So, someone was going to say it eventually...

[Dasquian Belargic]

TFA canon/timeline RP?

[Captain Untouchable]

In theory I'd be down for it, depending on how it's implemented.

Doing a "thirty years from now" storyline based on our current continuity could be cool. We've done possible future stuff in the past, so a lot of us have ideas of where our characters might end up in a few decades time, and it isn't difficult to imagine that our current political situation could evolve towards a Republic/Resistance/First Order situation - especially if we keep things nice and vague, the way The Force Awakens did. We could focus mostly on new characters a la Rey/Finn/Poe/etc, but throw in a few old favourites for flavour. We ended up in mostly the same place... it's just that Salem Ave is responsible for the First Order instead of Supreme Leader Snoke, or Loklorien s'Ilancy is the leader of the Resistance instead of General Organa.

Just as long as we don't do a reboot / reset or anything like that. I'm super hyped for the future right now, but in 362 days we're all gonna be excited about stealing the Death Star plans, and various other eras in between. If we can manage to mould what we've already got and make it work for us, that seems like the smartest plan.

[Charley]

I'm all aboard. I already have considered where many of my people would be in TFA's time

[Captain Untouchable]

Petition for Margaret Thatcher Taataani Meorrrei as Chancellor of the Republic? :ohno

[Charley]

Possibly. I haven't decided exactly where her fall happens, so maybe it would happen in 20+ years

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'm in favor of a TFA inspired continuation of our setting rather than something strictly canon like Jace put forward, but that's just me.

[Scout Ravenwood]

I like Il's idea. I mean, we're writing a sort of New Republic era anyway right? So it's quite easy for us to segue it in to the TFA setting. The only real issue is us pesky Jedi shouldn't be around.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Hehe, that was Jace's idea. I was just agreeing with him with a poorly worded sentence ^_^;

I'm personally not keen on writing canon characters, and the way I was understanding Jace's explanation was that it would be a 30 ish year time jump.

[Captain Untouchable]

With Order 66, the Jedi weren't as "wiped out" as the movies made it seem. Maybe the bad guys destroyed Ossus, and so the Jedi are "gone", but some of them managed to slip through the cracks and have gone into hiding / seclusion?

Perhaps there aren't m/any "new" Jedi kicking around (they don't really fit with the tone of TFA anyway), but if people want their now Jedi to have survived until the future, that's something we can worry about on a case by case basis? I did some flash-forwards with Sarah that had Inyos Aamoran and some of our other characters living on the Jensaarai homeworld during this era. Presumably there's other enclaves / refuges / little pockets of Jedi survivors scattered about the place.

[Scout Ravenwood]

Personally, I got the impression TFA took place in one isolated corner of the galaxy, so maybe something else is happening elsewhere?

Do we need a time jump? Can it not fit as a natural evolution?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It would be a separate timeline/forum, and all the stuff we have going on now would continue as is.

I wouldnt feel comfortable changing or blowing up our existing continuity for TFA changes - it would be like trying to change it to reflect the Star Wars galaxy if ANH was all you'd seen - which I have fan fiction from the 70s that reflect what that looks like. I dunno if that makes sense or not, but we don't know all there is to know about the galaxy, so...

[Regan Altink]

We just spent a long time transitioning from a Rebels vs Imperials civil war into the cold war situation that we currently have on the boards. That took a lot of time to discuss and agree upon, and we're only now getting accustomed to that being our status quo. It created a lot of interesting story opportunities for a lot of people, and completely overturning that in order to naturally evolve into a TFA-like situation will take a lot of in-story and real life time to execute, and we'll basically be undoing a whole heap of stuff.

If we keep the TFA stuff as "happening in the future", then that opens up more opportunities. We can still continue to write things that are happening in the present. In fact, we get to write how things end up, and then at the same time write how things started to go to shit to end up at that point, which is a pretty interesting writing opportunity. People who aren't buzzed about TFA don't have their characters thrown into chaos because of a movie they didn't like (they can just carry on writing in the "present"), and people who are super enthusiastic about writing TFA stuff immediately don't have to wait around for the storyline to catch up.

Plus, in a year we're going to have Rogue One coming out, which (combined with Rebels) might have us itching to write pre-ANH stuff. If we set up the TFA stuff as being a separate era - the way we currently do with Clone Wars era stories, SWTOR era stories, etc - we keep all of our options open, and there's no risk of anyone (or any storylines) getting screwed over.


Edit: Basically what Holly said! :uhoh

[Scout Ravenwood]

I guess that makes sense. I guess I still feel very new, and like my characters haven't made much impact, so I didn't want to abandon them for a new set.

But I can if that's the way we're going.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Not to worry about character abandonment, we're not doing that at all. I know that for myself at least, I've put in too much time, effort, and writing to just drop my current character lines for this. I'll probably include a handful of my character for a few threads, but most of my energies are spent in the current stuff we've spent so much time putting together and the Cold War and all of the fun bits that come with the setting we have.

We've scooted forward in time for more than a few speculative future exploration threads, so this just lets us bring whichever characters we choose into TFA era :)

[Scout Ravenwood]

I don't think I want to age my characters by 30 years or so, so I'd probably create new ones. Maybe relatives, the next generation of my characters or something?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Wow guys this escalated quickly.

My original thoughts on posting this was absolutely not to stop or scrap what we already have, just to write some stories set in a TFA inspired future. Whether that's with descendants of our current characters or not, is up to people who want to write something like this.

I'd be happy telegraphing what we have now into a potential future as we did with Yesrs From Now, or just making up something new based on the world we see in TFA.

[Regan Altink]

Don't think anything escalated - just a smidge of confusion over what you were getting at, is all. :)

Out of curiosity, are there any characters that we actually are interested in writing older versions of? I'm kinda partial to having Jaden Luka as a General in the Resistance... I could see him in a sort of Wedge Antilles / Admiral Kirk situation, where he wound up stuck in an office pining for the glory days and joined the Resistance to have a chance to "make a difference" again. An older version of one of my Moffs could be interesting too, maybe in a sort of Grand Moff Tarkin / General Hux sort of role, one of the more senior "mortals" as opposed to darksider Force people?

And Tink is probably off living like a crazy hermit on some junkyard somewhere. :lol

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'd like to write a child of Salem's in a Kylo Ren type position, trying to finish what Salem started :mischief

[Scout Ravenwood]

I don't feel I established any of my characters strongly enough here to justify seeing future versions of them, since they've all only had a few IC posts each.

So I'd either make new ones, or import ones from my other boards that can fit any setting.

[Charley]

Having Sanis and Cirr as older folks is something I always planned on writing. Zem as a crazier older coot is also something that I left the door open to do as well. Jenny and I have already written that Draiya became Bryna's master so there is that too.

I have no problem nudging Taataani into becoming the Iron Lady, so long as her fall comes at some point. Eluna would still be around, that much I know.

[Jaden Luka]

Couple of thoughts -

Maybe our First Order is the result of Salem's machinations on Hapes/Onderon/etc? A lot of the framework is potentially there already. You've already got a strict society that loves order, which places a lot of emphasis on it's military and it's political hierarchy. They're isolationist, supremacist, and pretty heavily humanocentric. The Dathomir side of things potentially echoes the Knights of Ren side of things, too; and because Hapes is a matriarchy, it adds a bonus little justification for why the First Order doesn't have the same institutionalised sexism as the Empire. The how/when/why stuff doesn't really matter (we'll foreshadow/explain that later in our "present" threads) - just that Salem got together with some former Imperials to rebuild the Empire, but in a more efficient / less bureaucratic / even more Nazi than ever sort of way. That might play in nicely with the whole Ave Jr thing as well - you're the heir of the man who started it all, and everyone expects great things from you.

