Kyriaki
Dark Phoenix
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here. Here. The creepy pics show the exterior, whereas the inner sanctuary is brighter and more peaceful.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Mahtara, Republican Guard. Tephrike, Jedi Inquisition, Windian Jedi Order, Mace Windu Thought, Ecclesia of the Followers of the Divine Ashla in Her Beatific Form as Mistress of Hope and His Glorious Form as Master of Victory, Illuminated Path of the Light Father, Inheritors of the Light Father.
SETTING INFORMATION
Nexus Name: Swamp of the Martyred Forsaken. The Dominion of Light calls it the Blighted Swamp because they want to make people believe that it is a cursed wasteland where evil spirits will lead them astray. Original name is the Stavrostad Swampland.
Nexus Alignment: Light. The Dominion falsely claims that it is a dark side nexus, but this is a lie.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: Tephrike. Illuminated Path of the Light Father, Inheritors of the Light Father.
Size: Medium
Strength: Strong
Accessibility: Difficult to access. The nexus is located in a foreboding swamp on a remote, war-torn planet on the fringes of space. The Dominion of Light, one of the major governments of the planet, tries to block access. Guides are not easy to find, for many people believe the place to be cursed and those in the know will only help people they trust get to the nexus. The nexus will defend itself against the wicked, but it will protect and shepherd the innocent. Moreover, the nexus effects can be very disruptive to scanners, and the like, even sophisticated ones, and can cloud Force Senses of those it judges to be evil.
Description: A remote, swampy bog. Here and there, one sees little boats with candles floating above the waters. On first sight the swamp appears grim, eerie and foreboding. Often one hears mournful chanting and whispers. During the spring flood the swamps are almost completely covered with water, which means people often have to cross through them in boats. The terrain is difficult to navigate. Frogs, parasites, snakes, and crocodiles are among the animals that dwell here.
The exterior of the swamp is creepy and dark to ward away people, and the interior being brighter and more serene to shelter those within it. Lights guide the virtuous to their destination. The swamp is home to a multitude of bird species. Officially, this is a Blighted Swamp of great evil. The Dominion claims that it is tainted by the dark side, and lulls believers into giving into temptation. This is a lie because the totalitarian regime wants to cover up its atrocities.
A long time ago, thousands of political dissidents were murdered by the Jedi Inquisition and militias. Their bodies were dumped into the swampy waters. Oftentimes, their families were not informed of their loved ones' fates or given misleading information. Those who were told the truth were forbidden to hold private funerals or memorial ceremonies. They were told to forget about their dead friends and loved ones. Some citizens defied this cruel and inhumane order, putting themselves at great risk to travel to the suspected mass grave sites to mourn and honour the murdered, lighting bones with candles on them for the fallen and sending them off into the bog at dusk.
The government cracked down hard on them. Mourners lost their employment, access to health care, were harassed or forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed. But their suffering has not been in vain. Small actions can cause ripple effects. The spirits who were trapped in the bog, which had once been tainted by the evil wrought by the Dominion, remembered. The Dominion authorities have made abortive attempts to drain the swamp and even tried to 'cleanse' it in the manner the Jedi Masters of yore purged dark side nexi. But both efforts have come to nought.
Today, the Dominion continues to claim that the swamp is cursed, populated by monsters and evil spirits. In truth, it is a haven of the light on a world that is stuck in the Dark Ages. The spirits of the dead who have not moved on form a kind of gestalt entity, a benevolent hive-mind that preserves their memories and experiences. They protect and guide virtuous souls that make the perilous journey to the bog to honour the dead or to escape persecution - and punish the wicked who dare to trespass.
It is kind of a tradition to go put a little boat in the swamp when a loved one disappears mysteriously from the Dominion of Light. Some mourners have erected small monuments made of stones and flowers, as there are no bodies to bury. And refugees have found shelter in the bog. The Dominion has placed the area under lockdown. It doesn't appear on official maps. Discussing it is considered doubleplusungood and will lead to a 'helpful visit' from the Inquisition or the Jedi Correctors. Nonetheless, knowledge of it spreads by word of mouth, and Dominion soldiers are nervous about entering the swampland.
