith, taking the name of Darth Malitia and declaring himself Supreme Leader. It describes it as a awakening event whereby he was contacted by the spirit of Darth Vader and anointed as his chosen one. Cade discusses his belief that Vader achieved apotheosis in death. Its view of history is rather distorted.
While the author agrees that anakin Skywalker 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, he claims that when Anakin 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, Malitia believe that Darth Tyranus and Qui-Gon Jinn were the same person. Tyranus was the Dark Lord of the Sith. 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, but ascended to godhood. But the sacred bloodline of Vader endured. Decades later, Ben Skywalker turned away from the 'corrupt' Jedi Order and led the First Order in a great crusade. He destroyed the Jedi Temple and killed Luke Skywalker to avenge his grandfather.
The book has fifteen chapters, which are followed by a conclusion and an index. The first half of the book is mostly autobiographical, while the second describes the Humanist movement, the Disciples of the Vader and the author's plans for a new Tephrike founded upon the principles of human supremacy, Sith rule and imperialism. The book depicts Cade as first having been a liberal and tolerant, before he underwent a spiritual awakening and embraced humanism. He describes himself as a visionary and the defeat of the Sith armies is attributed to saboteurs and backstabbers.
The narrative serves as justification for the Vaderites' persecution of 'undesirables' - liberals, socialists, aliens, Jedi, the mentally or physically disabled and so on. Cade explicitly states that the annihilation of the weak and feeble is preferrable to their protection and scapegoats a shadowy conspiracy of alien interests for the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. The book also describes the organisation of the Disciples of the Vader - the Sith cult Cade founded - and the Humanist People's Party.
The latter is a human supremacist mass movement that serves the purpose of disseminating Humanist ideology among the Vaderites' human subjects, mobilising them and controlling their daily lives. Cade outlines his vision of a racially cleansed People's Community. This is a society based on humanist, social-Darwinist and anti-democratic beliefs. In this racially homogenous and hierarchially organised society, the interests of the individual must be subordinated to those of the species.
Like a military unit, it must be permanently mobilised for war. All 'pure' humans are above the aliens, but Force-blind humans rank beneath Sith and the only true Sith are those who follow the code of the Disciples. He advocates the use of sterilisation as a form of speciesist population control to 'manage' the number of 'undesirables', as well as the implementation of a breeding programme to breed a 'superior human'. The author goes into great detail when elaborating on the power of propaganda and spectacle. He describes how Vaderite rallies were organised with theatrical precision, featuring martial music, uniforms, torchlight ceremonies, marches and formations of thousands of participants giving the humanist salute.
He also exhorts the leader principle, based on which the destiny of the nation is embodied in a single leader who must wield absolute power. Furthermore, he elaborates on how the Disciples must use ideological indoctrination and eugenics to create a 'new man' - a superior being that will reclaim the lost glory of humankind, be strong in the Force, physically strong, virile and beyond 'slave morality'. He will despise everything that is weak, soft and 'decadent'. This 'new Humanist Man' - a Sith'ari - will colonise the living space that the Disciples must claim. Cade sees history as an eternal struggle between 'superior' and 'inferior species', between Sith and Jedi. Several passages of the book have a clear genocidal nature and the text is viciously speciesist. Glorious Conflict propagates the idea that only a 'strong' nation, individual or species has a right to exist. Those who do not fit this criteria do not deserve to live. It is Social Darwinism taken to the ultimate extreme.
Some extracts from the book:
"Those who have no understanding of the political world around them have no right to criticise or complain."
"Whoever strives for what is greatest, must turn his back on what is lesser. And to all doubts and questions the apprentice of the coming Sith Imperium knows only one answer: But I have the will!'"
"Kylo Ren was a brave man, a patriot. He broke the chains of the Jedi. In truth, it was Luke who murdered his own students to keep them from becoming conscious of the truth the Sith'ari had passed on to his grandson."
"A Humanist State should in the first place raise matrimony from the level of being a constant scandal to the race. The State should consecrate it as an institution which is called upon to produce creatures made in the likeness of the Sith'ari and not create monsters that are a mixture of man and ape."
"I believe in the of everlasting struggle, which is the law of life, and in the duty of the best specimen of our species - the natural elite of mankind - to rule the world, and evolve out of themselves a caste of supermen - a people 'like unto the gods'."
"The Humanist State, conversely, must under no conditions annex xenos with the intention of wanting to make humans out of them some day. On the contrary, it must muster the determination either to seal off these alien racial elements, so that the blood of its own Folk will not be corrupted again, or it must without further ado remove them and hand over the vacated territory to its own people. We cannot turn xenos into citizens anymore than we could lice or rats."
"The removel of sick, weak, deformed children, in short their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortion, in order subsequently to breed a species of degenerates burdened with illnesses."
"Once again the songs of the fatherland roared to the heavens along the endless marching columns, and for the last time the Sith'ari's grace smiled on His ungrateful children."
"For Humanism, the growth of the Imperium, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; any renunciation is a sign of decay and of death. But the Imperium demands discipline, the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense of duty and sacrifice."
