Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike. Sub the political wing of the Republican Guard. Frenemy for Elpsis, Firemane and friends.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, The Republican Guard is the Strongest, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Red Coral City, Tephrike, Vortanstad, Palmyra's Wail, Gentis, Amidala Asylum. First quote paraphrased from the Declaration of Independence, second quote is from here.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all beings are created equal, that they are endowed by nature with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and freedom from the oppression of the Force."
- From the Declaration of Rebellion
"Partisan warfare is a people's warfare; an attempt to carry out this type of war without the population's support is a prelude to inevitable disaster."
"The partisan is supported by the toilers of the territory in which they act. Without this prerequisite, partisan warfare is not possible."
"The Great War unleashes – at the same time as the reactionary forces of the Force-User world – the generating forces of social revolution which ferment in its depths."
"The war between Sith and Jedi is a war between two essentially identical systems which constantly grow more alike. Without any difficulty, a Jedi becomes a Sith and a Sith becomes a Jedi. The common people are the ones who suffer."
"The people are like water and the army is like fish. With the common people of all of Tephrike mobilised, we shall create a vast sea of sentientkind and drown the enemy."
"Revolutionary morality consists in uniting with the people in one body, trusting them and paying attention to their opinion. By their words and deeds, Popular Front and Young Guard cadres win the people's confidence, respect and love, closely unite them around the Republican Guard, organise, educate and mobilise them so that they will enthusiastically implement the Guard's policies."
"To have a good harvest we must weed the field, otherwise the crosp will grow badly. To be successful in increasing production and practicing thrift, we must also weed the field, that is root out embezzlement, waste and bureaucracy."
"The seizure of power is the world-wide objective of the revolutionary forces, by any means necessary. Everything must be subordinated to this endeavour."
- Extracts from the 'Green Book'.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Popular Front for a Democratic Tephrike - Republican Guard (PFDT - RG). Commonly shortened to Popular Front since the full name is so long.
Classification: Political movement.
Affiliation: Republican Guard, General Aruunzeb, the free people of Tephrike, Red Coral City, Mezha Krazhmir, Synthia Vao.
Organization Symbol: Rebel Alliance Starbird. The three-pronged crest of Saw Gerrera's Partisans is also used sometimes.
Description: The Popular Front for a Democratic Tephrike - Republican Guard is as, as the name implies, a coalition of political and social movements that support the Republican Guard. The latter is a secularist, revolutionary army and rebel movement native to Tephrike. It is in a state of war with the Disciples of the Vader, a Sith cult that worships Darth Vader as a god, and the Dominion of Light, a fundamentalist Jedi theocracy that follows a warped interpretation of the old Jedi Code. Like its two competitors, the Republican Guard is a child of the apocalypse. The outbreak of the Gulag Virus sent Tephrike spiralling into chaos.
Cut off from the rest of the Galaxy and ravaged by the plague, the planet experienced famine, isolation, technological regression and civil war. The federal government collapsed, giving way to warlords and gangs. The local Jedi enclave tried to restore peace, but their benign intentions turned evil over time and they created a totalitarian theocracy. Their dominance was soon contested by Sith cultists, who preached a mixture of Vader worship, human supremacism and Social Darwinism.
The Republican Guard rose to oppose both of these factions. In contrast to its enemies, the Guard idolises the Old Republic and the Rebel Alliance, though it is also influenced by the Imperial Remnant. It is also staunchly opposed to Force-users, viewing the Force as a disease and blaming it for the calamities of the past few centuries. Originally it was started by remnants of Tephrike's pre-collapse government, nativist parties of aquatic aliens and deserted Dominion clone troopers.
Though officially committed to democracy, in practical terms wartime exigencies have turned the rebels into a military junta. Most unusually, it has a strong Yuuzhan Vong element. It helps that they face persecution in Jedi and Sith territory. The Guard is staunchly secular, regarding Force religions as a means 'space wizards' employ to oppress the common people. As a result, all forms of Force and use worship have been prohibited.
The Republican Guard's campaign to capture state power and thereby attain hegemony is dependent on its ability to project military might, crush its external enemies and repress its internal ones. However, coercion alone cannot build legitimacy. The Guard strives to build the widest possible revolutionary bloc, and for that it needs to be able to not just pacify the people, but convince them that it is acting in their interest and rouse them into action in support of the revolutionary cause. This is in keeping with the Republican Guard's self-perception as the sole guardian and voice of the common people.
Within this framework, the Popular Front acts as the political wing of the Guard. It communicates the political goals of the Guard and actually administers the territory the rebels have been able to liberate. Its stated goal is to set up a formal governmental structure and build a revolutionary bloc of 'progressive, freedom-loving' movements opposed to the tyranny of Jedi and Sith alike. Tephrike is rich in resources, but the cataclysmic events of the past fou centuries have left it deeply impoverished, fractious and at war with itself.
According to its own propaganda, the Popular Front aims to change this. It makes the streets safe, distributes food to the hungry, mobilises the masses, provides medical care to those in need and inspires hope in people who have long lost theirs. According to its own propaganda, it aims to unite people of all social strata, patriotic movements and national salvation organisations in the struggle against the great oppressor.
In that regard, it also serves an important propaganda purpose, as bringing disparate parties together and allowing a degree of democratic debate enhances the legitimacy of the Guard. It supports the rebels' claim that they represent the common people of Tephrike, not the elites. After all, both the Dominion of Light and the Vaderites' Imperium are totalitarian dictatorships that are openly disdainful of democracy. The Guard's propaganda describes the Popular Front as the political base of the common citizens' power. The Popular Front supports equality, social justice and the inclusion of all sections of Tephriki society in the political process - except the Force-Users, of course. It rejects the conformist policies of the Windian Jedi and the human supremacism of the Vaderites, arguing that Tephrike's cultural and racial diversity is a strength.
Many of the Guard's fledgling social programmes are conducted via the Popular Front. However, the war, primitive infrastructure and lack of resources have kept them from implementing many of their proposed progressive reforms beyond the most basic. As supplies are scarce, the rebels seize a lot of what they require via raids or by 'taxing' villages under their 'protection'. Magical mushrooms and various plants with psychedelic properties grow on Tephrike. The Republican Guard abhors drug cartels and has banned drug use among its members. However, for some poor rural folk, cultivating them is their only real means of income. Thus the Popular Front has resorted to taxing the trade. The Guard uses underground channels to smuggle drugs into Vaderite and Dominion territory, with a focus on selling them to Force-Users and members of the elite as they are the most likely ones to possess the means.
The Guard still uses terrorist methods such as bombings, assassinations, use of improvised explosive devices and mortar attacks on population centres. They are partisans and rebellions may be built on hope, but they are fought with viciousness. The Republican Guard is, for the most part, still an insurrection and so the political wing is subordinate to the military, which also has to confirm the Chancellor after the latter is elected by the Senate.
Officially, the Popular Front is committed to the restoration of democratic government. Indeed, mayors and other local officials are elected. Moreover, workers' rights are an important part of its platform and it has a strong element that supports workplace democracy. However, all Force cults are banned and the movement operates under authoritarian emergency legislation. Most of Senators, who form the emergency legislative assembly of the Guard, are members of the Popular Front. In broad terms, multiple candidates can represent different factions of the Front and run in elections. However, this must occur within the framework of the movement.