What if Taataani was the General Leia of our story, and these events take place after her fall? In the same way that we had a Leia who has stopped using her royal title and is a much more gruff and cynical sort of person, we could have the Resistance led by a Taataani who has lost a lot of her prestige. Maybe the Resistance is her way of making amends for everything that went wrong. Maybe she just can't stand the thought of not being able to pull any strings, and so she founded/funded the Resistance herself because she couldn't manipulate anyone else into doing it for her. Maybe there are other, more personal reasons that will become apparent in the fullness of time. The advantage here is that you've got 30 years of "present" timeline for that fall to happen - could happen next week, or twenty years from now; whatever feels right at the time. Plus, you get to write some of that more ruthless/cold Taataani now, and do cool foreshadowing type stuff.

[Park Kraken]

Transition Ideas


Light Scenario; The Empire falls apart from within as more planets wish to become independent and restless Imperials try to make power plays. Overtime the hardliners start disappearing as they go elsewhere to form what will become the First Order as the remaining Imperials form a more peaceful and reduced society and perhaps eventually merges with the Alliance to form the New Republic.


Moderate Scenario; The aliens that supplied the Star killer Missiles take back their gift thinking that the Empire and Alliance have learned their lessons. The Empire strikes immediately and the aliens intervene with the Alliance against the Empire, shattering it before the aliens disappear and the Alliance forms the New Republic.


Extreme Scenario; The aliens that supplied the specs for the Star killer Missiles sends out a code signal that causes all of them to self-destruct, inflicting massive damage on both the Alliance and the Empire as they launch an invasion of the galaxy. After the remnants of the Empire and the Alliance unite to defeat the alien invasion, some of the survivors head off into the unknown to take the war to the enemy alien galaxy while others settle down to begin rebuilding the galaxy.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I like it, Jace. Very cool.

[Jaden Luka]

Light Scenario; The Empire falls apart from within as more planets wish to become independent and restless Imperials try to make power plays. Overtime the hardliners start disappearing as they go elsewhere to form what will become the First Order as the remaining Imperials form a more peaceful and reduced society and perhaps eventually merges with the Alliance to form the New Republic.

I think our best bet / secret weapon here is to be as vague as we possibly can. The more facts and details we decide on now for the Awakens setting, the more restrictions we place on the ongoing "in the present" stuff. The more vague and non-specific we are, the more freedom everyone has to make it up as they go along.

After years of fighting, the cold war between the ALLIANCE OF FREE PLANETS and the GALACTIC EMPIRE came to an end, the two governments uniting to form a NEW REPUBLIC. But the peace was not to last. Inspired by the example of SALEM AVE, several worlds broke away from the Republic to form the FIRST ORDER: a regime even more ruthless and oppressive than the Empire. After a brutal attack decimated the JEDI ORDER, the Republic - fearing another war - refused to act. Many of the Republic's soldiers and heroes defied orders to form a RESISTANCE, to fight back against this new threat.

I think that's pretty much all we need to officially decide upon, and we can sorta make up the rest as we go? If someone has a particular question that they need answered / a particular event they absolutely need decided upon, we can worry about that at the time... but for now, vagueness (and not spending ages planning stuff before we can start) is probably our friend.

[Kelly Perris]

This is dope. I haven't seen the movie yet - I will tonight, SO FRAKKING EXCITED - but this is absolutely dope, Jace. Everyone.

[Alis'heen'amey]

All I'd say is I don't think we should concentrate too much on making 'soandso the X of our story', because we never did that before. You don't make a new character for the current Star Wars RP being like 'and he's going to be the Luke Skywalker'. So let's just tell our own story in the TFA timeframe. If a character's evolution fits that they fill a similar role to a character in the film (Resistance leader, hotshot pilot, etc.) then we can do it, but let's not force our characters in to specified 'roles' from the movie.

Speaking of hot shot pilot, I might reserve that one for Sheena's daughter :p

[Jaden Luka]

I think that's just a matter of terminology. Saying that someone is "the Resistance leader" and saying that they are "the General Leia" is pretty much the same thing. I think we all realise that we don't literally mean those exact characteristics/details, it just gives people the gist.

We communicate ideas to each other by comparing them to other stuff all the time, it's just how we do. :)

[Alis'heen'amey]

Okay, cool. That's fine :). Just a while back on another board I did a 'A New Hope RP' where it was basically our characters dropped in to the original Star Wars plot, but I just got driven crazy by everybody being like "Oh, I'll be the Obi-Wan!" and stuff. Just wanted to make sure that wasn't happening here :).

Well, I'm all for this. I'll make a new character for it, Sheena's daughter as a Resistance pilot (already playing around in photoshop!), but I'm definitely in :).

[Akasha Khan]

I'll be the TK-421! I'll never be at my post. :uhoh

[Alis'heen'amey]

Here we go, one girly Chiss Resistance pilot:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a64/Vivli/51896de6-0326-4b6d-bc8c-17989c6002b2_zpsihkpyxdg.png

Told ya I was getting in to the idea :p

[Fidget]

Bwooooop... woop-woop!


Surprising no one, I will be playing a BB droid. :uhoh

[Alis'ans'amey]

Ohhh, wanna be my droid?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'll be the TK-421! I'll never be at my post. :uhoh
*throws a net over Akasha*

[Fidget]

Ohhh, wanna be my droid?

You are not painting him pink! :mad

Not sure I want to tie Fidget down to one specific character just yet. Kinda limits my options, and I don't want to end up painted into a corner. Thinking I'll have him "belong to the General" or something, and have him go on missions as the story demands it - means I get to mix it up, and see if there are any people he naturally gravitates towards. :)

[Alis'ans'amey]

I wasn't gonna! *hides tin of pink paint*

Aw, ok, that makes sense. You should still fly with me some time though :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

The forum, it lives.

[Alis'ans'amey]

Woo!

So, where do we start? Any ideas for the first thread? Shall I just start a Resistance Base thread?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

My best guess would be that it's treated much like the 'present' day forums, in that it's open-ended. So... start a thread and have some fun :)

[Alis'ans'amey]

Yes ma'am :p

[Jaden Luka]

A whole bunch more Jace thoughts.

Resistance -

I'm planning to write Jaden Luka as a General, as if he's slowly turning into Vansen Tyree in his old age (but with slightly less scowling, and more eyes).
I'd like to put Jaden in command of the Challenger II, and have it fill the same sort of role as Home One did for the Rebellion, and Vansen Tyree's original Challenger did/does in our canon - a mobile base, a place where fighter pilots can (if they want) congregate, etc. I know a General isn't typically a command-a-ship sort of rank, but I'm looking at it in terms of General Antilles (when he commanded Rogue Group and had a Super Star Destroyer), General Solo (during his hunt for Zsinj in the X-Wing series), or General Dan here on the boards.
Because of Jaden's starfighter background, because of that Wedge Antilles parallel, and because of the role the original Challenger has on the boards - and because Rogue One comes out next year - I thought it might be cool if Jaden's stuff echoed that Rogue connection. Rogue Fleet, maybe? That way, we can still keep with the Original Trilogy / TFA idea of naming squadrons based on colours, while at the same time having the sense that every player character is part of the Rogues.
I have an urge to write one of my "Jace's character makes a big speech" threads. I'm thinking it would be some sort of "declaration of intent" from General Luka, explaining why he and his people are "going rogue" to fight the First Order. I don't want to step on any toes though, and make it seem like Jaden is "the" General (in a Princess Leia sense), especially since the Portlandia Expedition is only just getting home and hasn't really weighed in yet. Are there any other old farts that we're likely to see as part of the Resistance leadership? Taataani? s'Ilancy? Belargic?


