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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

A&A The Official Jason Fry Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Havac , Oct 4, 2012.

  1. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    RE: Rome/Carthage analogy, I always thought of the Tion Worlds as being the "Carthage" to the Galactic Republic's "Rome". Afterall, didn't the Republic Navy literally bombard Desevro into a pulp? Reminds me of the Romans liternally destroying Carthage and rebuilding it.

    --Adm. Nick
     
  2. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    I always figured the Tion to be more like old Greece as Xim clearly has the Alexander the great vibe and his Empire pretty much went the way of the Diadochi a few years after his death. Plus I would figure the Tionese actually being too proud to accept reconstruction and just get to rebuilding themselves.
     
  3. pronker

    pronker Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2007
    Hi, Jason. A note to say that I enjoyed reading the fleshing out of the characters in Shadow Conspiracy, especially Viszla and Satine - and I hope you come back to write in Star Wars soon. Also, the capsulization of the New Mandalorians and traditional Mandalorian history cleared up things for me, and in only half a page!
     
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  4. Darth_Garak

    Darth_Garak Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2005
    So some time ago I asked if Shadow Conspiracy was worth getting. Jason pointed me to his blog where he discussed the differences between the show and the book - end result I bought it. And I enjoyed it very much. Jason I hope you write some more (would really like to see what you'd do with a full novel).

    And since I just found about the Clone Wars Episode Guide (living under a rock, that's me), I'm now looking forward to that as well. And maybe when the show is done we can get a guide that works both the new clone wars material and the old one into one cohesive bit (I keep looking at my shelves and trying to figure out the chronological order of some of these and it's driving me nuts).
     
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  5. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Thanks DG. Would love to try my hand at a full SW novel, but all Star Wars work is fun.

    CW Episode Guide just wrapped, but we'll see what the future holds -- as you might imagine, with all the news recently everybody's trying to take stock of what's coming and how to work with it. So I've got nothing on the stovetop for now. But that's OK -- I'm hard at work on the second Jupiter Pirates book.

    That full CW guide would be quite a challenge, from timelines to sorting out the various contradictions. But what the heck, it can't be harder than mapping a galaxy. If they asked me to tackle it I'd do my best.
     
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  6. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    Jason,

    Over in the Core Worlds thread, we have been discussing the sorts of governments that each individual world in the Core had (republics, monarchies, democracies, aristocracies, etc). During your work on the Essential Atlas, did you or Dan ever come up with a list of Core Worlds local governments? Some are well known (Chandrila a democracy, Brentaal has guilds, Alsakan has aristocracts, etc), but we are trying to piece together the various pieces and see if there are any trends in the Core.

    In other words, if you are interested to share your thoughts on the matter, swing on by the thread. :p

    --Adm. Nick
     
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  7. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    lol, Nick, I was actually thinking of asking Jason about Anaxes specifically -- given that he invented it. Guess I can just piggyback on your question, then! :)

    Jason had mentioned he had Annapolis in mind when he came up with it. Personally, I've felt that Anaxes -- especially as its role as the home of many of the naval types we see in the OT -- seemed particularly British to me (indeed, the RN is the root of many American naval traditions as well) and so it made sense to me that it'd be some sort of constitutional monarchy. I'd suggest that the Holts are the royal family, because of their prominence and because it'd go well with the "Holt Cross" thing. Naturally, I'd expect the Teshiks to be prominent as well -- perhaps peers of the realm, or something. I always liked the line of the Sirpar Hills looking like a genealogical map of the Imperial aristocracy.

    Of course, CatCW itself says "democracy" under government type, which pleases Nick no doubt. Democracy is rather vague though, as Coruscant under the Republic is listed as a "democracy" but a "dictatorship" under the Empire, so it's likely that the government type descriptions in CatCW were general rather than specific. Indeed, Alderaan is listed as a democracy though it too is a constitutional monarchy.

    Thus, the Nick/Jello camps are not mutually exclusive. But I'm very eager to hear Jason's own thoughts on that, esp. if some of it is stuff that was thought up during the writing of CatCW or the Atlas.
     
  8. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Gotta confess I didn't have anything in mind re either question. Depending on the project, world-building's a bit like matte painting -- you fill in the stuff you need and leave the rest blank. (Not that I've ever created a matte painting.)

    For Anaxes I wanted a kind of "Officer and a Gentleman" setting, with a side of pomp and circumstance from the wellsprings Jello identified. Once I had that I didn't worry too much about the rest.

    Won't be a revelation to anybody but my view of the Republic/Imperial system has always been that nobody particularly worried about the mechanics of representation below the Senate level -- there'd just be too many traditions, value systems, etc. for things to function if "democracy" had to equal "one being one vote" or some other core principle. The ideal would be a government that could decently represent a galactic civilization -- kinda like a more empowered version of the UN.

    It makes sense to me that the Core would preserve all sorts of old traditions that had become sources of cultural pride -- monarchies, oligarchies, rotations among ruling fungus colonies based on climate changes, etc. But there'd be a lot of diversity among outlying systems too, from corporate-owned planets to hereditary monarchies founded by wealthy utopian explorers to anarchist settlements to anything else one can think of.
     