No new political movements can be formed outside of the Popular Front because the Guard will ban them. This does not stop individual candidates from running as independents. The Popular Front consists of various smaller factions. They agree on certain principles that constitute the manifesto of the Republican Guard, but diverge in others. This makes it a big tent coalition rather than a monolithic, totalitarian movement. Overarching policy is determined jointly by the chief apparatchiks. Officially, the Popular Front is supposed to hold a congress every two years.
Broadly speaking, the Popular Front's influence is at its strongest in Red Coral City and other areas that constitute the heartland of the Republican Guard's 'Free Territory'. The extent of it is always in flux. The further away one gets from it, the more the military and the partisan commanders are in charge. When the Guard manages to subvert and undermine its enemies' control over an area, it works with the Popular Front to attempt to set up 'parallel governments'. The rebels are not shy about using manipulation, intimidation and assassination to achieve this.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Red Coral City, Tephrike.
Domain: The Popular Front operates on Tephrike in territories under the sway of or strongly influenced by the Republican Guard. Red Coral City is the 'capital' of the Guard, so the Popular Front controls the political process there. Another area it has a strong presence in is the half of Vortanstad that is controlled by the Guard, as the war-torn city has been de facto divided between the Dominion and the Republican Guard. The Popular Front has set up a Provisional Revolutionary Committee in the Guard's half. This body fulfils the duties of a municipal government. Wherever it sets up operations, the Popular Front tries to actively involve itself in the lives of the common people. It is charged with transmitting the Guard's policies and laws to the people, and to mobilise the masses to support the revolutionaries' goals. At the same time, it provides oversight over the partisans' activities, though its success in this field varies. Cadres are charged with remaining in close contact with the inhabitants of communes, villages and towns protected by the rebels and communicating their needs to their superiors.
In Vortanstad, for instance, its Committee's tasks include running utilities, organising relief for those in need, especially orphans, organising shelters and dealing with the food crisis. Likewise, it publicises war crimes committed by the Dominion or the Vaderites. But it also mobilises civilians into labour battalions, and helps enforce the Guard's emergency laws, including round-ups of Force-Users and the execution of supposed traitors, looters etc. The Popular Front seeks to recruit the members of its local organisations from among the people who live there. However, people from newly-liberated territories have to undergo vetting. But in Vortanstad, personnel shortages have forced the Committee to sacrifice revolutionary purity and employ officials who used to work for the Dominion. Revolutionary purists view these 'specialists' with distrust.
Notable Assets: The Republican Guard is a partisan movement, so the Popular Front does not have many assets. However, it has access to a number of factories, farms and the like in territory under the sway of the Republican Guard, such as in Red Coral City and Vortanstad. Red Coral City's kelp farmers are organised by the League of Farmers and Gatherers. The workers of the Bouzara Manufacturing Works, a major factory in Vortanstad, belong to the Front's Confederation of Labour. Moreover, the Popular Front runs several hospitals, orphanages, refugee camps and schools. Its agitators and humanitarian workers are also active in refugees outside of territory under the sway of the Guard, though they may have to operate clandestinely.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: The Popular Front is an amalgamation of groups that back the revolutionary cause of the Republican Guard. This includes political factions, workers' syndicates, youth groups and similar. Officially, the relationship between them is built upon democratic principles, though in practice this is limited by the fact that the Republican Guard's de facto leadership is a military junta.
The Vanguardists are the dominant faction and represent the status quo. They are opposed to radical change in the system, believing that the war against the sworn enemies of the Guard must take priority. While they support the revolutionary ideals of the Guard, they have a top-down approach to politics, believing that mobilisation of the common people must come from above. In their view, the Guard must act as the vanguard of the people, which is where they derive their name from. They promote a mixed economy and are strong supporters of the present junta. Many of the Guard's Yuuzhan Vong members support them. This must be put into context, for the Vong have suffered under the Vaderites' genocidal policies.
To them, letting Force-Users practice their powers is unthinkable, but murdering them wholesale is considered barbaric, especially in the case of young ones. Instead they support the Guard's present policy of forcibly isolating, quarantining and educating them, with the hard cases being turned Force-Dead. The Federalists agree with the Vanguardists on many things, but, as the name implies, desire a more decentralised, federalised system that would give its members a greater amount of autonomy, while maintaining a federal government. Mon Calamari who have been driven into the arms of the Guard due to persecution at the hands of the Dominion and the Vaderites tend to be among their constituents. General Aruunzeb, a prominent Mon Calamari general, is one of their supporters.
The Communards are the most radically democratic faction. They espouse anarcho-syndicalist beliefs. All the damage caused by totalitarian governments has given them a negative view of a powerful state authority. Their beliefs support decentralisation, worker-managed enterprises and direct democracy. They do not support chaotic anarchy, but want to see government rendered inert for the purposes of crushing people.
However, they do not want to let Force-Users roam freely. They view the Force as incompatible with democratic institutions, as there cannot be freedom in a world that has people who can read and manipulate minds, shoot lightning from their fingertips or create natural disasters. Instead, they advocate that all Force-Users should be turned Force Dead. Those who resist should be shot.
The Progessivists are a very small faction. Outsiders refer to them as Integrationists, which is often used to disparage. Regardless of the label, they believe the Guard's anti-Force-User policies are not without merit, but have lost sight of their original goals. They feel that Force-Users can be educated and rehabilitated so that they just choose not to use the Force and live normal lives as law-abiding citizens. They have some studies the other groups are highly dubious of.
There are also special interest groups that claim to represent the toilers. The League of Farmers and Gatherers acts as a representation for farmers, fishers and the like. Ironically, aquafarmers have a stronger presence than those engaged in farming on the surface because aquatic aliens are a key pillar of support for the Republican Guard. Red Coral City, for instance, is located underwater and was founded by Quarren and Gungan colonists. Kelp farming is important to keep the populace fed and the farmers are organised in cooperatives. The Young Guard is the youth organisation, while the Old Guard is a veterans' association composed of former soldiers who were honourably discharged from service. Both are part of the Popular Front.
In terms of hierarchy, the Popular Front has been conceived as a 'mirror government' of sorts. It maintains branches and cells on the level of communes, districts and cantons all the way up to the command elements. Officially the highest-body is the Congress of Unity. However, much of the managerial work is done by the Guidance Commitee, a body of ideologues and functionaries. Its members are elected by Congress. The Secretary-General is responsible for overseeing organisational work.
In practical terms, the Secretariat implements the directives of the General Staff and the Council of National Salvation. The latter is a military junta composed of senior Republican Guard commanders. The Chancellor, who acts as 'head of state', is almost inevitably a member of the Popular Front. He or she is elected by the Senate, but confirmed by the Council of National Salvation. This body can be considered the politico-military brain of the Republican Guard, and the Popular Front is responsible for implementing its directives. The Guard justifies this set-up with the argument that Mon Mothma was an elected dictator during her tenure as Alliance Chief of State.
