Lit The Essential Atlas and Galactic Cartography: Official Discussion

ok, this always bothered me in Dark Empire, how the MF got from Nal Hutta to Ganath with a broken hyperdrive. The preview map of Hutt Space online indicates they are NOT in the same system, so is this another case of the backup hyperdrive?

I had toyed with the possible retcon they were in the same system, but I never like it, because no matter how hard to navigate the space around Ganath might be, it was hard to imagine it had never been done if it was in the same system as Nal Hutta and Nar Shadda, which I would imagine is one of the best-explored systems in the Galaxy since it was a major crossroads for illicit activity for millennia. After all, if law enforcement actually did interfere there, you'd think smugglers would want to have some boltholes in space. So I agree with Dan and Jason NOT placing Ganath in the same system as Nal Hutta. This gaffe always struck me as being poorly thought out by the DE creators, which is the same conclusion I came to about the Hoth-Anoat-Bespin mess in ESB.

 

There's just no way around it. Without FTL travel, you'll need at least a year or so to get to a nearby system - if they're crowded together. Probably the best retcon WEG did.

 

Nothing says that the Emperor's Ruling Council was killed. Just the Imperial Ruling Council. Doesn't mean they're the same. In fact, as I see, the implication is that they were seperate. The ERC is referred to several times after the destruction of the IRC is mentioned.

Depends on your definition of hotbed I suppose. Maybe the Emperor can't even tolerate 10 people from a senate made up of thousands coming forward and rebelling. Look at all the trouble just three of them allying caused.

 

The Atlas says on the TESB map that the MF used a backup hyperdrive to reach Bespin. Could this have worked in DE?

 

Dan, Jason:

After becoming overjoyed that Obredaan was deemed semi-important enough to be placed on the Mid Rim map (I appear to be one of the few strange people that actually enjoyed the Obi-Wan game ), I went looking for that evil poseur, Obreedan. It's there on the map of the Second/New Galactic Civil War but not in the index. It also appears to occupy the same place as Obredaan on the Mid Rim map.

So: could it be that the two planets are the same and it suffers from unfortunate typos (as I'd hoped was the case in Bloodlines), or is something crazy occurring and there really are two planets in almost the same spot (like Tatooine and Geonosis)?

 

All fronts you say? Even the aquatic front?

Isn?t it obvious?
GrandAdmiralJello is in fact a Vong infiltraitor, and he doesn?t want us to know about the war and the YV?s defeat.

Sure, he claims to be a loyal Imperial human, but I think he dost protest too much. After all, why would he need to constantly say the Empire is victorious on all fronts; a true Imperial would know that goes without saying.

Luckily I found him out before he could turn over our galaxy to Xenos and heretics and monsters and zealots and heretics and metal boxes and spess mehrans.

 

What I am saying is take the Imperial Ruling Council as the triumvirate, with some of those members perhaps being on the ERC.

Some people on the ERC are on the IRC. Some people (maybe all three?) on the IRC are also ont he ERC. But the ERC is not necessarily the IRC. Tears of Palpatine and Pena had this discussion years ago onthe JC. Pena even noted that he IRC and the ERC seemed to be different, but was merely treating them as the same so people wouldn't get confused. The atlas seems to treat them as being different.

The mere fact that members of both groups were on both councils would explain in universe confusion and them being considered the same. In fact, the IRC could even still be a representative of the rest of the ERC without being the ERC. When people refer to them as the same body, it's just a matter of a little confusion rather than actual fact.

And yes, I am pleased withe timing of the REbel asaults on Imperial space. The major ones seem to be in between the 2.5- 5 year mark, which is exactly where I would have placed them. They have had enough time to gain allies through diplomacy and to put to use their new influx of resources.

 

If you check the chart for A New Hope, you'll notice that the Death Star makes a detour past Carida. That just means they remembered that the book Children of the Jedi said they dropped Ohran Keldor and Bevel Lemelisk off on Carida before setting off for Yavin and its fateful rendezvous. That's called good memory, or at least exceptional research.

