Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Finally use my worldcraft for something. Expand on Elpsis' humanitarian projects.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Royal Assent, Not the heiress the queen wanted...but the one she got, Spinning the Phoenix, Royal, Fellowship of Generational Health and Resilience, Xioquo, Brotherhood of the Maw victory in the Battle of Lao-mon, Destruction of Csilla, Xioquo, Witches of Dathomir, Bryn'adul, Firetruth, Sith Empire, Alderaan, Destruction of Alderaan, Nar Shaddaa, Galactic Empire, Nova Bank, Sky Caravan.
SETTING INFORMATION
Structure Name: Refuge of the Scattered.
Classification: Refugee Home.
Location: Celestial Vahana.
Affiliation: Elpsis, House Kerrigan, Hearthfire, Firemane (indirectly).
Accessibility: The Refuge of the Scattered is located on the Celestial Vahana, a massive worldcraft owned by Firemane. As such it is not located apart from civilisation, though the Refuge is located a bit away from busy urben areas to give the residents some privacy. The worldcraft is not unknown to the public, but not the easiest to reach. The station is owned by Firemane, and so visitors will be vetted before being allowed aboard. The same applies to people trying to visit the Refuge itself. The refugee home is enclosed and has a few guards. The residents are all people who have fled persecution, war or similar, after all.
Description: War, strife, and other woes are endemic in the galaxy. It is ironic that it is claimed the Dark Age is over, and yet the new age is so absurdly destructive. Perhaps the galaxy would have been better off if galactic governments had never risen to prominence again. Decades of war, the Omni and Akala Crises, fractious Jedi orders, repeated genocides and depopulation of entire planets - the record is dystopian, to say the least. Galactic governments are notoriously unstable. Former financial and political centres such as Coruscant change flags with alarming regularity.
All this has produced a perennial refugee crisis. Surviving Chiss and Shi'ido fleeing Csilla and Lao-mon respectively are just the latest. But finding homes for refugees is difficult to say the least. Few worlds are willing to open their borders. Nativist agitators fan the flames of xenophobia. Many end up in poorly equipped refugee camps or ghettos. Cultists, crime syndicates and the followers of the warlord of the week prey on them.
The Refuge of the Scattered is supposed to provide a home for refugees who reach Firemane's sphere. Of course, in the greater scheme of things, this is is just a drop of water on a red-hot stone. The refugee home is located on the Celestial Vahana, a ginormous worldcraft Firemane built at Siobhan Kerrigan's behest. While very impressive from a technical standpoint, in many ways the worldcraft is a grandiose vanity project. Siobhan has justified it on the basis that it gives the company greater versatility and moving industry into space reduces environmental pressure on the fringe worlds it often operates on.
Still, it can do some good. The home has been sponsored by Elpsis Kerrigan. On the one hand she is a mere lieutenant in Firemane's army and thus pretty irrelevant. However, on the other she is the interim head of House Kerrigan. Elpsis' own relationship to Firemane and her family is deeply cynical. She has rejected both her adoptive mothers as either greedy and vapid or power-hungry and despotic. Still, she has reluctantly decided to use her family name for a cause she considers important. Not everyone has a rich family that can afford expensive cybernetic replacements when their daughter loses a limb, after all.
Strictly speaking, the building is owned by House Kerrigan. The family owns considerable holdings on the Celestial Vahana. Indeed, 4% of the worldcraft is directly owned by them, which is how Elpsis was able to repurpose the building. It used to be a luxurious villa. The skeleton of the building broadly remains the same, but it has been expanded and remodelled from the ground up to serve a more socially beneficial purpose. The place looks like a villa with some additional buildings added onto the ground and an enclosed courtyard, which includes a bakery, a garden and a playground for children. House Kerrigan has obtained or outright built some nearby apartments for housing.
The villa itself is kept for training, communal meals, interviews etc. Moreover, it houses a fire alarm centre, doctor's office, laundry room, common room and staff offices. In short, it is the administrative hub. Not all refugees speak or understand Basic, so one room has been converted into a classroom for residents trying to learn the language. The buildings the refugees live in have an apartment structure. On average the occupy two or one and a half bedroom apartments. Basic furnishings are provided by the administration, though the residents can customise their surroundings to an extent to make themselves feel more at home. The apartments are utilitarian rather than luxurious, but they are a notable improvement over a school gym or a hastily put together prefab or - or a refugee camp on an isolated island that might as well be a detention centre.