In keeping with its state-building activities, the Popular Front has established bodies in the cantons that deal with issues such as educations, revenue collection, health, reconstruction, humanitarian affairs, media, justice and security. They also have bodies to oversee militias like the Territorial Liberty Guard. In the early stages of its uprising, the Republican Guard set up village meditation boards. These were composed of former civil servants, local luminaries, revolutionary agitators, teachers and the like. However, these boards proved unpopular and ineffectual. Many of their members lacked legal training and had no legal code to base their judgements on. Thus they often became a mechanism for mob justice. Thus the mediation boards have been dismantled and the Guard has promulgated a rudimentary legal code and set up a judiciary.
The Popular Front claims that the courts are fully independent of the Republican Guard. Critics rightly question their autonomy, though the courts seem to enjoy legitimacy among the population. Penalties are strict, varying from fines to penal servitude, but also include capital punishment for treason and certain types of murder. There are canton courts that handle civil and criminal cases, as well as high courts that judge high crimes and a final court of appeal and a supreme court in Red Coral City. Overall, despite their flaws, the courts are known to be effective. The Communards try to promote a criminal justice system that is built upon restorative justice rather than punitive justice, but this is not a universal viewpoint.
The Popular Front has set up bodies that provide humanitarian aid and relief to those in need. This applies in particular to war orphans, people who have lost their homes due to bombings, and floods, or been maimed by land mines. One of them is the Tephriki Rehabilitation Organisation. This self-help body is officially apolitical, but is represented in the Front. It focuses a lot of its work to provide aid to refugees. Given the staggering number of displaced people and the fact that large swathes of Tephrike have been devastated by war, it is unlikely to run out of work any time soon.
It carries out a variety of social programmes to provide displaced people and other victims with water, food, education, housing, child welfare, healthcare and so on. It also mobilises activists to build shelters and the like. Its autonomy is a point of contention, as it promotes a positive view of the Popular Front and the Republican Guard. Moreover, refugee camps also serve as recruitment centres for the partisans.
Membership: Must be a Tephriki and a follower of the Republican Guard. Two established members of the group must vouch for a new recruit. The Popular Front is eager to gain new followers, as it pursues the goal of revolutionising the masses. However, there is a vetting process since the group is concerned about infiltrators. After all, the Republican Guard is at war. Force-Users are not accepted into the movement. The Guard believes that they can only be trusted after they have been freed from their curse. By contrast, the Force-Dead are held in rather high regard. It is worth nothing that Force-Sensitives whose Force affinity is too weak to merit serious training tend to slip through the cracks. These are individuals whose Force-Sensitivity mainly manifests in being unusually empathic, 'lucky', having slightly improved reflexes or somewhat enhanced senses, but would be ignored by Jedi and Sith because they lack the strength to be of any use to either group.
Their Force affinity is harder to discern than that of Force-Sensitives who have flashy powers, so a local Popular Front leader may take the view 'don't ask, don't tell'. There are no species or gender barriers. One can find Twi'leks, Zabraks, Duros, Yuuzhan Vong, Rodians, Mon Calamari, Gungans, Nautolans, Quarren and even some Muun, among other non-human species. Aliens do tend to outnumber humans though. Tephrike's demographics have an alien majority, so this is not strange.
Climate: One of the credos of the Republican Guard is that the partisan must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea. A revolutionary must be disciplined and act as a model for the masses. Partisans and revolutionary activists should live among the people, compensate them for anything they take, and help them. For instance, they should help farmers build dams, ponds and houses and bring in the harvest, or protect fishers from sea monsters. Of course, the very fact that these rules must be stressed means there are outliers.
The climate in the Popular Front is defined by a large amount of revolutionary fervour. The Republican Guard is a partisan movement at war and so there is a strong siege mentality. This accompanied by a deep fear of spies and suspicion towards outsiders. Cameraderie is paired with militancy. The Popular Front regards itself as representing the common people, especially the poor and the disenfranchised, in the struggle against the wealthy and powerful. Members are under a lot of pressure to do their part for the revolution. There is room for off-beat things, but idleness is not one of them. Resources are scarce, and one of the tasks of the Front is to mobilise the masses for the revolution. When a member of the Popular Front is assigned a job somewhere, they must go, even if it will separate them from friends and family for a long time.
When the Republican Guard occupies an area that had a Jedi or Sith presence, the Force cultists' temples or academies are sacked and closed down. All Force arcana and texts are removed, and the Popular Front gives these buildings a 'socially useful' purpose by turning them down into schools, public gathering centres, barracks, hospitals or similar. Sometimes they are turned into museums. In the case of heavy resistance, they may be blown up. Dominion and Vaderite statues are smashed.
Resilience, discipline, thrift and preparedness are key virtues in the life of a Popular Front member. Cadres are exhorted to make a clear effort to win over the common people, especially in the aquatic and rural areas the Guard draws much of its support from. Within the areas under its influence, the Popular Front is supposed to act as a revolutionary vanguard. In keeping with the Guard's ideology, the Popular Front is opposed to speciesism and supports equality for all species.
In keeping with this, its committees must be representative of ethnic makeup of their representative areas. Moreover, the Popular Front promotes cultural rights of the various species. This stands in contrast with both of the Guard's main enemies. The Vaderites, being virulent human supremacists, actively seek to eradicate the culture of non-humans, as they regard them as only fit to be enslaved or annihilated. In their view, an educated non-human is an enemy.
The Dominion is a multi-species that despises the Vaderites' ideology, but it is not multicultural. For instance, a Mirialan who wore the traditional tattoos of her people could be accused of being an agitator. The Popular Front has introduced education in the native language of the people in their respective areas, such as Twi'leki, Mon Calamarian or Gunganese. Official announcements, signs and the like tend to be bilingual or even multilingual, though Basic is the lingua franca. The reformed school system is supposed to encourage tolerance. However, at the same time there has been a backlash against centrifugal tendencies and so-called 'narrow-minded, bourgeois nationalism'.
While they represent the political wing of the movement, Popular Front activists are expected to do their part when a liberated zone is under threat. They also provide limited social services in the areas under the Guard's influence. These include health care, education and minor infrastructure projects such as building roads, dams, dykes and so on. Cadres are supposed to actively involve themselves in the lives of the local communities and communicate their wishes and problems to their superiors. They also organise festivals and political education courses. Commemoration of fallen cadres is an important ritual. Popular Front activists will often be called upon to provide support to the partisans, such as by setting up bases and shelters.
Past heroes of the revolutionary struggle are celebrated. An example would be Zoho Koquon, the founder of the Guard, and Sinya Kairn, a clone commander who defected from the Dominion and became Koquon's successor, and Badahur, a partisan who wrote and composed the popular marching song 'The Republican Guard is the Strongest'. However, the Popular Front shies away from an overt cult of personality.
It has erected statues to glorify heroes of the revolution, but these are allegorical depictions of common soldiers and toilers, not specific leaders. The latter would go against their core virtue of not venerating certain people above others. They also hold several members of the Rebel Alliance in high regard, such as Admirals Ackbar and Raddus, Wedge Antilles and Mon Mothma. Ironically, they have a positive opinion of a few Imperials, specifically Headmaster Gentiss and Gillaed Pellaeon.
