It was a pretty low-key birthday. I had to work all day, so obviously there was that most of the day. Talked to my folks at lunch. They're in Houston at a cancer hospital running some tests and getting few answers. They're in their 80s (my mom) and just shy of 80 (my dad) and his condition seems to be related to "vax" related anomalous and unexpected turbo cancer. So that's not exactly good news, but it's not worse news than we've already known for months either. It just was a minor update; more the case that I actually managed to catch them and talk to them briefly.
I heard from three of my four kids. Didn't even think about until later that my youngest didn't call. Strange. Of the boys in particular, he's the one I would have expected to think of it the most. Didn't get a lot; we spent a ton of money recently, and are being careful (at least, more careful) this year; I ordered some stuff that I needed for about $50, and we went out to eat for about $40. I'm certainly in a place financially where if I really need or want something, I usually just get it without thinking too much about it, so birthday and Christmas presents being a big deal is a thing of the past, but because my wife wasn't working the last three months, we're watching cash flow until she can start getting paychecks again. Luckily, her position will actually improve in the new year, so we'll be in good shape soon with regards to cash flow anyway. Sigh. Sadly, I'm not going to be in a position to retire early to a 800+ acre ranch in Wyoming. But for more "normal" retirement options, I'll probably be OK, at least when I get to that age. Which, even after my birthday is not really all that close still. I'll no doubt be working well into my mid-60s, and that's not coming for many more years.
— ( † ) —
Anyway, as expected, I didn't play much SWTOR yesterday, and I haven't read much of anything either, except for my Old Testament audio while commuting in the morning (I save the evening commute for music). I did log in to get the daily login, and got a seasonal accomplishment done. Did some crafting. No big deal. Took a few screenshots, and left them on my other computer, so I can't even add them to this post, although maybe I'll do so later tonight.
I did notice that I was wrong on my crafting. While I'm pretty sure that I had made Phillippion a biotech crafter, which I think I had done, and that I'd maxed out Hutran Thanatos, my Wave 2 Operative as a backup biotech crafter, I thought that I was going to delete Phillippion and changed my mind so that I had two biotech crafters. However, I logged into Phillippion and checked out his crafting companions menu, and he was maxed out on slicing. There was a change that I had made and forgotten about long ago. I don't have a backup biotech after all; Hutran Thanatos has to just be my main for that craft. I redid my list to correct that, and look at who will be backups, and in order to have one primary and one backup for each of the six crafting skills and a primary and backup for the slicing deal-e-o, I would need to utilize literally every single one of my wave 1 and wave 2 characters.
Which is perfectly fine, of course, but I just need to do it. What I think that I'm going to do is stop waiting for them to go into semi-retirement to become crafters; they can craft now, and start slowly bulking up their abilities, plus they'll be able to transform slain enemies into crafting mats. Especially the droids for most enemies, but biotech can scan monsters and get gathered materials out of them too. So all of my wave 2 characters will need to drop by the fleet and pick up their crafting and two gathering skills.
Here's the list of current crafters:
J'ohhn - Cybertech (maxed)
Graggory - Armormech (maxed)
M'aar'k - Synthweaving (maxed)
Lu'ukke - Armstech (maxed)
M'at Thew - Artifice (maxed)
Hutran Thanatos - Biotech (maxed)
Phillip'pion - Slicing (maxed)
Taul Kajak - Artifice backup (not maxed)
Anstal Tane - Cybertech backup (not maxed)
And here are the characters who will go pick up skills and start working on them, effective tonight.
Vant Galaide - Armstech backup (Investigation, Scavenging)
There are six crafting skills and a seventh odd-man-out gathering skill (slicing) so it takes seven characters to be able to do it all, and fourteen to have a backup for each.
I don't really need a backup for synthweaving, because M'aar'k has already gone into and come out of the expansion storylines, and he has access to his companions again, plus the expansion companions, like Lana Beniko, etc. But y'know. Why not? Maybe I'll even eventually get around to a second backup so I'll have seven more characters engaged in crafting. That way, anyone can go through the expansions without me feeling like I don't have access to crafting while they do so.
I've also been busily working on biochem. I think my strategy of earning money through Advanced V-9 Seismic Grenades was OK, but not the big spender. It looks like Advanced Kyrprax Attack and Critical Adrenals Mk-2 are where the real money is at; those sell for $7M on the GTN. They're obviously a bit more work to unlock and even to simply make, though. I also don't know if I'm hanging on to legendary ember, or if I'll have to grind for some. But I'll try them out and see how it goes. Meanwhile, Johhn is still making and selling grenades. And I'll be in a position to sell some OEM soon too, which is usually pretty big money. I should see a bump in my credit savings in game shortly.
— ( † ) —
Finally, SWTOR always makes me think of Capes & Rayguns, formerly Space Opera X, formerly Ad Astra, my space opera setting. I'd like to maybe go back to my planetary data sheets and update them with new ChatGPT generated images. The following was one I mostly did for fun, rather than attempting to resemble any specific planet already defined, but maybe I can see about using it, or even generating a new planet to fit it. It's also interesting to see my evolution through the image process; looking at what I got and thinking about how to change it.
This is meant to be kind of Korriban-like, with a ship in place that's leading an archaeological expedition of sorts.
I'd never been given two options to choose from before by ChatGPT. Maybe it's a New Years feature or something. I decided to go with the lower one as a bit closer to what I was thinking of.
Then ChatGPT took me a little bit too literally and put what is obviously a transparent pastiche of the Millennium Falcon in place.
This one was a better ship design for my purposes. Then I just added a few more details, and voilà! I was done!
Some lightning, a droid, and an archaeological dig site camp out there on the plain in front of the pyramids, and all set.
As a quick aside; I mentioned Space Opera X below. I have a lot of material here under the old name for that, Ad Astra. I have a wiki too. And my other blog, which I actually never really figured out how to make distinct from this one, so I didn't do much with it, has some additional material. In fact, most of the most up to date stuff is buried in blog posts there.
This is a terrible way to organize setting material. It took me a few minutes, looking in several places, before I could find the name that I renamed the Carrick Grand Marches to; I had almost started to wonder if I remembered that wrong and I made no change to the name at all! (I had. I just had to find it.)
Because playing SWTOR always makes me hanker for more Space Opera X, I want to make some blog updates, but I don't want to make them here on this blog. I want to add setting data sheets to the wiki. I want to update the wiki with the latest from the blog. But I like the format of blogging. My blogging is often terrible to read, terrible even for me to reread, but it serves as a useful stream of consciousness brainstorming activity, so I like making updates on the blog.
I think I'll keep using my other blog for that. Ironically, although it's called Dark Fantasy Gamer X, it's really evolved into the Space Opera X blog, for all intents and purposes, and Dark Fantasy X is come back home to this blog.
As another aside, I'm struck by how often I create similar looking outfits for different characters using similar elements. I have a lot of Mandalorian style helmets on the green Havoc Squad Officer breastplate, for instance, and lots of Infamous Bounty Hunter coats making up winter outfits, and I like the Winter Outlaw in general, even for outfits that are lighter than Hoth and Ilum, for instance. Those are just a couple of examples, but given that I like what I like, I find that on looking at my characters, I don't have as much variety of look as I would think. Maybe this isn't a bad thing, because I do like what I like and I don't want to end up with looks that I don't like, even if the alternative is looks that are repetitive. But I'm tinkering just a bit with some of these too, and where I find that I've overused certain elements, I'm changing them out in situations where they don't look quite as good as they do somewhere else where I'm also already using them.
This also has some tie to Space Opera X, because I sometimes use the outfit builder to create archetypal characters or character looks that I can use in Space Opera X, especially with the various gunfighters (I don't have anything that's quite the same as a lightsaber in Space Opera X, so I can't use the Jedi and Sith to get quite the right look.)
Here's, for example, a few pictures I took a while ago of Luukke on Ossus showing off the "prosperous free trader" look; one that I think could be representative of a small-time businessman who makes his living as a spacer transporting freight from places of supply to places of demand. Many such independent businessmen will barely eke by; making just enough to stay ahead of creditors, and to refuel and resupply their ships for their next run without actually ever getting ahead. This guy, on the other hand, has been a bit more savvy than most and done well for himself.
I decided to pull a few minor triggers in my SWTOR
landscape. First, I took Hutran Thanatos, who just finished all of the Ilum
story arc (with the exception of the two back to back flashpoints that really
finish the story arc), took him to the fleet, and started training him in
Biochem crafting. I spent a lot of time in the background while doing other
things trying to keep that crafting leveled up; I’m in the upper 400s for the
main skill and the two attendant gathering skills. As soon as I hit 600, of
course, I’ll have hit the original crafting level cap, and I’ll have to spend
credits to get him access to the next 100 levels and the “new” max of 700.
Because I don’t really do much with Biochem, I don’t have a bunch of cool
one-off schematics that I’m worried about him picking up, so once he’s done
that, the reason for keeping Galation, my current Biochem crafter, will be
gone.
As a curious aside, I think I’ve gone farther in the story
with Hutran Thanatos than I have with my original agent, Johhn, who’s still got
some Ilum missions to complete. Then again, I’m pretty sure Johhn did Section
X, the Black Hole and CZ-198. Technically, out of order, I suppose. Either way,
that’s a curious little fact.