The refugees are not expected to live here forever, and so a resident can stay here for a maximum of three years, though exceptions can be made in special cases. Refugees who stay here are registered with the Firemane authorities. Getting a space here is not an automatic process. Refugees fleeing war, persecution or natural disasters will first receive accommodations at a reception facility run by Hearthfire. Once their individual protection status has been decided, they can seek more private accommodations. House Kerrigan provides a subsidy to cover the living expenses, but only as needed. This means residents are expected to look for work. If they do not attend training etc. they will have to leave sooner or later. Or the authorities will find them work. The refugee accommodations are meant to house new arrivals, which means that refugees with a regular income will have to pay part of the rental fees if they stay here.
The core idea behind the concept is to accelerate refugee integration by helping them get back on their feet. For this they need safe, affordable housing and support when it comes to finding work, receiving training and so on. In keeping with this, workshops have been set up to provide vocational training, with a particular focus on teaching young people essential skills. Facilitating their integration into the job market allows them to provide for themselves. To this end, the Refuge organises employment fairs, where company representatives can meet with prospective employees among the residents. Owing to their background as refugees and fugitives, the residents' demographic makeup is rather diverse. However, many are rather young. For many residents, the Refuge is their first proper home after a long period of living in refugee camps.
The home is open to anyone who can claim refugee status, but specialises in hotspots. Chiss and Shi'ido are prominent. However, it also houses victims of the Bryn'adul's genocidal campaigns who have been rendered extinct on their own devastated homeworlds. Examples would be Kubaz, Barabels, Sakiyans, Defels and Pa'lowicks. Furthermore, there residents displaced by the Sith Empire's collapse. Most of the people in this category are former political prisoners and other victims of the brutal Sith regime, such as Mon Calamari, humans and more common near-human and alien species. What the demographics will look like over the next few years remains to be seen. Suffice to say the Refuge is unlikely to run out of 'demand'. Significantly, all Force-Sensitive residents must be registered. House Kerrigan doesn't require them to work for it, but maintains a registry that is placed at the disposal of Firemane's Order of Fire.
The Refuge is run in cooperation with Hearthfire, Firemane's refugee bureau. In its own 'sphere of interest', Firemane has assumed many of the functions normally associated with a government. Probably too many. Moreover, the worldcraft is Firemane territory. Hearthfire already had an infrastructure in place to process and vet refugees, and it would make no sense to try and duplicate it. Elpsis personally thinks the admission process is still too bureaucratic, but is impatient and lacks experience navigating bureaucracy.
Members of staff are employees of House Kerrigan. Some of them are essentially 'on loan' from Hearthfire. It is possible for refugees to get jobs managing the complex. While no refugee's story is the same, it stands to reason that they will understand the struggles and stresses of each other better than outsiders. At least one of the members of the steering board that runs the Refuge must be one of the residents.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Gardens - The Celestial Vahana is a worldcraft, which means it simulates the environment of a terrestrial planet. Hence gardens. It is still not totally natural, but helps people who are more used to terra firma and don't want to be surrounded by metal and machinery all the time. The gardens are maintained by volunteers among the refugees. It can be a way for them to heal.
Playground: A place for the kids to be kids. Meant to be a safe place for them to play. Includes trees and all manners of greenery in general.
Administrative Locus - the former villa itself. The three-storey building used to be a glamorous mansion for absentee aristos, but has now been repurposed. The building is used for training, communal meals, interviews and so on. In addition, it houses a fire alarm centre, doctor's office, laundry room, common room and staff offices. Some rooms have been converted into classrooms.
Siobhan's taste for the grandiose was actually beneficial since it meant there was a plenty of space. The full-time staff members and volunteers work here. It is the first place new arrivals will visit to be assigned an apartment, familiarise themselves with staff and their new surroundings. New arrivals are welcomed in the spacious lobby.
Refugee Residential Units - large housing complexes built around the central hub. The buildings the refugees live in have an apartment structure. On average they occupy two or one and a half bedroom apartments. Basic furnishings are provided by the administration, though the residents can customise their surroundings to an extent to make themselves feel more at home.
