The Tion Cluster

[Captain Untouchable]

Big Map (http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101217192513/starwars/images/8/83/Tion_Cluster.jpg).

The Tion Cluster is, according to the interwebs, a region of the Star Wars galaxy that contains about six hundred habitable worlds. In antiquity (yay for pretty maps (http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110218225109/starwars/images/1/10/Tion_History.jpg)) it was ruled by Xim the Despot and others, but in the modern era it was condensed down to three main regions by the Galactic Empire, as a punishment for siding with the Separatists -


Cronese Mandate
Consisting of 464 of the habitable worlds in the region, it's by far the most dominant of the three sectors. Cronese culture is a rich, arrogant monarchy ruled by the King of Cron, who maintained an illusion of independence under the Galactic Empire by buying Palpatine off. Their wealth comes from an abundance of mineral resources plundered from the uninhabited worlds in their territory. They regard the Tionese as uncouth peasants, and while their territory contains the fourteen worlds of the Kingdom of Cron from antiquity (including Xer and Xim's capital, Chandaar), they're pretty much a bitter old empire lamenting the glory days when everyone used to take them seriously. Space Britain, basically.

Tion Hegemony
The Ancient & Honorable Union of the Tion Hegemony, ruled by the House of Tion, is something of a struggling backwater nowadays. They were largely ignored by the Galactic Empire for being too uninteresting, which led to the Hegemony siding with (or at least harbouring) the Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. The best analogy I can think of is to describe the Tion Hegemony as being The North of Westeros, with the Cronese Mandate representing King's Landing and the Lannisters.

Allied Tion Sector
Originally part of the Tion Hegemony back in the glory days, the Allied Tion Sector was the only part of the Tion Cluster that the Galactic Empire ever really had any interest in, because the Perlemian Trade Route cuts straight through it. They patrolled the region extensively, because of all the trade traffic pumping through that area. Now however, with the Empire withdrawn, it's more or less abandoned.

One of the things we talked about doing after the Treaty was having the Alliance and the Empire fight proxy wars. The Treaty prevents the Empire and Alliance from fighting each other directly, but the Tion Cluster presents an opportunity for them to let the King of Cron and the House of Tion fight each other in their stead. Presumably, the Alliance would back the Tion Hegemony, who would be fighting to regain control of the Allied Tion Sector; Empire on the other hand would probably back the Cronese Mandate's desire to reconquer the entire Cluster, because the idea of a consolidated enemy power sitting right in the heart of Alliance space would be kind of awesome for them.

Basically, Westeros in space, mixed with a little modern history like Yugoslavia, Libya, and all that "interfering in other people's wars" stuff.

It isn't just as simple as Cron and Tion fighting over the Allied Tion Sector, either. Historically, the Keldrath, Indrexu and Thanium Worlds sectors were part of the Tion Cluster in it's prime, but these are currently considered Alliance territory. Giving some or all of that territory back would expand the Tion Hegemony, give them access to more territory and resources, and put them in a much better position to hold out against the Cronese Mandate; but is that a shrewd investment? If they help rebuild the Tion Hegemony, will they eventually ally with the Alliance, or will the Hegemony decide it's better off on it's own?

I've even got something on the back-burner that would sorta work like Star Wars Danerys, but I dunno if I'm allowed to say anything about it without Sarah stabbing me. :uhoh


But yes! Westeros in space. House Lannister in the blue corner fighting on behalf of the Galactic Empire, and House Stark in the red corner, fighting for the Alliance of Free Planets. That seem like the sort of thing people might be interested in having a crack at? :ohno

[Reshmar]

What would the scope of the Alliance's support? Are we talking logistics and humanitarian or boots on the ground?

[Captain Untouchable]

I would imagine the former much more than the latter, at least initially. This is someone else's war, and if the Alliance starts putting boots on the ground, and the Empire starts putting boots on the ground... it suddenly becomes a confrontation that the Treaty can't allow to happen.

It might start small, with the Alliance offering Tion trade deals and stuff - showing favouritism, not openly supporting. Then it might be stuff like arranging for them to have access to ships from SoroSuub at a discount rate (nothing with -wing in the name of course, but still stuff produced by the Alliance), maybe some ambassadors / envoys / advisors who are more military than politics. Then maybe some covert spy activity, maybe some operatives who are training the Tionese to use Alliance guerilla tactics, and that sort of thing.

It might get more open and obvious somewhere down the road - the Cronese flying into battle in TIEs, wearing armour that is clearly Imperial, etc - but that's a wait-and-see long term development, I think. In the short term, it'd be us helping them to fight their war, as opposed to fighting it for them.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

Keep in mind if we do proxy war stuff that the empire or the alliance can directly engage each other's proxy. Like America vs the viet cong or the Soviets vs the mujehedeen

[Captain Untouchable]

Eventually, aye. But if we're directly engaging each other's proxy at the same time, inadvertently we're directly engaging each other. Does that mean it's all a matter of who directly engages first - if the Empire directly engages first, the Alliance can't participate without risking a breach of the Treaty?