The Inheritors of the Light Father, a schismatic offshoot of the Vaderites that follows the Illuminated Path of the Light Father, considers the nexus to be sacred ground and secretly uses it for training purposes. They have dispatched some guardians to help protect the holy site and the people who have found shelter here. However, while it has a presence, the sect does rule the nexus. The gestalt entity that forms the nexus controls itself, and has accepted their presence because it has judged them to be righteous. It will not hesitate to pass judgement on Inheritors who have fallen or misuse their power.
NEXUS EFFECTS
The inner sanctuary of the swamp. Here one sees the Swamp's Heart.
The nexus lies in a muddy, wet, swampy bog. Those the nexus judges to be virtuous are held aloft in the water, whilst those it feels are guilty are sucked down. It is tradition among mourners to honour the dead by sending little boats with candles on them for the fallen into the bog at dusk. The spirits of the fallen claim them. Lights guide the innocent to safety and lead the guilty off course.
This provides places of sanctuary within for who are pure of heart and seeking refuge from their pursuers. A sombre feeling hangs over the nexus. Travellers will receive visions of the horrors that took place here...but also of resolve and courage. For example, one may receive a vision of prisoners sacrificing themselves to allow one of their fellows to escape, or of the condemned displaying dignity and fortitude in the face of certain death. One may also behold how their loved ones endured persecution to honour their dead.
It is kind of a tradition to go put a little boat in the swamp when a loved one disappears mysteriously from the Dominion of Light. A light to guide them if they are lost, or a candle to show their spirits they haven't been forgotten. The light of the wicked will always dim or lead them astray. Moreover, certain plants that grow in the bog have healing properties. It has even been observed that herbs and berries will suddenly sprout just when malnourished or sick fugitives really need them. This is not indefinite and it cannot sustain large numbers of people, but it can make the difference between life and death.
Spirits of the dead will manifest to help the innocent or provide advice. In the case of the wicked, spirits in the swampy waters will seek to drag them down or mentally attack them, forcing them to face the harm they have caused. Attempting to draw upon the dark side is draining while in the nexus. Unlike say the Bone Forest, this nexus is not a place of torment and wroth. The primary aim of the gestalt entity is remembrance and to provide shelter to the innocent, not lashing out against evildoers. It will prioritise protection over naked aggression. But the wicked will find it very difficult to sleep while within the nexus, for the spirits will not let them rest. Healing is difficult for them, edible plants and berries that appeared for the innocent wither away or grow rotten in their grasp. The nexus will protect a repentant sinner...but they must genuinely want to atone, and it will put them through mental trials to test their commitment.
People have lived in the nexus for a prolonged period of time, so it is inevitable that procreation occurs at some point. It has been observed that a higher than average proportion of children born here is Force-attuned or Force-Sensitive. This does not mean that they all manifest earth-shaking abilities. Indeed, the vast majority do not, just as everywhere else. There is simply a somewhat higher likelihood that they will be attuned to the Force than otherwise. Refugees and pilgrims have created the Haven of the Bright Hearted, a small community housed inside a grove of large trees. Dissidents are drawn here because the nexus protects them. The swampland is a haven for animals, as there are not many sentients around. Sentient inhabitants sustain themselves with roots fungus, swamp berries, and fish, among other things.
The Swamp of the Martyred Forsaken is incredibly difficult to scan, even for dedicated sensor ships. It can also use its power to cloud the Force Senses of those it judges to be evil. This has the effect of significantly diminishing the extrasensory perception and precognitive abilities of Force-Users who come here with harmful intent and hurt the innocent. Significantly this applies not only to dark side Force-Users, but also to Lightsiders who have committed evil, but are in hypocritical denial about it. This makes it a good place to hide from Force-based scrying.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Swamp's Heart: The heart of the nexus. The place is very soothing...if a bit unnerving. The heart is serene and bright. Indeed is the one bright place of the nexus, but only visible from those at or near it. The thick fog shrouds it otherwise, even from Force Senses. It is an area surrounded by stone to form a bowl in which is the only clear and clean water in the swamp. This flows from the stone with seemingly no source or origin. Spirits congregate here in great numbers, and appear to mortals who come to this place seeking guidance, or perhaps some last words with a deceased loved ones. The spirits form a collective entity that speaks as one, but they retain awareness and individuality.
