Hey, Shinto-Cetra, I realized I was snippier than I intended to be there, sorry. I still disagree regarding how the Vile Tribe is portrayed in TSS, and I especially disagree with using misc animes to make a point about an entirely unrelated game, but I was a bit brusque about it.
I don't know that I'd argue that that confinement was necessarily worse than death. After all, Cadin (TSS) is a human/beastman town in the frontier, and while they acknowledge that life there is very difficult, it's only been in the last 10 years that they've been cut off from the rest of the world -- meaning that, before then, they stayed there voluntarily. On the other hand, see the last DS quote below.
With this it would seem that the "tribe" is many monster races taken over and lead by the Mazoku
It's important to note that in this context the people involved aren't particularly monstrous, as they are in TSS, albeit with a few exceptions. Also, in Dragon Song, the implication was that while some people were banished to the Frontier, others went there voluntarily. And others, humans, were forced to go there, but not by Althena...
Dan
Oh yeah, I've seen that look before.
You want to know why we live out in the Frontier.
Well, long, long ago...
Humans where captured by the Vile Tribe and forced to work in the mines of the Frontier.
But some of them escaped and made this Underground Tunnel their home.
Our boss at the moment is Peres.
---
Adina
The Frontier...
Isn't that where those who hate and oppose the Goddess Althena live?
Why would you want to go there?
---
Ikey
You want to go to the Frontier?
Now that's a tricky one...
Do something against the teachings of the Goddess Althena and you might get sent there...
But that is not really a good idea, is it?
---
Nameless [Vile Tribe member]
For a long, long time now we have suffered as a race forgotten by the rest of the world.
I have no trouble believing that even the Goddess Althena, the very one who sent us here, has long since forgotten that we exist.
You could never understand the pain that comes with simply existing...
The pain of having no purpose.
Nameless
Resistance is futile!
Finally, the time has come for us to take back the green, lush lands for ourselves!
Our Lord is making his stand, to save every living creature in the Frontier!
Our Lord! Ignatius!
The final ray of light piercing the dismal clouds of our fate!
Nameless
All he is trying to do is lead us, the Vile Tribe, in transforming the Frontier into a green and verdant paradise!
Why must you continue to interfere?!
You're not the only ones trying to get back something you've lost, you know!
Just give that some thought...
---
(Of course, that last one is a little naive, as that's definitely not ALL Ignatius has in mind to do. But that seems to be part of how he sold his plan to the folks around him.)
One thing I've wondered about is the original Japanese reading of the line of Titus's about the Mazoku being a group that Ignatius put together. It's going to be nontrivial to find the line in Japanese, though.
Hey, check it out. I actually found it. Hopefully Kizyr or Shiva Indis happens to see this, because Google Translate ain't cutting it.
ガブリエル
あらたなるきょうい?へんきょうのこと?
タイタス
はい。
本来は むほんをくりかえすものたちを
ゆうへいするのが もくてきだったばしょですが…
そこにめをつけたのが イグナティウスでした。
ガブリエル
めをつけた?
タイタス
イグナティウスは 黒魔法をらんようし
へんきょうのならずものたちをしたがえ
魔族となって とうかくをあらわし
きょうだいな せいりょくとなってしまったのです。
いまや この世界は
イグナティウスと 魔族によって
かんぜんに しはいされようとしています。
That's this part here:
Gabryel
Do you mean... the Frontier?
Titus
That is correct.
Originally the Frontier existed to confine those evildoers for whom there was no other hope...
Until, that is, Ignatius turned his attention to it.
Gabryel
...What did he do?
Titus
Through a terrible abuse of Black Magic, he took the fiends of the Frontier and molded them into a Vile Tribe. Now, he stands at their head, a terrible and mighty army of evil.
The entire world is standing on the brink of being ruled by Ignatius and his Vile Tribe.