Lit An Empire without an Emperor: Post-Palpatine Imperial Discussion

Decided to make this to avoid cluttering up the Core Worlds thread. Obviously, as there's plenty to discuss in here. So the Second Imperium, did any portion of it survive, in the form of those Deep Core Warlords we keep hearing about?

What of the Pentastar/Remnant/Felpire? Interestingly enough, they're referenced as 'The Galactic Empire' by the time of LOTF. Even their embassy is called "Galactic Empire Embassy" so was that still their official name, with Imperial Remnant and subsequently Fel Empire being just monikers given to them by those outside of Remnant Space?

 

Me too, would be ironically fitting. A Skywalker-Solo being the one restoring the Empire. I also find it interesting that the Remnant can find it's roots in Kaine's Warlord Pentastar Alignment regime, less so Palpatine's Dark Empire. Which from what we could tell was alot more of a Sith Empire than a Galactic Empire. I'm somewhat interested in that 'Dark Empire' as well. Reminds me a bit of Voldemort's return. The first time, just like Palpatine, he was a charismatic individual, but upon his second return things changed and he mostly kept power through fear. While the First Empire had it's fair share of fear, much of the Galaxy followed it willingly, after all.

Also from what we can tell there was something of an economic boom in the region, if the Felpire eventually outpaced the GA and, according to Legacy, would've taken half of Krayt's navy to bring down so he didn't bother with it. I suppose worlds like Muunilist and Mygeeto helped, and they certainly had their fair share of shipyards and agriworlds. Maybe they did something like Palpatine's Deep Core Security Zone, building a 'tall empire' if they couldn't have a 'wide empire' due to the GA having the rest of space? Eventually, GA worlds see the progress and look back to the GA which has gone through several instabilities since it's formation, and simply jump ship. Helped by the Sith distabilizing the Vong/Jedi/GA Restoration Project too.

 

By 137 ABY they had risen back to a similar size and power and were still referred to as the Empire.

 

That is incorrect. The "Felpire" was a small section of the galaxy compared to Emperor Darth Krayt's vast holdings. The only reason that Darth Krayt didn't crush Fel was because of the near-impenetrable defenses of Fel's capital planet of Bastion. Bastion's defenses were so strong that it would cost Krayt half his navy to capture the world. He would eliminate Fel but lose his grip on the galaxy, not a worthwhile trade. Fel's actual navy was rather small and no match for the full power of the Sith Imperial Fleet. It was only the heavily defended nature of Bastion that allowed Roan Fel to survive and continue to pose a threat to Darth Krayt.

 

That's pretty much what I meant though, not that Fel's navy was good, especially since it was established that he needed Stazi's GA Remnant, but rather that the defenses of his territory were good. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

It's pretty well established that the Remnant, and then the Second Empire, had to build smarter because the same old way of building big ships or just mass producing TIEs wasn't working out and they didn't have the territory nor manpower of the First Empire, so they had to go tall instead of wide. It can be best seen with the Pellaeon-class Star Destroyers.

What I would've loved to see is a shot of that Turbulent-class too. As for 137 Felpire still being called an Empire, it's probably best explained in that it still had it's Imperial family. The Remnant was just a military regime, when Jagged Fel became Emperor (As Jello said, we don't know when, how, why) it gave it a sense of aristocracy it hasn't had since Palpatine.

 

Well, the fact that it wasn't Sith-controlled made Fel's Empire a rather unique one - there probably hadn't been a truly secular Empire of that size in the galaxy since Xim.

 

I would say that the Fel's Empire was not secular, it is after all ruled by a sect of warrior-wizards.
Also, have it been established that Xim's empire was secular?

 

Warrior-wizards a religion does not make. The Imperial Knights has always come across as a more pragmatic order than a philosophical one, at any rate - not to mention that Pellaeon's Empire, which possesses more of a continuity with Fel's than Palpatine's, had no real Force users.

While we know little of the Tionese religious beliefs, there has been nothing to indicate that there was a theocratic bent to his rule.

 

The Essential Atlas contains some interesting info on how the Remnant became the Fel Empire. It's just a couple of sentences, but it establishes that Jag's "Victory Without War" Initiative, and the Imperial Mission, are the key to the Remnant absorbing so much former Imperial territory. They spread Imperial propaganda and influence while aiding impoverished worlds, and much of the galaxy shifts over from Galactic Alliance.

The Legacy Era Campaign Guide also has some great info about the Sith-Imperial War --- at the beginning of the conflict, the Felpire again uses propaganda to draw new systems into its fold after the failure of the Ossus Project, before the fighting even starts.

Another fun fact about the Remnant: Stackpole did coin the term, as Jello says, but it actually appeared in Union a few months before Onslaught was published.

Sorry if I plug my Wookieepedia work too often, but dammit I did a lot of work on this one. The research was really fun. Never made it to the Vong War or beyond, and the two "Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire" articles that came out about a year ago may have had some new info, too. Not sure.