I did this in part because I realized that I had way too
many bounty hunters. Part of the reason for this is my “abortive” attempt to
play the story with Graggory, my oldest actual character, meant that I thought
I needed to create a Graggory look-alike for the bounty hunter story, and
Galation was that character. (I actually had two characters on another account
from way back during the demo days when you had to have a subscription just to
play. I don’t even have that account anymore, so realistically Graggory is from
my “reboot” of SWTOR playing much more recently; like in 2019 or so.) But I
kept him because he was my Biochem crafter. If Hutran Thanatos becomes my
Biochem crafter, then the reason to keep Galation becomes nothing more than
nostalgia and holding on to something old that I don’t even need anymore. I’m
quite certain that this isn’t a compelling enough reason, so the second change
that I’ve triggered is that I’m preparing to retire Galation completely and
delete him. This will be a slightly longer winding down process than maybe it
needs to be, but I want to be thorough. I want to get Hutran Thanatos all the
way up to 700 on his crafting skills first, I want to find a home for the
legacy or unbound gear that Galation is holding on to (I know for sure that he’s
got stuff like ice scrabbler jerky; the only schematic that is unusual,
although I don’t know if I care to lure anymore pet tauntaun babies to any more
characters anymore at this point.) I’m
also pretty sure his cargo hold is full of armormech crafting sets that
Graggory made. Not sure why they ended up with Galation, but they did. Someone
else will have to hold on to them. Johhn, being my default “banker” is probably
the obvious choice, but we’ll see.
Another aside. When I first made my big wave of characters
of all of the classes, I didn’t have any idea what to name them. I decided to
go like Luke (Skywalker) and name my Jedi knight Mark. Although in order to
make the name work, I had to add some apostrophes and doubled letters, and he
ended up as M’aar’k or something like that. I tend to write it Maark for ease.
When I had Maark, not knowing what else to do, my mind was drawn to making a
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I still needed four more names, so I kept going
in the New Testament and made an Actsion, Corinthion, Phillippion and Galation.
I tend to hate all of these names now, but they’re not worth changing. Of
course, Corinthion, Actsion and now Galation will all be deleted too. My next
wave of characters had better names, using first/last name format and cool “Star
Warsy” generated name list names. I tend to like all of my new names, at least
so far. Phillippion is just my slicing gatherer, so I could do the same thing to him once I get another "new" character into the max level and finished with the main story category. Then my only real original badly named characters will by Mat Thew, Maark, Luukke and Johhn. Which aren't nearly as bad as Actsion, Corinthion, Phillippion and Galation were.
And finally as part of the winding down, I recorded and
edited some footage last night of Galation wandering around showing off all of
his outfits. His outfits are maybe a bit on the old-fashioned side; I used a
lot of world drop stuff, for instance, because I didn’t have a lot of cartel
market or reputation items yet when I created most of them. This is maybe a bit
of a last hurrah; he gets to show off his stuff before it all disappears
forever. Once I document the pieces used, I’ll edit some sound (music and maybe
me talking) and post it on youtube. It’ll be a nice tribute to Galation when he
goes away forever.
The third thing that was triggered was, that by deciding to
get rid of Galation, I can create a new character and still be in the same
place with regards to open character slots, so I went ahead and did it. I’m
actually down to one open slot, but once I delete Galation, I’ll be back to
two, which is plenty given how many characters I still need to play through before
worrying about possibly making even more. I wanted a rattataki and I wanted
another scoundrel with the damage over time spec instead of direct damage, so I
created him as such, but he’ll be playing the trooper origin story, since that’s
the one I have the least of. I not only created him, but played around with him
to get him to 10th level, took him to the fleet, and got him some
stuff out of my legacy bank. I’ve created about half a dozen outfits for him,
which I’ll show off, including one that looks almost exactly like an outfit of
someone else’s that I highlighted a few posts ago. I’ve said before that my
interpretation of the trooper is less like a regular soldier, and more like a
James Bond-like agent. He has a reporting structure, sure, but he doesn’t stand
around in uniform, participate in parades, salute his superiors or otherwise
act in a stereotypically military fashion. He’s combination special forces and
more the operations side of intelligence—an aggressive, action-oriented spy or
something like that. Again; more James Bond than anything else. That actually mostly
works with the story as written, it especially works with the three troopers
that I have ongoing, who are respectively a gunslinger, a scoundrel and a sniper
rather than a more direct combat soldier-like type of class. I also don’t
really believe in my troopers or my bounty hunters either one running around
all that often in heavy armor. They’re more like gunfighters from the Old West…
except in space.
I named this character Karr Tanus, which is a slightly
respelled version of a name from my Space Opera X setting again, and which
sounds very Barsoom-like, now that you mention it. Given that he’s a somewhat
exotic alien rather than a human, I like that he’s got a Barsoom sounding name
rather than a “Star Wars” sounding name like many of my human characters do. He’s
obviously still on Ord Mantell and hasn’t even done the first mission yet
(although as part of my leveling up, I did the Heroics—go figure.) But I didn’t
make planet-specific outfits for him, I’m intending rather, like I did with
Hutran Thanatos, on playing most of the run in my main outfit. Although I have
a few other alternatives, because of course, why not. And I can get some
variety when needed here and there.
SWTOR always brings me back to Space Opera X, and although I
haven’t done much except re-read a few of my posts on it, and think about what
needs to be done. The biggest unfinished yet crucial task to get it “ready” is
detailing the worlds of the Takach Kingdom, which has become less of a minor aside
and more likely to be a major “protagonist area” or at least protagonist home
base or friendly ally. There’s a few big differences between the Space Opera X
setting and Star Wars. To wit:
Star
Wars has a lot of aliens compared to Space Opera X. Of course, I have
some. But I really focus more on human ethnicities, many of which are
quite exotic, because they diversified long ago on different planets than
Earth, although genetically they are similar enough to be considered the
same species (one of the great mysteries of the setting.) So, I’ve got exotic
pale gray people, blue people, red people, and people with funky colored
eyes, etc. And of course, a lot of people who are simply the descendants
of Americans who went into space many, many generations ago. It’s mostly
humanocentric in the way that Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age is. The
aliens are mostly there for color and flavor; the setting is really
telling the story of recognizably American space cowboys, swashbuckling
adventurers, princesses, and whatnot.
First, the
travel limitations make travel less easy and instantaneous (relatively
speaking) in Space Opera X rather than Star Wars. There are comparisons
that Traveller (the game and setting) make to Colonial ships having to
cross the Atlantic Ocean in the 1500-1700s, which was a major undertaking
to do still, or to the Pony Express maybe. And my system works very much
like Traveller’s. You can’t talk via holocommunicator across the breadth
of the galaxy, nor can you travel via hyperspace from one end of the galaxy
to the next in a relatively short time. You can’t communicate long
distance at all except in person through bulk jump (hyperspace, basically)
travel, and then regular signals when within a single system. It takes
months to get from the edge of the Monarchy’s main space lanes to get to
their colonies in the Colonial Main, and that’s with many stops at many star
systems in between, which hopefully occur without incident. Communication
is as bad as travel; you can’t communicate across interstellar space at
all except by making bulk jumps and then sending a signal when you’re
close enough. Keep in mind that it takes NASA something like 18 hours to
send a signal to Voyager 2 on the far edge of the solar system, and then
it will take another 18 hours for Voyager to send a signal back.
Communication—and travel—in space is a big deal. I actually like what this
does to science fiction. Rather than handwaving away a solution like Star
Wars has done where you can make a phone call across hundreds of millions
of light years and it works just like a phone call to the neighborhood next
door, the limitations force an interesting frontier vibe on the Colonial
Main, the main area of my setting where stuff is happening, and that frontier
vibe is crucial to the flavor of
the setting. You have to be self-sufficient, because help is never close
by.
Secondly, Star
Wars had a very simple conflict system; the cartoonishly villainous Empire
vs the “regular folks” of the Rebellion, or the Republic in some areas. Sometimes
a few other players are woven in, like the Hutt Cartel, or other
gangsters, or even extragalactic invaders in the New Republic novels, or
the Alliance and Zakuul as two additional major players for part of the
Old Republic. Space Opera X is more
about relatively smaller communities, and even those communities refer
back to about half a dozen or so “major” groups, all of whom could be
allied or antagonistic towards each other. My Revanchist Republic is
actually the most overtly evil, being based mostly on modern day Clown
World SJWs and wokesters. Even my Sith Empire analog, the Seraeans, have
redeeming qualities, especially the Colonial ones who often are out in the
Colonial Main because they chafed under the Imperial order anyway. This is
more like a space-faring space opera Hyborian Age in some ways all over
again; multiple nations with differing characters, so I can have all kinds
of different stories and conflicts when I need them. Just like Howard may
have wanted to tell a story in Ancient Rome and then another one in
Ancient Egypt, and have it be somewhat coherent, I have multiple cultures
that represent a combination of a real, often historical, culture and a
modern ideal. But if you want to be able to tell any kind of story, you
need more than just two political poles. So, that’s what I’ve done.
Anyway, those changed assumptions, or differing assumptions,
mean that Space Opera X will necessarily feel a bit different than Star Wars,
and it will facilitate more the kinds of stories that I prefer to tell. Not
that it doesn’t still strongly resemble Star Wars, but to the extent that it
does, it more resembles Star Wars as it was in the 70s than it became even
after Empire Strikes Back. Much more Flash Gordon-like than it later became. Y’know
what would be extra cool? If I could have access to the digital assets of SWTOR
and make animated cut-scene like movies, but whole movies, or episodes of
shows, or whatever, using them. I’d have to make some modifications; Chiss that
have normal eyes, Rattataki with hair, etc. But how cool would that be?
UPDATE: Work's been very crazy today, but I do have another window open and I can take a few seconds here and there to start gathering and crafting missions. I passed the 600 level threshold with Hutran Thanatos, so I'm very close to not having anything left to hold on to Galation for. He'll be gone by the time the weekend is over.
I don't often like to cross-post on more than one blog, but I'll do it this time, because this kind of straddles the topics of the legacy Dark Heritage blog (this one) and my more focused Dark Fantasy X blog. Anyhoo, on to the content. Arguably, it fits better here, but for various reasons which are probably apparent, I did it there and I think it needs to be there too:
This is going to be a little bit roundabout, but let me set some context for an idea I've had that would alter a major guiding principle of Space Opera X and change a lot about how I see the setting, and therefore how it gets presented. Before I get to the punchline, though, I'll need to spend some time winding the thing up. Also, here's a video of Tim Kask, the first employee of TSR back in the 70s, talking about life at TSR and in D&D in the first few years of its existence. Not only is this an interesting little video in its own right, but it'll become relevant down below. Watch it, and log away what Tim says.
