Tephrike

[Valiens Nantaris]

That is very true.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


And the 'Jedi lord' who started the show was actually fairly trivial in the NJO.


So he's compensating.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

System features, let's go with a fairly standard solar system, maybe a couple of terrestrial planets, couple of gas giants. Can have some sort of anomaly like this planet having a pair of moons or something.


System Features: [Here you may list suns, moons, other planets, important asteroid belts, spatial anomalies, or other features of the star system. You may also include moons, suns, orbital position, rotational period (length of day), and orbital period (days in a year) in this section.]


'A vast asteroid field encompasses the system. Large enough to prevent the approach of large capital ships, though smaller vessels are able to slip through easily enough. Like the Vandelhelm Cloud, it also makes it impossible to locate the planet on sensors. In addition to Tephrike, there are two other terrestrial planets located in the system: Carcassonne and Bogomil. There are also a few gas giants. Tephrike has a pair of moons, Tarpani and Karbeas.'


[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Sounds good.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


1. So when should the planet have been settled? Old Republic era.


I'm thinking that foreign prospectors were attracted by the timber...but it turned out the planet is quite dangerous.


The planet could have also experienced racial tensions between surface-dwelling species and aquatic immigrants (Nautolans, Gungans etc.).



2. Way back I had the idea that the Jedi Battlemasters command clone armies...parodying the Republic's clone army.


However, the Dominion of Light already creates all its citizens in a lab because sex is wrong (or it tries to at least), and there's a caste system that decides which jobs a citizen gets. So might this be a little redundant? Or keep it?

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Sounds good. Maybe settled 500BBY.

Yeah, the Jedi would command their clone minions, for sure.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Thoughts about a timeline:

• Planet is discovered and settled around 500BBY. Capitalists are attracted by the ample supply of timber and exotic animals. Planet turns out to be pretty dangerous. Aquatic aliens such as Gungans, Nautolans go there, too. Racial tensions ensue. Jedi mediate those to a degree and eventually set up an enclave, after a group of darksiders muck around.
• During the Imperial era, the Galactic Empire takes over and establishes a humanocentric regime. Jedi enclave is razed. Some Jedi survive and hide with rebels, though most are decimated.
• Imperial colonial government goes warlord after Palpatine's death, but is overthrown. In its place, the locals set up a federal republic, loosely modelled on the Old Republic.
• Gulag Virus breaks out and everything goes to hell. Planet could have already been dealing with economic and social problems before that. Things get worse now because the galactic economy has collapsed. The Gulag Virus reaches the planet via a merchant or science ship. Chaos ensues. The capital becomes a war zone.
• One of the Jedi now stranded on Tephrike decides that the order must take matters into their own hands. Sets themselves up as Jedi Lord. It is intended to be a temporary measure, but things escalate from here. Regime radicalises after its founder is incapacitated during the fighting. Turns nutty over time as it develops a siege mentality and becomes a cult after some Jedi defect to dark cults. For a while, there is order, but the regime becomes extremely authoritarian and corrupt.
• The regime's totalitarian measures cause an insurgency. Rebel groups eventually unite under the banner of secularism and republicanism. Netherworld Event affects all factions, but hits the Jedi the hardest since it undermines faith in them.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
I like it. One minor thing is there'd be no gungans until after The Phantom Menace.

Other than that tiny point I like where you're going with this.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Ok. When seems an appropriate time for the Gungans to settle?

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
During the last days of the Old Republic, just before the Clone Wars.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

History:


Tephrike has always been a peripheral planet of minuscule importance. However, its fate has been closely linked to the ebbs and flows of galactic politics. After the Battle of Ruusan, the Galactic Republic enjoyed an age of peace. Enacting the Ruusan Reformation, the Galactic Senate demilitarised the Republic. Likewise, the Jedi renounced their military ranks, disbanded the Army of Light, believing that the threat of the Sith had been banished with the destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness. This makes it a tremendous irony that one day a Jedi theocracy would come into being upon this insignificant planet. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that Lord Hoth would have approved of the regime on Tephrike.


