What is Western Civilization?

Not gaming, not science fiction or fantasy... but I do read non-fiction, and I do (sometimes) review it.  This question is one for the ages—but particularly for our age.

Long ago (or at least it seems so now) I read Samuel Huntington's essay "The Clash of Civilizations."  If you haven't, you should.  In fact, here it is right here.  Go read it now.  It's OK, I'll wait...

What I haven't ever read is the full-length book that expanded on that notion.  I've recently had it pointed out to me that I should; that it's brilliant; that without doing so, I can only claim to know about the issue, not to actually know it.  The premise that Huntington proposes has been "rebutted" many times over the years, by those with a penchant for Trotskyist globalism, but in the last couple of years it's become obvious that Huntington was right.  Soon, even the dimmest, most stubborn globalist cheerleader will be forced to admit it.  Therefore understanding what our culture is, and why it is coming into conflict with other cultures, is a paramount question for today.

It's at our public library.  Sure, it's checked out right now, but I put the next hold on it, and I should have it within a few weeks.  In the meantime, I thought it might be interesting to discuss what Western civilization actually is.

Huntington spells out what he believes the major civilizations of the world are today in the essay (which you just read if you haven't already, right?) so I'll start with that list: Western, Sinic or Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Latin American, Slavic-Orthodox and Sub-Saharan African. As an aside, according to his divide, some cultures that speak Slavic languages are part of Western civilization (or even Islamic civilization) rather than Slavic-Orthodox, highlighting the paramount important of religion in determining civilization.

The earliest roots of what would become Western Civilization start out with the Classical civilizations of Greece and Rome.  Not only were these civilizations great and powerful in their own day, but they were literate, and they passed on down to us because of this much of the foundation of our own thought.  The rational pursuit of knowledge through study comes from the philosophers of the Greeks; Plato and Aristotle founding much of what academic inquiry even means, joined by guys such as Thucydides and Herodotus, etc.  Literature too, gets its start in a manner that we recognize with Homer, Hesiod, and later other Greek writers.  Even the system of government that we use throughout most of the West has its nascent form in Athens and the Roman Republic.

I have to caution against drawing too direct a line from Classical Civilization to modern Western civilization, though.  In many other ways, Classical civilization is completely alien to us.  Does anyone in Western civilization really believe that we could attempt to implement the brutal eugenic policies of ancient Sparta, no matter how much they may admire Leonidas?  Or the anti-family state-sponsored agoge, complete with the ritual hunting and murdering of untermenschen Helots?  As much as one can admire Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar as brilliant military minds and great spreaders of their civilization, is it admirable that Plutarch claims Caesar killed a million Gaulish warriors and enslaved a million more—at a time when their ability to field warriors was only three million?  That's what we call today ethnic cleansing or genocide.  Maybe one can point out that at least sometimes in the history of Western civilization we had some similar episodes; the colonization of the Americas was characterized by often very bloody civilizational clash, after all.  But uniquely in the history of mankind, did Western civilization have critics who bemoaned this for ethical reasons, and uniquely did they stop doing it, even as they approached the height of their power.  It wasn't co-civilizational sub-Saharan Africans who protested the Congo Free State (rather, they were perfectly willing to help out if it was profitable for them); it was other elements within Western Civilization that made it such a scandal.  The Classical civilizations were an important foundation to Western civilization, but clearly it is not sufficient in and of itself.

The next element that has to be layered in to the development of Western civilization is Christianity.  As Tom Holland said:

“We preach Christ crucified,” St Paul declared, “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” He was right. Nothing could have run more counter to the most profoundly held assumptions of Paul’s contemporaries – Jews, or Greeks, or Romans. The notion that a god might have suffered torture and death on a cross was so shocking as to appear repulsive. Familiarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense of just how completely novel a deity Christ was. In the ancient world, it was the role of gods who laid claim to ruling the universe to uphold its order by inflicting punishment – not to suffer it themselves.

Today, even as belief in God fades across the West, the countries that were once collectively known as Christendom continue to bear the stamp of the two-millennia-old revolution that Christianity represents. It is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us who live in post-Christian societies still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering. It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value. In my morals and ethics, I have learned to accept that I am not Greek or Roman at all, but thoroughly and proudly Christian.

You do not get anything that resembles Western civilization without Christianity; it is that system of belief that truly separates Western civilization from the late Classical civilization which preceded it.  If you are going to quibble with the quote above by saying, "The Crusades! The Inquisition! The Colonialism!" you probably should get more educated on all of the above before speaking up.  Plus, keep in mind my point above about Leopold of Belgium.  The same claims were made against the Spanish (who are not part of Western civilization) and others.  Only in Christendom is this condemned.  Although, of course, a parallel similarity was profoundly influential in Buddhist thought—hence the appearance of guys like Gandhi, etc.  This was a much more radical (and alien) idea than merely Christian valuation of human life, however—it was pacifism for its own sake, which doesn't make any sense to anyone in Western civilization except for highly divergent liberal hippies, who as r-strategists, constantly try to dump on Western civilization anyway.

The next element to be introduced is the customs and traditions of the Germanic people (often overlaid on a Celtic substrate.)  This is where Western civilization deviates from Slavic-Orthodox and Latin civilizations, although the tribes of Visigoths, the Rus, and other more far-flung Germanic groups gave a weak patina of this to other areas outside of the core Germanic settlement.  It's fair to say that Western civilization isn't really a development of Classical civilization per se; it's the appropriation of most classical civilization elements and Christianity and the syncretic  fusion of those elements by an alien people to their own culture; the alien people being, of course, the Northern European Germanic people (and their largely Celtic substrate over large parts of their core settlement area.)  The presence of a large population of "freemen" (or comitatus, to use the word the Romans coined to describe this alien (to them) custom) who had the right to bear arms and sit in council with their chief is one core element from the Germanics.  This evolved into Salic Law as the migration period ended and the first "empires" of the Germanic peoples started to form, which codified much of what was already happening, and then laid the foundation for legal tradition throughout Western civilization for centuries to come.

This also sets the stage for separating Core Western civilization from southern Europe, a divide that not all will make, but all will recognize the significant cultural differences between Northern and Southern (and Eastern) Europe; the influence of the Germanic tribes is this factor.  But this evolved through a particular vector, and without that particular vector, you still don't get anything recognizable as Western civilization.  This is actually only somewhat recently recognized, although the fact that it existed is no mystery.  Just that the likely causes of it were.  These divisions can be more or less described by looking at a map of the Hajnal Line (which as you'll see, leaves out southern Italy, much of Spain, especially the parts that were "Reconquistadored" late, Ireland, and Finland.  In reality, it should be much more jaggedy, should probably have spots within it that are left off (Highland Scotland and probably Wales, for example) and parts without that should be added as "islands"—the Ulster area of Northern Ireland and western Finland, probably the rest of Austria or the Sudetenland at least, for example.  I'm making the case that only the areas within the Hajnal Line truly qualify as "Western civilization" other areas (like Ireland, southern Italy, etc.) that are without it are merely dabbling in Western civilization, or imitating certain aspects of it, without fully embracing it.  They are satellite pseudo-Western nations, not truly members in full fellowship.

Of course, later colonies of people from within the Hajnal Line to areas outside it still qualify, so places like Iceland, the US and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. are, of course, prominent members of Western civilization despite their geographic appearances outside the traditional Hajnal Line.  But their ancestors came from within it, and in all of those cases, they were successful in dominating their new homes to such a degree that they did not really hybridize either culturally or even genetically (to any significant degree) with the peoples who were there before them.

But what really happened within the Hajnal Line to cause this foundation to completely and fully develop into Western civilization as we know it?  The Hajnal Line itself describes marriage patterns, and the reason for it is the Catholic church's ban on consanguinous "cousin" marriages, which were enforced most strictly in the corest core of core Europe; the Merovingian stronghold of Austrasia, and it's later satellites in Neustria, Burgundy, Saxony, Anglo-Saxon Britain, Lombardy, etc.  In short, it spread from the capitol in Metz through all of what would become a "Greater Germania"—France, the Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia (minus the Lapplander and Finnish areas) and the kingdoms that later emerged as England.  This ban on close relative marriage was also present in other parts of Christendom, but inside the Hajnal line, it was combined with two other developments, and these three, together, created selection pressures that created modern Western Civilization.  As Avner Greif said:

“The medieval church instituted marriage laws and practices that undermined large kinship groups. From as early as the fourth century, it discouraged practices that enlarged the family, such as adoption, polygamy, concubinage, divorce, and remarriage. It severely prohibited marriages among individuals of the same blood (consanguineous marriages), which had constituted a means to create and maintain kinship groups throughout history. The church also curtailed parents’ abilities to retain kinship ties through arranged marriages by prohibiting unions in which the bride didn’t explicitly agree to the union. 

“European family structures did not evolve monotonically toward the nuclear family nor was their evolution geographically and socially uniform. However, by the late medieval period the nuclear family was dominant. Even among the Germanic tribes, by the eighth century the term family denoted one’s immediate family, and shortly afterwards tribes were no longer institutionally relevant. Thirteenth-century English court rolls reflect that even cousins were as likely to be in the presence of non-kin as with each other. 