The Popular Front regards itself as democratic, but it is not free of coercion. For one, while the Republican Guard protects the local communities, it also taxes them and forcibly conscripts civilians to serve in the military or as labourers. Moreover, those villages and towns that come under their protection also become targets for Vaderite or Dominion retaliation, no matter whether they joined the Guard willingly or not. The Guard is not shy about using assassination, blackmail and similar measures to force a settlement to join it. Forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions are also par for the course. The Guard has abducted and murdered civilians accused of supporting its rivals. Many people, including civilians, have been killed and maimed by its land mines.
While there is a degree of democratic debate in the Front, it operates under restrictions. These were imposed as a response to 'factionalism'. However, intrigue and power struggles still continue behind the scenes. Moreover, most political candidates who run for office in the Free Territory are nominated by the Popular Front. A few self-nominated candidates manage to avoid its de facto veto and run as independents, but they cannot form their own parties because these will be either absorbed or banned. Naturally this does not wholly prevent like-minded independent councillors, senators and so on from coalescing together, but these are unofficial groupings. By their very nature, they lack the media presence, funding, organisation and infrastructure of any of the groups that constitute the Popular Front.
There have been calls to make the political process more democratic, but these demands will remain feeble as long as the Republican Guard is at war. Democratic centralism dictates that disparate voices have their say, but only within the limits set by a rebel organisation that is in a state of total war, deeply suspicious of spies and closeted Force-Users and has a track record of eliminating its political opponents. It is a fact that the military is in the driver's seat and worth noting that several Popular Front functionaries used to serve in it. This makes effective civilian control a rather idealistic notion. The rebels want to be better than their foes, but they will prioritise victory and survival over maintaining a perceived moral high ground.
The Communards, perhaps the most radical faction in the Front, have a particularly troubled history with some other groups. This has led to clashes in the past. Their faction produces dedicated, zealous fighters, but they are also notoriously distrustful of authority. Overall, the Popular Front is a grey organisation. The Republican Guard fights two oppressive, totalitarian regimes, but it is the exact opposite of being a clean paragon.
Reputation: Outside perception of the Popular Front is very partisan. Broadly speaking, people who support the Republican Guard like it and those who oppose the partisan movement dislike. The Dominion and the Vaderites regard it as an adjunct to a terrorist organisation. Members of the Popular Front will be persecuted and often killed by them, though the Dominion may make an attempt to conver them. Both these groups completely reject republican ideals, though for different reasons. In the eyes of the Dominion, only those who can hear the will of the Force and follow the Light can rule, which in their eyes means the Jedi.
Thus the Popular Front's beliefs are antithetical to them and it is viewed as a group of anarchists who lead the Tephriki away from the Light. Meanwhile, the Vaderites believe democracy is a ruse created by alien Jedi to enslave mankind, which they regard a s as a superior species. Aliens are only fit to be eradicated or enslaved. The Popular Front's multispecies policies are seen as promoting 'race death', which makes it another xenos conspiracy.
Within Republican Guard territory, many support the Front, seeing it as a more just and egalitarian movement that stands for pluralistic tolerance. It has strong support among those who have suffered under Dominion or Vaderite tyranny. However, it also has its critics. Detractors see it as a propaganda tool for the rebel junta, which whitewashes the Republican Guard's crimes, such as extrajudicial killings, detention without trial, kidnappings and conscription of minors. They see it as a tool of the Guard to bring the people under their control and stamp out opposition. There is also the fact that while the Popular Front provides aids to farmers and local communities, it also makes them a target for Vaderite or Dominion reprisals. Interestingly, some Republican Guard hardliners believe the group is too democratic. It is pertinent to note that Tephrike is a damaged, war-torn planet. Here the Dark Age never ended. As a result, ruthless measures have unfortunately become normality.
The institution is barely known and poorly understood outside of Tephrike. Firemane entered an alliance with the Republican Guard to punish the Dominion for its betrayal, but there is little love between both groups. The Guard and its organisations distrust the space people, who have many Force-Users in their ranks. They respect Firemane's military power and would like to use it against their enemies, but are wary of becoming dependent on it. For its part, Firemane recognises that the partisans are a force they cannot control or vassalise. The rebels' anti-Force-User policies also create an ideological barrier.
Curios: Cadres receive an ID badge with the Starbird emblem. It is something simple which can be easily stamped out of brass for the Republican Guard. They also receive an abridged version of the Green Book. Normally, this book serves as a manifesto and tactical manual for partisans. But this version only contains the Guard's central tenets. For this reason cadres have nicknamed it the 'Small Green Book'. Its contents amount to a crash course in Republican Guard history and beliefs. It also contains quotes from prominent Republican Guard and Rebel Alliance leaders.
Rules: The ideology of the Popular Front is based on the Declaration of Rebellion, the founding document of the Republican Guard, and the Green Book, which is a manual issued to every rebel recruit. The Popular Front sees the Force as a malignant disease that drives those sensitive to it to evil. Those who have been afflicted with it must be protected from themselves for their own good and that of the community. From its point of view, the Republican Guard champions the cause of the common people, defending them from overmighty mages.
The Front aims to establish an egalitarian, multispecies, republican state where one's position is decided by merit and not an affinity for a mystical energy field. It is resolutely opposed to the genetic aristocracy represented by Jedi and Sith. Both cults are two sides of the same coin, using their powers to deceive the masses. Members of the Front are exhorted to support the cause of the Guard and do their part to achieve victory. They must actively involve themselves in the local communities they are posted in and aid the people. The Popular Front is charged with promoting solidarity, educating and mobilising the masses. It defines itself as a united, patriotic movement against the forces of oppression. The movements has the role of connecting the mass organisations with the Republican Guard, implementing social programmes and, unofficially, monitoring the population.
In order to mobilise the masses in support of the revolution, they must be model comrades. If a Popular Front worker is assigned to a post, they must go there and perform their duties diligently. Of course, corruption is still a serious issue, though it is regarded as a grave crime. Discrimination on the basis of species or gender is outlawed, for it is regarded as a reactionary construct meant to divide the common people, leaving them susceptible to tyranny. Discrimination on the basis of creed is also banned, but this does not apply to religions that venerate the Force or Force-Users. The Front also upholds clone rights. As a rule, the group is resolutely opposed to slavery and will execute slavers and their collaborators.
Needless to say loyalty to the Republican Guard is a requirement. Collaboration with Jedi and Sith or their minions is regarded as treason. The same applies to Force worship or hiding Force-Sensitives who are trying to escape the Guard's anti-Force laws, which mandate quarantining, re-education and, in the most serious or dangeorus cases, turning them Force-Dead. Owning, purchasing or selling a Force artefact or a text created by Jedi, Sith or another Force cult is illegal. The 'sacred texts' of Jedi and Sith will be burnt. The punishments for treason are draconian. The Guard has a justice system, but it is rudimentary.
There is a limited free press, which is allowed to criticise the Guard and the movement. However, due to emergency wartime legislation, this criticism must operate within certain bounds. Essentially the press is allowed to criticise individual leaders or policies, but not the general line. The chancellor or a general can be criticised; the war itself cannot be. Freedom of expression, assembly and similar fundamental rights are restricted.
