Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike and the Dominion.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Support unit.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, Archangel, Republican Guard, Disciples of the Vader.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Grand Division of Most Learned Medicos for the Restoration of the Righteous. The Dominion has a preference for names that are flowery and damn long.
Affiliation: Grand Army of Light, Dominion of Light, Battlemaster Mahtara, Tephrike.
Classification: Healers.
Description: To heal the fallen and the sick is a common Jedi vocation. The way of Light is the way of peace and compassion after all - except in all the cases when it is not. The Windian Jedi Order of the Dominion of Light also has its own healing corps. However, like with everything among the Windian Jedi, it is far more militarised. The Dominion is a nation beset by manifold enemies that would like nothing more than to snuff out the last candle in the darkness that has swallowed Tephrike. The Dominion is the last bastion of light on this world. Ergo all measures the Jedi theocracy takes to protect its way of life and its people are justified. So the party line says. Blessed is the mind that is too simple to question, for heresy is insidious.
The pompously Grand Division of Most Leaned Medicos for the Restoration of the Righteous is a militarised healing corps. As might have become clear, the Dominion likes making everything so damn long. Needlessly cumbersome titles aside, it acts as a medical support unit for the Grand Army of Light. As during the Clone Wars, the Grand Army is commanded by Jedi Generals and many of its soldiers are clones. In contrast to the old days, the Windian Jedi do not have a secular government to answer to because they are the government.
Aside from seeing to the needs of wounded soldiers, the Grand Division also performs humanitarian work. It provides medical care to military and civilian personnel, conducts rescue and evacuation operations, evacuates civilians from war and disaster zones and provides aid to refugees. When the Dominion takes over a territory that was previously neutral or under the sway of one of its abominable enemies, the Medicos provide aid to the needy...especially those who see the 'Light'. Moreover, it also has responsibility for cataloguing valuable individuals for possible inclusion in the Blessed Lineage Project. This is a programme to clone the best soldiers, pilots, technicians and other worthy individuals.
As members of the military, the Medicos are trained in combat so that they can defend themselves and their patients, especially if they have to reach and stabilise a wounded comrade under fire. The Medicos must be as brave as the soldiers of the Grand Army. Indeed, they may have to be even more courageous, for they often have to perform emergency surgery in the midst of a war zone. However, not every soldier or citizen can be saved. But the Medicos' work is not done then, for they have the duty of calming the dying, administering the final rites and easing their path to becoming one with the Force.
As the great Jedi Master Yoda said, death is a natural part of life. One should rejoice for those around oneself who transform into the Force. For there is no death, there is the Force. It is dangerous to be overwhelmed by emotion, for fear, anger and passion lead to the dark side. Thus the Medicos also monitor the emotional state of their charges and their comrades. Patient-doctor confidentiality is a bourgeois, reactionary concept. Indeed, it it selfish. It has no place in the Dominion's enlightened society. If a comrade has displayed unwholesome thoughts that show he is at the risk of succumbing to the dark side, then the healer counselling him has a duty to report this and recommend treatment to save him from the darkness.
The composition of the 'Grand Division' is a mixture of combat medics and Jedi healers. Most of the healers are Force-Users, with Non-Force-Users making up their support team. Needless to say there is neither bacta nor kolto to harvest on the Tephrike, so the medicos must rely on more conventional medicine as well as Force healing. Indeed, they are quite good at creating healing crystals. Archangel has been selling them kolto and provided them with medical droids, but obviously expects payment.
Several Medicos are distrustful of the 'impure' machines. This is partly superstition, but also not unjustified in this case, since Archangel is very shady, to say the least. A good number of the members of the group are clones, though not all of them. The medical corps has many honest healers and medical practitioners. Indeed, the majority of its members belong to this category. However, some are involved in less benign activities. An example would be exorcism asylums to 'force the darkness' from people.
The path of the Light is hard and painful, but for those who follow it they will be welcomed back into the Dominion. True to their oath, the Medicos also tend to the wounds of captured enemies too...but only those they think they can convert to their side. Some are involved in medical experiments the Dominion conducts on Yuuzhan Vong and other Force Dead beings in order to find out what makes them tick, how their condition can be countered and possibly reversed. The Dominion considers these beings to be akin to demons, and thus sees these trials as an act of mercy. The victims would, of course, strongly disagree with this.
The activities of the Medicos feature prominently in Dominion propaganda broadcasts. They are depicted as wise and compassionate healers, who have dedicated their entire lives to the public wellbeing. Propagandists pay a lot of attention to the humanitarian relief it provides to victims of floods, earthquakes, enemy air strikes and other calamities. This has given them a heroic image. Needless to say the more sinister side of the division is brushed aside. The Force healers wear armour in a war zone or when they are expecting combat. Outside of that they don robes.