The Tanglewood: A dense grove of trees which surrounds the heart of the nexus. The trees seem to shift and move to open or block access to those deemed to be deserving or undeserving. Roots may also rise to seize evildoers. The trees and bushes have also been known to shift to provide shelter and camouflage for refugees fleeing the wicked. Some say they can hear the laments of the dead amidst the rustling of branches and creaking of trees.
The Mere of Dead Faces: A large pool of reeking wetlands where one can see the shapes and images of the dead floating in the water. The faces are illusory...but if someone falls in the spirits might drag them down if they consider them evil. It has been described as dreary and wearisome, with the only green being the livid weed on the dark greasury surface of the dark waters. Many of the Inquisition's victims were shot here and dumped in the waters...or drowned. One can see candles and lights dancing about in the marshes, but one should not grow entranced by the lights and try to reach out to them. There are stories of intruders who became so entranced and tried to reach out and touch the faces of the dead, at the bottom of the marshes, but ended up being dragged to their doom.
Pillar of Remembrance/The Pillar of Rust: A large metal pillar hammered into the swamp. Used as a marker first where the dead were dumped...and then where the pilgrims initially met to honour and commemorate the dead. It is from this place that they started the tradition of putting a little boat with a lit candle on it into the swamp for the spirits to claim. To the pilgrims and the faithful who seek to preserve the nexus and find shelter in it the place is known as Pillar of Remembrance.
The Lighted Way: A path, treacherous and ever-changing, through the swamp which takes one from the outer to the inner. For some it is a fairly easy path just below the surface, but for others coming just behind it can be slippery and shifting, seeking to drag them into the mud. Lights guide the innocent to safety, but lead the wicked astray.
Dojo of the True Righteous: A rather dramatic name for a cave used by the Inheritors of the Light Father as a hideout and place of training. It lies beneath a thick overgrowth of vines. The followers of the Illuminated Path of the Light Father keep a low profile, but they treat the nexus with religious reverence, regarding themselves as the custodians of the memory of the fallen and the guardian of the pilgrims. It has been purposefully kept separate from the shelters for the refugees who dwell in the swamp. The Inheritors' dwellings are very austere - both out of necessity and because they have a monastic life style. They do not, however, expects their members to be chaste...though they must put the mission first. The cave is livable enough, but still damp.
Off from the main chamber there is an area in the cave particularly strong in the Force. Dark and foreboding, it has a potent Force presence. Rather than being dark per se, it is a manifestation of sorrow, and retribution that has been fed by all the horrors that took place in the swamp. These feelings permeate this area, for in its own way it is alive. Apparitions and illusions manifest here, and put those who enter through mental trials. The Inheritors use it to test their warriors.
Haven of the Bright Hearted: A similarly dramatic name for a community of refugees and pilgrims that have sought shelter in the nexus. Some belong to the original pilgrims who flocked to this place to commemorate their dead, others were fled here by rumours that the spirits could have answers about the fate of their loved ones and others again are political dissidents. A communalist attitude based upon solidarity prevails here, but it is also steeped in faith. Even with aid from the nexus, life is hard and people have to pool resources and live very frugally. Everyone who is able to do so must work or otherwise lend a hand. For obvious reason, access to advanced technology is limited, but the refugees are canny and have learned to improvise. The small community is housed in a grove of large trees, where people can either live inside the tree trunks or in the branches. Stories of the lost have been carved into the trunks of these tree-homes for future generations and pilgrims to see.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
When Grandmaster Tsal Te Mong initiated the Cultural Revolution, he plunged the Dominion into cataclysm. The Blue Guards, a paramilitary mass movement composed of students, Padawans and young Jedi Knights, denounced the establishment as corrupt and materialistic. Spurred on by corruption and large-scale poverty, they believed only a radical revolution could usher in the Ashlanite utopia. Their idealism was cruelly abused by a power-hungry Grandmaster, who was under fire in the Windian Jedi Order due to the failure of his collectivist economic policies. He saw the young radicals as a chance to avenge himself on the oligarchy.
