Aliens of the Empire (Part 2 now up)

Awesome. I love finding out just what all these random Imperials were up to during the Dark Empire era...and having a background for Rahz is something I've been looking forward to for a long time now.

>Interesting species choice for Sk'ar. Ironic too -- so many years earlier people were begging for a picture of a Kaleesh without the mask, and here's one who's been staring us in the face since the 80's.<

I laughed out loud at that. What on earth made you think of it, Abel?

I remember that back in the day Genghis used to get into debates over who was the superior tactician: Thrawn or Sk'ar. Guess we know now...

Oh, and I just noticed this:

"Kharys had been only a young flyer when General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commanders Anakin Skywalker and Halagad Ventor -- fresh from Concordance of Fealty vows -- rescued Skye from ruin by a genetics terrorist during the Clone Wars."

Genetics terrorist=Atha Prime...?

TC

 

Sk'ar's a Kaleesh and Thrawn wiped out Kalee!

That's fine stuff. Fine stuff indeed.

 

I so want Atha Prime canonized, and preferably connected to the Imperial Sentinels as well.

 

Addtionally, I say they should tie his clone troopers to the mad clone armies the pellaeon remembered fighting in the clone wars.

 

While both of those would be cool I just want the double decker Star Destroyer to be in canon...

 

well, its obvious why Thrawn attacked Kalee, he was jealous that he wasn't really all that unique and the first blue-skinned, red-eye Imperial officer in the EU, as his fans wanted him to be

but doesn't NEGAS indicate Kaleesh are still surviving in the time of the New Republic and into the Dark Nest time period, making me wonder if "destroyed" is a bit of a hyperbole

 

Another awesome article!

Makes me wish that they would get Abel (and others) to write a "Essential Guide to Obscurity". We've already got the Essential Guide to Chronology, which ties in a lot of the BIG events, but it'd be nice to have an EGO that would deal with the lesser known characters like this and how they were more a part of the "big picture" than we might have guessed.

Bring on the Essential Guide to Obscurity, I say!

 

Sk'ar is a Kaleesh? OK, but how did the around 2 meter tall, brown-skinned, reptilian-eyed species from NEGtAS end up with a representative who is almost 3 meters tall, has purple skin and red eyes?

 

Artistic license seems most likely to me. He has to be twice the height of any normal Kaleesh.

 

Or like some reptiles they never stop growing.

 

Maybes he is a Khaleesh subspecies which is taller,has gray skin and different eye colour.

 

Yeah, why do all Kaleesh have to have the same height, weight, skin color, etc.? No one Earth does

 

Show me a person on Earth who is over 12 feet tall. I'm just saying artistic license because he was most likely not intended to be a Kaleesh when they created him.

 

A bunch of Marvel aliens have been retconned to be species they only vaguely look like. It's not unprecedented, nor is it a big deal, considering Marvel's art.

 

Never claimed it was, I just find it amusing that they fit something that looks like that into a species that only shares a vague resemblance.

 

Are you trying to make me cry?

I asked Rich about this, since I was curious myself. Here's his response:

Titanko was an original creation, though I don't remember much else about him at this point.

[Maxwell Smart]The old lightsaber switcheroo trick![/Maxwell Smart]

Thanks QG. The Marvel Comics have stood up surprisingly well after all these years, but there are (or were) four major snafus: Skinny Jabba, Skye's three Jedi saviors, Boba leading the Mandalorians in the Clone Wars, and Wedge's yarn from #78 Hoth Stuff. I think only Skinny Jabba remains to be explained now. (Though I agree that it most likely involves some kind of confusion with Jabba's Nimbanel henchman Mosep).

Incidentally, for those who've been following the Vader's Legacy mini-drama, Kharys and Hethrir were recycled from that project into Aliens in the Empire. Although, since Rich and I wrote Aliens in the Empire in 2004, they were actually always intended for this project first.

Glad you like it Rogue, though neither Rich nor I can take full credit for this. This was a suggestion from up top. We just worked out the details the details of his background.

Boy, this is where I know I've been reading the EU for a long time. You're telling me you don't remember Thrawn's quotation like it was yesterday? Well, neither do I, to be honest, but that's the reference, alright.

Always maybe.

Thanks Ms. Coffee. I'd had the idea to tie Halagad into Skye since the late 90s, but it was the Concordance of Fealty ceremony from the Emissaries to Malastare storyline that offered the key.

