All material on this page is copyright by the appropriate people or entities. No attempt has been made to incur profit from these works in any way.
Jonathan S. McDermott
Staten Island, NY, USA
http://wwwcaraig.net/
Scale: 1
In contrast to the Sith Empire, the Jedi do not rule the Republic. The Order portrays itself as servants of the republic, while in practice they tend to function somewhat autonomously, answerable to the office of the Supreme Chancellor of the Senate. Despite this, the Order wields its power modestly, though this power is growing. The Republic maintains a military force, consisting of an army and a navy, and while somewhat antiquated it is still efficient, and is independant of the Jedi Order. In addition, most all local governments maintain law enforcement bodies, most notably Corellia and worlds which, according to legend, were colonized by Corellia, such as Alderaan. The Jedi do not have extralegal powers (yet) and so cannot superscede local law enforcement. There is, however, a motion in the senate which will grant the Jedi Order these powers.
Humans are very much the minority in the Galaxy, and there are so many alien races that nobody can identify all of them. (Even the vaunted Archives of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant occasionally are presented with data regarding a race they previously knew nothing about.) There are only a handful of worlds which are considered "traditionally" Human, and the most important of these worlds are Corellia and Alderaan. Humans achieve their dominance and ubiquitousness in later centuries simply by "out-breeding" just about every other race in the galaxy.
Senator Kalatis of Balmorra
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Kalatis is the senator of Balmorra sector, and is considered fairly typical of the leaders elected to the Galactic Republic. A Rodian from a family that has seventy generations on Balmorra, he started his political career as a union leader, working his way up to the planetary government as a respected leader who got things done. Naturally, some of this required (in his eyes) some use of "quasi-legal" resources, though at this point he was very scrupulous about what was commissioned in his name.
The Rodian eventually came to the attention of the sector administration, and he left his managerial job to take a position as a civil servant in the sector bureaucracy. He made a name for himself when a ring of XM droid smuggling was traced back to Balmorra, and he pursued legal action against the culprits. His star continued to rise when he clamped down on the export of war droids, and he enabled activities for the support of developing worlds such as Marnaas, Teghan, and Eight. Shortly after, he ran for, and lost, the election to the Republic Senate as representative of Balmorra sector. Undaunted, he bided his time, and eventually the senator whom he lost to was indicted in felony graft. Kalatis, with his reputation as a reasonably honest leader, was elected by the governments of Balmorra sector in a landslide.
Kalatis feels he has reached the pinnacle of his political career, and will remain as a senator for the Republic for as long as he is able to. To this end, he has occasionally emplolyed catspaws and troubleshooters, the most recent of whom is Zero "Quiet" Satau of Sedrak. Kalatis's catspaws are not well-known, but he does routinely issue them minor seals of his office to indicate they represent his interests. He rarely has had them kill... in Republic space, that is. They are, however, sometimes suspected of "facilitating" certain projects of Kalatis' in various unorthodox and quasi-legal ways.
[NEW] Other members of Kalatis' "stable" of troubleshooters are believed to be Uri Sava, a Nikto; and Phelan Nightwalker, a Human. Another, Argent Kaul, a Twi'lek, was killed recently on Kessel in business said to be unrelated to Senator Kalatis. Scale: 2
There's very little which remains regarding the founding of the Republic, but certain facts are known. In the centuries preceeding the founding of the Galactic Republic, civilization tended to be wild and wooly and very ramshackle. A few small interstellar governments existed now and then, and every so often one would go on a spate of conquest. The last such incident was triggered by Xim, who came to power over the Human world of Corellia. Naming himself Prince of Corellia, Xim initiated a nationalistic campaign and led an ambitious campaign of conquest and trade dominance.
Far more than just a dictator -- history has been particularly unkind in giving him the epithet of "Despot" -- Xim initiated a number of cultural programs which advanced the standards of living throughout the Core. At the same time, he forged perhaps the single greatest military force ever known. Despite the primative wave-projector weapons of the time, Xim's military was eminently capable and powerful, and very little stood in its way. Xim is also parenthetically credited with initiating the first multi-species reforms for his government, enabling species and cultural awareness programs which formed the groundwork for inter-species cooperation.