“The practices the church advocated, such as monogamy, are still the norm in Europe. Consanguineous marriages in contemporary Europe account for less than one percent of the total number of marriages. In contrast, the percentage of such marriages in Muslim, Middle Eastern countries, where we also have particularly good data, is much higher – between twenty to fifty percent. Among the anthropologically defined 356 contemporary societies of Euro-Asia and Africa, there is a large and significant negative correlation between Christianization (for at least 500 years) and the absence of clans and lineages; the level of commercialization, class stratification, and state formation are insignificant.”

So, the end result of this was the replacement of the large, extended family with the nuclear family as the primary unit.  This lack of large extended families eventually undid the entire tribal structure of core Europe.  Large, extended, cohabiting families, on the other hand, are still very normal in places like, say, Sicily or Eastern Europe—outside of the Hajnal Line.  In these areas, there's an environment in which "nepotistic altruism"—giving favors to extended family and other forms of what we in Western civilization deem to be corruption—which was largely eliminated within the Hajnal Line.  Combined with manorialism—the founding principle of feudalism, where the Lord of the Manor had vested in himself certain legal and economic powers, and in turn owed certain obligations to the serfs or villeins as well as the free farmers who used the land of his manor, or demesne.  As hbd chick observes, manorialism "was really an almost all-encompassing socio-religious-political system which, although its features and importance did vary at different times and in different locales, pretty much regulated nearly all aspects of medieval Europeans’ lives."  Throughout "Core Europe" it existed for the better part of three quarters of a millennium; even in areas where it was adopted a bit later, it lasted nearly half of one.  What are the selection pressures that manorialism plus outbreeding and non-consanguineous marriage exerted on the developing Western Man?  Again, from hbd chick:

The working theory around here is that the Outbreeding Project set up the selection pressures for getting rid of much of what we could call “nepotistic altruism” in Core Europe, allowing for greater cooperation and trust between unrelated individuals and, therefore, a more open and “corporate” sort of society. A second working theory is that manorialism set up selection pressures for a whole suite of traits including perhaps: slow life histories; future time orientation; delayed gratification; the good ol’ protestant work ethic; a general compliant nature and even rather strong tendencies toward conformity; perhaps even a high degree of gullibility; perhaps a few extra IQ points; and even more cooperation and trust between unrelated individuals. ... The manor system also probably contributed to the selection for the reduction in impulsive violence. ... the Outbreeding Project and manorialism very much went hand-in-hand as well — the medieval European manor system could not have happened without all of the outbreeding, and the Outbreeding Project was reinforced by the manor system (since marriage was often regulated within the manor system).

Does that now sound like modern, Western Civilization?  Not the feudalism itself, of course, but the selection pressures it generated caused, after many generations, a new type of European to emerge in the northern portions of the continent.  A Brazilian with whom I communicate on occasion expressed the idea that many in Latin America see themselves as members of Western civilization, but he sees these stark differences clearly—as do I, and my oldest son, for that matter, who lived for a few years in various parts of Spanish Latin America.  He pointed out that both in Latin America and Southern Europe (the same is true of Eastern Europe) that the culture is characterized by "low trust society, weak rule of the law, corruption, weak work ethic, etc."  This is a major disconnect, and why I cannot consider Europeans of descent outside of the Hajnal Line to truly be members of Western civilization.

What does this mean for America?  Firstly, it means that the large numbers of immigrants that we took on 100-150 years or so ago from Ireland, the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the Jews are not really members of Western Civilization, didn't understand it, and have largely undermined its success in America to greater or lesser degrees.  When first arrived, they turned quickly in large numbers to organized crime, voluntary segregation instead of attempted assimilation, tribal nepotistic takeovers of businesses, politics, and to some degree, even entire industries (media, Hollywood, etc.) and in defiance of the good of the host nation in which they were living, they agitated and campaigned for changing immigration laws both to 1) bring more of their kind that they could nepotistically deal with, and 2) change the fabric of the prevalent Anglo-Saxon with a touch of Dutch and German American society to one in which they stood out less, by inviting even more alien cultures into the fold.

If this hasn't been bad enough, the mass invasion of the US by the completely non-Western civilization members of Latin America in their tens of millions, and from Islamic civilization (a bigger deal in Europe than America, but it's growing fast here too) is a genuine crisis; an existential threat to Western civilization on the American continent.  Give or take a few tens of thousands, Switzerland has the same population as Honduras.  Because of our shared Western civilization background, America could probably absorb the entire population of Switzerland without it being too disruptive (we're way too diverse now to quibble about Anglo- vs. Germano- backgrounds now; although Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers were more skeptical) but absorbing the population of Honduras will never happen successfully; they simply won't integrate and assimilate.  Ever.

If we hope to remain a bastion of Western Civilization in America, instead of being absorbed into a growing Latin culture, or continue to be held hostage to an admittedly native subset of sub-Saharan African culture, or even worse, continue to invite Islamic civilization into our homes to the extend that it becomes a significant threat, then we need to recognize who and what we are and stand up for it again.  Maybe Western civilization isn't the pinnacle of human achievement (although I kind of think it is) but even if it's not, it's ours and we have every right to our civilization, the same as every other people on Earth.

Assimilation

https://jaymans.wordpress.com/american-nations-series/

This is more a link round-up than it is an actual exegesis on the subject, but it's a really, really interesting bit of work.  I think this is one of the biggest contributors to understanding social and political issues in America, and its only starting to be recognized as such; most regular Americans will never have heard of it, and only specialists in their field are really generally aware.  I've read both Fischer and Woodard's books (and they're excellent) and I've tried to keep myself up to date on developments in the field since then as much as I have time and access to the work in question to do so.

Reading this brought to mind an off-hand comment my father once made to me, which didn't really mean much to me at the time, but which in retrospect, now that I understand this, makes all kinds of sense and seems really significant.

With the exception of one thin line of Portuguese ancestors from the island of Madeira (which gets a lot of attention because it's unusual and different; not because it really contributes meaningfully to our culture or DNA either one) our family is almost completely made up of Borderers, or Appalachians to use Woodard's terminology.  From the northern English England/Scotland border area and northern Ireland from the Scots-Irish area (which means that they were Scotsmen living in Ireland, who found themselves opposed both culturally and politically to the actual Irish, most often), they grew up in a relatively lawless area, without much in the way of supervision of king and country.  They were competitive, fractious, did not necessarily seek out conflict, but also did not shy away from it when it presented itself, and had an incredibly stubborn resistance to authority.  Their area had been a border region since time immemorial; between the Romans and the Celtic barbarians to the north of them, between the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria and the nascent Scottish of places like Galloway, Strathclyde, and the Mairches, between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danelaw, etc.  It goes on and on as a rough and tumble frontier region for literally millennia.  It's no wonder that in the early 1600s when it was finally good and pacified by the Pax Anglicana of the Stewart and Tudor kings that my ancestors found the new regime either boring, or stifling, or otherwise intolerable and came to America before the 17th century was over, and once there, made immediately for what was then the backwoods frontier regions of parts of South Carolina and northern Georgia.

My father once said that on moving to Texas, he finally saw some context that explained the behavior, attitudes and cultural beliefs of his family, which despite spending four generations out West, turned out to never assimilate into western culture, remaining stubbornly "ethnic Southerners" until his triumphant "homecoming" to a territory where our culture and values are more the norm (this is less true of Texas than it was even when we arrived; the mass influx of people from both south of the border as well as within the United States due to greater economic opportunity in Texas has greatly diluted Texas' cultural heritage over a matter of mere decades.)  The same is true for me; although I now live in Michigan, I have significant cultural dissonance with the way that Michiganders think and live, in many ways.

It also explains much of my disconnect with the cultural aspect of fellow members of my church, especially those from Utah and whatnot, who are largely the descendants of New Englander Puritans and while massively augmented by immigration from England and Scandinavia, still exhibit a very strong founder effect towards neo-Puritan cultural values.  I frequently find the exhibits of casual busybody-ness and community level petty totalitarianism extremely off-putting.  It's not doctrinal to the church, it's cultural to some people of the church who've grown up in a culture where that kind of thing is tolerated or even encouraged.

In any case, Julie (my wife) sometimes despairs of making of me a civilized person that can be taken to nice places; she often finds me iconoclastic, possessed of an overly "big", over-bearing or even intimidating personality, stubborn beyond all reason, and strangely contentious.  I never thought of myself as any of those things growing up, necessarily, but then again, I grew up in an environment where my native cultural traits were relatively commonplace.  It's only now (well, not only now, but especially now) where my native cultural traits contrast with my environment that it is really obvious.

Ad Astra military ship types

For reference; in adopting terminology from the Age of Sail to the Age of Space, many of these labels have been abused and misused over the years.  Here's what I consider the various "classes" of ships in AD ASTRA.