The Popular Front also has the task of providing oversight to the activities of the military. Its success in this area is mixed at best because the military plays a dominant role. However, when the partisans are able to establish control over an area, the Popular Front sets up the civilian administration. This tends to take the form of establishing a Provisional Revolutionary Committee. One of the greatest tasks of such a body is providing food for the civilian population and the soldiers. Popular Front members are exhorted to join food supply squads or bodies that enforce rationing. These committees also set up militias, like the Territorial Liberty Guard in Vortanstad. Popular Front representatives may also be sent to the frontlines to stifften the morale of partisans and the militia.
While Tephrike is no longer being ravaged by the Gulag Virus, the fact that much of the planet is a war-torn hellhole with poor infrastructure means that more common diseases are a problem. Thus the Front is charged with coordinating with the Guard to raise the public's awareness and ensuring communities have access to healthcare, however rudimentary it may be. Moreover, the Front is charged with mobilising people for campaigns, such as building roads, shelters and fortifications, helping peasants bring in the harvest, and providing those in need with food, clothing and homes. In addition, they are part of the struggle to liquidte illiteracy. It is also charged with implementing a system of taxation in the liberated communities and ensuring they are policed.
The Popular Front's leading ideologues and functionaries are supposed to reach joint decisions on policy. In the spirit of democratic centralism, they are supposed to reach a decision through free debate, but then all stand behind the decision as a collective. Needless to say, this is a bit utopian. Factionalism remains an issue. The militant and militarist mind set of many Republican Guard members can also stifle democratic debate and makes the movement quite oligarchic on the top level. Presently, the Vanguardists, the status quo faction, are the most powerful player in the Front. However, their level of control does not suffice to dominate the movement. Critics allege that the Front's democratic principles have been degraded and that the group must do more to encourage intra-party democracy and popular sovereignty.
Goals: Provide government and participation for the common citizen, support the Republican Guard's war effort and the liberation of Tephrike. Their long-term goal is the unification of the planet under a republican, secularist, revolutionary government, though individual factions differ in how this is supposed to be implemented. Resolutely oppose the Vaderites, the Jedi and the tyranny of Force-Users in general.
MEMBERS
Odoh Senks (NPC): Serves as the political and military leader of the Republican Guard, holding the title of chancellor. The influence of the holders of this office has varied considerably, but he is an extremely energetic and interventionist one. Determined and, if his press is to be believed, incorruptible, he is a charismatic revolutionary leader who rose to power after the failure of the Hundred Days' Offensive.
Chancellor Senks is a Gungan and escaped a Sith concentration camp. What he endured there endowed him with a life-long hatred for the Vaderites that borders on zealotry. The Chancellor tries to be a just, inspirational leader. He acts with deliberation and pragmatism, but is also guided by a burning hatred for the Sith and the Dominion. He is known for his passionate oratory. He once summed up his policies as follows.
"I have one policy. Internal policy, I wage war. External policy, I still wage war; at all time I wage war. Our soldiers are beaten in the field and scattered in the jungle; I continue the war. Red Coral City is destroyed by the Jedi; I continue the war. Our people are herded into Vaderite slave camps to be worked to death; I continue the war and I will continue it down to the last drop of blood. Because, comrades, war is the only option our enemies have left us." He does his best to subvert the common Gungan stereotypes. For one, he is not clumsy at all. Until recently he was considered too much of a radical maverick to be suitable for high office. For instance, he had a tendency to cross the floor and change party allegiance if he did not get his way. As a result, he was regarded as unorthodox, ungrateful and disloyal.
But the failure of the grand offensive thrust him into the chancellorship. His traumatic experiences in the camp have left him with some mental problems he has to deal with, but also hardened him. He made the controversial decision to reach out to Firemane and agree to a joint assault on the Dominion, knowing that it was a gamble that would end his chancellorship if it failed. The military junta was split over what to do, and so he made the call. Fortunately for him, Fortress Purity fell.
Adrijan Tanev (NPC): Adrijan is a human male and de facto the head propagandist of the Popular Front. For obvious reasons, the Front does not like the word propaganda, but that is what it is. He has been nicknamed the Voice of the Resistance for his impassioned broadcasts. Adrijan grew up in the territory controlled by the Disciples of the Vader. However, he was not a member of the elite. The Vaderites extolled the virtues of the so-called People's Community, which would unite all humans regardless of social class to fulfil mankind's destiny. Of course, this went hand in hand with the exclusion and persecution of non-humans as well as humans who did not fit into the 'community'. In Humanist society, any expression of nonconformist behaviour was to be crushed through terror. Moreover, Non-Force-Using humans had to be deferential and obedient to the Sith.
Adrijan grew up in a working class family. His family was above aliens in status, but in truth the 'People's Community' was extremely hierarchial. Indeed, with slavery being so widespread, many of the business conglomerates that dominated the economy preferred to utilise slaves rather than nominally free human workers. His grandfather had been a member of a Humanist militia that terrorised non-humans and 'deviants', but on his sick bed he confessed to Adrijan that he had distant alien heritage, which he had tried to bury. Adrijan witnessed of the Vaderites' 'utopia' as a conscript and then a factry worker. He became involved in workers' rights groups and edited an underground newspaper. They had to operate clandestinely, as all trade unions outside of the Humanist Labour Front, were banned. He was charged with sedition and defeatism, and it was discovered that he was not a 'real' human.
Adrijan has become as anti-Sith as is humanely possible by embracing the ideology of the Communards. He was strongly influenced by the writings of a Gungan called Tardle Narukan, the chief ideologue of the Communards. Adrijan made waves when he knelt before a memorial to the Vaderites' victims after giving a speech. Predictably, the Vaderites have denounced him as a blood traitor who 'shamed' his species by consorting with 'xenos'.
Most of his department's work is about informing and mobilising the masses in the Free Territory, but he also manages a number of broadcast stations that provide people in Vaderite or Dominion-controlled areas with information and propaganda. The broadcasting stations often change their location to avoid being discovered and bombed. He is also responsible for social networking sites.
Zeenat Mahal (NPC): Zeenat Mahal is a Mon Calamari female and responsible for gathering and collating intelligence in the Popular Front. The Popular Front is subordinate to the military, so most of her work relates to rooting out counter-revolutionary sentiment within the movement, but also running cells and helping escapees. Moreover, her group vets new recruits and fugitives who try to join. Her job also makes her responsible for ensuring the security and secrecy of sanctuaries and hidden production facilities established by the Front. Unlike some other prominent members of the group, Zeenat grew up in the Free Territory, which means she was raised in the Maquis.
One might say that fighting for the revolution is tradition. She is a member of the Federalists, who support greater democracy and a federal structure for the republican state. Zeenat is well-aware that the Republican Guard will often have to resort to ruthless methods before this more egalitarian and just system can come to fruition. Her own job requires her to keep a watchful eye on her comrades. Her belief in freedom is tempered by the fact that survival often requires harsh action. These are necessary evils. Zeenat is not physically imposing, but good at her job.
