Ala
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And so, there was a bloodbath. She and the others either murdered the harvesters, threw them to the creatures of the dark, or broke their legs and blinded them and left them at the mercy of fate and Darkness. While some people went back to the settlement, trying to grieve or move on, she and quite a few others saw that this wasn't the end. Thanks to the skills she showed during and before that first massacre, she and one more were appointed the group's leaders. Since then, similar stories repeated many times, same plot but different words. More and more groups started tracking and hunting the harvesters, and at some point, someone compared them to Alas, with them destroying the harvest.
Kidnapping, slavery, torture, asking for death
The Harvesters didn't know they were observed. Just as they always do it, as soon as their Threshers stopped inside the Hall their allies, that already were in the area, joined them. A group of shadows hiding in the safety of the threshold of the Hall moved towards them. Adorned with lanterns just barely strong enough to stave off the Darkness, they drew their weapons. Before the Harvesters noticed them, they broke into a sprint, stabbing, slashing, and moving on to the next target without giving them a chance to react. It was a short struggle, but when it ended, the only corpses lying on the ground were those of the Harvesters. Some of the people started dragging the only few wounded stragglers into the Darkness so they too could experience what they've done to others. While their screams were loud at first, they were taken far enough to drown in the blackness of the Hall. Now, the only sounds were the sobbing and cries coming from inside the threshers.Named after a Balkan demon that brought hail and destroyed people's crops, Ala is an organization that was formed in the Dark Halls as a way to stop any activities of Harvesters and destroy any instance of their presence. Its members consist of people who had enough of the kidnappings, the mutilation of their kin, and depriving anyone who could search for things the Darkness took away from them of the chance of ever recovering it. Ala members work quickly, silently, and without mercy. While their ultimate goal would be to exterminate all the harvesters and destroy their secret city, just finding it proves to be really difficult. The harvesters have some ways, natural or not, of transporting their goods back to that settlement without ever being noticed. And so, for now, Ala members try to cull their numbers down, stopping the Harvest Festivals and potentially making the harvesters make enough mistakes to finally find the way to their city. And if their actions save some of the lives that were about to be sacrificed, that's even better.
The group walked near the threshers, looking for their locks. They've done it many times before and yet the opening of the doors was always the worst. Some of them looked away, still not ready for what they would see inside. The rows of humans tied to bunks, some wearing rags, others with nothing at all to cover them. But all of them were emaciated and missing parts of their bodies. Eyes, fingers, some of their flesh, probably even more on the inside of their bodies. Everything the Darkness took away from them and converted into materials for the growth of the Halls. Everything the Harvesters planned to gather to get rich or more powerful. Some of the victims looked way worse than the others. They were the survivors of the previous Harvest Festivals.
Origin
As long as there were Harvesters, there were people trying to oppose them. However, Ala as an organized group serving that purpose is a pretty new thing, merely a few years old. The first mention of that name was related to a woman who got stuck in the Dark Halls with her husband and daughter. Apparently, she got separated from them in one of the settlements inside one of the few safe Halls. She tried to find them only to be met with a sight of her husband and daughter being led away by an unknown person. She was too far away for them to hear her and once she reached the spot she just saw them at, they were already gone. She never saw them again. Not long after that, she heard that on that day, the harvesters managed to get into the town and spirited away a number of people. She, and others who just lost their loved ones, formed a rescue party. Over the next few days, they managed to find some of the harvesters who stayed back in town to convince more people to go with them and torture them until they revealed their hideout. However, the Harvest Festival already took place. Back then, the Harvests were way less successful with many more fatalities during the first Harvest.And so, there was a bloodbath. She and the others either murdered the harvesters, threw them to the creatures of the dark, or broke their legs and blinded them and left them at the mercy of fate and Darkness. While some people went back to the settlement, trying to grieve or move on, she and quite a few others saw that this wasn't the end. Thanks to the skills she showed during and before that first massacre, she and one more were appointed the group's leaders. Since then, similar stories repeated many times, same plot but different words. More and more groups started tracking and hunting the harvesters, and at some point, someone compared them to Alas, with them destroying the harvest.
"To prevent the harvest."
Stopping any occurrence of Harvesting
Structure of the organization
Ala doesn't have any organized structure. Instead, it is entirely comprised of independent militias, all working aiming for the same goal, the eradication of harvesters in the Dark Halls. Each of the bands might have its structure and its leaders, however, they do not serve under anyone. There are no uniforms, however, some people, tattoo, sew them into their clothes, or create amulets with a symbol that represents the unofficial logo of Ala.Darker part of being an Ala member
While the extermination of harvesters can be seen as pretty dark by itself, there is another part of fighting against the harvesters that many cannot stomach. Once a harvest is stopped, the group needs to decide what to do with the Threshers and their "cargo". Depending on how quickly the threshers were intercepted and if the ones locked inside are on their first trip or one of the next ones, the state they are in may vary a lot. In the best case, Darkness didn't manage to take away too much from them and they might safely return to their daily survival in the Dark Halls. But that is a rare occurrence. In most cases, once the Ala members open a thresher, they will meet a sight of the "survivors" who are husks of their former selves. Missing body parts, organs, even whole limbs, with holes in their psyche or not even human anymore. Some idealists will try to save everyone, even the ones for whom there is no saving anymore. Most will try to ask the "survivors" what they want: do they want to be saved or be granted mercy? This is what breaks most of the fresh, bright-eyed Ala members. The fact that some of those people will ask them to end their suffering and it will be kindness to grant them a quick death.But not all Ala members are so good. There are also some, who only care about their vengeance and killing the harvesters, so when they stop the Harvest Festival, they might either destroy the threshers, killing anyone inside, or completely ignore them, leaving the prisoners either in constant blinding light until the generators of the vehicle give out, constantly exposed to Darkness or left to the creatures living in the Darkness. They might even convince themselves that any of those things is a mercy too.
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