Resource The Fanon Thread

Only if you can get it into fanon-post form within this thread by this weekend or so. Seriously, though, in keeping with the rule against linking to outside stories, etc. (see the first item in this post of the Fanfic FAQ), Fanon Thread challenges may only involve material that's part of the Fanon Thread—that's only fair to the others who have posted their creations here.

 

Fair enough.

It's a huge article, the one I linked, which is why it's not on the thread itself.

 

*Looks at link* That is impressive Goodwood

You don't need to post all of it at once in one post, you could divide it over time, posting part of it each month or maybe FanonSock could allow you to use multiply posts after each other, I have done that for my Force powers/skills posts.

 

I updated my fanon entry on Sacorria with the following:

- Planetary anthem, "Fields of Golden Grains"
- Naming customs
- Days of the week
- Flora: snowgrape
- Food: dust corn bread pudding, snowgrape wine and the Seven Rivers whiskey (the latter was co-created with leiamoody and used in her fanon challenge response)
- An addendum to the colour system concerning the White Shirts

 

Yes, that video works for me.

 

Turbolasers and Shipboard Weapon Systems

Since the dawn of the Republic the turbolaser has been the primary weapon system for combat between spacecraft. While there are other weapons in common usage (Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missiles, Ion Cannons, Laser Cannons, Mass Drivers, and so forth...) the primary weapon for almost every Galactic Navy has been the turbolaser. Like all 'laser' weapons in the Galaxy, a turbolaser isn't a laser weapon as more primitive cultures define the term, but a particle beam weapon that fires a bolt of Tibanna at extremely high velocities. Most turbolasers fire bolts approaching a velocity of up to 15 km/sec, enabling them to engage targets at much farther velocities. In fleet combat, it's accepted that the maximum engagement range for a turbolaser is around 150 km, roughly three times that of a conventional laser cannon, and about fifty percent more than most shipboard mounted ion cannons.

Turbolasers achieve such range and muzzle velocity by using a multi-stage system to excite blaster gas. First the blaster gas is ionized, then superheated by a laser beam. Finally the blaster gas is accelerated through a loop, nicknamed a turbo, before finally being released into a tightly focused coherent stream of particles out the weapon's barrels. This multistage process causes a great deal of heat, forcing the adoption of a variety of cooling techniques. The Taim and Bak XX series of turbolasers use the recoil force of the particle beam's discharge to cycle coolant through the weapon, essentially using the recoil as a pump. Other designs use a variety of other system, from eject-able heat-sinks to vast arrays of radiators to dispose of the immense heat generated in the process.

Most turbolasers require a minimum of two seconds between shots due to the cooling requirements of the weapon, and often times have a sustained rate of fire of only around 10 shots per minute. In combat, commanders will often burst fire their turbolasers, firing two shots one after another and then allowing a short respite to allow the weapon to cool to a safer level.

The devastating power of turbolasers is a result of their immense velocity and the unique properties of tibanna gas. The higher impact velocities achieved by turbolaser fire causes more of the deuterium atoms trapped in the carbon lattice of tibanna gas to fuse, resulting in far greater energy outputs at the ultimate impact point. Many turbolasers consume no more tibanna gas then a conventional laser cannon would, but require much more power from the ship's reactor to deliver the shot to the target.

Turbolasers are largely considered ineffective against starfighters, due mostly to their low rate of fire, cooling period, and usual tendency to have poor tracking capabilities (i.e. their turrets rotate slower or the guns are fixed emplacements). Still, any hit from a turbolaser against a starfighter is almost guaranteed to be a kill, and many Imperial Navy captains have used coordinated fire from their turbolasers to scatter a Rebel starfighter attack before it can deliver it's ordnance.

 

Great write-up stellarmagic01 . I can definitely see myself using some of that in the future.

Many thanks for sharing.

 

One of my combination of fanon, was going to require me to learn and assimilate the Chiss language from scratch, all the little things that make up the verbs, nouns, etcetera.

I was dubious about it once I saw my selection, and got fairly invested in the Chiss character that would be joining my crew, but when it came time to sit down to tackle the new language, my Muse kissed its teeth, and told me I was on my own.