Regardless, the planet was discovered in 500 BBY. Initially, pirates used it as a base that was out of the way and beyond the reach of law enforcement organs. However, they found the native wild life to be 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.


It helped that Tephrike was not inhabited by indigenous sentient life. Natives always made colonisation awkward since they resented the terra nullius doctrine. Colonial wars were expensive and generally produced negative PR. However, as the private companies soon discovered, while Tephrike was beautiful, it was also home to manifold dangers. This slowed down colonisation to a large degree. To a large extent, the initial settler population was drawn from convicted felons, who were given a second chance by performing menial labour on the jungle world. This was a convenient way to free up prison space.


Occasionally, convicts escaped into the wilderness. Those who survived the experience became raiders, which also gave the corporate settlements another reason to stock up on defences. However, Tephrike also attracted aquatic aliens such as Nautolans and Quarren. Some of them were political activists disgruntled with conditions on their homeworlds for this or that reason. Tephrike's oceans and seas were a natural fit for them. However, these alien colonists refused to follow the rules of the corporations that had been turning Tephrike into a corporate state. Moreover, many of the original colonists were humans or near-human. As a result, conflict over settlement rights were inflamed by racial tensions.


At the same time, environmentalists complained about the effect colonisation was having on the environment. In one case, radical animal rights activists tried to free captured animals, causing a number of deaths. As a consequence of these incidents, the Republic Senate got involved. The Jedi Order dispatched Jedi Knights to mediate, producing a compromise settlement that, in the spirit of compromises, satisfied no one but left the involved parties better off than in the past. The order set up a Jedi enclave, not only to keep the peace, but also to ensure that Force-sensitives born amongst the settler population received proper training after a darkside cult led by a radical Quarren tried to foment civil war on the planet. Following the end of the Naboo Crisis, a community of Gungan exiles who rebelled against the strict laws that held sway in Otoh Gunga established a colony.


The Jedi's presence would turn out to have long-lasting consequences for the people of Tephrike, for it made the planet a target after the Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire. Jedi had, after all, been declared enemies of the state following Mace Windu's failed coup d'état. Aside from skirmishes with Separatist forces, Tephrike had largely escaped the Clone Wars unscathed.


This changed when Imperial forces descended upon the planet. The Jedi enclave was razed, and the new Imperial governor inaugurated a humanocentric colonial regime. A few Jedi survived the Purge and escaped into the jungle or aquatic regions, where they continued to resist the Empire by using guerrilla tactics. However, even with the help of persecuted aquatic aliens, their ability to bring about change was limited. To combat the partisans, the Imperial forces employed brutal scorched earth tactics, including the use of herbicides, napalm and chemical weapons. However, the colonial government also united Tephrike's scattered settlements and built the planet's first capital, Palmyra. Following the Battle of Endor, the colonial government lost contact with Coruscant, as the Empire began to self-destruct.


With no one further up in the hierarchy to oppose him, the Imperial governor became a warlord. An exorbitant fortune was spent on grandiose construction projects, such as hydroelectric dams and a new palace. These were financed by nationalising private assets and forcibly extracting tribute and population, which also had to provide forced labourers. However, the regime's harsh policies and notorious corruption produced resistance. Already weakened by internal power struggles, the regime was overthrown by a popular revolution with the aid of the fledgling New Republic. In its place, the native set up a federal republic loosely based on the Old Republic. Protection of racial minorities was enshrined in the constitution, which also specified that a minimum number of seats in the parliament should be reserved for 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.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Looks good so far

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Thanks. Drawing a bit of a blank on what happens till the Gulag Virus breaks out. Thoughts?


Also need a rationale for how they end up having the tech to clone people and stuff. When the Jedi start their insane social engineering project. Hmmph.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Well, it's a good planet to set up medical facilities and testing, especially if the plant or animal life has some unusual properties.
Setting up a medical cloning facility would mean that it's not used to cloning full people, thus when the crisis hit, combined with problems caused by lack of maintenance the cloning procedure could work poorly.

It seems sensible that the Jedi assume a protective stance after the plague hits, but over time and with lack of contact they become more and more controlling.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

Good idea re cloning tech.