 

You guys are the greatest.

TC

 

Oh, does the Atlas say anything about what happened to the Empire of the Hand?

 

Apparantly absorbed by the Chiss.

 

Jason, I did notice a minor problem - Turkana appears in the Outer Rim near Mon Calamari Space (which ties in beautifully with the battle there in X-Wing), but its sector - Hadar - shows up on the Senex/Juvex map as bordering their domains in the Mid-Rim. (The text also mentions the sector, as one of the neighboring planets detailed is said to be there).

 

OK, now this is the official thread. Please don't be confused.

 

The Atlas is amazing. All dissenters to this view will be blasted. Survivors will be blasted again. Congrats to all the TF.Ners and Wookieepedians who got acknowledgments and such, ( and a tremendous hat's off to Jason, Dan, and the artists for the bundle of awesome that they cooked up. Well worth the money.

And, if I'm ever cooped up in a room with Chris Trevas and Leland Chee, I'm going to have Chris draw Cal Omas and Leland make it canon just so we finally have a picture of the man!

 

Forgive me if this question has been asked and answered already, but what ( if anything ) does it have to say about hyperspace travel times?

 

Hi folks, catching up with a lot of stuff...

Yes, but they've become subsectors. More on ORT sectors in a while....

Re the Senate, two key documents in our depiction of its decline are the HNN finale in Star Wars Insider #84 (one of my all-time favorite bits of EU lore) and Dark Lord, p. 103. The latter seems pretty explicit about the Senate becoming a toothless advisory body and laws coming from the Emperor and his advisors.

We didn't define it exactly, so there's no canonical answer. But my gut says (big caveat: I'm utterly unworthy of Fleet Junkie membership) that in general, the Rebel/early NR forces were an ever-shifting conglomeration of local forces and purely Rebel/NR units, with the exact makeup of a given force highly dependent on the situation and location. I'd say the Mon Cal offensive would have been mostly or entirely Mon Cal forces, while the Sovv-led operations would have been mostly NR units, albeit with Sullustan participation. But there's wiggle room for other answers if those are unsatisfying.

That's a typo on New Galactic Civil War map -- one for the errata. It's Obredaan.

Ugh. That one's my fault. I moved Turkana near Mon Cal for the exact tie-in you note approvingly, but thought I'd placed it in Hadar Sector myself and so could move it. I either overwrote or didn't notice the reference that it had come from the X-Wing game.

[swearing and muttering]

This can't really be fixed -- I suppose someone could gin up an oversector that includes Hadar sector and Turkana's new place, but that's a pretty desperate retcon.

Thanks very much for all the feedback here, and the errata that's been sent to essential.atlas@gmail.com. Please keep it coming, on both fronts!

 

Thanks, Jason. Could this mean then that Obreedan's appearance in Bloodlines can now also be called a typo?

Nice to know Obredaan was a member of the Confederation in any case.

 

This was true even in West End Games. Nothing really changes here. The Empire always left the Core Worlds alone and brutally repressed the outside. Though I'm annoyed we don't get more mention of the fact that aliens were repressed heavily even in the Core.

 

Uh, GAJ, I actually agree with you that the Emperor ruled lightly in the Core Worlds but I think you're overstating the case.

1. Dentaal: Destroyed by direct order of the Emperor himself.

2. Ralltir: Bombed to Hell by Lord Tion. Tion held onto his position afterwards.

 

Well I just cracked open the book and read a little on the relevant passages. My initial thoughts are.

1. I like the fact they institutionalized the racism and slavery of the Empire as well as highlighted that the Empire was not as beloeved in the Core as many people like to believe. Let's face it, all three of the major Rebel Alliance figures were Core Worlders.

2. I concede that the Core is the financial hub of the galaxy.

3. The galaxy has been settled 20,000 years Jello. Your obsession with believing that the majority of the galaxy exists in the Core Worlds is silly. A major part of this being that plenty of species with mutliple billions of inhabitants evolved on other planets.

4. This is just filled with wonderful fun facts all round.