Lit The Elder Houses of the Galaxy, and new canon galactic history (spoilers)

One of the most interesting new things to come up in the new canon is the Elder Houses, which I think have only been mentioned in Bloodline by Claudia Gray so far.

There is, and seems to have been for quite a while (centuries? millennia?) a galactic nobility, known as the Elder Houses.

There's no longer royals from Alderaan, counts from Serenno, nobles from Kuat, aristocrats from Naboo, elders from Arkanis, lords from Birren, etc. Instead, there's only the galactic aristocracy, known as the Elder Houses. All of the above are now simply from the Elder Houses. They are united, governed by some ruling body that determines if somebody is one of them or not, and in unusually rare circumstances, have the power to strip an individual of their title(s) of nobility. The Elder Houses seem to include all the "royals" we've seen or had mentioned in Star Wars so far. It's truly a galactic society. It's usually passed according to bloodline, but they also accept cases of adoption, such as with Princess Leia. Sacred oaths are also of extreme importance.

In the New Republic, it seem to be viewed by most of its members as merely a social organization and a genealogical resource, with a few exceptions. But it's hinted that they were once very powerful.

I wonder what the history of the galaxy is now, under the new canon, and how important the Elder Houses might have been to it? If they stick with the movie line of the Old Republic only existing (or only being galactic) for about 1000 years... could it be that before the Republic and the Sith Empire, it was the Elder Houses that ruled the galaxy? Could it even have been the Elder Houses that formed the Republic? Very interesting to think and speculate about, until we get more information!

 

House Vandron and its messed up history better still be a thing in new canon

 

I wonder if House Palpatine was an Elder House.

 

Is Palpatine still a House in the new canon? If so, I think it's a 100% guarantee it is.

(Lady Carise mentioned in her thoughts how she was happy to learn Leia was actually of noble blood too, upon learning Padme Naberrie was her biological mother)

 

Palpatine's background hasn't been mentioned in the new canon, but I'd be surprised if they changed that aspect of it.

 

Is Palpatine still an aristocrat in the new canon? I'm not sure it's been mentioned yet.
That being said, the concept of the Elder House isn't entirely new; it's essentially the canon version of the Ancient/Old Houses.

 

The Celestials and Killiks and so many other things started as a few offhand mentions with a bunch of speculation too...

 

I have to concur with Duchess Marcha of Mastigophorous, that the galactic aristocracy is "a bunch of morons, that have procreated for far too long."

We can always hope, that "Operation Cinder" thinned out the ranks considerably.

 

Why not?

Giving the ancient galaxy a more grounded history, via the Elder Houses, is probably better than doing the overdone Ancient Firstlings (more powerful and wise than the present), who were actually successors of the Really-Firstlings (even more powerful and wise), preceded by the... etc. It was cool at first, in the old EU. But it became too much.

Let it build-up naturally this time, beginning with the Elder Houses, make it feel like there's been some progression in the galaxy.


For example:

Humans start from some specific planet, are the first to invent hyperdrives (to explain why humans are so much more numerous and powerful), their nobility then spreads to all the systems that humans colonize and split to form several houses, and the systems stay divided between the houses at first, similar to Earths' feudal times.... maybe some are semi-republics with a constitutional monarchy. This goes on for centuries/millennia.

But then they band together as the Elder Houses to counter the growing threat of the Ancient Egypt-inspired Sith Empire, and there's wars back-and-forth between the Elder Houses and the Sith Empire for centuries or millennia. Eventually, the Elder Houses offer to make an alliance with alien worlds in the Mid to Outer Rim that were strong enough to stay independent and neutral, but the nonhumans stress they want to be treated as equals not as vassals like the other aliens. There's also been internal dissent that has weakened the Elder Houses in the wars: not being truly united, and some human-majority worlds (say led by Coruscant) want more democracy too.

The Jedi, who were founded by humans who wanted to escape the Elder Houses political intrigue and withdraw from society to focus on learning about the Force, and were inviting to all species, have become known for their warriors and admired for their skills in combat against the Sith, as well as famous for its excellent diplomats... and these Jedi are asked to help broker a compromise and end the internal debate before the Sith Empire can crush them.