Spurred on by the Grandmaster, the Blue Guards sought to usher in an egalitarian utopia by smashing the 'four olds'. The young revolutionaries viewed themselves as the vanguard of a new age. The Blue Guards destroyed symbols of Tephrike's pre-Dominion past, including ancient artefacts and gravesites of notable Tephriki figures. Furthermore, they beat, publicly humiliated and even murdered people viewed as dissidents as well as government and church officials. However, there was also factionalism among the Blue Guards.
The movement quickly grew out of control, frequently coming into conflict with authority and threatening public order. The Blue Guards were suppressed by the military to restore order. What followed was a return to normalcy defined by rigid caste barriers and totalitarian controls of private and public life. Inquisitorial tribunals were formed to deal with heretics, including idealistic Blue Guards who had become politically inconvenient. Now that they were no longer needed, many were banished to remote areas of the nation to live among the peasants and 're-educate themselves' through hard labour in the countryside.
But not all Blue Guards went quietly. One of those who refused to be silenced was Pievar Avier, a human male of peasant origins and a 'random'. He had heeded the call of the Grandmaster, denounced enemies of Ashla and tried to smash the 'Four Olds'. Now he had been cast aside, and his family lived in poverty. He felt that he and his generation had been betrayed by the oligarchs. While living in internal exile, he learned about the Knights of Everlasting Light, an order of warriors of the Ecclesia of the Divine Ashla who had been betrayed and purged because the Windian Jedi feared their power.
Hearing the truth about what had happened so many decades ago fuelled his radicalism. Avier rejected orthodox Ashlanite principles, creating a doctrine that sought to dispense with the hierarchy and holy tenants in favour of following the Will of the Force. He proclaimed that all were equal before Ashla. These teachings were popular among exiles and others who had been repressed. It grew into a revolutionary movement called the Righteous and Harmonious Army. Its adherents challenged the Ecclesia and the Windian Jedi Order, which culminated into an open revolt. However, after years of upheavals the nation was tired.
People chafed under the soul-crushing order...but they wanted calm, not more upheavals, chaos and bloodshed. This contributed to the failure of his revolution. The people did not realise the danger until it was too late. Avier was executed for heresy. The regime drew its own lessons. With the cooperation of church authorities, the government instigated a purge to enforce orthodoxy. In contrast to earlier initiatives, this was a silent purge, not a mass campaign. The Dominion never acknowledged that any killings had taken place.
Within the span of a few months, thousands of political dissidents and religious nonconformists were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Dominion detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Grandmaster and implemented across prisons in the country. People who had been arrested and released many years ago were seized in the middle of the night and dragged to execution centres. Many of those killed were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and humiliating treatment or punishment in the process. They were universally denied access to a fair judicial process.
The extrajudicial executions were followed by the authorities' refusal to officially acknowledge the killings; fully disclose the fate of the victims, including the causes and circumstances of the killings; identify the remains; and ensure that they were returned to the families. The systematic concealment of the fate of the victims and location of their remains also involved not providing families with death certificates and responding to families' requests for death certificates by issuing ones that were in many cases inaccurate, misleading or incomplete about the causes, circumstances and dates of the death and cited 'natural' causes or simply 'death' as the cause of death or provided no cause at all.
These ongoing enforced disappearances and the continuing uncertainty concerning the fate of their loved ones and the location of their remains caused considerable anguish to the families. Rumours began to circulate about the mass executions, desperate families went to prison gates and government offices in search of information, only to be met by silence and abuse.