First Order -

I'd like to do an old man version of Delgado Xaanan as well (the current Moff of Corellia), and have him be a sort of Tarkin / General Hux type figure within the First Order. I think it might make for some interesting foreshadows with the Corellia storyline if we all know in the back of our heads that Agent Coulson is destined for greater evil.
I'd prefer not to go with something slightly less martial than "General" though, but I'm not sure if Grand Moff seems a bit too poncy/bureaucratic for the First Order. Something along the lines of Marshal / Reichsmarschall maybe? Something more like a Legate / Legatus? Something more generic, like Commandant? Kinda stumped on this. :uhoh

[Alis'ans'amey]

Well, 'General' seems to be the go-to rank for the Rebels to just give somebody anyway. "Hey, guy who betrayed us then changed his mind? You're a General. Criminal smuggler who's leading a special forces op? General! Guy who's a fighter pilot? General!" So it makes sense :p.

I put up a thread on the Republic base. Just Sansa being a brat but I thought it'd be a fun way to start exploring characters.

[General Luka]

Aye, but whether or not Jaden has any superiors or peers is gonna affect the kind of leadership style he has.

[Alis'ans'amey]

I vote just write him how you want for now ^_^.

But get him out of that Star Trek uniform :p

[General Luka]

I'd rather wait and see what everyone else wants to do first. There's people who haven't had a chance to weigh in yet because they were out of town / had delays on when they got to see the movie, etc. Don't want to charge in head first and end up going "Oh damn, I wish I'd waited, that would have been cooler."

[Droo]

Don't want to charge in head first and end up going "Oh damn, I wish I'd waited, that would have been cooler."

That would be me. I'm on the fence with this, at the moment. I've had ideas, but until I get an idea of where everyone is going with this, I'll keep them to myself in case they end up going off like damp squibs.

[Alis'ans'amey]

I approach this stuff from the other angle. If you don't strike while people are excited, the passion burns out before you ever get going. We're all excited about TFA right now, so let's get to telling stories right now.

You can always use another character instead of the General.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I can certainly see both sides, and I do sincerely appreciate Jace's intentions to wait for the Portland group to get back to their respective abodes. Of course I also understand the desire to strike while the iron is hot, so introduction threads, fun threads, fluff threads, etc should definitely be started up if folks want to get going :)

I have longer thoughts and ideas, but I'm currently on my way home from the airport and relegated to phone posting.

[Alis'ans'amey]

Yeah, I don't want to sound like I'm suggesting that group be ignored. I am meaning just sort of normal, smaller threads. Nothing major or world deciding. But I always think waiting on an idea helps it die.

[Jaden Luka]

We're not talking about waiting forever here - we're talking about me personally waiting so that the people who are currently at airports have the opportunity to get home, before I decide what I'm doing with my character. If you want to start your own stuff, go right ahead - no one is stopping at you.

Pretty sure my TFA excitement can survive another 24 hours, especially since I'm planning to go see the movie again tomorrow. ;)

[Alis'ans'amey]

Hey, just to be clear here, I'm not psychic. :p. Nobody has told me what's going on with people, I don't know where they are or what they're doing. I didn't realise they'd be home again in 24 hours.

I'm working on the mind reading powers, I promise you, I'm not quite there yet :p

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

No worries :)

[Alis'ans'amey]

Yeah, that was my version of an apology. Sorry for being so sarky >.>. It's not been a good day.

[Jain Terius]

Name's Jain Terius, but they call me Wraith. Heard you Resistance boys and gals needed a little help handin' the First Order's asses back to 'em. :smokin

[Alis'ans'amey]

Woo! Another Resistance fighter!

Obviously not as good a pilot as me, but still, good to have you around ^_^

[Brianne Ocasta]

*crosses her arms over chest and leans up against the wall, lofting a brow*

I'm in.

[Alis'ans'amey]

And another pilot! Can't wait to fly with you (and show how much better I am).

[Danny Ath-Thu'ban]

:munch: So gonna enjoy watchin' you Resistance folks make a giant mess. Just don't plan on my family comin' t' bail you out, yeah? We got better things to do.

Like uhh... :uhoh stuff. Important stuff.

[Alis'ans'amey]

Well, I'm convinced!

[TTony Ath-Thu'ban]

:munch: So gonna enjoy watchin' you Resistance folks make a giant mess. Just don't plan on my family comin' t' bail you out, yeah? We got better things to do.

Like uhh... :uhoh stuff. Important stuff.

Bro! :glomp

You are a brave man, bro. Y' get that mom is gonna kick y' in the ass so hard for hangin' out with all these Resistance guys, right? :uhoh

[Alis'ans'amey]

So guys, I got my visual dictionary today and I thought I'd transcribe what's written here regarding The First Order and the Resistance to help us figure out how to play them.

I'll put it in spoilers just in case.

[ The Resistance is a small private force created by Princess Leia Organa to keep watch on the movements of the First Order. Though she petitions the New Republic government for support, she finds the politics of the Senate too slow and too mired in self-interest to be any help. The New Republic tolerates the Resistance, although it is wary of risking war with The First Order ]

[The Galactic Concordance defanged the Empire's ability to wage war, with strict disarmament treaties and punishing reparations. The Old Empire withered away, becoming a remnant of political hardliners locked in a cold war with the New Republic, before eventually breaking away to reform in the Unknown Regions as the mysterious First Order]

[Lilaena De'Ville]

So, basically what we assumed.[ And yes, begin the copyright infringement lawsuit! They're copying us!]

[Alis'ans'amey]

Well I didn't catch on that it was a private force >.>

[Jaden Luka]

If it's a private force, it makes even more sense (Charley willing) to have Taataani as one of the main benefactors of the Resistance. She owns (in the present, at least) Incom-Koensayr-Meorrrei, so it'd be a pretty flawless explanation for how the Resistance is equipped with a whole heap of shiny new X-Wings.

[Droo]

Nothing creative to contribute here, but I think we need to shorten the description of the Force Awakens forum, because the front page looks woeful at the moment. If we do, I'll be glad to come back later and have a crack at it, if no-one has thought of something in the meantime.

[Alis'ans'amey]

I don't know the characters enough but if it makes sense, I say using one of our own is totally the best idea :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

New TFA post icons ready to use.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Looking great!