...Of course, I never imagined *I* would end up being the freaking third Jedi on Skye. Luke, I am your father!

Heh. Yes, who knew. The Marvels allow for some license in interpreting artwork. Another instance that comes to mind is the retcon of the Pera in issue #7 as a Verpine. I think there may be others.

Ah, it's so good to be evil and petty.

Well, there's Daala too. Naturally, they'd already found each other.

 

I just got the Concordance of Fealty thing.

That's brilliant.

 

It is of course interesting that Luke comes away from Skye being proud about his father because he's confused him with someone else!.

Poor Luke. No wonder he has issues.

 

An original character Nagai? I don't want to say I'm disappointed...but I like retconned images better. At least a behind the scenes General makes that conflict much more appealing.

That is seriously the best fix ever. Instead of making it so that the S'kytri were just confused...I am still just stunned by the brilliance of it. Also, wasn't the Concordance of Fealty a retcon in itself? Meant to explain why Eeth Koth and Windu had the wrong colored lightsabers or something of that sort? The event surely had no other purpose in that comic. You've somehow made that weird tradition now the coolest thing ever.

Also, doesn't this fix imply that the S'kytri knew that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader? Were they among the first people to discover this? If that's the case, Luke was sooo close to getting the ESB revelation from flying people. How awesome.

 

No, just try to work in a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

 

In rereading The Crystal Star, I was pleasantly surprised at finding Hethrir saying he imagined the Empire Reborn would last a thousand years. Dovetailing this with Palp's vision for his Dark Empire became a natural coupling.

As he did with the Shimholt, Rich did an amazing job fleshing out the culture of the Gektls in so few words. It goes without saying that it's much harder to develop a species from scratch than it is to borrow a pre-existing one.

It wasn't a directive from LFL, but a recommendation that struck us as reasonable, especially since it required only the slightest modification to the background we'd come up with for Sk'ar. Adding Thrawn into the mix then became another last minute inspiration. From my personal experience, that tends to happen a lot as a deadline looms.

Thrawn may get the win, but Sk'ar gets the moral victory.

You are clearly becoming far too familiar with my writing style.

Trivia: Halagad@aol.com and AthaxPrime@aol.com were my first two email addresses. (Damn you whoever took AthaPrime@aol.com!!!)

Nach.

I suppose it won't hurt to reveal this. At the same time Rich and I originally wrote Aliens in the Empire, Dan Wallace and I had written another piece for Polyhedron that dealt with Imperial Warlords. Among these warlords was/is Lord Shadowspawn ... otherwise known as Atha Prime.

Polyhedron jumped ship before the manuscript made it into LFL's hands, and three years of trying to resell it has thus far yielded no result, so you can either thank your lucky stars or shed a tear come Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.

Amen.

 

Seems we shall have to pay Mr. Stover a visit...

 

Abel:

Fanstic work sir.

My only disaapointment, (albeit, a small one) was that Shenir Rix was not listed as one of the "Aliens of the Empire". The old computer game Rebellion introduced her as a informat for the Empire. To my knowledge, she is the only Mon Calamari character to suppor the Empire willingly.

Any chance you might work her into some future work?

Thanks!

--Adm. Nick

 

>The Marvel Comics have stood up surprisingly well after all these years, but there are (or were) four major snafus: Skinny Jabba, Skye's three Jedi saviors, Boba leading the Mandalorians in the Clone Wars, and Wedge's yarn from #78 Hoth Stuff. I think only Skinny Jabba remains to be explained now. (Though I agree that it most likely involves some kind of confusion with Jabba's Nimbanel henchman Mosep).<

There's also the issue of Luke's extra-lightsaber-which-once-belonged-to-his-father post TESB. Apparently, the Marvel writers didn't realize that there was no way Luke could have retrieved his 'saber from his sword hand.

>You are clearly becoming far too familiar with my writing style.<

I seemed to recall that the cut Atha Prime mentions from FactFile and Evil Never Dies had called Atha Prime a "genetic terrorist"...

>Among these warlords was/is Lord Shadowspawn ... otherwise known as Atha Prime.<

#%(%@!. That actually would have made sense. Oh well, it's Stover, so it should be good regardless.

>Also, doesn't this fix imply that the S'kytri knew that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader? Were they among the first people to discover this? If that's the case, Luke was sooo close to getting the ESB revelation from flying people. How awesome.<

Heh. That whole "Young one...you wear his saber" line could have been their way of trying to break it to him gently...and it just went completely over Luke's head.

TC