I knew something was up when multiple automated alerts and several fellow EU fans suddenly messaged me within a few minutes of each other. Sure enough, Lightsider finally turned up! It's available here: https://www.docdroid.net/81125jE/lightsiderpdf-pdf#page=2 ... and is really worth its own thread. Getting new/previously unreleased EU stories is always wonderful, but Lightsider is extra special given that a lot of fans have been waiting decades for this moment. Apart from the timeline standouts, which reflect the continuity of the early '90s and make perfect sense in that context, a few other parts of the story stand out. The Howlrunners, for example - unless I badly misread it I thought they were 1 person fighters, not fast troop transports? I'll post a few more thoughts after a careful re-read but for now it'll be interesting to see everyone else's impressions. Whoever released this has done a marvelous service for the community!
Thing is, in this case, it's not that clear cut. This is a product LFL will never sell, so does it class as piracy, or some other offence, for someone to release it for free online?
Well, what was LFL's response to the release of Heart of the Jedi? I would guess that as long as no one tries to make this up to look like an actual legit product and sell it on Amazon, it likely won't register on Disney / LFL's radar. Whether links to the PDF last here is, of course, an entirely different story.
That was a bit different as it was being sold for cash and decked out as an official looking product, wasn't it?
Was it ever official? Did it ever actually get final approval, even though it was finished? Is what was posted the final version, or just a draft that somehow got uploaded? The author is dead, the story itself might never have been copyrighted or even truly finished, and it was all in a fictional expanded Universe whose stories were 8 years ago declared to no longer even be official. The Mouse theoretically might weight in, but they're unlikely to acknowledge it at all, and surely would rather not do so. I'm just glad that at long last we can all finally enjoy this story. Who else will be re-reading Dark Empire 2 after reading this ?
At one point, briefly, yes. But it was also available as a free PDF download prior to that, and continues to be to this day, with no repercussions from Disney / LFL. The offense wasn't the upload of the manuscript per se, it was the later reprint that made it look like an official release, going so far as to replicate the Bantam Spectra trade dress from the era, and selling it with no portion of the revenue going to the IP holder. IANAL but as long as no one attempts anything like that with this, I imagine it will similarly fly under the "mouse" radar.
Ah finally... been a while that I have been sitting on this treasure and am glad to be able to talk about it now. Under spoiler tags of course! A great read, feels early EU and has many interesting connections and implications. Even made me wonder if KJA read it before writing the Jedi Academy Trilogy. Spoiler Sedriss as related to Ulic Quel Droma is not new but I still wonder how. Old Vima and the Sunrider lineage are not related to him by blood but also present and may have a word about it given many legacies and lineages in the DE timeframe reemerge for a reason on both sides of the conflict. Luke's fanboy glee when digging through the Holocron content is epic. Lots of hints at ancient times. Ood Bnar is fun as a gatekeeper. Also love the notes below the text relating to connections to DE1 and 2 etc. Learning more about Ood's royal all forcesensitive Jedi family was also interesting. Vjun is fun as usual and noted as Vader's favourite spot for meditation, albeit not his only one! Nicely leaving room for Mustafar and his Coruscant Castle. Oh that mention of Wookiee Jedi or the absence of them... feels ahead of its time considering when it was written. And then refering to the special relation Wookiees have to the Force sounds like a Holiday Special callback in the Kenobi quote. Atlas/Map: Spoiler Some descriptions sound as if the Atlas placement that came years later might be incorrect. I love the detailed description of the Cron worlds and how they relate to each other. But if not mistaken Lightsider places the entire Cron region in the galactic Core, which would make sense given the Coreworld focus of the early history and Jedi. Why was it moved to the Rim by the Atlas again? Also many places are placed within the Cron region that I think the Atlas had elsewhere if I am not mistaken. Were @jasonfry etc. aware of Lightsider or secretly even had access to it when writing the Atlas? Anoth has history with Solusar family as a Jedi hideout before the Solo's turned it into a secret playroom for their kids! Timeline: Spoiler Kam seems to be older than previously thought (55 in Lightsider!) with details about his family and past