The purpose of this thread is to spread knowledge, debate, and theorize regarding how much Palpatine knew of what was lurking in the Unknown Regions, his counters against such threats, and possible avenues of exploitation he would eventually pursue. I am choosing to exclude the Vong from this, as the whole Palpatine-Vong debate has been done to death already. I suppose to start, I will list of a series of factions that the Galactic Empire and the Emperor would view as an aforementioned threat: The Chiss The Chiss are largely considered the most militarily and logistically capable organization in the Unknown Regions, with the power, drive, and skill to exert force all the way down to the Sri-Ruuk Cluster (literally at the other end of the Unknown Regions.) Thrawn, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Empire of the Hand, seems to have made some forrays into including Chiss forces--at least those of his own Household Phalanx--into the Empire of the Hand, while technology was traded between the two, for presumably mutual benefit. How much of this was at Palpatine's direction or even knowledge? It is not a stretch to assume eventually Chiss Space would fall under Imperial control, but how? Direct military annexation, or as a protectorate that slowly becomes absorbed into either the Empire of the Hand, or the Galactic Empire proper? 2. The Killiks Hailing from the destroyed world of Alderaan (haven't read the Swarm War trilogy, was this plot point ever addressed?), the Killiks are a largely peaceful species of sentient insectoids with the capability to manufacture naval hardware --up to capital ship levels--. As seen in the Swarm War, they can certainly be manipulated by the Force, the Dark Side especially, to expand their hives and force other sentients into their hivemind. 3. Mnggal-Mnggal A malevolent entity thought to predate even the Celestials. A "whispered horror of the Unknown Regions--a shapeless, pitiless creature that toys with its living prey in the way a felinx tortures a dying scurrier." [1] Indeed, while the Emperor Palpatine in Canon senses a font of Dark Side power in the Unknown Regions that appears to be Exegol, if such disturbances were ever felt by his Legends number, then it must have been the Mnggal-Mnggal. This entity "desires control, and the entity has staked its claim to thousands of worlds in the great spiral galaxy that it has inhabited far longer than the ephemeral beings that are its playthings. Extinguishing individual lives appears to be a source of lazy amusement." [1] So alike are Mnggal-Mnggal and the Emperor Palpatine, that I think either they become fast friends or immediate rivals for control over their respective "domains." By all counts, it apears that the Mnggal-Mnggal entity could potentially be destroyed entirely or at least crippled beyond repair if it's homeworld of Mugg Fallow were to be bombarded from orbit--or, say, hit with a superlaser. 4. The Rakata GrandMoffTrachta, what do you mean?! The Rakata have been extinct for a millenia? Nope, actually, according to the wonderful sourcebook The Unknown Regions, pockets of Rakata have survived on colony worlds near Rakata Prime, in a region called the 'Rakatan Archipelago.' While some populations have regressed into a stone age, primal level, some are "sitting on artifacts of unimaginable power that would be worth millions of credits to museums, scientists, or private collectors." [1] Indeed, one tribe on the planet Tulpaa is even in construction of a new Star Force, said to still be in a metal skeleton state, assisted by a pure-blooded Sith released from a Rakatan mind trap prison. What better trophy would fill Wayland or the Emperor's vaults then the last survivors of an ancient, universally reviled race, and possibly the last pure-blood Sith in existence? And the technology behind the Star Forge would prove a wonderful tool for expanding the Empire's infrastructure and military in the region, or at least advancing a new generation of World Devastators. 5. The Sorcerers of Rhand Largely reclusive, I believe Palpatine would employ or coerce Cronal to either recruit these nihilistic shamans into the ranks of Palpatine's Dark Side Adepts, or destroy them entirely. Heck, they might even want the latter. 6. The Sri-Ruuk Imperium The only organization we can say for certainty that Palpatine directly communicated and dealt with. See my post from last year regarding this topic. 7. The Nagai/Tofs Mere days before Endor, there were reports of "albino skinned marauders" invading the Mandalore sector. Grand Admiral Grunger was dispatched (presumably by Palpatine, given the chain of command of the Grand Admiralty) to investigate and halt their advance. I doubt Palpatine would bother to use the Nagai for any purpose much like the Sith Lady Lumiya did, instead annihilating them in earnest. There are plenty of others, such as the Vagaari, Lugubraa and Ebruchi, but this post is long enough, so I open it to /lit/ to discuss! ---- Sources: [1] The Unknown Regions
He knew of the Charon, even had Charon technology in Tantiss according to the Thrawn Trilogy sourcebooks and imperial Scientologist described them in his report to Vader in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races. Otherspace is as unknown as anything can get
Why are the Unknown Regions still unknown in the OT era? I know, the cutoff, only few routes in, etc. and hard to navigate space as well as these aforementioned horrors. But: For millennia the barrier became porous and let few routes in and out work. Since then, back in SW TOR MMO era at least as well as KOTOR era with the travels to Lehon, the UR was accessible, even if dangerous. Numerous Sith operations as well as Chiss allies attest to that, as does Zakuul and else. Even if many Chiss of that era are from Thule, the Ascendancy was known and accessible at least for some. Now, as I see it, the UR became accessible slowly in the millennia before TOR, with mostly Jedi tending to Ilum, Sith to Exegol and Chiss spying on the galaxy. But not until TOR has there been major stable routes into the UR that most likely Forceusers prospected and kept secret from the public. Likewise, when it became known that access was possible albeit rare and dangerous, companies smelled money and opportunity and a hyperspace rush for the UR broke out, like a secret competition between companies and maybe families like canons Grafs and San Tekkas. Due to the danger, many cheap labor was