Sometimes the Medicos are deployed in small groups across the countryside, providing aid in rural areas where medical care is more promitive. This presents a more benevolent image of the Dominion. This can make them effective missionaries. In addition, it is a way for the healers to secretly search for Force-Sensitives to induct into the Order. It is the law in the Dominion that all Force-Sensitives must join and be trained by the Windian Jedi. This is easily enforced in the cities, where a total surveillance state is in place and many citizens are grown by the Dominion in laboratories. However, it is more easier for someone to slip through the cracks in remote rural areas. The late Grandmaster Aegus was once a member of the corps.
Jedi Eirene, a Mirialan, is the leader of the group. She has built a well-maintained reputation for compassion, chastity and her care for those in need. She has sworn an oath to aid the weak, feeble, ill and wounded, regardless of the cost to herself. She has been commended many times for putting her life on the line to rescue wounded comrades on the battlefield and provide emergency medical treatment. However, she has always modestly refused any honours.
When Yuuzhan Vong terrorists bombed a rally, she used her powers to shield a group of Younglings who had been watching the parade. While injured by the blast, she refused medical attention until her charges were safe. Many a Vaderite or Republican Guard who was healed under care has seen the Light and rejected the evil ways of their master. Once a Sith Lord tried to capture and torture her in order to turn her to the dark side, but ended up repenting and turning away from Sithism.
Driven to fight for the good, she has often gone up against corrupt officials who maltreat the people under their protection. Several of these stories are true. Others have been rewritten, embellished or outright invented. Eirene is indeed a gifted healer and mentalist, but her public image is a well-constructed facade. In truth, she is an egotistical hypocrite with a holier than thou persona. She became a healer because she enjoys the fame and adulation, not out of compassion.
In other words, she likes to be seen as altruistic. Ironically, she falls short of many of the virtues she expects those under her care to live up to. She heals captives she believes can be useful to the Dominion and to herself. Eirene believes she is entitled to adulation, but also that she is above the 'petty rules' of 'normal people'. The Inquisition has covered up a number of incidents where she violated the purity laws she publicly espouses. Privately, Mahtara dislikes her showboating, but the Battlemaster recognises that she is a useful icon for the masses. Furthermore, Eirene's extracurricular activities mean the Inquisition has a lot of dirt on her, which is useful blackmail material. Sinners in the guise of paragons can be kept in line.
Needless to say Eirene is part of the Blessed Lineage Project. She keeps careful track of her 'siblings' to make sure that they do not bring the bloodline into disrepute. She does feel affection for them, but it is tinged with narcissism. She takes a strong interest in their education, which on her end is about making them model Jedi in her own personal mould. One of the clones of her line is called Irene. She is a bit of a black sheep, and comes across as mean-tempered and abrasive.
Ironically, she actually takes her duties as a healer seriously, though she is cynical about them. Irene strongly dislikes Eirene. She resents the fact that she is treated as an extension of her rather than as a true individual in her own right. Her elder sibling has always been treated as the shining paragon she should aspire to emulate. Even her name is just a variant of Eirene. However, the Dominion is the country she grew up in and her comrades are part of it. Irene has used her position and her older sibling's fame to her advantage though. It has allowed her to actually bring down some corrupt officials and provide aid for those in need who would have otherwise been forgotten.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Veteran
Equipment:
Armour:
Rifles:
Sidearms:
Melee Weapons:
Misc.:
- Misc. medical tools such as scalpels, laser cauterisers, and medpacs.
- Medical Droids.
- Grenades.
- Belt.
- Meditation Band.
- Armoured Groundcars and Personnel Carriers for transport, medevac etc.
Furthermore, the Medicos receive training in combat and are equipped as light infantry. This enables them to protect themselves and their patients. If need be, they will fight with rifle, blade, pistol and other weapons. Force healers commonly carry a Force-Imbued Blade, which is the typical weapon for Force-Users on Tephrike because lightsabres are extremely rare. However, they do not carry heavy weapons and are explicitly a support unit, not a frontline combat one that will lead a charge to storm a trench or fortress. Their equipment serves them well in the field, but is old by galactic standard.
Strengths:
- Very skilled combat medics and healers. They also have potent mental abilities.
- Trained as light infantry.
- Limited offensive Force powers. Lack the raw power of more combat-orientated Force warriors. The Force-Users are Consulars, not Guardians.
- Support unit, not an assault force. Lack heavy weapons or integrated heavy support. They are at a disadvantage when confronted by heavy armour such as tanks.
When the Gulag Virus ravaged the Galaxy, Tephrike descended into chaos. Isolated from the rest of the Galaxy, the planet regressed technologically and socially. When the virus reached the planet, millions perished. The death toll was further increased by infighting between rival factions. Tephrike's fragile, multispecies democracy unravelled. A coalition government proved unable to restore order, contain the plague or provide shelter, food and protection to millions of displaced fleeing the fighting.
The Jedi were called upon to assume a protective stance. After government soldiers shot protesters who had come to parliament to deliver a petition, the Jedi decided that it was their duty to intervene and take control. The radical Duros Jedi Master Zaras Dant was the ringleader of the coup. With the support of renegade elements in the army, they took control of the capital Palmyra, arrested Tephrike's prime minister and disbanded parliament. However, they soon faced opposition from rebel forces, such as the Alliance of Democratic Forces. What was supposed to be a provisional emergency junta turned into a dictatorship without end. Racial tensions between Tephrike's people triggered pogroms and the Jedi came under fire when they tried to put an end to the violence. Faced with enemies on all sides, the Jedi had to militarise. They became soldiers and generals like during the Clone Wars. Except this time they were also control of the government.
