Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike. Essentially, this place is a little death trap.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Castle Maysaf, Firemane, Republican Guard, Dominion of Light, Darth Vader, Disciples of the Vader, Darth Eisen, Humanist People's Party, Tephrike.
SETTING INFORMATION
Structure Name: Tephrike Golden Future Binary Fusion Plant
Classification: Abandoned power plant.
Location: Tephrike.
Affiliation: Unaffiliated.
Accessibility: Easy to find, for there are few restrictions that prevent a traveller from getting to this location. However, because of the extreme danger inherent in this place, only someone extremely brave, foolish or both would visit it.
Description: The Tephrike Golden Future Binary Fusion Plant was constructed before the terrorist Zero unleashed the Gulag Virus. Itwas supposed to help usher in a brave new world for Tephrike. Alas, it turned out to be just the opposite. Sentient error and construction errors conspired to cause a large scale meltdown. Huge swathes of land outside of the power plant were turned into radioactive wasteland. Successive governments made an attempt to clean it up, but then the Galaxy was thrown into a Dark Age and simply surviving became more of a priority. To this day, the area is contaminated. Despite attempts at reclamation, the power station remaines abandoned and is widely considered to be cursed by the Tephriki. Even today radiation levels are extremely high. It does not bother zombies that have come to populate the deserted premise though.
POINTS OF INTEREST
- Reactor pit: The heart of the structure. It is extremely contaminated. Radiation is so strong that it is practically impossible for anyone to visit, even droids. The only beings that do not seem to mind are zombies created through Sith alchemy.
- Control room: The now abandoned control of the power plant. Less contaminated than other areas. The brave - or foolish - souls who make it this far might be able to piece together the history of this place by viewing the logs that can still be accessed and thus witness the last moments of many of the people who once worked here.
- Coolant towers: Like every power plant, the structure had a cooling system that removed heat from the reactor core and transported it to other areas of the station, where the thermal energy could be harnessed. The towers contain super contaminated water that has leeched into the soil.
- The Sarcophagus: A massive steel and concrete structure designed to cover the reactor and thereby limit radiactive contamination in the aftermath of the calamity. It was intended to do so by encasing the dangerous area and protecting it from climate exposure. The containment wall was erected in haste and so many corners were cut during construction. Within the span of a few years, it was deemed impossible to repair the inside of the sarcophagus as radiation levels were deemed too high. With backing from corporations operating on Tephrike, the federal government tried to overhaul the fractured sarcophagus, as rain-induced corrosion of supporting beams threatened its integrity. By then it had been revealed that water was leaking through the sarcophagus via holes in the roof, becoming radioactively contaminated and then seeping through the reactor's floor into the soil. However, the outbreak of the Gulag Virus put an end to the planned conservation programme.
- The Shrine of Rebirth: A small shrine erected by the Disciples of the Vader, a Sith doomsday cult that worships Vader as a God. The cult celebrates the reactor meltdown and the Gulag Virus as glorious acts of cleansing brought about by the will of their dark god. Many slaves died from radiation sickness to build this sacred place. A Vader statue sits atop a throne made of skulls. Sometimes Acolytes go on pilgrimage to the shrine. This applies in particular to those who have failed the cult in some way. If they manage to return alive, they have been redeemed through fire like Vader was on Mustafar. If not, they were weak and the order is better off without their weakness. For a while, some members of the Republican Guard sought refuge at the shrine, but many died either sooner or later.
- River Acheron: A nearby river that was contaminated with radioactive waste. To this day the river is heavily polluted. The government attempted to stronger wells and what it called a permeable reactive barrier. But like with many cleanup and containment measures, these plans were undone by the Dark Age. The large-scale pollution necessitated the evacuation of a nearby Gungan settlement.