[Charley]

Okay now that I've had a chance to return home (sleep a lot) and kind of unpack and unwind, here's a few of my character ideas. These are formative and a bit ephemeral and may be subject to change to fit the moving parts:

Baroness Meorrrei: Oustered from the Supreme Chancellorship of the Alliance of Free Planets due to a raft of scandals and an increasing authoritative bent, the aging Taataani Meorrrei reads the tea leaves of a changing galaxy, and rather than going gentle into that good night, decides to take her still-formidable fortunes into helping to privately fund the Resistance. While her aid is considerably helpful, she has no intentions on backseat-driving the military campaign.
Senator Prent: Representing the Anoat system in the Alliance Senate, Sanis has dodged rumors of corruption and ties to organized crime to manage to become a charismatic political darling. Still, the life he leads seems far and away from where he feels he belongs.
Draiya Naaianeya: Having fled the destruction of Sanctuary base on Ossus years ago, Knight Naaiyaneya travels with her padawan, Bryna Belargic. The two try to do good in the shadows, existing in a reality in which the Jedi are all but a myth.
Siloo Jaska: Gold Leader, in charge of Loklorien s'Ilancy's ace fighter squadron. Previously drummed out of the Republic Navy due to insubordination.
Zem Vymes: Missing, presumed dead years ago.
Cirrsseeto Quez: Retired from naval service years ago to raise a family on Dantooine.
Eluna Thals: Whereabouts unknown.
Cortus Veers: Grandson of Maximilian Veers. Star Marshal of the First Order.

[Park Kraken]

As of right now, two characters that I'll be bringing into the fray, one new/one recycled;

Anne Phoenix: Formerly of the Alliance Navy, retires after the formation of the New Republic and establishes a family and transport company called Phoenix Star Lines. Joins the Resistance with remaining company assets after family is killed by First Order while on a transport run to Sanctuary Base on Ossus.

Bastille Vikrax: First Order Captain, young fire breather that enjoys classical Imperial/First Order way of operations.

[Alis'ans'amey]

These ideas look awesome :).

Now some come post with me. I'm excited :p

[Siloo Jaska]

Gold Leader, reporting in.

[Alis'ans'amey]

Want me in your squadron? :p Since I'm 17 I figure I'd be a Cadet or something still, but I'm a good pilot.

Shame about everything ELSE, of course >.>

[Jaden Luka]

Just tossing my character list into the mix -

General Luka - A high profile Republic officer, who resigned (via a speech broadcast on the holonet) in order to join/form the Resistance. He commands the Challenger II (a Resistance command carrier), and a flotilla of ships that he (and the media) refer to as the "Rogue Fleet".

Delgado Xaanan - Since Charley already came up with a Marshal for the First Order, would anyone have any objections with Xaanan being the Supreme Leader? It could make for some interesting echoes and symmetry if Xaanan, who used Imperial Knights to fight a Resistance on Corellia, and who has a sort of "the default Imperial way isn't necessarily the best way" ends up being someone who uses Salem Jr to fight a Resistance on a galactic scale, and who has completely revamped the default Imperial way into something better.

Jain Terius - Either the son or nephew of Soto Terius (haven't decided which yet), he's General Luka's hotshot pilot. He is as much a commando as he is a pilot - think Rogue Squadron and Wraith Squadron in the X-Wing series (hence going by "Wraith"). In fighter engagements he flies as "Rogue One", which was Jaden's callsign here on Fans for years, and Lucasfilm totally stole it from me. :p

Fidget - An astromech that belongs to General Luka. He gets sent on missions when he's needed, so there's potential for equal opportunity access to BB shenanigans.


I've also got an idea for a thread/arc thing to echo the whole "the First Order uses something called Starkiller to kill the Senate" vibe of the movies, but in a more Fans/Holo way. Need to float some ideas past some people first though, so I will try and catch them in the AIM chat later today. :mischief

[Dasquian Belargic]

Bryna Belargic - Jedi, travelling in exile with her master.

Tarek Avesca - son of the controversial former politician Salem Ave, the last Nightbrother of Dathomir. He is allied to the First Order and works closely with it's Leader, lending his strength in the Dark Side to the Supreme Leader's goals, so that he might also further his own agenda. He seeks to complete the work that his father started: to unite the Galaxy under a single banner.

[Alis'ans'amey]

Can I join the Gold Squadron thread, since it's showing as closed? >.>

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Personally I'd like to leave the Supreme Leader as an NPC or up for grabs a bit longer. The staff doesn't want just one person having a General/leader of the Resistance and the leader of the First Order. If you get distracted by a new plan that really hamstrings everyone else. Everyone- please limit yourself to one high ranking character.

[Alis'ans'amey]

I'd like to see more emphasis on some of the 'smaller' characters. In the movies, it's not really about the generals and leaders as much as it's about the young soldiers (okay, even if Luke and Han get promoted to General pretty quickly). We could have a fighter squadron hanging out, or scavengers on Jakku and stuff.

[Jaden Luka]

I'd like to see more emphasis on some of the 'smaller' characters. In the movies, it's not really about the generals and leaders as much as it's about the young soldiers (okay, even if Luke and Han get promoted to General pretty quickly). We could have a fighter squadron hanging out, or scavengers on Jakku and stuff.

The issue with that (possibly) is that we can already do that. In terms of the DNA of the Star Wars universe, The Force Awakens isn't very different. We can have a fighter squadron hanging out - hell, you and I are doing a thread about that right now :p - in the present. We can have scavengers on a planet in the present.

What makes TFA special/different is the fact that thirty years have passed. The easiest way for us as writers to explore that time jump and feel like we're doing something special/different is by writing characters that we are familiar with but at a later point in their life. Unless people have retired (or are just really shit at their job), odds are they are going to have stopped being 'smaller' people by that point.

There's the "what would their kids be like?" angle, which is certainly going to yield some smaller characters... but that seems more like an "as well" thing.


Personally I'd like to leave the Supreme Leader as an NPC or up for grabs a bit longer. The staff doesn't want just one person having a General/leader of the Resistance and the leader of the First Order. If you get distracted by a new plan that really hamstrings everyone else. Everyone- please limit yourself to one high ranking character.

Is this an official rule from the staff?

I ask because I've not seen any discussion about it at a Faction Leader level, and I was chatting to Jenny just a few hours ago about my Supreme Leader ideas and how that was going to jive with her character, and she didn't mention anything about it.

Also for the record I am not the leader of the Resistance (as has been stated a few times in this thread). I'm not even the only General, because s'Ilancy is one as well (according to Charley's IC post, at any rate). The only reason Jaden is a General at all is because he is already a Commander in the present, and having two promotions in the span of thirty years didn't seem like such a massive implausibility - you're basically saying that we're only allowed to bring back military characters if they haven't been promoted very much?

Plus, like Leah said, pretty much everyone in Star Wars is a General. I'm not sure it really counts as "high ranking". And if it does, I trust you'll also be preventing Charley from being the Sky Marshal, and the Resistance leader, and a Senator?

[Jaden Luka]

Bah, double post. >_<

[Alis'ans'amey]

That's great for you guys, but not for me who never got characters established here. Plus I thought the draw waa to write in the TFA universe, not just write our characters evolved?

Smaller stories can lead to bigger stories. And Jakku scavengers are VERY The Force Awakens as a thing to write.

[Jaden Luka]

That logic is a little backwards, I think.

There's nothing stopping you from aging up one of your existing characters. You think there is, but there isn't. You don't feel you have them established in the present yet... but that doesn't matter? If you told us that Minnie was the Queen of Naboo... okay then. We'll all be intrigued to find out what in the last thirty years allowed that to happen, but there's absolutely nothing standing in your way if that's what you want to do. There's nothing stopping you from writing Poe Dameron, the best fighter pilot in the Resistance... who was a little kid thirty years ago. You could create a character as an adult now, and go and fill in their backstory later. We've got General Hux, Snoke, Max Von Sydow's character... all characters that have position, prestige, and presumably a decent amount of history... but we've seen none of it.