It's no secret that George Lucas was a big fan of Akira Kurosawa's samurai movies, and that in his earliest drafts, the Jedi order resembled the samurai of movies like Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Seven Samurai much more than they eventually later did. Although echoes of this samurai past still stick with them. Originally Jedi weren't superheroes at all, and there isn't much—if any—hint of mystical super powers that they had, at least in the earliest versions of the scripts. They were just honor-bound warrior clans or organizations, and the Jedi and Sith were rivals here. The original Sith warrior was actually not Darth Vader in these early drafts, but Valorum, a Sith Knight who is demoted for some failure and eventually joins the rebels. Valorum is later renamed Dodona, and Espaa Valorum is later the head of the Empire, or at least the Sith clan. In the Star Wars graphic novel by Dark Horse based on these early versions of the script, Valorum is certainly a villain, but he's a relatively honorable one, who's more interested in dueling honorably with Starkiller (the early version of Luke Skywalker) then he is on advancing what he sees as grasping and puerile goals of the Imperial bureaucracy.
It's also worth noting that there was a lot less difference between the Jedi, the Sith and everyone else. There's concept art by MacQuarrie showing stormtroopers with lightsabers (and shields!), as well as the original concept painting for Darth Vader which shows him sporting a blaster pistol on his leg; as much like a black hat gunfighter from a Western movie as like a samurai or mystic warrior.
By the time we get to the novelization and the movie as presented in theaters, both the Jedi and the Sith had undergone a major change. The lightsaber becomes their signature weapon, that nobody else uses. Belief in the Force is an "ancient religion" that most people are skeptical of, even when they know what Darth Vader can do, for instance. Obiwan becomes, by necessity of George Lucas' idea to modify his plot to conform to his interpretation of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey*" plot arc, a wizardly mentor figure, so he has to have some magical powers. It's worth noting that in the first movie especially, but in the original trilogy overall, these magical powers are much more subtle and modest then they later end up being.
But this was a major change to the setting, to the nature of both the Jedi and the Sith, and to the idea that it faithfully represents the samurai ethos at all anymore. The Jedi and Sith as rival samurai clans idea never really recovers, they neither really resemble samurai all that much anymore. For that matter, the plot doesn't resemble the samurai movies much anymore either. When people tell you that Star Wars is basically a remake of The Hidden Fortress, that's now a reliable tell that they're midwits (at best) parroting something that they've heard in an attempt to sound smart and name-drop, but that they don't actually understand what they're claiming at all. Star Wars has very little resemblance to The Hidden Fortress; it's more like after a lengthy introduction, a remake of Where Eagles Dare spliced to a remake of 633 Squadron. But that's stretching it. It's not a remake of anything, just because it borrows some sequences and plot points.
While we're treated to an escalation of Force superpowers in the next two movies, that's in an attempt to raise the stakes. Darth Vader throwing things at Luke with the Force while swordfighting is supposed to be impressive because we didn't imagine that that could be done. Same with Yoda pulling up an X-wing out of the pond. Later, when the Emperor shows remarkable precognitive powers (although fallible ones, obviously) as well as shooting lightning out of his hands, that's supposed to shock us (no pun intended) because, again, we had no idea that something like that could be done. The Force superpowers remain relatively modest throughout the original trilogy, and those we see using the force in these remarkable ways are (other than Luke himself) presented as true prodigies of force power anyway; much greater than the run-of-the-mill Jedi or Sith would have been. Although that presentation is a bit implicit rather than explicit.
Unfortunately, then George Lucas made another major change to Jedi between the Original Trilogy and the Prequel trilogy, and turned them overtly into superheroes. It's not just the Force, but the lightsabers are escalated immediately. Right off the bat, we're told that lightsabers can now cut through thick blast doors. Funny; I don't remember Darth Vader thinking of doing that when Luke and Co. were escaping the Death Star and he was cut off from them by a blast door. Dooku throws around lightning like its throwing a football in the backyard, Yoda doesn't just strain, struggle and pull an X-wing out of the swamp, he rather casually catches a falling cavern ceiling and throws it aside to save Obiwan and Anakin's life. Even within the prequels we see this escalation; when Obiwan and Qui-Gonn are stopped by destroyer droids in the first sequence of Phantom Menace, we later see Jedi and even clone troopers treating destroyers as if—in the immortal words of Ryan George's Pitch Meetings—they're super easy; barely an inconvenience. If the prequels weren't bad enough—and they were—then other media from this same era is even worse. The Starkiller character from the Force Unleashed video games raises his hands, uses the force, and pulls a freakin' Star Destroyer out of space and crashes it to the surface of the planet he's on.
Somewhere around here, it occurred to me that Star Wars had become an overtly superhero story, even though people like Dave Filoni and others in featurettes and interviews explicitly denied it. The Jedi and the Sith were like the X-men or the Avengers; completely disconnected from normal people altogether. They also developed a bit of the Superman problem, i.e., the only kinds of stories you can tell about Superman are ones where his dedication to his ideals are tested, because those ideals conflict with him using his deus ex machina powers to easily and handily solve literally every problem that ever comes his way. Watching some of the episodes of The Clone Wars which was the follow-up media to the prequel movies themselves, it occurred to me that most of them were really boring, because the Jedi never even struggled to overcome all of the challenges thrown at them. There were no real stakes anymore; they were just going through the motions of making action sequences. Using your lightsaber to fight off enemies is supposed to be cool, but they had all of the excitement of the Jedi using a lightbroom to clean up their rooms.
When I created my own Star Wars Revisited stuff for homebrew RPG use, which later lost the Star Wars IP connotation specifically and became Ad Astra and then Space Opera X, my analogs to the Jedi and Sith were always supposed to be more like the original trilogy version, and I actually made that explicitly clearly stated. The rest of the characters were equally competent swashbuckling heroes; if the Jedi had modest magical powers, the others were still Batman and Captain America or whatever and could stand toe to toe with them even without magical powers. I wanted to seriously de-escalate the power creep of the Jedi. Which wasn't really so much of a creep as it was an abrupt shift during the prequel era.
But now comes the time to think about what Tim Kask said about Gary Gygax and what he thought. Remember that from the little video up above? Star Wars as a high concept world-buildling episode could be seen as a three-legged stool. One leg was space opera, one leg was superhero stories, and the other leg was high fantasy. The setting superficially resembled space opera and takes place in space, but once you get rid of the superficial trappings, it's a combination of Old West American frontier and Medievalism, the plots are very high fantasy, and the characters have superpowers like the Justice League or the Avengers. Well, maybe Justice League is a bit much, but like the X-men at least.
But what if Space Opera X were more like a three-legged stool of space opera, the Old West, and sword & sorcery of the kind that Gary Gygax claimed he was modeling D&D on? Specifically the Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber kind, who are the two most iconic authors in the genre? And like with Gary Gygax, who failed to really understand why anyone would want to play a wizard or an elf when you could play a more down-to-earth heroic figure, what if the Jedi and Sith were treated much more like the sorcerers of Robert E. Howard or Fritz Leiber than like actual protagonists? In Howard, they're almost always villainous. Leiber has friendlier sorcerers; the Gray Mouser actually apprentices under one briefly and has a few modest magical tricks up his sleeve from time to time, and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes tend to be sponsors and patrons of the two main characters. Although they're weird. They're inhuman, and bizarre, and inscrutable. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser never really trust them, because they can never understand them.
I don't know that that changes the way the game would work, at all. In fact, I don't see any reason why it should. But it is a major change to the worldbuilding side, if my Knights and Warlocks are much more rare, and much more inscrutable, and are usually played more like plot devices than like characters. Heck, there may well be something about them that specifically makes them go insane over time, or at least become trans-human creeps. While Star Wars has gradually become the story of Jedi and Sith, with everyone else kind of falling into the background (even The Mandalorian and its sad Boba Fett spin-off are not immune from this, although they should be from a structural standpoint. I think the writers just can't help making it all about the Jedi and Sith) Space Opera X, on the other hand, would specifically be about swashbuckling "normal" people, with the magic-users being relegated to more of a plot-devicey role most of the time.
*I'm not really very impressed with Campbell's "The Hero's Journey" and I see the name-dropping of it as a red flag that I'm dealing with a midwit who greatly overestimates his own intelligence. The plot arc and the archetypal characters are not actually nearly as ubiquitous as its adherents claim, and they often struggle to name anything other than Star Wars itself that really fits it very well. They're certainly common, but that's a far cry from universal, and they often appear without the rest of the "Hero's Journey" package, which defeats the purpose of the the model. I also think that the plot outline of "The Hero's Journey" is so reduced to banality that it says very little to point out obvious similarities that it posits. Mostly, Joseph Campbell is a tool for the self-important to flatter themselves that they are intelligent and academic without them actually having to be intelligent or academic, or even to know very much about what they're talking about. If you want to work in this same space but actually read someone who's said something more interesting, then check out the work of Georges Dumezil. It's still a just-so story, but it's fundamentally a much more serious and interesting just-so story than the one Campbell has pushed on us.
It's also interesting that those very interested in showing how academic they are by referring to Campbell and the monomyth are completely unaware that the monomyth is very much out of favor and has been for decades in the field of academic comparative mythology.
2006 Northrup, Leslie: Mainstream scholarship of comparative mythology since Campbell has moved away from "highly general and universal" categories in general.
1998 Constantino: "It is just as important to stress differences as similarities, to avoid creating a (Joseph) Campbell soup of myths that loses all local flavor." [ed. Pun intended, I presume.]