"For a racially pure people which is conscious of its blood can never be enslaved by the xenos. In this world he will forever be master over bastards and bastards alone."
"The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others."
"If, with the help of his Jedi creed, the xenos is victorious over the humans of the world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity and this planet will, as it did thousands of years ago, move through the ether devoid of men."
"The wormheaded Twi'lek and whorish Zeltron lie in wait for hours on end, glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom they plans to seduce, removing her from the bosom of her own people. The xenos use every possible means to undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people. In their systematic efforts to ruin innocent humans they strives to break down the last barriers of discrimination between him and other peoples. They were responsible for bringing bastardised near-xenos with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the human species which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the xenos might dominate. For as long as a people remain pure and are conscious of the treasure of their blood, they can never be overcome by the Twi'lek. Never in this world can the xenos become master of any people except a bastardized people."
"If Nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior species should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile."
"The Twi'lek has used her control over the mass media to brainwash generations of humans into viewing her as attractive, to the point where they prefer her to their natural mates. In truth, the xenos is a parasite in our midst. She drinks the blood of human new-born and files down their teeth to make them better at consuming flesh. That is how she changes colour. She starts out white, but the more she eats, the redder she becomes."
"In the Golden Age of Mankind, the power of the Force was wielded by humans alone. Compared to them, we are like children. Their power and wisdom were unmatched. We stand upon the shoulders of these titans. They transformed barren worlds into habitable living space and built the first hyperdrives.
All galactic culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the human. Hence it is no accident that the first cultures arose in places where the human, in his encounters with lower peoples, subjugated them and bent them to his will. They then became the first technical instrument in the service of a developing culture. But then our ancestors grew complacent. Virtue was superseded by the disgustng vice, and they mixed their blood with that of their servitors. That is how xenos were able to harness the Force. It was ours, and they took it because we violated nature's law."
"It was a conspiracy of xenos bankers and Jedi that unleashed the Great Plague, with the aim of decimating mankind so that the survivors could be reduced to a state of servitude. It is all laid out in the Protocols of the Masters of Ossus. The Yuuzhan Vong created the virus; the Neimoidian funded the virus; the Mon Calamari sabotaged our defences and pandemic response and the Twi'lek used their control over the media to deceive the public."
"The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble...they quickly forget... all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. If this principle be forgotten and if an attempt be made to be abstract and general, the propaganda will turn out ineffective; for the public will not be able to digest or retain what is offered to them in this way."
"Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles and it will only perish through eternal peace."
"Blood mixture and the result decline of the species is the sole cause of the dying out of old cultures; for men do not perish as a result of lost wars, but by the loss of that force of resistance which is continued only in pure blood. All who are not of good blood in this world are chaff."
"The nationalisation of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their alien poisoners are exterminated."
"A Force-User should only procreate with another Force-User. It will produce an offspring that is far stronger than one created by a union with a Force-Blind. Any Disciple who disregards this is shirking his duty. We must overcome the absurd idea that marriage is a private matter. It is a matter of the state."
"For as soon as the procreative faculty is thwarted and the number of births diminished, the natural struggle for existence which allows only healthy and strong individuals to survive is replaced by a sheer craze to 'save' feeble and even diseased creatures at any cost. And thus the seeds are sown for a human progeny which will become more and more miserable from one generation to another, as long as Nature's will is scorned."
"And then the Sith'ari gave me his sword and bid me to go forth and do his will."
"The Jedi spirit is fundamentally contrary to the laws of nature. Existence is based on unceasing, relentless struggle. The first civilisation arose when humans came into contact with inferior breeds, subjugated them, and assumed the burden of leadership. The members of the inferior species became the first mechanical tools in the service of a growing civilization. Decline set in the moment humans forgot the precepts of their ancestors and mated with the xenos."
"The Humanist philosophy, which is based on the sanctity of human blood, must finally succeed in bringing about a nobler era, in which men will no longer pay exclusive attention to breeding and rearing pedigree nexu, equines and bantha and, but will endeavour to improve the breed of the human species itself. That will be an era of silence and renunciation for one class of people, while the others will give their gifts and make their sacrifices joyfully."
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.
Ironically, one of the reasons the outbreak got so bad was that activists such as the far-right Humanity Front denounced it as fake news and broke quarantine to stage protests or conduct lynchings. It goes without saying that demonstrations and civil unrest are good ways for a pandemic to spread. One of the ringleaders claimed: 'The reaction to this fake pandemic by the government is tyrannical, unconstitutional and a complete violation of our rights and the destruction of our freedom. This panic needs to end. People need to wake up before it is too late or we'll never get our freedom back.' Some also violated social distancing roles to party or indulge in other frivolous activities.