Single person craft
I'm actually cheating just a bit; some of these "single-person" craft do actually have more than one person in them, either as passengers or as crew.  In military craft, that may often mean a pilot, a gunner, maybe a tail-gunner, and maybe a bomber.  A co-pilot is always welcome, although the smallest of these ships does not have them.  In general, these are for dog-fighting or bombing runs, or simply for local transport (the equivalent of a Cessna) but it is a very, very rare "single" person craft that has ether travel capability, so long distance travel is not an option.  The largest of these might be something like a big cargo airplane of today; the smallest are like single-pilot tiny planes.

Corvette
This is the first of the ships that I'm actually meaning to talk about.  Rather lightly armed and armored, corvettes are military craft, originally meant for convoy duty, blockade running, or patrol of relatively quiet areas.  Not meant to stand up in combat to any kind of significant ship of the line.  Many pirates and privateers use corvettes, because they are small, light, cheap, maneuverable, and require a small crew, which makes them ideal for attacking non-military targets like yachts, freighters or liners.  Although the Millennium Falcon is always called a modified freighter in Star Wars Expanded Universe material, I rather think that it's the perfect, iconic example of what I expect a corvette to look and behave like.  The ships that the characters in Old Republic get would all be considered corvettes by my book as well; even if in game they are given other designations.

The "Double Dub"—a nickname for the modified corvette Wayland's Wyrd, a privateer used by the iconics.

The big exception to this lack of suitability for line combat would be torpedo craft; corvette-style ships modified to carry a payload of an extremely heavy weapon (with minimal ability to fire) that rush up to larger ships, fire their payload to devastating effect, and then rush back to safety.

Frigate
Larger, with heavier arms and armaments and room for much more crew, the frigate is the "standard" military craft.  Not completely a ship of the line, but designed for almost any other military duty except for protracted broadside-style space battles.  This is the ideal pirate vessel for larger crews as well, and often come equipped with a significant complement of marines for boarding actions.  They also serve as escorts for larger ships, and can be effective torpedo craft hunters.

Cruiser
A cruiser overlaps somewhat with frigate and with battleship below; it is essentially a medium sized ship that is capable of "cruising" i.e., operating independently, for the most part.  Capable of a wide variety of tasks, from independent scouting and exploration, fairly heavy ship to ship combat, orbital bombardment, commerce protection, blockades, etc.  In famous sci-fi terms, the Enterprise would be the most famous cruiser I can think of.  This is really defined more by the role than by the characteristics of the ship itself; frigates can be light cruisers, and on the heavy end, they can be very similar in design to battleships; again, the main difference is role rather than design (although many ships are designed specifically to be cruisers as opposed to frigates or battleships.)

Battleship
These are very heavily armed and armored, large ships of the line.  Imperial Star Destroyers, while sometimes serving in the role of a cruiser, are the iconic battleship from science fiction.

Carrier
These are also large ships, but they have little (if any) armament on their own; rather, they are meant to carry large components of fighters and bombers.

Dreadnoughts
These are really big super-heavy battleships.  Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer would be an example.

Commercial craft
One could make a similar progression for commercial craft from the smaller little schooners and brigantines to the fast-cargo transport jammers and clippers, with yachts and liners, container ships, and tankers cutting across those categories to some degree as well.  All of them are ether drive capable, regardless of size.

Diversity, Inc.™ Spider-man

Now that Marvel is owned by Disney, they're moving nearly as quickly as Star Wars is into the realm of insulting their classic audience.  Congress was alarmed today at the rate at which Chinese interests are buying up stock in Hollywood producers, and that they might be producing anti-American propaganda in southern California.  Quite frankly, they'll probably produce better (and certainly less insulting) anti-American propaganda than (((Hollywood))) has done for the last several decades.

Anyway, I was cautiously optimistic about the new Spider-man movie hinted at in Captain America: Civil War because Marvel Studios has done, generally, a pretty good job, and the Spider-man casting, at least, was the best yet.  However... check this out.

This is Ned Leeds: a co-worker of Parker's at The Daily Bugle.

He's been re-imagined as a high school friend of Peter's.  The actor playing him is this guy.

This is Liz Allen.  She's another high school friend of Peter (and Co.)  This picture is from a little later in the canon, after she's married to Harry Osborne.  That's Harry there with her, plus their own little mini-Green Goblin grandson or whatever.

This is the actress cast to play her.

No word on whether or not Harry is even in the movie, but Liz is now supposed to be Peter's love interest.  (No word on what, if anything, happened to Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson—both of them probably too iconically white for them to risk changing her.)  Also; keep in mind this data point when you think of Peter Parker being attracted to her...

Flash Thompson is an iconic Spider-man character; a big-mouthed jock who loves Spider-man, but ironically, despises Peter Parker.

Played by this Guatemalan actor, who was originally, supposedly, supposed to be a character named Manuel!

To round all that up, we're also supposed to believe that this actress is a brainy, nerdy, always-in-her-books character.

Of course, the villains will be played by these three actors:

Who do they think that they're kidding?  (((Hollywood))) hates America.  It hates white males; the primary audience for super-hero comic books (and movies based on them) especially.  Do they really think that the virtue-signaling of a handful of critics is going to make up for the disgust of their primary audience?

This is hardly an isolated incident.  Check out Iris West in the Flash, or Ben Urich in Daredevil.  Or Aquaman, fer cryin' out loud.  The black Johnny Storm in the recent Fantastic Four movie was just embarrassingly stupid.  Perry White in the new Superman movies.  Deadshot in Suicide Squad.  The black Norse god Heimdall in Thor (?!) (and upcoming black Valkyrie.) Nick Fury is a classic example, as is Blade (although both were minor enough characters that they probably got away with it, since both Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes did a credible job on both.).  In the older Fantastic Four movies, Ben Grimm's blind girlfriend Alicia Masters mysteriously went from being a blonde to a black girl.  Jimmy Olson in the new Supergrrl show (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose) is now a black man; formerly a freckled red-head.  Halle Berry as Catwoman (although I guess Eartha Kitt already paved the way for that one a long time ago; plus Anne Hathaway stole the role more recently.)  The same complaint could be made about the Kingpin in the earlier Daredevil movie.  Electro by outspoken anti-white racist Jamie Foxx in The Amazing Spider-man.  Dr. Strange's arch-enemy Baron Mordo is now going to be black.  Deathstroke in Arrow went from being a white guy to a Maori.  Wally West in The Flash is black.  Jasper Sitwell kinda looks like he could still be white, but the actor is definitely hispanic.  Hawkgirl in Arrow is black.

There are even more if you delve into shows like Smallville and whatnot.

It's insane.  Do they really think that we aren't noticing what is a very concerted and heavy-handed push to insult the audience and erase white people from the entertainment industry as much as possible (except when playing villains)?  You can't blackwash, brownwash and pinkwash all of the iconic characters in a genre who's readership is still dominated by white males and expect to get away with it.  It's insulting.

I notice that they're a bit leery of replacing major stars or extremely well-known characters still; I guess they haven't completely sold out to their racist agenda that they don't want to still have a shot at making some money.

What to do about elves, dwarves, orcs and hobbits

I'm not a huge fan of the way Tolkien handled non-human races.  Sure; they do have some mythic resonance, but I've lost interest in the elves in particular, to be more interested in the Men of the story.  This, of course, is an essential element of making the setting more sword & sorcery pulp friendly, since the sword & sorcery pulps are heavily skewed towards humanocentric and rarely (if ever) place alien non-humans in any kind of protagonist role.  Rather, I prefer the dangerous, fey interpretation of Dunsany, Shakespeare, or Goethe. What does Middle-earth look like if Elrond is the Erlking?  If Galadriel is Queen Mab or Titania, or even Circe?

What if the dwarves are more like the mythical Dökkálfar or Svartálfar (Swert-elves?) and less like they actually appear; more like plot devices and the source of strange magical plot devices than like actual characters in the traditional sense?  The same for wizards; Gandalf wouldn't go "adventuring" with the Hobbits, or go confront the Necromancer in Dol Goldur; like Merlin or other more mythical wizards, he too is nothing but a plot device.  The superstitions of Boromir and the Rohirrim, in other words, are not fallacies to be dismissed by the likes of Aragorn; they're actually true.  There is only a single example of this, muted but still, in the legendarium of Middle-earth; Bilbo's experience of being lost in Mirkwood off the path and stumbling across the feasts of the Elf-king in the woods.

The real stories aren't about elves, or dwarves or wizards.  They're about Men.  Hobbits, on the other hand, are consistently portrayed as little more than small men, so they get a pass.  I'll let hobbits be hobbits without any significant change.

What needs to change to bring about this sword & sorcery, pulpish change to the setting of Middle-earth?

First: Rivendell is not a refuge for the elves.  It's a refuge for the Dunedain; the rangers.  Elrond does indeed live there, but he's trapped by the arts of the Dunedain of old.  He can be consulted, due to his knowledge of history, but he is not necessarily to be trusted.  He's like a bitter, untrustworthy Mimir; a dead body hanging from a tree that does not rot and does not truly, completely die.

Lothlorien is indeed perilous.  It's Queen will indeed trap any foolish mortals who wander too far under it's eaves in her spells, and if such a mortal ever escapes again, will suffer the fate of Oisín.  This assumes that they survive Herne and the Wild Hunt long enough to get caught in Galadriel's spells.