She is friendly with General Aruunzeb, a fellow Mon Calamari and one of the Republican Guard's leading generals. Indeed, her mother comes from the town Aruunzeb used to be mayor of. This was a neutral Mon Calamari underwater settlement that tried to live in peace and isolation from the troubles on the surface. However, the Dominion would not tolerate this and declared the town a terrorist camp. It pretended to be willing to negotiate, but this was a ruse. The Dominion's navy deployed depth charges and submarines to destroy the town. Zeenat's half-brother and her mother's first husband perished in the attack. Her mother followed Aruunzeb into the underground and later married another resistance fighter. Zeenat was born in Red Coral City, but was raised on the story of the cruel Jedi. Her mother made her swear to continue the struggle.
She keeps a list of Dominion officials responsible for the persecution of her people, and is said to recite it every night. When one of them has died, she crosses a name out and gives her fallen comrades a solemn toast. Zeenat used to serve in the field and organised partisan operations as an assassin and then a frontline commissar. However, she was injured during the Netherworld War. She now operates out of the party centre.
Xiann Valla (NPC): A Twi'lek female and the General Secretary of the Popular Front. In that capacity, she is the de facto leader of the group. She is responsible for managing it, overseeing organisational work and negotiating with the disparate factions. The Vaderites, who loathe Twi'leks, vilify her as a 'demonic siren' and 'vile temptress'. Xiann is a member of the Vanguardists. She supports their belief that a vanguard is necessary to safeguard revolutionary ideology, educate the people and mobilise them for total war against the enemies of freedom. Detractors say that this mind set is too influenced by her upbringing in the Dominion. Like many rebels, Xiann is a defector who turned against the totalitarian rulers who tried to mould and indoctrinate her.
She is the clone of a Jedi. However, in contrast to her template and several of her siblings, she was born a rather weak Force-Sensitive. The Dominion does not quite acknowledge that just because someone has the same genes as another person, it does not mean that they will totally replicate their skills or personality. Regardless, her lack of significant Force potential made her a disappointment. Like the Jedi Order of yore, the Windian Jedi have a Service Corps for those who fail to pass their trials and cannot join the mainstream organisation. Its members are stereotyped as washouts, though they can attain influence in the Dominion's sprawling bureaucracy.
Xiann worked in the Education Corps and was put to work in the Archives. This was seen as beneath a true Windian Jedi, as they were supposed to be warriors of the Light, not pen-pushers. She got a post in the Followers of Light, a popular movement that was supposed to mobilise non-Jedi and educate them into becoming loyal servants of the Dominion. It was the only legal political movement in the Dominion.
However, seeing some of the figures of citizens 'questioned' for loyalty, combined with her bad treatment, diminished her faith. Some senior Jedi tried to take advantage of her second class status. A Padawan she knew confided to her that he was being treated cruelly by his Master, than vanished for a few days and later recanted his confession. Xiann's superior, the head archivist, was a cold, tyrannical woman.
Xiann defected to the Guard after the partisans launched an offensive in the area she was posted in, using the chaos to escape. She stole some files. These included the 'original errored' text for a high profile 'traitor', for when a high-ranking Dominion official was unmasked as an infidel, all references to them had to be edited. She also provided some statistics for the 'recruitment' of Force users which the rebels could use as ammunition. Initially, the partisans wanted to shoot her, for she had happened upon a militant cell. But she was able to gain their trust when it turned out she did not want the Force.
Xiann does not quite fit the image of the rugged, battle-hardened partisan. Her realm is one of tables, statistics and files, though she often visits strongholds and sanctuaries. Nonetheless, she is a tenacious worker, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Republican Guard and Popular Front assets. The Twi'lek no longer feels the Force, for the Republican Guard's scientists have 'freed' her of it.
Niiriit Sh'roth (NPC): Niiriit is a Yuuzhan Vong female and - most anomalous for members of her species on Tephrike - a follower of the Integrationists, or Progressivists as they prefer to call themselves. She is descended from one of the Vong tribes that was persecuted by by the Vaderites and the Dominion. The former wanted to wipe them out, while the latter regarded them as demons who needed to be 'awakened to the Light'.
This was the impetus that drove local Yuuzhan Vong survivors into joining the Guard. Serving the rebel movement in varying capacities was a tradition in her family. Niiriit used to be involved in quarantining Force-Users. She was one of the officials responsible for enforcing the Guard's regulations on Force-Users. Where possible, the rebels used persuasion and education. But if that did not suffice, they resorted to coercion and force. However, forcefully separating young children from their families and locking them away on the basis of their genetic makeup took a psychological toll on her.
Niiriit still rejects Force use and does not believe Force-Sensitives should be allowed to practice their sorcery willy-nilly. She feels deep revulsion for Jedi and Sith. However, she believes that the Guard's measures have become self-defeating and lost sight of their original goal, which was to protect both the common people and the Force-Sensitives instead of repression and abuse. When a group of Force-Users deemed 'too dangerous to be contained' was shot en masse without trial, Niiriit tried to get the officer responsible for the massacre punished. However, he was given a slap on the wrist for political reasons. A violent incident that took place at the Amidala Asylum also influenced her outlook.
However, the Integrationists are a small, barely tolerated group and their theories are seen as dubious. She has been shunted off to do humanitarian work with refugees. In that capacity, she serves as a commissar in divided, war-torn Vortanstad. The battle between the Guard and the Dominion has devastated vast swathes of the city, leaving many civilians homeless. Thus there is plenty of work to keep her busy.
Xyrsk Jhic (NPC): A Trandoshan male and paramilitary commander. He is highly-placed in the militia. Being a Trandoshan, he is well-built, strong and tough. However, contrary to the stereotype, he is no mindless thug. He grew up as a bit of a fringe dweller. Xyrsk is not very talkative about his past, but has a reputation for having been an outlaw and rogue. A rebellion cannot be too picky when it comes to its allies. Besides, Rebel war heroes such as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian had a rather checkered past, to say the least. Xyrsk is the descendant of a group of Trandoshans who arrived on Tephrike shortly before the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. Supposedly his ancestors had come to the planet for big game hunting as part of a tribal contest of sorts. Tephrike has a bountiful and dangerous wild life, so this is quite plausible.
However, the plague and the subsequent collapse of galactic civilisation, not to mention the strife that soon engulfed Tephrike, left them stranded. The Trandoshans made the best out of an unpleasant situation. They became nomadic raiders and hunters, while also protecting villages from raiders and dangerous beasts, including Sithspawn. However, their way of life was endangered by the Dominion, which conquered their domain, and later the Vaderites. The latter regarded aliens as lesser beings, but believed they could use the 'dumb lizard brutes' as cannon fodder and muscle to keep 'dangerous aliens' like Twi'leks and Mon Calamari in line. Xyrsk was forcibly conscripted into an auxiliary battalion to fight 'partisans' and 'bandits'. The Vaderites treated their 'auxiliaries' extremely poorly, regarding them as nothing more than attack dogs.