Sorry.

 

Just a heads-up for Gamiel and Sith-I-5 in preparation for the next challenge (cc FanonSock): for the first challenge I got Gamiel's post about the Worrite and Sith's about law enforcement agencies. I didn't manage to write my entry in time for the challenge, but I'm still planning to do it (it's actually all outlined and half-written already). However, since the use of the fanon elements will be nowhere as extensive as what was done by other writers for challenge #1, I think it would be fair for those fanon posts to be eligible again in the second challenge.

 

A Matter of Scale - The True Size of the Imperial Navy

Often I hear people speak of the Empire's army as being infinite, and from a personal perspective it is rather easy to see the truth within that statement. While the Galactic Empire's military isn't infinite, the true scale of the Imperial military is mind boggling.

There are over 1,000 sectors in the Galactic Empire, each of which is assigned at least one 'Sector Group'. Each 'Sector Group' contains a minimum of 24 Star Destroyers and 2,400 other ships (1,600 of which are combat vessels). This is an absolute minimum for imperial presence, as Imperial Doctrine allows for the augmentation of each individual unit that makes up it's order of battle. When fully augmented the size of an Imperial Sector group can balloon to over 42,000 ships.

The Imperial Fleet has more sector groups then actual sectors, how many more is unclear as roving commands and personal fleets gathered by Grand Moffs and other bureaucrats often are made up of multiple sector groups. What is known is that only 25,000 Imperial-class Star Destroyers have been produced (both subclasses), and that unless large portions of the sector groups are using other types of Star Destroyers (like the Procursator, Tector, Venator, and Secutor-classes) there likely are not many more sector groups than sectors.

This means that there are at bare minimum of at least 2,500,000 ships in the Imperial Navy to a maximum of around 43,750,000 ships. 25,000 of which are Imperial Star Destroyers.

 

Soul immortality

Soul immortality was the process of keeping a deceased individual's soul intact once mortal life ceased. The soul could exist for an indeterminate period of time in the Otherworld, the middle level of the Afterlife. Anyone could exist in spirit form after death despite a commonly held belief among several mystically oriented groups including the Jedi, who once taught only Force sensitives could retain identities after death. Their version of an immortal soul was colloquially known as a “Force ghost”.

Various techniques existed to help living beings get around the standard process of waiting until after death to be offered the chance to attain soul immortality. The Jedi and Sith both had specific techniques that allowed their physical bodies to dissolve without need for burial or cremation, although these techniques required intense mental preparation and several days of meditation in order to be successful.

An immortal soul could interact with the Living World. Most contact was established in non-physical forms, but an immortal soul could also interact with the living by appearing as a ghost.

A soul could remain immortal for an undetermined period of time, but the retention of conscious identity diminished the longer a soul existed beyond the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Many souls perpetuated their immortality through reincarnation, which intensified the learning process for any soul but cost the soul any chance of fully remembering their previous incarnations. Souls trapped within the physical plane could lose awareness of identity over time until an intermediary such as a Jedi or medium released them.

Description
An immortal soul was based upon the capacity to retain every trait and ability possessed in life for any extended period of time once physical life had ceased. There were several different approaches to retaining one's identity past physical life. The most common and readily accessible occurred in the lowest level of the Afterlife. Recently deceased beings were offered the opportunity to reincarnate, which would allow their souls the chance to continue existence while inhabiting new bodies. The second most common method was offered to beings that had spent centuries in the cycle of life and death when they were given the choice to exist within the Otherworld as a spirit. Another technique was common to the Whills and some Jedi that involved the achievement of immortality through complete dissolution of the body. Yet another process was used by the Sith via a combination of alchemy and necromancy.

The immortal soul could interact with the Living World through physical manifestation. The soul's basic form was a gray or white mass of shapeless energy that lacked distinctive features, which many cultures called a “ghost”. With a certain amount of mental preparation and strength of will, the soul could appear to anyone, although the ability to be perceived by others was dependent upon the beholder's degree of Force sensitivity. Regular spirits would appear as white and transparent, while Force users could appear in solid form with a blue glow surrounding their astral bodies.

