Serious A Wall of Fire Rising; An RR about the Uprising in Haiti

[Klacer]

"A wall of fire is rising and in the ashes, I see the bones of my people.
Not only those people whose dark hollow faces I see daily in the fields, but all those souls who have gone ahead to haunt my dreams.
At night I relive once more the last caresses from the hand of a loving father, a valiant love, a beloved friend.
There is so much sadness in the faces of my people. I have called on their gods, now I call on our gods.
I call on our young. I call on our old. I call on our mighty and the weak.
I call on everyone and anyone so that we shall all let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die."

______________________________________________________________________________________



If God had willed us enslaved, why then would he craft his earth with reasons to be free? Even now as our oppressors drain the very colour from our lives, know that we have faced greater dangers in our time to obtain our liberty, and we shall brave death and dishonour to maintain it.

It matters not the metal of the chains that bind us; But instead the mettle of the man bound, his free soul shackled to a destiny he will never share.
For we were all born slaves, but it was our nature that set us free. Our mother Haiti was birthed with the notion that no man ought to call another man his master. And it is as her children, as her lifeblood and life-force that we seek to regain our liberties lost.

For we are the guardians of this nation, and this nation our guardians just the same.


​

//

An idea I've had cooking behind the scenes for a long while. With our current drought of anything Half Life related, I figured It'd be a nice time to get around to post it. The plan would be to play through a day or so of introductions (With seeds of rebellion already in full bloom mind you), go through with The Uprising, and then play through the after events of such an event. Maximum of about a week, minimum three to four days. I'm still hunting around for a map but I have a couple of good backups that'll work just fine if I don't find exactly what I'm looking for. As always, suggestions are always welcome.

FAQ: (Or at least what I assume are going to be the frequently asked questions)

Q; Are we all expected to play Haitians? What about those who want to play as the Combine?

Spoiler: Answer

Having the mass majority of the citizens and rebels be native Haitians makes the most sense, but I'm not going to restrict people to nationalities and characters. Play whoever you feel fits the narrative best. And as for the Combine, I'd rather leave their role to to the event organizers and admins, but I wouldn't say no to those wishing to play cps or other government employees. Ask and yee shall receive I suppose.

Q; What makes this RR different from the uprisings we've seen in previous iterations?

Spoiler: Answer

Well the first thing is that myself and I'm sure many others never got to play through said uprisings, so this event might be a way to sort of fast-track interested players to fun experiences like that. Not to mention the changes of location, the confrontations of that new location, the general structure of the Combine (Being much more akin to a puppeted warlord state separate from the UU, mostly due to them not caring for the small-ish island.) the fact that self-determination for the nation is somewhat plausible without completely shoving the combine off earth, etc. There's a lot more 'lore' stuff I wrote up that I'm purposely not getting into here because it either isn't too related or is information I'd rather uphold for now. I do indeed have big plans for all this, is just what I'm trying to say.

Q; How is the uprising going to actually function during this RR? Admin orchestrated events or are we as a community going to be choosing the way we fight back?

Spoiler: Answer

A bit of both. I'd much rather just let you guys figure out all the logistics and intricacies of the rebellion, but practically speaking from an organizers point of view, it isn't really possible. Though I can say that no one's going to be assigned "Resistance Leader" who gets to decide everything just because. If and how leaders emerge is going to be up to you guys, within reason of course. Just like the general course of the uprising is going to be left within your hands -like I said- within reason. You can very much succeed if you put thought into it, but don't think it'll be impossible to shoot yourselves in the foot either.

​

By the way, if anyone still has interest in the other two RR's I proposed, those of "Bury them Deep", and "The Phoenix Experiment", I'm still absolutely down to put either of those on too.


Oh, and if hadn't noticed it, the scenebuild I did at top is a recreation of the very famous painting by Eugene Delacroix known as "Lady Liberty Leading the People". I thought it was a nice fit.

Spoiler: Side-by-side comparison

(Not the greatest of recreations but making 2d paintings with 3d software on computers is hard, man)

 

[slug]

With our current drought of anything Half Life related,

Posts That Are Not Going To Age Well

 

[Klacer]

Posts That Are Not Going To Age Well

As long as somebodies injecting half life directly into my veins, I'm happy regardless.

Still, I think what I have here is distinctive enough from whatever iteration might come next to be considered for a separate RR thing, so I'll keep it up for now.

 

[slug]

Jokes aside, while I don't see this happening anytime soon it's nice to keep these ideas on the shelf for when we do want to do an RR. Did you make that pose yourself? Looks really well done man.

 

[Klacer]

Jokes aside, while I don't see this happening anytime soon it's nice to keep these ideas on the shelf for when we do want to do an RR. Did you make that pose yourself? Looks really well done man.

I did, and thank you. Honestly not my best work, but I digress. I tried for ages to get the proper colour correction and lighting, but I couldn't really find it. There was a version where I tried to mimic the blue sky by covering it with giant flat plates, but that didn't work either. There was also another version where I tried to mimic the pufts of smoke/mist the original painting had, but that one just ended up looking so bad I'm not even going to post it.

I think the best change to the original is the vort with the jacket, cap and sabre. I don't even remember what I did to him, but he just looks so fucking happy and I love it.

 

[Doggo]

i honestly thought this was about the ACTUAL haitian uprising

dammit

 

[Jeezeabelle]

i honestly thought this was about the ACTUAL haitian uprising

dammit

As much as I'm proud of the progress we've made as a community I really don't think that'd be a good idea.

 

[Kinsman]

Is that a vortigaunt with a sabre?

 

[Linux]

Is that a vortigaunt with a sabre?

Yes.

 

[Owain6521]

i honestly thought this was about the ACTUAL haitian uprising

dammit

i got heart palpitations when i saw the title

 

[miguel]

As much as I'm proud of the progress we've made as a community I really don't think that'd be a good idea.