The pandemic exacerberated pre-existing racial tensions. Race-based militias clashed in the streets of cities such as Palmyra and Vortanstad. A billionaire Neimoidian philantrophist who committed a large amount of his own money to fight the pandemic earned the ire of the Humanity Front. He was accused of plotting to kill off a good portion of humanity, then install mark-of-the-beast style tracking chips in whoever survived. In all fairness, absurd conspiracy theories were not limited to humans. A radical Mon Calamari party alleged that the quarantine centres where people who were suspected of being infected had been quarantined were actually concentration camps.
Tephrike's small Jedi enclave tried to impose order and fight the darkness. After a peaceful protest was violently suppressed by Yuuzhan Vong government soldiers, Jedi Master Zaras Dant staged a coup to topple Tephrike's ailing federal government. Parliament was disbanded and a junta took power. But the Jedi ended up becoming the very tyranny they fought against, while insisting that they were righteous. Influenced by a 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 was an actual threat. The Dominion called him Darth Menace, though his actual title was darth Malitia. The Sith scored a number of victories over the Dominion. They also carried out savage pogroms against aliens. Many were murdered outright or forced to serve as slaves. The final confrontation took place in the ruins of Palmyra, Tephrike's old capital. It was a brutal fight, with atrocities being committed on both sides. It saw widespread use of chemical weapons and devastating Force techniques. When the Vaderites seemed to be gaining the upper hand and tried to open a portal into the otherworlds, the Dominion dropped a nuclear weapon on them.
The city was devastated and casualties were staggering, but the Sith crusade had failed. Forced to retreat into the jungle, Malitia led the remainder of his army on the Arduous March, performing scorched earth tactics on the way. Embittered and paranoid, his grip of reality weakened. During the retreat, he started composing an autobiographical manifesto, the Glorious Conflict. He dictated it to a loyal acolyte, who turned his master's frenzied ramblings into something readable. The original title was even wordier, but he was persuaded to change it. Malitia was obsessed with his destiny and continued to plot revenge on the Jedi. However, his minions had other ideas and so his apprentice Darth Vengeance killed him. But Glorious Conflict remained the gospel of the movement. Vengeance was less of a crusader, but saw it as useful and shared its writer's ideals.
The text has not remained static, but evolved over the centuries. One Supreme Leader tried to incorporate revisions in order to allow for more 'lenient' treatment of certain near-human and alien species. This would have, of course, not changed the fundamental nature of the system. However, this more pragmatic Sith Lord was overthrown. The Vaderites regarded their wars against their foes, the Dominion and the Republican Guard, not as conventional conflicts in the military sense. Instead they perceived them wars of racial and spiritual extermination.
Final victory could only be achieved through a ruthless annihilation of the opposing system and its representatives as well the 'cleansing' of the occupied territories. It goes without saying that this really stiffened resistance. For instance, the Vaderites initiated a genocidal war of extermination against Tephrike's Yuuzhan Vong, who had long given up the ways of their ancestors and integrated into society. Faced with an enemy who sought their extinction and unable to get help from the Dominion, which took a low view of the Force Dead, they joined the Guard, bolstering its ability to fight Force-Users on a more equal playing field.
There was a consensus among the Humanists that non-humans could not be equal to humans. However, more 'pragmatic' voices argued for keeping a 'sustainable' number alive...in order to use them as slaves. Thus the Vaderites implemented a policy ghettoisation and segregation, concentrating alien populations in ghettos, 'reservations' and forced labour camps. They established a complicated system of racial charts. Gungans and Houk were viewed as more 'tolerable' because they were regarded as mindless primitives. Twi'leks, Yuuzhan Vong, Bothans and Mon Calamari, by contrast, were seen as dangerous parasites. Sith death squads, regular army and police units carried out mass executions. They were supported by militias composed of local collaborators. Near-humans went to great lengths to prove their human ancestry. In some cases, this succeeded and some Imperial officials were willing to tolerate them as second-class citizens. But many ended up disenfranchised and forced to wear identifying badges that marked them as non-humans.
When the Vaderites took the city of Almopia, the entire alien population was forced into a squalid, overcrowded ghetto called Prosperity Quarter. Those deemed able to perform hard labour were sent to toil in slave camps, while their dependents in the ghetto served as hostages. Human companies set up manufacturing plants in the ghetto to take advantage of the 'assets'. Almopia itself was renamed Adlerberg and turned into a 'model human city'. The first Supreme Leader's ranting had little to say about concrete economic policy, so they were used to justify socialist, capitalist and corporatist beliefs. But then this is not really important since the Vaderite economy has always been a parasitical looter's economy.
The Glorious Conflict was only challenged during the Netherworld Crisis. 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. The Light Sith managed to seize power, but then found themselves trying to reform a system that could not be reformed. They ended up getting embroiled in a war with the Dominion of Light, which led to their downfall. After their campaign failed, the fanatical Darth Furcht took control and orthodoxy was restored.
Intent: Expand on Tephriki lore. Mock Nazism, the most reprehensible and idiotic ideology to have ever existed.
Image Credit: N/A.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard, Prosperity Quarter, Inheritors of the Light Father, After Darkness, Darth Eisen, Tephrike.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Media Name: The full is 'Tome of the Glorious Conflict Against the Inhuman Threat'. This is absurdly long, even by Tephriki standards, so it is usually shortened to 'Glorious Conflict'.