If you want Scout to be a Jedi Master, no one will stop. And hell, that'd actually be a pretty interesting character to see, because presumably there'd be a profound difference in her with thirty years of maturing. You're saying it's "not great" for you - why? The obstacle you're hiding behind seems a little bit imaginary, tbh.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il isn't a General. Charley's IC post is talking about Taataani.

[Jaden Luka]

Oh. I thought Taataani was the Baroness, not the General. Okay. I saw "she" in the post so I knew it wasn't referring to Jaden, and I'd read in Charley's character description that his pilot was based on s'Il's ship, and I guess I somehow ended up with 2 + 2 = 5.

Either way - still not the leader of the Resistance, that remains Taataani. Is the official word still that I can't be both Jaden and the Supreme Leader?

[Droo]

Someone sorted out that forum description issue I raised. I've no idea who it was, but thanks.

Also, I've allowed my ideas to stew for a while, and - total disclosure - while these ideas are rather insular and not particularly conducive to any creative collaboration, they are now nonetheless quite ingrained into my mind as the definite circumstances for these characters. If anyone can think of any use for them down the line, chat me up, otherwise I'm quite happy to allow them to exist in their own peaceful bubbles.

Kallum Romanoch - having inherited his family estate on Concord Dawn, Kallum has put to use his resources, and the business savvy and leadership skills he has acquired by osmosis from Taataani Meorrrei, to develop the estate into a small, but thriving, town. He is separated from his wife, who has since joined the Resistance; they have a daughter, Arianna, and a son, Jo.

Loki Al-Zahad - when Loki came to terms with his own origins, and learned of his family, he took on his father's name. He wandered for many years, playing the role of a more conventional Jedi, but, with the rise and fall of empires, he recognised the futility of his years fighting battles that were never really his to begin with. He has settled on Concord Dawn with his brother, and serves as town sheriff. In secret, he continues to train adepts in the ways of the Force, but this time, he teaches for the sake of knowledge, not war.

Bear Banthabrand - slowly, surely, Bear earned himself a reputation in the bounty hunting game, and plenty of credits, too. He has a ship he can call home, and travels with an astromech droid, and his daughter, Ceris, who has taken up the family business herself.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I misspoke - not a Staff rule (yet) but certainly one we were leaning toward in my understanding.

[Charley]

Can I join the Gold Squadron thread, since it's showing as closed? >.>

Go for it.

[Charley]

Oh. I thought Taataani was the Baroness, not the General. Okay. I saw "she" in the post so I knew it wasn't referring to Jaden, and I'd read in Charley's character description that his pilot was based on s'Il's ship, and I guess I somehow ended up with 2 + 2 = 5.

Either way - still not the leader of the Resistance, that remains Taataani. Is the official word still that I can't be both Jaden and the Supreme Leader?

To my understanding, anyone with two nickels to rub together in Star Wars could be a "general" so it's entirely feasible that the scrappy Resistance has plenty of them (the Rebel Alliance sure did).

Taataani uses the title of General because it placates her vanity, but she's something much more integral than a field commander to the Resistance. Whether she is the sole leader of the group or not I haven't written in, but if this were a corporation she'd have enough shares to make changes to the board outright.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Any issues with having one of my republic characters commanding a Viscount-class Star Dreadnought?

[Jaden Luka]

For the benefit of those who don't speak nerd as fluently as Charley (:p) - Viscount-class (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Viscount-class_Star_Defender).

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Personally I'd like to leave the Supreme Leader as an NPC or up for grabs a bit longer. The staff doesn't want just one person having a General/leader of the Resistance and the leader of the First Order. If you get distracted by a new plan that really hamstrings everyone else. Everyone- please limit yourself to one high ranking character.i would like to publically apologize to Jace for appearing to single him out with this post. I certainly have Charley in my sights as well, who wants to bring a ton of characters in. Which both of you can do and should do what you want to do and feel enthusiastic for.

I PERSONALLY think it is better if group leadership is spread around. THE STAFF has made no ruling on this. I fucked up.

I also think that I'm not going to be involved so as long as you are all getting along then I will stop paying attention to this thread.

tl:dr
I fucked up, I'm a dick, I'm sorry. See you after Christmas.

[Jaden Luka]

Apology accepted, Holly. :hug

Sorry for getting crankypants about it at you - I was just a little confused as to why I was breaking the rules and Mr Bajillion Characters (stop trying to steal my too many characters crown, Charley! :shakefist) wasn't.

No need to avoid stuff, though. Come join the Resistance! You don't do enough good guy stuff. :ohno

[Anne Phoenix]

The last shipbuilding trend for both governments in the old universe was to move away from building larger ships to build smaller ships to combat the growing threat of piracy and privateers. While you could make a case for Star Dreadnoughts being built in secret for the First Order, it would be a bit of a stretch even there as that faction isn't as big as the old Empire. Personally I don't have a problem with it, I'm just wondering how the Republic Fleet would come about having built one of those in our respective timeline.

[Charley]

I have no problem making it a smaller ship (hell, I'll probably backtrack) or making some razzle-dazzle BS new ship class that's appropriately weight classed to the resurgence destroyer.

[Ceto]

On the flipside, the First Order having some sort of big scary dreadnaught might make narrative sense. They could have invested their resources in that instead of in creating a Starkiller Base... and the threat of an ominous super star destroyer might be part of the reason why the Republic hasn't just gone "You know what? Lets destroy these guys, it'll be easy."

Perhaps only one (an Eclipse, or something?) that functions as the flagship/throne ship? Enough to discourage the Republic or the Resistance from making a foolish attack against the First Order homeworld(s), but not something that you would ever use in a fleeting scenario.

Also, stupidly big starships are a bit of a hallmark of the Republic. One could argue that the New Republic might have produced a limited run of Viscount-class ships just to show that they could - "look what we can achieve when we work together", etc.

[Park Kraken]

On the other hand though (continuing my thoughts from Post#92) with the Empire and Alliance merging, you're going to get a lot of both Imperials who think big in the new government as well as shipyards that are used to constructing these vessels. So yeah, a few of these star dreadnoughts would likely be built, mainly to serve as Sector Flagships for both militaristic, peacekeeping, and diplomatic purposes, with extensive facilities to serve in all three capacities.

[Alis'ans'amey]

That logic is a little backwards, I think.

There's nothing stopping you from aging up one of your existing characters. You think there is, but there isn't. You don't feel you have them established in the present yet... but that doesn't matter? If you told us that Minnie was the Queen of Naboo... okay then. We'll all be intrigued to find out what in the last thirty years allowed that to happen, but there's absolutely nothing standing in your way if that's what you want to do. There's nothing stopping you from writing Poe Dameron, the best fighter pilot in the Resistance... who was a little kid thirty years ago. You could create a character as an adult now, and go and fill in their backstory later. We've got General Hux, Snoke, Max Von Sydow's character... all characters that have position, prestige, and presumably a decent amount of history... but we've seen none of it.

If you want Scout to be a Jedi Master, no one will stop. And hell, that'd actually be a pretty interesting character to see, because presumably there'd be a profound difference in her with thirty years of maturing. You're saying it's "not great" for you - why? The obstacle you're hiding behind seems a little bit imaginary, tbh.

Well, since it's the TFA universe, I feel any Jedi wouldn't really belong. So I don't really wany Scout as a Jedi Master.

But more than that, I se TFA as a new setting, and want to explore it with new characters designed to exist in that setting, ones that could fit in age wise with Poe, Rey, Ren and Finn.

I get that's personal preference. I just don't want to be alone.