1999 Ellwood, Robert: "A tendency to think in generic terms of people, races... is undoubtedly the profoundest flaw in mythological thinking."
1990 Crespi: "... unsatisfying from a social science perspective. Campbell's analytic level is so abstract and devoid of ethnographic context that myth loses the very meanings supposed to be embedded in the 'hero.'"
1984 Dundes, Alan: "Like most universalists, he is content to merely assert universality rather than bother to document it. […] If Campbell's generalizations about myth are not substantiated, why should students consider his work?"
I've obviously been talking quite a bit about Star Wars lately, specifically the Old Republic game, which I play off and on, and which is currently the better part of two months late in dropping their Legacy of the Sith expansion and associated 10 year anniversary stuff. Space opera like Star Wars, and Star Wars specifically, are pretty much always on topic for me. In fact, since I moved most of my roleplaying stuff to my Dark Fantasy Gamer X blog, that's been primarily my topic here, because it's not gaming related. Ironic that the main topic that this blog was initially created for had to get its own spin-off blog—which in turn hasn't had an update in quite some time—because I was mostly just using this blog as a pop culture journal or diary rather than for gaming content? Oh, well. Such is life.
Anyway, kind of by accident I stumbled across the space and science fiction themed ambient music of Stellardrone, a Baltic Lithuanian electronic music artist, who's work is... well, it's ambient. So it's not going to really stand out and make you notice it, but that doesn't mean that it can't be fascinatingly beautiful nonetheless, especially as background to something to which it is thematically appropriate. I like a lot of stuff like this already, and I think the YouTube algorithm led me to it because I'd been listening to bunch of Crockett's Theme remixes, especially some that are less synthwave and more ultra chill almost ambient stuff. In any case, listening to relaxing ambient science fiction electronic music on themes like auroras, or the Pleiades, or astronomical concepts like penumbras or ultra deep field telescopic images, or whatever reminded me that, of course, there's a lot more to science fiction than Star Wars. One of the songs was specifically called "Rendezvous With Rama" no doubt a reference to the famous Arthur C. Clarke novel of the same name. Of course, Rendezvous With Rama is also the apotheosis or pinnacle, at least, of exactly the wrong thing in science fiction; nebbish, bitter betas (or pederastic gay men, in the case of Clarke) trying to show off their "smart boy" credentials by exploring big ideas that ultimately aren't very interesting in "stories" that fail to bother having much in the way of plot or characterizations, because the big ideas are supposed to be sufficient to be fascinating on their own merit. And... occasionally they were. Mostly, however, the big ideas were kind of over-rated, often quickly outdated, and all-too-often were fairly transparent smug contemptuous rants against religion or other aspects of healthy, normal society that the "too smart for all that" arrogant betas were bitter about.
In fact, I kind of cordially (and occasionally less so) disliked almost all of the works of the so-called "Big Three." I never cared much for Arthur C. Clarke, I actively dislike Isaac Asimov, and I just never really got into Robert Heinlein. My exposure to "basic" sci-fi; sci-fi from either before the phenomena of Star Wars, or sci-fi that continued the traditions that predated Star Wars, were guys like Alan Dean Foster's Humanx novels, or Larry Niven's Known Space, or Edmond Hamilton's Starwolf trilogy. (In fact, all of those in particular were ones that I know for sure I read as a teenager and pre-teenager.) And of course I was a big fan of the earlier planetary romance like Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the space opera that immediately followed him, like Leigh Brackett's Eric John Stark or C. L. Moore's Northwest Smith. And I'd read some obviously imitative stuff like Lin Carter. Some weird, kinky stuff that honestly kind of creeped me out, usually by Phillip Jose Farmer or Piers Anthony, who seem like a real pervs and creeps. I can't remember the specific PJF books that I read that really turned me off, but for Anthony, anyone remember Phthor or Chthon? Shudder. And I knew a bit about some of the near-future stuff like Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, or Ben Bova's outer space thrillers. There was other really good stuff that I didn't know much about at the time, like H. Beam Piper and E. C. Tubb's Dumarest, but you can probably also see why with a landscape all over the place like my exposure there, Star Wars was like a breathe of fresh air; it had most of the stuff that was good about science fiction, even if it was a copy of a copy in many cases, and little of what was weird about science fiction. Plus, it was the first time that science fiction actually looked really good on the screen. The visual design and special effects; the spectacle of Star Wars is hugely important on why it succeeded where something else may not have. But spectacle isn't just the visuals, it's also the whole concept of space princesses and swashbuckling action and fast-paced stuff all going on. There's something to be said for the idea that everything that Star Wars did well, somebody else had done better before Star Wars did it, but Star Wars synthesized most of what was good about all that had come before, filtered out most of what was bad, and repackaged it in the most attractive package that it had ever seen up to that point. It's no wonder that it captured the hearts and minds of an entire generation. My generation, as it happens. But I read plenty of the rest of that "generic" science fiction in addition to Star Wars. When I discovered games like Traveller and Star Frontiers, they felt pretty familiar to me. Granted, they usually focused on the more action-oriented space opera type of story, but it also had more of the "generic science fiction" vibe going on with it too. To say nothing of things like the science fiction Choose Your Own Adventure books I read, like Third Planet from Altair or Space And Beyond or Space Patrol, or the space opera-themed Star Challenge series. Some of which had probably more of an effect on me than anything that Alan Dean Foster wrote.
Anyway, I guess part of what I'm saying is that Star Wars feels much smaller than when it started, and it feels much smaller than the genre promised. When Disney+ shows are reduced to bringing in fan favorite cameo characters to make the shows interesting, then its clear that they've lost their way. Filoni is doing his best to save the brand from the destruction that Kennedy and others have wrought on it, but it probably won't be enough to just constantly try to remind viewers of when Star Wars was good and created good stuff that was new and original by warming it up and trotting it back out. I hate the stupid term "member berries", especially knowing that it was started by South Park, but it's actually got all of the appropriate nuance to suggest what all of this Luke and Ahsoka and Cad Bane cameo business is really all about.
Which is curious, given that Boba Fett was himself that kind of character not long ago, but they've managed to completely turn him into a different character that people don't care about nearly as much, except to make fun of his "like a bantha" line.
And playing The Old Republic usually sparks in me a renewed interest in doing more with Ad Astra, which is now Space Opera X. Likely that will actually be inertia that's overcome in the near term. But that's part of what I always loved about science fiction. Fantasy was reaching back into the romanticized past and yearning for our glorious heritage that was either lost or seems to have become everyday, boring or atrophied compared to what it used to be; science fiction was looking forward for the same things, though. That vibe, that sense of wonder, is integral to the success of both genres. I mean, heck—even post apocalyptic and cyberpunk stuff made sure to include plenty of that, in spite of their obviously darker tone. And, of course, that's exactly what's been removed from most of what has become the modern expression of these genres.
Not that there wasn't plenty of that already going on before. That's part of the reason I struggled with a lot of science fiction even written before I was born; it was either trying to be some kind of topical hysterical drama where the author runs crying to the fainting couch because of nuclear proliferation and the Cold War, or it was some kind of evil and sterile Satanic globalist planned society, stripped of any soul, or something like that. Cultural Marxism in its early stages. Science fiction and fantasy that doesn't allow you to see yourself except in an environment of constant wonder is just an empty, nihilistic shell of what the greats were able to do, and it fails deliberately.
A quick aside. As I'm getting close to finishing the expansion content with my Jedi Knight, and getting closer at least to finishing the class stories with characters five and six (leaving me only two to go; and if I'm skipping much of the content except the class stories for all four of them, it'll all happen pretty fast) I'm thinking that my recording characters are closer to being due to start than I sometimes think. I'm doing what I can to gather the proper cosmetics for them all. One of those is weapon crystals. While in theory it applies to any weapon, in actuality, of course, it only really matters a lot for lightsabers. What have I used, and what am I thinking of using still?
I haven't been very interested in the "common" crystals, just because they're too bland looking, or we've seen them too many times for them to still be interesting, I guess. While I can't remember all of the crystals that I've ever used for any of my characters, I know for sure that my Sith Marauder was wielding dual amythest colored lightsabers for a while, before upgrading to the black-orange crystals for both sabers, which is possibly my favorite of all of the lightsaber colors of all time. Imagine a darksaber, except instead of a white nimbus or halo, it's a fiery, lava-colored yellow-orange. Just amazing. They're not cheap, so I was hoping to get a good alternative with the charred orange cartel market crystals, but honestly, those are kind of flat and bland in comparison, unfortunately. His companion Jaesa, who wields a dual-saber, I had with first amythest, then white-purple-blue (not to be confused with the white-blue-purple) which I liked, but I've since updated her to the hot orange. I now have hot orange in my collections, and it is an amazing looking crystal, that I'm sure I want to use more of... although I'm not 100% sure where I want to use it yet.
I can't remember what I did with my Jedi Guardian, but I know that for quite a while now, he's been using the black-blue crystal. I really like all of the black core crystals, and this one is a much cooler color than the hot black-orange, obviously.
My Jedi Shadow was using crafted lightsabers, and for a while I didn't put any color crystals in them, because I wanted to see the crafted lightsabers in their natural color. I quit doing this, though. I haven't leveled up enough to use all of them yet, but with only one exception, they were all basic yellow. I recently put an extra white-purple-blue crystal in his current saber, but I may end up using the hot orange with him when I update to my next lightsaber again.
My Sith Assassin has been using the black-purple crystal, which is just as cool as the black-blue. Of course, with a dual saber, you see more of it.
I can't remember what color I used to have with Kira, who was my companion most of the time after I got her up until I couldn't have her any more (I now usually use my security key customized T7.) I'm sure I bounced around with a few different colors with her over time.