The Lonely Mountain isn't a kingdom in the traditional sense.  No mortals know for sure what happens under the mountain, but a few select Masters of Dale have managed to secure for themselves access to wonderful things from Undermountain that they can then use to amass fortunes.  Few ask exactly what such access costs them, but it is also true that all of these Masters have, mysteriously, lost their oldest child.

Both Hollin and Dwarrowdelf (or Moria, but I prefer to use the "Mannish" name and minimize somewhat the usage of the Elvish words) are haunted by the memory of the elves and dwarves that used to live there.  Not only do spies of the White Wizard haunt the area, and the malevolent spirit of Redhorn the Cruel itself, but passers-by often disappear during the night, their companions left only with the sinister mark of fairy rings where they went to bed.

I'm not sure that I have any real need to do anything with the Blue Mountains and Lindon, since they barely make a cameo as the hobbits pass through on their way to the Grey Havens.  But maybe I'll make Lindon a place where mortals live, but mortals who have been touched just a bit by the magic of the elves.  Sinister, bizarre; not unlike the men from the cold, dark land of Inganok, from Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.  For that matter; the Blue Mountains can be more like the onyx quarries in the mountains near Kadath—which is itself probably located not far north of the Ice Bay of Forochel.

The other element of Lord of the Rings which has become, in many ways, synonymous with High Fantasy are the orcs.  To make them more pulpish, sword & sorcery, I'd turn them into man-apes.  Various types, from hugely strong, nearly gorilla-like uruks to the smaller, almost baboon-like soldiers of the Misty Mountains, their appearance would be different, but their role almost identical.

Periods of potential play in Pulp Middle-earth

Before I go around making all kinds of setting changes to Middle-earth to make it more conducive to a sword & sorcery pulp feel, let's explore some of the potential eras in which I could set a game.  All of these are in the Third Age of Middle Earth, but far removed from the War of the Ring itself.  There's plenty of years to play around with here; the Third Age lasted for over 3,000 years, and started at the Fall of Gil-Galad, Elendil and Sauron himself, and ended with the end of the War of the Ring after the end of Return of the King.  For context, that's nearly as long as the period of time between the Trojan War and now; although the longer lives of characters in Middle-earth tends to extend the years somewhat, I suppose.

1) In the 1060s, the reign of Gondor's Ship-kings has just come to an end.  Gondor is at it's apex, having conquered much of Near Harad, controlled South Gondor (or Harondor) and Umbar.  Political upheaval of the southlands.  Arnor is already divided, although all three kingdoms remain strong(ish) yet at this point.  The Istari are only relatively recently arrived and not yet famous.  The first hobbits reach Eriador.  Although the Northmen of Rhovanion are not yet allied overtly with Gondor, they are still on relatively friendly terms.  Greenwood the Great starts at this time to get its shadow and is starting to become called Mirkwood.

In this era, most likely a game would focus on political intrigue in the Southlands.  Sauron is quiet, as are his direct servants.  The distant echoes of problems in Greenwood would barely reach the ears of the kings of Arthedain or Gondor either one.  Arnor is broken and provincial, while Gondor is at the height of its power.

2) In the 1250s, on the other hand, Gondor is fighting (or just fought) a large horde of Easterlings, and ties with Rhovanion are established.  By this time, Mirkwood is known (at least by the White Council) to be occupied by what is thought to be a Nazgûl.  Lands to the east as far as Dorwinion and the Sea of Rhûn could all feature here.  In the north, Arhedain remains strong, although the Dunedain of Rhudaur have failed and the country is occupied by Hill-men.  Cardolan also has a waning nobility.  Until the founding of Angmar in fifty more years, however, Eriador is fairly quiet and peaceful, other than squabbles over borders (and Palantiri) between the three north kingdoms.

3) By 1410, Rhudaur is completely conquered and overthrown by Angmar; if a kingdom by that name even still exists, it is a puppet kingdom of hostile aliens, friendly to Angmar.  Cardolan is ravaged, but survives, as some survivors of its citizens flee in the the downs or the Old Forest.  The King of Arthedain is slain and Amon Sûl (the tower on Weathertop) is destroyed.  Despite this, later in the year, the northern Dunedain, with help from their allies from Lindon, Rivendell and even Lothlorien manage to beat back the assaults and pacify (for a time) the border with Angmar.

4) A few years later (1432), the disastrous, fifteen year long civil war called the Kin-strife in Gondor takes place.  The rightful king is overthrown by Castamir the Usurper.  Osgiliath is burned (although not fully depopulated, and the king flees to his mother's kin in Rhovanion for a decade.  When he returns and overthrows the Usurper in 1447, it is a bitter affair, and the rebels hold out under siege at Pelargir for a full year, before they decamped and took the entire province of Umbar with them as a rival power, supported not only by these dissidents, but also Black Numenoreans who still lived in the area.

5) By the 1850s, Araval, king of Arthedain, has been at war for 400 years with Angmar.  Cardolan is desolated, and now populated by the Barrow-wights; Rhudaur is now the Coldfells or Ettenmoors and the Trollshaws because of their hostile inhabitants, although some villages of rangers remained in the Angle.  Arthedain will hold out for nearly a hundred and twenty five more years, but the sad defeat and decline is a prominent theme here, as well as constant wariness and low-grade warfare.  In Gondor, the disastrous invasion of the Wainriders truncates Gondor's eastern frontier, and the king is killed, and Gondor's allies, the Northmen of Rhovanion are enslaved, although some move to the Vales of Anduin and become the Éothéod.  The Wainriders will not truly be defeated for fifty more years, and much suffering in both Gondor and among the Northmen still lies before them.

You may notice that these proposals focus considerably more on the Men of Middle-earth than the elves, or dwarves, or even the hobbits.  Yep.  I haven't decided what, exactly, I'm going to do about elves and dwarves, honestly—probably replace them with something a bit less mythic and more pseudo-scientific.  Or maybe I'll just minimize their importance even more than it already is.

The Dunedain I will treat much like later Romans; a great and grand civilization; the greatest in the world, at this point, but politically fractured and in decline.  The Northmen are like various Germanic tribes; some of the common men of Eriador and Gondor are like pacified Gauls or other Celtic groups, and the Wainriders and Easterlings are like the Scythians.

Pulp Middle-earth

"Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Númenor and the gleaming cities, and the years of the Fourth Age, there was an Age undreamed of, when realms of Man lay spread across the world alongside those of fey Elves and sullen Dwarves like blue mantles beneath the stars. . . Hither came Aragorn of the Dúnedain, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a ranger, a wanderer, a chieftain, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the thrones of Arda under his feet."  

- The Red Book of Westmarch

From Trey's "Pulpify Middle-earth" project.  What a great idea for an alternate take on the venerable setting!  Why didn't I ever think of that?  I don't want to step on his toes, but I might play around (very briefly) with the idea myself.  I'm tempted to do a more thorough remixing than it looks like he's doing, though.  Replace elves and dwarves with some less mythic races, replace orcs with man-apes, etc.  The Necromancer is truly a Necromancer, not a minor fallen pagan god, etc.

I might even develop the idea towards actually being played, setting the game somewhere in the time between Sauron's loss of the Ring and Gollum's finding of it.  Once, long ago, I had mapped out several potential very specific eras (from a review of the chronology at the end of Return of the King) but I have no idea what I've done with that over the years, so I'll probably have to do it all anew.

Ad Astra vs. Star Wars Remixed, Part II

Bern Monarchy = Bern Monarchy

Revanchist Republic = Revanchist Republic

Sith Empire = Seraean Empire

Corporate Sector = Corporate Sector

Hutt Cartel = Dhangetan Cartel

Mandalorian Cartel = Cilindan Cartel

Chiss Ascendency = Altairan Ascendency

Gray Marshals = Gray Marshals

Orthodox Jedi = Sacristans

Skywalker Jedi = Simonians

Cyborg Order = Cyborg Order

Nightsisters and Nightbrothers = The Old Ones

Sith = Shadow Knights or Hezun Knights

Coruscant = Capitol (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

Tatooine = Orken (or Ørken)

Raxus = Dimidium

Dathomir = Phobetor

Ilum = N/A.  No Ilum equivalent, since lightsabers are psionic constructs, not mechanical ones, and therefore need no crystals.

Hoth = Yuggoth (hehe...)

Mandalore = Cilindare

Nal Hutta = Tars Dhangeta

Nar Shaddaa = Tars Bruttium

Moraband = Thanatos

Dromund Kaas = Phonos Ma

Given that my Earth-descendants are specifically Northern European (or their descendants via America) in origin, some old Germanic, Celtic and Classic references in the names is to be expected.  There are alien humans (and actual aliens) namely the Ubrai and Idachar, although as they've merged with earth-descent humans over time, they've largely taken on Earth-descent cultures, languages and whatnot as well.

I'm going to minimize (somewhat) the presence of aliens relative to Star Wars.  They'll be there, although most are not even people in rubber masks, they're just people with weird contacts and make-up jobs, but the real focus is on the Earth-descent people, for the most part, and my "iconics" party is specifically designed to be mostly them.  Partly this is to keep me from having to come up with tons of weird new alien names all of the time; something that I enjoyed in my younger years, but which somewhat dread now (plus I don't have nearly as good an ear for it as someone like Edgar Rice Burroughs did, for instance.)