Format: Most copies are in book format. Turning it into a holobook is possible, but a lot less common on Tephrike. The Vaderites' propaganda ministry often plays audio recordings that quote extracts from the book.
Distribution: Planetary
Length: Long
Description: The melodramatically named Tome of the Glorious Conflict Against the Inhuman Threat, or Glorious Conflict for short, is the political manifesto of the Disciples of the Vader and the autobiography of their founder. While not a master plan by any means, it details the ideological aims of the Humanist movement. It draws heavily upon the Testament of the Chieftains of Ryloth and the Protocols of the Masters of Ossus. These are anti-alien pamphets that purport to expose a Twi'lek and alien Jedi conspiracy to enslave mankind. Though long exposed as a hoax, the Testament continues to be extremely popular in far-right, human supremacist circles on Tephrike.
Glorious Conflict postulates that an alien conspiracy was responsible for unleashing the Gulag Virus as part of a bid to achieve galactic domination by decimating the human species. It holds a conspiracy of Twi'leks, Mon Calamari and Yuuzhan Vong responsible for this. The narrative is characterised by an obsession with a 'galactic xenos conspiracy'. It blames this conspiracy for the downfall of the Galactic Empire and attributes Tephrike's woes to the planet's old democratic government, the aliens, the Jedi, the liberals and the banks. The book taps into Tephrike's bloody history of racial tensions. It depicts humans as victims of a system dominated by alien interests, Jedi, high finance and an alien-controlled media that spread fake news. It promotes the conspiracy theory that wealthy aliens had pursued a secretive agenda to 'rule the galaxy through vaccines'.
However, the narrator also posits that all these disparate interests are working for the same master, namely alien puppeteers. Indeed, it claims that the Republican Guard and the Dominion of Light are under the thumb of the same conspiracy, even though both factions are fundamentally opposed to one another. The parliamentary system is derided as being inherently corrupt. Of all the aliens, the Twi'leks are regarded as among the most dangerous.
The author claims that they have been waging biological warfare against the human species, with the aim of breeding it out of existence by seducing humans into entering relationships with Twi'leks rather than members of their own species and spawning near-human 'bastards'. Mon Calamari are also singled out as devious savages. The Empire uplifted them, but they repaid its benevolence with betrayal. Yuuzhan Vong - and Force Dead in general - are demons because they stand outside the Force. It also singles out spews vitriol against Bothans, who are all devious politicians and spies who collaborated with the Vong. These four species are often called microbes, parasites or devils. The implications are clearly genocidal. It is claimed that all cultural, technological and scientific innovations were almost entirely the product of human effort. Alien species are incapable of creating on their own; they can only imitate or undermine the achievements of humans.
The book rejects the idea of equality between the different species, asserting that it is beneficial for other species to be subjugated by humans. Intermarriage with members of other species is treated as a sin that was responsible for the downfall of the first, pure human civilisation. The book glorifies warfare and the ideology of Social Darwinism. Life is seen as an eternal struggle between superior and inferior species. Since humans are seen as a superior species, they are entitled to use force to acquire more land for themselves. This land will be used to cultivate food and provide land for the expanding human population, at the expense of the alien. Their inherent superiority grants humans the right to rule over other nations and species.
The book also explicitly endorses eugenics. Indeed, it posits that in primordial times all humans were Force-Sensitive. However, the 'god-men' committed the original sin of interbreeding with inferiors, which is how aliens were able to wield the Force. Vader was the first man to achieve the state of enlightenment mankind's ancestors had possessed. Mastery of the Force is the hallmark of a superior being.
Thus it is the duty of the Vaderites to reclaim the original state of grace by breeding superior humans - and weeding out 'undesirables'. In the Vaderite view, this makes all Force-Sensitive aliens thieves who stole their power from the 'elect'. Claims that the first hyperdrive spacefract were created by aliens such as the Duros are dismissed as Jedi propaganda. Incidentally, the book makes no mention of Sith Purebloods. Indeed, the Red Sith are virtually unknown on Tephrike, where Sith are seen as synonymous with Disciples of the Vader. The tome serves as an ideological justification for the Vaderites' eugenics programme, which includes the murder of the mentally or physically disabled.
However, not all humans are born equal. Power belongs to those who can commend the Force, and so Force-Sensitive humans stand at the peak of the pyramid. They must become Sith and be trained as Disciples of the Vader, for Vader was what the tome calls the Apex Man, a higher being who achieved apotheosis. In that regard he is treated as a divine being. It was he, not Palpatine, who was the true Galactic Emperor. By contrast, Jedi and the Rebel Alliance are vilified. The Jedi, the author claims, have poisoned the 'human soul' with the evils of altruism and equality. Democracy is treated as a mummer's face controlled by alien bankers, who pull the strings of the unthinking masses.