Despite these advances, Xim is not known as the Despot for nothing. His program of conquest was relentless and ruthless, and his sphere of influence was held in an iron grip. More and more on newly-conquored worlds Xim would have the planetary riches plundered and sent to one of his deep-space fortresses. He would have cultural treasures plundered as well as more liquid and financial.
Perhaps appropriately enough, the financial situation in the galaxy was becoming rather grave, grave enough to catch the attention of the Hutts. In all fairness, the Hutts of 20,000 years before are not the Hutts of today, and it was only partly out of financial concern that the Hutts began to organize a resistance against Xim. The Mid Rim coalition of species rallied and began to fight back against Xim's empire, from within and without, and in time the Despot's forces were beaten back to Corellia. The inter-species coalition became the first hints of what a united Republic was capable of, and after approximately one hundred years the foundations of the Republic were laid.
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No other trans-galactic conflicts in recorded history has quite matched the Heresy Wars. While they were undoubtedly very brutal from a military standpoint, the actual casualties suffered during them were relatively minimal, and civilian casualties were likewise extremely low. The goals of the Wars, by all sides, was not so much to claim territory as to claim adherents, supporters, and legitimacy. It was, in essence, the Jedi against just about everyone else, "everyone else" being the other Force traditions of the Galaxy, though some traditions used the chaos to settle old rivalries or inspire new ones between each other.
It began simply enough as a conflict with the Khomm Triads. The battles with the Triads were strictly peacekeeping and law enforcement duties, aided in great part by the Republic Guard and various Core Worlds local law enforcement agencies. It took a turn for the worse when the Triads attempted to assassinate the knight-captain of a local company of the Order militant. Ironically, the reluctanct or hesitation to meet this with overwhelming force on the part of the Jedi became a trigger. Other darksider cults took this as a sign that the Order of Jedi Knights had been weakened by the rebellion of the Dark Jedi, and were no longer as strong and self-assured. They saw an excellent chance to strike at, what was perceived to be, a serious threat to their existence. Once the wars themselves started, other darksider traditions were unwilling to stand by and let the Jedi crush other traditions so blatantly. Some greysider and even a few rival lightsider traditions joined in, too, seeing this as their last chance to remain unfettered to the Jedi. A few, such as the Kono, allied themselves desultorily with the Jedi. And while many remained neutral -- the Bendu and the Savalli Kho, for example -- many others would not.
Nobody is really sure what specifically happened. Some historians firmly believe that a shadow alliance of darksider cults and traditions was formed at the behest and prompting of a splinter group from the Valsarian Society. Others feel that it was simply a matter of cause and effect -- as more and more traditions rose up against the Jedi, it became an easier and easier decision for the remaining traditions to join in the conflict. No matter which is the truth, or if something else is entirely, the conflict against the Triads spawned something that was uniquely of the Force-using traditions.
For the most part, it is a misnomer to call them 'wars.' The Heresy Wars were fought between the disparate traditions and did not strictly involve the civilian population of the Galaxy. In fact, many times the Republic Guard refused to directly assist the Jedi. Instead, elements of the Chancelry Guard would sometimes assist the Jedi during particularly brutal operations in which citizens were indirectly threatened. (This would eventually serve to strengthen the position of the Chancellor; increase cooperation between the office of the Chancellor and the Jedi; see the Chancellor become the patron of the Order to the Senate; and opened the way for the office to become known as the "Supreme Chancellor" and for the Jedi to be named plenipotentiaries and guardians of law and order in the Republic. Some historians have noted that various chancellors have regretted this arrangement.) The most significant of the battles were intellectual and ideological, settled in debate and discussion. No less than seventeen traditions capitulated and disbanded without doing any sort of physical battle with the Jedi; many others simply withered and faded from view and memory after debating the Jedi. At least three masters of a non-Jedi tradition committed ritual suicide after debating with their Jedi counterparts in public fora which saw their arguments and stances cut out from under them.