given... even weirder now that he dates Tionne who is quite young as per KJA's trilogy. Go Kam! Headcanons related to Lightsider after reading it: Spoiler Fact: With Kam having been outside the galaxy to a "distant galaxy" for over 2 decades in hiding from Vader, we are back at the "leaving the GFFA is not impossible" debate and at the "it probably was a remote satellite galaxy only" answer. Not the Nagai/Tof one though! Fun to know Kam as extragalactic expert when the Vong arrive, ha! Headcanon: Outbound Flight intended to tour not only the Unknown Regions but then hop from satellite galaxy to satellite galaxy before going truly intergalactic space to a remote one like the Silentium/Abominor/Vong one. There may even be connections of the satellite galaxies to the main one in the past that over time eroded or got forgotten like ancient aliens and supertech. And some archeological hints and other mysterious lost species or people may turn up there, like the Massassi? True Sith? Or even Jedi in hiding that evolved different from others in the GFFA? Vong colonies before hitting the main galaxy so we have a truly intergalactic war when a satellite galaxy once more invades the main one and GFFA has to push back into the satellite calling Nagai and Tof etc. as allies from other satellite galaxies? Don't want all in one post, so will go into more thoughts about it in another later. Stay tuned and have fun!
Hey all -- it is certainly a surprise this has come out at this time, but perhaps it was inevitable. Today I come offering something I think may help answer some questions I've seen asked -- and provide important context as to the discussion of Lightsider and its cancellation. Below are two interviews I'm pasting here from way back when from the Out of the Maw newsletters, issues #4 and #7, with Tom Veitch, from summer 1995 and spring 1996, respectively (here is a partial archive of Out of the Maw). I believe these contemporaneous accounts from Veitch are the most honest and clear as to how it all went. There is also a little comment at the end from Bob Cooper, former Dark Horse editor at the time, about it (sourced from RASSM). Here you go. ~ Summer 1995 Q: What's the story with Lightsider? I've heard a lot about it. Veitch: Its basically a short novel with full page illustrations done by Dave Dorman. They've been having some problems on their end that I don't really know much about. It doesn't have anything to do with me or Dave. I've already written the text. Q: So its basically finished, right? Veitch: Oh, its been done for well over a year. Q: It sounds really interesting, so I'm not sure why they haven't put it out yet. Veitch: I had a lot of fun doing it. I was just reading it the other day,and I think its pretty good stuff, in terms of the way it allowed me to put more into the action. In the comics you're limited to breaking everything down into a few panels. You have a whole battle in like, two pages or something. With text writing, like Lightsider, or "Greedo's Tale" in the new Cantina Anthology, you can put in a lot more detail, and a lot of different and bigger things happen. I really enjoyed it. Q: And this project centers around Kam Solusar, right? Veitch: Yeah, it centers around the search for lost Jedi, based on what Luke says at the end of Dark Empire I - "the Jedi will rise again." The Jedi Holocron told him that there were Jedi to be found out there, and that's exactly what we show. He goes into seclusion with the Holocron to really explore the histories of the Jedi that the Holocron contains. So we show that also. We show him having some rather amazing experiences using the Holocron. At the beginning of Lightsider, we show Kam Solusar returning to the galaxy from outside the known galaxy. He was actually in another galaxy, and there was a whole discussion with Lucasfilm on how that would be done. You know, whether you could go through hyperspace to another galaxy -- stuff like that. That was approved. Apparently, Zahn did it in one of his books. He had some exploration outside the known galaxy. Q: Seems you've made subtle references to Lightsider in some of the Dark Empire II comics. Veitch: Yeah, that was the idea, that the plot of Lightsider happened before Dark Empire II. People were supposed to have read Lightsider by the time we get to Dark Empire II. So there's all these references to characters and things we introduced in Lightsider. In Lightsider you meet Executor Sedriss and the Darksiders, The Dark Jedi, or whatever you want to call them, and you learn a lot about them. We show what they are, and show in a number of battle sequences that they really are just whipping the Rebels' butts. They capture Solusar right away, and they essentially convert him into a Darksider, by exploiting the anger he feels toward Vader. They then go out on a mission to find and capture Luke. The Emperor, by the way, is off the