RebirthReport

English：Rebirth　·　Locations

The Holy Nation's labour camp at the bottom of a mountain pit, the largest forced-labour facility on the continent; prisoners haul stone for a colossus until they are judged "purified" — or die.

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Rebirth is the Holy Nation labour camp at the bottom of a great mountain pit, up in the hills north of the Nation's main territory and north-west of Blister Hill. It is the largest forced-labour facility in the game, and the most literal embodiment of the entire Holy Nation theology of redemption.

The Holy Nation's premise is that forced labour is itself purifying, so it maintains several such sites, with Rebirth simply the largest^{[V1 0:06:46][V2 0:05:44]}. The other group of facilities is the Holy Mines scattered across Skinner's Roam and Okran's Gulf — five small mining outposts run by a High Overseer, marching labourers out to the pits by day and locking them in cages in the slave shop at night^{[V1 0:06:46]}. Rebirth, in other words, is not an exception but the largest node in a whole system.

The Paladin who greets the player introduces it like this:

This is a place of penance and instruction for the unfortunate, for those who have strayed from the path. We help them find Okran in their hearts again, so they may live for a higher purpose and be redeemed. Here they can be born once more as sons of Okran.

What "rebirth" means

The word is kept deliberately vague in Holy Nation usage. It carries at least two senses: first, the process of re-education in the scripture of Okran ("rebirthing" is used as a verb — Holy Nation guards discussing a woman will say she needs rebirthing until she can behave with proper piety); and second, reincarnation — that once a non-human has suffered to death, the soul may be reborn as a human. The full chain, as lore channels lay it out: non-humans and enemies of the state labour beneath the colossus until they are judged penitent and purified, and finally die and return as a devout human^{[V1 0:06:46][V2 0:05:44]}.

Blurring the two senses is institutionally convenient: the sentence can be presented as temporary, ending when the inmate is clean, and also as something only completed by death. Both readings appear in the game text — and the colossus itself shows which one is the norm.

The colossus

The prisoners' main work is quarrying and hauling stone for a gigantic statue, whose form sits somewhere between Okran and a phoenix.

That has produced a conjecture about the Holy Nation's capacity. HeroInHisHead's hypothesis is that the statue very likely depicts the current Phoenix rather than some ancient predecessor; if so, the work can be at most a few decades old, and a Holy Nation that got a monument this size that far along on prison labour alone must have far more institutional muscle for large-scale construction than any other faction^{[V3 0:07:04]}.

The only evidence for the inference is the statue's appearance — the game text never says who it depicts, so this is a reading rather than canon. The direction of the argument is worth keeping in mind, though: the Holy Nation is not a primitive society but a state capable of running major infrastructure projects, which it happens to spend on this.

Who is inside

Every race except Skeletons can turn up here — the Holy Nation does not grant Skeletons souls, so in its eyes a Skeleton has nothing to be "reborn" into. (In practice the game mechanics still have the Holy Nation arrest Skeletons nearby; that is a gap between lore and code.)

The racial weighting of inmates is wildly uneven:

The overwhelming Shek share is no accident. These Shek prisoners share the faction colours of the Shek Kingdom, and armour put on them is dyed in Kingdom colours — a strong hint that they are prisoners of war taken after fighting inside Holy Nation territory, drawn from the Shek Kingdom, Kral's Chosen and the Berserkers. The rest are human criminals, bandits, and border-crossers who strayed into Holy Nation land (Hivers and Shek who entered a Holy Nation town without a human escort, for instance).

What the player can do

Send people in. The player can hand characters they think deserve punishment over to the Rebirth Shopkeep. Non-player characters such as Fishmen, Cannibals and bandits are worth about 500 Cats if you ask for payment; waive the fee and you gain +1 Holy Nation relations.

But you cannot buy anyone out. This is the key difference between Rebirth and the United Cities slave markets. The Holy Nation refuses to sell inmates, and states its reason plainly:

You cannot buy a living soul for your own selfish purposes!

Institutionally they insist this is not slavery but instruction. The practical difference is that slavers work people for private profit while the Holy Nation works them for salvation; for the person in the cage, that difference exists in the wording and not in the treatment.

Get people out. Picking cage locks, stocks and shackles lets you recruit inmates, but their behaviour falls into three types that you cannot tell apart in advance:

1. Those who will not run: they stay put even with the cage open, and unshackling them only makes them afraid the guards will retaliate. Useful for training Lockpicking and Assassination.
2. Those who will run with you: they ask the player to remove their shackles and then follow their rescuer. If they escape successfully or get far enough away, the chance of them joining is high.
3. Those who run on their own: with both locks open they bolt alone, and usually get beaten half to death.