Certain other battles were very ephemeral; a lesser tradition from the Human world of Corulag practiced a form of Force sorcery which had effects residing soley on less physical planes of being. At one point in a debate, the opposing masters "took it outside" -- literally. They sat in meditative positions for three days, and all the while, according the those who were Force-awakened in attendance, doing the equivalent of sparring through the Force. After three days, the masters simply stood, bowed to one another, gathered up their respective followers... and disappeared into the Outer Rim, neither of them returning to their traditions.
Of course, the Heresy Wars are best known for the much more secular, physical battles. And these battles would quickly spawn the Army of Light. The Army, and it's assosciated Armada, would make a name for the Jedi -- one not always said in pleasant tones. Under the various Knight-Cardinals, the Army would readilly defeat any tradition which chose to oppose the Jedi martially. (The Army would also pursue and harrass the fleeing Dark Jedi; only under the eminently successful Red General would repeated offers of clemency and reconciliation be made.) The Army of Light would devastate just about any force that came against it in any way, and a large part of this was, of course, the Red General's ability.
The martial phase of the war dwindled to a halt, and would eventually give way to many of the more ideological battles which would be no less remarkable but not nearly as dramatic than the martial ones. These "battles" would last for more than two decades, during which the Jedi would go to great lengths to assist in rebuilding what had been damaged in the Dark Jedi uprising and the Heresy Wars.
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Balmorra is a Colony world, meaning that it was colonized by one or some of the original Core Worlds in a "first wave" colonization, a time period so long ago that it's fallen into legend and paleohistory. Galactic civilization has collapsed a few times since Balmorra was first colonized, most notably and most recently during the time of Xim the Despot, a Corellian dictator whose defeat led to the formation of the Republic something under twenty thousand years ago.
Since it's colonization, Balmorra has become more oriented towards industry and manufacturing. The world is somewhat arid and lacking in viable farmland. However, it had a plethora of easily-harvestable natural resources, and Balmorra would trade these resources for food shipments. Eventually, hydroponics farms were built which permitted the world some measure of autonomy, but the main export remained manufactured goods. Even after the natural resources were exhausted, it became common for Balmorran companies to import raw materials and export finished products, and for the longest time those finished products have been some of the finest droids in the galaxy.
With the advent of advanced droid technology, and advanced methods of droid production, Balmorra developed a sizable droid population. In fact, approximately seven hundred years ago, there was a droid "revolt" out of which ground-breaking legislation regarding the rights of high-level droids was passed. The Balmorran Conferences are held every ten years or so to study, examine, and discuss the ever-shifting "dividing line" between droid and sentient being. One of the most noteworthy things to have come out of these Conferences was the practice of routinely wiping the memory of droids to prevent the development of droid sentience as defined under the Conferences.
Balmorra also has something of a more negative reputation. Whenever someone shows up somewhere with an army of war droids or battle droids, they are almost inevitably Balmorran in design (if not construction.) Despite repeated audits in the wake of these incidents, however, all Balmorran industries' records remain spotless and free from any wrong-doing... which makes them even more suspect.
Balmorra is also the source of the occasional xenomimetic droid, outlawed by the Republic. XM droids are designed to look and function identically to a given alien species, or even a particular member of that species. The technology to create xenomimetic droids is still relatively in it's infancy, but a slightly-addled member of a given species can be successfully portrayed by an XM droid. Once in a while, an XM droid will be produced by some of the less legal-minded of Balmorra's companies, usually for a specific purpose or a very high-paying client. Interestingly, despite their illegality under Republic law, the most common use of XM droids is as "decoys" for Senators and other high-ranking government officials. (Rumors of XM droids designed for "pleasure" purposes are generally rumor only; quite frankly, the galaxy is so large that if you're rich enough to afford such a very special droid (sans the embarrassment of asking someone to build it for you) you're rich enough to find a suitable member of a suitable species who is not at all adverse to whatever it is that you're interested in.)
