Planet Holdings Request

[Jeseth Cloak]

you don't need a planet
there's what, 5 of you?
with a whole planet
what to do?

Declare it your base of operations
nothing more nothin' less
why bother with governments?

There's only handful of player members,
but that tends to misrepresent
the size of our endeavor;
spanning out across space, silently and secretively seizing planets,
enslaving beings, wreaking havoc.

Many groups could be said to not have the players members
to manage large sectors of the galaxy,
but in the face of such banality, NPCs are still withstanding.
NPCs with hopes and dreams, loves and fears
of losing the very things that hold their world together at the seams.

Some could say of the Sith two men could never rule it all,
but then we'd laugh because we know that two men
caused the Old Republic to crumble
and then fall.

-beats his drum once-

but we've got more firepower
we'll just bomb and lase you from orbit
that's the real power
dirt under our nails? Not one bit

lasers and orbital attacks,
fall short of awe inspiring;
planetary shields and ion canons could be easily a match.
defensive, yet effective, they make a decent stack.

[Jeseth Cloak]

The Empire does know of Ilum. Information was provided by the former Emperor Palpatine and Count Dooku of its location during the Clone Wars to the Separatists.

In this timeline I'd imagine that any relics of Jedi origin would have been taken by Inquisitors during a raid however this would leave most of the planet's resources untouched.

It's not like Imperials to just sack a planet and leave though. Expect a small Imperial outpost to combat or avoid while staking a claim on the planet. Other than that there is no problem to taking it over. No one else uses it. Just be warned that you're in the unknown regions and you're not alone out there.

Those are things I didn't even think about. The idea of The Inquisition learning anything of Streghe and their schemes would be very bad indeed... especially since on such a scarcely populated planet, Streghe would have to bring in slave labor and mine their resources directly, and that wouldn't be any good. The Empire would see it right away.

Perhaps this opens the door to bringing in a third party to do this kind of work.

[Karl Valten]

Jeseth may be right though. I was just going by what I thought would logically happen.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Illum

I the decision should be left to the admins on this. Either way, the Empire probably doesn't have strong presence there, raid or no raid.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth may be right though. I was just going by what I thought would logically happen.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Illum

I the decision should be left to the admins on this. Either way, the Empire probably doesn't have strong presence there, raid or no raid.

Based on Wiki, it seems it could have been possible for Fy-Tor-Ana to have leaked information about Ilum to the Empire. They obviously found out about it, as it states that they did have some kind of small operation there in the EU. It doesn't make any allusions to them having located the Jedi Temple there, however.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

With the obliteration of the Jedi, the Empire probably would only have a tiny task force 'keeping an eye' on things. I doubt they'd be expecting company.

Of course, if your group took them out, eventually someone would notice and someone would come looking.

Also something to keep in mind is that Ilum would be known to the old Republic Jedi we have around here who survived the purge. So don't expect them not to come around every once in a while. And once they do, I'm not sure they'll be happy to find you guys there. But conflict is what makes RPing interesting.

My comment earlier about groups without fleets owning planets, and your point that the Empire doesn't have that many more RPers and yet they hold a crapload of planets... Its all common sense. in our current timeline the Empire controls the galaxy, so they naturally 'own' most of the available planets. The Hutts aren't an RPed group, yet they own Hutt space. The Rebellion probably maintains some sort of alliance cell presence on nearly all planets, as well, even if their only real 'holding' is Mon Cal.

Small groups just starting out shouldn't try to bite off more than they can chew. I don't have any problem with you guys RPing on any number of planets, but to say that they're 'yours' seems a little silly. As a board we've moved naturally towards a more open planet holding system where we just sort of RP wherever we want, as long as our RPs make sense in our current timeline.

So moving in on Ilum and doing what you want there - I don't see a problem with it. We're all friends here (mostly). Talking it over with the Imps and working out something that makes sense is good.

Technically a group from a planet as backwater as Dathomir seems unlikely to own the technology required to hold and defend a planet from Imperial attack, should the Imps come knocking. So any Force group should use stealth and cunning to keep themselves secret. Your point about taking over governments even though you have no fleet is a good one, but unless you have hundreds of members to maintain your presence on all your planets it would be... difficult to maintain your hold on said government on more than one or two planets.