The obsession with conflict and strife is fundamental to the doctrine laid out here. Thus it glorifies violence and naked strength over reason. Indeed, it calls Humanism a 'doctrine of action'. This makes the ideology inherently anti-reason and anti-peace. A nation that remains at peace grows stagnant and loses its virility. Thus eternal strife is necessary to ensure the constant regeneration of the nation. As the author puts it, the Imperial youth must be hard as durasteel. The book admonishes its reader to always think terms of 'strength', 'vitality', 'will to act', 'domination' and 'purity'. The doctrine encourages conflict, because only the strongest has any rights at all-- and those are derived from his power.
The elaboration on the Vaderite's ideology is intermixed with an autobiography of their founder, detailing his youth, his time as a Jedi, eventual apostasy and eventual rebellion against the Dominion of Light. It claims that he became conscious of his special destiny after the spirit of Darth Vader visited him in a dream and commanded him to conquer Tephrike and end the Jedi. The Supreme Leader depicts himself as a messianic figure who was chosen by providence to bring about the palingenetic rebirth and regeneration of Tephrike, and with it the galaxy. The author presents himself as someone who started out as a cog in the 'alien-controlled' Windian Jedi Order, but who was able to enkindle the 'spark of greatness' by connecting with his 'race soul' and break the shackles the forces of the Light had used to chain him.
The tome is required reading throughout the lands controlled by the Vaderites. It is often quoted in other publications. It is given to newly wed couples and soldiers for free. Moreover, schoolchildren have to read it at school and must pass tests on it. Every loyal human household is strongly encouraged to own a copy. Every school child receives one upon graduation and a household that does not own a copy would be viewed with suspicion. Moreover, it is mandatory reading at Sith academies and military colleges. The Vaderites also try to smuggle copies of the book into Republican Guard or Dominion territory in order to 'awaken the racial consciousness' of humans ruled by their rivals. Needless to say the Glorious Conflict has been banned by both the Guard and the Dominion, who treat possession of it as a crime.
Leaving its reprehensible ideology aside, the book is not a good read. The writing is clumsy, pretentious and full of rambling. The beliefs expressed in the book consist of commonplace clichés, rather than anything truly original. And the vision outlined in it is one of endless struggle, for conflict it not a means to an end, but an end in itself. Without it a nation succumbs to degeneracy and loses sight of the 'ironclad law of nature', namely that the weak must be ruled by the strong. Aliens are consistently called xenos throughout the book. Although it glorifies the human species, it is scathing of the idea that common humans could decide their fate themselves. It repeatedly uses terms such as 'the masses' or 'the herd' when referring to them. Common humans may be superior to aliens and 'racial degenerates' but they cannot think for themselves. Instead they require the guidance of the Supreme Leader. Thus the only possible form of government is a totalitarian state based on the 'leader principle', which posits that the leader is unbound by written law.
The book repeatedly hammers the reader with the same argument over and over again, but its ceaseless repetition of its message can have a powerful effect on those susceptible to its beliefs. For all its pretensions of making Tephrike great again, its vision of the future is woefully inconcrete. This is particularly apparent when the author addresses economics, as this a subject the Supreme Leader had a poor understanding of. Ironically, it has been used to justify both collectivist and capitalist policies, since while the author preaches fire and brimstone against 'xenos plutocrats' and 'xenos finance capitalism', he extols the virtues of 'productive capitalism'. It is popular among the Sith and human supremacists because it validates what they already believe. It is common for Vaderites to display the book and chant lines from it during rallies. Moreover, sentences from the book are a common sight on propaganda posters.
While Malitia is the author of the book, he never actually sat down and wrote it. Instead he dictated it to one of his acolytes, who later edited it for him and put it in a readable format. It has been the canonical text of the Humanist movement ever since and no Supreme Leader has been able to replace it. Various Supreme Leaders have made their own additions to the text in order to make it suit their interests, but the core message has remained the same.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Author: Written by Darth Malitia, founder and first Supreme Leader of the Disciples of the Vader.
Publisher: Disciples of the Vader.
Reception: Mandatory reading in the Greater Sith Imperium, which is controlled by the Disciples of the Vader. Schoolchildren are required to read the book and write essays on it. It is given freely to every newly wed human couple and every soldier fighting on the front. The Vaderites have based their legal and political system on its message and treat it as holy writ.
By contrast, it has been banned by the Republican Guard and the Dominion of Light, who both see it as racist hate speech and enemy propaganda. This is one of the very, very few things both factions agree on. Human supremacists on Tephrike tend to love the book, everyone else hates it. There are human supremacists who like the book, but think a human supremacist empire should be run by Non-Force-Users, not dark mages. Of course, there are also human Tephriki who think it is garbage.