Again; this is more in keeping with the flavor of the very first Star Wars movies—and less so with the later movies.

Ad Astra vs. Star Wars Remixed, Part I

AD ASTRA is specifically a repurposing of my STAR WARS REMIXED setting into a new setting that is "generic"; i.e., Star Wars without the Star Wars I/P.  It'll migrate in time even more away from what is already a pretty divergent interpretation of the Star Wars canon, but in the meantime, it makes sense to draw some very specific parallels; what will eventually be AD ASTRA setting elements that started out as STAR WARS REMIXED setting elements before being renamed and gradually evolving into their own things entirely.

It's helpful if you're familiar with the STAR WARS REMIXED setting a bit.  Let me first link to my Star Wars m20 document.  Let me second, cross post some portions of the STAR WARS REMIXED setting description here.  In Part II, I'll then label many setting elements with all new AD ASTRA labels.

I had thought that I'd described the STAR WARS REMIXED setting here before, and while I have, here and there, it's a bit out of date, and poorly organized, and not conducive to simply being linked, so I thought it worthwhile to copy and paste the setting portions from the m20 document right here.

Setting Intro

STAR WARS
Episode n
OUT OF DARNESS
More than a thousand years after the prophecy of the CHOSEN ONE was fulfilled, the galaxy is emerging from the chaos of a lengthy DARK AGE. The old governments and institutions are gone and new ones struggle to find their place as they rise from the ashes of the old. 

Emerging superpowers, many with their own traditions of knights who use the mystic power of THE FORCE threaten to break the tense peace of a brooding cold war, and the looming threat of TOTAL WAR casts its shadow across the stars. In this tense environment, feisty bands of independent entrepreneurs, including budding force talents that belong to no standard knightly tradition, emerge on to center stage of the galaxy, caught up unawares in a political gambit where they will find themselves pawns of the nefarious SITH LORDS and their allies the Nightsisters to bring the Revanchist Republic and the long-standing Bern Monarchy to war...

So… as the opening crawl above states, “my” Star Wars setting is fairly far removed from the movies in time, much as the Old Republic setting is far removed from the movies in time. Knights of the Old Republic—the original game is what gave me the idea. It’s not a unique idea; as I was developing my first pass at this setting several years ago, Dark Horse announced Star Wars: Legacy, and I picked up Issue #0, only to see that they’d either (1) totally used the same idea I had, or (2) totally come up with better ideas than I had! So, I took the former as confirmation that the ideas were good, and the latter as opportunities to improve my own setting.

But there are a number of key factors that are significantly different from what Legacy did that need to be addressed.

• I’m way farther out in time than Legacy. Wookiepedia makes a big deal of the fact that the Legacy comic books take place 125 (or so) years after Jedi whereas mine take place a good thousand years later. There is no living memory of the events of Jedi anymore, and much of what happened has passed into legend, which means that truthful details have often been lost in favor of fanciful or politically expedient ones.
• Jedi vs. Sith is, of course, the core conflict of any canonical Star Wars story (with the exception of some of the more scoundrelish stories, of course) but I’ve expanded that conflict greatly. My original idea was that the Jedi Order had something happen to it much like what happened to the Christian Church, where it went from centralized and common to splintered by something not unlike the Reformation. Stealing the idea of the Imperial Knights as one of the most important of the factions, I still went with the notion of more independent and varied traditions of Force and lightsaber wielding Knights. More conflict always makes for more drama and fun, after all.
• Although Star Wars is famous for being pretty black and white, the prequels really changed that (frankly, the original trilogy had a bunch of that going on, but it was on slow simmer back then.) The Jedi were not really always portrayed as being wise, just, and good—although I think that sometimes the lack of that portrayal was accidental and based on George Lucas’ weakness as a storyteller rather than because he was really trying to introduce moral complexity to the series. My version of the story will tread a middle ground between black, white and grays—not unlike the Old Republic games, I’d think, except hopefully less corny.
• The Star Wars franchise has, at various times, had different feels and tones over time. I’m aiming mostly for the feel and tone of the first movie or two—Flash Gordon swashbuckling space fantasy, with some of the darkness and conflict of Empire but not the attempted (and failed) seriousness of, say, the prequels. More action and swashbuckling, less philosophy and self-righteous preachiness. More handwavey and fast-paced rather than hard science fiction and thoughtful. Star Wars is, after all, the “science fiction” that introduced parsecs as a unit of time (instead of distance in space) and referred to “hydro-spanners” (water wrenches?)
• Legacy had to account for Expanded Universe stuff. I don’t. I actually take a perverse pleasure in watching stuff like the Clone Wars or Rebels cartoons skewer EU material (and then, curiously, have EU custodians bend over backwards to try and retcon the Clone Wars into the EU without changing it, even when it makes no sense whatsoever. The treatment of Mandalorians, Rodians and Dathomir in particular are subject to this problem—the Clone Wars clearly went a totally different and incompatible direction on those than the EU, but the EU tried to digest the Clone Wars without changing. The result is satisfying to no one.) For my purposes, canonical material is the theatrical release movies (counting the Clone Wars pilot theatrical release), the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoon shows, and as a junior tier (and therefore more subject to change at my whim), the Old Republic material from the three computer games with that name. In reality, none of that really matters all too much, because by setting the game 1,000 years in the future from the older material, I’ve removed it sufficiently that I don’t have to explain why any detail doesn’t show up—after all, it’s 1,000 years later and lots can have changed.
• Rather than the open warfare of the Galactic Civil War, I’ve got more of a Cold War environment with lots of players—the Monarchy, the Revanchist Republic, the Sith Empire, the Hutt Cartels, the Mandalorian Confederacy, the Corporate Conglomerate, etc. Again, this is more about giving me lots of opportunity to set up conflict, and the ability to make it a bit more varied than just Rebels vs. Stormtroopers and Jedi vs. Sith all the time. This also a bit of a noirish bent to Star Wars normally—organized crime has played an important role in the franchise from the very beginning. And much of it has to feel like a wild and wooly Old West in space—certainly Mos Eisley, that “wretched hive of scum and villainy” comes across that way.

Knight Orders

Gray Marshals: The personal agents of King Maddav Bern, the Gray Marshals are famous for their devotion to the Monarchy. They operate with a great deal of independence in their role, and often can be seen on their own. Only fully trained Marshals are allowed in the field, so there’s really no good reason for a squire (called padawan by some other orders) to be out on assignment. While on duty, and not incognito, Marshals are famous for their black flight suits and their silver or white lightsabers.

Jedi (Orthodox): The goal of the Orthodox Jedi is to recreate the old Jedi Order from before the Purge. Seeking out clues and lingering evidence of how the Order used to operate, the Orthodox Jedi are too involved in their own concerns to be overtly political, as other orders are. Orthodox Jedi usually travel in their errands by twos—a knight and a padawan together. Although not required, most Orthodox Jedi use blue lightsabers, whereas Skywalkers prefer green. But that’s merely a preference, not an absolute.

Jedi (Skywalkers): Rejecting the rigid dispassion of the original Jedi Order, the Skywalkers believe that the compassionate and activist stance of Anakin and Luke is the way to balance the Force. They take their name as well as their approach from the order founded by Luke following the Battle of Endor. Closely associated with the Revanchist Republic, the Skywalkers are famous as do-gooders throughout the galaxy. They’re infamous for doing so with smugness, self-righteousness and a heavy-hand all too often, however. And a closely guarded secret of the order is the large number of Skywalkers who fall to the Dark Side…

The Cyborg Order: Knights who supplement their fighting abilities with cybernetic augmentations, as did the Chosen One himself, or so they imagine. In reality, these Knights tend to more closely resemble General Grievous than Darth Vader. They are loosely associated with the Corporate Worlds and their combat droid armies, making their resemblance to the erstwhile general even more pronounced, although not deliberate. Because of their location in the galaxy, they can more easily access yellowish lightsaber crystals, which grow naturally on Yuggoth, an icy planet in the Corporate Sector, making yellowish lightsabers more common amongst the Cyborg Order.

The Nightsisters and Nightbrothers: This insular and secretive order has grown tremendously since its days of isolation on Dathomir, where Count Dooku nearly destroyed them overnight during the Clone Wars. Now, a galaxy-wide cult who settle in isolated enclaves and cells throughout the galaxy, Nightsisters and their odd relationship with the Nightbrothers, can be found on many wild and often inhospitable planets. Many are allied with the Sith Empire, although the Sith obviously have their own order of knights as well. Nightsisters and Nightbrothers do not typically use lightsabers, although some of them have discovered the ancient secrets of making darksabers, and more and more this antique-style weapon is showing up in the hands of Nightbrothers in particular.