I hope this makes some sort of sense - I'm not trying to play party pooper here, honest. I just really don't want our roleplay here to descend back into lists of planets and ridiculous maps that don't really make any common sense. Its all much more organic now and comfortable.

[Taja Loraan]

I'm mostly interested in Ilum right now, and conquering it would take little effort, considering the planet is mostly ice with no defense, and is virtually unknown to anyone outside of former Jedi... at least, I think that's what the story was.

NO CONQUERING MY HOME. Meanie.

[Salem Ave]

lasers and orbital attacks,
fall short of awe inspiring;
planetary shields and ion canons could be easily a match.
defensive, yet effective, they make a decent stack.

You making those cannons out of sticks and stones, holmes?

Anyway, I agree with what LD said here. We dropped the bean counting style of play in favour of a more story-oriented approach. There's no reason that you, as a faction, can't have control over a planet or a number of planets, but it should be done realistically and with the wider picture in mind.

Take, for instance, the Kuklos Ataxia. The core of that group is only a small number of Sith, but they control the planet Onderon - because one of the Sith is the reigning monarch and the other is the Prime Minister! Their identities as Sith are, of course, unknown to the populace at large and so the people of Onderon remain obedient. What neither of them did was turn up on Onderon and enslave it. If nothing else, it would be impossible to maintain any kind of control long term. The people would revolt! Give your NPCs a little credit :mneh

[Jeseth Cloak]

I'm not talking about doing any of this stuff in one or two posts, or hording planets - I hope that's clear. I'm just making my intentions clear that I am planning to do some IC acquisition of un-claimed planets, and/or mine the resources of other planets, and want to be sure that I know what planets are currently and realistically claimed.

Some ways in which Streghe will accomplish these things include the abduction and ransom of NPC's loved ones, extortion, seduction and occasionally, just outright intimidation. For the most part, these things will happen more on a political/personal level with some of these NPCs, and not on a military level... so the targets in question would not be under direct control, but will be inclined to do as they're asked for their benefit. Once enough influence is had, the military portion will come together. As for shield generators, even planets like Hoth can have them.

If you remember in The Empire Strikes back, one of the Admirals mentions that remote settlements everywhere have shield generators such the one used by the rebels to defend their planet from slagging.

Aurilia (the Dathomiri settlement used by Streghe) was/is equipped with one, though its use is probably mostly only a fall back, since no one actually knows that they're there at this point. Could they hold off an Imperial attack? Probably not if the Empire puts muscle into it, and sends AT-ATs down to stomp them... but up against let's say, the kind of Force they showed on Endor? Yeah, the Dathomiri could probably hold their own.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Post-script: I left out that some of this might also require the involvement of third parties, such as the Black Sun. When I get around this sort of thing, I'll contact the right RPers... assuming they wouldn't mind jumping into their Black Sun personas for it.

[Morgan Evanar]

Why are you bent on planetary control? What advantage does it gain you?

[Jeseth Cloak]

OOC, I am not bent on planetary control. I don't mean to come across that way, Morgan. IC, it affords Jeseth and his kin the same advantages it affords any other entity on SW-Fans.net - the ability to take what they want, or leverage power and influence to get their way, or even defend themselves a bit more effectively in RPs against NPCs. Mind you, no one on fans really goes around attacking one another without laying out storylines and resolutions before hand, and I really have no intention of RPing any battles with any other groups - unless they approach me with a nice develope we can both agree on.

I think the words "planetary control" can be used loosely here. If Streghe manages to gain some level of control over a planet or its leader(s), nothing would change as far as who could RP on that planet. It would just create an unseen and growing galactic threat, not unlike the Sith in traditional SW lore. If anything, perhaps the planets general mood would begin to change and seem more oppressive - to within the levels which their populations could withstand, of course.

