joysweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
joysweeper) wrote2006-08-10 08:15 am
joysweeper) wrote2006-08-10 08:15 am
Rakghoul Dillemma
I felt like writing another dilemma. So there.
Imagine this.
Taris is a city-world, formerly known as "The Corusucant of the Outer Rim". Ever since hyperspace lanes shifted, though, it has become more like Nar Shadda. The highest points of the city are still glittering spires and peaks, but below them is poverty and, like Corusucant, the lower you go the worse it becomes.
Outcasts are those who live in the Undercity, on the very soil of Taris herself. They were cast down there because of a social upheaval one hundred years ago. So many of the poor and disadvantaged rebelled that the jails could not hold them all, so they were dumped down beneath the buildings and not allowed back up. Since that time, criminals too have been cast down. No need for jails or reform programs on Taris.
There are turbolifts back to the Lower City and the surface. No Outcasts or children of Outcasts are allowed up them, but occasionally upworlders venture down. Most recently, they have been armored Sith, but there are occasional others.
Life is hard in the Undercity. Food and supplies are scarce; most of it is refuse which even Lower City denizens cannot make use of. But the biggest problem is the rakghouls.
Rakghouls are like a combination of zombie and werewolf. Wikipedia isn't entirely reliable, but it had a good image here.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:RahkGhoul.jpg
They are usually paler than that... anyway, when rakghouls attack they kill and eat some of their victims. Those who escape, wounded, are infected and eventually will turn into rakghouls themselves. It's rather dramatic. Small communities of Outcasts build walls and gates to keep the monsters out- luckily, rakghouls aren't too bright and apparently have short attention spans, as they don't "babysit" the gates at all.
Usually they find the unfortunate Outcasts when the latter go out in search of food and salvage. Rakghouls may not wait outside of the walls, but they will follow fleeing Outcasts right back into their enclaves, and devastate the entire community.
So imagine that you are an Outcast on Taris, and your new job is to man the gate.
This gives you a certain amount of power. If people you dislike are returning from a supply search, you could simply refuse to let them in and claim that you hear or see rakghouls on the approach. You wouldn't do it, of course. That would be wrong- plus, you need every individual in this community just to survive.
And yet, one day, you see Hendar, a man of your village, outside running flat out towards the gate, pursued by no less than five rakghouls who are slowly catching up. His wife Hester is inside with you, telling you to open the gate. But you know that if you open the gate long enough to let him in, they will follow. It simply doesn't open and close quickly enough.
And the people of your village simply aren't strong enough, or well-equipped enough, or well-trained enough, to fend them off. Besides, they trust you to keep the rakghouls out.
To confuse matters, a pair of upworlders have come down. They want you to open the gate to let them out, saying that they will kill the monsters. They are certainly better-fed, more muscular and well-equipped than anyone from your village. But there are five rakghouls. And every time an upworlder dies within sight of the gates, repercussions are fierce.
What do you do? Very soon it will be too late, and opening the gate at all will doom you. Make a choice.
Imagine this.
Taris is a city-world, formerly known as "The Corusucant of the Outer Rim". Ever since hyperspace lanes shifted, though, it has become more like Nar Shadda. The highest points of the city are still glittering spires and peaks, but below them is poverty and, like Corusucant, the lower you go the worse it becomes.
Outcasts are those who live in the Undercity, on the very soil of Taris herself. They were cast down there because of a social upheaval one hundred years ago. So many of the poor and disadvantaged rebelled that the jails could not hold them all, so they were dumped down beneath the buildings and not allowed back up. Since that time, criminals too have been cast down. No need for jails or reform programs on Taris.
There are turbolifts back to the Lower City and the surface. No Outcasts or children of Outcasts are allowed up them, but occasionally upworlders venture down. Most recently, they have been armored Sith, but there are occasional others.
Life is hard in the Undercity. Food and supplies are scarce; most of it is refuse which even Lower City denizens cannot make use of. But the biggest problem is the rakghouls.
Rakghouls are like a combination of zombie and werewolf. Wikipedia isn't entirely reliable, but it had a good image here.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:RahkGhoul.jpg
They are usually paler than that... anyway, when rakghouls attack they kill and eat some of their victims. Those who escape, wounded, are infected and eventually will turn into rakghouls themselves. It's rather dramatic. Small communities of Outcasts build walls and gates to keep the monsters out- luckily, rakghouls aren't too bright and apparently have short attention spans, as they don't "babysit" the gates at all.
Usually they find the unfortunate Outcasts when the latter go out in search of food and salvage. Rakghouls may not wait outside of the walls, but they will follow fleeing Outcasts right back into their enclaves, and devastate the entire community.
So imagine that you are an Outcast on Taris, and your new job is to man the gate.
This gives you a certain amount of power. If people you dislike are returning from a supply search, you could simply refuse to let them in and claim that you hear or see rakghouls on the approach. You wouldn't do it, of course. That would be wrong- plus, you need every individual in this community just to survive.
And yet, one day, you see Hendar, a man of your village, outside running flat out towards the gate, pursued by no less than five rakghouls who are slowly catching up. His wife Hester is inside with you, telling you to open the gate. But you know that if you open the gate long enough to let him in, they will follow. It simply doesn't open and close quickly enough.
And the people of your village simply aren't strong enough, or well-equipped enough, or well-trained enough, to fend them off. Besides, they trust you to keep the rakghouls out.
To confuse matters, a pair of upworlders have come down. They want you to open the gate to let them out, saying that they will kill the monsters. They are certainly better-fed, more muscular and well-equipped than anyone from your village. But there are five rakghouls. And every time an upworlder dies within sight of the gates, repercussions are fierce.
What do you do? Very soon it will be too late, and opening the gate at all will doom you. Make a choice.