used and wasted in trying to forge routes in. And those kept secret at best and deemed not yet ready or worthy for sale at worst. When with TOR MMO the Chiss involvement in the Sith Empire became known and exposed, some routes got public. And more and more were sold or given to military for war usage or after that company exploration in the cleanup operations. With Zakuul and other dangers leaking out of the UR, or certain people and entities knowing where in known space more danger was hidden (Belsavis), the freshly opened UR becomes again a contested space to be controled or locked back up again to contain new threats. One can only guess that the Chiss sought Sith help against the local dangers in return for their service to them. Anyway, after all the TOR shenangians, some routes remained open albeit untended and dangerous like the ones at Baatu, near Jedha and other ports to the UR. A lot of colonized UR space that was partially known in that TOR MMO era returned to unknown status, routes lost again afterwards. Hence WOTC UR Sourcebooks leftovers of such cultures in the UR rediscovered later on. I guess given the trouble, a lot was purged from records too to prevent exploration and maybe the Jedi had a hand in that forcing a Senatorial order to a) discontinue route maintenance b) set up watchstations near all known access points, like Baatu and Jedha local Jedi Temples c) purge all records including Holonet and BoSS lore on it with secret backups kept at the Jedi Temple Library and only a handful of other sites. Outbound Flight would be the first attempt to reopen the UR and reconnect lost colonies before going extragalactic to the Satellites. Which obviously failed. I wonder, was there any UR action during the NSW? Another opening and closing/purging as in/after TOR MMO era? To answer my initial question, the UR are unknown no longer because of natural reasons. That is only part of the answer, but because for several millennia, whenever exploration was attempted it failed epically and the Jedi and Republic kept it offlimits and protected. The Empire was more happy to explore it and use its dangers for their purposes, taking into account and accepting losses along the way. Thrawn was Palpatines secret weapon against the dangers, renewing the old Sith alliance with the Chiss. Until then, the Ssi Ruuvi he brokered a deal with that would work until the Empire was ready to defend against any such threats. Mggnal-Mggnal he underestimaged, and abused in his Zombie virus experiments of Black Wing. And what happened then when the Rebels defeated the Emperor and no Jedi or Republic knew or protected the galaxy from the UR? Nor locked it back up? Luke and Lor San Tekka tried to explore it. As did many others. The First Order and Empire of the Hand thrived in there after many losses, defeating some horrors while holding others merely barely at bay. Only few could keep the darkness contained... and it took Darkside Masters to even manage that what mortals could never do. Guess Exegol was quite busy as was Snoke before he could take on the First Order and other duties, to not loose the galaxy they wanted to reconquer to the horrors they had to keep those at bay or defeat them first. And in Legends, the Vong came and part of their forces stuck in the UR got definitely hit hard and halted by the horrors, as elsewhere they advanced and turned both sides of the UR cut into a living hell until pacified themselves.
I've long suspected "Unknown" was something of an exaggeration...Kind of like "Wild" Space...they are flourishes by map makers to draw interest. The biggest obstacle to colonizing and incorporating the UR into the rest of the galaxy is frustration with hyperspace transit. Thanks to the lanes in the rest of the galaxy, you can get almost anywhere relatively fast compared just minor distances in the UR. There have been a number of plot devices built into the universe to support this, but ultimately "no major hyperspace lanes" is more crippling, if not as attractive a centerpiece for story telling. Much like getting in your car and driving across an ocean...hyperspace travelers see a chasm of grueling travel to reach just about anywhere on that side of the core. And honestly the core might be a good comparison. The core is a hyperspace nightmare to navigate, but it is relatively small and has also been artificially pried open (mostly because it IS small, and thus lucrative to do so.) If the UR is just as hard to navigate as the core, but hundreds of times larger...meaning your frustrating wandering through hyper/realspace to reach anywhere is even longer yet...the "why bother" factor to anyone trying to get somewhere reaches a delta. Does that mean no one goes? Heck no...thousands probably go to the UR every day. Hidden outposts for pirates and smugglers...religious cults...risk-taking prospectors...anything you can think of that once happened in the established side of the galaxy is happening in the UR...but because there are no lanes...the level of penetration of these efforts are far less significant, requiring vastly more time to establish anything, particularly if they want it to be known that they are established at all. Could the galaxy (in this case, the Empire) flex it's industrial, military, and economic might to make inroads into the UR? Sure. Why Not? But the real question is probably "is it worth it?" Much of the "established" side of the galaxy is known, but not developed...is it worth fighting whoever lives out in the UR (as the OP detailed) AND the natural physics of the galaxy at the same time...just to find the same treasures that could be revealed in a midrim world that is charted, but not exploited? I love maps, but one of the worst parts about them is they have a way of limiting imagination. The GFFA is HUGE, and much of the galaxy that is "known" is still not known to the reader, the heroes, or even to most of the galaxy that considers it "known". The "Unknown Regions" is just one of those literary teases that just makes the romantic explorer salivate, and the completionist sees a map half fuzzed out and goes "well let's get this finished already!" Well, then what? Gotta map out those satellite galaxies. Gotta start hopping the void more and more. What is the point? We can have it all right there, in one galaxy...there are no limits to the "known" galaxy just because it is not "Unknown". Summary: No Freeways into the Unknown Regions = Nobody vacations on Csilla.