SECURITY
High. There are no security systems or defences in the way we would normally understand them. In other words, there are no turrets or security forces. However, there are a multitude of zombies and high to extreme degrees of radiation. This means the place is very difficult to access safely.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Tephrike Golden Future Binary Fusion Plant was supposed to usher in a new era for the planet. It was a project begun with such high hopes. With the benefit of hindsight, there are reasons to assume it might have been doomed from the start. As has happened so often on the planet, good intentions were led astray and produced disaster.
Tephrike was first discovered five hundred years before the Battle of Yavin. Initially pirates used it as a base, as it was an extremely remote world and out of reach of law enforcement organs such as the Republic's Judicials or intrepid Jedi Knights. However, they soon realised that the native wild life was extremely dangerous. Much later, legitimate private enterprise came across the planet. The corsairs were driven out and capitalists from the Core Worlds were attracted by the ample supply of timber and exotic animals. Aquatic alien races such as the Gungans and Nautolans also took an interest in the world.
Inevitably there was strife between the colonists. The Jedi dispatched a small task force to mediate a compromise. Their presence turned out to be a permanent one, and they built a small enclave. Tephrike joined the Republic, and was subjugated by the Galactic Empire when Palpatine took control. The Imperial régime implemented a totalitarian, human supremacist police state. However, guerilla resistance continued in the jungles and the partisans were eventually able to overthrow the colonial regime with the help of the New Republic.
Having thrown off the Imperial shackles, Tephrike became a somewhat unstable multispecies federal republic. Protection of racial and religious minorities was enshrined in the constitution. In addition, it also specified that a minimum number of seats in the parliament should be reserved for racial minorities. This was a well-intentioned response to the humanocentrism of the Imperial regime and the racial strife that had plagued Tephrike in the past, but would turn out to be an error. Many of the political parties were race-based or represented special interest groups.
Ostensibly normalcy returned to Tephrike. By and large, the planet managed to get through the Yuuzhan Vong War and the Sith-Imperial War without becoming much of a target due to simply not being that important. The planet's bountiful plant and animal life attracted medical companies. Medical facilities were set up to run tests and experiments, encouraged by rather lax laws. This included a medical cloning facility. Some of these experiments created creatures that managed to escape, causing harm to civilians.
Despite attempts at industrialisation, Tephrike remained underdeveloped and dependent on importing and exporting vital materiels. Due to the fractured party system, coalition governments were common and tended to be unstable. The story of the Golden Future plant is directly tied to this because it became the pet project of Prime Minister Winston Stakes. This demagogue would go down in history as one of Tephrike's most divisive politicians.
Stakes was elected to become head of government despite his utter lack of political experience, for he had never held office. He had made his mark as a rich businessman, though detractors accused him of corruption and fraud. His election led to a heavy increase in political divisiveness, civil unrest and racial tension. He would also end up embroiled in numerous scandals. One of them was the fusion plant. The project was not initially his idea, but he backed it with great enthusiasm. It was opposed by environmentalist groups such as the Green Action Party, and the nativist Gungan Homeland League. The power station was supposed to be built close to a Gungan habitat, so the amphibians took offence. Stakes had an extremely confrontational approach and thrived in adversity, so it would not be too far off the mark to argue that their staunch opposition gave him incentive to pursue it. Other critics complained that the funds assigned to the project could be better spent on improving education, healthcae or infrastructure.
He argued that it would provide a brighter future for Tephrike and bring it closer to energy independence. The company that received the contract to build and maintain the structure happened to have ties to his son-in-law. It is no surprise that Stakes and his inner circle would be accused of corruption. Stakes reacted extreme poorly when an anonymous official leaked information to the press that implied construction of the station was faulty.
Regardless, the project went ahead. Its opening was celebrated with great fanfare. A partial core meltdown a year later produced minor damage, but was concealed from the public. The reactor was repaired and put back into operation within a few months. However, then calamity struck. A disaster was caused by catastrophic power increases, resulting in core explosions and open-air fires. As a consequence, large quantities of radioactive material and airborne isotopes dispersed in the atmosphere and the surrounding land. A radioactive cloud spread across the land, swallowing several small settlements.
