Protection Vocation
The Protection Vocation is one of Thirteen Vocations. They are the framework for government, civil services, resources, goods production, and distribution. Their society is a cooperative one with each vocation acting as a decentralized government.
Each city has it's own set of thirteen. The structore of the vocations in each of The Great Cities is the same, but they are seperate from each other. They each have their own Chairman which work under the individual city's Council of Thirteen.
Structure
Organizational Structure:
This vocation follows the same basic structor of all vocations. It has a Tier System for promotions and branches to break the duties into something more manageable.Protection has six branches. Each branch has a seperate tier system. However, the Chairman of Protection can come from any branch. Depending on a person's skillset, it is possible for them to move from one branch to another and keep their Tier. With Protection, most of the branches are very different and would require someone to start over as a Tier one. Promotion is optional. A person can stay in a Tier-I duty their entire working life if they choose. The Protection Vocation covers a variety of civil services. They all attend the same vocational school and learn their specific job in their later years of school or with on-the-job training after they have graduated. Each job is its own branch and operates by the rules that make the most sense to that field. Each branch still resides with in the tiered system. There are just variations when it's logical.Branches:
Investigation
Designated with white stripes on a black shoulder band. The white is to signify neutrality
Child Advocacy
Light blue stripes on a black shoulder band The light blue was chosen simply because it was a calming color
Civil Deputies
bright green stripes on a black shoulder band Green also represents preservation and the environment, though this job is not as flashy as some, they are still crucial for the services they support to function
Disaster Response
Bright red stripes on a black shoulder band The red against black is simply meant to be easy to spot
Watchers
Dark gray stripes on a black shoulder band The dark gray was chosen because it's close to black and they are the on the ground protectors, they work directly with the people who need reform
Trial Advocacy
Yellow-gold stripes on a black shoulder band Originally the color was meant to be a light hopeful color, but over time it simply became associated with the yellow-gold furniture that's used in the court rooms and the other related legal rooms in the Anunitum fortress. The other two cities don't use the same wood, but the association is still there since Anunitum is the oldest city. It's not technically a leader or better than the other two, but it still gets treated that way by it's citizens.
Culture
Talitha Harbor does not have many weapons. There are knives and other tools that people can use to harm another. Fishermen have harpoons, due to some of the large sea creatures that live in the waters. But they do not have guns or anything created solely to harm people.
Some Talithans, who have read of them in the old earth documents, will make replica swords and other old weapons out of wood. But, these are usually for theater or physical training. Metals are a rare commodity and no one can legally gain enough of this valuable resource to craft a weapon. If a metal sword or other weapon is found, the investigators will eventually return it to metal works so they can melt it down and turned into an appropriate resource or product.
Investigators and Watchers are trained to constrain or disarm people purely by physical force. If the person has a knife or other weapon, they will try to talk them down. Anytime there is a person who is acting violently, a Mental Health Services is called in to talk them down.
If it’s a matter of life or death, the Protection Solcars have long wooden staffs and shorter throwing staffs that can be used. The Watchers will keep a shorter staff with them if they deem it necessary. Investigators don’t carry weapons with them. They want to maintain the perception that they are here to protect Talithans, not harm them.
There are legends of Investigators and Watchers that could make someone pass out with a well-thrown stick to one of the pressure points on the shoulder or temple, but these are mostly just legend. They are not taught to aim for these small and hard to hit areas in training. Though, that doesn't mean that some of them don’t attempt to learn this skill, using dummies or each other for practice.
Talithans who join the Protection vocation are a varied bunch. In an ideal world, no one is forced into the vocation. It is all volunteers and people who truly want those duties. In the reality, parents from this vocation sometimes highly encourage or pressure their children to join. This seems to be most common with the Investigators. There is a running joke among Talithans that investigators are genetically modified because of the number of taller Talithans who seem to join. Not every investigator is taller than average, of course, but that impression has become part of the Talithan culture. Some think that it is because of generations of the same families joining this branch of the Protection Vocation.
Public Agenda
Their main objective is the title of their vocation. They keep the rest of the citizens safe. This allows the rest of Talitha focus on their vocations, crafts, or whatever their life goals are. Each of the thirteen vocations are the backbone of their cooperative society and their survival on an alien planet.
Assets
The Protection Vocation is one of only two that have their own Solcars assigned to them, because of the amount of travel they perform and their need to respond quickly. In the rare case that they run out of their own solcars, they have the technology to lock down the closest community solcar and use it at their disposal via their identity pad.
Their Solcars are painted black and have rings in the seat they can use to cuff down a suspect if they think they will act impulsively. They do not, however, have any barriers built into them. This way the cars can comfortably double as simple transportation vehicles. If they are worried about a person becoming violent, they will contact the Health Services Vocation and request transport from them. They have Medical Health Professionals who specialize in deescalation.
If physical restraint is required, they have thick leather cuffs they use. Metals are rare and saved for other uses, though the restraint rings in the solcars are metal. They require less metal than cuffs that need repair and replacement, however.