The Trandoshan was cannier than his masters believed. He played dumb but at the right moment betrayed his 'allies', beheaded a few of them and brought their heads as trophies to the Republican Guard. A particularly vicious Vaderite, who had been cruel to the auxiliaries, was beheaded by him in a duel. Xyrsk is loyal, but not really ideologically motivated. He has fallen in with the Vanguardists because their discipline and emphasis on a clear structure appeal to him.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Rebellions, it is said, are built on hope. But they require more than passion and fervour. This may be less uplifting than a tale about plucky rebels defeating arch-villains in thrilling duels, but a rag-tag band of misfits will not overthrow the Evil Empire without organisation and an infrastructure to build on. They need weapons, vehicles and medical supplies and the means to steal, build or purchase them. They also need caches for said weapons and bases to operate from.
Moreover, the people they liberate from the tyrant's grip require protection, political education and organisation. Someone has to train and mobilise the armies of partisans after all. And finally, someone needs to root out double agents and infiltrators. The Popular Front was created to provide the people living in the territories under the influence of the Republican Guard with organisation and direction. Thus its history is closely connected to that of the rebel movement, and by extension Tephrike's descent into poverty, warlordism and endemic strife.
The outbreak of the Gulag Virus had a profound impact on almost every inhabited world in the Galaxy. 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 amonst themselves. Tephrike's small Jedi enclave tried to impose order and fight the darkness, but ended up becoming the very evil they fought against, while insisting that they were righteous.
Influenced by a 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. The common people of Tephrike were caught between a rock and a hard place. It was only a matter of time before Force blind rebel groups united and formed their own faction, the Republican Guard. Like the Jedi and the Sith, this faction turned to an idealised past. The Dominion of Light saw itself as the successor of the Jedi Lords, Lord Hoth and Mace Windu, the Disciples of the Vader regarded themselves as the heirs of the 'Dark God' Vader and the Republican Guard believed it was restoring the Old Republic.
Prior to these cataclysmic events, Red Coral City had been a rather minor settlement. Founded by Gungans and Nautolans, it had been one of many aquatic settlements created by aquatic aliens who'd settled on Tephrike. It only really made the headlines when the locals complained that the activities of a foreign corporation were causing serious damage to the sea and the wildlife in it, leading to protests, Its obscurity turned out to be a blessing because it was spared much of the initial destruction that took place. However, social unrest, food shortages and the plague forced the local administration to implement harsh measures to keep order. The small town was soon faced with a refugee crisis. Desperate to escape the fighting, refugees bribed smugglers to help them get into the settlement. Strict border controls were imposed, not the least because the natives feared that they would be inundated.
Like many areas dominated by aquatic aliens, Red Coral City's inhabitants supported Tephrike's old, federal government, which was losing ground to the Force cultists and warlords. Furthermore, the Dominion of Light launched punitive expeditions to bring the underwater towns into the fold. Fear of fifth columnists was rampant and led to the lynching of suspected spies. Moreover, refugees told horrific stories about the deeds of the Windian Jedi.
In many ways, the Alliance of Democratic Forces, a coalition composed of rebels and supporters of Tephrike's old, nominally democratic government, was a predecessor of the Popular Front. With the ADF's collapse, some of its remnants managed to reach Red Coral City. A canny Quarren politician called Zoho Koquon took control. He would go down in history as the Founding Father of the Republican Guard. He swept to power on a tide of revolutionary fervour and proclaimed a policy of total resistance. The parties, militias and social groups that coalesced around Koquon's paramilitary group, the New Sons of Freedom, were called the Red Coral Commune. At the time it was an ad hoc coalition.
The battle for Red Coral City became the cornerstone of the Republican Guard's foundational myth. Here, so the myth says, brave citizen-soldiers decided to stand up for themselves, rather than become the playthings of mages. As so often, the truth is less rosy. The forces the Dominion of Light had dispatched to take the city had been ravaged by diseases. To a significant degree they were undone by logistics. They also faced the emerging threat of the Vaderites, which led to the Battle of Palmyra. The rebels' propaganda also does not mention the lynchings and extrajudicial executions of suspected fifth columnists that occured as a result of the spy mania that had gripped the city. Koquon could not enjoy the victory for long, for he was assassinated by a 'sanctioned Force-User'. His death had a radicalising effect on the rebel movement, causing the Republican Guard to not just disenfranchise Force-Users, but eventually ban Force use entirely. He was succeeded by Clone Commander Sinya Kairn, the leader of the clone troopers.
Sinya governed as a military dictator and prosecuted an aggressive campaign. She arranged an alliance with Tephrike's Yuuzhan Vong, who were being persecuted by the Vaderites. Sinya was a successful warlord and very aggressive in expanding the Republican Guard's territory, fighting warlords, the Vaderites and others. Psychological reasons played her role. Like with many first generations clones, Sinya's creation had been rushed. Her advanced aging was taking a toll on her and she suffered from health problems. She knew that she only had a limited window before she died or was unable to lead and wanted the Guard to be as strong as possible.
The Vaderites vilified her as a demon, but she embraced her notoriety and they learned to fear her. However, while successful, many of her conquests were not lasting. She was a great general, but a poor political leader. The Guard was driven by fervour and good commanders, but suffered from overextension. Internal rivalries also played a role. Sinya herself died in battle, fighting a Vaderite army. Her troops had been encircled by the enemy and she led one of several assaults in order to secure their breakout. The breakthrough was successful, but partisan casualties were staggering. The partisans managed to hide most of the immobile wounded along with nurses. However, the Vaderites searched the area with kath hounds and killed the wounded almost to the last, along with the nurses. A large number of civilians were also killed. In his final report, the Vaderite commander described the rebels as well organized, skillfully led and with combat morale unbelievably high. Sinya's death was suitably heroic to merit her being hailed as a martyr by the rebels.
The partisans were able to replenish their losses by recruiting among the local population. However, it also left a vacuum and meant that the rebels lost many of their gains. The Popular Front had been founded during her administration. However, Sinya had a very military-centric mind set, and so she mostly saw it as a way to mobilise resources and people for the military. For this reason it was mostly dominated by Vanguardists. However, the group evolved into something more meaningful after her death, when the Republican Guard found itself reduced to Red Coral City and its surrounding territory and a number of disparate bases, camps and settlements. These areas needed a form of organisation if they were to remain in the Guard's hands.
After some strife, Republican Guard commanders and local leaders took stock and decided the movement needed some reform. The military was loath to give up power, but the positions of chancellor and military commander-in-chief were separated. The army still maintained an important check on the authority of the civilian leadership, as any chancellor had to be confirmed by the military council. Moreover, the Popular Front received a degree of internal democracy and was opened up to other groups, though it remained committed to the revolution. It was in this time period that the Guard started to move away from trying to match its enemies in a conventional warfare and instead implemented a protracted guerrilla strategy.
One of the driving forces was a Yuuzhan Vong called Mezhan Sh'roth, who rose to become General Secretary of the Popular Front after leaving the army. Mezhan wanted revenge on the Vaderites and the Dominion, but also realised that this would take time. Though this stance was not popular among her own people, she began a vocal advocate of the new course. Her own people's experiences had made her realise that no one group could stand alone. It was she who coined the phrase 'the people are like water and the army is like fish'. Mezhan eventually rose to the position of chancellor.