History
Soul immortality existed from the creation of the universe's first sentient lifeforms. The Whills, who taught it to several other mystically inclined organizations including the Jedi, were the first organization to practice transcending the cycle of life/death/rebirth by dissolution of the physical body. These techniques were forgotten as the necessity for knowledge of a post-life existence decreased among most civilizations. Even the Jedi chose to forget their ancient traditions in favor of emphasizing the importance of joining The Oneness after death. Only the Whills continued to practice their process of physical dissolution.

The shift in belief first occurred in the midst of the chaos and destruction that encompassed the Pius Dea Crusades. The high number of casualties that happened caused a large number of recently deceased individuals to cross in varied states of mental and spiritual anguish. This created a unique dilemma for the soul counselors tasked with guiding these distressed souls through the Otherworld. The millennia-old practices established to help the newly deceased adjust to the cycle of life/death/rebirth were called into question on both sides of the Great Divide. More souls existed at this point in galactic history due to population growth. Controlled numbers of newly created souls had been created within the Circle every few centuries, but the majority of souls had been recycled within reincarnation. But many of those ancient souls now refused to go back into new incarnations during yet another extended period of war. For the first time in the history of the physical realm, there were more deaths than births, yet the number of souls who removed themselves from the Great Rotation quickly outpaced the number of available souls to inhabit new bodies. Small numbers of newly created souls emerged from the innermost center of the Afterlife, known as “The Circle”, but could not match the number of physical incarnations being created in the Living World.

A temporary solution was attempted when fragments from the souls of two or more individuals were placed into solo incarnations, but it soon transpired these incarnations suffered from various mental instabilities in later years.

Rediscovery
Aduman Nical and Chevor Mikayzd were the first Jedi to rediscover the secret of soul immortality with the assistance of a Whills shaman while on a research mission to Vouroso in 480 BBY. Their spirits taught Qui-Gon Jinn several centuries later the secret of retaining identity after death. Jinn eventually guided Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi to learn about the art of Force transcendence during their respective exiles that enabled them to perform the act of dissolution shortly after their departures from the Living World.

The knowledge of soul immortality was passed to the next generation when Luke Skywalker began setting up the New Jedi Order. He learned the art of Force transcendence from the ghosts of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, who had joined The Ascended soon after their deaths. These lessons were supplemented by additional instruction from Qui-Gon Jinn, Aduman Nical, and Chevor Mikayzd. Full access to the Afterlife was provided to Skywalker, including unlimited access to the Universal Archives. He was able to learn the intricacies of the Jedi techniques for retaining one's identity after death from these various resources.

Jedi and the “Force ghost” concept
The Jedi's version of soul immortality was called “Force immortality”. The Jedi learned to retain their post-life identities and could appear within the Living World as voices or apparitions. Most Jedi were able to dissolve their physical bodies once life ceased, but this practice required intense concentration and many days of meditation. Sudden death often took away the ability to let the physical body disappear, which happened to Qui-Gon Jinn after his duel with Darth Maul.

According to the Jedi tradition, death was a part of life, and it meant becoming one with the Force. They believed that deceased sentients lost their ability to communicate with the living, but mastery of certain obscure paths of learning could avert it. This belief became a commonly accepted tenet shortly after the Ruusan Reformation. It was a gradual shift from the original teachings of the Jed’aii Master, Qui-Ko, who taught anyone could maintain their spiritual identities after death. This was established belief for millennia, taught to padawans and masters alike. The final line of the Jedi Code, “There is no death, there is Force,” was inserted into the text to reflect this commonly accepted tenet.

Sith beliefs
Certain Sith Lords had also discovered similar techniques. Occasionally their bodies would fade as Jedi would, though like Jedi this was not a prerequisite for becoming a Force Ghost. It was not uncommon for the spirits of Sith Lords to remain, bound to the living world through an object, location, or simply due to the force of their malice and hatred. Unlike the Jedi, however, the Sith found little peace in this form, instead existing for centuries in a state of turmoil. In many ways, these techniques differed from those taught by the Jedi; the most distinct difference being the user's limited ability to interact with his surroundings.

