State of the Empire

[Tiberius Anar]

I think that's been the case since the Grand Reset. Certainly we agreed that all major canon and EU characters bought it one way or the other in the run-up to, events and aftermath of our Battle of Endor. I believe this was to (a) avoid copyright issues and (b) give everyone as free a hand as possible in playing in our setting. I for one would have been completely stymied had certain members of the court not died at Endor.

I would suggest avoiding as much as is humanly possible use of any of the Grand Admirals established by other writers. It's been a while and the Civil War went on for quite some time after Endor. Why not assume that all the Emperor's Grand Admirals have died, been incapacitated, or gone into retirement. (Thrawn can be off successfully fighting off alien invaders in the Unknown Regions with no need to come back.)

Why not further assume that the Empress has appointed her own cadre of Grand Admirals but a less expansive group? Maybe as a sign of her new, more focussed rule she appointed six (including Telan) rather than twelve. You wouldn't need to name the others or make them out. In fact for maximum flexibility in future it would be good if you left them kind of generic.

[Rev Solomon]

The shelving of canon characters was really to clear space for our own characters more to avoid copyright issues - after all, we're using plenty of other LucasArt properties. Otherwise, story is king here. Anbira and Wei have each invoked Force ghosts of dead Jedi masters to great effect. Charley has talked about Vader cameos in flashback threads. I don't think any of the mods have problems with these sorts of liberties.

We don't necessarily have to kill off all the Grand Admirals. You can name drop them, talk to them on the comm, trade greeting cards... I think we'd only really have a problem if someone wanted to assume the roles of those characters.

As far as I know, the composition of the Imperial Navy leadership really hasn't been explored post-reset, which means it's your playground now, along with Anar and whoever else wishes to be involved. As others join the ranks, they can meld their ideas with yours. We can always retire a Grant or a Grunger to make room for a new character if the need arises.

[Telan Desaria]

The idea I had was this: Desaria makes his return to Coruscant in time for the (bi-yearly?) Grand Admirals Council where as many of their number as possible get together and made sweeping command decisions - think super ultra mega elite club. After that, Desaria is going to make his way to Intelligence after an interview with Her Majesty.

I can write in such a way that Desaria is involved with his thoughts so we can leave the other slots open. I do want to introduce Grand Admiral Armand, a long-time friend of Desaria's and confidant, but a man getting on far better with the peace than Desaria. (Sort of like a view of opposites for the reader). He was someone (of junior rank) I mentioned a long tiem ago - he is disposable if we want to actually name the others.

As a serving Grand Admiral, I like the idea of a smaller council. Six is a good number.

[Telan Desaria]

The next post in my thread is up - any one have any complaints? If there is, I can certainly fix them

[Rev Solomon]

Dude, what you're doing is awesome! More, please!

[Tiberius Anar]

I agree.

In the past we have presented things as pretty monolithic but here we have at least three organisations exercising strategic control, which feels infinitely more nuanced. You have this Council of Grand Admirals, which is a semi-official thing, the General Staff, which is a sort of all purpose planning staff, and then the various military commands around the Empire. There's clearly overlap in personnel and remits and also marked differences in opinions, priorities, and resources. I'm going to enjoy watching (and perhaps helping with) the development of this side of the Empire's story.

[Telan Desaria]

Thank you. I am truly happy to be this well-received on my return.