Critics have called the book turgid, repetitive, illogical and rightly criticised it for presenting obvious hoaxes as fact. The first edition was riddled with grammatical errors. However, Glorious Conflict possesses tremendous demagogic power. It has successfully appealed to many disgruntled sections of Tephrike's human population by rallying human supremacist, anti-democratic, anti-liberal, militarists and Sith around the Vaderite banner. In that regard, Glorious Conflict accomplished its goal. The book is all but unknown outside of Tephrike. Hopefully it stays that way.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Usually hardback with a big elaborate and excessively dramatic cover with the image of the Vader ascending over figures representing the Twi'lek, the Jedi and the Force Dead.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Glorious Conflict is part autobiography, part ideological manifesto. The book described how Cade was inducted into the Windian Jedi Order and then became a humanist and a Sith, taking the name of Darth Malitia and declaring himself Supreme Leader. It describes it as a awakening event whereby he was contacted by the spirit of Darth Vader and anointed as his chosen one. Cade discusses his belief that Vader achieved apotheosis in death. Its view of history is rather distorted.
While the author agrees that anakin Skywalker 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, he claims that when Anakin 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, Malitia believe that Darth Tyranus and Qui-Gon Jinn were the same person. Tyranus was the Dark Lord of the Sith. 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, but ascended to godhood. But the sacred bloodline of Vader endured. Decades later, Ben Skywalker turned away from the 'corrupt' Jedi Order and led the First Order in a great crusade. He destroyed the Jedi Temple and killed Luke Skywalker to avenge his grandfather.
The book has fifteen chapters, which are followed by a conclusion and an index. The first half of the book is mostly autobiographical, while the second describes the Humanist movement, the Disciples of the Vader and the author's plans for a new Tephrike founded upon the principles of human supremacy, Sith rule and imperialism. The book depicts Cade as first having been a liberal and tolerant, before he underwent a spiritual awakening and embraced humanism. He describes himself as a visionary and the defeat of the Sith armies is attributed to saboteurs and backstabbers.
The narrative serves as justification for the Vaderites' persecution of 'undesirables' - liberals, socialists, aliens, Jedi, the mentally or physically disabled and so on. Cade explicitly states that the annihilation of the weak and feeble is preferrable to their protection and scapegoats a shadowy conspiracy of alien interests for the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. The book also describes the organisation of the Disciples of the Vader - the Sith cult Cade founded - and the Humanist People's Party.
The latter is a human supremacist mass movement that serves the purpose of disseminating Humanist ideology among the Vaderites' human subjects, mobilising them and controlling their daily lives. Cade outlines his vision of a racially cleansed People's Community. This is a society based on humanist, social-Darwinist and anti-democratic beliefs. In this racially homogenous and hierarchially organised society, the interests of the individual must be subordinated to those of the species.
Like a military unit, it must be permanently mobilised for war. All 'pure' humans are above the aliens, but Force-blind humans rank beneath Sith and the only true Sith are those who follow the code of the Disciples. He advocates the use of sterilisation as a form of speciesist population control to 'manage' the number of 'undesirables', as well as the implementation of a breeding programme to breed a 'superior human'. The author goes into great detail when elaborating on the power of propaganda and spectacle. He describes how Vaderite rallies were organised with theatrical precision, featuring martial music, uniforms, torchlight ceremonies, marches and formations of thousands of participants giving the humanist salute.
He also exhorts the leader principle, based on which the destiny of the nation is embodied in a single leader who must wield absolute power. Furthermore, he elaborates on how the Disciples must use ideological indoctrination and eugenics to create a 'new man' - a superior being that will reclaim the lost glory of humankind, be strong in the Force, physically strong, virile and beyond 'slave morality'. He will despise everything that is weak, soft and 'decadent'. This 'new Humanist Man' - a Sith'ari - will colonise the living space that the Disciples must claim. Cade sees history as an eternal struggle between 'superior' and 'inferior species', between Sith and Jedi. Several passages of the book have a clear genocidal nature and the text is viciously speciesist. Glorious Conflict propagates the idea that only a 'strong' nation, individual or species has a right to exist. Those who do not fit this criteria do not deserve to live. It is Social Darwinism taken to the ultimate extreme.
Some extracts from the book:
"Those who have no understanding of the political world around them have no right to criticise or complain."
"Whoever strives for what is greatest, must turn his back on what is lesser. And to all doubts and questions the apprentice of the coming Sith Imperium knows only one answer: But I have the will!'"
"Kylo Ren was a brave man, a patriot. He broke the chains of the Jedi. In truth, it was Luke who murdered his own students to keep them from becoming conscious of the truth the Sith'ari had passed on to his grandson."
"A Humanist State should in the first place raise matrimony from the level of being a constant scandal to the race. The State should consecrate it as an institution which is called upon to produce creatures made in the likeness of the Sith'ari and not create monsters that are a mixture of man and ape."
"I believe in the of everlasting struggle, which is the law of life, and in the duty of the best specimen of our species - the natural elite of mankind - to rule the world, and evolve out of themselves a caste of supermen - a people 'like unto the gods'."
"The Humanist State, conversely, must under no conditions annex xenos with the intention of wanting to make humans out of them some day. On the contrary, it must muster the determination either to seal off these alien racial elements, so that the blood of its own Folk will not be corrupted again, or it must without further ado remove them and hand over the vacated territory to its own people. We cannot turn xenos into citizens anymore than we could lice or rats."