Immortality for the common mortal
Some Jedi even believed that only Force sensitives could join The Oneness, while ordinary individuals’ souls ceased to exist, though it was never part of accepted Jedi belief.

Those who understood and accepted the nature of death ascended quickly into the upper realms of the Otherworld. They had several options before them once the initial stage was passed: they could continue the reincarnation cycle and enter a new body and lifetime. They could stay in the Otherworld and become soul counselors, maintainers of the Universal Archives, or Recorders of living history.

The souls of recently dead who did not immediately accept the nature of their deaths required intensive counseling methods that dealt with via separation to zones within the first level designed to soothe troubled emotions and provide a safe haven for comprehensive orientation.

 

We are missing five offerings.

I call upon the powers of the fanon-force and summon earlybird-obi-wan Raissa Baiard Viridian-Maiden Acaciathorn MsLanna Sith-I-5 galactic-vagabond422 stellarmagic01 ! Do you have offerings for the Fanon Challenge?

----------------------

Good, have fixed the link now.

also I have updated my posts on Mandolorians with some mando'a word, thanks to Sith-I-5 SWpants and Bardan_Jusik for the help.

Added some new species in my 'Species for the Unknown Regions' post

 

I offer Circleball

 

I'll gladly offer Sacorria as well.

 

If there are not enough offerings when the time is up I am willing to give up my post on Force traditions with Dark Side tendencies, but only if needed.

I just realised that I have not exposed your Sacorria post to my traditional questioning, so here they come

Regarding Sacorria: How do the animal life look like? Any "big five" that is a most see for tourists? How do the flora look like? Any unusual kind of terrain or terrain that is unusually common?

Regarding Sacorrians: How do they dress? How do people who are rebellious (but not to rebellious to be sent away) dress? Any kind of youth culture, beside government sponsored 'youth brigades' & similar? How do their architecture/s look like? Any group/species that they have prejudice to? Any unique superstitions? Is there a kind of technology/gadget/items that they don’t have/use or is unique to them? What kind of martial tradition do they have and what arms and armour do they use? Is there any notable minority groups? How is their music? What do they think about the rest of the Corellian sector? What about spaceship design? Is there any large scale organised crime (beside the government)? Do Ordo Aurorae Aureae have a lodge on Sacorria?

Also I don't know if I have said it earlier but I like how "socialist people's republic" Sacorria feel

B.t.w. have you read Snow Crash EP? There are some part of it, especially the ones taking place in "Fed land" that I think you could find inspiring.

 

All right, time for long overdue updates and responses!

1. First, there are some updates to announce. The following new fanon posts have been added to the index

• Turbolasers and Shipboard Weapon Systems by stellarmagic01
• A Matter of Scale: The True Size of the Imperial Navy by stellarmagic01
• Soul Immortality by leiamoody

And the following fanon post has been updated: Sacorria by Ewok Poet. Thank you all—just as a brief heads-up, please don't forget to PM this sock when you make a new fanon post, so that I have a record of things.

2. The list of fanon elements for challenge #2 has been updated—thank you, earlybird-obi-wan and Ewok Poet. The list now looks like this:

Four slots left! Again, people, you're welcome to offer another fanon element if you have one. And it can be one of the same ones that you had in the previous challenge (more on that below).

3. Responding to a few people's posts, questions, and comments about the current challenge and others:

No worries at all! I'm sorry if it wasn't clear before, but in all challenges here you are welcome to choose something else if the choice you get at first ends up not working for you.

Yes, it is totally AOK for fanon posts that were part of the first challenge to be part of this one (and other ones) as well—so nobody should let that hold them back from volunteering those or similar posts for this challenge! The only issue is if the throw of the dice gives you the same fanon element as you got last time—then you'd have to roll again. Ditto, of course, if the dice gives you your own fanon element.

Thanks, all!

 

I offer up Twi'lek language and writing.

 

You can use the Hoatzeri, slight as my entry is.

 

FanonSock

When does a new fanon element have to be up here by, for it to be "offered up" for Challenge #2"?

Gamiel 's tag led to me reviewing what I have here, and realising that I had forgotten all about my main criminal and revenge organisation. I shall start collating data for it, now.