They all agree to create the Republic, and the newly-born and united Republic with their newly-formed Jedi Knights then gradually push the Sith Empire in oblivion... except one, thus begins the 1000 years of peace that end with Palpatine.

No ancient aliens required (or wanted).

 

Sounds like another thing ripped off from the Duneverse. Not that this is a bad thing, by any means, just thought it was funny to see.

Also, the Old Republic is not the Galactic Republic, so the timeline has to be revised a bit. The Old Republic lasted for thousands of years before it fell approximately 1000 years before TPM. The Galactic Republic was created later. The Jedi Order was also created before 6000 years prior to the films, because the Sith created a shrine on Coruscant by then and they were an offshoot of the Jedi.

 

Man, when Jello thinks you're putting too much emphasis on nobility...

 

The actual quote from Assault at Selonia:


Marcha, as head of a very grand family, had always known that there were times when long family lineages merely meant that a pack of idiots had been reproducing for too long. She had always been more interested in accomplishment than in hereditary status. But some families were impressive.


So - it isn't necessarily the norm - just, that there are times when it is the case.

 

Nothing Jello does will ever surprise you if you keep in mind that his first and only real loyalty is to the Core Worlds, especially Coruscant.

 

I blame Filoni.

 

Is the galactic nobility something separate, or is it an informal alliance of various local nobility, or at least families of local nobility with intergalactic interests?

It is pretty interesting either way. I am particularly interested to see if these families go around getting multiple titles from multiple planets. At least, I see no reason this would not be the case.

Furthermore, I noticed in the old EU that there seemed to be something of an overlap between the nobility and the business sector - Baron Tagge standing out in particular - and I wonder if this will be the case in the new canon as well. After all, they did give Wat Tambor the title of Emir in TCW.

 

With the addition of my characters, to quote one of them I inserted into "Bloodline":

"We did away with our nobility a generation after the Old King died without an heir." Ganlen said, his eyes pointing daggers at Carise. "And it did us a huge favour as it meant we could actually get things done on our home world and the colonies."
"Then why is the Theben Royal Guard still in place?" The Senator from Arkanis asked, unimpressed by the Senator's comments.
"It sounded better than Theben Parliamentary Guard." He replied, his green hazel eyes smirking more than his face as he turned to locate his wife and their children.
"Such a commoner." Carise said under her breath.
"Actually the Sandras were the first to shed their nobility." Leia replied.
"When was that?"
"About a generation after they received it."

It could just be that the Elder Houses are a relic that is so integral to the culture of the galaxy that not even the Empire could change it. Some planets might shed them over time (as by Legends-Naboo surrendering dynastic rule for elected monarchs) while others have kept them.

 

This is particularly interesting consider its implications for Naboo's elections.

Overall, though, I doubt this does away with planetary nobility, so much as it implies that if you're a royal in the galaxy you probably have family ties to other royals on other planets in addition to the local ones.

 

Which is perfectly logical anyway. IRL, most royal families are related somehow.

 

This appears to me to be a pretty significant development in the history of GFFA.

Consider the power to revoke noble titles. In our history, this was not a power a sovereign was always assumed to have. In fact, recognizing the power of sovereigns to revoke noble titles or create new ones is seen as a key step towards the development of a centralized monarchy and nation state. In short, the authority to revoke noble titles is significant and indicative of strong centralized power.

I there put it to you fine people that the existence of an interplanetary assembly of nobles that are invested with the authority to revoke noble titles throughout the galaxy is incredibly significant, no matter how ceremonial those titles have become. It strongly hints that, at some point in the history of the GFFA, there existed a powerful aristocracy that controlled many worlds, and that the Elder Houses are the remaining vestiges of it.

In fact, considering the ostentatious nature of the old Republic senate, and the existing analogs we see between the galactic government of the GFFA and our Rome, I might even postulate that perhaps the Old Republic evolved from an aristocratic galactic government. This is a bigger point of conjecture, obviously.

In any case, these seem to me to be the most plausible explanations for why the Elder Houses exist and why they retain an authority to revoke noble titles on an planetary scales.

 

I wonder how they can enforce that authority without military backing though. If they're just a ceremonial set of people, without a galactic military to back them, then there's really nothing stopping noble #422 from going 'Sure, try me'.