Sith: After the disastrous risk to the order was revealed if the apprentice kills the Master and doesn’t ascend to his place (i.e., the death of Darth Sidious) those who have attempted to follow in the footsteps of the old Sith order have looked much further back to the ancient Sith Empire rather than the more recent age of the Rule of Two as their model. The master/apprentice dynamic is still important to the Sith, but many such pairings exist throughout the galaxy, reporting loosely to a Dread Council of Arch Heretics, and the Sith Emperor himself. The Sith are infamous for their red lightsabers, made of synthetic crystals. However, because synthetic crystals are often easier to come by than natural ones, seeing a red lightsaber is not necessarily a clue that you’re looking at a Sith Knight anymore.

Independents: In addition to these major (and many other minor) Knightly orders, there are a great many individuals who can use the Force as their ally, and who carry lightsabers or similar weapons. Some have trained with an Order, but turned their backs to its traditions, while others have sought out solitary masters who follow esoteric codes or traditions, and some very few are even self-taught. Because of this, there is no way to generalize what an independent knight looks like, thinks like, or what his philosophy may be, but they are indeed varied and often strange.

Political Groups

The Bern Monarchy: Following the Battle of Endor and the subsequent rise and fall of the First Order, the Empire was dealt what appeared to a be a mortal blow, but things are never, of course, so simple. Much of the Imperial citizenry—especially the military—saw themselves as the heirs of a glorious tradition stretching back thousands of years into the age of the Old Republic. If Palpatine and Snoke were bad seeds, well that didn't invalidate generation after generation of tradition. Surrendering to barbarians, anarchists and malcontents—as they saw the Rebel Alliance—or the traitors who colluded with them in the old Senate and elsewhere, was never going to happen. Seeing themselves as heirs to the Old Republic through the unfortunate hiccup of the Empire and then the First Order respectively, this ancient tradition evolved into the Monarchy. While not nearly as vast as during the heyday of the Old Republic, the Monarchy is still one of the largest and strongest of the superpowers in the galaxy. Protected by the Gray Marshals, paramilitary agents capable of standing toe to toe with Sith or Jedi, the Monarchy is well-provided for with its own Force and lightsaber wielding Knightly tradition.

• Capital: Raxus Secundus (former capital of the Separatist Confederacy, seen in the Clone Wars episode "Heroes on Both Sides."
• Leader: Maddav Bern, King
• Military: Stormtroopers and others, fleets of thirteenth generation Star Destroyers, Gray Marshals
• Alliances and Enemies: The Monarchy sees the Sith Empire as its primary rival for power, and the Republic as its primary ideological rival. It has a relatively friendly relationship with the Mandalorians.
• Galactic Control: Between direct control and allied systems, about 15% of the galaxy owes some degree of allegiance to the Monarchy.
• Cultural attitude towards Knights: The Gray Marshalls are an enshrined, official organization. Because of their tradition of strong loyalty to the Monarchy, they are viewed with a great deal of respect throughout the Monarchy's territory. Other knights are viewed with suspicion or outright hostility, especially the Jedi. Echoes of the ancient perception that the Jedi betrayed the Republic and carried out the Clone War in defiance of the will of the people remain strong.

The Revanchist Republic: The direct heir to the New Republic established by Mon Mothma, Leia Organa, and the rest of the architects of the Rebel Alliance, the Republic has had many generations of hardship. While many of the Rebels and later the Resistance were well-meaning idealists who wanted nothing more than a restoration to the way things were before Palpatine, it was clear that too many in both groups were little more than scoundrels, pirates, and other opportunists who took advantage of the chaos of the Galactic Civil War to line their pockets with what plunder and pillage they could. Following short periods of relative peace, the Republic was plagued by periods of violence and anarchy, not unlike an extended comparison with France following the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchs. After being reduced to a mere handful of Core worlds, the Republic finally got its act together and started aggressively retaking former territory, "liberating it" from whatever "tyranny" might have been occupying it. This revanchist policy has been adopted officially as its new name, the Revanchist Republic, an emerging, feisty superpower—-not really a rival yet to the Monarchy or the Empire, but a growing power nonetheless.

• Capital: Coruscant
• Leader: Mon Organa, Supreme Chancellor
• Military:"Freedom" troopers, and Calamari built fleet, association with the Skywalker Knights
• Alliances and Enemies: the truculent and often self-righteous approach of the Republic has won them little in terms of friendships, but they have cool alliances of convenience at times with the Monarchy, the Hutts and the Mandalorians. The Republic sees the Monarchy as a continuation of the Empire that they claim responsibility for overthrowing many generations ago, and the Sith are greatly disliked for obvious reasons.
• Galactic Control: Was down considerably, but as the revanchist movement gains some ground, about 10% of the galaxy owes some degree of allegiance to the Republic, albeit sometimes somewhat grudgingly.
• Cultural attitude toward Knights: The Jedi (both varieties) and some independent Knights keep a low profile, but are usually viewed favorably, if a bit warily. The Republic hates Sith knights, with the belief that the Sith overthrew the Old Republic, of which the Revanchist Republic claims to be the true heir.

The Sith Empire: Centered on the ancient capital of Dromund Kaas, the Sith Empire may be the most powerful polity in the galaxy—although that often works to its disadvantage when no other group trusts them, and they are often "ganged up on" both diplomatically and militarily by wary other governments who find tenuous alliance in restraining the ambition of the Sith. But the Sith are patient in their ambition to rule the entire galaxy, and are seemingly content to hold strongly to their existing territory and advance slowly over their opponents over the course of generations. Black-garbed Sith soldiers bring a measure of order to the galaxy, or at least so say the Empire's apologists. And drawing from the ranks of both Sith acolytes as well as their allies the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers, the ranks of Force-using knights who serve the Empire's interests is considerable.

• Capital: Dromund Kaas, the ancient Sith capital during the Old Republic age, reclaimed and re-established again.
• Leader: The Sith Emperor, name unknown
• Military: black or chrome garbed Sith troopers, a powerful Armada, sometime alliances with Nightbrother and Nightsister warriors, and Sith Knights, the most feared "face" of the Empire.
• Alliances and Enemies: Occasionally allied with the Mandalorians, the Sith, as the biggest guys in the galaxy and the most feared, infrequently find common cause with any of the other superpowers.
• Galactic Control: Some 20% of the galaxy either belongs directly to the Sith Empire, or is part of a somewhat looser protectorate puppet government
• Cultural attitude toward Knights: Knights are viewed with fear and great respect. Citizens tend to believe that Jedi, Gray Marshals and other knights are not unlike Sith knights, except in their politics. In this, they understand little of the differences between the light and dark sides of the Force.

The Corporate Sector: In the chaos of the Dark Age, many large corporations were more stable and less corrupt than most governments. And in a large reach of the Inner Realm worlds, the corporations essentially became the government. Providing a high quality of life to those citizens willing to combine civil service and their careers together, the Corporate Sector has beat back all attempts by traditional governments to integrate them fully. Protected by vast droid armies and loosely allied with the many knights of the Cyborg Order, the Corporate Sector may indeed be mercenary—by definition even—but that doesn't mean that they're more corrupt or heavy-handed than any other government. The watchword of the Corporate citizens is professionalism in all aspects of life.

• Capital: various regional capitals, but the artificial planet known only as HQ is often seen as the center of Corporate policy
• Leader: various CEOs and Presidents, but Lord Alfram Roole is the most important and charismatic face, who frequently speaks for the entire Corporate sector
• Military: both militia troops and vast hordes of battle droids, often led by allied Cyborg Order Knights
• Alliances and Enemies: Rarely overtly aggressive, the Corporate Sector groups often have a tangle of alliances of various types with all of the powers. They are among the most likely to do business with the Sith
• Galactic Control: Some 10% of the galaxy owes some form of allegiance to the Corporations
• Cultural attitude towards Knights: Knights are viewed warily, although some come to be seen as trustworthy and able advisors or consultants, particularly those of the Cyborg Order.

Hutt Cartel: Infamous as making up the dark tentacles of a seedy underworld throughout much of the rest of the galaxy, there also is a patch of the galaxy where the Hutt's rule as undisputed masters continues as it has without change for millennia. Rather than strong traditional military, the Hutt's have relied on each Hutt master's private militia, often consisting of eclectic and unusual companies of mercenaries. This disunity might be seen as weakness, and certainly seldom have the Hutt's engaged in overt acts of conquest or military adventurism, in reality the Hutt's maintain a strong enough presence that their place has not been seriously threatened in generations.

• Capital: Nal Hutta
• Leader: Various, but the Hutt Council of Lords speaks for the entire group
• Military: private militias of various Hutt Lords, accompanied by purchased battle droids and mercenaries
• Alliances and Enemies: a long association with the Mandalorians has dwindled somewhat in recent years, but the Hutts find their most likely common cause still with them. They occasionally engage in Machiavellian alliances with the Sith as well.
• Galactic Control: About 5% of the galaxy owes allegiance to the Hutt space.
• Cultural attitude towards Knights: Knights are viewed with respect for their abilities. Knights that are strongly associated with one of the political groups are viewed warily, but not because they are knights, but because they are so strongly associated as agents of their government. A number of independent knights, belonging to minor orders, or even no order at all, operate here as mercenaries, bounty hunters, and other types of fringers.