My plans for my next wave aren't entirely finalized. I'm swapping the advanced class for each of my classes, though, so I since I have two dual-saber wielders now, I won't have any next time around. My Jedi Sentinel will be using the rakghoul lightsabers, but instead of their default green blades, I'll be using the special rakghoul black-green crystals, which is probably as cool a color as the black-orange crystal, and I'm really looking forward to seeing him running around using them. I've got the sabers and crystals already in my legacy bank, so I expect he'll pick it up in the fleet as soon as he finishes Tython.
All three of the other lightsaber wielders use one, regular lightsaber from this point on; the Sith Juggernaut, the Sith Sorcerer and the Jedi Sage. The colors I have on my radar, although I'm not sure who will use what, are the black-red crystal, the hot red crystal, and maybe the crafted fire-red crystal. That's a lot of red, though—I'm not 100% sure I want my Jedi Sage using a red lightsaber. But maybe I do, because they all look pretty cool. If I can find a sovereign gold and blue at a not outrageous price, I might think about that one. If not, yellow-blue is pretty similar, althouh more blueish, while the sovereign one ends up looking a bit more purple. Frost white might be an option too. And although I've done black-blue and black-purple already, I didn't record either of them, and I might want to. For that matter, the same might be true of the black-orange.
And I do have companion characters with lightsabers sometimes that can use some of these colors that my actual character maybe does not.
Anyway, that's all discussion about cosmetics, which probably don't matter too much except that I'm recording this for posterity and I want them to look as cool as possible for that reason. Otherwise, I like bouncing around with looks for my characters, although I won't be doing that with my recorded versions. But I've talked more about this than I wanted to already. What I really wanted to talk about was compare where I am with Ad Astra and where Star Wars is.
It's no surprise that Ad Astra started as Star Wars, and then I decided not to play in someone else's sandbox, but I did want to use a lot of the exact same types of influences and have a very similar feel. In this regard, however, I'm more interested in mirroring the feel that was shown—and hinted at—during the first movie only along with the drafts of the first movie, and the comments and directions that Lucas and crew thought that they were going to go following the first movie but before they really got very far along in developing what became The Empire Strikes Back. What exactly does that mean? I actually think that it means I need to be a tad less epic and a tad more swashbucklery. As Star Wars became more ponderous and took itself a bit more seriously, and dug further into the hippy-guru weirdness that the Jedi kind of devolved into, it changed tone, and not for the better. I've discussed that at length before (see below) so I won't get too far into it now.
Another thing that sets apart the original movie, to a lesser extent the entire original trilogy, from the prequels and sequels, is the humanocentrist position on it. We tend to talk about humanocentrism as something that applies more to fantasy than to space opera, but I like it in both for the exact same reasons. And if you look at it, the original trilogy, especially the original movie, are much more humanocentric than what followed, and I think that was part of its appeal, actually.
Yet another point of interest is that in the original version of the scripts, it wasn't quite so clear that the Empire and the post-Republic Rebellion were the only significant factions kicking around in the galaxy at large. The shocktroopers (which evolved into Boba Fett and eventually into the Mandalorians) were leftovers from the Clone Wars at one point, and exactly what that meant was never really defined. But they seemed to be kind of independent operatives, to the extent that they still existed even. The early Han Solo trilogy of novels published in the late 70s and early 80s didn't have the Empire as the bad guys at all, but rather a faction called the Corporate Sector Authority. The Jedi were also less of a mystical order of self-righteous monks and more like samurai in their original incarnation, the Sith were a tribe of force-using pirates of all things, that were a rival tradition to the Jedi. That got changed into a very ponderous, heavy concept that took itself a bit too seriously; I kind of rather like a more balkanized and independent picture both from the force-using castes and politically overall, which Ad Astra certainly does have. My Jedi are less like Jedi and more like often independent orders of warriors with modest superpowers who could represent any ideology you can imagine, and who don't have any kind of dark side light side angsty navel-gazing about childish interpretations of morality. Imagine a more John Carter and Flash Gordon style scenario, although with characters who have Jedi powers. Maybe not the super over-the-top Jedi powers of the prequels and beyond, but the more modest ones of the original trilogy. And the lightsaber isn't a device, it's a manifestation of their power that just happens to resemble an energy blade. And the stories I'd like to tell tend to be more intrigue and skulduggery driven in many ways.
In other words, look to a combination of The Three Musketeers, James Bond and John Wayne style westerns for the plots, and the invited comparison to Star Wars really kind of becomes more in the setting; although Marvel comics when they weren't terrible probably is nearly as much of an influence as Star Wars. Especially the cool cosmic Marvel comics lines like the Starjammers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and famous stories like the Kree-Skrull War or the Shi'ar and Inhumans stuff of more recent years (War of Kings, etc.) But with less overtly "I'm a super powerful superhero that normal people can't possibly hope to deal with" kind of nonsense.
What am I going to do with Ad Astra? I dunno. In theory, I'd like to write, but in reality, I've been saying that for years. To be honest with you, if I just tinker with it for my own amusement, and eventually run a game or two in the setting, that's probably enough to make me think it was worth it. If I end up generating stories or even novels, that'll just be gravy. It's hard to imagine that I would do that until I'm an empty-nester though. (Although that horizon is much closer than I'd like to think it is.) That'll be enough to keep my satisfied in an era where I won't ever be able to count on Star Wars itself ever satisfying me ever again.
This isn't a star mapping data sheet, although I do need to do four of them for the Takach Kingdom. Rather, I'm noodling around with exactly what the Takach Kingdom actually is. When I did the allied worlds, I didn't necessarily mean that they were in any kind of formal alliance, but maybe that they shared some kind of cultural or ethnic ties that might be expected to have some relevancy in the event of open conflict. Such was the case, I think, with my initial thoughts on the Takach Kingdom, which are four adjacent systems that came out as "light green"; i.e., allied with the Cilindareans. Keep in mind that the Cilindareans started off as my "Ad Astra Mandalorians" although they've evolved into being more explicitly space Vikings and space Spartans, even complete with Greek titles, like Anax for the kings within the Cilindarean Arm polity, and the presence of space helots and space mothakes.
I've also come up with the Janissaries, the freed descendants of people who were, under the very late Marian Empire, in a situation not unlike the historical Janissaries. Because I had proposed that the Janissaries were a separate ethnic group, related to, but now distinct because of that crucible of having served the Marians in a janissary state, I often assumed that most of the "light green" worlds on my map were actually Janissary worlds. But the reality is that this doesn't have to be true. The light green worlds could be allies of the Cilindareans for all kinds of other reasons too; it could be independent feudal Cilindarean lords, it could be worlds of helots or penestae, or they could be totally different peoples that for whatever reason gained the respect of the Cilindareans or their leaders, and therefore were in alliance with the Cilindareans without owing actual fealty or being actual provinces or what-have-you of the Cilindarean Arm.
Long ago when I first started this project, I wrote this about the Takach Kingdom:
One nation that has stood firm against Outremer (and anyone else's) expansion and either fought or intimidated everyone into leaving them alone, are the people of Takach. Since their days in the Slave Wars, the descendants of the Janissaries have had a reputation as a highly efficient and effective military culture, related to the Cilindareans, but distinct. The Takach are one of the very few truly hybrid cultures; intermarried Cilindareans and Janissaries who established a colony away from the Cilindarean Arm per se, where they could create their own society without the ethnic tension between the two groups. Few of them have had more occasion to actually utilize their militancy in practice than the Takach in recent years, and they are showing that they are the equal to either tradition. It's believed by some that the conquest and settlement of the Kingdom of Takach in the first place, which was highly publicized and romanticized by many, was the inspiration for Kar Tanus to go liberate Thanatos and build his small empire in the first place. Having fought frequently against Imperials, Cilindareans, Reavers, Revanchists, and more, the Takach military is seen as one of the best small militaries in known space.
I don't think I want to change that, although as I do more "light green" in the future, I want to get away a bit from making them all Janissary-derived. What else do I want to do with the Takach people? When I wrote that, I hadn't yet conceived of the Takach Nebula, so-called because the Takach Kingdom is smack dab in the middle of it. I did notice, however, that it is surrounded by rivals on all fronts; reachable from no fewer than three Seraean colonies, Desai worlds, two different Bernese worlds, a Cilindarean world proper, a Republic colony, Reaver worlds, and trucculent independents like Oerken all within a jump or two distance, and all known for their either expansionist or raiding history.
That doesn't mean that open warfare with any of them has ever been part of Takach's history. Nobody really goes to open war against the Reavers, just like you can't go to open war against pirates or bandits, and the Persians and Greeks were never able to successfully prosecute open warfare against the Scythians. The Bernese are usually somewhat friendly, although not entirely so, of course, and they did conquer and settle a wide variety of worlds in generations past in this area, but not so long ago that the Takach wouldn't remember it. The Republic are, of course, passive-aggressive and untrustworthy, but open warfare isn't usually their syle either. And the Seraeans have usually deliberately avoided provoking open warfare with them; the Seraean conquerors and settlers are not representative or backed by the Imperial might overall, so they were on the lookout for softer targets in which to establish their new kingdoms and states.
Nevertheless, I've pointed out before that the whole region is a powderkeg waiting to blow; one filled with many would-be Gavrilo Princips, and many could-be Franz Ferdinands. I'm actually also going to decide that the founding of Temple comes from the Takach Kingdom. In fact, I'm going so far as to say that the leader of the Temple is first cousin to the king of Takach, the brother of the father of the current king being the one who left Takach and formed Temple. However, Temple is not a Takach endeavor, and many people of many ethnicities are accountable to Temple. However, the leader of Temple and the king of Takach have an understanding of some kind, and the king of Takach is one of the few outsiders who is aware of Temple's existance. But I do like the idea that maybe the Takach people have more invested in stability in peace in the region than anyone else, not being subject in any way to any larger state like the Empire, the Republic or the Monarchy, and they work to try and maintain it maybe just a bit harder than most.