Sometimes they were falsely told that the prisoner had been transferred, so the families embarked on wasted journeys to distant prisons. Even some Ashlanite clerics tried to intercede to help civilians trying to find out what had happened to their loved ones, but to no avail. Two low level clerics went on a hunger strike, but they were isolated from the public. Most families were just summoned to prisons or a government office, handed a bag which an official said contained the personal belongings of their dead relative, and were ordered not to hold a memorial ceremony. Some families were not even given these last mementos. Some were told their loved ones were still alive when they had in fact been executed, or simply told nothing at all. A Jedi Master simply told the bereaved "Mourn them, do not, miss them, do not. For their darkness has tainted the Light of all."
One of the killing sites was an otherwise unremarkable swampland. Thousands of political and religious dissidents were brought here, and shot in the back of the head. Some managed to escape into the wilderness. The corpses were dumped in the swampy waters and left to rot. Unable to move on, their spirits haunted the swamplands. Soon Dominion soldiers and secret policemen feared to go to this Blighted Swampland. But this was fine from the perspective of the Inquisition. The dead were out of sight and out of mind, and this was clearly evidence that their souls were tainted.
Except they were not forgotten. Though they placed themselves in great peril by doing so, many of the loved ones of the murdered tried to find out what had happened to their friends and family members - and give them the last rites. Groups of mothers and clone templates travelled to suspected mass graves to erect small monuments of stone and flowers, and carry out mourning ceremonies. Often they were forcibly dispersed by the secret police and the morality police.
Dominion security forces desecrated confirmed mass grave sites by bulldozing and constructing new burial plots, buildings or constructing roads over them. Even placing flowers on one of the grave sites became a criminal offence. Some corpses were exhumed and incinerated. Their families received a notification, but were threatened to keep their mouth shut. They were subjected to harassment, and even forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed. The 'guilty' were executed in the swamp in increasing numbers because it was remote.
Ultimately word leaked out. But families were told that the place was cursed. A group of pilgrims travelled to the swamp nonetheless. When they arrived, it was dark and foreboding. The spirits were angry, and some of the mourners were frightened away. But those that remained claimed to have been guided by the spirits of their loved ones. They had no bodies to bury, so that night they constructed simplistic boats with candles on them and sent them into the swampy waters at dusk. The mourners constructed small monuments.
When the Dominion learned of this, they sent armed goons to forcibly disperse and beat the mourners, making many arrests. The small monuments and tombstones were deestroyed. Those arrested were forced to sign a confession stating that the swamp was cursed. Some paid for their courage with their lives. But their sacrifice was not forgotten by the spirits. Eventually, a group of pilgrims returned to the swamp. They were ordinary civilians and guided by Ashlanite clerics. Chanting Ashlanite prayers and hymns of mourning and begging the dead for forgiveness, they approached the swamp. Dominion soldiers and militias guarded the accessways, but they were reluctant to open fire on the pilgrims and their escort. Perhaps it was the spirits at work, perhaps the young men and women did not want to sully their souls with the blood of mothers, old people, holy men and women.
When the Inquisition learned of what was going on, it dispatched armed thugs to deal with the supposed heresy, by any means necessary. They surrounded and assaulted the pilgrims in the middle of a ceremony at dusk. However, when the pilgrims that managed to escape the net fled into the swamp, they were held aloft by the water. Lights guided them to safe places. Meanwhile, many of their pursuers were sucked down. Others were mentally assailed by the spirits, whose banshee wail struck fear into their hearts. The power of the spirits, inspired by the courage of the pilgrims who had risked so much to honour them, was turned against the oppressors. The souls of pilgrims who were murdered on that day joined the fledgling gestalt entity.
The Dominion made abortive attempts to drain the swamp, and even dispatched Jedi Masters who attempted to cleanse it with Force Light. The spirits denounced them for their corruption. Eventually, other problems took precedence, and the Windian Jedi Order settled for declaring the nexus to be a place of evil, and attempting to isolate it from the population. Villages that lay near the nexus were forcibly relocated so that the secret police could create an exclusion zone. Stavrostad was one of those settlements. Villagers were forced to sign confessions saying that they had been assaulted by demons and Sithspawn.