Escape routes

Due north of the camp stands a small building called the Flotsam Safehouse, a way station the Flotsam Ninjas set up specifically for escapees. Inside are food, two beds, low-grade equipment, and most importantly a saw (for cutting shackles) and clothing to pass unnoticed in.

Although a note inside asks non-escapees to take nothing, the game imposes no penalty on the player whatsoever; the items are flagged as stolen goods but can still be sold on to the Flotsam Ninjas without trouble.

The zone itself

The Rebirth zone of the same name is slightly larger than the camp, bordering Wend, the Floodlands and Okran's Gulf. Every one of its environmental values is zero — water 0%, fertility 0%, aridity 0%, green 0%, swamp 0%, with stone, iron and copper output all at 0, making it a thorough dead zone. There are no seasons, no weather spawns, no nests or camps, and no unaffiliated squads. Beyond the camp and the safehouse there is nothing here at all.

A region with zero resources that nonetheless hosts the game's largest mining and labour camp — the absurdity is deliberate: what the prisoners haul is not useful ore but stone, hauled for the sake of hauling.

World states

• Flotsam Ninja takeover: triggered when Phoenix, Seta and Valtena are all dead or captured. Most of the area is destroyed, a few buildings are converted into housing and shops, ninjas patrol, and the servants are nowhere to be found — presumably fled or killed in the chaos. The map icon changes from "labour camp" (pick and shovel) to "outpost" (crossed swords and banner).
• Holy Nation Outlaws: triggered when Moll falls in addition to the three above. Every building is destroyed, leaving only scattered squatters.

Either outcome means the Rebirth Slaves faction ceases to exist — one of the few irreversible structural blows the player can land on the Holy Nation.

Related texts

The Maril's Diary Series books tie directly to this place: a Flotsam Ninja squad raids Rebirth by night and rescues a comrade named Greycloud whose legs have been crippled, killing a Holy Priest in the process, and is then hunted all the way to the Fog Islands by Holy Sentinels. That thread ends in the founding of Mongrel — which is to say that humanity's last fortress in the Fog Islands began as a jailbreak at Rebirth.

The Holy Nation Outlaws also mention escaping from Rebirth frequently. The record on Bast is blunter still: after the Holy Nation broke the United Cities line there, executed the local lord and burned the whole region, the surviving children were marched here en masse.

Sells

Vendors here stock 56 items in total, grouped by category — every entry links.

Weapons

Combat Cleaver, Falling Sun, Guardless Katana, Heavy Polearm, Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Iron Club, Jitte, Katana, Naginata Katana, Naginata, Ninja Blade, Nodachi, Plank, Polearm, Ringed Sabre, Staff, Wakizashi

Crossbows

Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Eagle's Cross, Oldworld Bow MkII, Oldworld Bow MkI, Ranger, Spring Bat, Tooth Pick

Items

Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Medical Supplies, Skeleton Repair Kit, Sleeping Bag, Splint Kit, Standard First Aid Kit, Tools

Backpacks

Bull Backpack, Garru Backpack, Scavenger's Basket, Trader's Wooden Backpack, Wooden Backpack

Medium Armour

Armoured Face Plates, Armoured Hood, Armoured Rag Skirt, Armoured Rags, Black Plate Jacket

Light Armour

Cargopants (padded), Cargopants (reinforced), Cargopants (sneaky chain), Drifter's Boots

Shirts

Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Dark Leather Shirt

Legwear

Gi Pants

Vendors and stock here

Compiled automatically from the wiki's vendor data: shops that can appear in this settlement and what they may carry. Actual stock varies with world state and randomisation.

Flotsam Armory

Advanced First Aid Kit, Armoured Face Plates, Armoured Hood, Armoured Rag Skirt, Armoured Rags, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Black Plate Jacket, Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Bull Backpack, Cargopants (padded), Cargopants (reinforced), Cargopants (sneaky chain), … (54 items in all at this shop)

Hospital

Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Medical Supplies, Splint Kit, Standard First Aid Kit

Video citations

1. Kenshi: History of the Holy NationCivilizationEx
2. Kenshi: Major Powers | United Cities and Holy NationCivilizationEx
3. Which Faction Can Succeed on Kenshi?HeroInHisHead