All of the Viomium Marches worlds share a similar context. Three systems in close proximity that are surrounded by many enemies; in particular numerous Reaver worlds, and the Phatoru Shdor Seraean colony. All of them are a little difficult to reach for any friendly system; from the Emerus Marches, the nearest Bernese worlds, most have to bulk jump through Oerken in order to reach it. Comaius, the only one reachable from Oerken is thus the gateway to the Viomium Marches; to get to any other world in the colony, yet another bulk jump from Comaius is necessary.
Another odd quirk of the Viomium Marches is that they were originally settled by Seraeans, but not Seraeans as in the much more recently arrived colonists of Phatoru Shdor or the rest of the Outremer colonies. These were refugees from the tyranny of the Empire, and came way back in the time of the Marian Empire and settled these mostly unused worlds. However, when the Bernese came here, they eagerly threw in their lot with them, appreciating not only their culture, but their relative strength in being capable of holding back the many enemies that surrounded them. These Bernese and Seraeans are now almost completely intermarried and interbred, and the majority population of the Viomium Marches is thus unique genetically showing equal amounts of traits of both. Mostly, they look like Bernese (i.e., like white Heritage Americans) with silver chrome eyes and silver-white hair; an inheritance of their former Seraean half. The Viomians also have a minority populaton on all three of their worlds of Reavers, although these have also been here for many generations now, and do not "reave" as those from the Reaver worlds do, which is the source of their name. In fact, they Reavers here are a bit prickly about being called Reavers, in large part because they want to disassociate themselves from the violent reputation of those who come from Reaver worlds, and often make a big deal about calling themselves Kvuustu, their own name for themselves. It's worth noting, however, that the reavers of the Viomium Marches have been here for generations, and most of them speak Galactic standard and know very little of their own ethnic heritage language, even the names that came from their heritage.
The third and final point of context is that they have no leader. Originally led by a margrave, he was killed in action defending an outlying convoy in the Typhoeus system five years ago. For whatever reason, the king of the Bernese Monarchy has not assigned a new margrave to the colony yet.
System: Comaius
Hex Location: 1738
Star Type: Single M9 V
Number of Worlds: 11
Gas Giants: 5
Planetoid Belt: Asteroid belts and comet belt
Starport Type: C standard star port, but see below
World Size: Larger than earth
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like (at the elevation where cities are)
Notes: In the case of Comaius, a criminal underground of warlocks pulls the strings, now that they are completely unfettered from the fear of being rooted out by an official government agent. For better or for worse, they do not believe that they can rule openly, however, without attracting the ire of the entire populace, so they keep their influence fairly secretive. They also are very concerned about threats to the colony, which would threaten their position, so they do cooperate, within reason, with the rulers of the other two worlds in the colony. Their puppet in the government offices is deputy governor Hogan Pompeius. They have an academy for the training of warlocks, but it is an insular affair, and they mostly only admit those whom they can depend on their loyalty. Even this is somewhat secret from the inhabitants; like the Ivy League schools now, most of the people within the colony believe that they are merely very selective and have high standards for meritocratic achievement. This isn't really true, just like with our own Ivy League schools; you have to know the right people, be part of the right secret societies, grease the right palms, etc. to get it. But if you do, you will have a cushy road to riches and ease in Viomium society. This same secret society operates across the colony, but only on Comaius do they actually run things, and that is their headquarters.
Comaius is also an unusual main world; it does not have a rocky surface at all, and is in fact a modest-sized gas giant. There is a layer of the atmosphere that is earth-like and habitable and comfortable for humans to live on, and that is where the floating cities are, although there are only three of them, and their populations are relatively modest; a couple hundred thousand people each. These cities are build on the remnants of flattish rocky asteroids that were tugged into the atmosphere and placed in permanent floating positions by ancient warlocks, and then the cities were built on them. Deep pipes plunge into the thick clouds below the cities, where gas is extracted. In spite of the fact that the cities here only have C class starports, they differ in one notable respect; refined fuel is readily available at a good price because the raw materials are right there and make up the bulk of the industry of the planet. Sytor gas, which is normally only found in pockets deep beneath glacial ice on some extremely cold planets, is also relatively plentiful in the thick lower atmosphere, so sytox fuel, the so-called nitrous oxide for spaceships, can be found here too. The Seraeans of Phatoru Shdor crave this stuff, as they are often adrenaline junkies by culture, but so far they have been content to trade for it legitimately. Perhaps the dreadnaught stationed in the system as one of the last official actions between the late lamented margrave and the home office in Bernese space has contributed to this peace, however.
Once you get too far down, the atmosphere rapidly becomes untenable for breathing, so the elevation band that allows for habitation is relatively narrow. There is also no liquid water, given that there is no surface, but water vapor is plentiful in this habitable belt, and often falls as rain. Most homes have rain collection equipment, but there are also city-wide water caches as well as lakes, ponds and other artificial bodies of water all across the cities' surfaces.
A selection of Reaver faces
System: Enticum
Hex Location: 1739
StarType: Double (distant) F9 V and G2 V
Number of Worlds: 16, 5
Gas Giants: 2, 5
Planetoid Belt: None, and rocky asteroid belt only
StarportType: C
World Size: Moon-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 66%
Population: Large, ~3 billion
Political Affiliation: Bernese; Viomium Marches
Tags: Psionic knight academy, boomtown, local specialty
Notes: Enticum is usually considered the capital of the Viomium Marches, although lacking a margrave for the colony, each of the systems has reverted to de facto self rule under deputy governers, who meet semi regularly on Enticum to discuss issues that need a reaction from all of them. While Enticum is a fairly small world in terms of surface area, the ancient terraforming that was used here must have included a lot of thaumaturgy, because earth-like gravity and atmosphere pervade across the world, except in deep chasms and in high mountaineous areas. Dark volcanic spires, peaks and crags make up most of the surface, but it is not entirely bare, as grasslands and semi-isolated groves and stands of trees cover much of the surface as well. It is a bit Spartan in terms of scenery and habitability, but the grasslands support herds of both domesticated and wild reptomammalian creatures like thoats, platabirds, sandkine, mannoths, zitidars, and more. The plains are fed by many rivers, and crops grow sufficient to feed the fairly large population. There is a local burrowing animal that lives within the bedrock of the planet, and probably predates the terraforming. It's a miracle that this many-eyed wormlike, clawed creature survived, but it is the key to the economic dominance of the planet. Its secretions are known as spice. It isn't exactly like the sandworms spice on Arrakis, however, but this spice is not only a local delicacy which causes plant life that grows here to have unusual taste and texture which is highly valued by others, but the refined spice itself has remarkable medicinal qualities. Although there are synthetic alternatives elsewhere, Enticum spice is seen as preferred in the creation of healing and regenerative gels, as well as anti-aging supplements that seem to have the effect of lengthening the potential lifespan of those who take it regularly by up to almost 50%.
Because of this local specialty, which is in high demand, Enticum probably is the most militarized of the Viomium worlds, and its defensive capabilties are well known. The nearby Seraeans and Reavers have typically given the system a wide berth, although sometimes bold strikes by pirates on shipping convoys deeper in the system are not unheard of.
System: Typhoeus
Hex Location: 1839
Star Type: Single G3 giant (III)
Numberof Worlds: 5
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Icy comet belt only
Starport Type: X
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 27%
Population: Medium ~15 million
Political Affiliation: Bernese; Viomium Marches
Tags: Feral world, primitive aliens, hostile solar system
Notes: Typhoeus, when looking at the world tags, may seem like a kind of primitive backwater; the equivalent to a Third World hellhole, but in reality, the people who live here, and the rest of the Viomium Marches peoples in general, consider it a Utopian paradise to be treasured and protected. (The primitive aliens can be re-read as primitive natives rather than aliens, as they are the Bernese/Seraean mix for the most part.)
When the Bernese came here, there were Reaver settlers, as across the rest of the system, and Seraeans, but they lived in an unusually peaceful small community agricultural holdings on a world that is largely forested. The Reavers themselves had adopted a largely pre-technology lifestyle, other than a few technological conveniences, and the Seraeans adopted much of their culture from them. As the Bernese arrived, they too adopted to much of this small village and farming community lifestyle, and refused to set up industrialization centers, large trade centers, or even any kind of significantly centralized government. Threats or challenges which require coordinated effort have temporarily assigned dictators appointed (in the old Roman Republic version of the word, not the more modern one) and militias and volunteers have proven, so far, sufficient to deal with any challenges, would-be tyrants, attacking pirates or Reavers, etc. The Typhoeans don't reject visitors exactly, but they are careful about settlers... although there are some visitors among them who have been there fore literally years and not worn out their welcome. It's almost as if the Typhoeans are like a space-faring Amish country planet, and it serves a similar role as the Amish do, attracting tourists and visitors who value their hand-crafted arts, crafts and tools, as well as those who are fascinated and maybe even sometimes envious of their low-stress, low-tech lifestyle. Of course, many of these visitors are traders who take their goods elsewhere for sale; because Typhoeus is kind of at the back-end of nowhere, difficult to reach, and surrounded by a number of hostile powers that only give a single reliable space-lane to reach it; and a long one at that, visitors are less frequent than in our own Pennsylvannia or Ohio Amish country.
(8 red worlds left to develop. 16 blue worlds. And 34 italic worlds.)
I'm thinking about the simple addition of a single Latin word, which is relatively well-known, to this setting; AD ASTRA FEROCITER is unique yet not exactly difficult. I like it. But I better do something with it quick, or it'll be swiped out from under me by my inaction, I suspect. Although... if that's the case, it's hardly the worst thing ever. I continue to believe that Ad Astra is itself too simple, and too commonly used. There are several series of books, books, games, and now even a movie (although I don't know how many people saw it; I constantly forget that it exists myself) that use that name already. Although the Latin adjective is in some ways tainted by association with the motto of corrupt tech barron Jeff Bezos, it's still both good Latin and a good sentiment in general for the type of swashbuckling action space opera that I want Ad Astra to be.