"The removel of sick, weak, deformed children, in short their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortion, in order subsequently to breed a species of degenerates burdened with illnesses."
"Once again the songs of the fatherland roared to the heavens along the endless marching columns, and for the last time the Sith'ari's grace smiled on His ungrateful children."
"For Humanism, the growth of the Imperium, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; any renunciation is a sign of decay and of death. But the Imperium demands discipline, the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense of duty and sacrifice."
"For a racially pure people which is conscious of its blood can never be enslaved by the xenos. In this world he will forever be master over bastards and bastards alone."
"The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others."
"If, with the help of his Jedi creed, the xenos is victorious over the humans of the world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity and this planet will, as it did thousands of years ago, move through the ether devoid of men."
"The wormheaded Twi'lek and whorish Zeltron lie in wait for hours on end, glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom they plans to seduce, removing her from the bosom of her own people. The xenos use every possible means to undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people. In their systematic efforts to ruin innocent humans they strives to break down the last barriers of discrimination between him and other peoples. They were responsible for bringing bastardised near-xenos with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the human species which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the xenos might dominate. For as long as a people remain pure and are conscious of the treasure of their blood, they can never be overcome by the Twi'lek. Never in this world can the xenos become master of any people except a bastardized people."
"If Nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior species should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile."
"The Twi'lek has used her control over the mass media to brainwash generations of humans into viewing her as attractive, to the point where they prefer her to their natural mates. In truth, the xenos is a parasite in our midst. She drinks the blood of human new-born and files down their teeth to make them better at consuming flesh. That is how she changes colour. She starts out white, but the more she eats, the redder she becomes."
"In the Golden Age of Mankind, the power of the Force was wielded by humans alone. Compared to them, we are like children. Their power and wisdom were unmatched. We stand upon the shoulders of these titans. They transformed barren worlds into habitable living space and built the first hyperdrives.
All galactic culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the human. Hence it is no accident that the first cultures arose in places where the human, in his encounters with lower peoples, subjugated them and bent them to his will. They then became the first technical instrument in the service of a developing culture. But then our ancestors grew complacent. Virtue was superseded by the disgustng vice, and they mixed their blood with that of their servitors. That is how xenos were able to harness the Force. It was ours, and they took it because we violated nature's law."
"It was a conspiracy of xenos bankers and Jedi that unleashed the Great Plague, with the aim of decimating mankind so that the survivors could be reduced to a state of servitude. It is all laid out in the Protocols of the Masters of Ossus. The Yuuzhan Vong created the virus; the Neimoidian funded the virus; the Mon Calamari sabotaged our defences and pandemic response and the Twi'lek used their control over the media to deceive the public."
"The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble...they quickly forget... all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. If this principle be forgotten and if an attempt be made to be abstract and general, the propaganda will turn out ineffective; for the public will not be able to digest or retain what is offered to them in this way."
"Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles and it will only perish through eternal peace."
"Blood mixture and the result decline of the species is the sole cause of the dying out of old cultures; for men do not perish as a result of lost wars, but by the loss of that force of resistance which is continued only in pure blood. All who are not of good blood in this world are chaff."
"The nationalisation of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their alien poisoners are exterminated."
"A Force-User should only procreate with another Force-User. It will produce an offspring that is far stronger than one created by a union with a Force-Blind. Any Disciple who disregards this is shirking his duty. We must overcome the absurd idea that marriage is a private matter. It is a matter of the state."
"For as soon as the procreative faculty is thwarted and the number of births diminished, the natural struggle for existence which allows only healthy and strong individuals to survive is replaced by a sheer craze to 'save' feeble and even diseased creatures at any cost. And thus the seeds are sown for a human progeny which will become more and more miserable from one generation to another, as long as Nature's will is scorned."
"And then the Sith'ari gave me his sword and bid me to go forth and do his will."
"The Jedi spirit is fundamentally contrary to the laws of nature. Existence is based on unceasing, relentless struggle. The first civilisation arose when humans came into contact with inferior breeds, subjugated them, and assumed the burden of leadership. The members of the inferior species became the first mechanical tools in the service of a growing civilization. Decline set in the moment humans forgot the precepts of their ancestors and mated with the xenos."
"The Humanist philosophy, which is based on the sanctity of human blood, must finally succeed in bringing about a nobler era, in which men will no longer pay exclusive attention to breeding and rearing pedigree nexu, equines and bantha and, but will endeavour to improve the breed of the human species itself. That will be an era of silence and renunciation for one class of people, while the others will give their gifts and make their sacrifices joyfully."
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.
Ironically, one of the reasons the outbreak got so bad was that activists such as the far-right Humanity Front denounced it as fake news and broke quarantine to stage protests or conduct lynchings. It goes without saying that demonstrations and civil unrest are good ways for a pandemic to spread. One of the ringleaders claimed: 'The reaction to this fake pandemic by the government is tyrannical, unconstitutional and a complete violation of our rights and the destruction of our freedom. This panic needs to end. People need to wake up before it is too late or we'll never get our freedom back.' Some also violated social distancing roles to party or indulge in other frivolous activities.