Nothing better for progress than RPing as a slave revolt against a tyranical empire.

 

[balwew]

As much as I'm proud of the progress we've made as a community I really don't think that'd be a good idea.

I can already imagine Polioman playing as a Rastafarian stereotype.

 

[Palladian]

Haiti is actually a great setting for a HL2 thing, and the Uprising is probably a good shout for an RR. One thing I will say is that it seems that places like Haiti might be more likely to be loyalist strongholds than e.g. France, Sweden or the US. Much as we usually make our loyalists characters aristos or professors, I think there's a reasonable case that in the poorest parts of the world the occupation might've improved the quality of life for all but a mega-elite that everyone hated anyway.

We've definitely under-explored how those with most to materially lose from the occupation are probably the most opposed and those who gain are probably most in favour. If we did a Haiti Uprising RR, it'd be interesting to have a faction of zealous citizen loyalists for a change. They even get to have a good reason for supporting the regime, since their lives might've actually improved in the last decade.

 

[Nenko]

Haiti is actually a great setting for a HL2 thing, and the Uprising is probably a good shout for an RR. One thing I will say is that it seems that places like Haiti might be more likely to be loyalist strongholds than e.g. France, Sweden or the US. Much as we usually make our loyalists characters aristos or professors, I think there's a reasonable case that in the poorest parts of the world the occupation might've improved the quality of life for all but a mega-elite that everyone hated anyway.

We've definitely under-explored how those with most to materially lose from the occupation are probably the most opposed and those who gain are probably most in favour. If we did a Haiti Uprising RR, it'd be interesting to have a faction of zealous citizen loyalists for a change. They even get to have a good reason for supporting the regime, since their lives might've actually improved in the last decade.

It's a hard sell to me personally since one, people just went through a mass genocide ranging probably in the hundreds of millions if not billions, they can't reproduce, and now they're getting rations far worse than what international aid would've gave them in times of crisis. People also would've got herded up and shipped elsewhere to work hard labor for free as literal slaves. Far from their homes. I really can't see how their lives would've improved much to make them actual fanatics. Their lives aren't free from harm and poverty any less. I can see people acting like fanatics because it's more like they gotta - because it's a trans-dimensional alien regime they're dealing with. I can understand some people benefiting more than others, but it feels more forced than anything to simply go, "Oh hey these guys love the Combine to bits," just to have them exist as a contrast.

 

[slug]

It's a hard sell to me personally since one, people just went through a mass genocide ranging probably in the hundreds of millions if not billions, they can't reproduce, and now they're getting rations far worse than what international aid would've gave them in times of crisis. People also would've got herded up and shipped elsewhere to work hard labor for free as literal slaves. Far from their homes. I really can't see how their lives would've improved much to make them actual fanatics. Their lives aren't free from harm and poverty any less. I can see people acting like fanatics because it's more like they gotta - because it's a trans-dimensional alien regime they're dealing with. I can understand some people benefiting more than others, but it feels more forced than anything to simply go, "Oh hey these guys love the Combine to bits," just to have them exist as a contrast.

I think you might underestimate how often some people in the real world turn a blind eye to suffering, especially when it's convenient for their political views. The Chinese government's erasure of the Tiananmen Square massacre or the Turkish government's denial of the Armenian genocide both come to mind, imagine what impact that has on information consumption. I think in some places of the world it'd be eerily easy to contort the events of the Seven Hour War in a way that benefits the image of the Combine. It's easy for us as writers to immediately identify propaganda tactics as we possess a thirdperson omniscient perspective of the context, but think about how much misinformation there's been in recent years over mundane topics as is. Now imagine that without our access to the internet, and suddenly you can't fact check anymore. It's all word of mouth and you alone have to be the judge of truths.

Always been a fan of the idea that the Combine has been perceived by many to be a net positive for places like North Korea, Venezuela, etc. because it creates an interesting moral dilemma for character vs. character conflict and it creates a foundation for genuinely loyalist characters to exist, not just people who're posing as a loyalist to reap the benefits that such a reputation would afford or weirdo wackjobs. While they're certainly on the wrong side of the moral fence (likely unknowingly) I wouldn't necessarily describe them as fanatics for believing that the Combine have done better for them than their previous nation-states had.

 

[Imp]

How did you make the black coat Vortigaunt?

Asking for reasons, not for a friend.

 

[Jeezeabelle]

I will say this; as far as representation of the Combine invasion goes, I've always tried to play loyalist-type characters to contrast the server's OOC want to be the next Gordon Freeman. So I play a devil's advocate. The Combine sucks, and so does their food, but now considerably more people /have/ food and /have/ work, for example. And if we're under the thumb of this regime, who's to say there isn't a bigger, scarier empire out there that would just wipe us out rather than try to integrate us? Stuff like that.

 

[blooregardo]

The Chinese government's erasure of the Tiananmen Square massacre

being coerced by a government that controls the flow of information isnt the same thing as complacency.

 

[Klacer]

How did you make the black coat Vortigaunt?

Asking for reasons, not for a friend.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1994323978&searchtext=badasses + The hat and sabre from other content packs that I can't be assed to hunt down.

 

[slug]

being coerced by a government that controls the flow of information isnt the same thing as complacency.

No, but that's what I'm talking about. They control the flow of information.

I think in some places of the world it'd be eerily easy to contort the events of the Seven Hour War in a way that benefits the image of the Combine. It's easy for us as writers to immediately identify propaganda tactics as we possess a thirdperson omniscient perspective of the context, but think about how much misinformation there's been in recent years over mundane topics as is. Now imagine that without our access to the internet, and suddenly you can't fact check anymore. It's all word of mouth and you alone have to be the judge of truths.