Balmorra has two major continents and a pair of "oceans," both occupying the polar regions. Both continents are approximately of equal size. Balmorra has been called "geographically boring." A monorail system has been built which connects just about every major population center on the planet with the others; there are scattered small towns and villages, but what isn't devoted to manufacturing plants, farms, or housing tends to be combat droid proving grounds, though there are vast tracts of "planetary preserves" which are inviolate by the corporations The world is governed by a council of which half are appointed by the corporations, and half are elected by the people. This causes a suitable balance between Balmorra's economic and popular interests. A governor is elected by this council from within itself; currently, the governor is Count Mis Thullalkhazan, a Trandoshan whose extended family has lived on Balmorra since it's colonization, or so it is said. He has never been strictly for the corporations or for the people, seeking an amicable balance between the two.
A liberal emigration policy is in place to reduce population pressures on Balmorra, along with a somewhat strict immigration process. Balmorra has often been criticized for turning away refugee transports. Despite these criticisms, Balmorra has served as the base from which at least seven colonization efforts in the last thousand years have taken off, one of which disappeared in the Unknown Regions.
The Republic maintains a military presence in the system, seeing Balmorra as a vital part of the Republic's industrial infrastructure. It is not an exaggeration to say that if Balmorra lost it's ability to produce droids (either through invasion, destruction, or economic collapse) that fully one-third of the galaxy would be affected in some way. A squadron of cruisers thus patrols Balmorra's system and surrounding systems, but in recent years this has been reduced bit by bit as the Sith advance. Balmorra is not in any immediate danger of invasion, and the ships are needed to counter the Sith.)
The original cantons of Balmorran colonization have become independant corporations, and there are an even twenty. Most -- 17 -- produce droids, or have been bought by offworld droid-manufacturing multistellar corporations. Kuat Drive Yards has exclusive contracts with two of these companies to provide specialized flight and starship maintenance droids. Two are hydroponics companies which service Balmorra and two nearby near-hostile, low-population star systems. The last is a producer of small fighter craft for private security concerns, though there are corporate rumors that it is developing a new line of droid-piloted fighters to compete with existing production models.
Forsetti Rigg is noteworthy in that his grandfather, Tyr Rigg, managed to wrest majority stock in one of these droid-manufacturing companies from a Rodian named Gadruu, and made his son the CEO. Forsetti inherited his family's business acumen and standards of ethics, and has been one of the most successful Humans to run a Balmorran droid company. His particular company builds general-purpose police droids for the Core Worlds; which is to say, Cytellar Automaton builds mostly lightly-armed, courteous, polite, and incorruptible police droids which supplement (not supplant) "organic" law enforcement. It is a small market, but a growing one: a major contract has recently been finalized for several other Colony systems who are seeking additional Core-grade security in the face of the encroaching Sith.
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Corellia. Considered by many archaeologists (despite a lack of evidence) to be the Human homeworld, this Core World is known as one of the primary Human worlds in the galaxy. (The other main one is Alderaan, which has an equally strong claim to the original homeworld of Humans. Both worlds, however, show evidence of terraforming, which stymies archaeologists' attempts at determining for certain on which world Humans originated.) It has experienced a rise and fall of many cultures and civilizations throughout almost a hundred millenia of determinable history, and is now one of the most cosmopolitan worlds in the Galaxy.
Corellians are known to be a pragmatic people who nevertheless have a zest for living life. With a reputation for inveterate scoundrelry, Corellian Humans present the paradox of Humans: At the same time that Corellia is one of the most organized Human worlds, it's people are amongst the most independant-minded. While Corellia is known for excellence in shipbuilding, security forces, and the applied sciences, it is also claimed as the world of origin of an inordinate number of rogues, pirates, and outlaws.
