Halketh
Libertas quae sera tamen
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To expand NIO lore and create a group of insurgents to serve as antagonists throughout future campaigns.
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- Organization Name: The Highlaws
- Classification: Insurgency
- Affiliation: Independent
- Organization Symbol: A broken cogwheel.
- Description: A heavily armed group formed due to strict enactment of policy in an attempt to quash riot and protest within New Imperial territory, The Highlaws are a collective of insurgents, rebels, and generally chaotic peoples from all walks of life willing to sacrifice much in their quest for methodical anarchy. The insurgency is formed of men, women, and even children of all sentient species from a vast collection of worlds scattered throughout NIO territory. They rely primarily on sabotage and guerilla tactics with dead aim often set for important gatherings, ships, and locations. Valuing individual liberty and independence over everything else, The Highlaws will act in pursuit of this "liberation" regardless of how radical or extreme their methods must become to achieve it. Members may include ex-Sith Imperial officers, former New Imperial soldiers and officers, artisans, factory workers, smugglers, and even some minor politicians. In a rather ironic twist, The Highlaws also work tirelessly in humanitarian efforts to provide for the people what their governments fail to.
- Headquarters: No direct headquarters on record- group is mostly dispersed across various planets. See below.
- Domain: While dispersed across most of New Imperial territory, The Highlaws can be found in the greatest numbers on the following:
- Notable Assets: A rapidly growing movement, able to thrive insidiously if not eradicated early, The Highlaws's extremist ideology is able to spread like a virus particularly amongst the downtrodden and put-out members of society. As a result of this, their greatest asset is their ability to grow their numbers radically and remain hidden until the time is right to strike out.
- Hierarchy: The food chain, so to speak, is established by seniority and notoriety. The five highest-ranking members form a war council and this war council decides where and what the next target is to be. Members achieve higher ranks and levels of notoriety based on their accomplishments and feats while working operations for the group. Smaller command chains extend from the war council in the form of localized delegation, the commanders are chosen based on time in service and the levels of notoriety they have achieved. The longer a member has served and the more successful operations they had pulled off, the higher their rank grows, etc.
- Membership: Exact numbers on The Highlaws remain a mystery, though intelligence suggests their ranks are vast- with numbers easily in the hundreds, bordering on thousands within NIO territory. Anyone has the potential to be recruited into their group, and the process is just that- potential recruits are contacted or recommended by current members for membership. From there, the recruit can expect to be followed and observed for up to one standard week, after which they will be "kidnapped" and inducted into the group. This process involves an extensive and personal interview, training with a variety of weapons, and systematic desensitization training. After this training is completed, the new member receives the cog symbol tattoo on either his/her left foot, right hand, nape of the neck, center of the chest, or between the shoulder blades. Members are highly encouraged to keep their membership a secret so as to maintain the insidious nature of the organizaton.
- Climate: Radical ideology has brought The Highlaws together, fostering a rather tight-knit atmosphere of familial intensity. Most of the members feel victimized by the New Imperials in some way or another, giving each of them equal footing to build relationships upon. Members often nurture close relationships with one another.
- Reputation: The reputation of The Highlaws is a mixed bag. Some citizens see them as heroes, almost, defiant men and women standing up to the martial nature of their current occupants. Others view them as nothing but radical terrorists who only serve to provoke the militaristic noose tighter around the territory. Many New Imperial citizens blame The Highlaws for the riots across the territory, stricter laws implemented, and even the war, on rare occasions. There are a number of conspiracies linking the shadowy side of the New Imperial government to The Highlaws' creation and actions, though no supporting evidence of this has ever been found and recorded.
- Curios: A broken, black cogwheel tattoo located either on the left foot, right hand, nape of the neck, the center of the chest, or between the shoulder blades. Members have been occasionally observed wearing a white handkerchief or scarf around their right boot or ankle.
- Rules: The insurgency adheres strictly to traditional anarchist beliefs. Most important to The Highlaws is the abolition of martial and hierarchical government and the allowance for complete, individual autonomy and independence.
- Goals: Dismantle the systematic and often militaristic government imposed by the New Imperial Order through methodical, coordinated assaults, and the provocation of civilians into rebellion. Provide relief and aid to struggling citizens across New Imperial territory in the form of financial aid, supplies, and even housing efforts.
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HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Throughout the Third Imperial Civil War, the New Imperial Order has expanded its influence and grown its territory, claiming and "liberating" new worlds from Sith Imperial control and establishing new systems of government and "order" across these planets with the attempt to tame the peoples therein. The masses seemed content as a whole- at first- just to have survived the seemingly endless battles and the constant relocation to new worlds in some attempt to find peace and establish new lives for themselves. When smaller numbers of citizens started to protest and riot, they were met with harsh punishment and restrictions- a direct violation of a right seen as most basic by many sentients across the galaxy. Inspired by the resolve of the original protestors, The Highlaws was formed to not only stoke the flames of revolt but to provide people with aid and support where their governments failed to do so.