No one should feel like this would negatively affect them, because it wouldn't, and it wouldn't be done in ways which would degrade or cheapen the nature of RPing on the board. I'm just being really transparent about my RP plans.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Post-script: Let me clarify what I mean when I say subjugation. Streghe would carry out RPs on planets to gain influence over key members of their government or society (if it's feasible). This would lead to Streghe having an OOC "control" of sorts over a planets RP direction, not unlike the Empire has on some worlds. Example:

Nothing stops me from RPing on Coruscant... but if something I'm going to do would prompt a reaction from the Empire, it's rude of me not to talk to them about it, right?

So this would be similar. IC, Streghe would not have any official claim to these words; no one on the planet would be promoting themselves as members of Streghe or part of any large entity. Dathomir for example could be conquered by the Empire at any moment IC - but that won't happen, because groups on SW-Fans.net talk to eachother about these kind of things and work out resolutions.

Does that sound a little more... clear? Things like slave labor, resources, etc... would be gained through realistic channels, like the establishment of prison colonies.

[Matier]

Technically a group from a planet as backwater as Dathomir seems unlikely to own the technology required to hold and defend a planet from Imperial attack, should the Imps come knocking. So any Force group should use stealth and cunning to keep themselves secret. Your point about taking over governments even though you have no fleet is a good one, but unless you have hundreds of members to maintain your presence on all your planets it would be... difficult to maintain your hold on said government on more than one or two planets

I agree completely. The Streghe have no intention of taking their attention from Dathomir at any time soon. We were just attempting to understand who had what so our future ideas wouldn't conflict too much and if they would, perhaps getting information on who to set ideas up with. This really shouldn't have turned out the way it did. When the time comes, we'll be sure everyone is properly informed and in agreement with ours plans because that is simply the way things are done. Also, we expect to be informed as well.

Take, for instance, the Kuklos Ataxia. The core of that group is only a small number of Sith, but they control the planet Onderon - because one of the Sith is the reigning monarch and the other is the Prime Minister! Their identities as Sith are, of course, unknown to the populace at large and so the people of Onderon remain obedient. What neither of them did was turn up on Onderon and enslave it. If nothing else, it would be impossible to maintain any kind of control long term. The people would revolt! Give your NPCs a little credit

A very good example. I believe it is extremely important to The Streghe to settle things on Dathomir before we move on. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. By all means, we'll need the resources before we can even think about moving on from there. Who knows? Plans may change down the road. After all, we are just starting out. We just needed the basic information that you all provided.

Thank you so much.

[Karl Valten]

As long as a group roleplays out a scenario and roleplays it well, I have no problem with what happens. Since Streghe is a new group the won't have the power to take over a planet per-se, too few numbers and no way they could stand up to a determined assault. Negotiations, trickery, everything are perfectly legit if done logically.

But in the case of Illum, let's face it, the place is a ball of ice the no one likes. Control of the planet means almost nothing to the big governments. It may fall in their controlled space, but there is no real effort spent on maintaining anything, it simply isn't worth the effort for them.

The Empire would definately have left an outpost there (and they definately know where the Temple is, between capturing the Jedi archives and Palpatine, there is no way they couldn't know). However the bulk of the temple is probably in ruins and most of the crystals taken.

I have no problem with Streghe attempting to take 'control' of the planet. The garrison wouldn't be hard for a group of force-users to overcome. On such a remote world I would think that reports are only sent every several weeks. The faction would have that long plus maybe a few more before any real force is sent.

If the Inq gets word of it they might get curious and send an agent. If he/she goes missing, THEN they're in trouble.

If everything goes perfect Steghe would go undisturbed for maybe a month or two, (hell if they just avoid the outpost and contact with the Imps, indefinately). If the outpost gets a distress signal out, then maybe a week or two.

Of course the situation changes from planet to planet, but I hate that kind of bean counting crap. I'm just going over the situation objectively.

Before giving a yah or nah to the whole thing, though. What is Streghe's purpose for getting a foothold on Illum?

[Jeseth Cloak]

To mine for crystals - they're not unlike precious metals or gems, and Ilum seems to be one of the planets that is historically known to be rather rich in crystals. It's also one of the less frequented ones.

In any case, it'll be about two months or more before that RP gets underway, so when the time comes we'll get in touch with the Empire about any possible "Imperial entanglements."