Palpatine made a deal with the Ssi-Ruu to take some frontier imperial worlds in return for entechment technology IIRC. He knew about the Chiss of course. I would imagine Palpatine knew the unknown regions had various alien species and polities-some hostile, some potentially beneficial, and he seems to have acted accordingly. At the same time I expect “unknown regions threats” would be one way to sell the public on increasing military funding for the navy in particular. That said, I don’t think he was primarily interested in it or overly concerned with what was going on in the western galaxy or what it might bring.
Didn't Palpatine have Thrawn map out most of the Unknown Regions in Legends? I remember that being a major plot point in Heir to the Empire, since all the resources there could revitalize the empire and drag out the war indefinitely.* Though on the other map I believe it is still labeled that, even though between the Empire's explorations and the Chiss being more active in the wider galaxy it really shouldn't be unknown anymore. Similarly, in canon I wouldn't be surprised if he combined Thrawn's reports on the UR with other explorations, interrogations of captured aliens, esoteric sith knowledge, and esoteric knowledge stolen from the jedi and any other group with ties to the UR to have at least a vague idea of much of it. *Which has kind of an interesting parallel to the First Order did its military buildup to retake the galaxy in the same area, probably with the same resources.
The cover story for Thrawn's mission to the Unknown Regions was "mapping expedition" according to Vision of the Future at least.
And VotF also had Luke and Mara expect the Remnant to go for Coruscant if the Empire of the Hand joined up. Instantly.
Cover story for an exile, which was in turn a cover story for a mission of exploration and conquest. Gotta love the layers of bull**** Palpatine operates on. Wow, really? I thought it was more a long term threat, but maybe I remembered a rationalization to make it make more sense.
Yeah...I think after the duology they built up Nirauan as being on some hidden hyperspace run that could get you to Coruscant unobstructed. I don't remember it in the books themselves, but it certainly became a thing later.
Lends to my knowledge that 244Core is likely part of the EOTH. Also... infinite resources... could 244Core be a spinoff of Iokath?
I’d imagine Palpatine would have known about the Killiks and maybe even the fact that they had been the Celestials’ workforce and general enforcers in the ancient past. One might wonder whether this inspired him to reach out to the Geonosians when the time came to design and build his own superweapon. A question this brings up is why Palpatine didn’t make use of the Killiks himself. One likely factor would be that he knew how that bond was forged and he would not want to share his being with anyone else by becoming a joiner. Additionally, he may have preferred to not interfere with the Celestials’ “property” in case that should stir them to action, and doubtless he knew those beings were much more powerful than him. I also wonder how much he knew about Abeloth, though she was strictly speaking not in the Unknown Regions. But considering the Imperial activity around the Maw, it seems likely that Palpatine was also aware of her but, as with the Celestials, cautious to not awaken a power that could threaten him. It would’ve been interesting to read a short story or one-shot comic in which Palpatine visited the Maw and encountered Abeloth or some hint of her while meditating. Perhaps he may have even encountered her during the periods of time when he was bodiless and traveling through the Netherworld of the Force. There is something fitting about the man who would become the first Galactic Emperor encountering the physical embodiment of chaos. I think FOTJ hinted that Jacen’s own knowledge of Abeloth had an effect on his journey toward the dark side, and Darth Caedus definitely shared many similarities with Palpatine. So perhaps one could even wonder whether an even earlier encounter with Abeloth could have been influential in Palpatine’s own dark-side journey.
Given Jacen flowwalking to watch his grandfathers fall and all... I wonder if Palpatine ever noticed a Flowwalker from the future watching. Or how Jacen learned firsthand of the dangers of Flowwalking and what to avoid as he told Tahiri. Imagine Palpatine afraid of Jacen and curious about timetravel or some anonymous Watchers. Makes me wonder how then, when he driving his Snoke around made use of Aing To navigators on the Surpremacy, may have tried to get flowwalking from them but was denied it.