The pandemic exacerberated pre-existing racial tensions. Race-based militias clashed in the streets of cities such as Palmyra and Vortanstad. A billionaire Neimoidian philantrophist who committed a large amount of his own money to fight the pandemic earned the ire of the Humanity Front. He was accused of plotting to kill off a good portion of humanity, then install mark-of-the-beast style tracking chips in whoever survived. In all fairness, absurd conspiracy theories were not limited to humans. A radical Mon Calamari party alleged that the quarantine centres where people who were suspected of being infected had been quarantined were actually concentration camps.
Tephrike's small Jedi enclave tried to impose order and fight the darkness. After a peaceful protest was violently suppressed by Yuuzhan Vong government soldiers, Jedi Master Zaras Dant staged a coup to topple Tephrike's ailing federal government. Parliament was disbanded and a junta took power. But the Jedi ended up becoming the very tyranny they fought against, while insisting that they were righteous. Influenced by a 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 was an actual threat. The Dominion called him Darth Menace, though his actual title was darth Malitia. The Sith scored a number of victories over the Dominion. They also carried out savage pogroms against aliens. Many were murdered outright or forced to serve as slaves. The final confrontation took place in the ruins of Palmyra, Tephrike's old capital. It was a brutal fight, with atrocities being committed on both sides. It saw widespread use of chemical weapons and devastating Force techniques. When the Vaderites seemed to be gaining the upper hand and tried to open a portal into the otherworlds, the Dominion dropped a nuclear weapon on them.
The city was devastated and casualties were staggering, but the Sith crusade had failed. Forced to retreat into the jungle, Malitia led the remainder of his army on the Arduous March, performing scorched earth tactics on the way. Embittered and paranoid, his grip of reality weakened. During the retreat, he started composing an autobiographical manifesto, the Glorious Conflict. He dictated it to a loyal acolyte, who turned his master's frenzied ramblings into something readable. The original title was even wordier, but he was persuaded to change it. Malitia was obsessed with his destiny and continued to plot revenge on the Jedi. However, his minions had other ideas and so his apprentice Darth Vengeance killed him. But Glorious Conflict remained the gospel of the movement. Vengeance was less of a crusader, but saw it as useful and shared its writer's ideals.
The text has not remained static, but evolved over the centuries. One Supreme Leader tried to incorporate revisions in order to allow for more 'lenient' treatment of certain near-human and alien species. This would have, of course, not changed the fundamental nature of the system. However, this more pragmatic Sith Lord was overthrown. The Vaderites regarded their wars against their foes, the Dominion and the Republican Guard, not as conventional conflicts in the military sense. Instead they perceived them wars of racial and spiritual extermination.
Final victory could only be achieved through a ruthless annihilation of the opposing system and its representatives as well the 'cleansing' of the occupied territories. It goes without saying that this really stiffened resistance. For instance, the Vaderites initiated a genocidal war of extermination against Tephrike's Yuuzhan Vong, who had long given up the ways of their ancestors and integrated into society. Faced with an enemy who sought their extinction and unable to get help from the Dominion, which took a low view of the Force Dead, they joined the Guard, bolstering its ability to fight Force-Users on a more equal playing field.
There was a consensus among the Humanists that non-humans could not be equal to humans. However, more 'pragmatic' voices argued for keeping a 'sustainable' number alive...in order to use them as slaves. Thus the Vaderites implemented a policy ghettoisation and segregation, concentrating alien populations in ghettos, 'reservations' and forced labour camps. They established a complicated system of racial charts. Gungans and Houk were viewed as more 'tolerable' because they were regarded as mindless primitives. Twi'leks, Yuuzhan Vong, Bothans and Mon Calamari, by contrast, were seen as dangerous parasites. Sith death squads, regular army and police units carried out mass executions. They were supported by militias composed of local collaborators. Near-humans went to great lengths to prove their human ancestry. In some cases, this succeeded and some Imperial officials were willing to tolerate them as second-class citizens. But many ended up disenfranchised and forced to wear identifying badges that marked them as non-humans.
When the Vaderites took the city of Almopia, the entire alien population was forced into a squalid, overcrowded ghetto called Prosperity Quarter. Those deemed able to perform hard labour were sent to toil in slave camps, while their dependents in the ghetto served as hostages. Human companies set up manufacturing plants in the ghetto to take advantage of the 'assets'. Almopia itself was renamed Adlerberg and turned into a 'model human city'. The first Supreme Leader's ranting had little to say about concrete economic policy, so they were used to justify socialist, capitalist and corporatist beliefs. But then this is not really important since the Vaderite economy has always been a parasitical looter's economy.
The Glorious Conflict was only challenged during the Netherworld Crisis. 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. The Light Sith managed to seize power, but then found themselves trying to reform a system that could not be reformed. They ended up getting embroiled in a war with the Dominion of Light, which led to their downfall. After their campaign failed, the fanatical Darth Furcht took control and orthodoxy was restored.
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