However, as the Popular Front grew, not all was rosy. One of the new groups that found its way into the movement were the Communards. This faction espoused views close to anarcho-syndicalism and left libertarianism. This made them extremely zealous fighters. Communard militias fought bravely against Dominion troops. Indeed, a Communard militia fought to almost the last man to defend an important crossing from the Dominion. This battle might have been the crucial delay that enabled Koquon to rally Red Coral, but it was overshadowed by the latter's defence.
Their ideology was also appealing to many people who had suffered under totalitarian rulers. However, they were also difficult to control. They insisted on continuing the practice of having officers elected by the rank and file of a unit, and resisted the incorporation of their militias into the army. This led to a schism and an armed clash. The Guard's enemies took advantage.
Eventually a compromise was struck. The Communards would remain in the Popular Front. Their frontline forces would be integrated into the partisans' regular command structure. However, their militias would retain their traditions. The Guard was at war and could not do without state guidance in the economy, though a number enterprises implemented workplace democracy to varying degrees. The Popular Front described itself as the political base of the common people's might. Over time, most candidates running for political office were endorsed by the Front. A few self-nominated candidates managed to avoid this de facto veto and run as independents.
The Popular Front grew in tandem with the Guard's capabilities. The partisans' mandate was to undermine the enemies' control, set up clandestine cells, spread terror and then enact a takeover. Meanwhile, the Front was supposed to follow in its wake, organise, mobilise, educate and secure. At the same time, the Front played an important role in the Guard's logistics, such as mobilising workers to set up the Raddus Trail, a network of secret pathways, roads, trails and depots that provided support to the partisans in form of material and weapons. Fear of nuclear strikes and aerial bombings prompted the rebels to set up underground and underwater sanctuaries for soldiers and civilians.
However, the Guard's state-building project was also accompanied by the forced assimilation or elimination of rival rebel groups that refused to join its bloc. There was a certain logic to this. Resources were limited, which meant all rebel groups were in competition with one another. Multiplicity of rebel groups created confusion and discord, as well as insecurity among the population they tried to mobilise, tax and control. Creating a large rebel population bloc that supported the rebellion was a sina qua non for the Republican Guard.
It needed recruits for its militias and partisans as well as its enterprises, administration and logistics, safe houses, sanctuaries. Thus the Republican Guard used a mixture of persuasion and coercion. It saved slaves from Vaderite forced labour camps, but also maintained assassination squads to eliminate supposed 'collaborators' as part of its all-out, no-holds barred irregular campaign. The Popular Front was the gentler side of the rebellion, but was also given a coercive role by securing the 'home front' from dissenters, weeding out spies and attaining political hegemony. It organised the local militias, air defences, humanitarian aid and taxation. Though a political organ, Popular Front members were often drawn into combat, as an asymmetrical war knows no static fronts.
The Republican Guard would continue its struggle against the Force theocracies under successive leaders. Periods of conventional warfare were accompanied by low-intensity conflicts. The Federalists became an important faction within the movement following the destruction of New Ackbarea, which led to Aruunzeb and his followers joining the Guard. They brought in many Mon Calamari who wanted to resist the Force theocracies. The Vanguardists were sceptical of the more democratic, federalist ideals espoused by them, but also saw them as a check on the Communards. Aruunzeb was a firebrand who tried to rally the Guard and the Front to smash the Dominion. He was popular among the troops, but contentious among the brass.
The Republican Guard tried to wrest power from the Dominion during the Netherworld Crisis. The rebels were hit hard by the mass raptures, but since they did not have any Force-Users, the Force being thrown out of balance was a benefit to them. The Popular Front was mobilised to support the military for the great struggle. At first all went well.
However, though rebel troops were able to penetrate deeply into Dominion territory, the expected general uprising did not materialise. As casualties mounted, reservists, militia members and Popular Front activists and commissars were drafted into the army. Party workers were also dispatched to help secure the liberated zones, get infrastructure running and eliminate internal enemies.
But the Guard was overstretched and clashed with the Vaderites, who had entered the war as unofficial co-belligerents after being taken over by a faction of 'Light Sith'. The Dominion's scorched earth policy also took its toll on the rebels. Popular Front militia fought alongside Republican Guard regulars and partisans at the terrible Battle of Fortress Purity, which ended in a rout for the rebels. The rebels pulled off a fighting retreat, but casualties were high.
About seven thousand captive Republican Guard and Popular Front members were shot by the Dominion's Inquisition during the Marawe Grove Massacre. At the end of the conflict, the Republican Guard had managed to secure control over the Palmyra's Wail nexus and made some minor territorial gains. It had brought its enemy to the brink, but much of its underground infrastructure in the Dominion was in shambles. The defeat led to great upheavals in the Guard.
The Nautolan chancellor, General Kiraxa Kitomo, was removed from office by the junta when the senate expressed its lack of confidence in her. The senate was dominated by the Popular Front and this was one of the few times when a chancellor was removed from power by it. However, the schism ran deep within the movement. Aruunzeb, one of the champions of the offensive, was a Federalist and thus the faction found itself under fire. The Communards and Yuuzhan Vong delegates were particularly incensed by the revelation that Kiraxa had engaged in secret negotiations with the Light Sith.
After an acrimonious, heated debate, Odoh Senks was elected as chancellor. The Gungan radical was far from an obvious choice in the Popular Front. Odo was a survivor of a Vaderite prison camp. He had connections to Republican Guard sympathisers who had taken part in the ill-fated 'Prosperity Quarter' Uprising against orders from high command. All in all, he had a reputation as a political maverick. This was underlined by the fact that he had crossed the party floor several times. He had started out as a Federalist, then moved to the Vanguardists before becoming an independent for a while. However, the failure of the grand offensive propelled him to the chancellorship.
In his inauguration speech, he promised blood, sweat, tears and victory. Still, victory seemed far out of their grasp, and so the people of Red Coral City settled in for the long haul. The Guard returned to a guerrilla strategy. Until one day Firemane spaceships appeared in orbit and the Guard realised that the Tephriki were no longer alone in the world. When Firemane's negotiations with the Dominion went poorly, the rebels recognised that they had found a possible ally.
However, an alliance with them was controversial because Firemane had many Force-users in its rank. The vote in the junta was tied until Chancellor Senks acted as tiebreaker. A combined force of Firemane and Republican Guard troops managed to conquer Fortress Purity. This was a grave defeat for the Dominion. Republican Guard morale soared and celebrations broke out in Red Coral City. However, Firemane did not intend to stay on Tephrike, for it feared being bogged down in a protracted war.
Thus the rebels learned that the megacorporation intended to withdraw. However, they would be willing to provide arms, supplies, advisors and the occasional air strike in return for raw materials and other resources. This was far less than the rebels had hoped for and caused disappointment. However, the junta accepted the deal. Republican Guard troops were able to seize one half of Vortanstad, though the Dominion was able to rush in troops and retain control over the other half. The Popular Front set up shop in the Republican Guard's zone, founding a Provisional Revolutionary Committee to govern it, run the utilities, and facilitate mobilisation of the masses. The fighting continues to this day in the divided, war-torn city that used to be a major industrial centre of Tephrike.
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