At first the administration tried to cover up the disaster. It happened to be an election year, after all. When it became impossible to deny what had happened, it claimed that sabotage had been the cause. Indeed, Stakes blamed his rivals, threatening to realise compromising documents that implicated them. The enormous scandal caused by the calamity contributed to him losing the geneal election. However, Stakes made false election fraud claims. His party, despite knowing better, rallied around him, but ultimately conceded defeat, while still making a litany of allegations. A mob of fanatical Stakes supporters stormed Parliament in order to prevent the new government from taking office and murder the 'traitors'. Fortunately, the police ultimately dispersed the mob.
Stakes had to leave office, but continued to insist that he was the legitimate prime minister. Ironically, he was fortunate to lose, because it meant his successor now had to deal with the crisis. In the meantime, the situation had been exacerbated by the fact that fires had broken out in the turbine walls. By now vast swathes of land had been contaminated. A nearby river was polluted, putting aquatic settlements at risk. This helped inflame racial tensions on Tephrike.
The government built a containment wall to prevent radiation from spreading. Moreover, it established an exclusion zone that was initially envisaged as an area of 30km radius from the power station. It was placed under the control of a special agency of the Tephriki federal army. This caused some friction with the local state government. Eventually the exclusion zone covered an area of approximately 3000 square kilometres immediately surrounding the power station. Public access and habitation were restricted. In addition, entire settlements that were not part of the restricted zone had to be evacuated.
Until the outbreak of the Gulag Virus, successive governments tried to clean up the place and strengthen the containment measures. However, then the Galaxy was thrown into a Dark Age and simply surviving became more of a priority. To their credit, the Jedi-led Dominion of Light at least tried to continue where its predecessor regimes had left off. It drew up plans to replace the outdated sarcophagus with a more modern, safer confinement. But these plans came to nothing, for the Dominion lacked the funds, infrastructure and technology. For a while, the Golden Future plant was forgotten.
Then the Disciples of the Vader took an interest. This extremist Sith cult venerated Vader as the Sith Chosen One and believed that he had unleashed the Gulag Virus to cleanse the Galaxy of weakness and eclipse the Light. It was probably no surprise that they would be drawn to a place like this. Where many saw an ecological disaster, they saw a holy place. Originally, the Sith cult attempted to reclaim the power station and the exclusion zone that surrounded it. The Sith Master who spearheaded the project was of the opinion that a thermonuclear war was perfectly winnable and survivable, if one had prepared accordingly. Indeed, it was the duty of the master race to redeem Tephrike through nuclear fire. Upon having achieved the extermination of all its enemies, the master race would emerge from its bunkers, be free to claim the planet and remake it in its own images.
Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the Sith were just as vulnerable to the inhospitable conditions as everyone else. Nonetheless, the Sith cultists ended up building a shrine to commemorate the day of the disaster. Many slaves died to erect this grotesque monument. It was consecrated with blood obtained through ritual sacrifice. To this day it remains a place of pilgrimage for acolytes who have something to prove. Moreover, Sith sorcerers tried to harness all the deaths that had taken place here to carry out dark rituals. To this end, they repurposed an outpost that had been originally set up by the Tephriki federal army in the exclusion zone. Among other things, they tried to bind the ghosts of the workers who had died ages ago. Moreover, they raised the dead slaves as undead. Purists who argued the Vaderites had become too reliant on alien slaves tried to use the zombies as labour drones.
However, the zombies would prove difficult to control and proceeded to devour or turn many of the dark mages. Thus the experiment came to an end, but the undead remained. Some claim that when the Sith cultists abandoned the place, they left some treasures behind. But those who attempt to verify these rumours seldom return. The Dominion of Light was forced to confront the undead when they became a menace to communities outside of the exclusion zone. It met them with fire and steel. For a while there was quiet. But it is rumoured that the undead might soon became a greater threat in time.
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