But some of the deportees managed to flee into the swamplands, and the souls of the murdered were shepherded by the spirits so that they could find a measure of peace. The Inquisition claimed that the village had been laid to waste by demons spawned by the tainted nexus. However...it soon came to pass that the nexus expanded. When the Ministry of Enlightenment dispatched teams to the 'ruined' village to produce a documentary, they encountered spirits from the nexus congregating there. The spirits would not directly assault or kill them, but they would show them the evil they were part of...and the stories of those who had dared to defy the tyrannical regime. The Inquisition was able to drive the spirits away, but the experience left many members of the propaganda team mentally scarred. One of the journalists, who had been begun asking awkward questions, was sent to a 're-education camp' for the crime of 'enmity against Ashla'. The documentary was never produced, and the government imposed a policy of silence on the nexus.
Meanwhile, the small community of refugees endured, though life was hard. They provided guidance to pilgrims who came here to secretly mourn and honour those the Dominion forbid them from remembering. Among the newcomers were Mon Calamari fleeing the Dominion's mass internment of their people in 're-education camps'. Healers among the pilgrims offered aid to those in need. Over time, some left though, wishing to actively take the fight to the oppressors. This led to a bit of a rift, though not a full-blown schism. The nexus was not pacifist, as its treatment of the wicked and unjust showed. Nor did it believe that the light could never be proactive against the forces of evil, but it was focused on protection and preservation.
The Netherworld Crisis touched virtually every world in the galaxy, and Tephrike was no different. The mass raptured caused not only widespread economic, social and political disruption, not to mention personal traumas, but a surge of millenarianism. Many people believed the End of Days was at hand, and the brutal violence of the war between the Dominion, Republican Guard and the Vaderites seemed to more than validate this belief. Moreover, demonic entities manifested in dark side vergences. The Swamp of the Martyred Forsaken, though a sanctuary of the light, was not left unaffected. Some of the local refugees were sucked into the Netherworld. They were trapped in a foreboding, grim forest that resembled a ghostly version of the swamp they had called home, but dangerous and twisted.
However, by retracing the routes within the Netherworld version with the 'real' one they were able to find a way back. They were aided in this by some of the spirits from their true home. The spirits helped guide them back, and in the process took the refugees' place in the Nether. Thus they were freed. The refugees shared this with their fellows and the spirits that remained. Some had been able to briefly reunite with their deceased loved ones in the Nether, achieving some small measure of closure.
In the aftermath of the failed Light Sith insurrection, a revolutionary sect of schismatic Vaderites called the Inheritors of the Light Father came into being. They venerated the redeemed Vader, not the evil Dark Lord, proclaiming equality of all species and relentless struggle against those who used their power to oppress and enslave. Hunted by the Dominion and Vaderites alike, they operated in the shadows in a manner that bore more than passing resemblance to the Banite Sith. They were led by a shadowy entity called the Illuminator, rumoured to be a Twi'lek and a former slave who rose up against the Vaderites. The Inheritors first came into contact with the nexus when they carried out a mission close by but were hunted by the Jedi. Local peasants who had received protection from the Inheritors mentioned the place, and so the agents came there.
After putting them through tests, the nexus considered them pure enough to proceed through. There they were immune to searches and Windian Jedi hunts. So they asked the spirits and the refugees if more might come there to train. Their request was granted, though they were made to understand that they would not exercise rulership over the refugees or be the masters of the nexus. This was more than acceptable for the Inheritors, who unlike their Windian Jedi and Vaderite counterparts had renounced the 'Force-User's burden'. They turned a cave that housed a powerful Force presence into their home, using it as a place to test acolytes. Only a small number could be brought here because resources were scarce, and they did not want to draw attention, but those who came would commune with the nexus, share their knowledge with pilgrims and protect them from danger.
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