I've made a few minor changes. I'm pretty sure now that when I named the Carrick Grand Marches that I either deliberately made the choice (and then forgot about it) or subconsciously made the choice to use the name of the Republic space station in Old Republic, which is Carrick station. I actually don't love that, but on the other hand, Carrick has that kind of old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon feel to it that is perfect, so I doubt that I'll change it. However, I will point out that my focus has kind of migrated away from the Carrick Grand Marches, and I'm more interested now in the Emerus Marches, and the soon-to-be arriving Viomium Marches and Machesk Frontier sections; both also Bernese colonies. I'm also thinking in many ways of taking the focus of the action, for that matter, off of the Bernese strictly speaking. I still see them as kind of the "protagonist peoples" of the area, but I think actual protagonist characters may be those who wander a bit farther from home, and they may go to Bernese worlds, but just as likely peregrinate to other places. In fact, given the supposed relative peacefulness of most Bernese worlds, they probably spend more of their "story time" outside of the Bernese worlds entirely, for that matter. So, the Bernese worlds in the Colonial Main would be the places that maybe they're fighting to preserve and protect, to some degree, but not necessarily where any such stories would be as likely to be set. There's simply not enough derring-do required on a peaceful world, for the most part.
That also highlights some minor changes in nomenclature. Not that I actually mention it much, but I had at one point named this entire sector, on the big map, the New Alderamin sector. I don't know where I got that name; probably just picked it off a list given to me by a name generator. It means very little to me now, though, and I don't like it very much. If it actually matters, I'll call this sector the Rubicon sector, named for the river which Caesar famously crossed when Pompey and the corrupt Senate tried to trap him with procedure to remove him from power and probably murder him. Caesar, of course, percieved the trap, crossed the river anyway, the Roman people celebrated him for doing so, those who thought that they could entrap him fled and were eventually soundly and completely defeated, and Caesar ended up going from success to success after that until he was actually murdered. Crossing the Rubicon has now entered our vocabulary as an expression for making a risky gamble on which success or failure has big implications for your entire future; a kind of point of no return type of decision. Given the political situation of the Rubicon sector, especially the Colonial Main, I think I like that. Plus, it's timely to us Americans right now, as we hope that Donald Trump crosses the Rubicon and commits to draining the swamp rather than retreating from their attempts to illegally and tyrannically steal the election from us, because the result if he doesn't is that we become an oppressed people living under a neurotic communismistic tyranny for the foreseeable future. But with regards to my space opera, that's probably neither here nor there, of course, unless I get sent to a gulag for wrongthink and can't continue to work on it.
The Colonial Main is a new bit of nomenclature that I've started tossing around in some of my most recent planetary system data sheets. I see most of the bottom third of my sector map as belonging to this Colonial Main, so called because most of the spacefaring nations within it are colonies of bigger empires or polities elsewhere. The Bernese Colonies are contrasted with the Bernese Main, which is the space occupied by the Bernese Monarchy proper, the very smallest southern portion is shown at the very top of the map. There's also an Imperial or Seraean Main, a Revanchist or Republic Main, etc. Not everything has to be called a "Main" but it works quite well, plus it gives me that Colonial swashbuckling Spanish Main piratey feel that I like. The "protagonist space" of the Colonial Main is therefore the portion of the sector map that is south of the Cilindarean and Dhangetan... er... mains, and west of the Imperial fringe on the far east of the sector map. It specifically excludes, however, the Reaver Worlds (mostly just because I don't want to mess with them) and probably the Altairan Ascendency worlds, even though by stellar geography they should be part of it, I don't actually intend to develop those. It also specifically includes, even though I would otherwise exclude them, a few Dhangetan worlds which extend into the same space, and probably need to be detailed because they're more likely to be used in some fashion.This makes the Carrick Grand Marches and its most immediate neighbors to the galactic east and southeast and northeast the frontier of the Colonial Main space. In fact, I have no intention of doing much (if any) development east and south of what I've already done with the exception of a few systems that are specifically called out. And I haven't prioritized doing the westernmost edge of the Colonial Main very much either, because that would threaten to get me caught up in doing the Altairan Ascendency due to sheer proximity, if for no other reason. For that matter, although I've been threatening to do this for a long time, I've actually got some stuff in the works that would make it a reality, I'm about ready to be done tinkering with world-building at a macro scale altogether.
Check out the page listed in the link below, including the updated map attached. Every system that has some development done is a link to a subpage on the wiki. Those that aren't links haven't been done yet. I had earlier italicized a few systems of the Galaide Worlds that I hadn't done, but I've decided that they aren't a priority at the moment, as I doubt I'll be using the Galaide Worlds in the near term. Rather, the red-highlighted systems are those that are high priority to finish before I quit macro world-building. The blue highlighted systems are medium priority; to be done after the red ones are complete, but only whenever I get around to it, and I'll probably do them in parallel with some other stuff. I do actually have some main characters and situations ready to be developed into a plot outline, so I'm going to start telling actual stories in Ad Astra Ferociter. Much delayed and overdue, but still. And I've added some additional italic lower priority ones to do on the Western edge, including finally the Altairan worlds, but those are even lower priority than the blue ones, and I doubt I'll get to them anytime soon, if really even ever. Anything that isn't specifically so highlighted I have no plans to develop at all.
The image is one that I found simply by doing a Bing image search for vintage space opera, although it doesn't seem to be too old fashioned of a picture relative to the covers of old magazines from the 40s and 50s, etc.
As an aside, that gives me, in terms of macro world-building:
11 high priority (red) worlds to develop. By the time I roll up the randomized details, massage the results if I don't like them, type out the results plus the text summary, find an image somewhere online to accompany it, etc. it takes a good half hour to an hour to do one. I know, that's kinda slow, but much of that time is spent on getting the formating correct. And I think that I tend towards the lower end of that estimate most of the time anyway. When I'm sitting at my computer, I tend to make time to do one of them a day, mostly.
16 medium priority (blue) worlds to develop. More, but they are much lower priority, so they can just be dribbled out as they come.
20 low priority worlds, not counting the Altairan Ascendency worlds, which adds an additional 14. Something to tinker with after the red and blue worlds are done, when I'm in the mood. Granted; that's still 61 worlds, and I highly doubt that I'll get that done anytime at all soon. I mean, I've only done 64 in all at all, and I've been tinkering with this for some time already. And that does include some worlds that are off map, or otherwise won't ever be used.
Today is, of course, a frustrating day. Donald Trump clearly won the election, but the voter fraud operation is attempting to see how much cheating they can get away with today in a number of key counties, including, sadly, the one that I live in. This is a likely scenario for the actual election results, although it's still "conservative" in the sense that it doesn't involve investigating and overturning likely rampant voter fraud in Arizona and Virginia that would almost certainly flip the states. To say nothing of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The source is AC's page, one of those linked on the side there. But given that there's little that can be done right now about it, I'm going to attempt to not think about it too much. The reality is that although senile Biden is one of the clearest choices for evil that the American people have ever been faced with, the less clear choices have won by being more discrete and careful than Biden has been quite often, not by being less evil. A second Trump victory would likely only delay the coming collapse into chaos of the American nation by a small amount, not actually make it less likely to happen. It's almost certainly inevitable, and the cards were dealt decades ago that made that the case. It doesn't matter what I think about it, and it doesn't matter what you think about it; this is just the playing out of strategic moves that Satan took long ago that weren't blunted in time to make their conclusions and consequences avoidable.
There's simply no political will to do what would be necessary to save us anyway; massive repatriations of Fake Americans, massive clean-up of corrupt officials at all levels of government from the federal bureaucracy to your local public library board. Including tens of thousand if not hundreds of thousands of executions of literal traitors by a strict legal definition. The overturning of the "dual citizenship" and "birthright citizenship" frauds and most of the avenues for "legal" immigration that have been abused for decades. The abolishment of our treaties with the UN, NATO and just about every other entangling alliance that we foolishly persist in being in. Yeah, I'm not holding my breath. It would almost be better in the long run for a massive economic and political collapse, which would at least encourage most of the Fake Americans to just pick up and look for greener pastures on their own, as well as the establishment of smaller, more manageable and accountable polities that aren't accountable to a massively over-reaching government body. Y'know, kind of like how the Founding Fathers envisioned and which we haven't had since the war of Lincoln's Proto-communist Revolution, otherwise known to the historically illiterate as the Civil War.
So again; what can be done about this? Not a whole lot other than praying, at least by folks like you and me. At least right now. We'll see as this continues to play out over the next few days and weeks what will happen. I still hold on to a glimmer of hope that some substantial swamp draining will yet take place. (As I've been typing this, thousands more "lost Biden votes" in Michigan were "discovered" making that state now "lean Democrat." Riiiiight. Funny how these mysteriously "found" ballots always end up flipping states from Republican to Democrat, and have done so every election for years. Not enough people in jail for serious felonies, I suppose. Al Franken got away with it, so they keep doing it. Maybe Civil War 2.0 is closer than a lot of people think. This kind of obvious and blatant cheating makes sure that nobody has any confidence in the integrity of the process or the legitimacy of the government, and disenfranchises tens of millions of voters. I think people really are sick and tired of this kind of crap by now.)