The apartments are utilitarian rather than luxurious, but they are a notable improvement over a school gym or a hastily put together prefab or - or a refugee camp on an isolated island that might as well be a detention centre, for that matter.
Bakery - Offers apprenticeships and provides refugees with paid opportunities. Run as a workers' cooperative. This means employees acquire a stake in the business to ensure fairer, more equitable conditions.
Security Station - set up at the gate. New arrivals and visitors are vetted here before being let in. The primary purpose is to protect the residents from harm. The officers on duty have a direct line to the central administrative building so they can get help in the case of emergencies. The station is monitored by a surveillance network, including cameras, weapons' detectors, and scanners.
SECURITY
Medium. The Refuge of the Scattered has good surveillance and monitoring with a couple guards at the gate. Weapons' detectors and sophisticated sensors have been set up, along with cameras at the entrance. There is biometric security for all staff and pass cards for the inhabitants. Visitors are not allowed to carry weapons inside the complex. However, it is not super locked down, since it is neither a prison nor a fortress. That said, it is located on the Celestial Vahana, a formidable space station that is owned and controlled by Firemane. The station is heavily guarded and has formidable defences that can support the residents and staff of the Refuge if needed.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Much is written about the great and terrible battles that have taken place throughout galactic history. The ugly and less glamorous aftermath is explored less frequently. One of the consequences of the various galactic conflicts and natural disasters are large refugee populations. Millennia ago, the Mandalorian Wars triggered mass migrations, as refugees fled the worlds the Mandalorians laid to waste. This was exacerbated by the devastation caused by the Jedi Civil War. Crime-infested Nar Shaddaa became host to a large refugee population, who were subjected to exploitation at the hands of the crime syndicates that dominated the Smuggler's Moon. After the Galactic Empire destroyed Alderaan, thousands of Alderaanians found refuge on New Alderaan.
In more recent memory, one could name the Exodus from Kaeshana as well as atrocities such as the asteroid bombing of Dromund Kaas, the massacres of Togoria and Mandalore, the destruction of Atho City, the annihilation of Csilla and the genocide against the Shi'ido. Various organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, exist to provide aid to refugees.
When Siobhan Kerrigan fell into a coma as a result of near-mortal injuries sustained during a duel with a Sith Lord, her eldest adoptive daughter Elpsis became acting matriarch of House Kerrigan-Alcori. Over the years, the family had been able to amass immense wealth business deals, tribute and outright conquest. When Firemane commissioned the Celestial Vahana at her behest, Siobhan Kerrigan staked a claim to 4% of the massive worldcraft, independent of her role as CEO. As a worldcraft, the station was essentially a miniaturised planetoid that simulated the landscape of a terrestial planet. It had residential areas, foundries, and shipyards, but also forests, rivers and farming land. While owned by Firemane, not everyone who lived here was an employee. Indeed, many were not, but they had to pay rent to the megacorp, which leased space to businesses. In short, they were taxed.
For her part, Elpsis detested her family's fixation with power and luxury. Instead she lived a very austere life by choice, serving as a junior officer. Unsurprisingly, she was disinterested in her role as acting head. However, after numerous battles and an encounter with Varisanthra Lycaeni, a partner and occasional rival of her mother, she decided to take an interest in the position that had been thrust on her, but on her terms. Elpsis considered the status symbols her family had amassed to be pointless and wasteful. Thus she decreed that some should be given a more socially useful purpose.
Due to a clause in her mother's will, Elpsis was unable to get rid of any of her family's assets, but she could to a degree decide what they should be used for. Her family's majordomo Royal initially resisted the heiress' attempts to exert actual influence. But she changed her tone once she saw a chance to profit. One of the reasons for Elpsis' decision was a recent visit to a refugee camp on Arkas, where refugees were being held in poor conditions in unsafe prefabs. Moreover, she had fought at Kaeshana, Csilla and most recently Lao-Mon. She had witnessed Csilla's destruction and the Brotherhood of the Maw's genocide against the Shi'ido. The Firemane task force Elpsis had been a part of had managed to evacuate a few Shi'ido allies, but this was only a fraction.