(Oh, and thanks Charlie, I'll join soon).

[Cortus Veers]

(Charley here)

One thing to consider is that in canon, after Endor the Republic sort of demilitarizes to some degree. Now to what degree is open to debate, but it may be sort of like how they were in the Old Republic, in that each system or sector had their own security force or defense fleet, and in times of need they could be united and mobilized. I'm thinking sort of like how the Roman Republic operated, where there was no such thing as this nationwide professional fighting force. So would this be a thing in our timeline? That could potentially make for very interesting dynamics in the Republic, and also explain why they're so excruciatingly slow in countering the menace the First Order represents.

[General Luka]

The danger with a secularised military is that (in our setting at least) it might make in-fighting a little too easy.

In the canon, the New Republic forms because the Alliance has achieved total victory against the Empire. For us though, we seem to be on a different trajectory. Unless the galaxy plunges back into war, our New Republic is probably the result of a peaceful merger between the Alliance and Empire after years of growing cooperation.

You'd think that a peaceful outcome would make demilitarisation easier, but not necessarily. It's easy to tell the losing side that they aren't allowed an army any more - they lost, they don't get a say. It's easy to tell the winning side that they don't need an army any more - we beat the bad guys, all is good! With our situation though, you're going to have a lot of unease. You're going to want to convince people that you are "stronger together" (to make the merger seem worthwhile), and you probably want to reassure them that if those pesky Imperials try anything, the Republic has a good strong military to come and save them. Also, given what happened with the Resistance on Corellia in the present (a bunch of soldiers pissed off about the status quo go rogue and become terrorists), the Republic is probably going to be quite careful to avoid disenfranchising it's combat veterans in one huge go - if nothing else, you don't want Stormtroopers and SpecForce soldiers turning to crime. And, if you split up the military between the various sectors/worlds, it's no longer controlled by your united central government: you put the military power in the hands of individual worlds... and if you have an armed ex-Imperial world sitting near an armed ex-Alliance world, that's likely to make a lot of people pretty nervous.

Of course, we may actually want that non-ideal situation where everyone is scared that their neighbour might murder them in their sleep, for the sake of narrative coolness. Even then though... I could still see the Senate controlling a number of dreadnaughts: ships big enough to intimidate the sector fleets into not doing anything too stupid.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I just want to throw out an idea that Jace and I discussed: the Jedi base was decimated by an assault instigated by Salem, using the forces of the Dathomir witches.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

I see no reason why we can't do that.

I did kind of want to pick the brain of someone with better knowledge of Dathomir than I have. Weren't some of the witches good folks? Vaguely recalling the Courtship of Princess Leia, but aren't there a faction that aren't all darksidey nightsisters, or are they no more?

Reason I was asking was that I had half a notion that Draiya and Bryna might at some point hang with that minority group and potentially pick up a little Dathomir flavor (glowing arrow firing bows, etc)

[Alis'ans'amey]

You're thinking of the Allyans, Charley. Yeah, they were basically the good witches.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yes, there were some good witches. I figure most of em got wiped out in the spread of the nightsisters, but we could leave a few stragglers alive of you want to play with em.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Might be a cool bit of fun? Go all Katniss on some first order asses.

[Alis'ans'amey]

Could be fun :). But if we're doing strict TFA era, the Allyans no longer exist (I believe). The Nightsisters do as they're still canon to The Clone Wars, but I think the Allyans have been struck from the record now. That said, so have Chiss, so I guess if we did that, I'd have to vanish too :p. So, uh, ignore me...

I kinda want a pirate captain too. Been thinking about making it Scout for hilarious changes in 30 years. With the Jedi Order gone, she became like a badass, eyepatch wearing pirate :p.

[Tarek Avesca]

It's our version of TFA. We can have witches and blue people if we want to ;)

[General Luka]

For the sake of echoing the movie and what-not, shall we assume that there was a Battle of Jakku "at some point", so that we can use Jakku as our go-to place for scavengers and what-not to congregate? Maybe it still happened a year after Endor (same as canon), but just didn't result in the defeat of the Empire for us - means it's in the past for all of us, and we don't need to go worrying about any of the specifics / making sure we get around to doing it eventually / etc.

I have a character or two in mind that might make an interesting fit for that kind of junk yard / scavenging sort of environment, and like Leah said earlier... if you're gonna do that, might as well use the place where it happened in the movie.

[Eclipse]

That seems like a good idea.

[Vince]

Kinda of sad, but:

Ben Merasska: dead.

Palara Iscandar: dead, most likely, depending on the sequence of events leading up to the merger of the Empire and Alliance.

Rossos Atrapes: definitely dead.

Kazahan: nebulous. Likely died in the attack on Ossus. But living in the Trianii colonies as some wise elder could be feasible.

Esther Hadrana: alive and well, though probably winding down from her smuggling days in Alderaan, the Ghtroc-720 freighter she inherited from her uncle.

[Supreme Leader Xaanan]

What should I do as far as Character Plotters for TFA characters? Should we make a separate plotter (with a TFA tag) for the future versions of our characters, or should we try and squidge any future plots into the plotter we already have?

Option A means more plotters overall, but makes the TFA versions easier to spot; Option B keeps the number of plotters to a minimum, but means any still alive characters are going to have two sets of existing relationships / current plots / etc (which might get messy).

[Park Kraken]

For the sake of echoing the movie and what-not, shall we assume that there was a Battle of Jakku "at some point", so that we can use Jakku as our go-to place for scavengers and what-not to congregate? Maybe it still happened a year after Endor (same as canon), but just didn't result in the defeat of the Empire for us - means it's in the past for all of us, and we don't need to go worrying about any of the specifics / making sure we get around to doing it eventually / etc.

I have a character or two in mind that might make an interesting fit for that kind of junk yard / scavenging sort of environment, and like Leah said earlier... if you're gonna do that, might as well use the place where it happened in the movie.

Well Sullust was kind of our "Jakku" for the present timeline, being the last major battle before the advent of the Starkiller Missiles and the M.A.D. stance that lasted until the New Republic and Empire merged together.

[Park Kraken]

But if we wanted to do something more recent timeline wise, we could say that staunch Imperialists gathered at a remote world to gather their resources for a final assault against the New Republic, similar to the Final Sortie planned by the High Seas Fleet in the closing stages of WW1. After intelligence of the threat is learned the Empire and New Republic launch a coordinated attack against the rogue Imperials, resulting in a massive and final battle that serves to demilitarize both factions through large military losses and serve as both a catalyst for the formation of the New Republic as it is today, as well as a convienent dumping ground for characters we want to die off during the timeline jump.

[Park Kraken]

A quick write up for the latter idea;

"New Corusca, as the planet was called by the loyalists, was a lush world of greens and blues with rives flowing through forested valleys. That was the old world survivors called it before. Now it is known as just a barren wasteland; devastated by the crashing of ruined starships, pockmarked by craters of weapon bombardments, and a veritable graveyard that hundreds of thousands of lost spirits roam.


Salvagers hear whispers and moans when scouring the various wrecks. Some have even disappeared. Rumors abound of beasts that once roamed the forests as normal animals, twisted by radiation and consumption of man-meat that roam the wrecks looking for their next meal.


Rekka is no place for a young band of adventurers such as yourselves. Best save that foolishness for a night out on the town in Corell."


-Unknown Space Pilot, regaling his tales to a young group of teenagers.

[Jaden Luka]

I think we need to be careful to not bogged down by too much lore here.