Is it okay, as long as they don't open fire on each other? "Shoot only the Cronese ships," etc?

It'd certainly make for an interesting in character debate when the time came. :cyduck

[Reshmar]

Something Like the Empire parking 3 star destroyers on the boarder would be enough. Remember the ships were built more as a scare tactic than a warship and in this case they would work in just that position. If the Tion know the Empire is backing the corn then just knowing an imperial battlegroup is a half hour jump from them would really go along way in swaying and in alot of ways limiting their reaction to Corn hostilities. Should an alliance group be orders to just be patrolling the area just in case? Selling preybirds and cutlass 9's to them is one thing. Mind you it would go along way for Sorosuub in rebuilding its commerce. But what about corvettes. If CEC starts dumping vettes in and Sienar Ties the battle will get one sided fast. The Empire could sale surplus TIE/LN fighters to them cheaper than the alliance could sale them the lasers on a Preybird. Even from a support stand point this is one sided. my point is there are alot of ways to shape the events in the sector. The one thing the Alliance has is location. For the Imperials to move anything that far into Alliance space would be a breach of the treaty. So maybe The best thing the Alliance can do More so from a fleet stand point is increased patrol and interdiction as well as freight inspections and boarding inspections of freighters moving into the sector. Might make for some of that Pirate stuff we've been talking about.

[Garrick Kane]

Might be worth saving that amount of detail for later on - no one's even said they want to take part yet! ;)

What we do depends largely on who wants to be involved, and with what characters, I think. It might be that this story is told almost exclusively by Alliance Senators, in which case the specifics of what the military does or does not do is a distant second to the political and moral implications of getting involved; it might spark off a debate over concerns that an alliance with Tion would skew politics even more towards Humans and away from everyone else.

If this is a story told primarily by Intelligence characters, having ships and fleets detracts from their on-the-ground guerilla activities. If it's told primarily by fleet characters, then trying to get a space battle in there is pretty important. And if people want to actively write out members of the Tionese and Cronese royal families, that may well end up being a much slower paced and longer-term story.

It might be any one of those, a mix, or none of the above. Probably worth getting that straight before we go too deep into specifics. :)

[Reshmar]

You know me, I've done worked up detailed plans on Commerce interdiction and piket operations. Yes im a freak like that.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

With the Tion Cluster being so deep in Alliance space I think that kinda sets the tone of things, doesn't it? If the Empire is playing in this neck of the woods, it has to be a "throw the rock and hide the hand" sort of thing where they can't very well stroll nearby and strike colors. They'd be forced to operate by proxy by the map, whereas the Alliance has plenty of ability to assert its interests officially. That's across the board, whether we play it boots on ground, by fleet, or in the senate halls, I think.

EDIT: Also DAMN Koensayr is so close to the Alliance....(sniff)...so close

[Vansen Tyree]

Fun fact: the Tion Cluster borders the Auril Sector, the sector where Ossus is.

Another possible route is that the Jedi become involved in mediating this situation; either by Cronese/Tionese invitation, at the request of the Alliance of Free Planets, or by volunteering out of a desire to restore the Jedi's reputation as peacekeepers rather than Generals. Potentially, it puts the Jedi and the Alliance at odds yet again; and as an added bonus it might give the Jedi someone to turn to for protection who is neither Alliance nor Empire.

[Inyos Aamoran]

Some bonus possibilities for this: the headquarters for Santhe/Sienar Technologies (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Santhe/Sienar_Technologies) is located on Lianna, in the Allied Tion Sector.

Because of the Tion Cluster not (yet) being affiliated with the Alliance, there's no legal aspect of the Treaty forcing Santhe/Sienar to withdraw from the planet... unlike the situation with Koensayr and Koensayr-Meorrrei (see: Marriages of Convenience (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?55305-Marriages-of-Convenience)). Santhe/Sienar also has a heap of other places that produce TIE Fighters, so the Empire isn't going to suffer too badly from that either.

However, it's a weird situation. There's a corporation sitting in the Tion Cluster that could potentially start making TIE Fighters and sell them to the Cronese Mandate without the Empire directly being involved (though no doubt it's there idea). There may or may not be facilities in orbit of Lianna to make at least small starships, and the Cronese Mandate is very resource-wealthy. Suddenly this is less Vietnam and more Cuba: there's a risk of an Imperial ally being able to build up a (modest) force within striking distance of Mon Calamari Space, the Carshoulis Cluster, and the Gordian Reach.

Maybe there's legal political steps that can be taken: some sort of injunction against or deal with Santhe/Sienar? Will the Alliance try to broker a treaty that limits the number of ships the Tionese and Cronese are allowed to have, so they can't become a threat to the Alliance?

I'm toying with creating a Santhe/Sienar CEO for Corporate Sector 2.0 stuff in the Greater Javin... but would be more than happy if someone is excited at the prospect of getting onboard with that instead?