The history of Corellia certainly lives up to this reputation. Prior to the establishment of the Republic, Corellia was home to Xim the Despot, the dictator who conquored a good portion of the then-known regions of the galaxy. Xim controls a large region of space, before he was overthrown by an alliance of Mid Rim races, led by (the oddly charismatic) Kossak the Hutt and other Hutt financers. This incident would forshadow the formation of the Republic, and in the formation of that government Corellia was alternately spurned and reconciled. On the one hand, Corellia (under a new, syncretic government combining elements of corporatist hegemony, democracy, and republic) was permitted to participate in the Republic. On the other hand, despite being one of the most populous worlds of the Core worlds at the time, it was denied the chance to be a sector capitol when the sectors were arranged. Instead, Corellia would be part of a sector governed from Kuat, a system which had a much lower population and which was, for all intents and purposes, a miniature corporate state. This led to a sense of detachment from the Republic on the part of the Corellians and the Corellian government, a detachment which the other major Human world, Alderaan, did not develop.
Corellia maintains a strong militia/police force, known as Corellian Security or CorSec. CorSec operates a number of ships for local defense of Corellia and the surrounding systems which Corellia has "historical claims" to. These systems -- Selonia, Drall, Talus and Tralus -- have either been colonized by Corellians or have been traditionally allied to Corellia. CorSec therefore has within it's roster a number of well-engineered light cruisers for the use of local piracy suppression and defense. However, CorSec has pioneered the use of snubfighters for defense, which prompted a number of experiments by the Republic Guard in the past thousand years. The results of these experiments were the mighty fleet carriers, the first of which was named the Corellia in honor of the member-world which first established the use of starfighters. Notably, this is the first Guard ship to be named after that member-world in the history of the Republic. Corellia thus indirectly began the current naval doctrine of starfighter superiority, and the use of bombers against capital ships.
Throughout the history of the Republic, the Corellian government has, on occasion, fallen to rebels or insurgents for a variety of reasons. The Republic government has stepped in and restored the government as the "legitimate ruling body of Corellia and her holdings," each and every time. In fact, the Republic can be counted on doing this for Corellia, which is more than can be said for other member-worlds. This perhaps in some way adds to the independance felt by the Corellians.
Corellia has a number of local cultures, and in a very real sense has always, almost actively, resisted homogenization of it's cultures with that of the Republic. There are a few common threads, however, which make these cultures distinctively "Corellian." In keeping with the reputation of Corellians as a pragmatic, vivacious people, dress tends to be more for utility, protection from the elements, and protection from hazards than anything else. Armor is occasionally popular, particularly amongst those in high-risk endeavours, but currently armor is facing a degree of unpopulatity with the recent rise of blaster weapons. While there is no nudity taboo as such, it is very unusual to see someone without clothing, and a lack of clothing is generally seen as a vulnerability or a very high comfort level with one's environment.
In contrast to the pragmatism, Corellian recreational life appears to be very much alive and well in all cultures. While not hedonist, there is a pervasive love of "the good things in life" through almost all Corellian cultures. There are a few subcultural groups which profess stoicism and puritanism, but almost none of them deny their members good companionship and enjoyable times together. On the more ribald side of the spectrum, the whole concept of the spaceport cantina, where persons sharing professions -- ship crew, ground crew, longshoremen -- could gather and socialize, seems to have either started, or been perpetuated, by Corellians.
One tradition that seems to have it's start in the prehistory of Corellian civilizations is that of the bloodstripes. Natural-born Corellians (or those born on the four other worlds that are traditional Corellian holdings) may, if seriously wounded in the line of their work, wear a set of yellow or red piping, usually along their trouser seams but occasionally elsewhere. The bloodstripes are an honor, albeit an unofficial one; at one time, an attempt to codify when someone may wear the bloodstripes was met with firm resistance. Almost every culture accepts the tradition of the bloodstripes, and very few in the past have proscribed it. Currently, the only resistance to the tradition of the bloodstripes is with individuals, for a variety of personal reasons.