So, after saying that I didn't really want to talk about that, I typed more than I intended already. Let's turn to the real meat of my intended post; a manifesto on what Ad Astra is. First off, it's also occurred to me for quite a while now that Ad Astra is a bit too obvious and over-used of a title and it probably needs a bit more to truly be unique. Rather than attempt to be clever and add more Latin, I'll probably go for something a little more down to earth, or something. Ad Astra Privateers, or something like that, since I envision this as very much like a Rafael Sabatini book set in space; a kind of Sea Hawk or Captain Blood to the stars. But I don't love that either. Suggestions welcome, otherwise, I'll keep noodling around with it on my own. But, what exactly am I trying to do with this? I've talked a little bit about it before, but that was quite a while ago, and it's probably time for an updated manifesto. Especially as I'm seriously thinking (albeit again) with doing something with this other than tinkering on the world-building side. It's long overdue for some plot and character, not just worldbuilding! It's my intention to make this post be that manifesto of sorts.
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I was five years old when Star Wars came out. It's quite literally the first movie that I remember seeing in theaters. Nobody can deny that Star Wars was a breath of fresh air in the gloomy and cynical theatrical scene of the 70s; a kind of early harbinger of the 80s, in fact. The 80s were a decade which is defined in many ways in America by the fact that it was a prosperous and confident era in which the American people were confident and proud of their culture, and in many ways the last decade in which the American people were allowed to have their country and their culture without too much obvious meddling and interference from those who wanted to take it away from us and destroy it. The 80s were unashamedly American in America; the exact opposite of the siege mentality that grips Americans today. But in many ways the 80s, or at least these particular trends that we associate so strongly with the 80s, were really part of a 15 or so year period not just a decade, and it started in the late 70s and went a bit into the early 90s. Star Wars, as I said, was an early harbinger of it, even if George Lucas never meant it to be.
And I think some of the most interesting things about Star Wars are things that weren't necessarily intentional and which George Lucas would probably vehemently deny today (maybe with nervous looks over his shoulder, even) but which are obviously true nonetheless. Star Wars was made in a time when America was undeniably American in demographics. If you watch movies, documentaries, even news broadcasts from the 70s and 80s, you'll rarely see a minority, although if you do, it's generally unremarked on. We had them, and they were allowed the same grace that Americans were allowed, because they weren't here in enough numbers to show the ravenous ingratitude, entitlement and covetousness that they do now. We had good relationships with our minorities, because they were minorities, and weren't threatening to become majorities, nor was there any of the propaganda that is rampant today that white people and specifically white males are born with some kind of cult-like version of original sin. Star Wars was made in an era when Hollywood was an organization that made movies by white males, mostly (although often financed by Jewish interests) for an audience of white people, and starring mostly white people (with the obvious exception of the blaxploitation genre of b-movies.) On top of that, Star Wars was openly (and admittedly) imitating a number of genre elements that had fallen off the mainstream table during the 70s, but which earlier had been very mainstream; the Flash Gordon Republic Serials in particular, but the whole body of work that led up to them and followed in that same vein; Edgar Rice Burroughs and his John Carter stories, for instance, or Leigh Brackett and her Eric John Stark ones. E. E. "Doc" Smith, the so-called creator of space opera was obviously and heavily borrowed from in Star Wars, as was Frank Herbert's Dune and a host of other similar stuff like Edmond Hamilton, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl and more.
One thing that you may notice, in spite of the shrieking harpies who shriek such things about diversity, inclusion and The Force is Female and stuff like that is that there certainly is a type of cultural homogeniety to the creators of space opera. About the closest thing to diversity is the fact that Leigh Brackett and C. L. Moore were female, although that seems to have had little impact on their writing compared to their male counterparts, and they certainly weren't inserting feminist identity politics into their stories. To be honest, this is one of the things I miss most about space opera. The entire genre, up to and including Star Wars, was written by Americans about Americans and for Americans—although the characters weren't as overtly American in the sense that they were called Americans, they obviously and clearly always were Americans in culture and genetics nonetheless. It's our genre, or at least one of our genres. Which is exactly why seeing entitled, screeching hordes of the creatively bankrupt militantly brownwashing, blackwashing, and pinkwashing our genre entries rather than simply making their own entries, or better yet their own genres, is so offensive. It's narcissistic and sociopathic. Seeing "the Force is Female" and movies stocked with minority Mary Sues while white males only relegated to being able to be the cartoonishly idiotic villains is a mockery of the genre, and a deliberate one. It's mean-spirited and petty, meant to humiliate the creators and the fans openly.
Star Wars used to be, and should be again but isn't likely to be, a story primarily about white, American heroes carrying on swashbuckling, chivalric romances with white, American love interests. If minorities are truly to be believed, and they can't relate to stories that don't have protagonists that "look like them" on the screen (in spite of the success of Star Wars across the world in the late 70s, which would obviously tend to make that claim untenable) then I claim the same privilege. I want stories that are about people like me, written for people like me, by people like me. The failure of Star Wars in recent years can be blamed, in large part, on its embrace of the biologically and psychologically ludicrous notion that people are all the same regardless of their genetics and biology. Women are not just men in a woman's body. Black people are different than white people who are different than Hispanic people who are different from Asian people who are different from MENAs, and so on and so forth.
And white, male American fans of space opera, which remains the largest group of fans of the genre, as near as I can tell, deserve the right to have stories for them. Especially now when the zeitgeist in America is to attack all things American by the resentful, the covetous, the envious, the nihilistic, the narcissistic.
Of course, the other major problem with Star Wars is one of execution. Regardless of whether or not the concepts behind more recent Star Wars entries are good ones or not (mostly they're not) even the good ideas are marred by poor execution. Poorly written stories with unlikeable and uncharismatic characters, with missed opportunities for tension, suspense, or anything else that makes a story good and entertaining to watch are par for the course for the franchise these days. Because of these problems, Star Wars fans are actually pretty starved for entertaining content, and often greedily gobble up even mediocre content because at least it doesn't too actively insult them. This is the secret to the Clone Wars series and The Mandalorian, both are which aren't really great, but because they aren't terrible, Star Wars fans love them. Truthfully, we deserve quite a bit better, but it seems unlikely that we'll get it.
But, when I was a kid in the very late 70s, I'd play my own games with my Star Wars action figures—supplemented by G.I Joe and Adventure People stuff from the same scale, and rubber dinosaurs and other stuff from different scales. I renamed my characters, and just used the elements that I had, like a Boba Fett action figure, a TIE fighter, a submarine, a T. rex-sized tiger, Clawtron, and who knows what else. Regardless of what Star Wars was doing with these elements, I did my own thing. As Nick Cole once said in a podcast, this was pretty much the genesis of the Galaxy's Edge series that he wrote with Jason Anspach. In a discussion the two of them were having after some kind of writer meetup or get-together or something like that, Nick asked Jason what he really wanted to write, and he said Star Wars stuff. What Nick said to him was that, look—the elements of Star Wars are all scenes-a-faire, and Lucas himself borrowed them from somewhere else in almost all cases anyway. How about just make a Fake Star Wars that has the same feel, but is made up of your own take on the elements rather than Star Wars' specific take? He also likened it to playing with your Star Wars action figures out in the lawn, doing your own thing with them, which is how they see Galaxy's Edge. It's kind of like, what if I had made Star Wars the way that I'd have wanted it to be? It's deliberately pastiche, but there's nothing wrong with good pastiche. Good pastiche can sometimes be better than the original. You can certainly make a case, for example, that Flash Gordon has had more of a mainstream impact on science fiction than John Carter, and yet Flash Gordon was deliberately created as a pastiche when King Syndicates wanted to compete directly and head to head with the popular Buck Rogers comic strip but couldn't get the rights to Barsoom.
So to me, this is what AD ASTRA is, or at least what I hope it will become. What Star Wars should have been. Or to be really nitpicky, what Star Wars briefly was but then mostly lost. Just like Alex Raymond created Flash Gordon when he couldn't write John Carter stories so he could write stories pretty much just like John Carter in his own setting, and George Lucas created Star Wars when he couldn't get the rights to Flash Gordon so he could write stories pretty much just like Flash Gordon in his own setting, and Jason Anspach and Nick Cole couldn't write Star Wars stories, so they created Galaxy's Edge to write stories pretty much just like Star Wars in their own setting, AD ASTRA is doing the same thing. Borrowing from the vast body of space opera work, probably even hearkening back to more old fashioned, red-blooded American takes on the genre even than original Star Wars did, keeping to the swashbuckling, space western vibe rather than the overtly military action story take that Anspach and Cole kind of ended up doing. My own take on it, naturally, and one that avoids the many pitfalls that I believe that Star Wars has fallen into. So specifically, what makes it different than Star Wars?
Obviously, based on my earlier paragraphs, you can infer that my setting and my characters will largely be heavily influenced by classical space opera American cultural tropes. I doubt anything culturally that post-dates the hippies will really have any influences on the stories I intend to tell, unless they are specifically one of the villains of the piece. (Note that this includes the fascination with Indian Buddhism and other exotic gurus that gripped the hippies in the late 60s and 70s and was a huge influence on the Force and the Jedi. To say nothing of Lucas' Japanophilia with regards to starting out the Jedi as space samurai. Was there something wrong with Western tradition knights in space?) I also intend to rigorously pursue story arcs that cater to biologically and psychologically normal people. I refuse to have women who act like fake men; women, to be desireable and attractive need to be feminine and men need to be masculine in classical, biologically relevent senses of both words. I expect the plots and characters of my stories to more closely resemble a hybrid of swashbuckling romances, classical noir stories, or old school westerns than anything else more modern. Expect more of a Edgar Rice Burroughs meets Rafael Sabatini and Sir Walter Scott meets Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler meets Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour with a heavy dash of James Bond too. In space, of course, with a cold war between galactic superpowers heavily featuring in the region that I'll set it. There'll be plenty of magic and fantasy, but none of the childish and absurd light side dark side fake morality that marred the execution of Star Wars over time.
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The following custom figurine sculpts for Star Wars reimagined are pretty close to the "vibe" I'm kinda looking for. Very old-school pulp, in most respects.
And here's an interesting video. Make of it what you will. I suspect that even if the rumor isn't factually correct in its numbers that it's generally correct in the gist of what it's saying.