scene. Nobody's sure if he's going to come back or not. So they go off to find Luke, and Luke meanwhile is on the Nespis space city. The Holocron told him to go there, and that he would find a Jedi there. So sure enough Luke goes to Nespis, and Solusar shows up with a bunch of his Darksider buddies, and they have a confrontation. There are all sorts of old Jedi relics lying around the derelict space city. First of all, there are the remnants of a battle. Huge skeletons lying there from these enormous Jedi that were like ten or twelve feet tall - real big guys. Those skeletons are wearing armor from some old battle that happened centuries ago. An old Jedi game -- Lightsider -- is found there amongst their belongings, and Luke's looking at it when Solusar shows up. Solusar says "I know how to play that game" and he challenges Luke to it. They go into it, and just playing this game is about half the book. Its quite an interesting game. Q: Is the book itself pretty lengthy? Veitch: Yeah, as written it was, and I was supposed to cut it down, and then the last thing they told me was, no, we're going to make it longer and actually add to it, because they were thinking about doing a larger version. As for the game, about half of it takes place in the Force. There's a board, and there are different pieces on it, but the greater part of the contest takes place in the Force. I can't explain how it works exactly, because I'm not letting out how the game works. But I can tell you Luke and Solusar are playing each other on some completely mental plane in the Force. Spring 1996 Q: Can you tell us anything about the Lightsider project? What is it? Veitch: Lightsider is a short novel I wrote, that was originally supposed to be a Star Wars novel illustrated by Dave Dorman. In the process of writing this book I invented a game that Jedi play, using the Force, called "Lightsider". The game turned out to be quite good, I think. After I had finished creating it, I realized that it would make an excellent computer game, sort of like Myst, but different in many significant ways. In fact I may have invented a new genre of computer games. So as we were negotiating a contract I asked Lucasfilm if they could put in a clause which would allow me a royalty of some kind if they ever decided to make a computer game out of Lightsider. Well...it turned out I pushed their button on that one. They told me it would be impossible to agree to such a royalty, and that I was way out of line asking for one! They said they don't do business that way -- they acquire all rights when you do a project for them, and you are paid only for the original project. So I elected not to sell them Lightsider, because the gaming concept was just too strong. I am in the process of marketing it elsewhere right now. The curious thing, from my point of view, was the vehemence of their reaction to my request. They could have just said "no", and that's that. But it was as if I had poked a scorpion with a stick or something. Ahh...but life is sweet, and it goes on forever. The power of the Force is great, my friends. Do not fear the Emperor. Do not tremble before the minions of the dark side. Realize the Lightside of the Force, live in the Force, and the Force will be your support and your strength, even in the face of great adversity. ;-) May the Force be with you! Some words from Bob Cooper, Dark Horse editor, spring 1996 Cooper: Tom Veitch did indeed write a preliminary Lightsider script (about two years ago), with the intention of publishing it at Dark Horse as a graphic story album (i.e., similar in format to the Aliens: Tribes GSA of a few years back). Dave Dorman was considered as the artist on the project, but, to the best of my knowledge, never completed any paintings for it. The reason the project never happened can be classified as "contractual differences." For a short period of time, there were plans afoot to release Lightsider as a comics series, with Tom revising his GSA script into a comics script, but again "contractual differences" reared its ugly head. At this time, it looks like Lightsider won't be seeing the light of day, at least at Dark Horse. While there were, at one point, tentative plans for a sequel to The Sith War by Veitch, those same contractual differences have spelled the end of that particular project as well, it looks like.
This raises more questions... I wonder what Veitch would have followed up on. More of Ulic Qel-Droma following his loss of the Force, or maybe a focus on Nomi rebuilding the Jedi Order? The new Mandalore at the end of The Sith War? Whatever it is, I doubt it got recycled into the Redemption comic years later.
I'm looking forward to reading this, I wonder how closely it aligns with the scenes added to the Dark Empire II audio drama. Maybe it would have been focused on Nomi and Vima, and their "great destiny" that never really materialised.