 

I didn't have a specific deadline in mind, but at this point it would have to be pretty darn soon, because 14 of the 15 slots are filled! If you would like your organization to be part of the challenge, just say the word. My plan is to get started on the challenge as soon as the list is filled.

 

FanonSock

I am offering up the criminal and revenge Organisation: S.P.A.G.E.T.T.I. (Special Project for the Accumulation of Gems and the Erasure of The Tetsus Instigator).

Writing up what I can remember about them, this minute.

For those who don't like Earth words in Star Wars, I take it one step further; with no pasta dish named spaghetti in the GFFA, no-one will have heard of it, or have any preconceptions upon hearing the acronym.

 

If you need any more I offer my post on the neuro-lamp. I really love this item and would like to see it used more often.

 

A good chance to say that I wrote it into a future epic, many, many times. Thanks for inventing it.

 

The Imperial Army - A Nearly Endless Force

The scale of the Imperial Army is truly mind bending. Every world under Imperial control has at least a Corps Headquarters, and considering there is normally as many as over 100 inhabited systems in an Imperial Sector, the sheer number of troops required to simply garrison the territory they control is something only a statistician can approach grasping.

Complicating this is the augmentation system that the Imperial command has adopted throughout the military. This system enables a formation at each level to be augmented to more than twice its normal strength. With this being applied to formations at all levels, it’s possible for a company that is normally a mere 180 men, to be expanded to a formation of over 1,000 through augmentations and reinforcements.

This augmentation system is often used by Imperial Governors to cause their forces to explode in size when revolt and unrest begin to appear. It’s not uncommon for the Imperial Army to double the size of their force in a sector within six weeks of the outbreak of unrest, though they may often fall back on older equipment stockpiles to equip such forces, including weapons and equipment of Clone Wars vintage.

Training and equipment of troops in the Imperial Army has been highly decentralized, with each individual sector having an academy of their own. As a result the combat effectiveness of Imperial troops is highly variable. This variability carries over to the stormtrooper corps, which utilizes most of the same facilities and industrial resources for its own logistics. A stormtrooper trained on Lothal, for example, may be a terrible shot and little more than a body filling out an Order of Battle, while an Imperial Army trooper trained on Carida will be a crack shot and more than a threat to most Rebel Forces.

Then there are elite units that combine both good training and battle hardening like the 501st Legion, Blizzard Force, and other similar units.

The sector academies often are producing officers of similar variability in skill and quality. A single incompetent administrator at an academy can result in an entire corps of incompetent officers in a sector, and there are more than enough administrators chosen for political reason for many parts of the Imperial Army to be rotten and incompetent.

When a rebel cell operates in such an environment, it is far more likely to succeed… though continual success will eventually teach the Imperials how to actually combat them with increasing time and experience. If the rebels are successful enough, the Imperial Governor may call upon the better trained troops controlled by High Command to help in pacifying the sector. Such deployments are almost always temporary, as they are meant to reestablish control of a world, before being replaced by locally trained formations.

The decentralized nature of the Imperial Military Industrial Complex also allows individual sectors to create uniquely specialized equipment for local conditions. A world where most of the population is located on an island chain may have formations of troops kitted out in sand colored armor and trained for fighting on the beaches, while a world that’s made up mostly of oceans may have seatroopers, and a world that’s an iceball will have snowtroopers. These designs may not necessarily conform to galactic standards of equipment for that terrain, as they can often be locally produced.

In order to maintain control of its worlds, the Imperial Army’s High Command has set a number of official standards for the ratio of troops to sentient inhabitants for planetary garrisons. On worlds loyal to the Empire, it’s common for this ratio to be as low as 1-trooper per 1,000 inhabitants, but for the vast majority of the Empire where resentment of Imperial Forces remains, this ratio is increased to 1-trooper per 500-600 inhabitants. On worlds where there is open revolt against the Empire, Imperial doctrine prescribes a minimum force of 1-trooper per 150-200 inhabitants. In a galaxy with as many as 100 quadrillion beings under Imperial Rule, this comes out to around 200 trillion troops under arms in the Imperial Army.