The Mandalorian Arm: Following the disastrous collapse of Duchess Satine's well-meaning but foolishly naive pacifist regime, the Mandalorians looked more to their glorious and storied warrior past on which to model their society. Death Watch themselves were still seen as an equally dangerous extreme as Satine's pacifism, yet the evolving Mandalorian society grew to resemble Death Watch more than many realized. Initially allied strongly with the Hutts, the Mandalorian Arm—so known because its territory is centered on one of the spiral arms of the galaxy—has grown in power and prestige so that it can treat with the other Great Powers as an equal. Although some Mandalorians are born with the genetic predisposition to be Knights (as are most groups in the galaxy), there is no real tradition of force-user training amongst them. Rather, a fully trained and equipped Mandalorian supercommando can fairly be considered the equal of any Knight in combat without using the Force—a point of pride for Mandalorian soldiers.

• Capital: Mandalore
• Leader: Jerec Vizsla, of the ascendant Viszla clan
• Military: Both regular troops and fleet, as well as the elite supercommandos
• Alliances and Enemies: The Mandalorians are at open war with no one, but their tendency to deal more with the Hutts and Sith than anyone else will has made them somewhat untrustworthy in the eyes of the Republic and the Monarchy. Still, supercommando mercenary groups, while not officially part of the governmental military (their first allegiance is to their own clan) can be seen across the galaxy in the employ of many
• Galactic Control: About 5% of the galaxy recognizes some level of sovereignty of the Mandalorians, although in some cases that's a very loose client or vassal arrangement.
• Cultural attitude towards Knights: Knights are respected for what they can do, but Mandalorians take great pride in their ability to match a knight in one-on-one combat without using the Force at all (replacing Force abilities with technology in their supercommando battle-armor, usually, as well as intense training.) Mandalorians are generally tolerant of knights who are not acting overtly as agents of another super-power, however. Many independent knights make their homes in Mandalorian space, where they are less likely to come into unnecessary conflict with others.

Independents: The largest plurality of worlds in the galaxy belongs to none of the super-powers at all. Certainly, some smaller multi-system polities exist, like the Chiss Ascendency, or others, but all of them are small enough that they do not control an appreciable percentage of the worlds cataloged in the galaxy. Some of these are able to maintain independence by virtue of their own strength, either diplomatic or militarily, such as Umbara and the Chiss. In many ways, these independent governments are like smaller versions of the Mandalorians or the Hutts. Others have managed to eke out a precarious neutrality because their neutrality is valuable to one or more of the super-powers. These systems are living on borrowed time, however, if the Cold War erupts into a hot war, in which case the treaties that guarantee them their neutrality will likely be ignored by aggressors. And finally, many worlds manage to hold on to neutrality simply by virtue that they are small and unimportant enough to fly under the radar of the superpowers. If they lack any significant strategic or tactical benefit, and don't have any resources that are vital, they can manage to stay neutral, and can even hope to do so in the event of a greater war.

• Galactic Control: About 35% of the systems in the galaxy are not allied with any super-power at all.

Locations 1,000 Years after Return of the Jedi

A list of a few select locations in the Star Wars canon, including what's happened to them in the 1,000 years since they were last seen in the movies.

Coruscant: Coruscant currently is the capital of the Revanchist Republic. Like a modern day Jerusalem, its significance to various political groups is huge. To the Bern Monarchy, it rankles that Coruscant doesn't belong to them, since they see themselves as the unbroken continuation of the Old Republic through the Empire and into the Monarchy. To them, it is naturally their home planet as well. About 300 years ago, Tiranos Bern, a distant ancestor of today's king, Maddav Bern, declared a Crusade to liberate Coruscant from the hands of the Republic, which was at that time weak, riddled with corruption, and political infighting. The Monarchy held it for twenty years even, although the insult of losing their capital finally united the Republic into a semi-cohesive whole. With the recapture of Coruscant, they officially became the Revanchist Republic, and their revanchist agenda took off, putting them at open war with the Monarchy and the Empire both. It's to their credit that they were even able to survive that time at all, much less thrive and grow, until peace settled again uneasily over the galaxy.

Coruscant remains a world rife with political division, class and social division, and more. Dissidents, terrorists, activists, and other malcontents lurk under the surface, and the grim and overcrowded underworld of Coruscant is still an easy place in which to get lost, either on accident or on purpose. The bright and classy world of the surface is a different world altogether from the dingy and anarchic underworld, which is patrolled insufficiently by law enforcement to be little better than a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Criminals, political malcontents, and spies make up a shocking percentage of the population.

The Senate still remains in power, and their rebuilt Senate building strongly resembles the former one. The Jedi temple is now a public park, though. The Skywalker Jedi operate frequently on Coruscant, but have smaller, more modest temples scattered throughout the planet. Orthodox Jedi also live here, and some even tend the old temple, although they have been unsuccessful in their attempt to sue for its return to their order.

Tatooine: Once famous as a semi-lawless place, far from the bright center of the galaxy, and ruled by the Hutts and other gangsters, Tatooine has undergone quite the transformation in the last 1,000 years. Oh, it's still harsh desert, with the Dune Seas covering much of the surface, and the Jundland wastes cover other large areas. And it's still lawless. If anything, it's in fact quite a bit more lawless than it was under the Hutts.

As the home world of both Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One himself, and his son Luke, who redeemed him and together brought balance to The Force, Tatooine has become a major pilgrimage site for knights, historians, and more who all want to see what makes this hot wasteland so special. Indeed, some have developed philosophies that the harsh environment is what led to the strength and fortitude of the Skywalkers, and would-be utopian communities of various stripes dot the surface here and there. Some of them thrive, after a fashion, butmany more wither and die as their philosophical fervor fades and they move on to other things, or fall prey to sand people... or worse.

Many of those who now live on Tatooine either serve the needs of the pilgrimage tourist trade, or parasitically feed on it. Tatooine is still a dangerous place, and one haunted by mercenaries, bounty hunters, criminals and worse. While the Hutts gave up on the planet in disgust rather than fight Jedi pilgrims over such paltry resources as the planet afforded, the only powers to fill in the void left by their departure have been regional and highly unstable. One does not ask which crime lord is ascendant on Tatooine, one asks which crime lord is ascendant today.

Raxus: Two planets make up this system. Raxus Secundus was once the Separatist Confederacy capital. Although abandoned at the end of the Clone Wars, the Monarchy later appropriated and renovated Raxus Secundus, and the Separatist government buildings now make up the bulk of the official buildings of the Monarchy's bureaucracy. The Bern palace is even located on Raxus Secundus, which in spite of being the home of such bureaucracy and the seat of so much power, remains a somewhat rural locale, with rolling plains unspoiled by over-development, by tradition. The Bern monarchs in general have decreed that it be retained as a kind of garden or preserve world, and the current monarch, Maddav Bern, has reiterated that policy.

Raxus Prime, on the other hand, remains an industrial wasteland, a dumping ground filled with junk and sludge. However, the remains of ships and droids means that Raxus Prime is an important source of resources, and salvage crews and salvage droids scour the surface of his planet with regularity. In the past, Raxus Prime was quite lawless—following the fall of the Separatist Parliament, the entire Raxus system fell into disfavor. Now, being so close to the capital of the Monarchy, the Bern's would not tolerate Raxus Prime as a lawless junk world, however. Security remains fairly tight on Raxus Prime.

That said, it is only lightly inhabited and insufficiently patrolled to be completely foolproof. Raxus Prime remains a beachhead for the seditious, smugglers, and more.

Dathomir: Dathomir was the original home of the related cults of the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers. When Mother Talzin and Nightsister Asajj Ventress meddled in the affairs of the Sith Lord, Count Dooku during the Clone Wars, they incurred his wrath. He sent General Grievous with an invasion force to wipe them out, and nearly succeeded (although Mother Talzin, Ventress, and a few others did escape the initial massacre. See Clone Wars season 4 episode "Massacre" for details.)

This ended up not being the end of the Nightsister and Nightbrother cults, however. The Nightbrothers were untouched by the massacre, and given the low numbers of the sisters after the massacre, the Nightbrothers were able to start dealing with them from a position of greater strength. The subservient position of the brothers relative to the sisters started to change.

Also, after the near massacre, the cults decided to establish new cells throughout the galaxy, rather than be grouped together all in one location. Today, the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters cults are relatively common, and knights from both can be seen throughout the galaxy. Although the cults have largely grown together into a single cult, they still retain the formal distinction for tradition's sake. The sisters are more likely to be the sorceress-type archetypes, while the brothers, following in the example of Darth Maul and Savage Opress, are warrior knights, wielding traditional red lightsabers, or more likely, darksabers. Although occasionally uneasily allied with the Sith, the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers remain completely separate cults from the way of the Sith, and in general do not acknowledge the superiority or authority of the Sith Dread Council or the Sith Emperor, except politically.

Despite this spread of the Nightsibling cults, Dathomir remains their home planet, and many make pilgrimages there at some point in their careers. Thriving colonies of Nightsisters and Nightbrothers remain still on Dathomir. Their allies, the Sith, are occasionally welcome, as are—on rare occasions—knights of other orders. But the cults have become wary of other knights, and avoid or attack them most often, rather than deal with them.