They rarely use any sort of weapon. But, if they are required to gain control of someone with a weapon and they don’t feel like they can physically restrain them, they have long wooden staffs or short throwing sticks. They practice with these extensively. Both are painted black, like many other vocation items.
The staffs are made out of a tough reed that is native to Talitha, it is similar in structure to bamboo found on Earth, but it doesn't reach the diamater that bamboo can.
They are there to be an extension of their limbs so they can sweep away a sharp objects or whatever they perceive to be dangerous. The throwing sticks are distractions, often the distraction of being hit with one. Protection vocation members don’t use them to take out a person or cause any serious physical damage.
History
The first humans who landed on Talitha Harbor created the outline for the Thirteen Vocations. They borrowed from their ship departments to some extent, continuing the system they’d used for several generations as they traveled through space. There were some changes since they were no longer trapped on a spaceship and they wanted to build in more freedoms.
The original layout of the Protection Vocation had a heavier emphasis on disaster response, but as time has gone by it has shifted more towards dealing with human behavior related issues. Disaster Response still exists, of course, but after almost 1000 sols, they have done a fairly good job of building their life around the planet’s seasons and cycles. They don’t have any kind of pollution or global warming changing weather patterns. Of course, they can’t predict everything, and fires can happen. So, the emergency responders are still needed.
Since the Talithans have stayed in the same geographical area for their entire stay here, they are also very familiar probable large-scale dangers.
Education
All members of the Protection Vocation attend the Schoolhouse ran by their chosen vocation. Talithans attend their Ten Sol Ceremony around the time they are first entering their adolescence. Their ages will vary slightly depending on when they were developmentally ready to start primary school and whether they needed a little extra time to meet the graduation markers.
Once they enter the Schoolhouse, all the students will receive the same basic education for their first three sol cycles. They learn how the vocation functions as a whole, and the rights that they protect. The students also spend a short amount of time in each branch so they can see where they fit best. They also learn any math, reading, science, history, and critical thinking skills that were not covered in primary school.
After three sol cycles, the Schoolhouse has another ceremony where they will choose to stay or move to another vocation. Though they announce their requests during the ceremony, they are asked ahead of time. If a student requests a vocation move and it’s granted, then preparations will be made ahead of time. If a requested vocation is full, they may be denied and asked to choose another. At this age, they may not choose self-employment, since they are considered not developmentally ready.
If they choose to stay, then they will also choose which branch they wish to move to. Then they will receive training for their specific job. At their Sixteenth Sol Cycle, when most of them are between 18 and 20 in Earth years, they are given the option to continue on in their branch or they may choose self-employment. Most Talithans won’t choose to start a new vocation at this age, since they would have to start over with the Ten Sol kids. But, there have been a few Talithans who have made this choice, and it is usually granted as long as there is space.
If they choose to stay in their vocation, then they will graduate and become a Tier-I. They are given the black armbands that show their rank and which branch they are in. Unless they performed poorly, they will all graduate and if they need to catchup on any knowledge, they will do so with on-the-job training.
Infrastructure
The Protection Vocation work in different locations depending on their branch.
*** Images made in Canva. Eventually I'll replace them with some nicer art.
Disaster Response Centers
These are spread out throughout the city, and are more specialized than the other vocation buildings. There is a fire response center that is for that purpose. There are some smaller search and rescue buildings near the mountains and the coast that have equipment for that purpose. For disasters which cause major building damage, they will call upon the construction and building maintenance related vocations for equipment, sharing resources instead of wasting valuable resources on tools that will have little use.Investigation Complex
These house the Investigators, their resources, and the Watchers. Trial Advocates split themselves between the Investigation Complex and the Child Advocacy Complex. The Complexes vary slightly between the different cities. In both Anunitum and Simmah, they are very similar. They have the same square construction that most of the buildings do, fitting everyone into a pre-planned city grid. The City of Pangu has a more artistic look to it. It’s divided into color sectors, and the Complex is painted to match the sector it is in. The city has a overall grid structure in its streets, but the buildings have more variety. The complex buildings are the same, matching the building structure of the sector the city architects built them in. There are rows of desks for the investigators set up so they can easily communicate. Though, there are some desks in more private spaces for those who need more quiet. They are not typically assigned. They perform most work digitally through their identity pads. Those who really want a space they can personalize can claim a desk and it will be theirs. Tier-II and Tier-III investigators are more likely to have their own offices. It depends on what their duties are and if that space is necessary for them to accomplish them. Though, if they already have a claimed space from their Tier-I days, and want to keep it, they are usually allowed. There are secure storage spaces for evidence and special office spaces for accessing sensitive case information. The screens in those spaces are larger, making it easier to access several documents at once instead of trying to use the smaller identity pad screens. There are similar less secure space for those working on less secure cases.Other Branches
The other branches do not have specialized buildings of their own. They will either work in schoolhouses or the city fortresses depending on their duties.*** Images made in Canva. Eventually I'll replace them with some nicer art.
Safeguarding Talithan Peace
Founding Date
Talithan Harbor Age Zero
Type
Governmental, Department
Leader Title
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