As for the Jedi, I've decided that by the time the outbreak hits, the political situation is already a bit of a mess. Too many political parties, secessionist groups demanding more autonomy...no, this is not Catalonia at all.


And the economy is suffering because it's been so focused on exploiting nature's gifts.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
And if something caused an ecological disaster - causing the wastelands somehow - that'd put further strain on society.
Possibly the cloning also created some creatures which got loose and made things even more dangerous.

If you have a planet where everyone's focussed on exporting and importing vital materials as soon as there are any problems the planet could be left with no way to feed or provide for the population if there's a quarantine.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Very good point.


Got a suggestion for an ecological disaster?


Maybe a volcano breaks out. Or it could be something man-made.


Not sure how industrialised the planet should have been, though I mentioned hydroelectric dams as an Imperial construction project.


Agree re economy. Way I see it, the isolation caused by the Dark Ages led to mass starvation for many people. All this contributes to the Windians going nuts and imposing their particular brand of religious collectivism.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Volcano would work well.

If we want man made though we could go for power plant melt down on a grand scale, turning a huge swathe of land into a radioactive wasteland.

I think they should be mainly raw material extraction, relying on other planets for processing and for getting food from outside too.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

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. Tephrike continued to maintain a Jedi enclave, though the few survivors of the Great Jedi Purge struggled to integrate into the New Jedi Order. Indeed, there was a bit of a culture war between those who clung to the old ways and those who embraced the new.


To a large degree, the Tephriki focused on raw materiel extraction, relying on other planets for processing. In addition, they imported a lot of their food. Tragedy struck when there was a grand scale power plant meltdown. Some believed it was sabotage, though in all likelihood it was simple sentient error and design flaws that caused the power plant disaster. The Tephrike Golden Future Binary Fusion Plant incident turned a huge swathe of land into radioactive wasteland, triggering the release of substantial amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Entire settlements had to be evacuated, and the area was placed under lockdown.


The strain on society was significant. It was accompanied by bickering in Parliament. Many of the political parties were species parties, rather than representing the populace as a whole. Coalition governments were common, and increasingly lacked stability. A power block of aquatic alien species demanded greater autonomy, claiming that the post-Imperial compact had been broken, even though many influential politicians had been drawn from their ranks! Similarly, alien races that had been left outside of the aforementioned compact agitated, believing that they had not been given a fair share. Radical humanist agitators declared that they were the ones being exploited.


But it was the outbreak of the Gulag Virus that broke the camel's back. The pathogen was brought to Tephrike by the crew of an Alderaanian merchant ship, who'd contracted the virus. Thus it was an accidental import. By the time people began to drop like flies, contact had been lost with the Galactic Alliance. Like on so many other worlds, entire Tephriki cities descended into chaos and panic. Security forces, medical doctors and Jedi to make sense of the crisis and hold back the storm that was sweeping across the planet. In some towns, the unrest coincided with outbreaks of racial violence.


It was in this situation that the Jedi decided to assume a protective stance. They were, in their own mind, the only body that could be considered neutral and objective. Furthermore, it was their duty to protect the people. Having lost all contact with the rest of the Order, many of them feared that they might be the last Jedi left. It might find surprising in the light of what their stewardship turned into, but the hardliners among them were also driven by guilt. They were Jedi Knights, defenders of peace and justice in the Galaxy. It was their duty to hold the darkness at bay and protect the innocent. And they had failed. They'd become complacent, and allowed their mission to be compromised by politics. Just as they'd done during the twilight of the Old Republic.


Declaring herself Jedi Lord, the Duros Zaras Dant took control over a provisional government. Her claim was disputed by the surviving members of Tephrike's parliament and cabinet, but she was able to gain control over portions of the security forces. With an iron hand, they began to restore order, whatever the cost. It was supposed to be a temporary dictatorship. Once the crisis had abated, power was supposed to be returned to the people. Necessity has always been the excuse of the tyrant, but it is likely that Zaras was sincere in her promise. At least at first. Alas, things would never return to normal.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Looking good.

Some nice satire about current events too.