If any one thing can be said about Corellian culture, it is that, if it's thinkable, a Corellian somewhere did it. (In fact, to the question, "Take over the Galaxy?" the answer would also be, "Yes, a Corellian did that, too.") Thus, a hallmark of Corellian thought is the acceptance of others' choices, insofar as ways of life go. Corellia has no laws regarding lifestyle, except insofar as they might adversely affect others. Despite the corporatist elements in Corellian government, Corellian government is as much an exercise in restraint as it is in actual governance; the constitution of the Corellian government states that excessive laws shall not be passed, and while the definition of 'excessive laws' has varied over the millenia, the general rule has been "less government is more." On the one hand, this permits a great deal of personal freedom. On the other hand, Corellian corporations are some of the most aggressive in the galaxy, and there is minimal recourse when people are injured by corporations; fortunately, Corellia does not recognize corporations as individual entities themselves, which bedevils many interstellar corporations in the Republic. It is generally believed that this little proviso was instituted to purposely trip up the Kuat corporatist state in any dealings they had with Corellia.
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Coming soon.
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Coming soon.
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The Republic has enjoyed overall peace for millenia. The last major military action was the actual founding of the Republic. In this, the Republic has succeeded beyond any sentient's dreams.
Contrariwise, there has always been a need for military force, though not neccessarilly on the scale of a full-fledged war. Piracy and brigandry was never stamped out, and there will always be people on the fringe of civilization who, with luck and demagoguery, gather together a large number of desperate, militant people for whatever reason.
To address these concerns, the Republic Guard exists. It is not officially a military force, but rather a peacekeeping one. It is mostly concerned with enforcement of space law and anti-piracy patrols. Only rarely is it called upon to enforce the Republic's law on a member's world. For this, not only does the Guard make use of the most advanced orbit-to-surface concussion weaponry, it also employs a force of marines trained in boarding operations and surface combat. The most elite of these are the "Rocket Jumpers," or jumptroops.
The mission of the Republic Guard (not to be confused with the Senatorial Guard or the Chancelry Guard, which are both separate entities) is to make space travel safe for all members. This usually translates into making space travel safe for commerce. It is this focus on anti-piracy and mercantile protection that sees private transport often finding itself without Guard support, thus promoting commercial space travel. This is a boon to the Republic's industry, but over time it has slowly consolidated passenger transport into the hands of a federation of shipping concerns. This trade federation has a non-voting seat within the Senate, serving an advisory role. Many Chancellors have attempted to break the growing power of the Trade Federation, and the TradeFed's power has waxed and waned over the years. However, the mandate of the Republican Guard has not changed, and so it inadvertantly bolsters the power of not only the Trade Federation but also a number of other mercantile guilds.
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The Lindecrantz is a 200-year-old Messanal- class cruiser; this is a typical age and class for the Republic Guard. It is a part of the Marnaas naval base, recently assigned there from the rear echelons to aid in the protection of the base. Despite it's moderate age, (some Republic ships are over 500 years old; the Republic builds to last) it's electronics are up to par with Guard standards, and it's main batteries are high-tech concussion weapons. The Lindecrantz saw action against a number of heavily-armed pirate bands which took refuge in the Deep Core a few decades ago, but since then it has seen only limited action against pirates.
The commander of the Lindecrantz is Captain Ekilten Shon'Faalliw, a Etian, who has over ten years of shiphandling and starship combat experience.
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Not all worlds within the galaxy belong to the Republic, only most of them in the Core to Mid Rim. The Outer Rim Territories are another matter entirely. There are a number of client states in this region. Some are independant nations which have signed various treaties with the Republic. Others are actually maintained by the Republic, either as buffer states or as special-purpose polities. There are quite a number of these client states; most are little more than a few systems large, and cannot come close to the economic might of the Republic.
Return to These Shattered Stars Index Page
Xim the Despot
The Heresy Wars
Balmorra
Corellia
Marnaas
Sedrak
The Republic Military Forces.
The Lindecrantz
Client States
| Last Modified: 01APR2005
All material on this page is copyright by the appropriate people or entities. No attempt has been made to incur profit from these works in any way. Jonathan S. McDermott
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