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  9. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2007
    Canonize. Now.
    And this, because you just brought up my absolute favorite thing that's almost never been mentioned.
     
  10. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

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    Nov 28, 2000
    Yeah, that sounds right to me too. The old WEG sources on the Empire have the Imperial government not caring too much what a given planet's government type is so long as it pays tribute and follows Imperial law, and I have to imagine the Republic would've been even more hands-off. I don't think either galactic government would've necessarily remade things in its own image. I think that's particularly true in the Core, given the ancient traditions you've identified. One of the things I made up for a fanfic of mine was a world where the public government was organized along corporate lines; not that it was a world ruled by corporations, but just that they had for some reason decided that taxpayers are shareholders in the government (I'd imagine that conversely, perhaps its private sector would be democratic or hereditary or something more typical of a government).

    I like the idea of thinking different -- especially with alien worlds who may have been around just as long as human worlds, but have widely different views on government. Heck, some alien species are hive minds, right? Maybe they'd have an easier time with direct democracy than humans would.
     
  11. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Better dead than Fungus Colony Zed, I always say.
     
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  12. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    My brain immediately leaped to "what Core Worlds do we know little enough about that this could totally be their system of government?" Because, yes, this must happen.
     
  13. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    Denon :p

    Edit: Ah not a Core World... hmmm hmm... Trantor?
     
  14. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    There are two ways to go with Trantor. Either make it as perfect an homage to Asimov as possible (in which case, it should be a human-dominated ecumenopolis ... that is to say, a stereotypical Core World), or take it as far from Asimov as possible. I lean towards the former, but if you're a fan of the latter, ruling fungus colonies would be a good way to go.

    I was leaning more towards Eamus 6, Lujo, Chamm, Goorla, Shulxi, or Shumogi: all Southern core planets (more likely to retain alien political systems) with very little information about them (more likely to possess ruling fungus colonies than a planet with a claim to fame as a Human homeworld, for example). But that's just the tip of the iceberg; most of the planets in the Core are nothing more than fleeting name-drops somewhere, with plenty of room for an author to expand them in bizarre directions.
     
  15. Grand Admiral Paxis

    Grand Admiral Paxis Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I'm personally voting for Gama, just for a little Dark Empire love :D
     
  16. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    Well, Trantor had Mycogen Sector... [face_thinking]
     
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  17. MercenaryAce

    MercenaryAce Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 10, 2005
    I remember Anakin being sent on a diplomatic mission to some plant people who had long been part of the Republic in of TCW comics.

    I wonder if there are any worlds with a computer ruler? I know anti-droid sentiment is high in most places, but there have to be exceptions.
     
  18. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 19, 2007
    Yag'Dhul and the Body Calculus, without any actual computers.
     
  19. King of Alsakan

    King of Alsakan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2007
    That was my thought as well upon my first seeing that in CatCW's. If Anaxes is as much of a democracy as Alderaan is then were in really good shape. A strong monarchy and nobility, existing alongside with some other democratic assembly.

    Maybe the King of Anaxes could be a vassal of the Emperor of Axum. [face_praying]
     
  20. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2007
    Speaking of Anaxes, this discussion brings to mind one of my old questions about it. Where did the name come from? Out of universe, that is. There are certain planets I rather like the names of, but I've never been able to figure out what inspired most of them.
     
  21. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    If the Prequels are any indication, a king doesn't mean a monarchy. To quote Palpatine in TPM, "May I present Queen Amidala, recently elected ruler of the Naboo." And I might also quote Sio Bibble of Naboo. "We are a democracy. The people have decided."

    The Core can be full of democracies, but they might out of tradition keep old titles like "king" or "emperor". ;-)

    Besides, unlike my buddy Jello, when I read "democracy", I don't see it in the pure Greek direct democracy form. I see it more in the modern sense of democracy, which includes democratic federal republics like the United States and constitutional monarchies like the United Kingdom.

    --Adm. Nick
     
  22. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

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    Nov 28, 2000
    *cough*
     
  23. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 28, 2003
    Need a cough drop? :p

    --Adm. Nick
     
  24. Tzizvvt78

    Tzizvvt78 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2009
    There's nothing to cough about. At least in Europe, the countries with kings and queens aren't directly ruled by them, they're mostly symbolic and have been for centuries. The prime minister and parliaments are the ones in charge.
     
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  25. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Probably just sounds. In naming stuff I typically start with something rough that might vaguely fit what I want and then iterate it over and over again until I wind up somewhere cool or decide the name's a goner. Sometimes that starting point is a real-world place or name, but more often it's just a couple of sounds mashed together. (Sectors are tough because you ideally want a range of names that sound like they could come from a variety of Earth cultures -- I tried really hard to meet that goal with the latest round of sector names for the Expansion Region.)

    It's a long time ago now, but for Anaxes I probably wanted something that sounded old, vaguely Greek and had a certain military rhythm -- no soft sounds in the usual places. Though that x reminds me that a lot of my names, arguably too many, have x's or sh's in them.
     
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