Ilum: Ilum was the traditional place where Jedi found their lightsaber crystals during the Old Republic, and up through the Clone Wars. Following the Jedi purge, Emperor Palpatine had the Jedi temple on Ilum destroyed. Luke Skywalker was, in fact, unaware (or at least unable to travel to) Ilum when he had to create his own lightsaber. Because of this, Jedi following in Luke's footsteps and tutelage were much more likely to use synthetic crystals, given that natural crystals were very difficult to find or use.

Synthetic crystals also led to a wide variety of color variation, although many Orders of knights eventually tried to settle on a color that was "theirs", in particular to try and separate themselves from other Orders.

Today, most of the major orders have settled on a crystal color. The Orthodox Jedi, though, in accordance with their stated goals of recreating the entire process and practices of the Jedi Order prior to the Purge, have reclaimed Ilum, and in fact have their primary temple and headquarters located in the ruins of the old temple, which they've largely renovated and repaired. The Orthodox Jedi tend to have blue crystals, most of the time, but they strongly dislike using synthetic crystals, and Ilum is their preferred crystal location.

Other orders are not typically welcomed on Ilum, and that lack of welcome often manifests as outright hostility.

Hoth: As a major battlefield of the Imperial era wars, Hoth gained a bit of notoriety many centuries ago, and it's now no longer a world that is greeted with a blank stare or a shrug when mentioned. That doesn't mean that much in the way of valuable resources have been found here. Hoth has a few small communities, that mostly cater to smugglers or other ne'er-do-wells, much as Admiral Ozzel believed the rebel base to be. But a few hardy gas miners have discovered that chemical reactions deep under the ice have produced stores of tibana gas, and other useful gases that can be converted to fuel. There isn't exactly a Tibana Rush on the planet, but a few solitary, independent types manage to eke out a reasonably comfortable living on Hoth even so.

And occasionally rumors will float about that some independent knight has discovered crystal caves where lightsaber crystals grow naturally on Hoth, as they do on the ecologically similar Ilum. This has never been officially confirmed; if any knights are finding crystals, they're keeping that find close. But knights do occasionally arrive here to scout out the planet, and occasionally come into conflict with each other. The locals often look at the arrival of a knight as if it were the arrival of a potentially dangerous and notorious gunfighter in an Old West town. They are respectful, but try to encourage them to move on as much as possible. and prefer to keep them from coming into conflict with each other as much as possible too.

Mandalore: The domed, glass-like cities of Mandalore have continued to grow. The ruined ecology of the planet, and the white, sterile sands of areas like the Sundari Wastes, continue to dominate the planet, but slowly... ever so slowly... it has started to make a comeback in small pockets. Plants, imported from Concordia, have started, first as carefully tended private gardens, and finally growing into self-sustaining preserves.

Mandalore today is the capital of Mandalorian society, but no longer its single locus. As the power and influence of the Mandalorians grew, so too has the area which they claim. Colonists, encouraged by cultural and governmentally induced incentives, have spread rapidly, procreated wildly, and Mandalorian culture is now "native" to dozens of nearby systems. Many other systems have sworn vassalage to the Mandalorians, and collectively this entire area is known as the Mandalorian Arm of the galaxy. The vassal states are not truly considered Mandalorian themselves, at least not by Mandalorians, who are very particular about their cultural and ethnic purity. Although there have been some conversions of non-Mandalorians into Mandalorian culture and mixed race marriages, by and large the original Nordic Mandalorian ethnic group remains as it was during the Clone Wars. Quasi-religious cultural traditionalism has enforced an extraordinary level of cultural stability into the Mandalorian way of life in a way not unlike that of the Ashkenazi Jew.

Many of the Mandalorian vassals or clients have taken to imitating many aspects of Mandalorian culture, including developing their own traditions of battle-suits and mercenary military service. These clients are careful not to copy the Mandalorian template too closely, as the Mandalorians are very zealous about the uniqueness of their battle-armor, and dislike too open imitation as disrespectful and gauche.

A curious fact is that the descendants of many clones, decommissioned after the Empire was defeated at Endor, have made their way to this area. Although not per se part of Mandalorian society, they see somehow a connection (through Jango Fett, a shadowy historical figure who the clones look to as an ancestor, and who the Mandalorians look to as an imitator and source of some shame.) The relationship between the ethnic Mandalorians and the ethnic clone descendants is somewhat strained on occasion, yet remains an interesting dynamic, as they number at least as many as the Mandalorians themselves in Mandalorian territory, and have their own traditions of martial excellence. While outside of Mandalorian society proper, they still retain a somewhat favored position as a largely pluralistic segment of society that cannot be ignored, and who have, by tradition, maintained a military cohesiveness that rivals that of the Mandalorians themselves.

Nal Hutta: This slimy swamp is the home world to the Hutts. They keep it as a kind of preserve, though, and have strict immigration controls. Much of the planet remains in a state of greenish-yellow swamp, overcast and undeveloped. A few cities still remain, including Bilbousa, and it remains the capital of the Hutt Cartels.

However, following the fall of the Hutts—albeit not for long—to Darth Maul and Death Watch’s so-called Shadow Collective, the Hutts have diversified to protect themselves. While most Hutt Lords maintain palaces on Nal Hutta, few stay there permanently, and many have spread throughout much of Hutt space, to make the Hutt Cartel as a whole less vulnerable to potential attack. The Hutts, when on Nal Hutta, maintain a strong presence of mercenary bodyguards and militia, including—if they can get them—Mandalorian supercommandos and fallen or independent knights.

Other than in the heavily armed Hutt palaces, however, Nal Hutta remains a relatively lawless place, with little in the way of government oversight. Because of this, it prospers, but gangsters and organized crime remain a significant deterrent to ever truly expanding its trade and commerce base beyond items that are otherwise illicit or illegal throughout much of the galaxy. Slave trading cartels, spice trading cartels and more make up much of Nal Hutta’s import/export business.

Nar Shaddaa: Nar Shaddaa remains much as it ever was; a kind of Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, Bangkok and Tortuga of the galaxy, all rolled up into one and under the control of the Hutts. As a side note: much of the EU material, or Star Wars Legends canon, as its now called, calls Nar Shaddaa a moon of Nal Hutta, the galaxy map of Star Wars Insider #65 shows it as an independent planet, which is how I’ve chosen to treat it.

Nar Shaddaa is a hotbed of political intrigue. While it’s in Hutt Space and is loyal to the Hutt Cartel, it plays no favorites, and the Hutt’s famous general trend of neutrality between the three superpowers means that embassies and espionage from all three are commonplace in the dark streets of Nar Shaddaa. It still has the same reputation as a wildly dangerous place that it’s always had, but now one with a particular partisan bent, as shadow wars rage in the streets between proxies. All parties are careful to keep this activity at least marginally discrete, however, as the Hutts’ are only laid-back hosts to the degree that their own interests are not threatened.

Moraband: While an important planet to the Sith for historical, archeological and cultural reasons, in reality there is little on the planet to tempt the Sith today, and they maintain it more as a curiosity than for any other reason. Many Sith knights make pilgrimages to the planet as part of their training, but few remain. The ruins that once dominated the Valley of the Dark Lords are mostly stripped clean of any artifacts of interest or note, and many of the ruins toppled or defaced.

The Sith tolerate a few unusual features about Moraband, however. Several pirate and smuggler operations are here, known to the Empire, but not molested. The inhabitants of these enclaves are particularly vicious and paranoid, as might be expected, since few of them know of the official tolerance for their activity, and they feel that they may be rooted out by feared Sith Knights and their black-garbed troopers at any time if discovered. In truth, it’s not clear what the Empire tolerates them for, although it may be as simple as the fact that the harshly competitive meritocracy of this environment has been a good source of potential recruits for them; force sensitive pirates are trained as apprentice Knights, and those who are not become highly skilled agents-provocateurs for the Empire, often drafted into dangerous yet important missions on behalf of the Empire.

The Sith also tolerate several villages of Nightbrothers and Nightsisters on Moraband, including some of the most important and centralized points of the cult. While the Sith cult and the Nightsiblings cult have usually enjoyed friendly relations, it is not clear why this particular tolerance is allowed on what is a site important to the Sith cults’ heritage. It is observable, however, that the Nightsiblings cult on Moraband has gradually migrated more and more into being one that resembles the ancient Sith cult itself. It is believed by a very few who are aware of this phenomena that this tolerance may actually be part of a long-term conspiracy to draw the Nightsiblings cult directly into the Sith cult itself and merge the two. The whispering of the Dark Side and the ghosts—rather real or echoed—of past Sith Lords who still wander the blasted badlands of Moraband may be instrumental in bringing this to pass.

Dromund Kaas: The capital of the Empire is the ancient capital of Dromund Kaas. It is much as it was during The Old Republic in many ways, although Kaas city has grown to encompass much of the surface area of the planet. Very little of the old jungles remain.  In general, Dromund Kaas can be seen as a darker and much more militarized mirror of Coruscant as it was.