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

Lit The Official StarWars.com Blog Thread - That's right, I went there

Discussion in 'Literature' started by CooperTFN, Sep 24, 2013.

  1. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Just catching up on the Warlord articles, so forgive me if someone addressed this, but: are the initials of Omnipotent Battle Leader an accident?
     
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  2. GrandAdmiralJello

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

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Most Americans had never heard of the guy in 1995, so probably not intentional.

    Originally it was Lord Vader's job (that was when Stele won the medal seen in my icon, the Empire's highest decoration), and it got foisted over to Thrawn when Zaarin decided to flee into the Unknown Regions and was generally too clever for his own good. Zaarin was probably one of Thrawn's biggest challenges, able to outsmart him at various turns (although this is likely due to an intelligence -- as in HUMINT -- advantage).
     
  3. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Oh, is that WEG? Didn't realize.
     
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  4. GrandAdmiralJello

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

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    KJA -- Darksaber. Part of a flew of overwrought titles that the various warlords Daala encountered had. The bit about it being Palpatine Reborn's designation is new.
     
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  5. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    "The entire planet is one big city...AND IT'S ALL MINE! HAH-HA-AH-HA-HAAAAA!!!"
     
  6. The_Phantom_Calamari

    The_Phantom_Calamari Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 10, 2011

    It is rumored that the Dark Lord Ric Olie discovered a technique to influence the midichlorians to create life. This technique appeared to somehow involve a man, a woman, and a whole lot of love.


    And yet I think Thrawn would consider Human Intelligence to be an oxymoron.
     
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  7. Grand Admiral Paxis

    Grand Admiral Paxis Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I thought Ric Olie was piloting the Moffship in the post-Endor period? :p
     
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  8. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2004
    Man I hope Ric Olie is in the ST.
     
  9. Plaristes

    Plaristes Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2007
  10. CommanderDrenn

    CommanderDrenn Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 19, 2013
    Can't tell if trolling or serious.... But I think trolling.
     
  11. Halagad_Ventor

    Halagad_Ventor Star Wars Author - SWRPG Designer star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 3, 2001
    Yeah. I don't know if Troy really intended to outright equal sign those two, but I think there's wiggle room, at least of gradations.

    The caption text is really an attempt to anticipate a conflation of the concept of the "the Old Ones" in the DarkStryder campaign with either "the Ones" from the Clone Wars or the Fate of the Jedi stuff. WEG's Cthulhu joke notwithstanding, in the DarkStryder campaign, "the Old Ones" is simply the DarkStryder bio-construct's name for the Kathol people, which look (more or less) exactly like DarkStryder itself (being a supercomputer/clone of its creators). The Kathol are a very intelligent and scientific ancient people, but not galactic quasi-deities. Though the temptation to equate DarkStryder's "Old Ones" jargon with a more Cthulhu-esque concept is understandableoth.

    The DarkStryder campaign is really one of the crowning achievements of West End Games' style of Star Wars. A massive storyline, it was totally epic in terms of tone, storytelling and continuity. Yet, I'd seen it referenced so little over the years that I suspected very few people had actually read it, and I feared that it would only be more and more ignored as time went on. We put Sarne in there to stave off that injustice.

    That's it exactly, cavalier. Thanks.

    Totally possible though, as I said, one of these Pestage's was probably running around in search of Jeng Droga, thus probably precluding it.

    Indeed. Alas.

    Eyrezer, if you mean outside of The Constancia Affair and the Official TIE Fighter game guide, I believe it is the third. The second time was in the now very obscure Vader: The Ultimate Guide, where I established when during the Clone Wars Anakin had earned the title (in the Battle of Virujansi, fighting alongside Garven Dreis).

    Very big thanks, blackmyron. That was a tough section to pull off.

    The dive into Kaine's psychology was basically a byproduct of continuity reconciliation. The content of Anthony P. Russo's original Pentastar Alignment article strongly suggested many things that were overlooked over the years (like the full name of his organization being the "Pentastar Alignment of Powers"). But especially significant was a fairly different version of Kaine than that that had emerged after many years of continuity. He came off as much more sly and power hungry originally, certainly not -- on the surface -- the kind of Imperial personality to hole up in a corner of the galaxy. Yet, it was precisely the latter characterization of his action that made him interesting; with all due respect to Mr. Russo, Kaine originally comes off like a fairly typical, mustache-twirling rpg villain ... yet, one who thus explicitly states (albeit apophatically) his intention to become Galactic Emperor.

