Ghon Complex
The Ghon Complex, named for its founder Ghon su Pol (grandfather of the current Grand Teacher), is a prison-like boarding school in the southwestern Xha’en Hegemony. Whenever a dissident, rebel, traitor, or other political criminal is convicted in the Xha’en Hegemony, presuming said criminal is sufficiently high-profile, high-status, or wealthy, that criminal's children, young siblings, and sometimes even nieces or nephews are sent to the Ghon Complex for education, training, and propaganda.
The outside of the complex appears to be a sprawling military fortress, nigh-impenetrable and crawling with guards. Inside, other than the solitary confinement chambers in the basement, the Ghon Complex is open and cheery, well-appointed, and full of gardens, practice yards, and other deceptively inviting facilities. It boasts one of the largest (and most painstakingly curated) libraries in all of Xha’en.
History and People
Founded in 4763 XC (3461 I.R.) as part of a “compassionate” consolidation of the new Rachar dynasty’s power, the Ghon Complex was formed with the idea that the young children of dissidents and traitors need not necessarily be executed to prevent them from following in their parents’ footsteps (as was sometimes done during older dynasties) or expensively imprisoned for life (as was done during much of the Tilgi dynasty). Instead, it was suggested that young children of political criminals could be placed in a special school to teach them to grow up as useful and honorable citizens, potentially able to cleanse their family names of all rebellious taint. Thus, the Ghon Complex was born.
While the education that the Ghon Complex children receive is relatively high caliber — offering many noble skills such as reading, calligraphy, gardening, classical dance, and music, and even science, magic, tactics, swordplay, and other martial arts for those deemed sufficiently loyal — it is nevertheless a highly manipulative program designed to destroy independent thinking and to obscure all the faults and flaws of the Hegemony.
The history taught at the Ghon Complex is particularly fictionalized, making all the rulers out to have been glorious, honorable, and wise, with the sole exception of the lich-emperor, who is portrayed as a usurper. All dissidents, rebels, traitors, and similar are portrayed as cruel villains, including the children’s own relatives. While treatment is usually strict but humane, children showing even the slightest signs of “following in traitorous footsteps” are harshly punished, with methods ranging from extra chores, to missed meals, to public canings, to solitary confinement.
Religion
Religious practice in the Ghon Complex is highly ritualized and entirely compulsory for all residents. Other practices may be tolerated in private, so long as the practitioner is believed to revere the Imperial Pantheon above all else, and the specific practices in question have not been deemed seditious.
Loyalties and Diplomacy
Though the Ghon Complex is dogmatically loyal to the emperor and the Hegemony, it is not universally beloved by the Xha’en people. For the most part, the activities of the Ghon Complex are kept secret, and it is advertised only as a special school for children chosen by the emperor. It is not entirely certain even the extent to which the emperor has been accurately informed of the Ghon Complex’s methodology.
For those who know the truth, the Ghon Complex is controversial, and it does have powerful enemies within the empire. Because of its purpose of “inspiring loyalty to the emperor,” however, openly opposing the complex can be somewhat tricky, politically speaking. As such, a subtle political dance goes on continuously behind the scenes within the imperial court, wherein enemies of the complex try to have it shut down, while those sympathetic to its methods and purpose defend it and keep it funded.
Government
Unusually militaristic in organization for a school, the Ghon Complex is ultimately under the absolute dictatorship of Grand Teacher Almalandra sa Pol. A serious and oddly compassionate-seeming woman, Almalandra is adamant that her school is beneficial to society and kind to the children. If nothing else, she does not speak inaccurately when she says that older policies toward the children of political criminals were crueler still, and that many lands still practice worse atrocities. However misguided and disturbing, the Ghon Complex is at least intended to reform and teach rather than to merely torment or control.
Military
The Ghon Complex is always heavily guarded by imperial troops under Almalandra sa Pol’s command. While the Ghon Complex teachers are included in the population statistics, the military presence is not, especially since its complement may be doubled or tripled if any particularly politically volatile children are in residence. Assigned companies are rotated out regularly to avoid soldiers learning too much about the specific children in residence or why they are there.
Settlement
Ghon Complex
Type
Military, Base
Owning Organization
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