You know your relationship with Lucasfilm has soured when you crack open the "Emperor" and "minions of the Dark Side" metaphors Interesting stuff. Still haven't had an opportunity to read beyond the first page of the document yet but looking forward to seeing what this "new genre of computer game" is all about. Right from that first page, though, one thing that brought an immediate smile to my face was the alien vocalizations. Veitch's aliens are always saying things like "Kck Nlchll!" and "Grnth!" and that's present here right out of the gate. It will indeed be interesting to see how DEII and EE play out with this now in the mix.
Are we talking about Veitch’s plan before KJA entered the picture or afterwards? Before KJA entered the picture there was no Exar Kun.
I am wondering,... Spoiler Kam Solusar's extragalactic stay, Crimson Empire's Nom Anor, Dark Horse's abandoned NJO plot quite different from DelRey's... could it all be connected? Not in a retcon way but in the sense that the Comics extragalactic storyline that sadly went nowhere given DelRey overtook them was in play as far back as Lightsider? Extragalactic being a plan for where the EU may turn to post movies and Sith? Was this the origin? Marvel had extragalactic shenangians with Nagai, Tof and Lumiya. Marvel lost the license to Darkhorse right about Dark Empire and still extragalactic shenangians with Kam Solusar now and other plans for future untold Nom Anor / Invasion stories always on the backburner?
As one of the four official owners of the Lightsider manuscript, I'm just lurking to monitor the conversation... https://photos.app.goo.gl/jF8NHPwn99DavBJu6
In terms of what Tom actually intended regarding Ulic (in contrast to Kevin Anderson's take), I published Tom's notes, which Tom gave me to include as "Excursus: Ulic Qel-Droma’s Fate – An Alternative Look," in my essay, "Dark Empire: An Annotated History and Analysis of Its Legacy" found in Sequart Organization's A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Exploring Star Wars Comics ().
The timeline of Kam's exile seems to put the Jedi Purge ten years after the Clone Wars, which isn't a date I remember seeing before. There's a parallel to Tales of the Jedi in Kam's fall that I find interesting: like Ulic is initially drawn to the dark side out of revenge for his master, before ultimately being brought over by "Sith poison", Kam succumbs to his anger towards Vader and then is filled with "Dark Side energies" by Sedriss. I can't say I really agree with the depiction of the dark side as an outside force, but it seems like this combination of internal and external corruption was important to Veitch's conception of it. The opening attack on a Rebel base is the high point for me, so far. It's a much more threatening introduction to Sedriss and the Elite than Balmorra in Dark Empire II, where they really don't come off very well.
I think the internal/external split effect of the Dark Side is well done and reflects actual real world esoteric spirituality well. You attract what you send out. If you are filled with hatred and anger, you will attract that in return. Hence a character, even if briefly, giving in to his inner darkness, will attract dark forces exterior to himself. Be that as fateful events, be that as entities that leach of his dark energy and attempt to further your emitting them/feeding them thus. It is a combination that works well. Jedi do likewise when they empty themselves, focus and attract the Force and Light by not getting distracted/attached and mirroring what they want to attract. So for a Sith, attracting bad leeching entities and energies that further the spiral of darkness and "forever will it dominate your destiny" angle, it makes sense and can end in them ultimately being consumed by these energies, loosing themselves to them, no longer in control of themselves even, overtaken by them. The point one takes/gets a Sith name, searches the Dark Side for one ROTS style actually, can also mirror such a shift from selfcontrol to the Dark Side/Entity/energy spiral downward taking over your actions. PS: In that regard Sith poison and feeding someone dark energies to turn someone also makes sense. You blast someone with them till the defenses break down and they accept them to be free again. And once they gave up, they internalised them, and in return attract likewise more and more as noted above.
I wonder whether not Sedriss being a descedent of Ulic Qel-Droma, his real name being Qaga Lok, or his “last name” being QL are mentioned in the original version of Lightsider. None of that is mentioned in Sedriss’s entry in The New Essential Guide to Characters.