    How to reconcile these depictions? Hence, Kaine's relationship with his father.

    Furthermore, given that Ennix Devian ended up being a "hardliner" with a background in COMPNOR, it made sense to contrast the personalities and priorities of these two. That meant downplaying and predominantly attributing Kaine's characterization as being anti-alien to the influence of his father and a desire to pacify his business partners. Not only did this subvert an Imperial stereotype (there was no real way to get around that with Devian, after all), but this seemed especially justified by Russo never attributing anti-alien sentiments to Kaine and actually noting how Kaine allowed many aliens into the Pentastar Patrol, factors which now made even more sense of the EG to Warfare's assertion that the Patrol urged Kaine to back Thrawn. Of course they would, since a great many of them were alien themselves. (Pace, species stereotype police.)

    I'll post again soon, but just in case, I bid you Dark Christmas, folks.
     
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  12. Grand Admiral Paxis

    Grand Admiral Paxis Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    And a Dark Christmas to you too, Abel. I hope you enjoy a well-deserved break and I can't wait to see what amazing articles and projects you bring us next year. Thanks for all your hard work.
     
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  13. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    Thanks for keeping DarkStryder alive, Abel. I always thought it was a nifty little campaign (what, a box set and two additional adventure books?). I wish WEG hadn't run into its unfortunate financial troubles because the trajectory of its releases in its latter days just kept going up (the RPG world mourns for the Rogue Squadron SB and Corporate Sector box set that never were).
     
  14. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I like the DarkStryder campaign, well really WEG in general, even though I was too young to have experienced WEG stuff as it happened and only know about it via Wookieepedia.
     
  15. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2004
    If you play RPGs you should try it.
     
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  16. Jeff_Ferguson

    Jeff_Ferguson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2006
  17. TalonCard

    TalonCard •Author: Slave Pits of Lorrd •TFN EU Staff star 5 VIP

    Registered:
    Jan 31, 2001
    I think you mean "only two, there are." ;)

    TC
     
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  18. AdmiralNick22

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

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    For the next part, I am hoping we get to learn about the various "replacement" warlords who allied with Daala during her last campaign, when she faces Garm Bel Iblis and the Fourth Fleet. In fact, anything that sheds light on the final Imperial campaign of the Galactic Civil War (especially since it is Ackbar's final known major fleet campaign prior to retirement) is a friend of mine.

    --Adm. Nick
     
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  19. Darth_Culator

    Darth_Culator Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2005
    Minor little lingering question I have, which I don't think I've seen answered anywhere: Was Zsinj's father also named Zsinj, and did Maarisa take his name as her surname, or was Zsinj's father named something else entirely and Zsinj took his mother's surname as his only name? It's minor, I know, but I think it would add even more context to Zsinj's whole dysfunctional family dynamic.
     
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  20. GrandAdmiralJello

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

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    It gets even weirder when you think about how Zsinj liked to refer to himself in the third person.

    He both intended to make them the same and also leave wiggle room, apparently:

    Source: http://star-wars.suvudu.com/2012/03...nning-author-fate-of-the-jedi-apocalypse.html
     
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  21. Pelranius

    Pelranius Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2003
    Seconded.

    Wonder if the Empire of the Hand would count as warlords?
     
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  22. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 30, 2012
    I'm hoping that the inconsistencies with Freedon Nadd and Marka Ragnos get sorted out in either blog posts or Pena's AMA.
     
  23. Pelranius

    Pelranius Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2003
    Would General Alix Balan count as a Warlord?
     
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  24. johnthejedi24

    johnthejedi24 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 12, 2004
    As I said in a previous post. All the WEG stuff can be found online for free. Here's the site where I got my stuff, even though I have 95% of it in print.
    Sorry, direct links to these items breaches TOS.
     
  25. johnthejedi24

    johnthejedi24 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 12, 2004
    One thing I'd like the blog to explore is former Imperial officials in New Republic service, be they defectors or hold-overs from the old regime. They can't govern if they don't have the bureaucracy...
     
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