Ironically, Siobhan had fallen into a coma before the Celestial Vahana could be completed, which meant the matriarch had never actually set foot in her holdings except for an initial inspection. Per Elpsis' decision, one of the underutilised family villas on the worldcraft and the surrounding area should be transformed into a home for refugees. It became apparent very quickly that the villa would be better utilised as an administrative and social hub for the refugee home. Meanwhile, House Kerrigan built or obtained a couple apartment buildings on the expanded premise to house the new residents. Indeed, Royal was quite aggressive in acquiring real estate.
Not because she really cared about the refugees, but because it was a way to prove her usefulness and thus increase her importance. Because Elpsis didn't trust Royal, she asked Xhal'Zayo, a Xioquo and a personal friend, to act as her advocate. Zayo, known to her close friends as Sidhe, had experience with dealing with poisonous and treacherous families due to being raised in a toxic noble house prior to the fall of the ancien régime. Moreover, she was good with finances.
The villa itself would be kept for training, communal meals, interviews etc. Much to Elpsis' immense irritation, Royal and Firemane's marketing apparatus used the project for self-promotion. This was probably inevitable, but still irritated her. They had to tone things down after Elpsis got annoyed enough to threaten fireballs. Getting the facility up and running required negotiations with Firemane, or more specifically Hearthfire, its refugee bureau. The worldcraft was Firemane territory, and so new admissions would have to be processed, vetted and registered.
Social workers and the like were hired to provide direct service and support to the residents. It was quickly determined that mental health concerns would also have to be remedied, as refugees were at particular risk of developing psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Refugee counsellors were put on loan by Hearthfire for the purpose of outreach, interpretation and mental health counselling. Funds from House Kerrigan's treasury were used to provide the residents' apartments with basic furnishings. When the Refuge was opened for business, the administration organised a communal meal to welcome the first residents.
There were, of course, difficulties. Problems arose since the local authorities were most experienced in dealing with humans or near-humans, yet the refugees also included members of less well-known alien species, such as those fleeing the Bryn'adul. The inclusion of Shi'ido caused tensions, since the authorities and some refugees themselves were concerned about their shapeshifting abilities, which led to an altercation. Indeed, two were detained for several months in a reception centre and questioned under suspicion of being sleeper agents. Refugees who fled the Sith Empire's collapse were supposed to be relocated here, but the process of vetting them slowed down their settlement. The authorities deemed this necessary to ensure that Sith agents did not get aboard the station.
Some contractors were fired after holomails denigrating alien refugees were leaked to the press. A lawyer for the affected contractors claimed the holomails had been quoted out of context and were never meant to be taken seriously. Some contractors joked about how to spend five thousand credits. A "child guillotine" was suggested. Elpsis had to be restrained from burning the contractors alive. She did, however, have their property seized. Clothes, shoes and other items found there were distributed among refugees. This was not really legal, but Elpsis is not particularly concerned with legality and Firetruth thought it would play well with its viewerbase.
On the positive side, Hearthfire and the Refuge had success in organising medical treatments and employment opportunities. Representatives of the Refuge also personally flew to refugee camps in Firemane's sphere to speed up the admission and relocation process and facilitate family reunions.
Contrary to harmful stereotypes, the refugees had diverse socio-economic and educational backgrounds. Some lacked an education, but others were highly educated and had worked as medical doctors, engineers, managers or lawyers before fleeing their homeworld. Staff was tasked with identifying their formal qualifications and motivations. This was supposed to help them advertise their core skill sets, as well as reduce uncertainty for prospective employers.
A number of refugees who had once been prisoners of Sith concentration camps and had ended up in displaced person camps were relocated here to help them start over. Reintegration was not an easy process. Many refugees arrived malnourished and the trauma and insecurity they had been through was pretty evident. Encouraged by staff, some refugees, especially children, tried to express themselves through art projects to cope with their trauma. A number of paintings and other pieces of art made by refugees were hung up in the buildings. There is talk about displaying some in a gallery in the future, with the permission of the artists.
Many refugees from remote worlds, such as those targeted by the Bryn'adul, did not speak Basic, so it was difficult for employers to determine their qualifications. Bigotry also played a role here. Indeed, employers and local officials often underestimated refugees' skills. Their native business environment and education system was also not well-known. Thus taking stock of their talents and helping them communicate them properly was crucial. Plans were made to organise an employment fair, with the support of businesses entities such as Firemane, Nova Bank and the Sky Caravan.