The big advantage to Jakku is that it's really, really easy. As long as there was a battle at some point to explain why all the wreckage is there, the specifics of that battle don't even matter - just like they didn't in the movie. Jakku is a planet that everyone is going to instantly be able to visualise, because they've seen what it's like, they've seen the kind of settlements that are there and the kind of aliens that live in them, they've seen the kind of places where people make their homes, and all that junk.

Adding our own creations or drawing on our own lore is definitely cool, but I think to start with we should aim to be as easily accessible as possible. Keep it simple and familiar to start with, and then add in our own variations on the theme as we go.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

As far as plotters, option A seems the best to me. Nothing wrong with more of them, and so long as they're tagged with the TFA tag, all will be easily understandable.



With the battle idea that Kraken had, I like it overall, except for the timeline. Maybe it happened around the same time as the battle over Jakku, and was a part of a multistage attack? We wouldn't have to go any further into details with that basic explanation, and since the galaxy is such a huge space, it's feasible for other large-scale skirmishes to take place with devastating consequences to the world(s) below. If someone wants to start their character on Jakku there's nothing to stop them, just like there's nothing to stop someone from starting their character anywhere else *shrug*

[Tarek Avesca]

Agreed with Lok, on both accounts.

Sounds like Rekka would be a fun planet to explore.

[Zereth Lancer]

Finally joining the party after reading all six pages of this thread late at night after work. I doubt I have the best grasp of things. Just a few character ideas as they've come to me.

Zereth Lancer: would still be around, ideally. He has a long lifespan due to his hybrid species + genetic tampering. If Eleutheria is gone than he would be back to wandering the galaxy, and could provide a helping hand to the Resistance and surviving Jedi.

Kyle Krogen: died in the attack on the Jedi.

Karkoon: survived the attack on the Jedi. I picture him having isolated himself somewhere, powered down his droid suit, and spent years meditating. Maybe the other plucky Jedi survivors can go looking for him?

Alexia Sturkov: she could either be dead in the course of her duties or be integrated into the First Order where her darkside alignment would be appreciated rather than subdued. I guess depends on the fate of the Imperial Knights.

Jarvan Trask: I'm not sure about Jarvan. He's a loyal soldier but he definitely would not take kindly to the atrocities the crueler First Order is dishing out. He could either have risen through the ranks to a high position within the hierarchy of the First Order War Machine, and be the voice of reason in the room, or he could have defected to the resistance after participating in something terrible; such as the massacre of the Jedi.

Ezra Na'chtion: A thirty year jump would give Ezra time to create a lot of monsters. If we wanted some kind of other big bad threat in the galaxy, a monster army could lay siege to a planet. I feel like this derails from the story at hand, but I wanted to throw the idea out there anyways because I've often thought about what an older Ezra could do with more time to hone his sith alchemy.

If anyone wants to do scoundrel type stuff, maybe son of Xel-Naga could be stomping around proving to the galaxy that he isn't a pushover just because he has two daddies.

[Park Kraken]

As far as plotters, option A seems the best to me. Nothing wrong with more of them, and so long as they're tagged with the TFA tag, all will be easily understandable.



With the battle idea that Kraken had, I like it overall, except for the timeline. Maybe it happened around the same time as the battle over Jakku, and was a part of a multistage attack? We wouldn't have to go any further into details with that basic explanation, and since the galaxy is such a huge space, it's feasible for other large-scale skirmishes to take place with devastating consequences to the world(s) below. If someone wants to start their character on Jakku there's nothing to stop them, just like there's nothing to stop someone from starting their character anywhere else *shrug*

Sounds fine to me.

[Jaden Luka]

Just pencilling out a rough timeline based on what people have said so far, to make sure we're all roughly on the same page -


Twenty-ish years ago (aka. a vague and amorphous point a few years in the future of our current timeline), relations between the Alliance and the Empire start getting better. Trade happens, cooperation happens, and eventually they join together to form the New Republic. Imperial worlds pick out Senators, and the world where the Senate meets starts moving every few years, so make sure there's no Alliance/Imperial bias in it's location.
A few years after that, Salem Ave and Delgado Xaanan start getting frustrated with the New Republic. Salem does not like that democracy is getting in the way of his galactic domination plans, and Xaanan doesn't like that they're making "the same mistakes" all over again. They start making secret alliances with worlds where the human leadership thinks they're better than everyone else (Onderon, Hapes, Kuat, etc), start taking children to brainwash them into the perfect Stormtroopers, and generally just laying the foundation for the First Order.
Some-teen years ago (aka. long enough ago that anyone who was a child/teenager at the time is now Finn/Rey's age), Salem sends the Nightsisters from Dathomir to wipe out the Jedi on Ossus. In the Senate, Xaanan spins this as a "sign of weakness" on the Republic's part, and convinces several worlds to cede from the Senate and establish the First Order, because the Imperial approach to government will keep them "safer".
A few years after that, Taataani Meorrrei is impeached as Supreme Chancellor on corruption charges, and leaves office.

That seems to be the gist of it, at least?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Anyone who is bringing over characters, please post them in this thread (http://71.19.154.126/forum/showthread.php?56491-TFA-Characters). Otherwise there is a good chance your character post(s) will get lost in the discussion going on in this thread.

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Droo and I talked about where characters might be in the future, and it got me to thinking about Hal. Only now, in our current main timeline, does he finally feel like he belongs with the Jedi. If Ossus was attacked, and he manages to escape, he'd likely be on his own again, and at that point he'd give up on trying to form bonds and instead lead his own personal crusade against whatever guise the Empire puts on. He would consider himself a Force Master, not bound by either light or dark sides, instead wielding whatever power he felt necessary in order to accomplish his goals.

Ideally, he'd make the perfect anti-hero, wanting to do something for a greater good, but with no qualms about being extremely violent in order to do it. This could work out interestingly for any former Jedi who try and pull him back, as he's got a skill set that almost nobody else has, and it would be desirable for him to teach what he knows. Or, the Republic could essentially hire/use him as a sort of weapon in the mercenary sense. He hates the Empire/First Order, and wants to see them not only defeated, but entirely wiped from the face of the galaxy. He'd be glad to work with any that share that goal. Gone is the happy-go-lucky, tail-chasing, immature Hal of old, replaced by an almost Batman-level personality of grim determination. He'll certainly be a change from those who knew him before.

Anyone here have a good idea for a spot he could start from? It's also possible that the darksaber he recovered from the ancient vaults on Ossus has been eating at him, manipulating his soul into making him the ruthless machine he's become, but it's impossible to tell, as it could just as easily be his own anger ruling his personality. Would be fun to have him and Loki cross paths again, but I'd like to have Hal be fairly mobile. He's likely got a heck of a bounty on his head, by now, too.

[Droo]

I'm sure we could think of a reason to bring him to Concord Dawn. Maybe tracking a fugititve war criminal to bring to justice, whatever brand of justice that might be.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I was thinking that even if the New Republic went to smaller, sector fleets and no 'grand army of the republic' - the old Imperial fleet would mostly be intact still. So the First Order having ISDs or whatever isn't beyond reason...and either is the NR having them.

The NR decommissioning all Starkiller missile sites IS something I would think has happened. And the First Order trying to get their hands on one or two, or trying to recreate them... or already having had one they stole from the NR... makes sense to me.

Just a thought or two.