Their authoritarian tendencies were intensified by betrayal within their ranks, Tephrike's economic and social collapse as well as the rise of the anti-Force-User Republican Guard and the human supremacist, Dark Side worshipping Disciples of the Vader. In place of the failed federation, they created a totalitarian theocracy. But the wars did not come to an end. The Jedi came to believe that power could only be entrusted to those who could hear the will of the Force and that they alone could save Tephrike from chaos.
The Dominion of Light was born. It produced a heavily militarised Windian Jedi Order. Many Jedi fell to the Dark Side, while staunchly believing that they still served the Light and that their actions were justified by the greater good. The Grand Division is product of the cataclysm. When the Gulag Virus brought galactic civilisation to its knees, all efforts to manufacture a cure failed. The refusal of certain strate of society to obey proper safety measures contributed to the spread.
Originally, the Grand Division was simply a group of Jedi healers and humanitarian aid workers who tried to do their part to help the sick, the feeble and impoverished. Thus it evolved out of medical organisations that had already existed in the Order. However, these were now expanded because Tephrike's local Jedi Enclave had been cut off from the the rest of the Order. Acting as travelling doctors, the healers visited rural areas, refugee camps and disparate settlements to inform the population about government safety measures, distribute medical supplies and help the sick. This also included ensuring that quarantine measures were carried out. Harrowing scenes took place when the Jedi had to isolate the sick or track down those who broke quarantine. Violence had become endemic, and so there were many wounded to treat.
In some areas the healers became the most visible representatives of the government. Thus they filled a vacuum by providing essential services, which also unwittingly built up support for the eventual Jedi junta. As factionalism spread, even the Jedi healers came under fire or became the target of criminal and terrorist elements that tried to hold them for ransom. This tendency intensified after Zaras toppled Tephrike's federal government. With war engulfing Tephrike, the healers not only had to aid those in need, but serve military purposes. The Grand Division was formally founded. It served as combat medics during the two battles that devastated Palmyra.
Several of them were martyred fighting the Disciples of the Vader. For all the lies the Dominion spread, many of the stories about Medicos venturing into disease-ridden areas to help the hopeless or providing emergency medical treatment to wounded soldiers under fire are true. But the Dominion harnessed the idealism of many young men and women for a tyrannical regime. As time went by and the Dominion consolidated, the Medicos were more and more drawn into its shadier activities. One of the Dominion's foes, the secularist, anti-Force-User rebel movement called the Republican Guard, used Force-Dead soldiers as its elite troops. The Dominion regarded Yuuzhan Vong and Force-Dead beings in general as demons, for they were a void in the Force. However, the scientists and mystics of the Dominion were quite interested in finding out how they ticked. Individual Medicos participated in experiments on captured Force-Dead, with the argument that this would allow them to create a 'cure' for their 'curse'.
They also used their mental powers to determine which captured enemies might be susceptible to conversion, and thus worthy of being healed. Outside of combat, the Medicos were often deployed to aid in disaster relief. Jedi Master Aegus served in the group for a while. His talent as a healer and negotiator was such that the Jedi Council bestowed the honorary title of Barsen'thor upon him. He became very popular with the common people when he fearlessly walked into homes whose inhabitants had been infected with a deadly disease and using his powers to heal them or alleviate their pain. He also exposed corruption in the Order and punished Jedi who had been abusing their students.
The Medicos saw extensive action during the Netherworld War, when the Dominion was driven to the brink. This was a particularly difficult period because Akala's machinations had thrown the Force out of balance. Aegus, who had rallied many of his former comrades to the cause during these dark times, was elected Grandmaster. However, the Netherworld Event had a negative effect on his psyche. He had been wounded in a poison gas attack, which left him temporarily blinded. During his recuperation he was tormented by apocalytic visions. These did not cease after his election. They took a toll on his sanity.
Realising that he was unsuitable yet unable to replace him so soon, Battlemaster Mahtara and the Council sought to isolate Aegus from the machinery of government. The Grandmaster was kept in his palace and fed fake reports about the state of the country. This only increased his resentment. Even his old comrades eventually found it difficult to reach him. When Firemane bombed Nexus City, the Medicos set up shelters outside the capital for the wounded who had been evacuated from the ruins of the Jedi Temple.
A unit of the division took part in the Second Battle of Fortress Purity, facing Firemane and Republican Guard troops. One of their leaders was shot when he tried to stop the futile death charge of a unit of Padawans and Younglings. The Grandmaster, who had precipitated the escalation with the space people, was assassinated by the Council. His death was blamed on the Firemane Sithspawn and the Grand Inquisitor. The people of the Dominion could not know the truth behind their idols. Jedi Eirene quickly allied herself with Mahtara's war council, falling in line with its policy of total war.
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