[Park Kraken]

The way I envision it, it would be hard to justify a large and extensive fleet since the main two Galactic Powers have merged together. A lot of vessels would be decommissioned and scrapped. I would imagine it would mostly the larger and/or older vessels that would suffer this fate, with the Star Dreadnoughts of the Galactic Empire and the converted ships of the Rebel Alliance being the main ones to suffer this fate, with some of the converted ships (such as the early Mon Calamari cruisers that were passenger liners) perhaps reverting to their former service.

What would be left behind though would be a modern mashing of Imperial and Alliance ships plus new vessels commissioned in the time period, composed of sector fleets plus probably one or two Rapid Response Fleets. We didn't really see what ship classes the New Republic of TFA had at their disposal but being that this is our own timeline we could simply say that most of the capital ship classes are of New Republic New Fleet (Black Fleet Crisis) ships, with a mix of Imperial types from Dark Empire and some of the newest Alliance vessels (MC80b's, etc.).

[Captain Untouchable]

I think we're ignoring some very important points of galactic politics here.

The Hapes Consortium is an example of one of many worlds/groups that will flat-out refuse to get rid of it's military. Their military is what put the Alliance and the Empire on an even footing. It's deeply ingrained in their culture and their social personality. There's not really any way to "force" them, either: they'll just refuse to join the New Republic at all. The Cizerack Pride probably won't give up their military, either. Neither will Kuat. Then you've got the Sullustans, Sluissi, Quarrens, and so forth who are going to have their economy utterly obliterated once military industry is gone. And that's not taking into account any of the "I am scared of my Imperial neighbours, I will buy a million ships to help me feel safe" stuff that is going to be rampant. Don't forget, we're eventually going to have some worlds leaving the New Republic to go form the First Order, so we know for a fact that not everyone is/was 100% happy about the New Republic.

The biggest danger though is that if the New Republic demilitarises too much (and it's members don't), the Senate becomes utterly toothless. Our characters know from history how bad that gets: too much military strength in the hands of private/individual groups, and not enough in the hands of the government is basically why the Blockade of Naboo and the Separatist Crisis happened. Look back through the EU, and it's a recurring theme: the Republic repeatedly gets caught with it's pants down, because they think they're too awesome to need a standing military.

Also, from a narrative perspective, we "need" the New Republic to be undeniably formidable. The Republic needs a decent military, to explain why the First Order isn't going after them head-on; and to explain why the Republic is so confident that the First Order doesn't pose a threat. That aspect is vital, because otherwise the First Order will just go to war with the New Republic directly, and the Resistance becomes unnecessary, which messes up our whole setting a wee bit.


That said, "retooling" the New Republic military might not be a bad idea. We still get rid of the old ships, but we replace them with newer ships that are geared more towards peaceful missions than combat ones. Maybe we go all Starfleet on the situation: instead of warships prowling the galaxy trying to kill each other, we've got starships cruising around providing humanitarian aid, helping with rebuilding efforts, responding to distress calls, surveying new colony sites, clearing up the debris fields from space battles so they're no longer a navigational hazard, etc. Those newer/replacement ship designs keep all of the shipyard economies afloat, there's still employment options for all those people (instead of having a mass wave of redundancies), but over time the attitude slowly changes into something a lot less "aggressive"?

[Park Kraken]

Okay so we go for a more efficent, modern, and streamlined New Republic Navy that uses the intervening time period to modernize the Republic Starfleet. Probably the biggest changes would be getting rid of most of the TIE series Starfighters and replacing them with -Wing starfighters as they're far better. This would provide Seinar Fleet Systems ample motivation for supporting the First Order.


How about a consensus on using existing further down the timeline ships instead of creating a new Republic fleet from scratch? Introduce the New Class Modernization Program ships, the Viscount, Mediator, and MC90 classes, and some of the later Imperial designs like the Adz Patrol Destroyer? Same for starfighters, using E-wing, K-wing, and T-70 X-wing?


I don't want to spend too much time and effort nailing this out right now but I'd like to get something concrete to establish for RPing purposes.

[Jaden Luka]

A lot of those New Class ships are already being worked on through various ongoing storylines. "Incom-Koensayr-Meorrrei" is going to be developing the E-Wing, V-Wing, and K-Wing - I'm hoping/planning to start off a thread in about a week (after I'm back from Germany) which will move that storyline along a little bit. The T-70 would be the long-term conclusion of that, but probably not for a few IC years. (we don't want them to be too out of date)

There's also the "Project Defender" storyline that I'm just gonna push forward on rather than waiting for Senator threads to get done - the idea there is that Bothawui, Sullust, and Sluis Van are teaming up to develop the Nebula-class (we're calling it the Defender-class) and Endurance-class, and to set themselves up as an "alternative" to Mon Cal getting all the construction contracts. The fallout would be a ship designing arms race, which Resh and I were planning to have culminate in stuff like the MC90, Mediator, etc.

So yeah, most of those EU ships are going to enter service eventually... just not necessarily made by the people it says on Wookieepedia. Don't see any harm in sprinkling those sorts of things in there, as long as we avoid getting too specific on the age / manufacturer / etc - leave ourselves room to tell the backstory later.

[Charley]

Taataani made no secret in steering appropriations to Cizerack shipwrights, so I imagine that in our timeline that could also result in some unique designs. The Feessaarro class destroyer was one of the first forays into that, and it's entirely possible that the federal fleet (or whatever the main government navy becomes) is noted by a lot of legacy imperial stuff, and a lot of mon cal and Cizerack stuff. Maybe Corellian stuff comes back in vogue too

[Jaden Luka]

If we're going for a more streamlined / efficient / structured / planned / modernized sort of New Republic navy ("Federal Fleet" is catchy), maybe each of the big manufacturers has a "thing"?

For example, when you think of the Corellian Engineering Corporation, you think of their freighters like the Falcon or the Ghost, and you think of their little biddy tiny couriers and gunships. So maybe as part of the Federal Fleet's ship replacement strategy, anything in that ~100m gunship/corvette/courier range is a CEC design (like the Ranger-class (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ranger-class_gunship)). Maybe the SoroSuub Corporation still has it's reputation for bulk freighters that can be converted to carriers, and gets the contracts for the Republic's supply/support ships. Presumably the Mon Calamari Shipyards are still making their big Star Cruisers that get used as command carriers.

When you think of the Corellian Engineering Corporation, you think either of freighters like the Falcon or the Outrider, or you think of their corvettes and gunships. So maybe as part of the Federal Fleet ship design strategy, gunships (like the EU's Ranger-class (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ranger-class_gunship)) and corvettes - anything in that ~100m range - are built by CEC. The Mon Calamari shipyards would still be producing their big Star Cruiser / command carrier type designs. Maybe with Kuat being planetia-non-grata with the Republic right now, Rendili StarDrive has restored some of it's prestige from ye olden days, and makes the "ship of the line" type cruisers.

That sorta reinforces the idea that the New Republic is deliberately diversifying it's fleet... but it also makes life super easy for us. We don't even need to bother making up names and designs - we'll be able to say a "Corellian Corvette" or a "Rendili Cruiser", and everything can be fantabulously vague.

[Sharzon Naz'Rael]

And many of these designs are already easily accessible from our own wiki, they just needed the appropriate categories added;

http://theholo.net/wiki/index.php/Category:TFA_New_Republic_Ships

I will have to add the new TFA ships and the Viscount to the Wiki.

[Alexi Hesith]

I'm tempted to do something with Alexi still in the Senate: the Great Compromiser reaping what he sewed with his moderation.